Real Life Selkirk
**May 24** Judgment & Hell (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-51
  • God So Loved
  • We Will Remember
  • If it's True
  • Graves Into Gardens

  • Sermon

    Today, we have a deep and heavy passage to navigate. I want to start by asking you to say something with me:
    “I would rather my pastor...tell me what the Bible says...than what I wish it said”
    Thank you for your permission.
    Get your Bibles ready!
    We are breaking up the rest of the parables in Matthew 13 this week and next week.
    We are going to discuss two very similar parables from Matthew 13. Both of them point to the same concept that Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven.
    Jesus told a parable, then told a couple more, then went back and interpreted the parable for his disciples, then a bit later, told another parable similar to the first one.
    We are going to pull these two stories together.
    They are not going to flow smoothly on your page, but they will make sense when we talk them through this week and next.

    Key Passage

    Matthew 13:24–29 NIV
    Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
    Matthew 13:36–43 NIV
    Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
    Matthew 13:47–51 NIV
    “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they replied.

    Connect to Church

    As we’ve gone through this passage, I have done my best to tie Jesus life to discipleship and talk about how discipleship is the pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven.
    Jesus says “follow me”. If we lay down our authority and allow Him to be that authority, we follow Him right into the Kingdom where we find salvation of our souls, forgiveness of sin, purpose for life and an eternity with Him.
    Today, we are talking about the other side of that coin
    There is a reality for those who do not deny themselves and follow Jesus.
    God has been laying on my heart deeper and deeper to make sure that everyone who walks in the doors of this church, should not leave without having their discipleship challenged and eternity clarified.
    This is what a Biblical foundation looks like.
    So today, we are going to answer a really challenging question:
    “What did Jesus say about judgment and hell?”
    I’m not too worried about you all here today, but over the last nearly 20 years of ministry, I’ve picked up a few things from books, watching others and being in the church.
    If you want to grow the church, there are three categories that you should never bring up:
    Politics
    Money
    Hell
    I have great news for you today. We are not going to preach about 66% of those topics!
    Today, I want to bring up the topics of judgment and hell.
    We are doing this because the two parables we just read talk about them.

    Relate to Life

    Hell is something that we have all heard about. It is a culturally familiar topic.
    I grew up going to church in the 1980’s. It seemed like hell was talked about a lot.
    I remember thinking, “Heaven sounds ok, but I need to get saved so I don’t go to hell”
    I remember that we would go to church Sunday morning, Sunday Night, and Wednesday night.
    And when a revival preacher would roll into town, we’d be at church during Monday night football, Tuesday night MacGyver night, etc.
    A few guys who would come in would really get excited when they would talk and they would start adding “ah” at the ends of their words and adding syllables.
    He started by adding the syllable to the word “hell” and making it “He-ll”
    Then he added another saying “He-l-l”
    Then he added the emphasis “uh” at the end “He-l-l-uh”
    Am I the only one? I think it may have been a southern thing.
    We weren’t allowed to say the word ‘hell’ because it had four letters like the other swear words.
    It was one the pastors could use, but as a 6 year old kid, I wasn’t allowed to use.
    So my friends and I adapted and started saying things like “H-E- double hockey sticks”
    Or the Christian cuss word “Heck”
    We would also use our calculators and type in 7734 and turn it upside down.
    I was such a rebel.
    Back in those days, the church spoke about hell a ton! Maybe too much.
    But I think that now, the pendulum has swung in the other direction and the church doesn’t seem to talk about it at all.
    That doesn’t mean the world has lost the idea
    I want you to think about this. How can a person who has never been to church know about hell?
    There are a lot of church things people outside the church don’t know about, but they all know about hell.
    The world teaches a complete and comprehensive theology about hell.
    The world teaches what it is, what goes on there, who lives there and who goes there.
    It sounds something like this:
    Hell is a place of fire where there are parties, debauchery, unchecked sin, and the king of hell is the devil. Either those who reject God and want to party eternally or the serial killers go there.
    Here is the problem with that teaching. None of it is true. If the world is telling this story, and it is untrue, then what is that story? It is a lie.
    Where do these kind of lies come from? Satan, the Father of Lies.
    Satan is teaching an evil and demonic theology of hell and Christians are embracing this teaching in our world.
    What has happened since the church has abandoned teaching about judgment and hell?
    What has happened since Satan’s message has been accepted as truth?
    Really this was Satan’s first lie.
    In Genesis, “Satan told Eve, ‘surely you shall not die’”
    But what was the result? Judgment and death.
    It is my job to tell the truth from the Scriptures. It is your job to make a decision.
    Why would Satan tell this lie?
    NON-CHRISTIANS CAN REJECT JESUS WITHOUT FEAR
    I can reject the Gospel and my options are an eternal party or I’m good enough to get into heaven anyways. It sounds like a win-win to reject the Gospel.
    BELIEVERS CAN AVOID SHARING THEIR FAITH OR HAVE NO URGENCY TO DO SO
    If we don’t understand what the Bible says about hell, we can allow our fears and discomforts to dictate our conversations.
    We see the same situation
    GOD WILL GET LESS GLORY IN OUR LIVES
    Only those who fear God’s wrath are amazed by God’s mercy
    We must understand the truth of what we are saved from in order to grasp the love, mercy and grace of a holy God.
    We see Jesus on the cross as the single greatest statement of love as opposed to a holiday.
    How do we worship, if we don’t understand the true consequence of our sin, the love and sacrifice of Jesus, and God’s unmerited life and eternity with Him?
    I want to identify a few ideas about what the world teaches about hell.

