Heaven Part Four H-E-Double Hockey Sticks Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

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1 Heaven Part Four H-E-Double Hockey Sticks Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor Hell Week Welcome to hell week, as we are ending our series on heaven. You might remember the theme of the series, the big idea, which is this: heaven is a re-made earth, life on this planet the way it was meant to be lived. God created us to live in paradise, and we ruined it, and now live on a sin-cursed earth that is a foretaste of what hell will be. This week, we are going to tell the other side of the heaven story; we are going to talk about hell, and to introduce us to the topic, let me introduce to the stage a very infamous guest. Steve s Welcome to Hell monologue Today we are talking about H-E-double hockey sticks (hold on to sticks), and even though we had some fun with the topic, this just isn t one of those really fun topics in the Bible. Hell is a horrible reality and something very difficult to think about. It is a little like the time I was channel surfing and landed on one of those programs that show medical operations. Right as I turned there, they had just made all the cuts necessary and were peeling someone s face off of their skull, peeling it back like a mask. I only saw it for seconds, but that was seconds too long. I know that happens, but I don t want to see that, I don t want to think about that. Hell is certainly one of those topics that is hard to think about, which is why you don t hear many sermons about h-e-double hockey sticks. When it comes to the topic of hell, there are two extremes. One is the old fire and brimstone preachers that almost seemed excited about the reality of hell and would give very morbid descriptions of eternal torment to manipulate people to choose Christ. We want to avoid that. Yet, the other extreme that is more common today is no good either to just ignore the topic altogether, either act like hell does not exist or even begin to believe that it does not. Either there is a place called hell or there is not. Obviously you can choose to believe in a hell or not believe in a hell. However, whatever any of us might believe, what we will see today is that there is no doubt that the Bible teaches that there is a place called hell, a place of judgment for the sins of mankind, a place where God s justice is poured out. The person in the Bible that knows the most about hell is the one who talked the most about hell, and that is Jesus. Jesus talked more about hell than he did heaven, and in fact the reality of hell is the chief reason he came. He came to make a way for people to avoid the punishment they deserved. Because he wanted people not to go there, he talked a good bit about it. Just one passage is enough for now, as Jesus is telling us about the final judgment, and he turns to those who are still holding on to their sins, who have not chosen the forgiveness that Jesus offers, and will say, Matt 25:41

2 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 he says, Matt 25:46 They will go to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. If the Bible is right, if Jesus is honest, then there is a hell, a place of eternal punishment, and we have to understand the implications. As we have been talking about this cursed earth and how we have all sinned, what this means is that the whole human race deserves such punishment and is heading to a horrific fate, and someone needs to warn them about that. It means that we cannot just close our eyes and wish the whole idea would go away. We need to understand it so that we can avoid it and help others do the same. [show thinker]. You have probably seen this sculpture before, it is Rodin s sculpture called the thinker. Have you ever wondered what he is thinking so hard about? Maybe something like, Who got my clothes? Where did I leave them? Now this is embarrassing. How am I going to get out of here w/out anyone seeing me? Actually not. The thinker is part of a much bigger work of art, called the Gates of Hell, and below the thinker are all these figures writhing in agony on their way to judgment. The thinker is contemplating an eternity of separation from God; he is thinking about hell. Today we are going to discipline ourselves to do the same, and answer the question of what hell is really like. So, you can posture yourself like the thinker, just keep your clothes on, as we look and see what the Bible says. A Place of Degrees The first thing we need to understand about hell is that is a place of degrees. Here I m not talking about the thermostat or diplomas, but of degrees of judgment. It is a place of judgment, but in varying degrees based on the severity of people s sin. Just as heaven is not the same for everyone who goes there because of reward for what they have done, hell is not the same for everyone because they are only punished for what they have done. Revelation 20 describes the final judgment, where those who have not come to know Christ will stand before God. It says, Rev. 20:12 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 (20:12). In a similar way, Jesus says, Lk 12:47-48a

