2015-11-15 Luke 13:27-30 Don't Be Surprised (3): It Pays to Be Saved

DON’T BE SURPRISED (3): IT PAYS TO BE SAVED (Luke 13:27-30) November 15, 2015 Read Lu 13:22-30 – Ever notice that Jesus never watered down His message to avoid offending people. He made them feel bad enough to repent or furious enough to reject. But He clarified the difference as no one in history. Repent or perish. With eternity at stake He never beat around the bush. He knows that in the end, many who think they are in, like the Pharisees, won’t be. So, He lovingly warns those rejecting Him of the consequences. Someone asked in v. 23, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” He noted that those who would be saved must come thru the narrow door of repentance, not the wide door of personal merit. Most choose door # 2. His shocking sermon can be outlined I. Few Will Be Saved II. Many Will be Lost III. It Pays to be Saved. Today we’ll see it pays to enter the narrow door. Jesus contrasts 2 alternatives. Once we die, it is one or the other. I. The Revulsion of Hell A. It’s Real – We don’t talk much about hell today. Too awful to be true. But Jesus talked about it – more than anyone. V. 28: “In that place.” Hell is a place – not a symbol or metaphor. If heaven is a place, then hell is just as much a place. The Greek actually says, “There”. For some things there is no there, there. But Jesus says hell is there; it is real. Awful as it is, it exists. It is a created place. Mt 23:41 Jesus calls it, “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Unfortunately, many will join them there. So is the fire real? No one can be sure. If it is symbolic it is indicating a place of terrible suffering. Whatever hell is, it is real; it is awful and it is forever. In Mark 9:48 Jesus calls it a place “‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” If we had even a small glimpse of hell we would all be on our knees before Christ begging for mercy. That’s why Jesus gives this glimpse -so our heart will open to Him. He warns in Mark 9:43, “43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.” It’s real; it’s inescapable; it’s permanent. “You’d be better to go thru life crippled or blind than to end up in hell.” It’s real! 1 B. It’s Regretful – Can you imagine infinite regret? Well, that’s hell. V. 28, “In that place there will be weeping.” There will be no end to the tears there -- tears of remorse, shock, pain and surprise on the part of those who thought they were going to heaven. Thought they had the bases covered only to find that without Christ, they are without hope. They will remember the day they could have said Yes, but instead said Later, or No! About 3 years ago, 1:00 one morning, Jeffrey Giuliano, a 5th grade teacher in New Fairfield, CT got a call from his sister who lived next door saying she feared an intruder. Jeffrey got his pistol and went to investigate. Shortly he encountered someone dressed in black with a ski mask who attacked him. He shot and killed his assailant. But when the mask was removed, it was his own 15-year-old son. No one knows what the boy was up to, but Dad is devastated. He said, “If I could just live that one moment over.” But the moment is gone. Hell will be like that. “If only’s” will bounce off the walls for all eternity. Spurgeon once reminded an audience that having heard the gospel that day, they would never have an excuse. “If you are lost and cast away, you will have to bear all the blame and all the tortures of conscience yourself, forever reflecting, “I have destroyed myself; I have made a suicide of my soul; I have been my own destroyer.” The time to repent is now. C. It’s Raging – V. 28, “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.” Unbelievers will see believers in glory prior to being cast out and it will cause “gnashing of teeth.” That’s a term that indicates extreme anger. Job 16:9, “He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me.” Imagine a caged lion, being tormented by a teaser. He bares his teeth in a roar of anger. When Stephen was arrested for preaching Jesus, he preached an amazing sermon, closing with the accusation that they have murdered their own Messiah. The result is in Acts 7:54: “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth (same phrase) at him.” They hated him, just as those in hell will hate the very idea that Jesus would refuse their good works and cast them into hell, even as they weep with regret. In Mt 7:22 Jesus depicts people as begging to stay in heaven based on all the things they’ve done for him – “did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” They 2 want to stay on their terms – and when they can’t, they gnash their teeth in anger at the God. Hell is a place of raging, hatred of a God who dares to refuse those who reject His Son. Like Judas, they are remorseful, but not repentant. They hate God. That’s what hell will be like. Look what Jesus says at end of v. 27: “Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’” How can Jesus say that? These are Pharisees, not terrorists and rapists. Surely they are not evildoers! But they are, Beloved, because they insist that their good is better than that of the Christ who died for them. They refuse God’s verdict in Isa 64:6, “and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” They are the worst kind