Just Three Reasons
Psalm 73:1-15 Luke 16:19-31 Revelations 20:7-15
Suppose you had a 16 year old son who came home and told you that he had received a great job offer. He could set his own hours, make a lot of money quickly, and have enough money to be rich by the time he was 30. The group he would be working with would always have his back. All he would be doing, would be selling drugs. How many of you would say, “well wow that’s just great., Son, when do you start? How many of you are thinking, “Boy, have you lost every brain in your body.”
Your 16 year old has come up with the perfect dream job in his mind, but he fails to consider there is something much bigger than him that is going to crush his dream job. It’s called the legal justice system. He thinks by pretending it does not exist it can be pushed out of his life, or he thinks he’s so clever, he will never get caught. You can immediately see through this faulty way of thinking. We can’t remove the reality of something, simply through belief.
Our society is in confusion over this issue of the power of belief. If I am a boy but believe I am a girl, then it makes me a girl. Not only can I believe it, but you too must now believe it and accept the reality of me being a girl or you or some kind of mean hearted, discriminating bigot. But you can look at me and see the reality that my belief did not change the reality of my physical body.
But now we take it a step further, and undergo sex changes with our bodies so that our body conforms to our beliefs. The reality is, no matter how much surgery you do, that new woman is not going to be able to give birth and that new man is not going to father a child. But for me to point this out is being unloving and confused.
We forget that though we are all created in the image of God, when sin entered the world, it affected every area of our being There will be attempts to deviate from the ideal that God made in every aspect of our lives. Sexuality is no different from all the other parts of human nature that must be willing to yield itself in obedience to the love of God. We think that by believing something is okay, then it must be okay.
We are in a society that believes it can remove God from it, simply by believing God no longer exists or by yelling the words “separation of church and state.” If the idea of creating a state came from God, how can there truly be a separation of God from the state. God is everywhere, at all times, in all places, with all power whether we recognize it or not. God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. That is the very nature of God.
The tragedy is not that the world does not believe it, but that parts of the church does not believe it. How many of us act as though God watches us carefully on Sundays, but closes his eyes to what we are doing the rest of the week. We even believe that we can get rid of the clear teachings of Scripture by not believing that they are true. A little girl playing hide and seek with her dad, thought her dad could not see her as long as she closed her eyes. We act as though the word of God stops being valid simply by us declaring it no longer to be relevant to our modern times.
I can remember as a little boy, that the last thing we wanted our mother to hear, were the words coming out of mouths telling somebody, “go to hell.” That was a guaranteed whipping and a loss of all privileges. Our society has able to get rid of hell by putting the devil in a red suit with a pitchfork and putting horns on his head. It then added demons, some with nice fat bellies, in red suits with pitchforks as his second in command. Together they ran around hell, sticking people in the butt and throwing them into hotter flames while the demons laughed and joked at what they were doing.
As this image was lifted up, it became foolish and stupid to believe that hell could possibly be a real place. Anybody holding views of hell, were obviously not educated and did not truly understand the love of God. Hell became something you go through while you’re in this life. People may say, “I’m going through hell” but actually all they are doing is going through the trials and the tribulations of this life. Hell is a one way trip.
Early this year, we launched The 500 Campaign. Our goal was to have an average attendance of 500 people a week. If God gave us a building with 500 seats, then he must have intended for us to have 500 people in them. Some of us have been praying to win one person as a part of that 500 and some of us even more. I think the largest pledge of one person to reach people to reach for Christ was 10. Some of us have given out more cards and invitations than ever, and that is good. Some of us have taken things a step further and picked up people to bring to church. Keep on doing what you are doing for your labor is not in vain.
But some of us have not done anything toward The 500 Campaign. We as pastors keep hearing the phrase, “why do we need to grow? We like things just as they are? We like being able to reach our pastors at any time? We like being a close family.
It’s great what God is doing in our midst. People are getting saved, the word is being preached, the hungry are fed, the prisoners are ministered to, and the saints are being equipped for ministry. We came together as New Life At Calvary, because we believed we could do more in reaching more people for Christ together than we could apart. The goal was to reach more people for the cause of Christ.
The very reason for our being is found in our purpose statement which says, In response to God’s love, our purpose is to love others, to teach the word of God and to reach the world for Christ.