3 And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn t prepared and doesn t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly (Lk 12:47-48a). When Jesus warns a couple of very evil cities to change their direction, he says that if they do not shift, Matt 11:22 It shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you (Matt 11:22). He tells the religious leaders of the day that Lk 20:47 These shall receive the greater condemnation (Lk 20:47). Before the new heaven and the new earth, there will be a great day of judgment for those who have not chosen to place their faith in Christ. They will stand before God still holding on to the guilt of their sin, and he will judge them on the basis of what they deserve. What we know is that it will be fair, and that hell will not be pleasant for anyone but will be much more tolerable for some than others based on what they have done. A Place of Suffering Hell is not like some say a big party, where Satan is at the DJ booth spinning records and everyone is yucking it up and having a great time. Some seem to believe that; I ve heard people tell others, See you in hell! looking forward to the big party. The Bible lets us know that hell is no party, but a place of anguish and suffering not the kind of party you want to be invited to. The Bible gives various descriptions of hell, but one such picture is from a story that Jesus told about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus that both died about the same time. The wealthy man went to hell, and therefore we get a snapshot. It is in Luke 16:22-24 follow along with me: "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 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.' We learn a lot about hell from this snapshot. For one, he is still the same person. People who go to hell maintain their personality. He was still the same person. He was conscious

4 and aware. He could think and feel and remember and communicate. He was still the same person, very much aware of what was going on. And he was in torment. In this passage and others, they constantly describe hell as a place of fire, flames, a furnace that causes relentless, suffocating, tormenting heart, to the extend that the man in hell begs for just a drop of water for a second of relief. Notice he doesn t ask for a barrel of water or a jar or thermos or cup or even one drink. He asks for one drop. Just one drop would bring a moment of relief, and he longs for even a moment. Certainly the torment was physical, but also emotional and relational. In the story, he also asks someone to go warn his family who are not yet dead, so that they would not end up with the same fate. Hell is a place of regret and remembering. One of the ways Jesus described it elsewhere was a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of sadness, loneliness, and regret. That s what the phrase gnashing of teeth refers to here it isn t gnashing because of pain but because of regret. It s like when you lose something or make a mistake and clench your face and jaw, feeling stupid or remorseful like the times I ve locked my keys in the car or bladed a wedge out of a sandtrap or sinned in a way that I thought I was beyond. In the book of Mark, Jesus also gives a quick description of hell. He says, Mark 9:47-48 If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'" The Greek word used for hell here that is a common one is Gehenna, which was an actual place outside of Jerusalem. Gehenna was this huge trash dump outside of Jerusalem where the fires burned day and night year round. They threw the bodies of condemned criminals in there. Worms infested the garbage dump, and those worms somehow found a way to live among the flames. That dump was a picture of torment. Hell is like that dump. Because of that, there are some good biblical scholars that believe the descriptions about fire and literal flames are more symbolic than real that God uses Gehenna as a picture to give us something we can understand, that hell will be a place of torment, but not necessarily a place of fire and flames. One such person is R.C. Sproul, who is a very solid guy, but he says something I ve never thought about before. Writing about hell and fire being symbolic of suffering, he says, "But remember, if it's symbolic, it's symbolic because the reality is too awful for words. It's not better than this; it's worse. Whatever hell is, it will be so bad that the people in hell will pray for fire and brimstone as a relief." R. C. Sproul What we know for sure is that hell is place of torment, physically, emotionally, and in every way.

5 Hell is not a party, and Satan is not the DJ. In fact, Satan will be suffering in the deepest part of hell. Revelation 20:10 says, And the devil 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. He is not in charge of hell; he is just the most notorious inmate. A Place of Spiritual Darkness Hell is often described as a place of darkness also, which means a place of spiritual darkness. It may also be literally dark, but darkness refers to life without God. With God, we live in the light. Without God, we live in the dark. The worst part about hell is that it is life completely cut off from God. There is no God influence there, none of his grace, his blessing, his provision, his mercy, his containment of sin and violence. The Bible says that God holds evil back and that he rains his blessings down on everyone, but in hell none of that will happen. Hell will be terrible because God is not there and has no influence there. Imagine a place of nothing good, no love, no compassion, no blessing, no light, no smiles, no joy, no peace, no virtue, no significance, no meaning, no purpose nothing that God brings to us is there. A Place of Forever This is the part that is so hard for me to think about, that hell will last forever. There are some who doubt this. 7 th Day Adventists forever believe in annihilation, that God will punish, but that the punishment will wear out and people will eventually be destroyed, that they won t suffer forever. Recently, some more mainstream biblical teachers believe that, too, and if you want to hear their argument, there s a helpful book called Four Views on Hell edited by William Crockett #reader-link -- where you can hear the different positions. Yet, from my perspective, I just don t know how the Bible could be clearer. Constantly words like eternal, never-ending, forever are used. A verse we looked at a few minutes ago, for example, seems to make it very clear, Matt 25:46 They will go to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. The word eternal is used for both eternal life in heaven and eternal punishment in hell.

