Introducing Hell

Father, you are never in our debt.

We are always in your debt,

a great debt for your great grace offered freely to us.

We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply

pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

to grow within us a spirit of thankfulness

and gratefulness for your great grace.

And we ask, Father, that as we are gripped

by grace, that grace will form how we live.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Actually, just sorry, that was for the offertory.

Just you can be seated and I'm going to say a prayer

over the sermon because I'm going to talk about hell

this morning, so we need to pray as we open the word.

Let's just pray again.

Father, we have a hard time remembering your promises.

We ask that you help us to remember your promises

and learn to live by them.

And Father, we have a hard time accepting your warnings.

We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would move deeply

in our hearts and minds so that we might remember

and heed your warnings.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior. Amen.

So, Revelation 14.

I don't know how carefully you were all listening,

but if you were listening carefully,

you might have heard John read about a lake of fire

and torment and people being cast into a lake of fire.

And if you have a King James Version of the Bible,

it would have said not sulfur but brimstone.

This is one of the texts that that whole idea

of fire and brimstone comes from.

So, it's a very, very sobering text.

And for those of you who picked it up

while it was being read,

it becomes the elephant in the room

as you listen to the text.

And as we all know in life,

whenever possible,

if there's an elephant in the room,

you should talk about the elephant.

Only foolish people pretend

there's no elephant in the room

when there's an elephant in the room.

And in Canada,

talking about a lake of fire

and torment and judgment

is about as un-Canadian a thing

as you could possibly do.

It makes us as unhip and uncool

as you could possibly imagine

and not as unhip as hip people always are

because part of the way you become hip

is by trying to be unhip.

But this is like really unhip

like in a completely different way

than sort of imaginable in Canada.

It's a very, very sobering text.

It's not a text to joke about.

And so, let's turn to Revelation 14

and we'll look at this text first.

Revelation 14,

and we're going to look right at the text

that talks about hell.

And we sort of will start from there.

And if you turn to Revelation 14,

if you don't have a Bible,

there's extra Bibles here at the front.

And Revelation is the last book in the Bible.

And if you're wondering

why we're talking about a text like this,

if you're a guest,

it's because here at Church of the Messiah,

we preach and read through books of the Bible

and we're going through the book of Revelation.

And this is the next chapter.

We're going through about a chapter a week now.

And if you look on the bulletin,

I've titled this sermon,

I think it's called

Either Introducing Hell or an Introduction to Hell.

And that's because

Introduction to Hell 101,

I guess that would be an interesting course at university.

And that's because in a couple of weeks,

there's at least one more text

that talks about the same thing,

only in more depth.

So really, this is just a bit of an introduction

to a topic that we will return to

in a couple of weeks.

And here's what it says,

verses 9 to 11.

And another angel, a third,

followed them.

These are the two other angels.

We'll go back and read the text

from the beginning in a moment,

but I wanted to get right to the elephant in the room.

Verse 9 again.

And another angel, a third,

followed them, saying with a loud voice,

verse 10.

If anyone worships the beast and its image

and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,

he also will drink the wine of God's wrath,

poured full strength into the cup of his anger.

And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone

in the presence of the holy angels

and in the presence of the Lamb.

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.

And they have no rest day or night,

these worshipers of the beast and its image

and whoever receives the mark of its name.

Now, we all know,

if you've been following along in these sermons

or if you go back and listen to a couple of them online,

if you're a guest here this morning,

that the book of Revelation is filled with images

and symbols,

and obviously these are images and symbols.

But the thing is that this image of fire and brimstone

and judgment and torment,

it's not an image of something like

a different way to talk about nightmares.

It's not like a primitive way of talking about

parts of the world

where there's maybe a lot of poverty and conflict.

It's not a type of symbolism

to talk about something in our collective unconscious

or our subconscious.

The Bible here,

the Bible teaches that hell is real.

That hell exists.

And that hell is not empty.

The Bible teaches that hell is real.

That hell exists.

That hell is not empty.

That's what the Bible teaches.

And so while on one hand,

it's probably valid to understand

that things like fire and brimstone

are some type of symbols or analogies for something,

they are images and symbols of a reality

of what happens

if human beings,

any human being,

ultimately is adamant in rejecting God

and choosing something other than the living God

as what they will serve and love

and obey and trust and hope in.

and this talks about the final and eternal destiny

of those who make such a choice.

And it is a very, very sobering text.

And it's just an introduction to this topic.

And the introduction,

which will become a little bit more clear

as we go back and start from the beginning,

is really that the Bible teaches that hell exists.

