Hell: Part 1

Welcome/Mini Series/ Prayer/ Intro

Welcome: How is everyone doing this morning?

Mini Series: One of the sermon suggestions was on the reality of Hell.

How many of you either have questions or mixed feelings when it comes to the topic of Hell raise your hands! Anyone want to share?

(Maybe share my own feelings/ experience when it comes to hell)

I tried to smoosh everything on the topic into one sermon, but we would be here for eternity before I finished. So I decided to break it up into three parts!

First, Before we jump to the end lets look back and explore God’s original intentions for humanity and what went wrong

Part 2: Learn about different perspectives and approaches we find in the bible when it comes to hell.

Part 3: We will look at what Jesus has to say on the topic of afterlife and how we can move forward and share with others!

As we explore this mini series, we will learn more about context, we will learn how to read about and discuss different viewpoints and grow in our understanding of and trust in God. Ultimately, we will see How Jesus truly is the answer to all things Amen! Does this sound like fun Church?

Lets Pray- Jesus open our eyes to see how your word is alive! Holy Spirit open our hearts to be moved by your presence this morning. Jesus may we encounter your living presence in your written word this morning. May our lives be transformed to look more like you! Amen!

Transition: Lets see what we can learn from the opening story in the Bible about How God originally intended for life with Him to be! If you havent already turn in your bibles to Genesis we will be jumping around in the first three chapters this morning!

Walking through the Text: What do we need to know!

What do we need to know about Creation? (What does God say about his creation?) it was good. Thats the starting point. Everything is Good.

Humans were made in God’s image (1:26) The Hebrew word is Selem - means idol or image! It means we are a reflection of God’s character

The reason the hebrews were not allowed to make images of God is because He already made images of Him. US. Look to your left and right.

This means that every human deserves dignity and respect!

Second, Humans are made out of two things: any guesses?

Dirt

God’s breath or Spirit (2:7)

This is important for us to stick in our pockets for later as we think about what happens when we die!

Third, We were designed to live with God in intimacy and care for creation (2:15) God placed man in the garden to care for it.

Farmers you understand this more than anyone else. We were designed to be farmers with God forever, But guess what? it did not take that much work!

The text tells us that God gave all of the vegetation and fruit for Adam to eat. Every single tree except, What?

Do we know why?

God says on the day you do you will die- God didn't necessarily mean right away.

How many grew up thinking that this was some kind of test for Adam and Eve?

I think that at some point God would have allowed Adam and Eve to eat of the tree otherwise He would not have put it there.

God says it is not good for man to be alone, so what does he do? - Makes woman! Now, I want to point out that we often read this little part wrong. Somehow we have turned this into, its not good for man to be unmarried, but that’s not what it says!

This is what we know about creation- God made humanity, lived with humanity in the Garden providing everything that Adam and Eve could ever need or want and thats how God intended it to be forever - doesnt that sound nice!

Transition: if they had everything and life was good, what could have possibly gone wrong? Well, what was the one thing that God said was not good for adam and eve? The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thats where things went wrong.

What do we need to know about the Fall?

Humanity was given a choice when it came to life in the garden.

They could trust God and what he has already defined as good and evil

or they could eat of this tree and define Good and Evil for themselves

This concept is crucial to understanding relationship between God and humanity because this is the turning point for the whole story.

The serpent highlights this choice in a conversation with Eve in the Garden.

The serpent asks a innocent question: Did God really say? that you couldnt eat of any tree?

Then the serpent attacks Eve’s identity and says, God doesnt want you to be like Him!

If you eat of the tree you will be like God- but why is this temptation ironic? A: Because Adam and Eve are made in God’s image they are already like God!

She takes it and Eats it, gives it to Adam too- The whole of Creation broke in that moment. Things would never be the same!

Lets explore the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision to not trust God

Sin causes shame- before they were naked and it was good, now they look at each other and its is bad now. In their eyes at least.

