What Will Hell and Heaven Be Like? | Rev. Michael Fredericks

All right. So, today we're wrapping up

our series, What Christians Believe.

It's been 15 weeks in this, and

hopefully you've learned a few things

along the way. Maybe some of your views

and things were challenged a little bit.

That's that's good. It's good to do

that. It's good to um be stretched a

little bit outside of what of what we

always have understood things to be and

learn and grow. Hopefully, a lot of

things have been affirmed for you as

well. Um, and that uh, yeah, that you

walk away from this series uh, stronger

in your knowledge of God, but not just

your head knowledge, also your heart

knowledge. That's the hope. Um, we're

wrapping up our series by having a look

at the at la last things. What

Christians believe about the future.

Last week, we covered three main events.

We covered the the return of Jesus, the

second coming of Christ, and what will

happen when that happens, the

resurrection of everyone, and the

judgment. And at the time of the

judgment, Jesus separates the saved from

the unsaved, those who belong to Christ

from those who don't belong to Christ.

He puts it in a parable at one point,

separating the wheat from the weeds,

taking the weeds out. Um, and in Matthew

25, he talks about it as separating the

sheep from the goats. All imagery to

illustrate this separating this that's

going to happen when he comes and judges

the world. So what the question then for

today is what happens next after the

judgment. Then what happens? And we get

a hint of that in Matthew 25. If we were

to keep reading or in parts of this

parable that he talks about the parable

of the sheep and the goats, he says,

"Then the king will say to those on his

right, that being the sheep, come you

who are blessed by my father, inherit

the kingdom prepared for you from the

creation of the world."

And then the king will turn to those on

the left, that's the goats, and say,

"Away with you, you cursed ones, into

the eternal fire prepared for the devil

and his demons." And they will go away

into eternal punishment, but the

righteous will go into eternal life. So

we see this contrast. So today we talk

about the world to come

as we look at the final states, better

known as heaven and hell.

On a snowy day in March of 2017,

an 18-year-old man from the Netherlands

named Milan Skipper Shipper, not sure

how to say it, uh, landed in Sydney,

Cape Breton for a dream vacation.

He had planned and prepped for weeks and

was so looking forward to some time away

to relax. The only problem is he never

intended to go to Sydney, Cape Breton.

He intended to go to Sydney, a Yeah,

that's right. Now, apparently, from what

I was reading about this, this happens a

lot. Actually, people do this

frequently, more than you'd think. In

the CBC news story I was reading about

it, it says that he realized the mistake

too late when he was when he boarded a

plane at a stopover in Toronto. Uh, and

instead of heading west, the little tiny

plane he thought was this plane is very

small to be taking me from Toronto to

Australia. But nevertheless, this I'm

sure they know what they're doing. Um,

and the plane started heading east

instead. And he says this quote, "I felt

terrible. I think I swore in my head for

like 10 minutes, but there was nothing I

could do about it because I was already

up in the air.

Now, that's a funny story, but I think

it can remind us of a more serious

truth.

And this short life that we have, 80

years, 90, 100 if we're blessed, is a

little bit like an airport terminal.

And when you're in the terminal, while

you're still there, there's still time

to choose your destination. There's

conversations happening, tickets being

offered, decisions being made. But

eventually, the gate closes, the flight

departs, and your destination is

settled. No turning back.

The scriptures give us no indication

anywhere that there's a second chance

after death to redirect our destination.

Some people hope that there is. Right?

People like the Catholics have created

this idea of um purgatory, but it's it's

a wishful thinking. The Bible doesn't

talk about that at all. What the Bible

actually says is people are destined to

die once and after that to face

judgment.

That's about as clear as it gets.

So, this is the time here and now

where we need to get our destination

sorted out before we die because once

we're dead, we're on the plane and

there's no going back.

What the Bible teaches is that after

Christ returns and all are resurrected

to face his judgment, as we talked about

last week, then there's two options.

There's two potential destinations.

Heaven, also known as the kingdom of

God, or hell.

So, let's spend some time discussing

both of these places. Heaven and hell,

what the Bible teaches, what Christians

believe. Our main text today is the book

of Revelation.