    What the world teaches

    I’m going to go through this really quickly, but Satan throws a ton of belief options at us.
    What they all have in common is that they deny the Biblical teaching that Jesus opens up today.
    Naturalism— There is nothing except nature. No soul. No Heaven or Hell. You live then you become dirt.
    No moral judgment and it doesn’t matter how you live you life
    LIE
    Universalism— Almost everyone goes to heaven. All religions are the same and it is our good intentions and good behavior that gets us into heaven
    Jesus said, “I am THE way, THE truth and THE life. NO ONE comes to the father except THROUGH ME.”
    LIE
    Reincarnation— When I die, I come back as something else.
    Oddly, I hear Christians often joke about this. “In a past life, I think I was a cat because I like to sleep all day.”
    LIE
    There is no Karmic debt. You don’t come back Jesus said
    Hebrews 9:27 “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,”
    Annihilationism— Saved people go to Heaven. But people who reject God go to a furnace where they are burned out of existence.
    This comes from people, possibly in my generation who heard about hell so much and missed out on the love of Jesus and only heard the wrath.
    This takes the edge off of the Gospel and makes it a little more palatable.
    God doesn’t need a PR firm to clean up the Gospel so this generation can accept Him.
    This teaching is the Biblical theology of Justification in reverse. It tries to justify God to our liking.
    But God doesn’t need to be justified to us. We need to be justified to Him.
    LIE
    Purgatory—(Catholicism)— We go to a place that is neither Heaven nor hell to burn off our sin for a while, then God will accept us into Heaven.
    When Jesus died on the cross He said, “It is finished”. Not, “It is just about finished. I did 80% of the work, now you have to languish in a place the Bible doesn’t talk about for an unspecified amount of time so you can burn off the sin that you can never undo anyways.”
    LIE
    Jesus-ism— Please open your Bible to Matthew 13.

