Luke 12:3-5 "Hell"

Eight of the top ten most popular movies right now are horror movies. Scary movies. Movies that allow us to experience dark and terrible things from the comfort of a nice chair. Apparently people like that sort of thing. So, you should all be very happy to learn that today Jesus is going to threaten His disciples with sending them to Hell. 

I know I’m not supposed to talk about the bad place, though. It’s not nice. Not polite. It makes people uncomfortable. Why can’t we talk about happy things like kittens instead? Puppies? What we’d do if we won the lottery!

People are like, “I don’t like it when preachers talk about scary things like God’s eternal rejection and damnation! They should just talk about Jesus.” Then the same people are like, “Have you seen the new Hellraiser movie? Dude! Scared the bejeebers out of me. So great! Let’s go see it again!”

One of my favorite services I put together at my previous church almost got me fired. I hadn’t quite been there a year and my boss was going to be out of town one Sunday—it was close to Halloween—he encouraged me to do something creative. He said he trusted me. Ha.

I brought in some musician friends and we played all heavy metal versions of the praise music. My arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” came from that set. It wasn’t the music that got me in trouble though. Ha.

We had a vicar—a pastor in training. I asked him to wear all black and preach the entire sermon as a Biblical character. To never break character the whole time he was on stage. He loved the idea. He got in trouble, too.

During the service, I set him up by playing a Rolling Stones song. “Please allow me to introduce myself…” We played Sympathy For the Devil as his theme music.

Then the room was filled up with fog and all the lights went red—thunder and lightning. Shook the room like a haunted house. After a few minutes, the lights returned to normal.

He came walking up from the back of the room toward the stage, talking the whole time. “Yeah. That’s how you would expect me to show up isn’t it? All spooky and scary. That’s not really how I roll anymore.”

Then he preached the whole sermon as the devil. Everything he said was a lie. He was funny and charming. Some people were confused. 

It was so great. 

When the pastor came back and heard about what we did he was not pleased. He drew a target on the whiteboard in the conference room, said, “This is our target.” You guys were aiming somewhere over there on the back wall. It was a couple years before I was left unsupervised with worship planning. ha.

Oh well. I still thought it worked. For years people would say, “How come you guys never do anything cool like that time when you had the devil preach?” 

When was the last time you heard someone preach on Hell? Have you ever heard anyone really go for it? Other than maybe a passing reference? On the other hand, have you ever heard anyone complain about the whole idea of Hell? How a loving God would never throw people into a place like that? How does that make any sense? 

Today Jesus is going to talk about some heavy things. I don’t think we’d be very good disciples if we skipped over the really serious things He has to say. Even when those things are scary. 

Luke chapter 12, verse 2.

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. Luke 12:2-3

We ended with this verse last week. Jesus had spent an evening with some Pharisees and came back warning about the toxic danger of hypocrisy. When we believe one thing but do something else we’re hypocrites. When we try to look a certain way in front of people but act different when we’re by ourselves or behind closed doors we’re hypocrites. This verse makes it clear that it’s not only God who sees right through us when we’re phonies but everyone else will too.

No one gets away with anything. 

Clinical Psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson said, “I've never seen anyone get away with anything. Ever. The chickens always come home to roost..let's say you get away with something - it's like, yeah, you think so, man. You wait - 5 years from now, 7 years from now - it'll come back..you don't have the power to manipulate reality.” 

He talks about how in his counseling practice, all the things he sees people try to bury in their souls, hide from people, all the lies, all the cheating, all the ways people don’t live up to their consciences, their own standard of right and wrong—those things rot us from the inside out. 

Shame, guilt, regret. These are cancer to the human mind—our sanity, our happiness, our peace. Dr Peterson is echoing Jesus when He says all those things we try to hide from everyone, even ourselves, will always come to the surface. The more we suppress them, the more the darkness takes over.

Modern man tries to deal with all these things by denial and bandaids.

Anytime we know to do right and don’t do it, that’s sin. Anytime we know something is wrong and do it anyway, that’s also sin.

But our culture says there’s no such thing as sin. That there’s no reason to feel guilt and shame because you didn’t do anything wrong. That’s denial.

And even though there’s no such thing as sin, people still carry guilt and shame for those sins that don’t really exist, but our culture says they need to stop self-medicating with their drug of choice (booze, pills, ice cream, lasagna)—don’t self-medicate—take their pharmaceutical prescription psychotropics to numb their guilt and shame instead. All those things are just bandaids. Bandaids are fine. I mean, sometimes they’re really helpful to give us time to heal but they don’t actually do the healing.

I’m not against psych meds but listen to what I’m saying—two big points:

One, when you do something you know is wrong it’s going to damage you. When you sin, it damages you. Deeply. You might try to get away with it but no one gets away with anything. Your sin will find you out. Nothing is hidden that will not be known. We all sin and so we’re all damaged.

And two, the second big idea is this:

That’s why Jesus came to forgive sins. There was no other way. The forgiveness He offers because of His death on the cross is the only thing that truly heals, it’s the most important thing in the world. There is nothing more important than offering people forgiveness for their sins. It’s the only thing in the world that actually does anything about the soul rot sin causes, the weight of the guilt—the burden of the shame. 

