Man's Condemnation - Mans Rejection of Hell
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
What do you call someone that tells dad jokes but isnt a dad? A Faux pa
I got a joke about a fish, if you want to hear it let minnow
SO what do we believe about human kind and salvation and everything about Heaven ad hell… and this is what the human species has tried to figure out since we have been writing on walls we have come up with every concept under the sun to explain the solution.....
One of the four basic questions we ask as humanity in general. Our identity, our enviroment, our plight, and the solution… so we have come up with different way to solve that problem… and we havecome up with religion and have tried all kinds of means to come up with how e can go to a heaven when we die and tried all kinds of things…
2000 years ago Christianity entered into the conversation with the scripture we looked at last week
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Whoever believes… The Justification by faith..through Jesus and what he did…and if we could do it ourselves then why did Jesus come? and we cannot save ourselves.. and God says I am perfect and you can’t be with me unless you are perfect… and Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and it was credited toward us… and all of our hope should be put into him. and then we push into verse 17
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The word Gave in 16 turns into send. 39 times he will talk about Jesus as the one sent by the father… and great image from John apostolos… the sent one… where we are sent… and we are not only being saved but we are being sent… and is that a reflection of your life… are you being a sent one… is there anyone coming to Jesus because of you?
And in my life But I want people to come to know Jesus… I had an experience in my life because I know what that evil looks like… I had a desire before that moment but that changed everything..
WE not just settlers we are pioneers. Do you have any sentness about you, or do you just worry about getting a good job and figuring out a car scenerio… is everything you are deciding derived through the sentness…the son, the one you are trying to be like is by definition the sent one
The topic here is Jesus… what are you most jacked up about right now… your political views… your ideologies… or converting people to Jesus… and then he says....
to the world.
The world in John’s language is not God’s friend yet… but he did not come to condemn the world… so here is the scandal… the reason he didnt need to condemn the world is because the world.... isn’t in a neutral position theologically. we are already condemned.... he didnt have to come to condemn the world.. the world is already depraved… we are already broken.... Jesus doesnt start where adam begin he comes and starts where Adam ended… human kind is messed up… sinful.... just read the news every day you can see it…
he didnt come to condemn the world… but in order that the world might be saved… God comes to save the world… and that is the point he gave his son so that his enemy might be saved… and this is the same thing that Paul tells us right, that while we were yet sinners/meaning his enemy Christ died for us. And Jesus kind of flipped the script… for years we have been the ones that needed to make a sacrifice to God… to make ourselves right with him.. and here we find God making a sacrifice for us… sacrificing himself even… and God says we shouldnt get what we deserve and I am going to send my son so you DON’T get what you deserve.
Look at Luke 9:54 and what we are seeing is this Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem and he sends his people ahead of him into this Samaritan town to get them ready for Jesus’ arrival..... and the people there didn’t listen… and didnt want Jesus to come to them… so you know what happens.... James and John hear about it and look at what they say...
54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
We dont like them, lets just call the fire down...
55 But he turned and rebuked them.
56 And they went on to another village.
And this comes from the days of elijah, where he rained fire down.. and that is kind of like what we want to do… we want to rain fire down on the people that disagree with us and cause us pain
but look at what he says
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!
50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!
And think abotu this… he has come to undergo a baptism… and he has already been baptized in water.... and he is telling us the fire that you want to spit out on everyone it is going to come down on me… I am going to suffer for the sake of the world so the world doesn’t have to be condemned… you don’t have to undergo the condemnation of God because Jesus took the fire for you. So you still have time.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
HE offers us this invitation to not be condemned. In the law court image we dont need to be put in jail.
You and I got a second chance of life because of Jesus Christ, and some of us will sit and argue the dumbest things and we need to run with and live and have life to the fullest.. we aren’t condemned… he came not to condemn us but to save us… and how can we reach a world we dont love… how can we reach the people that we hate…
but back to tthe verse we are condemned already....