And Revelation is uh Revelation is an

interesting book. It's a symbolic vision

given to John the Apostle while he was

exiled on the island of Patmos. Its

purpose is not to give us a detailed

timeline of future events as some people

think it is, but it's to reveal

spiritual realities through vivid

imagery and symbols. It sort of pulls

back the curtain so we can see what's

really going on behind the scenes

spiritually. The word revelation that we

translate revelation uh literally means

an unveiling.

And the book concludes in the last two

and a half chapters with what God will

ultimately do in the world. And so we're

going to we're going to look at the end

of the book of Revelation. And we will

start with the bad news part because

that's what the book of Revelation does

in Revelation 20.

Revelation 20. So, let's have a look at

what the Bible teaches regarding hell.

And obviously, we're not going to look

at every single scripture on hell today,

but we're going to see what Revelation

says, at least starting at verse 11.

And this is, as I said last Sunday, I

talked about the great white throne

judgment of unbelievers. That's what

this is talking about. So, it says verse

11, I saw a great white throne

and the one sitting on it, that's Jesus.

He's the judge. The earth and sky fled

from his presence, but they found no

place to hide. Nobody wants to be at the

great white throne judgment, but there's

no escaping it. I saw the dead, both

great and small, standing before God's

throne. And the books were opened,

including the book of life. And the dead

were judged according to what they had

done as recorded in the books. The sea

gave up its dead

and death and the grave or hades gave up

their dead and all were judged according

to their deeds. Then death and the grave

were thrown into the lake of fire. This

lake of fire is the second death and

anyone whose name was not found recorded

in the book of life was thrown into the

lake of fire.

Now, that's that paints a pretty clear

picture that after the resurrection and

the judgment at the great white throne

of Jesus, anyone whose name is not found

written in the book of life, it says, is

cast into the lake of fire.

Now, that raises a couple questions for

me as I read that. Maybe it raises some

questions for you, too. The first one it

raises for me is, well, who is written

in this book of life? what are the what

is the determining factor there and then

the second question is and what is the

nature of this lake of fire so let's

answer those questions and I think the

answer to the first question is fairly

straightforward

uh the book of because the book of life

isn't the only time that we see this

concept mentioned in the scriptures

there it's a few other places in the

Bible as well

when we look at those examples it gives

us a it gives us the answer who was

written in the book of life well in

Philippians 4 the apostle So Paul is

talking about his fellow believers,

fellow Christians, and he describes them

as those whose names are in the book of

life. In Luke 10, Jesus tells his

disciples,

"Rejoice that your names are written in

heaven." He's talking to his followers.

And in Revelation 13, it says that all

people who belong to this world are the

ones whose names were not written in the

book of life that belongs to the lamb.

What seems clear from these passages and

in keeping with all of the New Testament

teachings around what it means to be

saved,

those whose names are in the book are

those who trust in Christ as their

savior and follow him. They are in

Christ. Paul describes or they belong to

Christ as the apostle Paul often puts it

in his letters and those who do not

belong to Christ belong to the world

this world

and those are the ones who are not

written in the book of life those who

still belong to this world and so the

ones who are in the lamb's book of life

are fellow believers disciples

Christians

and those uh the ones who are not in the

written written in the lamb's book of

life it says in revelation 20 are cast

into the lake of fire aka hell. Gehenna

in the Greek.

Okay, so that seems fairly obvious as we

read the we read the New Testament as a

whole, we can get this sense of what it

means to be written in the book of life.

It's to trust in Christ.

The more difficult question to answer,

the more complicated question to answer

maybe is the second question. What is

the nature of the lake of fire?

