LET’S TALK ABOUT H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY STICKS
A husband and wife were riding their motorcycles to Sturgis, South Dakota for the annual motorcycle convention when the accident occurred. A young woman with a car full of friends and talking on the cell phone swerved into the wife’s motorbike causing serious injury.
Sharon knew the husband through work and we talked about the question that we want to ask but are afraid to verbalize: If you die do you know where you are going? Eternity, and Hell in particular, have become somewhat mythologized in our times. We don’t think of Hell as a real place for a variety of reasons. As a result we are not willing to bring up the subject for fear of scorn or because we don’t want to scare people into heaven.
L. H. Appel, a revival preacher some years ago, took a different approach. He had one favorite sermon he liked to preach at the end of his evangelistic series: “Three people in this church I would like to see go to hell.” He promoted the sermon and joked about its title all week long and sure enough people showed up to see what he meant.
When the night came for the sermon, he would say something like this. “There are three people in this church I would like to see go to hell! In fact, there are a lot more than that. I would like to see the elders go to hell. And the deacons. And the Sunday School teachers. And many of the parents. I would like to see them all go to hell. I would like to see them stay there for about five minutes and then come back. I know one thing for sure. When they come back, they will never be the same again. They will have a new zeal for sharing the gospel. They will have a new determination to live for Christ. If folk in this church just visited hell or really believed in it, they would never be same again!”
People don’t like this subject. Christians shy away from it. We prefer to lean on grace and the love of God. This is good but one person in the Bible talked about Hell more than any other teacher. He brought it up at least a dozen times. And if he thought it was important then we need to consider his warning and study the subject. You know who I mean – Jesus.
1. The Great Equalizer
Jesus told the parable about the Shrewd Manager and received sneers from the Pharisees who loved money. So he told another parable about a rich man and Lazarus.
The contrast between the two men in Jesus’ story is quite stark. Dressed in the best clothes and eating a sumptuous feast each day, that’s what living in luxury means, the rich man is not named. He is simply described by the outer appearances, such as his clothing and habits.
Lazarus, the poor man, is in a sad state. He is sitting at the rich man’s gate, unable to work to earn a living and so must beg to eat. In fact, he eats the bread from the rich man’s table. This bread is the utensil people used in those days to scoop up food or wipe their hands with, and then threw away.
But in Jesus’ story where there is a contrast between the rich man and poor man, the poor man has a name. The rich man has everything but is known only for that. Lazarus is identified by his name which means “God is my helper.” So we see a glimpse of the heart and the issue at hand.
What equalizes the two characters is death. Both die and though the rich man had a magnificent funeral while Lazarus’ body is likely thrown into a fire at the dump, death is final. We will all die. Whether we have accomplished much or accumulated wealth in this life, death comes to claim us all.
However, the rich man finds himself in Hell, or Hades, the place of the dead. Lazarus in a great reversal of roles is carried by angels to Abraham’s side.
Stop a moment and consider now what this parable is about. Is this about the evils of being rich? Is it about not sharing what you have and showing generosity to the poor? At times we may get the impression of the NT that poverty is a virtue while having wealth is automatically sin. Certainly Jesus has a lot to say about the temptations and traps of having money. I think that I too have been blinded by this impression so that I did not understand this parable until now. For you see, I believe Jesus is not talking about wealth so much as he is talking about death, that great equalizer of people, and of Hell. He is imploring us to consider our destinies.
2. 4 Things you need to know about Hell
More than any other teaching, Jesus tells us some very harsh realities about Hell in this parable. Let’s talk about H – E – Double-Hockey Sticks for a moment in detail.
a) Hell is real and unpleasant: Some say that it doesn’t exist. I watched a short video this week where some people responded to an interviewer regarding Hell. One fellow said he is an atheist and that he doesn’t care what happens when he dies. Another thought for sure he would go to Hell because he was an alcoholic and wasn’t likely to change. One girl said she was going to Hell but that she would try to do good things to avoid it. Liberal theologians say that Hell is figurative and is a symbol only.
R. C. Sproul said that if Jesus words are symbolic, then the reality is much worse. Hell is real because Jesus taught that it was. And it is not a nice place…
When Jews spoke of Hell in the Bible they thought of a place called Gehenna. This was a valley near to Jerusalem where during the time of Jeremiah, people sacrificed their children to the god Molech. When such practices were done away with, the valley was considered so desecrated and vile that no one lived there again. It became the garbage pit of Jerusalem. Raw sewage, burning trash, and rotting animal carcasses were thrown into this pit. When a criminal was executed his body was thrown into Gehenna. So when Jews talked of Hell, they thought of Gehenna, the worst thing they could think of.
b) What we do here affects our eternity: How we live in this life has an eternal consequence. The rich man lived in great wealth but now was suffering in Hell. He said, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire” (v.24).
