Text: Matthew 22:11–13; Matthew 25:31–46
Topic: Hell

• Illustration: Peter Kreeft, Catholic theologian from Boston College, said, "Of all the doctrines of Christianity, hell is the most difficult to defend, the most burdensome to bear, and the first to be abandoned."
• We all struggle with the doctrine of hell.
• Despite how difficult the notion of hell is, we don't abandon it.
  • Illustration: Surveys suggest that between two thirds and three fourths of Americans believe in heaven and hell.
• Almost every religion in the world includes the threat of suffering and punishment in the life to come.
• Today we are going to answer the following questions: What do we know about hell? Why is hell necessary? How can I be sure I'm not going there?

• Hell is one of the most talked about subjects in the New Testament. Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else.
• After describing the final judgment in Matthew 25:31–46, Jesus says that the unrighteous "will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
• Jesus clearly teaches that every person will be held accountable for his or her earthly life and that every person will spend eternity in one of two destinations: heaven or hell.
• The parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:11–13 teaches us three things about hell.
• First, hell means exclusion.
• Second, hell is darkness.
• Third, hell involves anguish.
• Fire is the dominant metaphor used to describe hell in the Bible.
• Jesus and the writers of Scripture were trying to help us understand something beyond our knowledge and experience by using metaphors—figures of speech that describe something unfamiliar in terms of something familiar.
• As a metaphor for hell, fire suggests three things about the reality of hell.
• First, hell is frightening.
• Second, hell is painful.
• Third, hell consumes just as fire reduces things to ashes.
• One of the most common words used for hell in the New Testament is gehenna, which was the name of a valley outside Jerusalem where garbage was dumped and burned.
• However you interpret the biblical imagery, hell is clearly an awful place where no one will want to spend eternity.
  • Illustration: Musician Marilyn Manson said, "I'm gonna say [hell] would probably be a more comfortable place for me, because everyone I know would be there, and I wouldn't really be allowed to do anything in heaven that would be any fun."
• Hell, simply put, is the absence of God; to be separated from God is to be separated from all that is good and true and beautiful.
• There is some debate among Christians whether hell is eternal in duration or merely in consequence.
• The traditional view is that hell is an eternal, conscious experience of separation from God.
• The minority view is annihilationism, the belief that the lost will experience judgment, but that the ultimate end of the lost is destruction—the second death.
• Whichever view you accept, the Bible is clear about this: hell is an awful destination.

• First, hell is necessary because human dignity demands it.
• Virtually every human being believes that what we do and how we live matters.
  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, "If there is no immortality, then everything is permitted."
• Second, hell is necessary because justice demands it.
• While the particulars may vary from person to person and society to society, there is universal agreement that wrong things must be punished and that evil must be judged.
  • Illustration: Surveys revealed that after 9/11, the percentage of people who believe in hell increased from 64 percent to 71 percent.
• Finally, hell is necessary because love demands it.
• God loves us so much and is so eager for us to love him, that he allows us the freedom not to love him back.
  • Illustration: Peter Kreeft says, "Those who do not wish to love God must be allowed not to love Him. Those who do not want to be with God must be allowed to be separated from him."
• The answer, then, to the question, "Why would a good God send people to hell?" is that he doesn't; but he will let people go there if they so choose.
• Every day people choose to live their lives apart from God, and God allows them to do so; if they want to live apart from him for all eternity, he will allow them to do that, as well.

• There is one way to be sure you are going to heaven: turn to God in repentance and faith.
• We don't know the fate of the unevangelized, but we do know that Scripture teaches, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).
  • Illustration: During a fire, a hospital worker would not wish for alternative exits out of the building, but would rather use the exit he knew was effective.
• The only sensible thing for each of us to do in the face of eternity is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and urge others to do the same.

• The Bible has a lot more to say about another destination—heaven.
• The Biblical writers use metaphors to describe heaven, too.
• The thing about heaven and hell is that we have to choose now, in this life, where we want to spend eternity: with God or without him.
• Heaven is within your grasp right now.

For the full text of this sermon, go to "Why Would a Good God Send People to Hell?"