Title: Hell- According To Jesus
Place: BLCC
Date: 5/28/17
Text: Matthew 5.22; John 5.29
CT: Jesus makes it clear Hell is real and is eternal.
FAS: Will Willimon shared this story. Early in my ministry, I served a little church in rural Georgia. One Saturday we went to a funeral in a little country church not of my denomination. I grew up in a big downtown church. I had never been to a funeral like this one. The casket was open, and the funeral consisted of a sermon by their preacher.
The preacher pounded on the pulpit and looked over at the casket. He said, "It's too late for Joe. He might have wanted to get his life together. He might have wanted to spend more time with his family. He might have wanted to do that, but he's dead now. It is too late for him, but it is not too late for you. There is still time for you. You still can decide. You are still alive. It is not too late for you. Today is the day of decision."
Then the preacher told how a Greyhound bus had run into a funeral procession once on the way to the cemetery, and that that could happen today. He said, "You should decide today. Today is the day to get your life together. Too late for old Joe, but it's not too late for you."
I was so angry at that preacher. On the way home, I told my wife, "Have you ever seen anything as manipulative and insensitive to that poor family? I found it disgusting."
She said, "I've never heard anything like that. It was manipulative. It was disgusting. It was insensitive. Worst of all, it was also true."
Will Willimon, in his sermon "The Writing on the Wall," PreachingToday.com
LS: We are so afraid of offending people that we often end up at funerals wishing we had done more to be sure the person was not going to hell.
We don’t like to talk about hell do we? We speak of it today by necessity not by choice. This is the second week I have decided to preach on hell.
We don’t go around shouting out how bad hell is and the horror it will be for those who don’t know Jesus. Do we?
But maybe we should. There is an apocryphal urgency that those without Jesus stand to go to hell if the Day of the Lord comes too soon, or they die, before they accept Jesus as their Savior. Not holding back today guys. We need Jesus to save us.
Last week we looked why we need hell. God is holy and just and must deal with the wickedness and evil of man. We decided that was why hell had to be.
God’s wrath is something we as followers of His Son do not have to fear.
Hell is not a place for us.
We have another place prepared for us in heaven.
But hell is real and we need to be clear about that. I do not want anyone I know to go there. I believe the worst thing you can say to someone is “Go to hell.”
Think about what you just said. You want someone to spend eternity, burning, away from God and His love and grace. What could be worse?
Jesus is our primary authority on hell. The Old Testament laid the foundation of God’s judgment in fire and destruction. But most all of what we know about hell comes from the lips of Jesus.
The problem is that liberal scholars have dismissed hell as an acceptable reality. How could a God of love send anyone to hell? Since such scholars don’t believe what the Bible says it is not hard to believe they reject the fiery eternal punishment of hell.
With many pulpits today either softening or even ignoring the unpopular subject of hell, it is necessary that we here at BLCC examine the issue anew and see what Jesus had to say about hell.
--Jesus said hell was a place of fire.
In the opening chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, He warned anyone who called his brother a fool was “in danger of the fire of hell”
This fire was translated as a fire that never stopped burning.
Jesus repeatedly stressed fire as part of the final destruction.
In Matthew 7.19, near the end of His Sermon on the Mount, Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Jesus also warned in John 15.6, If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Fire is mentioned in some more scriptures we will look at today. If Jesus did not want His followers to associate fire with the final judgment, why did He mention it so often?
--Jesus said hell was an eternal fire that was to be avoided at all costs.
Jesus warned his followers more than once to avoid hell no matter how drastic the means.
Matthew 5.29-30, If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
He also said in Matthew 18.8-9, If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Hell is not only fire; it is eternal fire. Hell a place of fire and its punishment is eternal.
--Jesus said hell was a place for both body and soul.
In two very similar passages spoke on different occasions Jesus encouraged His disciples to not be afraid of those that can kill the body, but not the soul. He said, Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10.28; Luke 12.5.
The One with such power is only God. The devil is going to be put there himself.
Hell is a place where both body and soul will be destroyed. Destroyed yet not given the relief of not being. Think about that one. Being destroyed but never completely destroyed.
--Jesus said hell was a place for the condemned.
Matthew 23.33, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Hell is the place for the condemned of God.
--Jesus said hell was a place to be cut off from God.
Matthew 25. 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The Son of man will return in all His glory and take His place as the great Shepherd. He will be able to tell the sheep from the goats. Jesus will divide humanity into those who will receive an inheritance and those who will be cursed. To those on the left who disregarded their fellow man, Jesus will say, Matthew 25.41, Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
A few verses later Jesus also says to that same group on the left, v.46, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
There are at least six facts we can derive from these verses from Matthew 25.
1. The judgment will be correct. Jesus will be able to tell who is good and who is bad.
2.The goats will be separated from God. Hell is separation from God.
3. The goats will be cursed. To be cursed means to come under the wrath and judgment of God.
4. The condemned are sent to the eternal fire we have already spoke of.
5. This eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. There are two prepared places in eternity. One for the followers of Jesus. John 14. And the hell that is prepared for the devil and his angels. God did not want people in hell. That was for the devil, but when people continue to follow him they do so at the risk of following him straight to hell. Not nice.
6. Jesus says they will go to eternal punishment. ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. It will never end.
--Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus.
Luke 16.19-31, 19There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘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.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “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.’”
The details of Jesus’ story tell us much about what happens right after we die.
1. Immediately upon death people go to either a place of reward or a place of punishment.
2.Hades has a place of torment. He was in agony from the fire.
3.Part of the anguish was the rich man could see how well Lazarus was.
4. Both Lazarus and the rich man had bodies.
5. A great chasm was there to keep them apart.
6. The rich man’s brothers were still back on earth and he could not help them.
7. A person in torment does not want his family to come where he is.
8.Lazarus was being comforted and escorted by angels to Abraham and God.
--Jesus has a few more words about hell.
John 3.36, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Jesus came to bring eternal life to all who follow him, but to those who do not are left to the wrath of God.
There is a judgment coming for us all. In Jesus we will all be not guilty.
Without Christ all will be condemned. John 5.29, those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.
CT: Jesus makes it clear that hell is real and eternal.
There are a lot of words in red in this sermon. Jesus had a lot say about hell, but He is more concerned about keeping all of those who follow Him out of it.
At the end of His life, Jesus went to the cross to secure our place in heaven. The agony and alienation Jesus had to feel should reveal how terrible hell will be if we do not accept His gracious offer to take it from us.
Won’t you come today and not have to worry about hell or the wrath of God.
God’s desire is only to know and love us all.
Bibliography:
Boles, Kenny. The life to come: what the Bible says about the afterlife. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2010. Print. Part 2 Chapter 17
