Rev. David Holwick P
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 29, 2012
2 Thessalonians 1:6-12
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I. Hell-fire preaching.
A. Saggy sinners.
Philip Howard is a well-known figure on Oxford Street in
London, England.
He uses a megaphone to communicate with people passing by.
What he communicates is a very direct version of Christianity.
He often shouts out, "Don't be a sinner, be a winner."
Trouble started when Stanislaw Was asked him to turn his
speaker volume down.
In his opinion it was way too loud.
Mr. Howard then leaned towards Mr. Was and shouted, "Your hair's
going gray, your skin's sagging and that's because you're a
sinner.
You are going to burn in hell."
Stanislaw pressed charges of harassment and the case went to
court.
He said Mr. Howard had heaped abuse on him.
Howard countered that he only made general statements and
expressed the view that sinners who did not repent would go
to hell.
But he didn't necessarily say that Mr. Was in particular was
going to hell.
The judges concluded Howard PROBABLY made the remarks but they
couldn't prove it, so the charges were dropped.
They had to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Outside court, Mr. Howard said: "This proves once and for all
that Satan won't win."
Of course, many people feel that Jesus didn't win here, either.
#36342
B. Hell is hot.
1) Many Americans believe in its existence.
a) One survey gave the figure as 64% of us.
1> That is actually higher than it was in the 1950s.
b) But it doesn't carry the bite it used to.
1> TV preacher John MacArthur mentions a TV interview
he saw where a reporter asked a girl involved in
punk rock, "What are you looking forward to?"
She replied, "I'm looking forward to death."
The reporter asked her why.
She said, "I want to die so I can go to hell and
have fun!"
Sermon #20214
2) Some would like to see it disappear.
a) In liberal Christianity, and in society in general,
it already has.
Novelist David Lodge dated the final demise of hell to
the decade of the 1960s.
He wrote, "At some point in the nineteen-sixties, Hell
disappeared.
No one could say for certain when this happened.
First it was there, then it wasn't."
#36118
b) Even in conservative churches, Hell isn't preached like
it used to be.
1> I'll bet some of you heard some rip-roaring hellfire
sermons when you were young.
2> It's probably been a long time.
A> You'll never hear one from Joel Osteen!
C. What should we do with hell?
1) I would rather not use fear as a motivation.
2) Maybe it would be effective...
Evangelist D.L. Moody reportedly shared Christ with a young
man.
The man had trouble grasping his need of Christ.
At one point he said to Moody, "If I could see heaven for
five minutes, I would believe."
Moody's response was, "If you could see hell for five
seconds, you would believe."
#36319
That is undoubted true.
Hell is the ultimate bad news.
Our mission is to lead people to the Good News, to faith
in Jesus.
3) I believe the whole gospel is true.
a) Heaven is real.
b) Hell is real, too.
c) How do we deal with it in a God-honoring way?
II. One place hell has prominence - the New Testament.
A. It is not actually found in the Old Testament.
1) The place of the dead is called Sheol there.
2) Some English translations call it hell, but Sheol is where
all dead people go, the godly and the ungodly.
a) The Jews understood that the godly will be better off.
b) However, they did not give details on what happens to
the ungodly.
3) In the New Testament, some of the references to hell are
translated of Hades, which is really the same as Sheol.
a) The place we think of as hell is portrayed by the word
Gehenna.
b) Gehenna was originally a valley outside Jerusalem where
idolaters sacrificed children in fire.
1> It became an image of what happens to those who
reject God.
2> Except for a single instance, there is only one
person in the Bible uses this particular image
- Jesus Christ.
B. Jesus is the greatest hellfire preacher in the Bible.
1) Our knowledge of Gehenna comes almost exclusively from Jesus.
a) He preached on hell more than he preached on heaven.
2) The rest of the New Testament is in agreement with Jesus.
a) Even though the other writers don't use the word
Gehenna, they are speaking of the same idea.
b) Today's passage is one of them.
III. God will get them.
A. The context is the persecution of young Christians. 1:6
1) Paul doesn't want them to retaliate against persecutors.
2) But they should know that God will bring about justice.
a) The persecutors will be punished by God.
B. The judgment will go beyond active persecutors. 1:8
1) It includes those who do not know God.
a) This is traditional language for Gentiles, people who
are ignorant of God's revelation in the Bible.
b) However, they are not totally ignorant -- they can know
enough about God through nature to respond to him.
2) Those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus.
a) This probably refers to Jews.
b) They had God's revelation, but they were rejecting
what it said about Jesus.
c) God holds people responsible for what they know, and for
what they should know.
IV. The nature of the punishment.
A. Everlasting destruction. 1:9
1) The terms seem incompatible.
a) To us, destruction seems like one final act.
b) How could it be everlasting?
