Introduction:
A. Life is all about choices.
1. For the most part, our lives are what they are based on the choices we have made.
2. I know that sometimes things happen and are no fault of our own, but how we choose to deal with what happens makes a difference.
B. Just as life is about choices, so is the afterlife.
1. We have been studying John 3:16 – one of the best known and most treasured verses in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
2. From that verse we have learned that God is and that God loves.
3. We have learned that God loved us enough to give his one and only Son.
4. We have learned that God’s loving offer is for everyone – for whoever.
5. Finally, we have learned that the rewards and blessings of God’s offer are for whoever believes.
a. Last week we talked about what it means to put our trust in Jesus.
C. Today we want to learn why we need to respond to Him in faith.
1. God clearly describes the two choices that He lays before us – Hell (perishing) and Heaven (eternal life).
2. What do you think about heaven and hell?
3. I think our society and culture tries to make fun of and downplay the significance of these two places.
D. Look with me at a few cartoons that poke fun at heaven and hell.
1. Slide 1: Don’t you love those “you are here” maps. Don’t think you need one in hell – you’ll know where you are.
2. Slide 2: We have our choice - “Smoking or Non-smoking?”
3. Slide 3: If you really dislike exercise, do you picture hell as eternal aerobics?
4. Slide 4: Yes, hell will be hot, but it will be a dry heat.
5. Slide 5: Here we have the irony of the afterlife – everything will be hot, but the soup will be cold.
6. Slide 6: Welcome to heaven…here’s your harp. Welcome to hell…here’s your accordion.
7. Slide 7: Two people talking about heaven – “To be honest, I was a little disappointed. It’s hard for a place to live up to the hype.”
8. Slide 8: “Would you please stop saying ‘I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven’?”
9. Slide 9: Don’t you just hate those user names and passwords – I’m always forgetting them!
10. Slide 10: I wish I’d brought a magazine – That’s how I feel at the doctor’s office, but it’s not how I’m going to feel in heaven!
E. There are so many ideas about heaven and hell circulating out there, let’s spend a few minutes looking at what the Bible says about heaven and hell.
1. We know that God wants everyone to go to heaven, The Lord doesn’t want anyone to go to hell, but the choice is ours.
2. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
3. 2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
4. God wants everyone to believe and repent and be saved, but He leaves the choice to us.
I. The Tragedy of Hell
A. God makes the greatest offer of all time – “Come and enjoy living with Me forever in my perfect world.”
1. Yet so many people have no desire to do so.
2. Max Lucado puts it so well: “They don’t want anything to do with God. He speaks; they cover their ears. He commands; they scoff. They don’t want him telling them how to live. They mock what he says about marriage, money, sex, or the value of human life. They regard his son as a joke and the cross as utter folly. They spend their lives telling God to leave them alone. And at the moment of their final breath, God honors their request.”
3. God says: “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Mt. 7:23)
B. Hell is a subject that few people want to think about.
1. Who wants to think about eternal punishment.
2. People prefer to trivialize the issue, making jokes about it or turning it into a flippant adjective.
C. There are also those who prefer to sanitize the subject, and make it a moral impossibility.
1. The famous atheist, Bertrand Russell said, “I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.”
2. The popular way to express it is “A loving God would not send people to hell.”
3. Unfortunately, religious leaders increasingly agree!
4. One church historian surveyed 100 years of scholarly religious journals and found no entries for hell.
5. He said, “Hell disappeared and no one noticed.”
D. And it is easy to understand why – Hell is a hideous topic.
1. When the writers of Scripture tell us about hell, they use some of the gloomiest and scariest words to describe it.
2. They speak of “blackest darkness” (Jude 13), “everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:9), “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 8:12)
E. And guess who had the most to say about hell? Jesus.
1. Jesus didn’t avoid the subject - Jesus spoke of hell often.
a. It is estimated that 13 percent of his teachings refer to eternal judgment and hell.
b. Two-thirds of his parables relate to resurrection and judgment.
2. Jesus wasn’t cruel or gloomy – He was just honest and His candor stuns.
a. Jesus said: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mt. 10:28)
F. Jesus spoke of hell as a place of suffering.
1. Hell, like heaven, is a location, not a state of mind, not a metaphysical dimension of floating spirits, but an actual place populated by physical beings.