    Preaching

    Jesus talks about hell and judgment twice as much as any other person in the Bible.
    Over half of his parables talk about judgment or hell in some way.
    We need to de-program our thoughts about God.
    We need to re-program God’s thoughts about God.
    Jesus came as a lamb. He came in love to be the sacrifice for sin so there could be both salvation from Hell, and hope of eternity in Heaven with the Father.
    But when Jesus returns, it will be as a lion.
    It will not be a passive Jesus leaving the choice to us. There is a time for us to wrestle with the truth.
    Then the truth will arrive and there will be a judgment. There will be punishment for those who have rejected, and mercy and grace for those who have followed.
    Nothing in between.
    Again, this is my part to tell the truth, it is your job to make a decision.
    Chapter 12, Jesus is in conflict with the religious elite. They are plotting to kill him
    We saw last week, that Jesus began to speak in parables. So some would see the truth revealed and others it would be concealed.
    Eyes to see and ears to hear.
    Matthew 13:24–30 NIV
    Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
    I want to remind you of the setting here:
    Jesus is sitting in a boat. There is a crowd on the shore. In the crowd are a blend of all sorts of people.
    Some were the disciples who had left everything to follow Jesus
    Some were the curious.
    Some were the skeptical
    Some had rejected
    Jesus had just told a parable about some of these conditions of the heart.
    So now, He tells another story about another field and another crop.
    A farmer sows his field. Then an enemy comes and plants weeds all throughout the field.
    When the weeds come up, it is indistinguishable from the crop.
    The farmer says, “Let both crops come up together and I’ll separate them at the harvest time.
    So when the harvest comes, he sends out the harvesters and they separate the weeds from the crop.
    The weeds get tied into bundles and burned.
    The crop goes into the farmers barn.
    The disciples heard this and were curious. Thankfully, Matthew chose to interpret this parable for us.
    Last week, we spoke about how to appropriately interpret a parable. We will put that into practice today:
    How to Interpret a Parable:
    Simple singular point
    Context, Context, Context
    Drives hearer to a decision
    Matthew 13:36 NIV
    Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
    Jesus is going to give the disciples an incredibly simple, but powerful and profound teaching.
    Matthew 13:37–39 NIV
    He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
    Sower— Jesus
    Field— World
    Good Seed— People of the Kingdom
    Weeds— People of the evil one
    Enemy— Devil
    Harvest— End of the age
    Harvesters— Angels
    Repeat Parable with Interpretive Elements:
    New International Version (2011) Chapter 13

    The kingdom of heaven is like

    Does this sound accidental? No
    Last parable, Jesus was planting the truth about the Kingdom and it produced people of the kingdom
    Now He is planting people of the kingdom into the world
    Do you ever feel like you don’t fit? Like you wish you lived in a different century, or a different place or time?
    You were planted for right here and right now. It is not accidental, I’ll reiterate last week’s point.
    Seek Him and become fruitful in your time so God can be glorified in your life.
    New International Version (2011) Chapter 13

    25 But while everyone was sleeping,

    This is why we must be people of the word. How do we know who are people of the kingdom and people of the evil one? It isn’t just that one is killing people and the other is not.
    They look similar.
    There are good people in this world. Good people who are nice and helpful.
    That isn’t bad, but they are not pointing you to Jesus.
    To the people of the Kingdom, there is one thing that matters, The Kingdom and serving the King.
    We live in a world of Kingdom people and people that are people of the evil ones
    I want to clarify here that this parable has a singular point.
    You can try to get into the whole, “Well how does a good plant make a weed into a good plant?”
    This is not a parable about evangelism. This is a parable about judgment.
    New International Version (2011) Chapter 13