of evil-doers because they declare God a liar. His words, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’” will resonate thru their minds for all eternity and they will gnash their teeth at the memory. D. It’s Wretched – The worst part of all – removal from God’s presence! V. 27: “Depart from me.” That’s the end of hope. Ever hear anyone say, “You can have heaven. I’d take my friends in hell?” Hell as a big frat party. Won’t be like that, Beloved. It’s a place of severe loneliness. Mt 8:12 says unbelievers “will be thrown into the outer darkness.” No light; no companionship; no friends! Just absolute aloneness – forever. No God or human contact forever. Most of us can’t stand to be alone for more than a few hours. The desolation of hell will be absolutely devastating. Wretched doesn’t even begin to describe it. People will be in hell because they insisted on being at the center of their own universe. In hell, that is exactly what they will have – they will be the center of a universe of their own making – absolutely alone because they are powerless to make anything. Hell is the ultimate demonstration of the bankruptcy of human arrogance. Hell will be God giving people what they always wanted – a universe of their own making. But as philosopher Cornelius Plantinga reminds us, "The image of ourselves as center of the world is fantasy – even a form of madness… It's like pulling the plug on your own resuscitator." We are made for companionship; loneliness is a killer. Inger Stevens, TV actress – Farmer’s Daughter. She said, “Sometimes I get so lonely I could scream,” just before she took her own life. If it was that bad with people all around, imagine being engulfed in total darkness, with no God and no one. Just unendingly alone! II. The Rapture of Heaven V. 29: “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” Heaven in full bloom. The 3 contrast with hell could not be greater. Yet the Pharisees would have hated this picture. Abe, Isaac and Jacob will be there. But they’re not! Worse, many hated Gentiles are there. That was unthinkable. They thought keeping the Old Covenant law was the way in. They’d missed it was NC repentant and cleansed hearts that let people in. It was never about works; it was always about grace. It is repentance that moves the last to the head of the line, and it is lack of repentance that moves the first to the back of the line. And Jesus is saying, “Heaven awaits those who believe; hell awaits those who reject.” So, what is heaven like? Let’s just consider 4 great characteristics: A. No Sin – Hell is filled with sinners and the sin never ends. But in heaven sin is done away forever. I Jn 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now (it’s great already, but you ain’t seen nothin’ yet), and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Does Jesus ever sin? No – and neither will you when you are finally truly like Him. John further describes heaven in Rev 21:27, “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false.” Imagine living in sinless perfection! All the effects of sin will be gone too. No disease, no infirmity, no physical disability of any kind. B. No Sorrow – Imagine no sorrow. Ever. No disappointment. No pain. No suffering. That’s heaven, too. Rev 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” There will be no weeping there. Nothing to cause it. Helen Keller – blind and deaf from the time she was 19 months old. Learned to communicate brilliantly via touch and eventually speech. She was once asked, “Do you believe in life after death?” I love her answer: “Most certainly. It is no more than passing from one room into another.” Then she was quiet for a moment before adding: “But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other – room – I shall be able to see.” It’s true. There’s no sorrow there! C. No Spite – No gnashing of teeth in heaven. No spite. No hatred. That believer who has all those rough edges, the one you can’t stand, the one you never want to be around – you’re going to love them there. You’ve heard the little ditty. “To live above with saints we love, / Well that will be glory. / But to live below with saints we know / Well, that’s another story.” Listen, you’re going to love them there; might as well get started now when it could pay some dividends. There will be no spite there – only love. 4 Above all we will love Jesus. We will see that He was right every time we doubted. There will be no regrets there. No “what if’s” or “if only’s” there. As the old song said, “Heaven is a wonderful place, / Filled with glory and grace. / I’m going to see my Savior’s face. / Heaven is a wonderful place.” D. No Solitude – If hell is a place of utter darkness and devastating loneliness, heaven is just the opposite. Rev 21:23, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day —and there will be no night there.” No night. All light. The light that the world rejected will light the universe. We will all glory in it. Never darkness. And companionship – with Jesus, loved ones, friends, people we influenced. And there will be Peter and John and Paul and Moses and Abraham. What conversations we will have. Look at our passage – Lu 13:29, “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” Lots of surprises there – converted Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists. The first will be last and the last first. Rev 7:9, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” There will be no solitude there. And all there know this: Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Woody Allen once said, “There may be an afterlife, but no one will know where it’s being held.” He couldn’t have been more wrong. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Minutes later, there was that poor, lost thief walking the streets of heaven with Jesus Himself – while his companion was in the darkness of an eternal Godless existence. Jesus drew this contrast, not me. He did it because He wants all of us to be there in heaven with Him and all the redeemed, not there in hell utterly and forever alone. What a contrast. Don’t you want heaven? Don’t you want Him? Conc – I had a good friend who was president of Biola University for 25 years. We used to play b-ball together, altho he was a little better – high school player of the year in SoCal in 1953. Later we taught on the same faculty. He died a few years ago, only 72, sudden heart attack. Always had a keen sense of humor. Had a tape played at his memorial as tho talking from heaven. Let me give you a few excerpts. “Dear Anna Belle, I love you. It has been cold there in my shadow as I have had all the glory and you the strain. But nothing 5 significant would have been accomplished had you not been the wind beneath my wings, and I thank God for you. You [all] might think it is a bit strange listening to me now, but wasn’t it Dwight L. Moody who said, “One day you’re going to read that Dwight L. Moody is dead. Don’t believe it.” And he was right. I’m more alive now than I have ever been. It’s so wonderful where I am. . . . The city is fascinating. . . . There’s no need for sun or moon because the glory of the Lord illuminates every single part of the city and we walk by that glorious light. And it is always day. Besides not having any night, there is nothing here that is unclean and no one who practices abominations or lying. There are no more tears; not death; no mourning, and no more crying or pain. Oh, and the music. I thought the Biola chorale was fantastic . . . but let me tell you, it is unbelievable here. When you hear that voice of the great multitude singing praises to our wonderful Lord and Savior, it is as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder. . . . When I’m not worshipping, I’m asking questions. All those hours as an undergraduate in the Biola residence halls, staying up late to discuss the sovereignty of God and the free will of men and women! The answers are so simple once you get here. Oh yes, and predestination! Wish you could have seen the twinkle in John Calvin’s eyes as we discussed it. I was even able to get five minutes with Moses. Well, I really don’t know if it was five minutes because a day here is as a thousand years. It just seemed like five minutes. Anyway I asked him about Genesis 1 and 2. It really happened just as he wrote it. I’m in no pain – just overwhelming joy. Believe me, it’s tearless here. And it’s all true – every word in the blessed book. Trust it, and trust our beloved Savior. I’ll see you at the trumpet blast. Wow! You should see the size of the trumpets they have ready. Or if you too should pass through the valley of the shadow of death before He returns, I’ll meet you here. And if you happen to be listening to this and have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, oh, I urge you to do so today. What better time to number your days and apply your hearts to the wisdom of the good news of Jesus Christ than at a service like this. I want to see you again. I love you. Good-by for now.” You say, “Is it that real?” Absolutely, Beloved. But you have to enter thru the narrow door – the narrow door that is Jesus Himself. It’s not just the narrow way; it’s the only way. Let’s pray. 6 Be with God and loved ones Conc Prisoners; Captives; Freedom; Sin; Too bad; Sinfulness; Blame; Deflecting blame; Blaming others; Confession; Repentance; Owning sin; Accepting Christ; Receiving Christ; Gospel; Good news; Evangelism; Moralism; Too good; Merit; Self-righteousness; Christ’s righteousness; I have good news to tell you--Christ is come after you. I was at the Fulton-street prayer-meeting, a good many years ago, one Saturday night, and when the meeting was over, a man came to me and said, "I would like to have you go down to the city prison to-morrow, and preach to the prisoners. I said I would be very glad to go. There was no chapel in connection with that prison, and I was to preach to them in their cells. I had to stand at a little iron railing and talk down a great, long narrow passageway, to some three or four hundred of them, I suppose, all out of sight. It was pretty difficult work; I never preached to the bare walls before. When it was over I thought I would like to see to whom I had been preaching, and how they had received the gospel. I went to the first door, where the inmates could have heard me best, and looked in at a little window, and there were some men playing cards. I suppose they had been playing all the while. "How is it with you here?" I said. "Well, stranger, we don't want you to get a bad idea of us. 7 False witnesses swore a lie, and that is how we are here." "Oh," I said, "Christ cannot