Note: The resource I used was from John 3:16 by Max Lucado. Max does a great job in chapter 10-12 in describing Heaven & Hell. Worth reading.
Title: Perish and Everlasting Life Outline
Theme:
Text: John 3:16
Joh 3:16 "For God (the creator of all the universe) so loved (was not absent from this world, but had compassion for this world, common trait of Christ) the world (more than a physical place but a sinful people Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.) that He gave (He “God” took action) His only begotten Son (the greatest sacrifice that God could have given, His true love), that whoever (this is any person, not limited to) believes (this is bigger than a saying but it is our action) in Him (“no other name written in heaven whereby man can be saved”
Contrasts of Heaven and Hell
Similarities
Eternal
Heaven – everlasting life
Hell
“ever-lasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:9)
“They will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46 RSV).
Physical Place
Heaven – In the Heavens but also on Earth (New Jerusalem)
Hell – Center of the Earth – Outside
Everyone is where they are suppose to and want to be
Heaven
Hell
Once there, they don’t want to leave. The hearts of damned fools never soften; their minds never change. “Men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory” (Rev. 16:9 NKJV). Contrary to the idea that hell prompts remorse, it doesn’t. It intensifies blasphemy.
Remember the rich man in torment? He could see heaven but didn’t request a transfer. He wanted Lazarus to descend to him. Why not ask if he could join Lazarus? The rich man complained of thirst, not of injustice. He wanted water for the body, not water for the soul. Even the longing for God is a gift from God, and where there is no more of God’s goodness, there is no longing for him. Though every knee shall bow before God and every tongue confess his preeminence (Rom. 14:11), the hard-hearted will do so stubbornly and without worship. There will be no atheists in hell (Phil. 2:10–11), but there will be no God-seekers either.
Differences
No Sin
Heaven
“Nothing impure will ever enter [heaven], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” Revelation 21:27
“The wolf will live with the lamb” (Isa. 11:6). “God will wipe away every tear . . . there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying . . . for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4 NKJV).
Hell – Sin has its full reign
Assignments
Heaven
Yes, you will have assignments in heaven. God gave Adam and Eve garden responsibilities. “Let them have dominion” (Gen.1:26 NKJV). He mantled the couple with leadership over “the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (v. 26 NKJV). Adam was placed in the garden “to tend and keep it” (2:15 NKJV).
Adam and his descendants will do it again. “[God’s] servants shall serve Him” (Rev. 22:3 NKJV). What is service if not responsible activity? Those who are faithful over a few things will rule over many (Matt. 25:21).
You might oversee the orbit of a distant planetary system . . .design a mural in the new city . . . monitor the expansion of a new species of plants or animals. “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isa. 9:7 NKJV). God’s new world will be marked by increase. Increased planets? Colors? Music? Seems likely. What does a creator do but create?
Hell
Perfection
Heaven
Heaven is a perfect place of perfected people with our perfect Lord. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33 NKJV).
Hell – selfishness
Life or Death
Heaven – Life
Jesus offers zoe, the Greek word for “life as God has it.”1 Whereas bios, its sibling term, is life extensive, zoe is life intensive. Jesus talks less about life’s duration and more about its quality, vitality, energy, and fulfillment. What the new mate, sports car, or unexpected check could never do, Christ says, “I can.” You’ll love how he achieves it. He reconnects your soul with God.
What God gave Adam and Eve, he entrusted to you and me. A soul. “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV).
He exhaled himself into you, making you a “living being” (v. 7).
The Hebrew word translated here as “being” is nephesh, which appears over 750 times in the Bible. It sometimes refers to the life force present in all creatures. In the context of a person, however, nephesh refers to our souls.2
Your soul distinguishes you from zoo dwellers. God gifted the camel with a hump and the giraffe with a flagpole neck, but he reserved his breath, or a soul, for you. You bear his stamp. You do things God does. Think. Question. Reflect. You blueprint buildings, chart sea crossings, and swallow throat lumps when your kids say their alphabet. You, like Adam, have a soul.
Conclusion – Jesus Answer
He knows the difference because He has settled the way
Where and when the brothel fails, Jesus steps forth with a reconnection invitation. Though we be “dead in [our] transgressionsand sins3 and separated from the life of God,4 whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.5 Reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.”6
Don’t miss the invisible, inward miracle triggered by belief. God reinstates us to Garden-of-Eden status. What Adam and Eve did, we now do! The flagship family walked with God; we can too. They heard his voice; so can we. They were naked and unashamed; we can be transparent and unafraid. No more running or hiding.
He breathes life into flatlined lives.
But Jesus’s offer still stands. “Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now!” (1 Pet. 1:3–4 MSG).
Others offer life, but no one offers to do what Jesus does—to reconnect us to his power. But how can we know? How do we know that Jesus knows what he’s talking about? The ultimate answer, according to his flagship followers, is the vacated tomb. Did you note the words you just read? “Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life.” In the final sum, it was the disrupted grave that convinced the maiden Christians to cast their lots with Christ. “He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. After that, Jesus was seen by more than five hundred of the believers at the same time” (1 Cor. 15:5–6 NCV).
Can Jesus actually replace death with life? He did a convincing job with his own. We can trust him because he has been there.
He’s been to Bethlehem, wearing barn rags and hearing sheep crunch. Suckling milk and shivering against the cold. All of divinity content to cocoon itself in an eight-pound body and to sleep on a cow’s supper. Millions who face the chill of empty pockets or the fears of sudden change turn to Christ. Why?
Because he’s been there.
He’s been to Nazareth, where he made deadlines and paid bills; to Galilee, where he recruited direct reports and separated fighters; to Jerusalem, where he stared down critics and stood up against cynics.
We have our Nazareths as well—demands and due dates.
Jesus wasn’t the last to build a team; accusers didn’t disappear with Jerusalem’s temple. Why seek Jesus’s help with your challenges? Because he’s been there. To Nazareth, to Galilee, to Jerusalem.
But most of all, he’s been to the grave. Not as a visitor, but as a corpse. Buried amidst the cadavers. Numbered among the dead.
Heart silent and lungs vacant. Body wrapped and grave sealed.
The cemetery. He’s been buried there.
You haven’t yet. But you will be. And since you will, don’t you need someone who knows the way out?
God . . . has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . . . He destroyed death, and through the Good News he showed us the way to have life that cannot be destroyed. (1 Pet. 1:3 NIV; 2 Tim. 1:10 NCV)
Accuse God of unfairness? He has wrapped caution tape on hell’s porch and posted a million and one red flags outside the entrance. To descend its stairs, you’d have to cover your ears, blindfold your eyes, and, most of all, ignore the epic sacrifice of history: Christ, in God’s hell on humanity’s cross, crying out to the blackened sky, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). You’ll more easily capture the Pacific in a jar than describe that sacrifice in words. But a description might read like this: God, who hates sin, unleashed his wrath on his sin-filled son. Christ, who never sinned, endured the awful forsakenness of hell. The supreme surprise of hell is this: Christ went there so you won’t have to. Yet hell could not contain him. He arose, not just from the dead, but from the depths. “Through death He [destroyed] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14 NKJV).
Christ emerged from Satan’s domain with this declaration: “I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev. 1:18 NKJV). He is the warden of eternity. The door he shuts, no one opens. The door he opens, no one shuts (Rev. 3:7).
Thanks to Christ, this earth can be the nearest you come to hell.
But apart from Christ, this earth is the nearest you’ll come to heaven.