2. Jesus quotes the rich man in Hades pleading for Lazarus to “dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” (Lk. 16:24)
3. Words such as finger and tongue presuppose a physical state in which a throat longs for water and a person begs for relief – physical relief.
G. Jesus spoke of hell as being a place of outer darkness.
1. Jesus said: “But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt. 8:12)
2. When describing the judgment scene, Jesus said this about the man who was not prepared: “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness” (Mt. 22:13)
3. Hell is a place devoid of the light of God.
4. It is a place devoid of any goodness, joy, and love because it is a place without God.
H. Jesus spoke of hell as a place of eternal punishment.
1. We all might wish that hell’s punishment would end.
2. Some scholars believe that it will.
3. They point to Jesus’ words like “destroy” and “perish.”
a. Don’t such words imply an end to suffering?
4. There is no point on which I’d more gladly be wrong than the eternal duration of hell.
5. Unfortunately, annihilation seems inconsistent with Scripture – God’s warnings contain eternal language.
a. Consider John’s description in Revelation 14:11 – “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast…”
- How could an annihilated soul have “no rest, day or night”?
b. Consider how that Jesus compared hell with Gehenna – the rubbish dump outside with southwestern walls of Jerusalem, which was infamous for its unending smoldering and decay.
c. Jesus said that like Gehenna, hell was a place where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.” (Mk. 9:48)
-- A deathless worm and a quenchless fire – however symbolic they might be – speak of an ongoing state.
d. Jesus spoke of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” – how can an annihilated, nonexistent person weep or gnash teeth?
e. Jesus described the length of heaven and hell with the same adjective: eternal.
-- “Then they will go way to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Mt. 25:46).
I. Because of the horror of hell and it’s duration, many of us wonder if the punishment is fair.
1. Isn’t it overkill? Does the punishment fit the crime?
2. Does a sinner’s rebellion warrant an eternity of suffering?
3. But who are we to challenge God’s wisdom and justice?
4. Who are we to say what is right and fair – only God knows.
5. And look at all that God has done to keep us out of hell.
6. Look at the number of warning signs God has placed along the way.
a. Lucado says: “He has wrapped caution tape on hell’s porch and posted a million and one red flags outside the entrance.”
b. When I read that I couldn’t help but think of the railroad bridge on Onondaga Lake Parkway and the number of warning signs along the way. (must be 10 of them, many with flashing lights)
c. Yet despite the warning signs, look at how many trucks and busses hit the bridge.
d. The same is the case will hell – no one can say they weren’t warned or given a choice.
7. And look at the price God paid for our salvation – Jesus paid it all!
a. Jesus died on the cross and went through hell so that we wouldn’t have to.
b. Because of Jesus, this earth can be the nearest any of us have to come to hell.
c. Apart from Jesus, this earth is the nearest any of us will come to heaven.
J. Hell is a terrible and tragic place.
1. None of us have to go there – the choice is ours.
2. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life.
II. The Triumph of Heaven
A. Max Lucado tells a great story about being contacted by an old friend from his West Texas hometown.
1. His friend had big news: “My father saw your mother’s name in an unclaimed property column in the local newspaper.”
2. Max couldn’t imagine what the property might be.
3. His dad died years ago and they had sold mom’s house and she moved in with his sister.
4. Max’s friend said that he would send Max the contact information – two days later it arrived.
5. Max had 48 hours to imagine what this property might be.
a. Had his dad quietly invested in some long-shot oil well?
b. A petroleum gusher might mean millions, no, zillions of gallons of black gold.
c. Max imagined funding his yet-to-be-born grandchildren’s education.
d. He imagined ending world hunger.
6. Max called the courthouse number and the clerk remembered his mother and said, “I’ve been hoping you’d call.”
7. He heard her papers shuffling, her voice mumbling, “Now where did I put that check.”
a. “Check,” Max’s heart began to race.
8. “Here it is,” said the woman, “looks like we owe your mom some money. Looks like we owe your mom three fifty.”
a. Max thought, “Did she say three hundred and fifty million?”