save anybody here; there is nobody lost." I went to the next cell. "Well, friend, how is it with you?" "Oh," said the prisoner, "the man that did the deed looked very much like me, so they caught me and I am here." He was innocent, too! I passed along to the next cell. "How is it with you?'" "Well, we got into bad company, and the man that did it got clear, and we got taken up, but we never did anything." I went along to the next cell "How is it with you?" "Our trial comes on next week, but they have nothing against us, and we'll get free." I went round to nearly every cell but the answer was always the same--they had never done anything. Why, I never saw so many innocent men together in my life. There was nobody to blame but the magistrates, according to their way of it. These men were wrapping their filthy rags of self-righteousness about them. And that has been the story for six thousand years. I got discouraged as I went through the prison, on, and on, and on, cell after cell, and every man had an excuse. If he hadn't one, the devil helped him to make one. I had got almost through the prison, when I came to a cell and found a man with his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands. Two little streams of tears were running down his cheeks; they did not come by drops that time. "What's the trouble?" I said. He looked up, the picture of remorse and despair. "Oh, my sins are more than I can bear." "Thank God for that," I replied. "What," said he, "you are the man that has been preaching to us, ain't you?" "Yes." "I think you said you were a friend?" "I am." "And yet you are glad that my sins are more than I can bear!" "I will explain," I said "If your sins are more than you can bear, won't you cast them on One who will bear them for you?" "Who's that?" "The Lord Jesus." "He won't bear my sins." "Why not?" "I have sinned against Him all my life." "I don't care if you have; the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sin." Then I told him how Christ had come to seek and save that which was lost; to open the prison doors and set the captives free. It was like a cup of refreshment to find a man who believed he was lost, so I stood there, and held up a crucified Saviour to him. "Christ was delivered for our offenses, died for our sins, rose again for our justification." For a long time the man could not believe that such a miserable wretch could be saved. He went on to enumerate his sins, and I told him that the blood of Christ could cover them all. After I had talked with him I said, "Now let us pray." He got down on his knees inside the cell, and I got down outside, and I said, "You pray." "Why," he said, "it would be blasphemy for me to call on God." "You call on God," I said. He knelt down, and, like the poor publican, he lifted up his voice and said, "God be merciful to me, a vile wretch!" I put my hand through the window, and as I shook hands with him a tear fell on my hand that burned 8 down into my soul. It was a tear of repentance. He believed he was lost. Then I tried to get him to believe that Christ had come to save him. I left him still in darkness. "I will be at the hotel," I said, "between nine and ten o'clock, and I will pray for you." Next morning, I felt so much interested, that I thought I must see him before I went back to Chicago. No sooner had my eye lighted on his face, than I saw that remorse and despair had fled away, and his countenance was beaming with celestial light; the tears of joy had come into his eyes, and the tears of despair were gone. The sun of Righteousness had broken out across his path; his soul was leaping within him for joy; he had received Christ as Zaccheus did--joyfully. "Tell me about it," I said. "Well, I do not know what time it was; I think it was about midnight. I had been in distress a long time, when all at once my great burden fell off, and now, I believe I am the happiest man in New York." I think he was the happiest man I saw from the time I left Chicago till I got back again. His face was lighted up with the light that comes from the celestial hills. I bade him good-by, and I expect to meet him in another world. Can you tell me why the Son of God came down to that prison that night, and, passing cell after cell, went to that one, and set the captive free? It was because the man believed he was lost. Moody’s Anecdotes, [Kindle site 947] Hell is the final destiny of unbelievers and is variously described by the figures of a furnace of fire, eternal fire, eternal punishment (Mt 13:42, 50; 25:41, 46); outer darkness, the place of weeping and torment (8:12); eternal sin (Mk 3:29); the wrath of God (Rom 2:5); everlasting separation from the Lord, never to see the glory of his power (2 Thes 1:9); the bottomless pit (Rv 9:1, 11); continuous torment (14:10, 11); the lake of fire, the second death (21:8); a place for the devil and his demons (Mt 25:41). The foregoing designations clearly show that the state of those in hell is one of eternal duration. Other expressions that indicate that the final state of the wicked is eternal are: “burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12); “to the unquenchable fire … where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:43, 48); there is sin which “will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mt 12:32). When Scripture is understood properly, there is no hint anywhere of the termination of the terrible state of unbelievers in hell. Their doom is unending; there is a solemn finality about their miserable condition. 