    30

    I believe we can see the point of the parable here. Jesus explains the point further:
    Matthew 13:40–43 NIV
    “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
    There are a few things that I want us to notice here:
    There are only two kinds of plants in the field
    There are only two kinds of plants in this field
    There are only two kinds of people in this world
    People of the Kingdom
    People of the evil one
    There is no third option
    Either you are a devoted follower of Jesus or the point of this parable is going to apply to you.
    There is an end to the age
    The righteous and the wicked plants are growing up together.
    Both are enjoying the sun in the daytime and the rain that falls from the clouds
    Both have a time of living, growth and even fruitfulness of their own kinds
    But that day will end.
    I don’t know that we live as if our age will end.
    We think there is no urgency of the Gospel until we hit our 70’s because we are looking at the end of OUR age.
    There will be a moment where THE end of the age will happen and the harvesters will come.
    The harvesters are coming
    Jesus is very clear about this point
    He will send the harvesters (reapers)
    We think of the grim reaper as this ghostly type figure.
    The Bible talks about reapers and they are the angels.
    They are simply watching what is happening in this world and awaiting the command from Jesus to come.
    They will come and (v. 41) “they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.”
    Hell exists
    This passage says, “They will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
    This phrase is graphic and ought to haunt all of us.
    I want us to understand the Greek language of this phrase
    People take the English and twist it to say what they want it to say.
    But literally, this is called a nominative verb.
    Literally, these people will become “weepers and teeth gnashers”
    They don’t experience pain for a moment and cease to exist.
    Their identity is completely changed to:
    Weeping from their lament and regret
    In Philippians 2 it says that “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of the Father.”
    In hell, the tormented soul will know the truth better than they ever did on earth.
    They will know that Jesus is Lord, but it will be in punishment, not in glory.
    Gnashing of teeth from their agony.
    They don’t cease to exist. They exist in agony.
    This is a vivid picture.
    What is hell?
    The most common word Jesus uses for hell is “Gehenna”
    The word for Gehenna comes from an actual place outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem
    The Valley of Hinnom which is a valley that runs on the SE corner of Jerusalem.
    Two wicked Kings set up idols to false gods in this valley.
    Ahaz set them up. Hezekiah tore them down. Manasseh set them back up.
    They would worship their gods in part by the sacrifice of their children.
    Years later, Josiah tore them down and declared the valley of Hinnom to be defiled.
    The people considered this valley to be cursed of God.
    Even to this day, they consider this valley cursed of God and people won’t build there.
    It is still a valley, much like it was thousands of years ago with King Josiah.
    The valley was considered to be ceremonially unclean
    The valley of became a dump for the ceremonially unclean parts of Jewish society
    Carcasses of dead animals, bodies of executed criminals, and even the sewage from the city would be dumped in the valley of Hinnom.
    In order to keep the disease and repulsive odors of that valley from spreading, they would light fires.
    The fires would burn day and night consuming all of the garbage outside of the city.
    When Jesus said, “Do you know what hell is like? It’s like that valley.”
    Matthew 25:41 NIV
    “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
    This and other places show that hell is a place that God created to punish Satan and his demons.
    This drives to the question, “Who are you going to follow.”
    There are two destinations. Jesus and Satan.
    One you will follow Jesus and He will open the door to Heaven
    The other, you will follow Satan and he will open the door to hell.
    Again, I am here to tell you what the Bible says. You are here to make a decision.
    Jesus paints a parallel picture a few verses later:
    Matthew 13:47–50 NIV
    “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
    There are only two kinds of fish
    There is an end to the age
    The harvesters are coming
    Hell exists
    We need to see that this is a significant teaching.
    There is only one separation in the soul that is brought into the presence of the King and the one that is eternally in hell. That separating factor is Jesus.
    The opening phrase of both of these parables is this
    The Kingdom of Heaven is like...
    Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no way into the Kingdom
    In Jesus Christ, anyone can be in the Kingdom
    If this school was on fire, I wouldn’t want to stand up here and passively say, “If you want to believe that the school is on fire, please exit in an orderly fashion.”
    If you don’t want to believe, I’m sure you’ll be ok.
    I’m going to yell, I’m going to be strong, I’m going to be clear.
    Why? Because you need to get out so you can live!!!
    Our passage today is one of the deepest urgency.
    In eternity, no one will say, “Jared, I wish you had preached about hell less.”
    I wish you would have been more gentle with this subject
    I wish you would have made this sermon more culturally relevant and acceptable.
    Instead, I think of hundreds or even thousands of souls of people I’ve known crying out saying, “You knew?” “How could you know and do nothing? Say nothing? Think that conversations about fishing were enough?”
    I don’t care if this room is full or not after this sermon. I care that you all know the truth. This is what Jesus said and we have to speak the truth in love, but in truth.

