“Taking Hell
Seriously” Mark 9:42-50
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Mark divided in two halves.
First half of Mark answers the question: Who is Jesus?
The answer is that
he is the Christ, the Anointed One.
Second half of Mark answers the question: What did the Christ come to do?
The answer is that
he came to set things right by his suffering and death.
What was Christ’s suffering?
What were those hours of agony in the Garden,
and
on the cross? Especially those three
hours of darkness from
That was hell. That was the wrath of God for our sins poured
out on Christ.
And it was so terrible that it caused the perfect Son of
Man,
to
cry out in agony and despair.
Our Scripture reading today is about hell. Let’s listen to God’s word.
INTRO: I was once introduced to a man, who when
he found out I was a minister,
laughed
and said: You aren’t one of those fire
and brimstone preachers, are you?
I knew he was probably imagining a preacher pounding the
pulpit
and
taking great delight in describing what it will
feel
like for sinners to burn in the lake of fire.
I didn’t want him to think I was like that.
But at the same time, I could tell he was mocking the whole
idea of hell.
So I just said, “I
believe in hell.” It’s in the Bible.
But the conversation bothered me, because I wondered—
If I believe in
hell, why don’t I preach about it more.
If I preach about God’s grace that saves us from hell,
and
if his grace only makes sense, and is only precious to us
because
of what it saves us from—they why don’t I preach about hell more?
Hell is a hard teaching.
It’s hard to get our minds and emotions around hell.
It is one of the
teachings in the Bible that we constantly have to remind
ourselves
that God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts.
Different ways people try to get rid of hell.
But most people deal with hell by just believing that all
good people to go heaven.
And it sounds so
inclusive, so hopeful to say that all good people go to heaven.
But it’s not. What
about the people who aren’t good?
What about me?
What about proud, selfish, lustful, discontent, greedy
people like me?
If the line is
drawn between the good and the bad—
then
you have to be incredibly shallow to think that is good news for you.
Within the church itself, there have been attempts to get
rid of hell.
Universalism is one attempt.
It says that
everyone will be saved by what Jesus has done.
His grace will
extend to every person.
Different views of how that will happen.
Annihilationism is another attempt
to get rid of hell.
It’s the teaching
that unbelievers are simply destroyed,
wiped
out of existence body and soul—not suffering eternal punishment.
But even a child can read what Jesus says about hell and see
that neither
one
of those views work. Hell is an eternal,
conscious state.
It is a place of
punishment and despair for rebellious sinners,
where
they are banished forever from the grace and mercy of God.
So why is this awful teaching in the Bible?
Because it is true. We live in a moral universe.
There are
consequences now and there will be eternal consequences.
Justice will be
served. God will be vindicated.
Rebels and scoffers who have rejected God’s law and his
salvation
will
receive the penalty for the lives they have chosen.
But mostly hell is in the Bible because of God’s grace.
It’s a gracious
warning. And with the warning comes a
way of escape.
Salvation
through Jesus Christ.
It has been noted many times—worth remembering—
that
the person who says the most about hell in the Bible
is
not Moses, or Paul—but Jesus himself.
In fact, almost everything we know about hell came from the
lips of Jesus Christ.
So let’s look these words of Jesus about this serious
subject.
Will do so under
two headings:
1. Jesus’ teaching about hell.
2. Jesus’ warning about sin.
Credit where credit is due:
Sermon by seminary buddy, Charles Garland.
MP#1 Jesus’ teaching about hell
Jesus wanted his disciples to take hell seriously.
He mentioned hell
not once but three times.
Each time, told
them would be better to live mutilated, than to be thrown into hell.
The word for hell is the word Gehenna.
Hebrew
name for a place right outside of
In ancient times, during the worst days of idolatry in
residents
of
to
sacrifice their children in fire to the god Molech.
So Gehennah was a place of deep spiritual
darkness,
place
where evil was served and where people were destroyed, body and soul.
In later years, the Israelites, ashamed of that valley, made
it the dump for the city.
All the carcasses
of unclean animals were thrown there.
The sewage of the
city drained there.
Garbage was burned
there.
It was a place of fire and smoke, where maggots were always
feasting.
So Jesus builds on
the symbolism of this valley says that hell is the place
where
their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
What do these descriptions of hell mean?
Undying worms,
unquenched fire.
And other places that describe hell as a place of outer
darkness,
and
gnashing teeth, and unslaked thirst, and utter
despair?
These are all word pictures, they are metaphors,
of
a place that is too terrible to describe.
And they are
intended to frighten us.
Just as the word pictures of heaven are intended to delight
us,
and
make us wonder and long to see it.
Streets of gold, clear as crystal, gates of pearl, river
streaming from throne.
The
tree of life bearing fruit year round with leaves for the healing of the
nations.
What do those
things mean? They mean wonderful things.
When you take all that Jesus says about hell—not just in
this passage—
but
the others, and the words of the apostles as well, three pictures of hell—
it
is a place of punishment, destruction, and banishment.
First, it is a place of punishment.
