Home

Location & Map

Meetings

Beliefs

Ministries

Sermons

Sermon on Hell (page five)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  >>
 

 
   In the teaching of Jesus, there are only those two places, only those two options. Here’s the parable of the wheat and the weeds from Matthew 13. “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.”

  And now I want you to notice the two end results. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

   Two possible final destinations. The fiery furnace or the kingdom of God.

It is the same with the parable of the net and the two kinds of fish, the good fish and the bad fish, again in Matthew 13. “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”

  There is the fiery furnace again. That leads me to the second thing I want to say about hell. One of the reasons we have a problem with the doctrine of hell is that it seems —and I intend no irreverence when I say this —a somewhat silly picture. There seem to be incompatible elements contained in what Jesus teaches about hell.

  We have a fiery furnace, a furnace. But doesn’t a furnace burn things up? And yet here is the rich man still existing, in fact still aware. “I am in torment in this fire.” Fire destroys and yet he is not destroyed. He is still there.  

  And while we are on the subject of fire, isn’t one of the elements of fire that it gives off light? I’ve been burning fires in my fireplace and I’ve noticed that when you burn a fire, it gives off light. What then is this “outer darkness”? “They will be thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  >>