If you look in the bulletin every,

most weeks,

just about every week,

I provide something called Going Deeper,

which can be used for private study,

but it's best if you do it with one or two other people

and have a bit of a conversation,

get connected with somebody

while connecting with God's Word

and connecting with Jesus.

And it's a very, very simple little discipline

of going through the text.

First, I invite you to,

with sort of an introductory question

to get to know other people

and let them know you.

Then there's,

I ask you just to sort of read the text again

and then I take one or two or three parts of the text

and I ask you to read some other text

that throw some light

on what you've just read in Revelation.

And then you close by reading the book of Revelation again

and then it's an invitation to pray

in terms of what it is that God would like you to know

or how has the Holy Spirit convicted you

as you've read the text

and how can you share that with others

so they can pray for you.

And all I've done is,

in terms of this particular text,

all I've done is taken

just what it says in the book of Matthew

and Jesus says about hell

and given you a selection of verses

just in one gospel,

not all four, but just one,

to show that in fact Jesus teaches that hell exists.

It's very sobering.

Let's look at the beginning of the text

and see how this doctrine of hell is surrounded

or how it develops in the text of scripture.

So go back to verse one.

Here's the thing.

This text is not going to sort of do something

to qualify or minimize this doctrine of hell.

It's going to bring it to stark relief.

Okay?

So here's how it begins.

Verse one.

Then I looked and behold on Mount Zion

stood the Lamb and with him 144,000

who had his name and his father's name

written on their foreheads.

Just sort of pause there for a second.

If you go back,

I didn't have time to talk about it much last week,

but chapter 13 ends with the very, very famous idea of,

well-known even in popular Canadian culture,

of the mark of the beast and the number of the beast,

666.

And it presents this image of those who serve the beast

are marked by the beast on their foreheads

and on their hands.

And they're marked with the number 666.

And we're used to just reading the book chapter by chapter.

Often there are devotions.

We read a chapter, wait a day or two,

and then read another chapter.

But if you're reading this in the original letter,

if you're reading this just as you would read a novel,

you go immediately from the mark of the beast to this.

And the contrast is in verse 1,

then I looked and behold on Mount Zion.

And a way for you to understand very simply what Zion is.

Zion is the capital of the kingdom of God.

That's what Zion is.

Zion is the capital of the kingdom of God,

the kingdom of heaven.

Then I looked and behold,

and in the capital of the kingdom of God

stood the lamb and with him 144,000,

and the symbolic number of a vast number,

a perfect number, a vast number,

who had his name and his father's name

written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven

like the roar of many waters

and like the sound of loud thunder.

The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists

playing on their harps.

And they were singing a new song before the throne

and before the four living creatures

and before the elders.

No one could learn that song

except the 144,000

who had been redeemed from the earth.

It is those,

these who have not defiled themselves with women

for they are virgins.

It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes.

These have been redeemed from mankind

as first fruits for God and the lamb.

And in their mouth no lie was found

for they are blameless.

Here's what this sort of is teaching

right off the beginning.

And it's not saying that the only people

who are going to be in heaven

are monks and nuns.

What it's saying is all the way through the Bible

there's, the analogy is given

of the type of relationship

that God desires to have

with us as human beings.

And one of the most constant images

in the Bible is of a very, very, very,

very good marriage

where the believer is like the woman.

I'm like the woman.

If you're a woman, you are a woman.

And we marry, I marry individually,

in a sense, God.

And the relationship that God desires to have with us

is to be as intimate and as close

and as faithful as a really, really, really good marriage.

Many of us might know many lousy marriages,

but even when we have a lousy marriage,

even when people we know of a lousy marriage,

it implies that we have a sense of what a good marriage is.

And the Bible is saying that if you imagine

the best possible marriage that you can possibly imagine,

that's the type of relationship that God desires.

That's the type of intimacy and common life

and sharing and openness and trust and faithfulness

that God desires to have with us.

And so all the way through the Old Testament

and in many places in the New Testament,

when we go after something other than the living God,

when there's some other being or some other cause

or ourselves or a person,

and we desire to serve that alone,

to love that alone,

to obey that alone,

to trust in that alone,

and to hope in that alone,

the Bible compares it to adultery

and a type of adultery.

And so this text here is just using imagery

to try to describe that,

first of all,

only God redeems.

Only God redeems.

And when he redeems

an ordinary person like you or me,

when we put our faith and trust in the Lamb

and he redeems us,

then we enter into a relationship with God

and what is to characterize that relationship with God

is the type of fidelity

and desire to grow in intimacy

that should characterize the best marriage.