And here's the thing. I don't think we

should rely on some of the images that

we might default to having in our head

like Dante's Inferno, right? There's the

first image, right? That's might maybe

what we think of. Or the second image,

which is Gary Larson's Fireside Comics,

right? Oh man, the coffeey's cold. They

thought of everything,

right? Um or The Simpsons or South Park

or whatever. all these different things

that have these depictions of hell and

uh they feed into this imagination that

we have about hell. But and and even in

in the book of Revelation as we read

that lake of fire

um we might think well yes it's

literally a lake of fire but we have to

understand that the book of revelation

is symbolic language fundamentally it's

symbolism and so I don't think we should

necessarily assume it's literally a fire

of lake or my brain I told you I warned

you I'm tired we should necessarily

assume that it's a firefilled lake.

uh what do we actually see when we read

the Bible uh as a whole and try to

understand what the experience of hell

will be like? What the ultimate fate of

the unsaved is. When we do that, what we

see is that the biblical language gives

us this recurring theme of destruction.

over and over and over again. The

languages of destruction, destroyed,

perishing, death, consumed as by fire,

blotted out, cut off, reduced to ashes.

I counted 57 references in the Old

Testament and the New Testament to the

ultimate fate of the unsaved being one

of those sorts of terms or you could

describe ultimately as destruction in uh

let me read a few of those just three

that I've picked out from that whole big

list. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 for

2 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

example says when the Lord Jesus is

revealed from heaven in blazing fire

with his powerful angels. This is his

second coming and the judgment. He will

punish those who do not know God and do

not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

And what is their punishment? They will

be punished with everlasting

destruction. Destruction that lasts

forever and shut out from the presence

of the Lord and from the glory of his

might. cut off from God and his

life-giving source is destruction

everlasting, permanent. Philippians

Philippians 3:18–19

3:18-19,

for as I've often told you before and

now tell you again, even with tears,

there's no joy in any of this. It's hard

to say this, but many live as enemies of

the cross of Christ, and their destiny

is destruction.

Psalm 37:38 also says, "All sinners will

Psalms 37:38

be destroyed. there will be no future

for the wicked.

57 at least uh scriptures in the in the

Bible that kind of point to this

language. And there's definitely two or

three passages that lean more towards

what you might think of as the

traditional understanding of hell, which

is the idea of people kind of being

burned alive forever and ever without

fail. So this eternal conscious torment.

Uh but more and more Bible teachers are

questioning that understanding. And I

personally think that the biblical

evidence supports that the fire of hell,

whether that's literal or symbolic,

accomplishes what fire does.

It consumes. It burns up. It destroys.

It eliminates.

Another thing that makes me think this

is where the Bible talks about Sodom and

Gomorrah as the example of what will

happen to the unsaved, right? What

happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? God

rained down fire on the city and it was

reduced to ashes. It was completely

destroyed. And second Peter 2 says, uh,

he condemned the cities of Sodom and

Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and

made them an example of what is going to

happen to the ungodly. Similarly, in

Jude 7, Sodom and Gomorrah and the

surrounding towns gave themselves up to

sexual immorality and perversion. They

serve as an example of those who suffer

the punishment of eternal fire.

And if you were to go to the the area

around the Dead Sea today where Sodom

and Gomorrah once was, you will not find

that city still burning. You will not

find people there still suffering. You

will find nothing because the city was

eliminated.

And so the the concept in this

destruction view is that those who will

be cast into hell, cast into this lake

of fire, will ultimately be annihilated

from existence. That that's the effect

that hell will have. And then you say,

well, hold on a second. Doesn't the

Bible say that everyone lives forever?

Isn't that what the Bible teaches? That,

you know, everyone lives forever. It's

only a question of where you'll spend

eternity. Isn't that what the Bible

teaches? Well, that's what we hear.

That's the saying, right? It's sort of

like, you know, real estate, location,

location, location, location's

everything. It's just everyone lives

forever. It's just a matter of where

you're going to be located. Um, but

actually, I don't think the Bible

teaches that everyone lives forever.

When you actually test that statement

against scripture, I think we have

reason to question that. Does everyone

have everlasting life? Actually,

well, what I read throughout the New

Testament is that eternal life is a

gift.

The wages of sin is death. And the free

gift of God is eternal life in Christ

Jesus our Lord. It's our eternal life is

conditioned upon salvation. God so loved

the world that he gave his only begotten

son that whoever believes in him will

not suffer eternally in hell

consciously. No. Whoever doesn't believe

in him will perish.

