Heaven And Hell
HEAVEN AND HELL:
ARE THEY REAL?
8/17/2002 AND 8/18/2002
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
-I have written down here some of the last words of famous people.
LADY NANCY ASTOR-“Am I dying or is this my birthday?”
THOMAS CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY-“I see Heaven open and Jesus on the right hand of God.”
JOHN WESLEY-“Best of all, Jesus is with us.”
SOME LESS FAMOUS PEOPLE:
“Nice Doggie.”
“I wonder where the mother bear is?”
(A man was gored by a buffalo in Yellowstone this week trying to get a better picture. They are prosecuting the man to add insult to injury.)
“It can’t possibly rain for forty days and forty nights.”
-Jesus had some very important last words.
-We looked at some of them last time.
Acts 1
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with a water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
-We talked about that. The tapes are free back there. In order to be effective and fruitful Jesus said we should be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
-That is normal Christianity. It isn’t some fringe movement of weirdoes who live out in the hills. This is orthodox Christianity.
-That is our POWER TO WITNESS TO OTHERS ABOUT JESUS.
-Today I want to focus on our MOTIVATION TO WITNESS.
-Why do this? Isn’t someone’s faith a private thing that is between them and God?
-Isn’t it offensive to talk about hell and judgment?
-A very well known minister in Tulsa is now teaching “UNIVERSALISM.”
-That is the view that all people will eventually be saved.
-There is also a view held by Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists that the wicked will just cease to exist. In other words they will just be annihilated and only the righteous will live on.
-The Buddhist believes in “Nirvana” which is a state of nothingness.
-Muslim terrorists believe that if they become suicide bombers they will be ushered into bliss where 72 virgins await them. It is kind of an eternal harem where your flesh is totally indulged.
-The Hindu has an extended vacation between reincarnation.
-The only problem with both of those is that they aren’t Biblical.
Jesus said:
Mark 16
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
-Jesus spoke about being saved or being condemned.
John 3
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
-I hear about people who have gone to heaven and hell.
-I can’t prove or disprove that anyone has ever gone.
-I’ve heard some incredible stories and I don’t know whether to believe them or not.
-They are motivated to die because they believe the next world will be better.
-According to a Newsweek poll 76% of Americans believe in heaven. 71% think it is an “actual place.”
-Paul said he was taken to the “third heaven.”
2 Corinthians 12
12 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.”
-First Heaven-sky/atmosphere.
Second heaven-Celestial heaven of sun-moon-solar system
Third heaven-the place where God dwells
Hebrews 6
6 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, a and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
-The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment are fundamental doctrines of the faith.
-They are part of orthodox Christianity.
-Let’s look at both of them.
HELL
-We get some negative feedback for telling people about hell when we host the drama.
-People like to believe that it isn’t real. But Jesus talked about it a lot.
EXAMPLE WITH COMEDIAN
-The way I am going to present this is as judgments.
-Hebrews talks about “eternal judgment” but there are other judgments.
1-JUDGMENT OF BELIEVER’S SINS
John 5
24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
1 Timothy 5
24 The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them.
-When you became a Christian your sins were judged.
2-JUDGMENT OF BELIEVER’S SELF
1 Corinthians 11
28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
-If we are honest and walk in the truth we bring our sins before God and adjust our lives to His Word.
3-JUDGMENT OF BELIEVER’S WORKS
2 Corinthians 5
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
1 Corinthians 3
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
4-JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS
Matthew 25
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
-This is a judgment of peoples as nations.
5-JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED
Revelation 20
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 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. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
-You don’t want to be here.
-Hell/hades and death are thrown into the lake of fire.
2 Thessalonians 1
5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 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
-The second death is eternal death.
-I don’t want to go there and I don’t want anyone I know to go there.
-God made hell for the devil and Jesus died so that no human would have to go there.
-If anyone goes it is because they chose to do their own thing and rebel against God.
-This isn’t a democracy. He is God. He made the world. He gave you breath. He bought you with a price.
-Do what is right and give your life back to Him.
Gehenna-a refuse dump in a valley south of Jerusalem. It burned continually.
Hell-An old English word.
Hades-the unseen
Sheol/Abaddon
-Whatever you call it- its characteristics are:
DARKNESS AND FIRE
-Jesus talked about:
-outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
-It is a place of torment and total isolation. The outstanding characteristic is hopelessness. The eternal nature of it is what is so frightening.
-I don’t want to go.
EXAMPLE WITH DARRELL-DISCUSSION ABOUT HELL
HEAVEN
John 14
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God a; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
-Hell is marked by torment and darkness.
-Heaven is marked by INDESCRIBABLE JOY.
C. S. Lewis said, “All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness.” It is this unattainable ecstasy that will highlight the age to come.
Matthew 25 (NASB)
21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Revelation 22
1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
Psalm 46
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
-The Bible talks about the river of thy delights.
-The Bible talks about:
BEING LIKE HIM WHEN HE RETURNS
BEING KNOWN EVEN AS WE KNOW
BEING PRESENT WITH THE LORD
BEING ABLE TO BEHOLD GOD.
-One of the things the Bible teaches as man’s quest is to SEE GOD.
-Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
-The by-product of that desire is to purify yourself and respond to His grace.
-The bride has made herself ready by putting on fine linen.
-There will be work in eternity but not with toil.
-Men were working before the fall and the curse of the earth.
-There is a SABATH REST in eternity.
-It isn’t a cessation from all labor but an internal state of total peace and contentment.
-The Bible talks about rewards in eternity.
-We will be rewarded after the motives of our hearts are judged.
1-a crown of life
James 1:12
2- an imperishable crown
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
3-a crown of exhaltation
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
4-the crown of righteousness
2 Timothy 4:5-8
5-the crown of glory
1 Peter 5:2-4
-These have to do with soulwinning, sheperding the people of God, controlling you flesh, enduring temptation etc.
-There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.
-I want everyone I know to go to be with God.
-Pray in tongues, witness!!!!!
-Thank you for bearing with me on this subject!
Proverbs 11
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
And he who is wise wins souls.
Daniel 12
2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
3 “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
Philippians 2
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out a the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.