Twice the word “torment” is used and twice the word “agony” is used. It describes a life that spent on self in this life and the payment for such a lifestyle. One of the great horrors of Hell is the undying memory of what could have been. And there are no second chances in Hell. Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted and you are in agony” (v. 25).
c) There is no escape from Hell: Hell is not a holding cell; it is not a place where you do your time and then are released. There is no parole, no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance of relief and no way out.
Abraham tells the rich man “…a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us” (v. 26). Now we could debate the annihilationist position versus the eternal suffering position…that is not my intention. What is important to realize now is that Hell is real and it is a final stop depending on your decision in this life.
d) Hell is not a party: Some say that they are okay with going to Hell since they will be there with their buddies. It will be a great beerfest they think. Ted Turner does not want to go to heaven because it is too perfect. Hell at least will need improvement, he thinks.
Then consider the rich man’s request. He does not look forward to having his brothers join him. Instead he asks Abraham, “…send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment” (v.28). Hell is a place of loneliness not of fellowship or partying. The torment experienced causes the man to beg, to plead that his brothers not end in Hell too.
These are the realities of Hell and they ought to scare us to some degree. We need to be aware of the destination of some of the people we love and meet every day.
3. No one has to go to Hell
Some time ago when Calvin Coolidge was presiding over the Senate, one senator angrily told another to go “straight to hell.” The offended senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer, and Coolidge looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate and wittily replied. “I’ve looked through the rule book,” he said, “You don’t have to go.” [Crossroads. Issue 7, p. 16]
No one has to go to Hell.
But why is the rich man in Hell? As I said before we might be tempted to understand the parable as saying that the rich man missed salvation because was not generous with his money. That is not what we are being taught here.
The question is: Can the Word of God save you? The rich man says No, obviously not, or he would not now be in Hell. But Abraham says Yes, it would have saved you had you really listened to it and let it govern your everyday affairs.
Look again at the last three verses: “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Vv. 29-31).
The last phrase is startling. Jesus points to his own death on the cross and resurrection and says without the Word of God, evangelism is powerless. Signs and wonders without the solid teaching of the gospel are not going to convince people of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Even a man coming back from the dead cannot save you unless you understand who that man is according to the gospel that has been revealed to us. I am not referring to the published NIV or any other translation, but to the truth that we carry in our hearts about who Jesus is as revealed to us in the Word of God.
The rich man tries to blame the Word for being ineffective and inadequate to save him; my destiny is God’s fault for not warning me more clearly. We like to blame God for our failings. But His Word is clear, and powerful, and effective to save us when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. D.A. Carson once said, “Hell is not a place where people are consigned because they were pretty good blokes, but they just didn’t believe the right stuff. They’re consigned there, first and foremost, because they defy their maker and want to be at the center of the universe…and who persist in their God-defying rebellion….What is God to do?”
(Source: "The Case for Faith" - Lee Strobel)
We don’t want anyone to go to Hell, do we? Be honest. If I said Robert Picton, or Paul Bernardo, or any pedophile, what would you say? There are some people we might dare to admit deserve Hell. But at one time we all did.
And I am sure I would not want to spend 5 minutes in Hell, or five seconds. But if we could learn just that much about the reality of life after death, our urgency would heighten and our message would improve.
Perhaps we would ask more boldly, “What happens when you die? Where will you go?”
Perhaps we would better understand “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse makes no sense unless there is an either-or. What does it mean to have eternal life if there were not the danger of perishing?
It is our joy and privilege then, to tell people about the hope of eternal life. More than that, we have the hope of looking forward to a time when we will be together in an eternal existence where there will be no annoyances or hang-ups and we will be truly at love with each other. Now is the time to start practicing our eternal attitude with each other. Let us live together and worship together as people who are going to spend eternity together. Let’s tell people with our actions that eternity can be wonderful.
Charles H. Spurgeon in training young ministers said to his students, "When you talk about heaven let your face light up with a heavenly glory. When you tell about hell, your everyday face will do.”
But whatever we do let’s not keep silent for that is like shouting to people “go to hell.”
AMEN