9 (It is significant that the most descriptive and conclusive utterances about hell come from the lips of our Lord.) A summary of all Scripture that speaks of hell indicates that there is the loss and absence of all good, and the misery and torment of an evil conscience. The most terrifying aspect is the complete and deserved separation from God and from all that is pure, holy, and beautiful. In addition there is the awareness of being under the wrath of God and of enduring the curse of a righteous sentence because of one’s sins that were consciously and voluntarily committed. Although the biblical descriptions of hell are stated in very physical and literal terms, the essential character of hell should not be conceived in or limited to designation such as the worm that devours, the stripes that are inflicted, the burning or being consumed by fire. This affirmation does not detract from the horror or the gravity of the situation in hell, because nothing could possibly be worse than separation from God and the torment of an evil conscience. Hell is hell for those who are there essentially because they are completely alienated from God, and wherever there is alienation from God there is always estrangement from one’s fellows. This is the worst possible punishment to which anyone could be subject: to be totally and irrevocably cut off from God and to be at enmity with all those who are around oneself. Another painful consequence of such a condition is to be at odds with oneself —torn apart from within by an accusing sense of guilt and shame. This condition is one of total conflict: with God, one’s neighbors, and oneself. This is hell! If the descriptions of hell are figurative or symbolic, the conditions they represent are more intense and real than the figures of speech in which they are expressed. 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ καὶ ἐρεῖ λέγων ὑμῖν· οὐκ οἶδα [ὑμᾶς] πόθεν ἐστέ· ἀπόστητε ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ πάντες ἐργάται ἀδικίας. But he will be saying to you, “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me you workers of evil.” “I do not know where you are from” -- The house-lord’s reply: “I do not know you, whence you are” is the seal of the judgment. “Whence you are” points to the sin of these “many.” Where have they been all this time when the door was open? Elsewhere—not entering the door! They had other attractions and scorned this narrow door and the house-lord who stood there waiting to welcome them. (Lenski)  The verb here has its secondary meaning of ‘to recognize’ or ‘to treat with good will’ [NIC]. The master of the house does 10 not know them nor whence they are, indicating that they had not been at the door when it stood open [Lns]. He speaks in irony when he claims not to know those people or their origins and this means that he will not recognize them as members of his household [NICNT]. Although the wording seems to say he doesn’t know where they live, the following two verses show that this refers to their relationship with the master of the household and it means ‘You are not my friends’ [TG], ‘I do not know of any relationship with you’ [TH], ‘I do not acknowledge you’ [Arn, NIGTC]. (Blight) “Depart from me, all you workers of evil” -- Jesus does know these men in one way, and since they insist, he tells them: they are “all workers of unrighteousness.” And right here they prove it to the last: they are demanding that the righteous Judge shall act unrighteously, unjustly, break his own, oft-given word, reopen the door which he said he would shut forever, and without repentance let them in beside all the repentant. So the rich man cried even in hell, “Nay, father Abraham!” and demanded that a new way of salvation be invented for his five brothers and thereby secretly charged that, if something like that had been done while he lived, he, too, would not have landed in hell. They who die in unbelief remain morally as base as they were when they died. As Jesus once walked among the Jews, so in his Word he now walks among us and teaches us in the identical words—shall it again be in vain? (Lenski) 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων, * ὅταν ὄψησθε Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ καὶ πάντας τοὺς προφήτας ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὑμᾶς δὲ ἐκβαλλομένους ἔξω. There there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Whenever you might see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves having been cast outside. “In that place there will be weeping” -- The weeping indicates remorse (MacDonald)  The weeping is that of inconsolable, never-ending wretchedness, and utter, everlasting hopelessness. (Hendriksen) 11  Only two places exist in the other world, and “there” is hell. (Lenski)  The torment of hell will not be limited to the pain of punishment, but will include the remorse, shock, and surprise of those who ended up there despite thinking they were going to heaven. The more people in hell knew about the gospel, the more profound the remorse will be; their pain will be proportional to the level