Okay? And the opposite of that is having

eternal life. And so it leads me to

believe that the options are not

everlasting life in heaven and

everlasting life in hell. The opposite

of life is death. The opposite of

eternal life is eternal death,

perishing.

And my favorite verse in the Bible that

I have at the bottom of every every

email I send out, 1 John 5:12, whoever

1 John 5:12

has the Son has life, but in contrast,

whoever does not have the Son of God

does not have life.

Now, for these reasons and others, and I

I I think it's fair to dig a little

deeper on the question of the nature of

hell as we've always understood it or as

many of us have understood it. Is it a

never-ending experience of conscious

suffering and torment where you are kept

alive by God for eternity to be

punished? Or is hell a terrible

experience that results in your ultimate

destruction, where you are blotted out

from existence, or as Revelation 20

calls it, the second death?

So, I've obviously revealed my cards. I

believe the latter. I believe in this

sort of annihilation view of hell. Uh,

but there's a lot of debate about this.

Uh, you can go online and see YouTube

videos. Kirk Cameron's got one where

he's got people debating this that was

just up recently. And, uh, it's a it's a

hot topic in the theological world. Uh

it's something that I studied like 10

years ago and became convinced of this

view as I've studied scriptures. Not

because of any icky feelings or anything

like that. Just go what does the Bible

say? And as I've studied scripture,

that's where scripture has led me. But

you may have a different view and it's

okay to disagree. I said at the start of

this series that some of our views we

hold with a closed fist and some we hold

with an open hand some of our

theological opinions, right? and uh

things like the trinity and salvation is

through Christ and Jesus resurrected

from the dead and those fundamental

things those are closed fist things we

don't compromise on those uh there's no

wiggle room but then other things like

what's your view of the nature of hell

uh that's an open-handed issue we can

disagree on that and still be brothers

and sisters in Christ so you might say

oh I got to leave the church the pastor

doesn't believe in hell I believe in

hell because I have a different view on

it that actually is becoming more more

common as people study scripture. All

that being said,

whatever the nature of this experience,

whether it's eternal conscious torment

or it's a fire that consumes and

annihilates.

It is not the final destination you want

to be headed to. It's not the plane you

want to be on. I can tell you that for

certain.

So then let's get to the good part.

Okay, save the best for last. Let's keep

going in the book of Revelation and talk

about heaven.

The very next chapter in uh chapter

21:1.

In John's vision, he says, "Then I saw a

new heaven and a new earth, for the old

heaven and the old earth had

disappeared, and the sea was also gone.

And I saw the holy city, the new

Jerusalem, coming down from God out of

heaven like a bride beautifully dressed

for her husband. I heard a loud voice, a

loud shout from the throne, saying,

"Look, it's a loud shout. PREPARE

YOURSELF. LOOK, GOD'S HOME IS NOW AMONG

HIS PEOPLE. HE WILL LIVE WITH THEM AND

THEY WILL BE HIS PEOPLE. GOD HIMSELF

WILL BE WITH THEM. He will wipe every

tear FROM THEIR EYES AND THERE WILL BE

NO MORE DEATH OR SORROW OR CRYING or

pain. All these things are gone

forever."

Yeah, it's a loud shout.

And the one sitting on the throne,

that's Jesus, said, "Look, I am making

everything new."

Man, this is good stuff. Okay, so first

thing we have to notice when we talk

about this is that we don't go up and

away to God.

For some reason, we think that that's

our hope as Christians is that someday

when this life is over, I'll fly away.

Well, we will. we will go and be with

the Lord. But that's not our ultimate

hope. Um that's a that's a temporary

hope. That's our intermediate hope until

the ultimate hope which is some glad

morning when Christ comes, God is coming

down to be with us. All right. Our hope

is not heaven in some alternate

dimension. Not heaven in the clouds. Not

heaven up and away. It's heaven down

here. Eden 2.0.

God with us. That's important. And even

though it says, yes, it says the old

heaven and the old earth had disappeared

or in some translations passed away.

