What is Hell Like?

Ashley was in town yesterday and we went to our usual hangout locale where we can get great coffee and great food. We were talking about the students and about youth group on Sunday. She asked a brilliant question, "do you think they understand hell?" I told her that I thought so and that I make it a point to be real honest about hell and my understanding of it. But then Ash talked about how her dad explained it to her when she was younger... it was profound and I will do my best to re hash what she said.

Every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17). That means that laughter and friendships and relationships and joy and smiling and everything that you love comes from our heavenly Father. To be in hell means to be eternally separated from Him and His good gifts. Imagine for eternity never smiling, never having a moment of joy, never experiencing the feeling of being right with God, never having someone ask you how your day is going, never being able to laugh, or even feel comfortable. Never ever for a moment experiencing any of the joys that you have come to know in your lifetime. It sounds horrible. It sounds absolutely terrible.

That is why when Jesus explains it in Luke 16 the man in hell is in torment and begs for even just a drop of water(vs. 24). And he pleads that they could warn his brothers so they too will not come to 'this place of torment' (vs. 28). 

Friends, hell is misery. It is a separation from your loving Father and everything good you have ever experienced. Think of hell often and let your knowledge of hell and your love and awareness of the Giver of all good gifts be a motivation to share the news of salvation.

The Cross Again

I love the cross! It is central to my life... Even though it is a grotesque Roman tool of execution. It is through the execution of One man that life was given to many.... and that life was given to me! O that precious cross! 

Below I have begun to describe how to get to heaven. In a nut shell I tried to explain the gospel. But, there are so many elements to the gospel. So, it is not easy to pack it up and McDonnie it. (That is a term I just made up to help describe our culture's desire for quick and easy drive through style). Anyways, the gospel has so many different elements and Christ giving me His righteousness is the one that mobbed my heart this morning at church... 

Not only is Jesus our substitution but He is also our righteousness. God demands perfection. He is a perfectly holy God and cannot be in the presence of sin. So we are separated from Him. In order for us to be with Him for forever we have to change. I am so soiled and dirty that I can't make the dress code for this party. But, another truth about me is that I am so messed up that even my best efforts to clean up will not make me ready for the party. The bible says that our 'righteousness acts are like filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). 

So I have the wrath of God pointed at my head like a nuclear missile... and Jesus covers me like a bomb shelter. Then, after Jesus absorbs the whole wrath that is due to me. I put on His righteousness like a garment. I am given a royal robe. I am clothed with something that doesn't belong to me. Jesus' righteousness. You see I am inherently bad. I am selfish and arrogant. But, Jesus is in the business of crucifying those parts of me. And after He crucifies an area of selfishness He places in me His ability to be selfless. Not just in the area of selfishness, He places in me His ability in whatever area He is working on... In me there are many.

Let me try to illustrate a little more. Imagine I am standing in line for a concert. It is something that I have wanted to attend for years and now I have finally made my way to the event... As I get closer to the front of the line I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I start to think I might not be able to get in. As I get closer and closer the feeling gets stronger and stronger. In fact, I start to despair that I could ever go in. When I reach the front of the line my suspicions become reality. I am asked to present a ticket that I do not possess. My heart sinks. But, at that moment a man presents me with a ticket. His ticket.

That is how it is with righteousness. What you require to have to be in the presence of God you do not possess. But, out of the grace and mercy of Jesus He presents you with a ticket (His Righteousness). He grants admittance into the Kingdom. It is bizarre because really you did nothing to deserve your being there. That is what makes grace so weird and religion so easy to fall into. We know of nothing that insults our pride like grace. 'We need to be justified on our own account' according to our screaming egos. 'You better earn your keep.' Even after we have received grace we still struggle. We want to do something. We want to earn favor. The weird thing is we already have it we just have to believe. 

Believing that Jesus gives us His righteousness is another element in getting to heaven. Believing on Him for righteousness. This morning I thought about my failures this week and I thought about Jesus being for me. It wrecked me man. The God of the universe stoops down to me and provides what I can't for me. He loves me that much that He doesn't cast me out when I mess up but instead He provides a way for me to be right with Him. Isn't that phenomenal?! Doesn't that make you want to praise Him?

The Cross

Last night I asked some of my Jr high guys how to get to eternity... The answer was telling and heartbreaking. They said, "you have to be good" then another chimed in, "you have to 'not sin'," and yet another, "you have to read the bible," and "you have to teach others how to be good" My jaw dropped. Not that I should be surprised that some Jr high boys have a hard time with the gospel, the gospel is bizarre. But, I kind of felt stupid for not having made it very clear for them. 

