OPEN: (Showed “Scary” – a short video produced by “MinistryFlix” and offered on sermoncentral.com. The video introduced the fact that most people like to be scared a little bit on Halloween. The tag line was “Do you know what is really scary? Many of friends and family do NOT know Jesus as Lord and Savior.”)
Every week, several of us preachers get together to work on our sermons. As we were working on this particular sermon series, one of the men suggested the title: “How much do you have to hate someone to NOT tell them about Jesus?”
The idea was that you’d have to hate someone really bad not to tell them about Jesus. Because if you didn’t tell them about Jesus, they might end up in hell because you might be the only one they might hear about Him from.
The fact of the matter is: if we don’t tell others the truth about Jesus and the coming judgment… somebody else will.
I recently talked with a young man who told me about a book he’d read. The book told about a man who had died on the operating table for a few minutes and then came back to life
The man who wrote this book told about his experience and what he’d seen and felt. He told about seeing heaven and what it looked like.
And he also told about hell - and one of the things he said was that he discovered that EVERYBODY goes to hell. Then, they would stay there until they’d burned off all their sins.
I smiled at the young man and said: “I much prefer the Bible’s version.”
Now, the book that boy read was basically teaching that Hell wasn’t a place that could be avoided (PAUSE) it was a place that had to be endured - by EVERYBODY. But that eventually EVERYBODY would get out of hell ... and go to heaven.
Now that book’s teaching has a certain appeal. I mean everybody realizes they have sins that need to be punished. And everybody realizes hell probably exists and they probably deserve to go there.
But hey – this is GREAT!
While I might deserve to go to hell, I don’t have to stay there. After a while EVERYBODY gets out, and we ALL get to go to heaven no matter what we’ve done in this life.
Can you imagine the thrill of pleasure that must exist for people like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Kaddafi, Osama Bin Laden, and murderers, rapists and child molesters that inflicted pain on others without any remorse.
Well… it sounded great for a minute there.
But like I said, I can understand the appeal of such a teaching.
BUT the appeal is deceptive.
Because not only is Hell real and not only are real people going to go there, BUT if they go there… they’re not getting out.
Luke 16 tells the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. And in the midst of the story the rich man has a conversation with Abraham. The Rich man says:
“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.
"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. 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.’ Luke 16:24-26
No one who goes to Hell will ever get out.
Once you’re there… you’re there.
Now I don’t know HOW the man - who wrote that book - saw what he saw. It could have been an hallucination, or simply wishful thinking that intruded on his subconscious, or it might even have been deception from Satan. I don’t know.
But I DO know that what he said he saw WAS NOT real.
Hell is real, and ONE of the scariest thing about hell is that if you go there – you’re not getting out.
I realize there are many people who’ve died on the operating table and many have come back with stories about what they’ve seen. But whenever I hear about their “experiences” I kind of wince.
Because I’m convinced that what they say they’ve seen – isn’t real.
There’s a website I visited while preparing for this sermon. It’s called http://www.near-death.com/. And it listed the thoughts of various people who’d had near-death experiences and the site categorized their thoughts by topic.
The end result only confirmed what I already suspected was true.
Many of those gone thru these “near-death” experiences ended up with various views about what goes on heaven/hell/ God, etc. And these different people didn’t ALL arrive at exactly the same conclusions.
In addition, very few of their experiences were close to being anything we’d call Biblical.
Some of them embraced “astrology” (the idea that stars and planets control our destinies). That’s called “heresy.” Can you say that? Heresy. It’s not true. It’s a false teaching. To believe in astrology and horoscopes is to accept something God hates. It’s heresy.
Then others believed in reincarnation (live & die and live & die - over and over again - until you get it right). This is called “heresy.” Can you say that? Heresy. It’s not true, It’s a false teaching. TO believe in reincarnation is to accept something God hates. It’s heresy.
And apparently one of other things, that many of those who went through these near-death experiences believed, was that hell is pretty much a “state of mind”. “Hell is not real”, they say.
But it is.
My point is this: as much as you and I would like to be able to do so we can’t trust the observations of people who’ve had near-death experiences.
