Hell Fire

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family. 

Today’s parable is only found in the Gospel of Luke. Before we read it, I want you to know that I agonized over this sermon. It is very difficult to preach faithfully, and I ask for your prayers.

19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,

21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

It’s important to understand that the audience has never known someone so wealthy that they feasted every day, but it sounds amazing. It is far more likely they have encountered someone like Lazarus.

It is also important to know that the general belief was that rich people deserved to be rich and poor people deserved to be poor. And the audience would have recoiled at the mental image of this man, with sores being licked by the dogs.

Jesus has successfully placed two men side-by-side who were exact opposites in terms of status and wealth. But none of it matters at death.

22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried,

23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’

Notice that he doesn’t ask to be free of his torment. Instead, he asks only for a moment of relief, and he speaks as if Lazarus is still beneath him! Send Lazarus down here! As if Lazarus is just a servant. Keep that in mind, but I’m going to go ahead and read the rest of the parable.

25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—

28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’

30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

The thing about parables is that they are easy to visualize but somewhat difficult to understand because Jesus is being intentionally vague. He has not yet done everything He came to accomplish, and so he speaks almost in riddles at times.

On the surface, if you read this one quickly, it sounds like Jesus is sending rich people to hell and poor people to heaven – and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

And that may be what the audience hears Jesus saying, which would have frustrated them further. Remember, they think rich people deserved their wealth and poor people deserved their suffering.

But the difference between these two men is not just wealth and poverty. The difference is that one of them has a name and the other one does not.

There are more than 40 parables in the Bible. In most of those parables, there are human characters. But only one character in all the parables of Jesus has a name. Only one.

Lazarus. And his name means “God is my help.”

In other words, this is not just a story about a rich man and poor man. It’s a story about a lost man who happens to be rich and a poor man who puts His trust in God.

And that changes the story dramatically. He’s not in hell because he’s a rich man. He’s in hell because he’s lost. God is not his help. God is not his treasure.

If you read this parable as if one man deserves heaven and the other deserves hell, you’ve missed the point. The riches and the poverty are meant to illustrate that, in the end, only one thing matters – are you a friend of God.

Neither of them deserves heaven. Both deserve hell. But only one of them has God’s help.

And now we need to talk about hell. Of all the historic Christian doctrines, hell is the one people have the most problem with. I’ve heard it many times as a pastor… “I just can’t believe a loving God would send people to hell.” “How can finite sins deserve eternal suffering?”

But when you read the Bible, you discover that Jesus talks about hell far more than any other character in the Bible! It makes us uncomfortable (and it should), but Jesus thinks we need to hear it.

And we learn a few things about hell from this parable.

First, hell is a place of eternal separation. Abraham says there is a great chasm between heaven and hell. The Apostle Paul says in Thessalonians that hell is eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord. The only experience we would have of God is His wrath.

Second, hell is a place of eternal disintegration. The most common word used to describe hell is fire. But there’s a misconception about fire. Fire doesn’t technically destroy anything. It disintegrates things.

Fire is a chemical reaction in which nothing is actually lost. Instead, it just breaks everything down. And here’s the crazy part – scientists do not understand fire! It’s sort of a mystery. We know what it does, but not why.

And that’s how the Bible describes hell. It’s a place of disintegration. Apart from God, things start to break down. That makes sense, because the Bible describes the physical universe as being held together by God. In Him, all things hold together. All things live and move and have their being.

Sin began the process of breaking everything in the universe down. Death and hell bring it to fruition, because we are separated from the presence of God.

Third, hell is a place of eternal justice. Even though it makes us uncomfortable, hell is a completely fair and appropriate doctrine.

The most common objection to hell is that no one really deserves it. Why would a loving God send people to eternal punishment for temporary sins? We struggle to think that anyone has really earned that. But consider the opposite question…
Has anyone actually earned eternal life? Has anyone been good to enough to deserve unending bliss? And yet, here’s the crazy part. Most Americans believe they will go to heaven when they die. Almost half of them believe heaven can be earned. And only 2% believe they are going to hell when they die. Is it possible we’ve got some things mixed up?

The rich man doesn’t ask to be released, does he? He asks for temporary relief, but not release. I think that’s a clue about the nature of hell.

The Bible describes hell as God simply turning us over to the rebellion and emptiness we chose. It’s a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is a description of anger and bitterness. And we see hints of this in the story.

The rich man felt entitled, even in hell. It seems like he is concerned for his brothers, but he isn’t… he’s blame shifting. It’s a way of saying, “You didn’t give me all the information. If you had, I wouldn’t be here.”

He’s suppressing the truth. He still feels entitled to more. And he will not ask for forgiveness.

I love how C.S. Lewis explains this:

“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: ‘What are you asking God to do?’ to wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help?
—
But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.”

In other words, hell is simply God giving unrepentant sinners exactly what they want. Romans 1 teaches that all men have enough of the truth available to them to know they need God… but they suppress the truth in unbelief and God hands them over to their rebellion. Even a man rising from the dead will not convince them! A little foreshadowing there…

One final thing we learn about hell. It can be avoided. Why does God tell us about hell? So that it can be avoided. It’s not too late to repent.

He also tells us about hell so that we would know what Jesus suffered for us in love.

The horror of the cross was not simply the pain, the humiliation, and the death. It was hell. Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

That verse is a direct quote from Psalm 22 and the very next question in the verse says, “Why are you so far from helping me?” It’s the opposite of Lazarus – God is not my help.

In some way, in that moment, Jesus felt the Father turning Him over to the justice meant for His people. Jesus was offered no help. All so that we could be offered God’s help.

And that is the message here – we need to be saved from the poverty of sin and the disintegration it causes. Sin makes us less human. It’s gradual suicide against our own humanity. And it leads to death, followed by eternal separation from God, eternal disintegration, and eternal justice.

But not if we die in Christ. Jesus took our place on the cross, facing the wrath of God for our sin, experiencing death and hell for us. Three days later he rose from the dead, securing victory over sin and death and making it possible for us to receive mercy from God instead of justice.

Our part is admitting our sin and receiving His mercy.

Reject God’s mercy and you get his justice.

Receive God’s mercy and you get a name. You get a place. You get wholeness and hope.

This is the Gospel, and it is depicted for us in the Lord’s Supper. If hell is disintegration away from the presence of God, then union with Christ is integration, being made whole again by the presence of God. The table is a visible picture of that integration, receiving Christ and being nourished by Him.

Let’s pray and ask His blessing over it.