    Conclusion

    So many in our world, in our line of “Christianity” or even in our community or church look at this and say, “It really doesn’t seem like God is very fair. Why would God judge us so harshly for sin that we were going to do anyways?” “God’s wrath?”
    The minute we talk about Judgment or Hell, we go into the mindset that the world has taught us and ask, “How is that fair?”
    Trust me, you don’t want fair.
    When my kids say, “It’s not fair. I wish you would let me do this, or that!”
    Every dad instinct in me says, “You want fair? OK, here is your part of the mortgage. We all live here equally, let’s all pay equally.”
    You want fair? Here is your part of the internet and phone bill. You can use the percentage of what you can pay.
    You want fair? You eat the food you buy.
    The reality is that I know that while my kids live at home, they cannot provide these things for themselves. I Intentionally cover their portion of rent, food, and everything else because I love them and I know they need it.
    It really isn’t fair, but it is love.
    The only place of existence in this world that everything is truly fair is hell.
    Every single person in hell gets what they deserve.
    The only place in all of existence that is truly unfair is Heaven.
    No one gets what they deserve.
    Everyone in heaven lived a life of sin and God poured out His unmerited favor upon them. Why? Jesus.
    I’ve heard many people say, “How can a loving God send me to hell?”
    But I’ve never heard anyone ask, “How can a just God let me into heaven?”
    God doesn’t need to defend or justify Himself.
    If we don’t see sin and judgment like I am describing, then I believe you are looking at sin and judgment incorrectly. I implore you to change your view and align it with scripture.
    Don’t try to align scripture with your view.
    Again, I am here to tell the truth. You are here to make a decision.
    I want to close by answering two questions:
    How can a God of love send anyone to hell?
    This question is built on a misunderstanding of hell
    2 Thessalonians 1:8–10 NIV
    He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
    Hell is eternal separation from God.
    This is what you chose. You chose to separate yourself by rejecting God. You live eternally separated from God.
    God isn’t going to give you what you don’t want. If you don’t want God, you won’t have God.
    God doesn’t send people to hell. They go based on their own choice.
    This isn’t what God wants
    Ezekiel 33:11 NIV
    Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’
    So if God doesn’t want people to go to hell, why doesn’t He do something about it?
    John 3:16–17 NIV
    For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
    The love of God is seen in His making a way to salvation through our sin.
    Question #2 as we close
    What does the reality of hell mean for me?
    For Christians in this room:
    This gives us clarity to see the world around us as it really is.
    We may see republicans and democrats, we may see racial differences, we may see wealthy and poor. But when God looks at this world, He sees wheat and weeds. He sees two kinds of fish.
    Charles Peace
    There was a guy in the mid/late 1800’s in England named Charles Peace
    Lifetime criminal
    He would use disguises, pick locks and do acrobatic burglaries. In our day, they would make a movie about him.
    He fell in love with his neighbors wife and shot her husband.
    There was a bounty for Charles and he was on the run for two years before he was caught.
    He was convicted of murder and the day before his execution the chaplain came in to read to him.
    The chaplain read from a book called “The Consolations of Religion”
    “Those who die without Christ experience hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death itself can bring.”
    It was what they read to every criminal before their execution
    The Chaplain was reading in a monotone voice and just “going through the motions”
    Charles Peace knew his life of crime and was impacted by the gravity of this description of hell.
    Charles Peace stopped the chaplain and said:
    “Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”—Charles Peace
    I want you to know something. God is doing something special here at Real Life Selkirk.
    God has blessed us with so many things that the world would say are curses.
    Homelessness, moving, changes every week.
    In spite of it all, God has faithfully grown His church.
    God is giving us the opportunity, the crossroads to just be a church or to start winning the world for Jesus.
    This is not a motivational speech.
    This is a statement of reality.
    We will continue preaching the Gospel. The lost have to get in earshot of it.
    There is a sphere of influence our church has relationally in this community.
    Start reaching them and praying for the lost.
    Unbelievers
    Call on the Lord while He can be found
    Tomorrow is not guaranteed
    The Sprit may be pressing the reality of eternity upon your heart.
    Respond today.
    Gospel

      • Matthew 13:24–30NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:36–43NIV2011

      • Matthew 25:41NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:47–51NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:24–30NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:36NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:37–39NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:40–43NIV2011

      • Matthew 13:47–50NIV2011

      • 2 Thessalonians 1:8–10NIV2011

      • Ezekiel 33:11NIV2011

      • John 3:16–17NIV2011

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