Now, I doubt those folks intended to deceive or mislead us. I believe they ACTUALLY BELIEVE they saw these things. But everything they SAID they experienced is pretty much subjective. And a lot of their reflections were nothing more than “wishful thinking” - how they HOPED death will be like when that time comes.
Another thing to realize is that – those who believe they’ve had these near-death experiences have only been “dead” for a few minutes, and they’ve supposedly gained great insights into the afterlife.
Now, by contrast, Jesus HAS been on the other side - not for a few minutes or even a few hours. Before He came down and walked upon this earth - and died and was buried and rose again - Jesus had been in heaven since before the creation of the world
He knew what heaven was like – because He’d lived there.
And Jesus knew what Hell was like because He’d seen it firsthand. He’d seen the misery and the hopelessness and despair of those condemned to eternal punishment.
Jesus came-and He died on the cross for us- so that we wouldn’t have to go there.
Now, it’s interesting to note that Jesus tells us the more about Hell/ than anyone else.
• (He said) “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.” Mark 9:43
• 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, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Mark 9:47-48
• “(Those who were condemned would be thrown) into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:42
• "(They would be told to) ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41
How much do you have to hate someone not to tell them about Jesus?
How much do you have to hate someone not to warn them of the coming judgment?
Jesus loved you and me so much that He told us about Hell... because He doesn’t want us to go there. He wants you to know AND BELIEVE that Hell’s a bad place. And He definitely wants you to know enough about the place that you decide for yourself that you don’t want to go there.
The real tragedy of hell isn’t that it’s real, or that it’s a bad place.
The real tragedy is you didn’t have to go there to begin… because it wasn’t created for you.
Did you catch what it said in that last scripture?
Who was Hell PREPARED for?
(Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.)
But now - wait a minute.
IF Jesus said hell was real, and that I could end up there.
And He goes into great detail telling me WHY I don’t want to go there.
WHY then would Jesus tell me that Hell wasn’t even prepared for me?
Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.
But if Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, how is that I could end up there too? In fact - WHY would anybody end up there? IT WASN’T DESIGNED FOR US to begin with!!!
Well, it appears that people will go to hell because... they end up going with the one they belong to. If I go to hell it will because I belong to Satan. If I belong to him… I go where he goes.
AND if I go to heaven it will because I belong to Jesus. I’ll go heaven - as a follower of Christ - because that is where my Master is. I’ll be GOING HOME to be with Him.
If I go to Hell, it’s because I’m going home with my master Satan.
If I go to Heaven, it’ll be because I’m going home with master Jesus.
You go with who you belong to.
In the Gospel John, Jesus has a discussion with some Jews who don’t like Him much. In fact they were already plotting to kill Him. Somewhere along the line, these people suggest Jesus is illegitimate and Jesus responded by telling the crowd they were illegitimate.
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here...
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. John 8:41-44a
God doesn’t hate us. He doesn’t want us to go to Hell.
John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” But John 3 ends with these fateful words: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him." John 3:36
His wrath remains???
Why would the wrath of God remain on us?
Because we’re sinful people.
We do bad things, we say bad things, we think bad things.
Or as Romans 3:23 says "ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
ILLUS: A little experiment in math will prove this out. Let’s say we have a GOOD person here in the congregation. (Nice as they can be). Do you think they ever sin?
Well, yeah, probably.
How many times a day do you think that person thinks a bad thing, says something they shouldn’t or does something they shouldn’t?
Well, let’s be generous and say they might do something like that - on average - 3 times a day.
3 sins a day for 7 days is = 21 sins a week
21 sins a week times 52 weeks is = 1092 sins
Let’s say that person lives til they’re 70 and they God counted their sins from age 10.
That’s 60 years times 1092 sins = 65,520 total sins in their lifetime.
AND THAT’S A GOOD PERSON!
Romans 6:23 tells us "...the wages of sin is death..."
What do you get wages for?
You get wages because you’ve worked for something. You’ve EARNED it.
You’re getting what you deserve for the things you’ve done.
Some people say that they only want what they deserve in this life.
They believe that their "works" will get them into heaven.
They believe that what they have DONE will EARN them a place with God
They’re WRONG!!!!!