And Jesus says, I'm making everything

new. We should be thinking about that

word new in the sense of renewed or

resurrected. This new heaven and new

earth is a resurrected earth. It's it's

uh it's not God is not going to abandon

his good creation. He's going to judge,

cleanse, renew, and restore it. And what

will remain after that process will

literally be heaven on earth.

So what will this renewed and restored

earth be like? And three points. The new

heaven, the new earth will be a place of

perfect peace, total holiness, and

absolute beauty.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to

be there, Nova.

>> Yeah. All right. In verse one, notice

where it says, and this is speaking

about this idea of perfect peace. It

says, "The sea was also gone." In the

vision, right? He says, "I saw a new

heaven, new earth, the old. The sea was

also gone." Think the sea is I like the

sea. I want the ocean in heaven, right?

We're maritimers. We want the ocean in

heaven. Uh yeah. So, don't worry. It's

not It's not And again, this is all

symbolic language, okay? So, be very

careful how literally you take this

stuff. Um it's meant to be symbolic

pointing to a greater reality than we

can even fully understand. So what does

he mean when he says the sea is also

gone? The Jewish people were not

seafaring people. The Jewish people were

afraid of the ocean. They they would go

out on a lake, a small lake. The lake,

the lake of the Sea of Galilee was a

lake and storms would come up and they

get terrified. Okay. So like they never

went out on the Mediterranean or very

rarely. Like they didn't go out on the

Mediterranean. The thought of the

Atlantic Ocean probably would just blow

their mind. Um and so they were not

seafaring people. the sea for the Jewish

people symbolize chaos and disorder and

things that are terrifying and unknown.

And so when when he says, "Hey, John,"

and gives John this vision and there's

no sea, the idea is don't worry that

heaven is going to be a place of no

chaos, no terror. Um that heaven will be

free from anything perilous or

tumultuous. There's nothing to fear. The

new heaven will be characterized by

shalom, peace.

Okay? And in verse four specifically,

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or sorrow or

crying or pain. All these things are

gone forever. All the bad stuff we

experience in this life, death, loss,

pain, it's all going to be gone forever.

Heaven will be a place of perfect peace.

We ain't going to study war no more.

Okay. There's also going to be a place

of total holiness

on the earth. There's going to be this

city which John calls the new Jerusalem.

Verses 2 to3. And I saw the holy city,

the new Jerusalem coming down from God

out of heaven like a bride beautifully

dressed for her husband. And I heard a

loud shout saying, "Look, God's home is

now among his people. He will live with

them. They will be his people. God

himself will be with them.

As we read in verse three, it will be

holy because God will be there in all

his fullness. And I think that's

actually going to be the best part of

heaven. The unfiltered reality of the

presence of God.

Later in this chapter, John gives the

dimensions of this new Jerusalem city as

he sees it in his vision.

And the shape of this city is very

important. What is the shape of this

city symbolizing? Well, first of all,

what is the shape of this new Jerusalem?

Do you know?

>> It's a cube. It's not just a It's a

cube. Yeah. The same dimensions this

way, that way, and up. Okay. And so,

it's literally this big cube that falls

down. Um, there was another famous

building in Jerusalem that contained a

cube. Do you know what that was?

>> Temple.

>> The temple. Right. the innermost part of

the temple known as the holy of holies.

You can read about that in the Old

Testament and that God gave them the

instructions as to how to design that

and the dimensions of that most holy

place, the innermost part of the temple

is also a perfect cube. And so the

symbolism here is so uh meaningful,

right? Um when when John sees the new

Jerusalem in his vision and it's a cube,

that's a symbol that's pointing to the

hol to the holy of holies, the most holy

place and telling us this entire city is

going to be the most holy place.

In verse 22 of that chapter, if we were

to go down to there, it says, "I saw no

temple in the city, for the Lord God

Almighty and the Lamb are its temple."

The whole thing, the whole New Jerusalem

city is a place of total holiness with

unfiltered access to the shikina glory

of God in his full presence. Amazing.

