What if God gave you exactly what you wanted for eternity? Would it be heaven or hell? Think about it while Kent digs deep into what the Bible says about hell.
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
I’m convinced hell is either going to be having to listen to kids fight over shotgun in a car or eternally helping kids with their common core math problems. Lol.
Ha! What do you guys think about hell?
I used to go to lunch with this guy who described himself as the guy who would be driving the bus to hell…
I always thought, “either you don’t know what hell really is or you don’t believe it, because if you knew and believed, you’d have the hell scared out of you…”
What about you?
Do you know what the bible says about hell?
Do you believe what it says about hell?
Today’s sermon is going to be a bit different. Today I want to ask and answer questions that I think you might have and attempt to give you a foundational way to think about the idea of hell…
First, what is hell?
Most of us have a picture of hell that’s like those old cartoons with a red guy and a pitchfork who is torturing people for all of eternity…
Our image of hell comes more from Dante’s inferno than from the bible…
Actually the word hell is a word we’ve used to translate several other words in the New Testament…
One of the main ones that Jesus used was Gehenna
Gehenna – was a trash dump outside Jerusalem where ancient kings had sacrificed their children. The trash was burned with sulphur and bodies of criminals were dumped there.
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Jesus uses this picture to describe the place where those who are outside of a relationship with God will end up.
The book of revelation says it this way:
Revelation 20:10, 13-15
10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person 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 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Hades is used in the place of the Hebrew idea of Sheol (the underworld)…
Hell is a place of eternal torment.
but why?
are people being poked with sticks for eternity? I don’t think so, here’s what I think it is…
Colossians 1:15-17
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
The lake of fire, or hell is a place where those who have not chosen Jesus are given what they want, an existence apart from God (and ultimately Christ)
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in Jesus, all things are held together. They are tormented because there is no longer a glue to reality – all things eternally separating.
This is what Paul says in
2 Thessalonians 1:9
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
ILLUSTRATION:
CS Lewis paints an incredible picture of this in his book The Great Divorce where he imagines people in hell getting a chance to go to heaven and choose it. They ultimately choose hell because in hell they get whatever they want, even though it’s not real – it costs them nothing and is worth nothing, it’s only an illusion, if they want a house, they get a house, but it can do nothing to stop the rain from coming through. And because of this, they are constantly moving further and further away from everyone else going deeper and deeper into their own selfish desires…
Listen, God doesn’t send people to hell, He just gives them what they want…
This is why Jesus will say things like, “If your eye causes you to stumble, it’s better to rip out your eye than to go to hell with both eyes. YOU are choosing which life you want to live…
But Kent, that still doesn’t feel fair or right, what if I’ve lived a good life, just because I didn’t choose Jesus?
I’d probably ask you what is a good life? Do you just mean you are better than other people who are more terrible than you?
I would probably ask you, “you have done some things you are not proud of, correct?”
You’ve probably lied, or cheated, or had adulterous thoughts…
Our problem is base our goodness on being better than someone else, but the standard is God…
And the problem is what I have done hurts others…
EXAMPLE:
When I was a kid, I was pretty overweight. I would come home at night and go into my room and cry into my pillow because people would say horrible things to me, making fun of me. Even as an adult I’ve had people call me a whale and other terrible things…
Here’s my question.
What should God do with those people who have made fun of me?
If he just forgives them do they just get away with it?
What about Justice for me? What about Justice for you?
What about child abusers? Where do you draw the line on it’s ok for God to sweep this little infraction under the carpet but not this one?
Listen,
God’s love for all people demands Him to have a line of Justice for all wrongs committed.
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It would be unloving to the person who had sin perpetrated upon them to just simply forgive the perpetrators with no penalty for the sin…
But listen to what Romans says
Romans 3:25-26
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God doesn’t send people “good people” to hell because there is no one who is actually good.
b
Instead, He gives all of us a way out of our sin, to receive Jesus’ blood in the place of our own.
Did you see it? God left our sins unpunished…
This is what is shocking about God if you ask me, it’s not that at some point He has a punishment, but it’s that He is willing to for so long leave sin unpunished….
His mercy and His grace are so much beyond ours…
CLOSING:
At the end of all time, after all have died and Jesus has returned, the scripture tells us that God will bring out a book of life – it in it will be everyone’s name who choose to follow Jesus for life. God will begin judging mankind on what we have done, but if your name is in the book, you will get to cut the line… It won’t be because of how good you were, but because you were willing to lay down your life and admit how bad you were and accept His free sacrifice and gift for you.
Can I just tell you something? Today, I believe there are people in this room who are going to hell, God will give you what you’ve been wanting. You still have time to choose Him. To choose the way the truth and the life. To have your name written in the lambs book of life through faith. All it takes is repenting of your sin and turning to a life with Jesus… The with God life!