of rejection. And since the rejection will be eternal and incurable, so will their sin be and the judgment of that sin (MacArthur). “and gnashing of teeth” -- the gnashing of teeth speaks of violent hatred of God. This shows that the sufferings of hell do not change the heart of man. (MacDonald)  The accompanying grinding or gnashing of teeth is that of frenzied anger, unmitigated rage. For this weeping and grinding of teeth there are three causes: a. They “see” (are made aware of the presence of) Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God; that is, the kingdom in its final consummation. b. They also take note of the fact that ever so many others, including (converted) Gentiles, from every region of the earth—east, west, north, and south—are participating in the Messianic banquet (cf. Matt. 8:11, 12). c. They themselves are “thrown out”; that is, not only was admission refused, but also they were forcefully expelled. (Hendriksen)    All interpreters are agreed that the weeping is the result of the complete loss of happiness, but some think of rage or helpless despair as causing the gnashing of the teeth. Both weeping and gnashing go together, both are caused by the torment in the outer darkness of hell. The damned are not annihilated; even their bodies shall be in hell. (Lenski) Matt uses term “weeping and gnashing of teeth” six times. That’s the only other place in the NT. βρυγμός brugmós; gen. brugmoú, masc. noun from brúchō (1031), to grind, gnash, crunch the teeth together. A grating or gnashing of the teeth (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). The image is drawn from a person in a fit 12   of envy, rage, pain, and so forth (Acts 7:54; Sept.: Prov. 19:12, spoken of the roar or growl of the lion). (Zodihiates) The noun occurs 7 times in the NT (6 times in Matthew), always in βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων in the apocalyptic expression of threat: “there shall be weeping [howling] and gnashing of teeth” (AV). The vb. appears only in Acts 7:54. (EDNT) [Clearly sign of anger in Acts 7:54]. The accompanying verbal expression gnash with the teeth (βρύχω; Heb. ḥāraq šinnaîm‘al) designates the enraged baring of the teeth of the mortal enemy (Acts 7:54; Job 16:9; Pss 34:16; 36:12; Lam 2:16) or the despairing gnashing of teeth of the damned in hell (Ps 111:10 LXX; 1 Enoch 108:3–7; Midr. Qoh. 1:15 [11a]; cf. Billerbeck IV, 1029–1118, esp. 1040ff.). (EDNT)     It can be an expression of rage (Acts 7:54), like the snarling of a lion (Pr. 19:9), and the verb expresses the hatred shown by enemies (Job 16:10; Pss. 35 (34):16; 37 (36):12; 112 (111):10; La. 2:16). The thought here is of anger directed against the master, rather than of ‘despairing remorse’ (K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT I, 641f.). (Marshall) In the LXX there are 5 instances of βρύχειν (τοὺς) ὀδόντας (ἐπί) (Ἰωβ 16:10; ψ 34:16; 36:12; 111:10; Lam. 2:16) in the sense of “to gnash with the teeth,” always as an expression of hate (usually that of the → ἁμαρτωλός [sinner] for the → δίκαιος [righteous]) and as a translation of ‫על‬ ‫רק שש ע נ‬ ‫ח ע‬ ‫ ח‬or ‫נים ע‬ ‫נים‬ ‫רק ב ב נשש ע נ‬ ‫ח ע‬ ‫( ח‬Job 16:9), in which it is linked with a desire to destroy the opponent; cf. also the Rabb. liter. (Tanch. [Buber] 140 ,15 ‫ ;בלק‬j Kil., 32c, 37 f. etc.). (TDNT) In spite of the Greek parallels, the formula βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων does not denote despairing rage, and it is certainly not used to describe the bodily reaction of the excluded to the extreme cold of their place of punishment.5 It simply denotes the despairing remorse which shakes their whole body and is linked also with → κλαυθμός. (TDNT) [This conclusion seems questionable to me. No reason given. Suppose that they believe the context dictates this. Remorse – definitely – but could not also rage be included?] gnashing of teeth, grinding the teeth, a sign of torment and anguish, possibly anger (Mt 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk 13:28+) (Swanson) 13     The reference is not to despairing rage, nor to a physical reaction, but to the remorse of those who are shut out of the kingdom even though called to it. This special use, which is almost peculiar to Matthew, derives its meaning from the context. (Little Kittel) “Weeping” indicates sorrow, “gnashing of teeth” fierce rage. Many Israelites would be cast out of glorified Israel! (Hughes) [So Kittel is taking weeping as defining gnashing, Hughes takes it as defining yet another reaction – rage. So it is both sorrow and rage] They will wail (in grief) and gnash their teeth (in rage). This marks the ultimate in disappointment and frustration. (Morris) What a strange mixture of human emotions Jesus describes here. At the same time as they are wailing in grief, they will be gnashing their teeth. This latter expression is used in the Bible to depict fury. There is a close relationship between disappointment and anger. There are people who expect to be allowed into the kingdom, but when they get there, they will find that the door is locked, and that they cannot get in, no matter how loudly they cry and gnash their teeth in fury. To add to their misery, they will be able to look in and see Abraham, Isaac and the prophets on the inside. (Sproul) “when you see Abraham” -- Jesus