So lets look at this becasue not condemned vs condemned and this is hard to communicate, but I feel like i must… the word condemned means guilty and forced to pay… means if we dont believe in the son of god we will be condemned.... we are already condemned but there is this eternalness of condemnation… if we reject the son we will remain in that position eternally and its a place where Jesus calls Hell
He uses a historic place called Gehenna to show a metaphor… fire never ends… and this will be the soul state for eternity… and skeptics push back and say they don’t really like it… and they push back in a couple areas… and the first is that Hell is repulsive… thats one objection to christianity… people don’t like it.. and we have to be careful with trhat one… thats not saying it doesnt exist… that’s just saying I dont like what Jesus is saying about it… and the problem with that is we can’t just choose what we believe based on our historical or sociatal moment… because if we went to a different country or time period they wouldnt be able to handle a god that WASNT just.
There are times in life when things dont feel good, but that doesnt mean they aren’t right.... there have been times when I’ve had to let people go, and its never fun… and even if they are crying and you want to let them to go back you cant do it.... and there are times when things feel good but they aren’t right and we have to be able to tanscend feelings and look solely at truth
and here is a second pushback condemnation is unjust it isnt right of God to judge… and that is because we live in a culture where we dont see the kind of rape and myrder that isnt handled on an earthly manner so we don’t see it the same way peoiple do across the world
Because we live in a quiet homes in a peaceful country we don’t see a need for justice… why would we refuse to believe in a god who punishes evil? and tehre is part of us that wants justice… we talked about it earlier… aand our sin needs to be judged… either by our own means or by the means of jesus
a third pushback is hell is overkill… and the bible talks about it as eternal how is that legitmate when we only live 80 years… even in human law we don’t punish based on how long it took to commit a crime… the question is only did you violate a law that needs to be punished to the highest point of the law...
Killing a dog is worse than killing a spider… why… because there is an order in the essence.... and thats why killing a human is the highest in that essence…and when we sin against God it is the highest essence of sin.
If I run away from him for 85 years, it is an infinite sin… and we are choosing to run away from him… and if your plea is you don’t know, now it is too late… you know…
“Hell is not a place where people are cosigned because they were pretty good people who didn’t believe the right stuff for their eighty years: They’re consigned there, first and foremost, because they defy their maker and want to be the center of the universe. Hell is not filled with people who have already repented, only God isn’t gentle enough or good enough to let them out. It is fill with people who, for all eternity, still want to be the center of the universe… What is God to do? If he says it doesn’t matter to him, then God is no longer a God to be admired… For him to act in any othe way in the face of such blatant defiance would be to reduce God himself.” D.A. Carson
And then there are people who say its not the same that this condemnation play out the same for hitler as it would anyone else.,, which is true which is why the Bible says every piece of the condemnation will play out to the actual level it needs to.... look at what Jesus teaches...
21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
There are more and less bearable.... there are levels… we dont get to put God on trial anymore… justice is played out.....
ANd then people say You wouldnt put fire against your worst enemy why is God doing this… fire was a common image of judgment...
You can toss Christianity if you want… but this is real… and whatever it means it is NOT good… it is awful… and revelation tells us it goes on forever… and there wil lbe a judgment for people who reject the son and it will go on forever… and I dont want poeople to experience it
and CS lewis on hell says this
“There is no other way to the happiness for which you are mad. Good things as well as bad… are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire. IF you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God… just hands out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality and if you are close ti it, the spray will wet you. If you are not you will remain dry. Once man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?” CS Lewis
To wither and die in the soul is a horrible state.
but lets not stop… the other option John 3:18
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
To be saved… John 3:19
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
So what is actually happening? We are coming into the light… when people don’t believe its not that they are dumb, they just can’t see. Paul tells us 2 Corinthians 4:4
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
We’re blinded, we can’t see, we’re in the dark. When people haven’t believed in the son, they have loed the darkness and their works are evil… what a jerky thing to say, but evil doesnt feel like evil… it doesnt feel like what you think… thats when the bible talks about evil, its not like what you think when you look at the bad street… its noit always bad looking… and some of you are in this state of darkness and it doesnt feel that way because you have been duped, and you have been blind… and the scary thing is you don’t know whjat you dont know… we are blind but don’t feel blind so s we think we are fine