The Worst Home You Could Ever Own
Luke 16:19-31
A preacher was preaching to his congregation concerning heaven and hell. To emphasize the difference between the two, he asked that all who wanted to go to heaven to stand up. All the congregation rose. He then asked all who wanted to go to hell to stand up. No one stood up. For full dramatic impact he waited for several seconds before continuing. But during that pause a small boy slowly rose to his feet. The astonished priest spoke to the boy: "Surely a fine young man like yourself doesn’t want to go to hell." The boy answered, "Well of course not, but I just couldn’t stand the sight of you standing there all alone."
Two ministerial students from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, were doing summer evangelistic work in a rural area near Montgomery. One hot day they stopped their car in front of a farmhouse and proceeded up the path through a gauntlet of screaming children and barking dogs. When they knocked on the screen door, the woman of the house stopped her scrubbing over a tub and washboard, brushed back her hair, wiped perspiration from her brow, and asked them what they wanted.
"We would like to tell you how to obtain eternal life," one student answered.
The tired homemaker hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Thank you, but I don’t believe I could stand it!"
Obviously to her, if her hell on earth was going to last forever, she wasn’t sure it was worth it.
ABC News,stated on July 11, 2007, that in 1997, 56% of Americans polled said they believed in hell. After the terror attacks of 9/11/01, the number shot up to 71% (Harris and Gallup polls), then fell back to the 50’s in recent years.
Yet, according to the ’Philadelphia Inquirer,’ only four percent expect to end up there.
Regardless of our expectations or our beliefs about hell,
The Bible actually describes hell more than it does heaven!
Note some of the descriptive words the Bible uses:
Matthew 25:30
30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the DARKNESS, where there will be WEEPING AND GNASHING of teeth.’
(NIV)
Sounds like a place full of regrets!
Matthew 25:46
46 "Then they will go away to ETERNAL punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
(NIV)
How long is eternal?
2 Peter 2:4
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into GLOOMY DUNGEONS to be held for judgment;
(NIV)
The word means gloomy caves where prisoners were chained to the walls so that they could not move and were held there until they might be judged.
Mark 9:47-48
47 And 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,
48 where "’their WORM DOES NOT DIE, and the FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.’
(NIV)
The most common word used in the Bible for hell is “Gehenna”. Jesus said it eleven times. The people Jesus spoke to knew about Gehenna. It is a deep narrow valley south of Jerusalem that was used in Jesus’ day for a garbage dump. Gehenna was an open pit, infested with rats and reeking with decaying food and human waste. The bodies of executed criminals and those not having anyone to bury them were also dumped there. When the pestilence that fed on the dump began getting out of hand, the entire thing was set on fire. But even the fires of Gehenna didn’t purify - they sent billows of reeking smoke over the entire city, spreading disease and death.
Revelation 20:10
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.
(NIV)
Satan offers three strategies to ruin people’s souls:
"there is no heaven,"
"there is no hell,"
and "there is no hurry."
Jesus tells us about the five torments of Hell in Luke 16:19-31. These torments are owned by every person who chooses to live life as if there were no heaven, no hell and no hurry to make a decision.
Luke 16:19-31
19 "There 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 hell, 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 fixed, 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 father’s house,
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.’"
(NIV)
1) The Torment of SEEING the other side. (verse 23)
Luke 16:23
23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
(NIV)
Some think that when you die, you cease to exist. But the Bible is clear: Lazarus was still Lazarus and the rich man was still himself. Identity remains. The only thing you will take with you when you die is yourself, not your possessions, not your friends and family, just you! From hell, the rich man saw Lazarus and recognized him. The rich man knew that Lazarus was now peacefully enjoying all the blessings far beyond what the rich man had enjoyed all through life. And it tormented him!
2) The Torment of FIRE. (verse 24)
Luke 16:24
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.’
(NIV)
Hell is a real place of conscious anguish. This man was not dreaming. His hell was not on earth. He was conscious aware of his surroundings – he could feel, he could speak, experience thirst – and was in anguish. You may say, “Well, I don’t believe all that!” Not believing in Hell doesn’t lower the temperature there one degree. Never ending fire. Never ending torment. Never a break, day or night. Just as Lazarus longed to be fed with even a crumb, this man now longs to have even one drop of water to quench his agonizing thirst.
3) The Torment of HAUNTING MEMORY (verse 25)
Luke 16:25
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.
(NIV)
No second chances, only the undying memory of what could have been. Perhaps Lazarus had died before the rich man and the rich man had seen them take Lazarus’ body to Gehenna, the ever-burning garbage dump! Now the rich man is in an ever-burning place while Lazarus is comforted.
4) The Torment of NO ESCAPE (verse 26)
Luke 16:26
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
(NIV)
In Dante’s Divine Comedy the author journeys through the Inferno. There is a sign posted over the mouth of the entrance to Hell which reads: “Abandon hope all you who enter here.” Hell is final! There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance for relief, no way out, no end, no kidding. In Hell it is too late to pray, it is too late to change your life and it is too late to repent. Hell is a place without hope.
5) The Torment of LINGERING INFLUENCE (verse 27-28)
Luke 16:27-28
27 "He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
(NIV)
He didn’t say, “I’m glad my brothers will be joining me here. We’ll have a wonderful time together.” In fact the rich man expresses concern for his five brothers and he asks that someone be sent back to warn them that their choices in this life have consequences in the next.
Who will go to this place?
All who have bought and paid for it in this life!
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
(NIV)
The thing that sent the rich man to Hell was not that he was naughty things while alive. The thing that sent the rich man to Hell was that he did NOTHING that he should have done. By not doing anything with Jesus, not receiving Him as your Savior, not accepting His payment in full for your sins, you are choosing to pay the price yourself. Sin exacts too high a price for the worst home you could ever own.
You can either pay for these accommodations for your eternal abode or you can accept Christ’s payment in full for a home in Heaven!