says that this weeping and this gnashing of the teeth shall occur when the damned shall see Abraham, etc., ὄψησθε, which is regarded as a late aorist subjunctive, or the variant, the future indicative ὄψεσθε. The reference of this verb cannot be to the imagery of the door, for a door would prevent sight. Jesus speaks of the other world in a human way, and to stress the words in the fashion of this world is only to mislead ourselves. This is certain, the damned shall know fully about the joys of the blessed, and still worse they, too, might be in the midst of those joys. (Lenski) “but you yourselves cast out” -- This last expression seems to imply the use of some force. The end result of their attitude is to bring upon them the active opposition of God. (Morris) 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. καὶ ἥξουσιν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν καὶ ἀπὸ βορρᾶ καὶ νότου καὶ ἀνακλιθήσονται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ 14 θεοῦ. And they will come from east and west and from north and south and reclining at table in the kingdom of God. The coup de grace! “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south” -- These remarks were revolutionary to Jesus’ hearers. Most of them assumed that because they were physically related to Abraham they would naturally enter into the promised kingdom. However, His next words were even more revolutionary—in fact devastating—to those who assumed that only the Jewish nation would be involved in the kingdom. (BKC)  These Gentiles, in contrast to the crowd, will sit down at the blessed banquet table with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets. As Acts 10–11 makes clear, God’s active work is required to actualize the universal implications in the passage. A pattern in God’s salvific activity is alluded to here; but the pattern has a surprising feature, a feature that would shock Jesus’ Jewish audience. The gathering of people from every nation and race for the banquet has not been anticipated. Even the disciples are slow to realize this part of the program. Jesus suggests it here, but God must direct its implementation in anticipation of the final celebration Jesus discusses here. (Bock) “and recline at table in the kingdom of God” -- Here Gentiles are depicted enjoying a lavish banquet – symbolic in the ancient Near East of life's most important events – in the kingdom. The banquet pictures the blessedness of fellowship with God (Luke 22:29-30; revelation 19:9) (MacArthur). 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” καὶ ἰδοὺ εἰσὶν ἔσχατοι οἳ ἔσονται πρῶτοι καὶ εἰσὶν πρῶτοι οἳ ἔσονται ἔσχατοι. And behold, some who are last will be first and some who are first will be last. “some are last who will be first” -- In connection with the immediate context, referring to the contrasted conditions of the saved and the lost, the “last” who will then be “first” may refer to those people who at first lacked the means of grace, but when they received them, joyfully 15 accepted them. Similarly, the “first” who will then be “last” may indicate those who from the very first had these means of grace but ignored them. In line with this interpretation, among the “last” who will then be “first” there will be many a Gentile. Among the “first” who will then be “last” there will be many a Jew. We must, however, be careful. In view of the fact that Scripture clearly teaches that there are not only degrees of suffering in hell (Luke 12:47, 48) but also degrees of glory in the restored universe (1 Cor. 15:42), the possibility must not be excluded that Jesus means that even among those ultimately saved there will be those who were “first” in honor, prestige, etc., here, but who will be “last” in degree of glory there. Similarly that among those ultimately saved there will be those “last” in reputation here, who will be “first” there. Note should also be taken of the fact that Jesus does not say that all those who are “first” now will be “last” then; only “some.” The same applies to those who are “last” now. (Hendriksen)  The “first” and the “last” are frequently taken to be those who enter the kingdom first or last, and kindly words are written of the “latecomers.” But this is a mistaken view. The play on the words by putting them first in one order then in the reverse order calls on us to mark well the sense in which they are used; and this makes them a mashal, its meaning being open only to those who have the key. “Last” = men who are far from the kingdom, the means of grace, etc. Yet they “shall be first,” by the grace of God enter the kingdom. Humanly speaking, we should not expect it. Yet the event proves it to be a fact. “First” = men who are close to the kingdom, means of grace, etc., like the Jews, Rom. 9:4, etc. Compared with the condition of the Gentiles, the Jews were certainly first. “First” is more favored, “last” less favored. And yet these “first shall be last”=never get into the kingdom at all, “last” now in this intensive, tragic sense. Again, who would have expected it? But the event proves the fact. (Lenski)  This further intensifies the shock these lost Jews will feel. Not only will Gentiles be in the kingdom, that they will also be equal with the Jews who are there. In the realm of salvation "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for [the redeemed] are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:11-16) (MacArthur). 