The last things we can afford to do, is to become inwardly focused, thinking that the church is here just for us to have a good time with our lives. I’m going to give you Just Three Reason for why the 500 Campaign is so important.
The first reason is hell and the people going to it. Even though we think we have gotten rid of hell by believing it does not exist, hell is a real place , with a real purpose, where people that you and I meet every day will one day enter, with no possibility of leaving. At their funerals, we will try to say what good people they were and hope their good works will get them into heaven.
The true teachings of the Scriptures is that none of us have enough good works to get into heaven, because good works does not get rid of our sin. We are destined for hell, not because we did not do enough good works, but because we have all sinned by being disobedient to God. God does not send anyone to hell, our sin takes us there.
Jesus is the one who speaks more about hell, than anyone else in the bible. People make jokes and say, they don’t mind going to hell because that’s where all their friends are going to be and they will all have a party together. Jesus tells us that hell is a place of outer darkness, where there will be screaming, weeping, isolation and eternal frustration.
In Revelations chapter 20, the devil and his angels are cast into the lake of fire. The devil is not in charge in hell and he does not have a pitchfork. The devil himself is in eternal pain and suffering when he is thrown into the lake of fire. Jesus tells us that the lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.
Jesus also tells the story of a rich man who died and went to hell. In hell, he could see into heaven, but he couldn’t see the other people who were in hell. He even recognized Abraham and Lazarus. You will have your memory in hell, and you will think of all the missed opportunities you had to give your life to Christ. The rich man cried out of hell with two requests. The first was that he might have a drink of water because he was in agony in the fire. The second was that Abraham would send Lazarus to warn his brothers about hell, so that they would not come there themselves. Both of his requests were denied. Requests and Prayers from hell go unanswered because there is no hope.
Do you know why time seems to go faster the older we get. When God created us, we were made for eternity. But sin caused our physical bodies to deteriorate with age. All of a sudden 60 or 70 years seems like a drop in the bucket, because our bodies are not keeping up with what we were created for. It seems like we’re just getting started and now its time to die.
We are comparing our short physical life, with the eternal life that we were created for. That’s why life seems so short on this end. Well the reality is, even though this fleshly body is going to die, since God created us for eternity, we will last for eternity. The issue is “how and where are we going to spend eternity.”
Imagine for a moment, God let us all go to heaven for 30 seconds and then brought us back. Do you think it would change us as a church? Many of us would come back and want to write books about our experience so as to entice others to want to go to heaven. Some of us would no doubt just look forward to when we die so that could experience those 30 seconds for eternity.
But if instead of giving us that opportunity, imagine for a moment that God allowed us to spend 30 seconds in hell. We could hear the agony of the screams crying out from the darkness, we could feel the burning sensation of the flames, and we could sense the darkness and isolation around us. Do you think that would change us as a church?
Which of the two 30 second experiences would cause you to have a greater concern for your family members, your friends, and even total strangers. If we really mean that our purpose is to love others, love alone would compel us to try to fulfill the 500 Campaign over and over and over again. Jesus went through the agony that He went through on the cross, because He knew of the reality of hell.
The Second Reason for The 500 Campaign is the reality of the justice of God. We like to pretend that all of us are okay. We believe that we are all God’s children and God is simply going to look the other way, and in the end we all go to heaven. We even hear its not what you believe that is important so long as you are sincere in your beliefs. Our second purpose is to teach the Word of God. The word of God says that we are all created in the image of God. But it also teaches, you have to be adopted into the family of God to be able to call God your Father . You have to have a spiritual rebirth.
God created us with a sense of justice inside of us. We know that when a wrong has been done, a punishment is to be issued. You can’t beat up and rob people and say, aw just get over it. And then go rob somebody else. Because we are in the image of God, wrongdoing demands justice.
Justice is part of the nature of God. God does not look at our sin, and say, “well I’m God, and since I love you, I’m just going to let it slip by this time.” The love of God, does not allow things to just slip by. We would think a judge unjust if he said you are guilty of the crime but I’m going to let you get away with it. The love of God causes us to be found guilty, but God pays the price for the wrong that we do. That’s why Jesus was so brutally treated. That’s why Jesus went to hell. The payment for sin requires a trip to hell
Listen to how the justice of God operates in Scripture. John 3:16-20 (TNIV)
16 “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. God loved the world with all its rebellious people in it who had rejected the God. Yet God’s justice turned over the perfect life of Jesus as payment for the sinful world. The Scriptures tell us that forgiveness comes through the shedding of blood. Only a righteous sacrifice would have the blood to pay for our sin. Jesus’s blood was righteous because he was the only one without sin.