What they have done will earn them a place in Hell... not heaven.
And they frankly won’t want what they’ve "earned"
Because what they’ve "EARNED" is a place in hell.
If they got what they deserved they’d be in hell.
God doesn’t hate us.
He loves us so much that He tells us about Jesus.
And He loves us so much that He offers us Jesus.
God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son... so we wouldn’t get what we deserve.
Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
So let’s see: I can count on my works ... and earn death.
Or I can reach out to God... and receive a FREE gift and have eternal life
Hmmm.
Work and face hell, or accept His free gift and get heaven?
Which should I do?
It’s not even a contest!
One man put it this way:
“He paid the didn’t He didn’t owe
I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song
"Amazing Grace"
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”
(Ellis J. Crum)
So - here’s the deal.
Hell is real.
And most people strongly suspect they might end up there.
So, if most people suspect they might end up in hell, and God doesn’t want them there anyway... why would anyone go to hell?
Well, they’ll go there in part because nobody warned them:
Nobody explained to them how critical/important this was.
"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.” Ezekiel 33:7-8
God says: I want you to warn people.
Get them to understand how critical this is/how important.
That’s why Jesus spent so much time warning people about Hell.
But how do I do that?
How do I warn them?
ILLUS: Several years back a group called "Evangelism Explosion" focused on asking people one question: "If you died today... would you be SURE you’d get into heaven?"
You know how most people replied?
"I THINK I MIGHT. But I’m Not Sure!"
WHY?
Because deep in their hearts they know they’ve done/thought/said enough bad things to make them doubt.
Sometimes it’s enough to ask that simple question.
Sometimes it’s enough to touch that nerve and put people on the spot.
The “Scary” video at the beginning of this sermon spoke of another good way to tell people about Jesus: Tell them ho w Jesus has changed your life. Tell them about what a difference your faith in Him has done for you.
Another good way is a video teaching series we have here at church. It’s called the Jule Miller Video Bible Study. In 5 short lessons you can share with someone what the Bible says about God, Jesus, and Salvation. You don’t even have to know anything about anything. If you can plug in a DVD, you can share the gospel. And you don’t even have to do it all yourself. If you want, just open the door for them and shove me on through and I’ll teach them. But the key thing is: Share Jesus.
Ultimately it helps to be able to tell people how to accept God’s free gift of salvation.
It used to be called the “5 finger exercise”.
(Hold up the index finger) 1st – Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?
(Hold up two fingers) 2nd – Do you believe that you are a sinner, and are you willing to turn away from the way you used to live?
(Hold up three fingers) 3rd – Are you willing to confess Jesus as the Lord and Owner of your life?
(Hold up four fingers) 4th – Are you ready to seal the deal by being buried in the waters of baptism and rising up a new Christian?
(Hold up all fingers and thumb) 5th – Are you ready then to live for Jesus?
CLOSE: A preacher once told of having a rap session with some high school teenagers. He said that he’d told them they could ask him any question on any subject, and he’d try and answer it.
As the session drew to a close, one girl toward the back who had not said anything, raised her hand. He said:
“I nodded, and she said, ‘The Bible says God loves everybody. Then it says that God sends people to hell. How can a loving God do that?’
I gave her my answer, and she came back to me with arguments. I answered her arguments, and she answered my answers. The conversation quickly degenerated into an argument. I did not convince her, nor did she convince me. After a few more questions I dismissed the session.
After the session I approached her and said, ‘I owe you an apology. I really should not have allowed our discussion to become so argumentative.’ Then I asked, ‘May I share something with you?’
She said, ‘Yes.’ So I told her about Jesus. When I got to Romans 3:23 and explained that all of us were sinners she began to cry. This high school Sr. admitted she had been having an affair w/ a married man. The one thing she needed was forgiveness.
When I finished the presentation of the gospel, she became a Christian.
But the reason she did not believe in hell was because she was going there.
In her heart she knew she had sinned. Her conscience condemned her, but rather than face the fact of her guilt she simply denied any future judgment or future hell.
(Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 163)
Sometimes, all people need is someone who is willing to risk telling them about Jesus and they become convicted of their past and their need to build their future around Jesus.
