Everlasting Destruction or Eternal Life?
(2 Thessalonians 1:6-12)
1. We have many jokes about the subject of hell.
Consider the supposed story of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail."
"Unfortunately, when typing her address, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly woman, a pastor’s wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint."
"At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival" tomorrow.
"P.S. Sure is hot down here." http://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app?service=external/UserTaggedPosts&sp=59550&sp=2589]
2. But when we discuss the subject of Hell in seriousness, we realize that it is a subject in which opinions abound: From Wikipedia:
Judaism
Daniel 12:2 proclaims "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt." Judaism does not have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a tradition of describing Gehenna. Gehenna is not Hell, but rather a sort of Purgatory where one is judged based on his or her life’s deeds…The overwhelming majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not in Gehenna forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 11 months, however there has been the occasional noted exception. Also, Subbotniks and Messianic Judaism believe in Gehenna, but Samaritans probably believe in a separation of the wicked in a shadowy existence, Sheol, and the righteous in heaven.
3. Catholicism has two bad place: purgatory and hell. Eastern Orthodoxy holds views similar to those of modern Judaism. But what does the Bible really teach?
4. The New Testament teaching about hell and judgment is tied into our text with the suffering and mistreatment of Christians. During such times, believers can easily wonder why God allows these things to go on seemingly unpunished. The answer is that everything will be brought into account in the future.
5. Let’s read our text, noticing the practical use of the doctrine of God’s coming judgment.
Main Idea: The Christian life is lived in the here and now with strength borrowed from the future.
I. The Future: God Will EVEN the Score (6-10)
Expectation: Eternal Life is Future
A. He is JUST (6a)
• Life isn’t fair, but God is
• God could choose to make life fair, but He chooses to even things out in the long term, not the short
• If you think about it, maturity is about being futuristically minded…now…planning ahead…God is the epitome of maturity
B. He BALANCES the books (6b)
1. He will pay back
2. He will give relief
Revelation 6:9-11, "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ’How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed."
C. He Will Assign SEPARATE destinies (7-10)
Matthew 16:27: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.”
1. Believers will ENJOY God forever
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Cor. 4:16-18
2. Unbelievers will be SEPARATED from God forever
• Those who do not know God
Biblical Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. In religion, man is reaching up to God; in the Bible, God reaches down to man. In religion, we work to gain brownie points with God; in the Bible, God saves us freely by His grace and then encourages us to live as His children because we already have been accepted. We are to act in a worthy manner because He has declared us worthy in Christ.
We come to know God personally through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Pay attention to the Words of Jesus:
"Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" (Matthew 7:22-23)
Once again, it is not what you know, but Who you know, and we come to know God by faith…trusting that Jesus bore our sins on the cross, rose again, and that God is eager to save us…
• Those who do not obey the Gospel
What does it mean to obey the Gospel? The Gospel message calls people to do two things: (1) repent of their godless lives and (2) believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not saved by the information of the Gospel, but by trusting and embracing that information.
3. First GEHENNA, then the Lake of FIRE
• Gehenna is a valley in Israel that is associated with idolatry and human sacrifice during Israel’s times of falling away; a garbage dump that was constantly burning and smoldering; used by Jesus and the Jews as a picture of hell (where the fire is constant and worm does not die)
• Punished (fire)
o Literal or spiritual equivalent?
o Eternal punishment or punishment and eventual annihilation?
o varying degrees of punishment: "That slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." (Luke 12:47-48)
o We do not really understand that much…
• Shut Out (darkness)
"The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth … So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13:41–42, 49–50).
“Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels … These will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:41, 46). In John 5:29
4. As much as most of us hate the doctrine of hell, there may be times in life when we draw consolation from it…
The Christian life is lived in the here and now with strength borrowed from the future.
II. The Present: God is Developing His Kingdom PERSONNEL (11-12)
REALIZATION: Eternal Life Begins Now
First of 4 prayers in 2 Thessalonians
A. By empowering His children to live WORTHY lives
1. We cannot earn our way to heaven
A fencing contractor was talking with a rich property owner about his chances of going to heaven. The rich man believed that God would be pleased with his efforts. He said,
“I’ve lived a good life and been hardworking and giving to worthy causes. Sure, I hide some of my income so it doesn’t get taxed as highly … but so does everyone else. And in my business you have to do a bit of lying and cheating … but how else will I get ahead. All in all I’m OK, I’m a nice person”.
The conversation ended and it was time to build the fence. Two weeks later the fence was ready and the property owner came and had a look. He was shocked by what he saw … because there were a number of gaps in the fence. Angrily he asked, “What have you done”. The fencing contractor replied.
“Well as I was building I left a few gaps on the way. But don’t worry, there are is a lot of fence still left and, in some places I even made it double thickness. The gaps only represent 2% of the fence, that means 98% is just fine”.
The rich property owner replied “98% is OK but you can be sure that the animals will still find the hole in the fence and get out. Near enough is just not good enough and I will have nothing left to show”. At that point the fencing contractor said. “You can see that truth when it comes to your fence … how come you can’t apply the same thing when it comes to your relationship with God?”. (Allan Quak, Sermon Central)
2. But once we are saved, we can begin living for the Lord
B. By helping believers fulfill God’s PURPOSES for their lives
I Corinthians 10:31, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
God’s purposes for us means literally His "good pleasures." God has things for you to do, things for you to be… Are they happening? Do we want them to happen? Are we positioning ourselves so they can happen?
C. By encouraging us toward ACTS of faith
D. By believers GLORIFYING God in their lives
E. Through His GRACE (here meaning strength, direction, help)
The Christian life is lived in the here and now with strength borrowed from the future.