The resurrection of Jesus meant that the debt of sin had been fully satisfied. The love and justice of God working together made the payment available on equal terms to everyone who would believe in Jesus. No-one needs to perish and everyone can have eternal life. Regardless of race, income, nationality, creed or crimes, we all come to Jesus on the same terms as sinners confessing our sin, and allowing Jesus to have authority over our lives.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Notice that you can’t argue that Hell means that God does not love people. God saw us on our way to hell, and did what it took to keep us from ever going there. Jesus is the way God chose to have us receive eternal life. To not accept Jesus’s authority over your life, is the same thing as continuing to march on to hell. These verses say nothing about our good works getting us to heaven. It specifically says, we are already condemned.
In Revelations 20. It speaks of the Great White Throne Judgement that will lead us into eternity. Now we are glad that there is judgment for those super wicked people who seemed to have gotten away with stuff before they died. But the reality is, we all have super wicked hearts that must be changed to make us suitable for heaven
.In Revelation 20:11-15 (TNIV)
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and everyone was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 All whose names were not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.
Everybody big and great show up for this event. This is not a judgment as to how many good works that you have. Not everyone is going to suffer in hell to the same degree, but all of it will be severe suffering. Notice that there are two books opened. One book, tells about the things you and I have done. All of our motives for what we did have been recorded. Nobody is going to be saved based on that book. The other book is about what Jesus has done. It is called the book of life. The only escape from hell is to have your name written in the book of life. Everyone who has given their lives to Jesus Christ, will have their names written in the book of life. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
People do not reject Jesus because its too hard to believe in Him or to accept what He did for them on the cross. People reject Christ, because they want to be their own master of their fate as far as eternity is concerned. Jesus put it this way in John 3:19-20 “19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”
The third reason for The 500 Campaign is to be obedient to God. Our third purpose is to reach the world for Christ. After Jesus had shown his love for us and for the Father by dying on the cross, after he made his journey into hell and after he was resurrected from the dead, Jesus gave us this commandment. Matthew 28:18-20 (TNIV) 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We look at people who seem to have it altogether in life and they don’t seem to need God. In our Old Testament reading David said , “Lord I look at those who don’t serve you and they seem to be doing all right. Their health is good, the homes are beautiful, even when they do wrong, they seem to get away with it. As a matter of fact I was tempted to stop obeying you, because their lives looked better than mine.” David said, but then you let me see what their end was going to be. There was a judgment that was going to hit them like a ton of bricks when they died. Forgive me Lord for doubting that you are always in control.
The reason Jesus tells us to go and tell others about their need for salvation is that the Scriptures tell us “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” God does not want anyone to perish. God wants as few people in hell as possible. Even the most wicked person on death row, if in the last moment before that person is executed, if he or she gave their lives to Jesus Christ, there would be rejoicing in heaven. Some of us hate the thought of that. But that’s what you call the power of forgiveness and love of God. God will not take away anyone’s free will to choose their own path into eternity be it heaven or hell.
In this mixed up world we live in which people think they can make God disappear by not believing, somebody needs to let them know about Jesus and what He can do for them. We are living in a time, when people think everybody has a right to do what they think is right in their own eyes. This is not the first generation to go through this. If you read the book of Judges in the Old Testament, written thousands of years ago, the last verse says , “In those days, there was no King in Israel so everybody did whatever they felt like doing.”
I want you to know there is a king in this world today. His name is Jesus. One day every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. It is better to make that confession on this side of the grave than it is to wait until you will have no other choice on the other side of life. In September we will be starting a new series entitled Daring Faith. We are going to learn to take steps of faith toward the 500 Campaign in the last four months that will propel us with a love that will motivate us to reach others for Christ.
Why the 500 Campaign? Just three reasons should move us into action. 1) Hell Is Real and we love people enough to want to keep them out, 2) God Is Justice and Love and the two together makes our salvation possible, and 3) Jesus told us to go and make disciples because God does not want any to perish and we want to be obedient to the will of God
Ask God how he can use you, to bring others into a right relationship with Him. Love people enough to care about where they might be spending eternity. You know the truth, be willing to share it because you care.
