Introduction
A
man was driving to work and heading into a crossroad junction, when a lorry
coming at a 45 degree angle drove through a red light, and hit his car side-on.
Passers-by rushed to the scene, pulled him from the wreck and gave him first
aid. He had passed out. As they gave him attention, he came round and then
immediately began to shake violently.
Later,
when he was calm, they asked him if he had any recollection of the accident and
why he had had such a strong reaction afterwards. He said “Yes. I remember the
impact, then nothing. I woke up and saw in front me of a huge flashing ‘Shell’
sign. And somebody must have been standing in front of the letter ‘s’!”
We
can maybe see the amusing side of a little story like that, but if only hell
were a laughing matter. We looked at the last judgement two weeks ago, then
last week we looked at heaven. Today, it’s hell.
The
Avoided Subject
I
can’t recall ever preaching a whole sermon before on the subject of hell before
today. Nor have I yet heard one from someone else in my five and a half years
here.
I
say that for the benefit of those of you who are new here – or it might be that
it’s your very first Sunday. You may have come here this morning hoping for
something nice and Christmassy and instead you get hell fire and brimstone.
Let
me say that this is not something we are “always banging on about” at All
Saints’. The gospel is good news, not bad news.
But
we can’t deny that there is a serious, unambiguous and repeated warning in
Scripture about hell. So it’s strange that you hardly ever hear sermons about
it. Why is that?
Is
it just that no one wants to be unpopular? I don’t know, but I do know
that the Apostle Paul said “If I were still trying to please people, I would
not be a servant of Christ.”
Is
it just that preachers fear being labelled “fundamentalist”? I don’t know but I
do know that I’d rather hear people say “John Lambert takes the Bible too
literally”, than hear God say, “I called you to faithfully preach my all word.
Why didn’t you?”
Some
people say we should steer away these more discouraging parts of the Bible and
just talk about God’s mercy and grace. We shouldn’t put people off, they say,
with all this talk of judgement and damnation. We should look to Jesus instead
and emphasise his love, his kindness and his compassion.
And
mostly that’s what we do do of course.
What
Jesus Said
But
the problem is that, in the Bible, nobody spoke more about
hell than Jesus did. That’s a fact.
He
described it as a fearsome place of outer darkness where the noise of weeping
and teeth gnashing are heard (Matthew 25.30). That says to me that hell is
about deep anguish and bitter regret.
He
described it as a place where worms never die and fire is never extinguished
(Mark 9.48). That says to me that hell is about endless decay and destruction.
He
described it as a place prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41).
That says to me that hell is a place of great evil and spiritual heaviness.
And
he said this: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can
do no more… Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to
throw you into hell.” (Luke 12.4-5).
So
according to Jesus, the prospect of ending up there is literally a fate worse
than death.
And
in this morning’s parable, Jesus talked about a man in hell, begging for
relief: “Cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24). As
far as I am aware, this is the only passage in the Bible that describes the
feelings of unconverted people after their death. And it says to me that hell
is a place of thirst, of pain and of desperation.
Not
one word in the Bible about hell would ever make you want to go there.
All
that is from the lips of Jesus and we must take what he says seriously - or we
can hardly call him Lord in any meaningful way.
How
People End Up There
Many
people today are making no preparation whatsoever for their retirement. Maybe
it’s to do with the banking crisis, maybe it’s to do with the recession. It
might not be their fault. It might be that there just isn’t any money at the
end of the month. But millions of people in our country have no life insurance,
no savings, and have never put a penny into a pension scheme.
But
far more serious than that, there are many more who make no provision at all
for their future beyond the grave.
One
of the characters in our Gospel reading was one such person. What did he do -
or perhaps not do - to end up where he did?
The
passage tells us three things. It says first of all that he indulged himself.
He dressed in fancy designer clothes and lived in opulent extravagance. He was
a man of great means and enjoyed a Monte Carlo lifestyle.
Secondly,
at the same time, he was completely indifferent to the suffering of others, not
even giving scraps of waste to the beggar at his gate and doing nothing to bind
up his evident bad health. There was a man at his front gate with open sores
and an empty stomach and he looked the other way.
Thirdly,
he seems to have lived independently from God. It seems fair to surmise that
his five brothers were in the same boat because when he realises that there’s
no way back, that a chasm has been permanently fixed, he begs that the poor man
can be sent to warn them.
But
this is what he told: “They have Moses and the prophets, but they never
listen to them.” In other words, “Look, your family have a Bible. If they
want to know what they need to do, they can start by opening it.” But I’m
afraid that neither his brothers nor he had any interest whatsoever in
spiritual things.
Three
things, then, can set me on the road to hell and appropriately, they each begin
with “I”: indulgence towards myself, indifference towards others and independence
from God.