2) Some focus on this and argue for annihilation.
a) The wicked don't suffer in hell but instead cease to
exist.
b) Among those who interpret it this way are Jehovah's
Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.
3) Going against the idea is its description as everlasting.
a) Jesus clearly taught that the ungodly experiencing
eternal torment.
b) Also, Paul's next phrase doesn't have much impact if
the ungodly have ceased to exist.
1> In the Bible as a whole, there are few details on
the suffering of those in hell, and no glee at
it, but it is presented as an awful reality.
2> Mixed metaphors abound when hell is discussed.
A> It is darkness but also unquenchable fire.
B> Instead of stressing the literal details, we
should understand that hell is worse than
anything we could imagine.
B. Shut out of God's presence and power. 1:9
1) This is perhaps the most significant aspect of hell.
2) Hell is being completely cut off from God.
a) Everything you cherish in life is ultimately from God,
whether you acknowledge him or not.
b) In hell, all that is taken away.
1> There won't be beer parties in hell.
2> There will only be lonely darkness.
C.S. Lewis once wrote that hell is "nothing but yourself
for all eternity."
He also said:
"Any man may choose eternal death.
Those who choose it will have it ...
There are only two kinds of people in the end;
those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' or those to
whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'
All that are in Hell choose it."
#22317
C. Does this concept of punishment violate God's character?
1) There are many internet writings which find it appalling
that a good God could punish anyone.
2) Chuck Templeton, a former evangelist who lost his faith,
once said:
I couldn't hold someone's hand to a fire for a moment.
Not an instant!
How could a loving God, just because you don't obey Him
and do what He wants, torture you forever -
Not allowing you to die, but forcing you to continue in
that pain for eternity?
There is no criminal who would do this!
Sermon #22531
3) After all, the Bible tells Christians not to take revenge.
a) If we cannot, why can God?
b) It would make him seem worse than us.
4) However, Christians are told to not take revenge because
God will, with perfect justice.
a) Justice is the key.
b) There must be eternal options and consequences if our
freedom to choose is real.
c) Tim Keller, one of the best-known preachers in Manhattan,
says there is no love without wrath.
He quotes Rebecca Pippert, who says, "God's wrath is
not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition
to the cancer of sin.
[This] sin is eating out the insides of the human race
he loves with his whole being."
#4818
V. There is another option for us.
A. Instead of punishment, there can be glory. 1:7
1) Paul puts the judgment in the context of the Second Coming.
a) The word "revealed" in verse 7 is the Greek word
"apocalypse" which is the traditional name for the
book of Revelation.
b) Blazing fire and powerful angels shows Paul is referring
to the visible coming of the Messiah in the last days.
2) It will be a day of glory and rejoicing.
a) Those who believe and obey Christ will meet their Savior
face-to-face.
b) Every question will be answered, every tear wiped away,
every heart mended.
c) There is Good News in knowing Jesus!
B. We need to be worthy. 1:11
1) This isn't salvation by morality or good works.
a) It takes God's power to fulfill our highest desires.
b) Everything must flow from our faith in God.
1> It is all of grace. 1:12
2) Is Jesus glorified in your life?
C. We need to take others with us.
1) If hell is real, it should motivate us to share Christ
with our loved ones.
2) We don't preach hell, we preach Jesus.
a) Everyone needs him.
b) Only with him, do we have hope. Eternal hope.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 4818 “Preaching Hell In a Tolerant Age: Brimstone for the Broad-Minded,”
by Tim Keller, Leadership Journal, Winter 1997, Vol. XVIII,
No. 4, page 42.
#22317 “Choosing Hell,” by C.S. Lewis, from the internet newsletter of
www.sermoncentral.com, submitted by Joel Smith. The original
sources is C.S. Lewis’ "The Great Divorce" (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 1973) p. 75.
#36118 “Air Conditioning Hell: How Liberalism Happens,” by Dr. R. Albert
Mohler Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
<http://www.albertmohler.com>, January 26, 2010.
#36319 “Four Instances Not To Mention Hell In Your Preaching,” by Larry
Moyer, Preaching Now, www.preaching.com, October 25, 2010.
#36342 “Charged With Saying He Was Going To Hell,” BBC,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4100926.stm>,
June 16, 2005.
Sermon #20214 “Hell - The Furnace of Fire,” by Rev. John F. MacArthur, Jr.,
Grace Community Church In Sun Valley, California. Tape GC 2304.
Sermon #22531 “Why Would A Loving God Send People To Hell?” sermon by
Mark Adams, Redland Baptist Church (Southern Baptist) of
Rockville, Maryland, <http://www.redlandbaptist.org>,
October 28, 2001.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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