“The Eternal Trash Heap”
John 5:16-30
April 20, 2008
On Tuesday of this past week someone in our congregation stopped by my office to share a few concerns with me. This person—whom I’ve known for a long time and whom I consider a friend—said to me, “Pastor Fred, the sermons that you’ve preached these last two weeks have bothered me. You’ve talked about the role of repentance and the importance of obedience, and it almost sounds like you are preaching that we become Christians by performing good deeds and not by just accepting the free gift of love that God gives us through Jesus. Pastor Fred, that really concerns me.”
My response was: “Good!” I meant that not in the sense that “I’m glad that you don’t like my sermons.” Nor did I mean that it was good in the sense that “I’m glad to set you straight!” I meant that it was good in the sense that “I hope you will now go back to the New Testament and read it again. Check it out. See for yourself whether what I have said is true to God’s Word.”
Three weeks ago we started this study that I have called, “Take Another Look at Jesus.” I have pointed out to you that all of us have a tendency to emphasize the parts of the Bible that make us feel good. All of us are attracted to certain parts of Jesus’ teaching more than other parts. Our natural tendency is to emphasize those teachings that we are most comfortable with and minimize the things that he teaches that make us feel uncomfortable. I am just as likely to do that as anybody else.
Therefore, whenever you receive any kind of teaching that is said to be based upon the Bible, you always need to go back to the Scriptures themselves and check out what you hear. That is true for every sermon you hear in this church and every teaching that you hear on TV or on the radio. Glitzy presentations are not a guarantee of truth. We should always be asking ourselves, “Is this really what the Bible teaches?” Our goal is not to create a Jesus who resembles our likes or the traditions with which we have been raised. Our goal should be to follow the Jesus who walked on this earth and whose deeds and words are recorded for us in the historical records of the New Testament.
This morning we are going to look at a subject that should make all of us feel uncomfortable. In fact, I’m afraid that for many Christians in our culture this teaching comes across as something of an embarrassment. But we need to study it because Jesus teaches about it. We need to know what Jesus says about how God is going to judge this world and every one of us who is in it.
The first thing that we need to have firmly planted in our minds is that Jesus teaches the reality of God’s judgment. One of the ways that he does that is by teaching about hell. Look at a couple of examples of what Jesus has to say on this subject.
28 Do not be afraid of those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can
destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Matt. 10:28)
8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. (Matt. 18:8-9)
Those are just two of many passages that we could look at. (See also Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5.) Jesus frequently talks about hell. As a matter of fact, Jesus has more to say about hell than anybody else in the Bible! We can go even further than that. Except for a single use of the word by the apostle James (James 3:6), Jesus is the only person who ever uses the word hell in the New Testament. The apostles Peter and Paul never use the term.
Why is that? There is a simple explanation. The word that is translated as “hell” comes from the Hebrew expression gehenna. Gehenna actually refers to a valley that is on the southwest side of the city of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament that valley had been used for the worship of Molech, a idol who required child sacrifice (2 Kings 23:10). Later on the city’s garbage was dumped in that valley and burned there. To the people who live in first century Palestine, Gehenna is a trash heap. It is a disgusting place in every imaginable way. Jesus and James use the term because they are teaching people who live in Palestine and who understand what Gehenna refers to. Peter and Paul never use the term on their missionary travels or in their letters because it doesn’t mean anything to people who live outside of Palestine.
We have a term here in Bemidji that can maybe help understand this. We all know this term and use it and never even think about it because we know exactly where it is. But if you are from out-of-state, it doesn’t mean a thing. Do you know what expression I’m referring to? “Paul and Babe.” For us “Paul and Babe” is a place. We all know where that is, don’t we? But if you’re from Iowa . . .
It would have been the same thing with the expression Gehenna in the first century. People in Palestine know what Jesus is talking about, but not people in Greece or Rome. That’s why Peter and Paul don’t use the term. They teach about God’s judgment, but they don’t use the term Gehenna or hell.
When we realize that history and meaning of Gehenna, it should make us cautious in our thoughts and statements about hell. At one time or another you have probably heard some Christian give a description of what hell is going to be like. That is a topic that I would suggest we should avoid. Yes, Jesus does talk about the “fire of hell” in Matthew 18:9, but that is probably because trash heaps usually smolder and burn. Hell is a figurative expression that Jesus uses to communicate a terrible reality. God is going to judge. It is that reality that needs to be stressed, not the scenery or temperature of hell. “God is going to judge,” Jesus says, “and to experience that judgment will be like spending eternity in a massive stinking and burning trash heap.” You want to avoid that all costs!
Some people might respond to what I’ve said so far by saying, “I don’t really care how the word hell is used in the Bible. It’s the whole idea that God is going to judge in any way at all that I found repulsive! Doesn’t Jesus teach about God’s love? Isn’t that what we should be emphasizing, not all this disgusting talk about hell and judgment?”
The answer to that accusation is that Jesus does indeed teach about God’s love. That is the good news! Jesus teaches that God does love this world that has turned its back on him. Jesus does even more than teach about God’s love. He embodies God’s love. His coming to this earth and his sacrifice of his life is the ultimate expression of God’s love. But Jesus also teaches about God’s judgment. Our job is not to pick out the part of Jesus’ teaching that we like. We need to hold on firmly to both truths: God loves this world and God is going to judge this world.