6 Go back to the Thinker. That has to be one of the most horrific parts he is thinking about regarding hell, the forever-ness of it. There is no hope, and people will want it to end and will cry out for it to end but it will not. So, when you think about hell as a real place, a place of degrees, a place of torment, a place of spiritual darkness, and a place of forever, it really is troubling, isn t it? Please understand. I wasn t looking forward to talking about hell. This may be the hardest talk I ve ever prepared and given. And it raises some troubling questions. Probably the one we want to ask but are afraid to because we don t want to offend God is, Is hell really fair? Or even bigger, How can you have a good God who is loving and that same God be a vindictive God who has this place of eternal punishment? How could a loving God have a hell? That is a good question, and a big one. Two answers are helpful to me. One is to remind ourselves of the justice of God. God is loving, but he is also just. And we want him to be just when it comes to really bad people, like a person I read about this week who raped and killed a number of people and laughed at the families at his trial. He had no remorse, no guilt, and made fun of the families on the other side of the courtroom. We cry out for God to punish a guy like that, but our own sins seem not such a big deal. It is kind of like our own stink. When we work out, we may be able to smell ourselves but it is usually not all that bad. It is at least our stink. Yet, to others, we just flat stink. We have degrees of toleration when it comes to stinky. We are used to our own sins. We think they are not really that big of a deal, because we are sinners. We really can t understand how a holy God views sin. We can t help but underestimate the evil of sin and the corresponding justice of God. But the second answer is even more helpful and incredibly compelling. The justice of God is real, but the second answer is the overwhelming love of God. You and I can hear about the reality of hell and think, That s awful, that s terrible. But we don t really do anything. God actually did something, something extreme, because of the reality of hell. Think of it this way. Do you know who hates the thought of people going to hell more than anyone else in the universe? God! Because God is a God of love, and the Bible says that mercy triumphs over his judgment. That s what the cross is about. Jesus didn t come here on earth and die on a cross for the fun of it. He came because of the reality of hell, because you and I had chosen to rebel against God. He came to this rebellious race of humanity who had traded paradise for the curse and for damnation, and he came to reverse the curse and rescue us from the ultimate destination of hell. He came to take our own punishment, to satisfy his justice, by being our substitute. That s why Romans 8:3-4 says, What the law was powerless to do God did by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us

7 Isaiah 53:4-5 says that Jesus was smitten by God and afflicted wounded for our transgressions.bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed (Is 53:4-5). The reason Jesus talked so much about hell is because he knew it is real, and he wanted to make a way for us to avoid that fate. In light of this incredible truth, Michael Horton says this, Our peace required his chastisement, and in order for us to be accepted by God in heaven s court, he had to experience the anguish of hell, which is God s rejection. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Why on earth would this unparallel grief please God? It is because he would be made an offering for sin. Bearing the iniquities of his people, the God-Man would secure the eternal relationship that the Father so indefatigably worked to achieve in spite of our sin and resistance. How remarkable, therefore, for us to demand of God an account for suffering, evil, sin, pain, and death! It is we who, in union with our father Adam, have turned his paradise into foretaste of hell. It is we who seek to go our own way and live for ourselves, treating God s patience with mocking contempt. It is we who deserve not only the wages of sin in this life, but for all eternity. And yet, it is God who suffers for us. God not only pronounces the sentence of justice, but finds a way to bear the burden of justice himself. Michael Horton We Believe God hates the idea of people going to hell more than anyone. That s why he came. That s why he did the unthinkable. When you combine the reality with a forever hell with the reality of the love of God who made a way to avoid it, the implications for us are huge. First, there are implications for each of us. We do not have to fear hell. We do not have to wonder if we are going to go there or not. We cannot be good enough to earn heaven or escape hell. That s why Jesus came. He came to take our punishment that we deserved. What we deserve is hell, no question about it. But what Jesus offers is forgiveness. That s why the Bible says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. You do not want to die still holding on to your sins, hoping that things will work out because they won t. You will take those sins to your judgment and will face the consequences for all eternity. Instead, God says, Give those sins to me. I died to take the punishment for them. He offers all this as a gift the Bible says, a gift! You and I don t have to do anything but choose to believe and receive that gift, and then our sins are history and are future is secure. In a few minutes I m going to give you an opportunity to receive that gift, that cure.