When Jesus speaks of being thrown into hell, who does the throwing?
God does.
Bible tells us that his holy angels do this work for him.
He commands that
people be thrown into hell as punishment
for
their wickedness and rebellion.
So hell is a place, created by God,
for
the punishment of the wicked, and the satisfaction of his justice.
And it will be perfectly just.
In hell, the
punishment will fit the crime.
The wicked will not all be thrown into hell alike.
Jesus says that some will be beaten with many
stripes, and some with few.
He also says it
will be more tolerable for some than others.
But the Bible also makes it clear that the thing that will
determine
the
severity of the punishment is how much Gospel light a person has had.
That means that hell will be worse for people in
than
people from
And the people who will be punished most severely in hell
are people
who
have grown up in Bible-believing churches,
and
have heard the Gospel, and experienced some of it’s power,
but
have turned their backs God and rebelled against him.
It would be better for them not to have been born.
So hell is a place of God’s just punishment of sin—and that
punishment
will
consist of eternal emotional, spiritual, and physical suffering.
Second, it is a place of destruction, a place of eternal
ruin.
Another way to say
this is that it will be a place of wasted lives.
Jesus describes hell as a garbage dump.
What do you find in
a garbage dump?
Things that were once useful, but now ruined.
Look, there’s an old bicycle. One Christmas morning a boy found that by
tree.
Rode it around his neighborhood—not twisted,
wreck—impossible to restore.
That’s what hell
will be—twisted, wrecked lives—ruined forever by sin.
Could it be that
the undying worm that Jesus speaks of
is
the hopeless regret of hell. For
eternity person looks at the wreckage.
The Bible calls it
the second death.
Third, hell is a place of banishment. Jesus doesn’t say that in this passage—
but
in others he speaks of being thrown into outer darkness.
It is being excluded and cut off from all of the goodness of
God.
Everything good in
life comes from God’s goodness.
The rain that falls
on the believing farmer and the unbelieving farmer
comes
from God’s goodness.
Hell is being cut off forever from God’s goodness.
The righteous are
welcomed into heaven where there is feasting
and
companionship, and laughter, and everything that makes life good.
But the wicked are banished from all goodness and consigned
to utter loneliness.
That’s the Bible’s description of hell—
the
place of punishment, destruction, and banishment,
that
God has created for the satisfaction of his justice.
But to complete the picture, we have to add one more thing.
Hell is freely chosen by people. It’s our preference.
CS Lewis: Hell is
“the greatest monument to human freedom ever achieved.”
If you are honest
with yourself, you know that if it were not for the grace of God,
you
would choose a life of rebellion against him.
You would choose a life of greed or arrogance or lust or
bitterness—
and
hell is simply the eternal destiny of those choices.
Unlike heaven, hell
is deserved.
If we face God’s law honestly, we know we deserve it.
We know we don’t deserve heaven. That’s a gift of God’s grace.
We know we don’t move naturally from selfishness and pride
to love and humility.
It’s God’s grace
that changes us.
So there is good news in this harsh teaching. Jesus says these things to warn us.
So
that we will avoid the worm and the fire.
He tells us this on his way to
so
that we do not have to suffer God’s wrath.
Jesus is the way we avoid hell. He endured it for us.’
He took the punishment, the destruction, and the banishment.
As the great lover
of our souls, he wants us to be free from hell and God’s wrath.
Because of that, he tells us the next thing,
that
is that you must take sin seriously.
MP#2 Jesus’ warning about sin
Every time the Bible talks about hell, it also talks about
sin.
Because
sin is what sends people to hell.
So Jesus says to his disciples: You have to deal with sin drastically.
If your hand or
foot or eye causes you to sin, cut it off, gouge it out.
It’s better to live
life here maimed than to go to hell.
Within the church, there are two different ways that people
respond
to
these words of Jesus—two wrong ways.
My guess is that every one of you here, in your heart,
tends
to respond in one of these two ways.
Both are dangerous, because both twist Jesus’ words and
end
up failing to take sin seriously.
Let’s talk about both, and that will help us understand what
Jesus actually meant.
First, some people in the church hear these words of Jesus and
say:
I’ve got to buckle
down. I’ve got to quit sinning and start
living right.
If I want go to
heaven and not go to hell I’ve got to cut things off, like Jesus says.
So, you get strict with yourself.
You set up all
sorts of fences for yourself to keep yourself from sinning.
But you are missing the point of Jesus’ words.
Jesus is not giving
us a remedy for how to quit sinning,
he’s
giving us a command to take sin seriously in light of hell.
The fact is that no amount of external rules can cure your
sin.
You might put a filter on your computer that keeps you from
pornography.
But it doesn’t cure
you from looking at women as sex objects,
doesn’t
enable you to look at them as people made in the image of God.
Might use anger management techniques to
keep you from screaming at children.
But they don’t
quench the fire, don’t make you patient and humble.
You might quit working on Sunday,
start resting on the Lord’s day—
because
you see that you are a workaholic, it’s hurting your family.