Sin Causes brokenness in relationship

God- God knows what they have done, but he questions them, gives them time to respond. (Doesn’t automatically zap and kill them)

Comes before them like a parent.

Each other- Who does Adam blame? The woman YOU gave me! Who does eve blame? The snake. Now, what was unity and harmony is now filled with brokenness and blame.

Sin Causes seperation: They are cast out of the Garden.

God says he doesnt want them to have the fruit of the tree of life- but I dont think that is a punishment, but He doesnt want them to eat of it in this state and be in this state for eternity.

What I find fascinating is that even as God is telling Adam and Eve about the consequences, he already has a plan to redeem this brokenness.

Look at 3:15-16 (Slide) God is saying one day the thing that brought death would be squashed!

Transition: Paul writes about the fall like this, he says it is through the sin or rebellion of one man that death entered into the world. - Romans 5

Yet, its through one man that eternal life would be given to all! Lets, fastforward from Adam to that second man! Anyone know his Name? JESUS.

God closes the Gap

God saw that we could never overcome the lure of sin, so He came Himself to deal with the problem. In Jesus we see that God came once again into creation to live with His people. Yet, as John writes his own people did not accept Him, but He was put to death on the cross.

Ironically, death was put to death on that cross too and God’s prophecy about the serpent being crushed came true! Its through him humanity has access to God and eternal life once again.

Scriptures like John 3:16 tells us this quite clearly, but Jesus didnt just come to give new life in the future, but new life now.

Look at John 10:10 (Slide) - We can have abundant life in Christ! Here and Now!

Once again God offers humanity a choice, He calls us to do the same thing as Adam and Eve. Trust Him- John 14:1

Transition: Now what do we do with all of this? and what does this have to do with the afterlife?

Well, as we said before that We have a choice: Trust God and what He tell us and has for us. We can trust His definition of Good and Evil or decide for ourselves.

This may seem obscure and abstract, but when you think about it that decision is the root of all evil and brokenness in the world.

Examples:

When we decide that making money is more important than relationships with others

When one person decides it is good for this person to die or for another to live we do this.

When one country decides it is good to exploit or another or one race exploits another.

Every sin we can think of boils down to this deciding what is Good and Evil for ourselves over what God does.

When we play God relationships suffer, people are oppressed, innocent people are killed, wars break out, We begin to loose sight of God’s image in others and we look less and less like God.

We have the same choice today church. We have this choice in our relationship with God will we trust what He says is good for us and what He says is bad for us?

One way for us to check this is look at the Sermon on the mount and reflect on how it lines up with how we live.

We can see if our priorities line up with God’s priorities.

If you are consumed with worry, anxiety , and fear (Maybe you need to think about who is in control)

If comfort, security, and freedom are your priorities (Maybe you need to think about what kingdom you are trying to build)

We all have at least area in our lives where we say, “no actually I think this is good for me”

Maybe it looks like i think life would be better if, “ I had a better house, job , or things” or its healthier for me if I avoid that person/relationship even if God calls me to love them.

It also looks like placing our identity in anything that doesnt line up with what God says about us! i.e Marriage is more important, work is more important, political views.

This is how entire sections of the church has gone astray in believing that they can define what is “Good” even if God says its not good for you!

We must understand that our decisions to trust God right now will have long lasting effect on our lives- just like adam and Eve

Trusting in the Lord leads to Life

Defining Good and Evil on our terms leads to separation from the source of Life.

What does this change about how we live our lives?

What is one area of your life that you have taken the reigns and defined “Good and Evil” for yourself?

How do your priorities line up with God’s priorities?

How can you trust God more this week?

Challenge: Every day write two or three instances which you were presented with the choice to trust God’s definition or Define Good and Evil for yourself. Track the results of each decision as you learn to trust God and His word more!

Prayer and Benediction:

Benediction:

4 Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude toward each other, similar to Christ Jesus’ attitude. 6 That way you can glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ together with one voice.

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