You’ve probably experienced this firsthand—at least I hope so. Most of us have confessed our sin and felt the heaviness lift off us. Felt clean. That deep joy of believing our soul has been washed clean and we are free of the weight—that God has truly saved us from our sin.

But sometimes we kind of lose perspective. We hear, “Jesus forgives us of our sins” and it bounces off our calloused hearts like a cliche’. Like something we’ve heard so many times it lost its meaning. Like a joke we’ve heard before. Like a song we’ve heard too many times. “Jesus forgives us of our sins” sounds like when someone yells out “Freebird” at a concert. 

Everyone carries such heavy things in their hearts. Like soldiers with PTSD. The things we’ve done, things we should have done. Everything that causes guilt and shame and regret. All the stuff people try to hide behind smiles and small talk. 

And what do we do? All of us who have heard and believed those sweetest words—that our sins are forgiven because of Jesus. Too often we forget that we have the most powerful remedy in the world for all that suffering. We have the only real solution to those soul-crushing afflictions of guilt and shame and despair. We have the Gospel. What Jesus does for hurting people that they can’t do for themselves—and no one else can do it for them either. He forgives sins. Lifts the burden. Removes the stain. Makes people right with God. We have it. We have the cure. It’s like we have it in our pockets but just keep it for ourselves. Instead of offering them the one sure thing that would help them, we stick to plastic smiles and small talk.

We need to find a way to tell them what someone told us. 

That when their sin bubbles to the surface of their lives, when their darkness comes to the light—when they’re heavy with guilt and shame and regret—they can confess it. Call it what it is. Turn away from all the darkness and admit everything they’re trying to deny. Uncover what they’ve been trying to hide with the bandaids. Listen to the voice of the Spirit who is offering forgiveness and salvation—and come into the healing of His presence. Turn away from the bad and turn toward the good. 

Confess, repent, and believe.

But we get caught up in day-to-day existence, we lose perspective. We forget what Jesus has done for us. We stay quiet about our faith—our hope. We don’t offer them the one thing that could really help them. Why?

Why don’t we tell people about Jesus?

I have some theories.

We either don’t really believe He can do anything for them…

Or we don’t really care enough to help them…

Or we’re afraid of what might happen if we start talking about our faith.

I can’t think of any other reasons why we would stay quiet. Can you?

We either don’t really believe. Don't really care. Or we’re afraid.

In this chapter, Jesus is just getting started on His teaching about what it means to be one of His disciples and He’s not going to pull any punches. You might want to buckle in.

Verse 4… 

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 
Luke 12:4-5

First, we need to slow down enough to realize He called them “my friends.” Jesus considers His disciples His friends. Brothers, sisters, and friends. He’s our Lord. Our God. He’s our Savior. He’s also our friend.

Then we need to consider what fears are influencing how we live.

When we find ourselves in a situation where we should probably speak up and tell someone about what Jesus has done for us. Maybe they’re telling us about something going on in their life and we know the only way out of the hole they’re in is by grace through faith. They need the Gospel. They need God's help. They need to trust Jesus. But we don’t feel comfortable bringing it up. It’s awkward.

Or maybe someone asks us point blank. “So, are you one of them Christians?” And we don’t want to deal with what they might say or think if we told them. Oh, they might not say it like that. It might be more like, “Hey, want to join us for brunch on Sunday morning?” and we don’t want to admit that we make worshiping God the highest priority in our life, especially on Sunday morning so we either give another reason for why we can’t make it, or we skip church and act like the rest of our godless culture. See, that would have been a really good time to invite them to join us at church—offer to go to brunch with them after. Or maybe someone at work says, “me and the boys are going to a strip club on Saturday, you want to go? Or does your wife have you on too short of a leash?” Basically, any conversation where our faith should be the real answer but we dodge it like a bullet.

Or maybe sharing our faith might have other consequences—it could get us in trouble at work. Or lose friends at school. Or risk a bad grade. Or cost a possible promotion. Or put us at risk of being lumped in with alt-right conspiracy advocates.

Those are all pretty mild consequences. Jesus was actually talking about life and death for His disciples. He said, “My friends, don’t fear people. What’s the worst they can do? Kill you? That ain’t nothing. They can’t do anything worse than that. If you are my disciple, don’t be afraid of people.”

He knew His disciples were going to face real consequences if they admitted they were Christians. Like in a few short years if those disciples wanted to buy or sell anything they were going to have to burn a little incense to the emperor—just a little Caesar worship, no big deal, right? Burn the incense and go about life as usual—or refuse and be executed.

Fear of people isn’t supposed to be our motivation for anything.

And I know we think Jesus is way too nice to say mean things like the second half of this verse, but Jesus doesn’t pull punches when He’s training His disciples for battle in the real world—neither should we. So let’s deal with it, “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

This is about how we choose between what feels like a rock and a hard place. We have to make a choice: on one side is someone who might not like it if we do tell them about our faith in Jesus—on the other side is Jesus’ dad who’s really not going to like it if we don’t.