And that's the image here

before we get into this talk of hell,

which is this image of intimacy with the living God,

which is allowed or becomes possible

because God redeems

an ordinary people like you and me

when we put our faith and trust in Jesus.

That's, in a sense,

us responding to God's marriage proposal

and what makes it possible for us

to become the bride of Jesus

by what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

And that's our response to it and how we live,

and that's what's pictured up in heaven.

And then the text continues.

And here's the thing.

I was thinking about this morning when I was coming.

I had to be here really early,

like really early to get some stuff here

so Barbara could set it up

for the early 8 o'clock service.

And so I dropped it here

and then I went and got a coffee

and I came back.

And as I'm walking,

there's just so many condos around here.

And I'm not putting down people who live in condos.

That's not the intent of this analogy.

But what really, really struck me is

how odd, here I am holding my coffee,

walking in the street,

looking at all the condos,

how odd it is that surrounded by condos,

I will talk about hell this morning.

Because, you see, one of the things

which is sort of just very, very typical of our culture

is we live in a consumerist culture.

And I'm not knocking being able to buy things

at a good price right now,

but I'm saying what creates within us

is an idea that our life is characterized

by being able to consume things.

And in a sense,

our life is being able to consume

or have enough money to have a nice condo,

to have nice clothes,

to have a nice car,

to have nice holidays,

to have nice food,

to have luxuries.

And the entire, in a sense,

people who get caught up in consumerism,

and that's the whole horizon of their lives,

it's actually a very, very tiny horizon.

It's a very, very tiny little world.

And it's a very, very flat world.

It's just defined by the types of things

I can imagine eating or buying.

And this text that we're looking at

says that the real world,

the real world,

because the Bible is claiming that hell is real.

You might disagree with the Bible,

but the Bible is claiming that hell is real.

And the Bible is claiming that the lamb is real,

and that redemption is real,

and that there really is a living God,

and that his desire is to have a relationship with us

like the absolute best possible marriage

we could ever imagine.

And that's the type of relationship

that God desires us to grow into.

And the Bible here is saying that,

in a sense,

it's as if,

it's as if,

it's as if life,

real life intersects with

and opens up

to truly unimaginable heights and depths,

which consumerism is blinding us to

and stopping us from being able to,

to just even imagine,

to even begin to think about it.

Like, if your entire life is consumed

by what you can consume

and own,

and that's all you can sort of see,

and if that's all that describes the height,

the excitement of the best car you could imagine buying

or the best holiday you could be,

where the worst is losing that car

or losing your job,

but the Bible says that real human life

intersects with

and opens up to

heights,

intimacy,

like with the living God

that goes on for all eternity.

It's a type of a height

that it's even hard for us to imagine.

And it's also warning us

that life intersects with

and opens up to a depth,

the reality of a depth of separation

that's lower than we can possibly imagine.

And so the Bible is inviting us

to understand that this is what real life is like,

this intersection with

and opening up to

unimaginable heights

and unimaginable depths,

heights of blessing

and depths of woe.

And it's in that context, then,

that we come to verse 6.

Then I saw another angel

flying directly overhead

with an eternal gospel

to proclaim

to those who dwell on earth,

to every nation

and tribe

and language

and people.

This is the invitation

for us

to learn

and to pray,

to spread the gospel

so that the gospel

can be proclaimed

in the heart language

of every person

on the planet.

And even if we cannot pray

and we are to pray

for the farthest reaches

of the planet,

it's also to pray

for the subcultures

within our own community,

to the gay culture,

the different types

of musical cultures

and consumerist cultures

and whatever their heart language is,

is that we are to pray

that the gospel

can be presented

to people

in their heart language.

That's what's,

that's this,

it's a constant call

in the scriptures

to say that

it's not that all

the peoples of the world

have to learn

our language,

but the gospel

can be proclaimed,

the good news

of what Jesus did

for us on the cross

and this wonderful redemption

and the possibility

to be God's own forever,

to be marked by him

and we are to pray

and we are to figure out

a way to speak

in the heart language,

that gospel

in the heart language

of the recipients.

Verse six,

and I saw another angel

flying directly overhead

with an eternal gospel

to proclaim

to those who dwell on earth,

to every nation

and tribe

and language

and people

and he said

with a loud voice,

fear God

and give him glory

because the hour

of his judgment

has come

and worship him

who made heaven

and earth

and sea

and springs

of water.

Another angel

a second followed

saying,

fallen,

fallen

is Babylon the great,

she who made

all nations

drink the wine

of the passion

of her sexual immorality.