But even being a
strict Sabbatarian doesn’t give you a dependent trust
in God
that says, it’s not
my work, but God’s provision.
Don’t misunderstand me.
Jesus uses fences and rules in our lives.
They can protect us
from temptation. We need them.
But they can never change us in the way we need to be
changed.
Jesus hates sin in us because he loves us.
That’s why he went
to the cross, to save us from the inside out.
If external
remedies could cure our sin, then there was no reason for Jesus to die.
So if you hear Jesus words about cutting off your hand—
and
think he is saying, just buckle down and be strict with yourself—
you
will forever be dealing with externals, never taking the deep sins
seriously.
And you could go to your grave eaten up with lust or rage or
greed or bitterness—
even
though on the outside you’ve learned to control yourself.
Second way people in the church respond to Jesus’ words is
like this:
What is there to
worry about? I’m saved.
And they might even
throw in some theology:
I believe in
eternal security. Once saved, always
saved.
But look who Jesus is talking to.
He’s talking to his
own disciples. And he’s warning them.
If you don’t take sin seriously enough to fight it all your
life,
and
to fight it so hard that sometimes it’s as hard and painful as
cutting
off your hand or foot, or gouging out your eye—then you will go to hell.
Wait a minute, someone might say: Is Jesus’ saying I can lose my salvation?
He’s saying that if you don’t fight sin in your life,
then
you have no reason to believe you’ve ever been saved in the first place.
It’s not that your fight against sin saves you, Jesus saves
you,
but
your fight against sin is evidence of a regenerate heart,
and
the work of his Holy Spirit within you.
If you are sitting in the pew this morning, and living in
sin—
and
I don’t just mean sexual immorality—that phrase sometimes taken that way,
But if you are just living with sins of thought, word, and
deed.
And you are just
comfortable with them, not fighting against, not struggling with,
not
trying by God’s grace to cut off and gouge out—
then
Jesus says, you are in danger of being cast into hell.
Your profession of faith is proved to be real by your fight
against sin.
None of us are perfect.
Jesus alone is perfect.
True believers can
have life-long, besetting sins.
Look at Abraham’s
lying, David’s lust and immorality,
Peters’ cowardice, and desire for approval of men.
But all three of those men repented and fought to the very
end.
True believers can fall very far, and many times—
but
they know the stakes are heaven and hell,
and
know that sin must be fought to the very end.
And it’s a violent process.
Any time you push against sin, it hurts.
Jesus not only
compares it to cutting off parts of your body,
he
says it’s like being salted with fire.
You are at war with the things you want to do
and
the things you really want to do because you are a Christian.
But it’s worth the fight.
Great things await those who fight against sin.
CS Lewis wrote a book called The Great Divorce.
About
a bus ride from the outskirts of hell to the outskirts of heaven.
People in hell are given a glimpse of heaven, one more
chance
to
pick heaven instead of hell, but their sins hold them back.
Sins are depicted
symbolically.
Only one man chooses to fight. He has this red lizard on his shoulder,
whispering.
Looks around,
starts to get back on the bus to hell.
Angel says: Are you
going so soon?
Yes, I told him if
we came, have to be quiet, but saying things won’t do here.
Angel: Would you like
me to make him quiet?
Man: Of course I
would.
Angel: Then I will
kill him. Reaches out
his powerful hand.
Man: Takes a step
backwards. Stop, you’re burning me.
Angel: Don’t you want
me to kill it?
Man: I know I can
make him be quiet.
Angel: May I kill it?
Man: Let’s think
about this, plenty of time.
Angel: There is no
more time. Now is the moment. May I kill it?
Reaches
again.
Man: It’s burning,
you’re killing me.
Angel: I’m not going
to kill you, going to kill it.
Man: Then why is it
burning.
Angel: I didn’t say I
wouldn’t hurt you. But not going to kill
you. May I kill it?
Then the lizard starts whispering to the man—Don’t let him near me.
He will kill me and
you will be without me forever and ever.
Angel: May I kill
it?
Man: But it will kill
me.
Angel: It won’t but
even if it did, better dead than to live with this creature.
Man: Damn and
blast. Go on. Get it over with. God help me.
God help me.
Angel closed his
grip on the lizard, twisted it, broke it’s back, flung
it away—
and
the man let out a scream of terrible agony.
But then two things happened—The
man began to change—had been ghostly—
became
solid, manly, strong—and the lizard began to change—
became
flying horse, golden tail, silver mane.
Man leaped on the horse, off like a comet streaking through
the sky,
towards
the mountains of heaven.
The things we have misused, good things in life we have
turned to idols,
corrupted
by sin, will, by God’s grace, by the good fight—
be
redeemed for his glory.
No longer will we be enslaved to them, tormented by them,
and
punished for them in hell, but they will serve us, in heaven.
That’s the great hope that the Jesus holds out for us.
What is the basis
for this hope?
This is it:
The God who takes sin so seriously that he created hell,
has
endured hell for us on the cross.
And so we can trust
him, and know that he will enable us to be victorious.