Verse 27, nothing evil will be allowed

to enter, nor anyone who practices

shameful idolatry and dishonesty, but

only those whose names are written in

the Lamb's book of life. There will be

nothing impure, nothing unholy in that

city. And that's of course because in

verse 8, cowards, unbelievers, the

corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those

who practice witchcraft, idol

worshippers, and all liars, all of them,

their fate is in the fiery lake of

burning sulfur. This is the second

death. They've been wiped out,

eliminated,

and therefore all that remains is what

is totally holy and perfect. So the

curse of sin having finally been lifted,

the presence of sin completely removed,

this incredible city and all the earth

is filled with the glory of God and is

utterly and perfectly holy.

So heaven will be characterized by by

perfect peace, total holiness and

absolute beauty. It says that the

heaven, the the city, the whole the new

Jerusalem came down like a bride adorned

for her husband.

Beautiful. A bride adorned. You can

remember maybe the moment you saw your

wife, if you're h if you're married, uh

adorned for you for the first time in

her wedding gown. Think, oh, stunning.

All of the language that describes this

holy city depicts it as absolutely

breathtaking in beauty beyond imagin

imagination. So it's a place of perfect

peace, total holiness and absolute

beauty. These are just some of the words

that can be used to describe heaven

based on the teachings of scripture. We

could go on. I could preach for another

hour on this. U truthfully, we can't

begin to describe it with words. Listen

to what First Corinthians says. No eye

has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the

heart of man imagined what God has

prepared for those who love him. You

know the song, I can only imagine what

it will be like. You can't even imagine

the heart of man. No, no heart of man

has ever imagined it completely.

We can't even imagine it.

And for those who love him, for those

who follow Jesus, for those who have

been born again to a living hope through

faith in Christ, heaven is a promise

that you can bank on. It is guaranteed

for you. Listen to a first Peter 1:es

3-5. Blessed be the God and father of

our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his

great mercy, he has caused us to be born

again to a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the

dead. to an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled, and unfading,

kept in heaven for you who by God's

power are being guarded through faith

for a salvation ready to be revealed in

the last time.

>> Thank you, Lord.

>> Amen.

All right. So,

so what?

Well, if you are already a believer in

Jesus Christ,

take heart. Take heart. Hold on to hope.

This world,

man, when you read the news and you look

at everything going on, you go, "Oh my

goodness, is what are the robots going

to take over in the next 10 years?"

Like, it's everything is nuts, right?

And it can be feel very hopeless at

times.

But as we look about the promise of

heaven and the the future that God has

planned, we can take heart. We don't

need to be in we don't need to live in

fear. Uh we can trust that God has got

it all worked out. He's in control and

whatever happens ultimately it's heading

towards this beautiful reality.

So take heart. If you're also already a

believer, pray hard,

love deeply, and share your faith

courageously

so that you may help others believe the

gospel and come to faith in Christ.

Be courageous.

>> The time is limited

and people are perishing.

>> Yes.

And we can, the Bible says that the the

fields are white unto harvest, but the

laborers are few. We need to go out and

do the work that God has called us to

do, to bring them in. Bring them in from

the fields of sin.

And if you're not a believer yet,

heaven is going to be amazing.

Don't miss it.

>> Don't go to Sydney Cape Breton when you

mean to go to Sydney, Australia.

In this analogy, Sydney is hell. Cape

Breton is hell. Australia is heaven.

Yeah, just to be clear, which is not

true because gosh, Cape Cape Breton is

beautiful. I love Cape Breton.

>> But

I love Cape Breton. Never been to

Australia. Too hot. Maybe we should get

reverse it, right?

>> Yeah. Okay. Anyway,

don't miss heaven. Come to Jesus today.

Don't delay. Confess your sin. be saved,

be forgiven, and receive the gift of

eternal life. It's a free gift that can

be yours if you will trust in Christ as

your savior and follow him.

>> God will do everything else.

>> He will do it all right. We catch him

and he'll clean them.

>> Yeah. We never know when Christ will

return. It could be any day now. It

could be any moment. Could be a thousand

more years. We don't know. But it could

be tomorrow.

For heaven's sake, make sure you're on

the right flight before you depart.