See,

there's the image

of the living God

and departing

from the living God

as a type of pornea,

a type of unfaithfulness

like adultery.

And another angel

a third followed them

saying with a loud voice,

if anyone worships

the beast

in its image

and receives a mark

on his forehead

or on his hand,

he also will drink

the wine

of God's wrath

poured full strength

into the cup

of his anger

and he will be tormented

with fire and sulfur

in the presence

of his holy angels

and in the presence

of the Lamb

and the smoke

of their torment

goes up forever and ever

and they have no rest

day or night,

these worshipers

of the beast

in its image

and whoever receives

the mark of its name.

One of the things

to understand

about this text

is that the Bible,

God doesn't have

this part of the Bible

written to shut us up.

He doesn't have

this part of the Bible

written to stop

us talking to God.

This part of the Bible

is written

to start

a conversation

with God.

But as we start

a conversation

with God,

we have to understand

that it's not

the start

of a negotiation

with God.

It's the start

of an honest

conversation

with God.

God doesn't negotiate.

And if we go

looking at the Bible

as being God's

opening salvo

in a negotiation,

we're never going

to understand

the Bible

or the Christian faith.

It's not the opening

salvo,

the first presentation

in a negotiation.

But it's never

designed to silence

us or to shut us up.

It's designed

for us to begin

a true conversation,

an honest conversation,

a truth-seeking

conversation,

a heartfelt

conversation

with God.

And we can ask

him,

God,

how is it

that your justice

goes along

with hell?

Or Father,

is it the matter

that justice

demands hell?

Father,

you're not

anger-driven,

are you?

Father,

I worry

when I read

texts like this

that you're

an anger-driven man.

I had an

anger-driven father.

I had an anger-driven

mother.

I have an anger-driven

boss.

And I have to confess

before you,

Father,

when I read your word,

I worry that you're

anger-driven.

Are you anger-driven,

Father?

Father,

why is it that I worry

that you're anger-driven,

but at the same time,

I never worry that you're

just like an immature

little teenage boy

or girl who gets

crushes and that your

love is like a crush?

Why is it,

Father,

that I sort of hope

or long for that your

love is mature and deep

and wise,

but I worry that when it

comes to something like

this with anger,

that you're anger-driven,

Father,

why is it that I'm so

confused when I read

your word?

Why is it that I'm so

mixed up?

Why is it,

Father,

that when I read your

word,

I forget that I'm mixed

up and confused and

think you're mixed up

and confused?

Why is it,

Father,

that I think that

you're on trial,

but I never think

I'm on trial?

Father,

why is it when I read

your word like that?

You see,

the Bible is inviting us

to actually open up

and have a real deep

conversation with God,

not to shut us up,

but to start us talking

to him.

And I just watched,

I didn't care for it,

I watched the new

Thor movie that came out,

I guess,

in the summer,

but it just came out

in DVD.

I don't know how many

of you watch movies

like Thor.

Norse God has a hammer,

he flings it like this

and then it does all

sorts of amazing things.

The hammer is almost

like another character

in the movie.

And one of the things

if you ever watch

a Thor movie

or an Avengers movie

is that,

you know,

Thor's fighting

with his hands

and he's doing this

and he's doing that

and he's doing that,

but the antenna viewer

knows that at some point

in time,

there's always the hammer.

Like at some point

in time,

this beast

or this monster

is fighting Thor,

but at some point

in time,

Thor will reach out

his hand like this

with a serious look

in his eyes

and the hammer

will hurtle across

some infinite distance

and come into his hand

and then he can throw it

and it does all sorts

of things

and the day is rescued.

And so in other words,

whenever you watch

a Thor movie,

you always have to say

to yourself,

remember the hammer.

But for Christians,

whenever you read

anything in the Bible,

what are we supposed

to do?

We're supposed to say,

remember the cross.

Remember the cross.

That every part

of the Bible

is to in a sense

help us to understand

the cross more.

In every part

of the Bible,

the cross helps us

to understand

that part of the Bible.

And so for us

as Christians,

even as we're reading

all of this

about the wrath of God

and everything like that,

what is it that we are

to remember

is that one of the

fundamental images

in the Old Testament

of the wrath of God

is as if

all of God's anger

or wrath

is like a type

of poison

that's in a cup

and all of God's judgment.

It's like a cup

that we drink.

And what is

the New Testament image?

How is it that Jesus

and the cross

completely and utterly

transforms that image?