So I told them graciously that they were wrong. And I asked if they would like to know how to get to eternity? It is a simple question and the answer is profoundly important. In fact, I am planning on spending a couple weeks at youth group explaining this now.

To get to heaven you don't have to be good. In fact you will not find any good people in Heaven, except one... The King. You do not have to read the bible in fact a good portion of the people there will have been illiterate when they were on earth. You don't have to be a great proclaim er of the truth helping others to be good. There is only one way that grants entrance to eternity. Jesus. 

More on Getting to Heaven

Here is a little more elaboration on the question, "how do you get to heaven?" 

Everyone of us is inherently bad. I know it sucks. You are bad. If you defend yourself right now you are only confirming your pride and displaying your anarchy towards the King and showing that you don't understand your state. You, me, your friends, our friends, coworkers, etc... we are all bad. In fact, we each have offended God. Today even. We have disobeyed Him, disrespected Him, belittled Him, ignored Him, and that is just some sins we have committed toward Him, not to mention sins we have committed against His people that He has made in His image. And this took place today. So, we have broken good laws that He put in effect. 

Now if He wants to dismiss offenses that is good and fine but it is not just. That would be like letting a criminal go free. If someone breaks laws and if the judge just says, 'I don't care you are dismissed' that is not justice. That is ignoring the issue that the law has been broke and there is a punishment due. If no one is punished then it is like saying the law really isn't that important. Let me just say it is. All God's law is important and life giving. Every last letter of the law that was drafted with complete knowledge of the world that He created and each part of the law is to preserve that which is good about creation. Let's illustrate this a little. Take the opposites of the law and apply them to yourself. Others steal from you, others cheat you, they lie to you, they hate you, etc... that is clearly bad so the law is good. We want the law. So, ignoring the punishment doesn't work because the law is good and should be upheld. 

That puts us in a predicament. We are saying that  we have broken the law and it would be non justice if punishment is dismissed. But, we are in real big trouble because we have broken the commands everyday. Let's look at a few laws, loving God, idolatry, and coveting. Ok, most of us have broken the first command everyday. We do not love God like we should in fact most days we don't even think about Him. We wake up and take a breath but we do not give thanks for the oxygen or the sun rising or that our hearts are still beating. In fact, we ignore Him completely on some days. We don't even entertain a single thought about Him. So, strike one. Then we can look at idolatry. Every day we commit idolatry. Sometimes it is with our food. We think that we get our life from our food. We think that without it we perish. We think about what we are going to have for lunch and how it will taste. We plan our days around our meals and idolize the food that we put in our bellies. Idolatry. Or maybe you aren't a food person but you enjoy your hobbies. Maybe your hobby is TV. You love your favorite TV program and you schedule your week around your show. You have to watch that show or DVR it so you can watch it later. You idolize the show. Or maybe you idolize something else, your popularity, your job, your car, your favorite sports team, etc... Strike two. How about coveting? Desiring what you don't have. The opposite of being content. Everyday I am sure you see something that you want. An advertisement or something that a friend has. Or something that you drive by. Most of us covet everyday. Strike three. There are three broken laws. Maybe we don't break those three specific laws every day but there are plenty more that we break so let's just say we break 3 a day. Now I am 26 years old and I will subtract 5 years that maybe I won't be morally responsible for. So, 21 years, 3 sins a day equals 22,995 sins. Imagine standing before a Judge with that many speeding violations. You would be in trouble.

Now God in His great love for you is not going to make you pay. He actually made His son pay for you. The judge, who with ample evidence shows your transgressions, then takes off His robe and steps from behind his bench and says, "I'll pay. I'll be the one that takes the punishment." Then invites you to believe. If you believe and trust then you get granted access to His kingdom.

Now what does He mean by "believe" because the bible says "even the demons believe and shudder" so what does Believe mean? It means that you actually completely trust. There was a silly pastor with a BB gun that asked who believes I can shoot this balloon with the BB gun? Most people raised their hands. Then he said, "who believes enough that they would hold the balloonwhile I shoot it?" Less hands on that one. Then finally he asked, "who believes enough to hold it in their teeth?" One guy kept his hand up so this pastor invited him on the stage and took aim.... He shot the balloon and nearly lost his job but the point is you can say that you believe without really being willing to make a change. It is easy to sit in a crowd and say "Jesus is my sacrifice. He paid for what I deserve." It is a completely different thing to 'hold it in your teeth.' 

Do you believe?