Herod
- Hell on Earth
As
we approach Christmas time, we remember the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
In our nativities, we remember the shepherds and their simple faith. We
remember the magi and their spiritual curiosity. We remember Mary and Joseph
and their obedience. We remember the angels and their glorious celebration.
But
we remember less the shadowy, brooding, evil king Herod; his jealously, his
paranoia. He made life hell on earth for everyone.
Herod
the Great, as he was known, had ten wives. It’s said that he only ever really
loved one of them, Mariamne, but he grew more and more suspicious that she was
plotting to prise his throne from him. He was obsessed with power and he
exterminated anyone whom he deemed a threat to his crown. He had Mariamne
murdered.
For
the same reason, he also executed, without trial, his mother in law, he drowned
two brothers-in-law, and had two of his own sons killed.
Just
before his own death not long afterwards, he ordered the arrest of a group of
dissenters. He had the ringleaders burned alive. The rest were beheaded. When
Herod died, they read his will and it instructed the slaying of dozens of
leading people in Israelite society, just to make sure that there would be
weeping in the nation.
This
is what we know about Herod from secular history books. So when he heard about
a new king of the Jews the Bible tells us that, true to form, he had every
child under two years old in Bethlehem put to death.
When
we think of hell, and who deserves to go there, we think if anyone does, it’s
ruthless, murderous people like Herod.
But
one of the greatest revelations I have ever had in my Christian journey (and it
wasn’t until I had been a Christian about ten years) is this: hell is no more
than I deserve.
Because
the holiness of God is infinitely great, the gravity of my sin is infinitely
weighty, so the consequences for me are, quite rightly, infinitely serious.
My
sin was responsible for the horrific death of an innocent man.
Grace
and Mercy
Hell
is no more than I deserve - but mercy and grace are what I have actually
received.
You
have received mercy. Mercy means that God, in his extraordinary kindness,
chooses to not give me what I fully deserve. That is just plain marvellous. But
it’s even better than that.
Mercy
means I don’t get what I do deserve. But grace means that God has abundantly
poured into my life a never-ending stream of the blessings I don’t deserve.
We
will never be able to appreciate the wondrousness of mercy and the amazingness
of grace until we measure how much God has saved us from and how much he has
lavished on us in Christ.
That’s
the Gospel! It’s not “God’s my mate.” He’s not your mate. Where’s that in the
Bible? We wouldn’t even call the Queen “my mate”! Jesus is my Lord and my
Saviour who has gone through hell for me.
I
mentioned back in May that, at the HTB Christian leadership conference at the
Albert Hall, they were oversubscribed so they wrote to the Queen and requested
her permission to use the Royal Box. Her Majesty graciously replied saying she
was happy for it to be used for the conference’s most distinguished guests.
So
they put a group of ex-offenders in there. One of them was a former violent
criminal called Eddie who had been converted to Christ the year before. He said
this: “I used to sleep on the vents outside the Royal Albert Hall. Today I took
my place on the Queen’s seat inside it!”
What
a transformation! Only God can do that – and he does it every day, transferring
people from destination hell to destination heaven.
That’s
why salvation is called “salvation.” Becoming a Christian is not a lifestyle
choice like deciding on a career or choosing a house. Becoming a Christian is
more like a tense and messy rescue operation.
And
the reason why not everyone who deserves to end up in hell will actually go
there is Jesus.
Jesus
came at Christmas time to go to the cross.
The
cross, like hell, was place of scorching heat. Jesus was exposed to the fierce
intensity of the midday sun.
The
cross, like hell, was place of pain. Jesus went through excruciating agony from
his beatings, his crown of thorns, his being nailed, his slow suffocation.
The
cross, like hell, was place of loneliness. Jesus was betrayed, denied, handed
over and deserted. He cried out to his Father “Why have you abandoned me?”
The
cross, like hell, was place of darkness. As he carried your sin and mine, the
Gospels tell us that a thick darkness came over the land.
The
cross, like hell, was place of thirst. Jesus, dehydrated and desperate, cried
out that he was thirsty.
Heat,
pain, loneliness, darkness and thirst. Jesus was going through hell so that you
and I don’t have to.
Ending
As
I close, the truth is this; every one of us has the opportunity in this life to
determine whether the next life will be better (with God) or worse (separated
from him). It will be entirely down to us.
The
Newcastle-based church leader David Holloway recently wrote this, “Hell is
self-chosen… No one can complain about the Bible's teaching on hell. It is to
stop you going there. It is a warning. It is like those warnings on the cliff
top. It is like those danger signs at electric pylons.”
So
I want to encourage you to not take lightly what God has told us about hell.
Herod’s bit part in the Christmas story is a reminder that evil is real and
will one day be punished.
But
don't take lightly what God has told us about heaven either. He has opened up a
way for you to go there. That way is Jesus Christ. Put your faith and trust in
Him today.
Sermon
preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th December 2013
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