How is it that

if we are to remember

the cross

when we read

the text of Scripture,

we are to remember

that it's as if

I come

and there's a cup

that I must drink

that contains within it

the wrath of God

and the judgment of God

and there is a cup

like that

that has my name

on it

and the wonder

of the cross,

the image of the cross

is that

what's happening

on the cross

is that Jesus

in effect

comes and takes

the cup

that has

George Gilbert Sinclair

written on it

and he takes

that cup

and he drinks

my cup

for me.

You can't read

to read

anything in the New Testament

or the Old Testament

without remembering

the cross

is to not understand

what's being written

and that's the way

that we are to understand

even this

talk of hell

of the full

drinking

of the wrath

of God

is that

I had such a cup

with my name

written on it

and so do you

and on the cross

Jesus in a sense

is saying

George

I will drink

your cup

for you

that cup

that will only

lead

to your

damnation

I

the innocent

lamb of God

I will drink

that in your stead

and you can have

my innocence

before the Father

and that's why

in verse 12

it goes right

into this

here is a call

for the endurance

of the saints

those who keep

the commandments

of God

and their faith

in Jesus

and I heard

a voice from heaven

saying write this

blessed are the dead

who die in the Lord

from now on

blessed indeed

says the spirit

that they may rest

from their labors

for their deeds

follow

once again

this

God doesn't say

these things

to stop conversation

but to begin

a serious

conversation

a conversation

that can go on

for all eternity

in blessedness

just in closing

before my prayer

the last

there's two separate

images

which help to

once again

bring before us

the seriousness

of it

and these are now

two images

of the second coming

of Jesus

and one is an image

of the harvest

of wheat

and the other one

is an image

of the harvest

of grapes

and in this

growing in grace

for instance

this week

I show some

of the different

New Testament

references

of the wheat harvest

and we are to

understand

that this is

referring to

one event

the return

of Jesus

but the two

radically different

outcomes

of the one event

of the return

of Jesus

for those

who put their

faith in Jesus

when he returns

we're gathered

to him

those of us

who continue

in rebellion

against the living

God

the return

of Jesus

means the

beginning

of judgment

and so the

first image

is an image

of Jesus

coming to bring

us to himself

and the second

image

is an image

a horrific image

of the consequences

of our

unrelenting

rebellion

we'll read this

and then we'll

stand and pray

and I looked

and behold

a white cloud

and seated

on the cloud

one like a son

of man

with a golden

crown on his

head

and a sharp

sickle in his

hand

and another

angel came

out of the

temple

calling with a

loud voice

to him

who sat

on the

cloud

put in your

sickle

and reap

for the hour

to reap

has come

for the

harvest of

the earth

is fully

ripe

it's a good

image

it's ripe

there's a

great harvest

let's bring

it in

so he

who sat

on the

cloud

swung

his

sickle

across

the

earth

and the

earth

was

reaped

then

another

angel

came out

of the

temple

in heaven

and he

too

had a

sharp

sickle

and another

angel

came out

from the

altar

the angel

who has

authority

over the

fire

and he

called

with a

loud

voice

to the

one

who

had

the

sharp

sickle

put in

your

sickle

and gather

the

clusters

from

the

vine

of

the

earth

for

its

grapes

are

ripe

so the

angel

swung

his

sickle

across

the

earth

and gathered

the

grape

harvest

of

the

earth

and threw

it

into the

great

wine

press

of the

wrath

of God

and the

wine

press

was

trodden

outside

the

city

and blood

flowed

from the

wine

press

as high

as a

horse's

bridle

for

1600

stadia

life is

not defined

by our

consumerist

culture

real life

intersects

with

and opens

up to

unimaginable

heights

and depths

God

redeems

only God

redeems

come to

Jesus

let's

stand

Father

it is

very easy

for us

to be

so molded

and formed

by our

consumer

culture

that we

view

your

word

as a

type of

cafeteria

where we

can pick

just

bypass the

bean sprouts

and the

broccoli

and things

that we

don't like

and we

can eat

the things

that we

do like

but we

give you

thanks and

praise

Father

that your

word is not

constrained by

our

consumerist

culture

that you

both warn

us

of

eternal

consequences

of rejection

and you

beckon us

with eternal

promises of

intimacy with

you

we ask

Father that

your Holy

Spirit would

reform and

renew our

mind and

heart so

that we are

not conformed

to this

world but

as your

grace enters

into our

life and

forms us

as we

are gripped

by the

gospel

our life

is changed

as we

desire to

bring you

glory and

enjoy your

presence forever

and this we

ask in

Jesus' name

Amen