8 And it is like a cure. Imagine going to your doctor this week, and he tells you that you have a terminal disease that leads to a horrible death. That s bad news. But then he says, but the good news is this, there is a cure, and it is 100% effective. If you want the cure, you can have it today. What do I have to do? you ask. Nothing. Just receive it. How much is it? Free, someone else already paid for it on your behalf. It cost him a lot, but he offers it to you for free. You would say, No catch? This is a no-brainer! God could not have made it easier to avoid hell. He really couldn t have. He died for you. He worked in your life for you to be here today. The Holy Spirit is pulling you toward him. The whole Christian community is cheering you on to move toward him. But it is your choice. You can walk past the cross and turn away. Don t do that, not today. Today you can take that step. And for those of us who have received the cure, any implications for us? Of course! If you and I who know the cure. There is a whole mass of humanity with the disease of sin leading toward the afterlife, and we know the cure. That s why we are here now. That s why this church is here. We are the people, and churches like this are the groups, to be the rescue cutter, to be the ones who let the world know of God s amazing love. We are not a country club where you come and socialize and leave. We are not a Branson show where you come to hear music and hear some guy do a monologue. We are his people entrusted with the good news of how people can escape sin and its consequences and begin a relationship with God. There is not a more important cause in the world than the one Jesus gave us. So, let s be that church. As individuals, let s share the story, make it real by our love and changed lives. Every time we think about hell, we should cry. That s what God does. The reason we have compassion and are bothered by hell is that we are made in God s image. That s not what God wants, and he has asked you and me to be the ones to let people know. So, let s be committed to doing so. Let s stay focused on that mission. And again for those of you who are unsure of your future destiny, don t just walk away from this message without making sure. Hell is real, and yet it is not something you have to fear. You can avoid that future, and you can choose the forgiveness that Jesus offers today. In fact, I want to give you that opportunity right now. Pray. You know the really great news about today and this series is? Here it is. You and I along with all humanity really messed up what God wanted. He created us for paradise, and yet we chose sin, and when we did, we traded paradise for the curse. Instead of spending eternity with God in paradise, we would be liable for our sins and punished forever in hell. That was our choice. But God gave us another chance. God is a redeemer, and he is at work today redeeming lives. Heaven is a remade earth, eternity with God and on this planet as it was meant to be lived. Once we choose him, then we have full hope of heaven. We don t have to fear hell, and we have the hope that God is redeeming and rebuilding our lives right now. We struggle at times on this cursed planet. Often life is just really hard, and we struggle to follow God fully. But one day he will come back for

9 us and take us home to be with him. He will make a new heaven and a new earth, and that will be a great day. Let s end this series by singing this song in anticipation of that great day when the big story of redemption is over, and we will be at home with God and with each other forever. Stand with us and sing this song. We will dance. Closing Prayer.

HELL by Mart De Haan RBC Ministries

HELL by Mart De Haan RBC Ministries I WISH I DIDN'T HAVE TO BELIEVE IN HELL. While seeing the need for eternal justice, the thought of cruel and unusual punishment that lasts forever sounds morally wrong to me. Yet, the Bible describes God