16 “and some are first who will be last” -- The Jewish people considered themselves to be first in every way, but they would be last, that is, they would be left out of the kingdom. In contrast, some Gentiles, considered last, would be in the kingdom and would really be first in importance (13:30). (BKC)  There will be surprises in the kingdom of God. Those who are very prominent in this world may have to be very humble in the next; those whom no one notices here may have real significance in the world to come. There is a story of a woman who had been used to every luxury and to all respect. She died, and when she arrived in heaven, an angel was sent to conduct her to her house. They passed many lovely mansions and the woman thought that each one, as they came to it, must be the one allotted to her. When they had passed through the main streets they came to the outskirts where the houses were much smaller; and on the very fringe they came to a house which was little more than a hut. ‘That is your house,’ said the conducting angel. ‘What,’ said the woman, ‘that! I cannot live in that.’ ‘I am sorry,’ said the angel, ‘but that is all we could build for you with the materials you sent up.’ The standards of heaven are not the standards of earth. Earth’s first will often be last, and its last will often be first. (Barclay)  So first and last are used at one time with a present tense with reference to present conditions, having and not having the means of grace; and a second time with future verbs with reference to the eventual condition, being in or being outside the kingdom. Some people have all the means of salvation but fail to use them and are lost, others are destitute of these means in the beginning, yet the moment they get them they make full use of them and thus obtain salvation. This fact is beyond dispute, and it is used here as a warning: “It is to frighten the greatest saints,” Luther (Lenski) 17 Faith; Acceptance; Acceptance by God; Humility; Grace; Sinners; Salvation; Accepted; Gospel; Grace – “Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (See Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last ‘trick,’ whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school; the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust, and raped the earth. ‘But how?’ we ask. Then the voice says, ‘They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ There they are. There we are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to the faith. My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.” [Used Eaton Church 9/16/12] (Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel, pp. 31-32). Hell; Emergent; Universalism; Spencer Burke has been one of the formative voices in the emergent conversation. He is the creator of theooze.com and the host of Soularize, which he calls the original postmodern/emergent annual conference. It’s not clear how influential Burke’s ideas are, but they seem to be a welcome part of the emerging movement, even if they don’t form the center. Far from distancing himself from A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity, Brian McLaren actually wrote the foreword to the book. Granted, you can write a 18 foreword and not agree with everything in the book, but introducing a book, unless clearly stated otherwise, is an implicit sign that you are at least broadly sympathetic with its ideas. McLaren thanks “Spencer and Barry” for their “courage and charity” in raising the issues that are “driving away millions of people.” In Heretic’s Guide, McLaren believes “any honest reader can find much truth worth seeking.” The problem lies not in emerging Christians seeking the truth, but in their refusal to find and call out falsehood. Burke, who denies the importance of the visible church and has removed himself from it, pushes past the orthodox edge “when he affirms a quasi-universalism where everyone is in unless they want out: “Could it be that – beyond religion, reason, and conventional wisdom – grace is something to be opted out of rather than opted in to? Is it not something you get but something you already have? When I say I’m a universalist, what I really mean is that I don’t believe you have to convert to any particular religion to find God. As I see it, God finds us, and it has nothing to do with subscribing to any particular religious view. The God I connect with does not assign humans to hell.” Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), p. 119. It is a created place. Mt 23:41 Jesus indicates, “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Unfortunately, many will join them there. So is the fire real? Some say no because it was created for spirit beings – the demons and it will be the souls of unbelievers that will be confined there. But it isn’t just people’s souls that will go there. Just as the righteous will be resurrected, eventually, so will unbelievers. Dan 12:2 gives the general overview: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The NT clarifies that these resurrections do not happen at the same time, but those outside of Christ will be resurrected and go into eternity body and soul! Rev 20:13, “And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” 19