He’s not really threatening to throw His friends into Hell. That’s not the point.

We have to choose who we’re going to let motivate our decisions—the people who can only kill our body or the One who has the authority to throw people into hell. And the only one who can do that is God.

So at last we have come to Hell. What do we know about Hell?

There are three kinds of Christians when it comes to Hell. Those who don’t believe it exists because they think it would make God a meanie. Those who believe it exists but don’t want to talk about it because they think it makes God seem like a meanie. And those who believe it exists and love to talk about it because they’re a big meanie.

The Word of God speaks of Hell as a real place. It’s a terrible place for people who reject God’s salvation that He offers through Jesus. The main person in the Bible who talks about Hell is Jesus Himself. One of His stories is about Lazarus the beggar and a rich man who both die. The beggar goes to paradise and the rich man goes to Hell. You can say, “Yeah but that’s just a story to make a point.” Okay, find me another one of Jesus’ stories that isn’t based on reality—the way things actually are. None of His stories are fantasy or science fiction. Also, Jesus talks about Hell more than He talks about heaven.

In Luke, He talks about a great chasm over which none may cross from there to us, that it’s a place of eternal torment. In Matthew Jesus says people will be separated into two groups, one entering His presence and the other banished to eternal fire where people will gnash their teeth in anguish and regret, a place of outer darkness, and compares it to Gehenna, which was a trash dump outside the walls of Jerusalem that was always burning, filled with maggots and stench—it used to be a place called the Valley of Hinnom where Jews who had started worshipping false gods sacrificed their children to Moloch and Baal. Mark calls it a place of unquenchable fire where the worm does not die. This is all Jesus describing Hell in vivid images—He clearly thought it was an important thing to, um, burn into people’s memory.

Here’s the thing that’s hard to explain to someone that hasn’t believed the Gospel: Hell is proof that God is good. It’s not something that should make us doubt His goodness. Talking about Hell is more of a warning than a threat.

God is holy. Righteous. Pure. Just. God is good. Nothing can come into His presence that’s not as good, righteous, pure, holy, and just as He is. God is light and in Him is no darkness. All darkness is destroyed in His presence like shadows in the sunlight.

We are all shadows. We are all bad, unrighteous, impure, not holy, not good—so what’s He supposed to do with us? 

We’re also eternal. We’ll exist forever.

See the problem? What’s He going to do with all these eternal creatures who can’t be in His presence?

That’s where Jesus comes in.

God offers us mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. He gives us all the holiness we need by grace through faith in Him. Then we’re welcome, by faith in Jesus, to eternal life in God’s presence. Which is what He created us for.

But we sinned. And we continue to sin. We rejected God. And we continue to reject God. Hell is just a place for God to put people who don’t want to have anything to do with Him. It’s what Jesus came to save us from. God in His kindness and goodness is offering us salvation and warning us of what happens if we reject it. We can’t blame the stove when we stick our hand in the fire. 

We don’t have to be ashamed of the doctrine of Hell. It shows us how good God is. It shows us how important the mission of Jesus and the church is. And if we ever start to falter on the idea that Hell is a real place…

Like everything else, we just take Jesus at His word. Even when He talks about Hell. 

What do you think the devil would say about Hell?

If I was going to preach this sermon in character as the devil, I’d probably have him say things like: God is love, like sentimental romantic love, so He would never cast anyone into a flaming eternity of torment. Hell isn’t a real place. It’s all a bluff. A misunderstanding. There’s no such thing as Hell and by the way, there’s no such thing as me, either. 

There’s no reason to talk about your faith and make everything awkward. God understands that you’re shy and don’t want to talk about those things—you’re no good at it anyway. You don’t have to tell people about Jesus to be a Christian. What are you, a works righteousness Pharisee? A Bible salesman? Don’t be a nerd. You don’t have to read your Bible. You don’t even have to go to church. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Do whatever you want—that’s really the whole point of the Gospel. There’s no such thing as sin. Preachers only call something “sin” because they’re control freaks who can’t mind their own business. Bunch of judgy McJudgefaces. They aren’t happy and they don’t want you to be happy either. Same with Hell—it’s just a scary story they made up to scare children. Don’t worry about it, God’s a big pushover, you’re going to get away with everything. Trust me.

Yeah. Imagine if I did the whole sermon like that. Every word a lie. 

You know what’s really scary? He whispers all those things to us all the time. 

What has God done for us through Jesus about Hell that we couldn’t do for ourselves?

Hell is proof that God is Good. So good He sent Jesus to make sure you wouldn’t end up there.

When you hear these words: “Your sins are forgiven because of Jesus” believe them. Trust them. Feel them all the way down in your soul. You are not condemned. You will not be condemned. Your sins are forgiven and you are free from guilt—let go of your shame. Turn away from all the lies and all the doubt. Believe the Gospel. Jesus has done all these things for you. Your sin will not drag you to Hell. Thanks be to God. AMEN