Acts 2- Get Over Yourself

"Some, however, made fun of them and said, 'they have had too much wine.'" (vs. 13)

The Holy Spirit descended on the believers at Pentecost and filled the disciples with power and supernatural abilities. They proclaimed the gospel in different tongues and astonished the masses that were in town. It was a distinguished event in history where believers were marked with supernatural power from on high... And it is from this foundation that the early church got their steam. In fact we could talk and talk and talk about the early church and their explosive beginnings found in Acts 2 but the thing that is gripping my heart and mind this morning is that even though this event was so profound and unique it still is ridiculed by onlookers.

Imagine for a moment what it would be like to be one of these disciples!? I mean, this would be an event in your life that would be so profound to you! More profound than your graduation, or the day you got your first car, or even your first love... A tongue of fire descended from heaven and touched your head!? Then you spoke a language that you have never studied or read or even cared to know!? I didn't even finish a semester of Spanish! Now I am speaking some crazy language... God is so stinkin' cool!

Not only did the amazing happen but also the routine. The disciples got made fun of. Not only did they speak in other languages (totally unique), they also got made fun of (totally routine). It makes me extremely aware of how much I hate being made fun of. Think through how much of your life you avoid ridicule. We will naturally do almost anything to avoid being deemed weird or over the top or ridiculous. We avoid it. We flee from it. I can think of so many times when I 'hid' my Christianity so others didn't think I was weird. But, the reality of being a Christ-follower is that you will be a little ridiculous. Others aren't going to grasp you commitment. It will look weird. In fact, real Christianity should be met with a little ridicule. I love the way Paul puts it, 'if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men' (1 Cor 15:19). Meaning that our lives should be so focused on eternity that if there isn't one, we should look really stupid. Does that define your life though? For most of us I think the opposite is true. We actually look like our lives are all about here. And, we want God to bless this life so that we can keep up with the world because we really don't want to be the silly Christians on the block. We just want to fit in. We aren't being ridiculed for our faith because most people don't even know that we are. 

So, this morning I want to challenge you to be a little weird. Pray in public. Tell people the reason why you hope in God. Sing worship in your car so that even with your windows up you can be heard. Walk out of sticky situations that are morally questionable like movies or what not, tell others how much you love Jesus and don't be afraid to take a little ridicule for the King of the World. We too often hide our light under a bowl. Take it out. Get made fun of. The believers in Acts 2 did it. So should we. 

Luke 20- Looking Forward to Eternity

So I am hung up on the word Eternity... About a year ago at Outdoor Outreach our keynote speaker, Bobby Sheets, told a story of a man in Australia who literally wrote "eternity" all over the city with chalk. He knew the importance of word and wrote it everywhere to remind people of the importance of Eternity and their mortality. His name was Arthur Stace, he was a homeless alcoholic who found Christ and began his ministry. His story is powerful... It actually made me want to get a tattoo of the word "eternity" probably on my wrist to remind me that anything I put my hands to should be focused on eternal things. But, I am chicken so I wonder if I ever actually will.



Jesus felt strongly about eternity too. He talks about it a whole lot. And in Luke chapter 20 we find him pointing people to it again. When questioned by the chief priests and the teachers of the law he begins to tell a parable; A man plants a vineyard and rents it to some farmers then goes away for a long time. Then the owner of the vineyard begins to send servants to the farm but the tenants would beat them and send them away. This happened on multiple occasions until finally the owner decided to send his son. The tenants when they saw the son decided, "this is the heir, Let's kill him and the inheritance will be ours." So, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Then Jesus pointed out, "what will the owner do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others."

What Jesus is showing in this parable is that God is the owner of His Kingdom. He has entrusted the Jews and now the Christians to tend to his vineyard... He then proceeds to send prophets but no one wants to hear their message. It is too offensive. Too radical. So, we dismiss or worse yet ridicule or in the time of old we would kill them. But, God is patient and enduring so He sends more... eventually He even sends His Son, Jesus Christ. When Jesus came our sin and our wickedness lead us to believe that we could kill Him and be done. But when that owner shows up what will He do? He will give the vineyard to others and they will spend forever with the Owner.

We are the wicked tenants. We disregard God's messengers. We trample Jesus blood under our feet as we dance in our sin. But friend, please think of eternity! We might be masters of our vineyard today. We might have control over our lives and our plans and we might dismiss what God the Owner is saying to us now. But, what will it feel like to answer to Him? The real authority! The appropriate way to live our lives is found in verses 17 and 18. We are supposed to revere Christ as a capstone! Live our lives at his feet. Crushed by his Glory and Majesty broken over our sinfulness and in awe at His authority.

""The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone."
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." -Luke 20:17-18

Jesus is that stone. One day we will see his authority forever. We will worship Him forever. Don't be the wicked prideful tenant. Humble yourself now to worship him forever. We want to be a people that are "considered worthy of taking part in that age (verse 35)."

ETERNITY