9. The lady continued, “Your mother overpaid her final water bill by three dollars and fifty cents. Does your mom have an address I can send this to?”
B. Some hopes fail to deliver.
1. Some expectations sputter and flop like an untied balloon.
2. Life has its letdowns, but heaven won’t.
3. The eternal life that is promised to those who believe will not disappoint.
4. So, what will be so great about heaven?
C. First of all, heaven is a perfect place.
1. The apostle John tells us in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
a. Imagine – no suffering, no pain, no tears, no death, no evil, no taxes, and no political ads!
2. John has given us this glorious description of heaven: “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal…19The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone...21The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.” (Rev. 21:10-11, 19, 21-27)
a. How in the world can we even begin to grasp the wonder and beauty of heaven?
b. What will we do for eternity?
c. We know that we will worship. But will we work? Will we feast? Will we play?
3. I love Paul’s statement: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9)
D. More important than heaven being a perfect place is the fact that we will be with our perfect God.
1. In 1 Thessalonians 4, when Paul was discussing our resurrection, he reminded us: And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1 Thess. 4:17-18)
2. Look at Revelation 21:2-3: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
3. Look at Revelation 22:4 and 5: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”
4. God will live with us and we will see His face.
5. We won’t need any lights because God will be our light.
6. What an eternity we will be allowed to enjoy – Knowing and worshiping our Creator who loves us.
E. Let’s add one more amazing feature of our heavenly experience.
1. Look at the promise John wrote about in 1 John 3:2 and3, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
2. Someday, when He comes and we see Him, and He will transform us. We will be like Him. And we will be with Him forever.
3. Doesn’t that sound good? Doesn’t that sound fantastic? Could anything sound better? Could anything be of more value that seeing God and being like Him and living with God forever?
4. Oh, what a great future God has in store for us. Don’t you want it? Don’t you want to be there?
5. The choice is yours.
F. A story is told of a young boy named John Todd who was left orphaned by the death of both parents.
1. He was one of several children, and as was common in the early 1800s, he and all his siblings were farmed out to relatives.
2. An aunt agreed to take him in.
3. She sent a servant named Caesar to bring John to her.
4. The boy climbed on the back of the horse, wrapped his small arms around the man, and set out for her house.
5. His questions unveiled his fears:
a. “Will she be there?” Little John asked.
b. “Oh, yes,” Caesar assured. “She’ll be there waiting up for you.”
c. “Will I like living with her?”
d. “My son, you fall into good hands.”
e. “Will she love me?”
f. The servant was patient and soft in his reply, “Ah, she has a big heart.”
g. “Do you think she’ll go to bed before we get there?”
h. “Oh, no! She’ll be sure to wait up for you. You’ll see when we get out of these woods. You’ll see her candle in the window.”
6. Sure enough, as they neared the house, John saw a candle in the window and his aunt standing in the doorway.
7. As John shyly approached the porch, she reached down and kissed him and said, “Welcome Home!”
8. Young John Todd grew up in his aunt’s care. She was a good mother to him. John decided to become a minister.
9. Years later, his aunt sent news of her failing health and impending death.
10. John sent this letter in reply:
My Dear Aunt,
Years ago, I left a house of death, not knowing where I was to go, whether anyone cared, whether it was the end of me. The ride was long, but the servant encouraged me. Finally I arrived to your embrace and a new home. I was expected; I felt safe. You did it all for me.
Now it’s your turn to go. I’m writing to let you know, someone is waiting up, your room is all ready, the light is on, the door is open, and you’re expected.
G. Jesus is preparing a place for you and for me.
1. It will be a perfect place of perfected people overseen by our perfect Lord.
2. God will not force us to go there if we don’t want to.
3. The choice is ours.
4. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
5. Are you believing? Are you preparing yourself?
6. Have you made your choice? Are you living out your choice?
7. I hope that all of us will choose Heaven.
8. Jesus is waiting…the light is on…the door is open…your room is ready and paid for!
Resources:
“3:16 – The Numbers of Hope” by Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2007
“We Live” Sermon by Jeffery Anselmi, SermonCentral.com