Furthermore, we should recognize that there are benefits that come from this teaching on judgment. First, as surprising as it may sound, it brings us comfort in times of injustice. God is not blind to what is taking place in this world. He does not ignore what is happening to us. He does not dismiss evil as unimportant. On the contrary, God is aware of and taking note of every act of injustice that takes place on this world. He does not bring his judgment upon people immediately. Instead he is extraordinarily patient giving people more than sufficient time to repent and change their ways. But the Bible says that he will not wait forever. There will come a time when he will make sure that justice is done. When you and I are experiencing injustices in this life, that certain knowledge about God’s future judgment can bring us the comfort that we need. Justice will be done!
There is a second benefit to this teaching about God’s judgment. It brings us comfort in times of injustice, and it also reminds us of our significance in God’s sight.
Maybe that needs a little explanation. Think about yourself. Don’t you want to count for something? Don’t you want to know that you are not just a little puppet that God controls with supernatural strings from heaven? We don’t think of ourselves that way, do we? We reject that idea. We find that idea repulsive. Our choices in life are important! That’s why we want to make them and not have someone else make all of our decisions for us.
I think of Bangladesh. Marriages in that country are almost always arranged by the parents, and the decision is entirely up to the parents. When we were over there in February, we heard stories about students who had fallen in love at the university. But then one or the other of them had gone home during some break in the school year, and, lo and behold, the student’s parents announced that the student was getting married during the break. The parents had found the person that they wanted their son or daughter to marry, so the wedding was going to take place in a few days or in some cases in just a few hours! It didn’t make any difference that the student was in love with somebody else back at the university. The parents had decided, and that was all that mattered.
How would you students like to go home and find that your parents had arranged that kind of little surprise for you? You wouldn’t like that, would you? None of us would want to be treated in that way. We want our desires to be taken into consideration, and we want to make decisions for ourselves. We want to be taken seriously!
The Bible says that God takes us seriously. He does respect our choices. He does not force himself upon us. If you and I want to ignore him, he’ll let us. He accepts that decision not only for this life but also for the life to come! Think about it! The choices that you and I make in this life produce results that are going to ripple all through eternity. If you and I want nothing to do with God, he is not going to require us to be with him in heaven. If we choose to live apart from him, then—as terrible as that will be—he will let us do so. In one sense God does not send anybody to hell. He just lets us live with our own choices.
If that is how seriously God takes us, then each and every one of us need to take seriously the choices that we are making about God.
Jesus
teaches the reality of God’s judgment.
That’s the first thing that we need to learn, and it is the hardest
thing for people today to learn. That’s
why I’ve devoted do much time to it this morning. But there is a second part of his teaching
that we dare not miss. Jesus also
teaches us how to be rescued from God’s judgment.
24 Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my
word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but
has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a
time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in
himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27
And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. (John 5:24-30)
Jesus
says two astounding things in that paragraph.
First, Jesus is the Judge. Jesus
states that directly in verse 27. “And
he [the Father] has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of
Man.” Jesus is the Judge. Maybe you have never thought of Jesus that
way. Maybe you don’t like to think of
Jesus as the one who is going to judge you.
But remember that our job is to learn who Jesus really is, not to make
him into someone we want him to be. The
Bible teaches that Jesus is the Judge (Acts 10:41; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1).
But
let’s quickly note that there is a second part to Jesus’ teaching. He is not only the Judge. He is also the Savior. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has
crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).
Jesus is the one who judges, but he is also the one who rescues us from
judgment.
That’s kind of puzzling, isn’t it? How can Jesus be both the Judge and the Savior?
Here’s another puzzle for you to consider. Where do we see both God’s judgment on sin and God’s rescue of sinners most clearly?
The answer is at the cross.
At the cross we see the punishment of sin. Jesus hangs in agony on that miserable piece of wood. The New Testament tells us that he hangs there not just because his enemies have conspired against him to take his life. No, there is more to it than that. Jesus is bearing in his own body God’s righteous and just wrath against sin. That tells us something about how serious a problem sin is, doesn’t it? At the cross God’s judgment on sin is on clear display!
But it’s at the cross where we also see most clearly God’s love. Jesus willingly goes to that cross to die. Think of what Jesus says in John 10:18. It’s one of the most thrilling and awe-inspiring verses in the entire Bible. Jesus says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “Nobody is making me die. Not the Romans! Not the religious authorities! I’m making the choice, and I’m choosing to give up my life!” Jesus goes to the cross because he wants to take the punishment for sin for you and me! Could there be any clearer picture of love than that?
It’s been said that for each and every human being sin will be punished at either one of two places—either in hell or on the cross. Where will your rebellion against God receive its just punishment? Will you be experiencing that punishment in hell or have you trusted that Jesus has already taken it for you on the cross?
This sermon was preached at the Evangelical Free Church of Bemidji
on April 20, 2008 by Dr. Frederic M. Martin.