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"Looking at the Gates of Hell"

The Afterlife #4 Luke 16:19-31

by Clancy Nixon

April 27, 2008

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

Even if you know almost nothing about sculpture, you are probably

familiar with the piece by Auguste Rodin, titled "The Thinker." The

sculpture is a cultural icon, almost a cliché, used in advertising for decades,

including this recent send-up by Honda. We're used to seeing the sculpture

alone, and it represents for most of us a kind of brooding, existential,

philosophical view of life. Indeed, many castings were made of this

sculpture, and you can see it alone. What most people don't know is that The Thinker

was not originally designed to be viewed alone, but rather is part of a larger installation

called The Gates of Hell. The Gates of Hell were commissioned to be

bronze doors to a museum in Paris, as you see here. Rodin admired

Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, and The Gates depict many of the

characters we read of in Dante's Inferno. I remember reading Inferno in

college, and several images from that great poem were seared into my

memory, including the unwed lovers Paolo and Francesca, who we

encounter at the first level of Inferno. The Church has taught that lust

was the least bad of all the sins, so he has Paolo and Francesca as the

least harshly punished of all the inhabitants of Hell. So "The Thinker"

isn't a loner; and he's not thinking about socialism, or meaninglessness. The Thinker is

the artist, or he's you or me, and he is surrounded by the reality of lost souls; he's

contemplating the varied consequences of eternity in hell.

I love beautiful art, and I remember visiting the Louvre museum in Paris and

encountering "The Kiss," Rodin's depiction of Paolo and Francesca, and staring at it for

over an hour. I heard of an art student in Paris who so loved Rodin's original installation

of the bronze doors so much that she said this: "I'm certain that I could stare and stare at

the Gates of Hell - forever!" ... Think about that. Surely it's better for us to look at Hell

in one message so that we don't have to look at it for all of eternity.

If you've just arrived at Church of the Holy Spirit, we're in the middle of a

sermon series on The Afterlife. First, we looked at what the resurrection of the body

means; second, we considered what the Bible says about the New Heaven and the New

Earth; and third, we looked at what relationships will be like in Heaven, even about

animals in heaven. Today in message #4, we look at the other side of the story at Hell.

We church people don't talk much about Hell anymore. It's as if preachers know

that great danger awaits those who spurn Christ as their Lord, but these preachers believe

that somehow, it's no longer sporting to mention it. Even evangelicals don't call it Hell

instead they speak of a "Christ-less eternity." It's not politically correct to mention Hell

in church - except in the Apostles' Creed, and even there, it's pretty safe, because Jesus

goes there for only 3 days before he is raised. By contrast, secular people refer to Hell all

the time, like when they say that they are "sure as Hell," or that bad experiences "hurt

like Hell." I saw a cartoon recently about a group in Hell that brought a petition to Satan,

suggesting that it was cruel to call them "The Damned," that instead they should be called

the "salvation-ally challenged." Gary Larson jokes about Hell with cartoons (like this

one) you see, the demons "just aren't reaching this guy" who whistles while he works.

We can laugh about it; but when you think about the reality of Hell, it's no laughing

matter.

Texas pastor and writer Tony Evans says that most people think we are in the land

of the living on our way to the land of the dying. But actually, we are in the land of the

dying on our way to the land of the living. Death is a conjunction, not a period. It is the

bridge between this life and the next. In Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus,

Jesus said at verse 22, the poor man died and," then "the rich man also died and" (italics

added.) Luke 16 could have been a very short chapter if Jesus had simply said, "These

men died, period." That would have been the end of the story. (Tony Evans Speaks out

on Heaven and Hell, p. 7) The Bible is clear that at death, our souls pass into conscious

existence in eternity - either in Heaven or in Hell. The Bible knows nothing of

"purgatory," which is thought of as a place where the dead offer atonement for their own

venal sins through works of purification and suffering. That teaching is mistaken, since

Ephesians 2:8-9 says that "It is by grace we have been saved, through faith - it is the gift

of God - not by works... lest any man should boast." Nothing but the blood of Jesus can

ever save us.

I know a man named David who was a heroin addict who had a near-death

experience. We don't build our theology on experiences like this, but they can help us to

understand our plight. He lay dead in his car from a drug overdose when he was found.

When asked to tell what the death experience was like he shared that he saw himself enter

a long dark tunnel, spiraling downward in a dark vortex toward what he knew was Hell.

He was terrified, and he remembered the training of his childhood, and he began calling

on the name of Jesus. David called out again and again for Jesus to save him. Suddenly,

he no longer sank, but began to return upwards, and saw his soul return to his body. By

the time I met him, he was a believer in the Lord Jesus, grateful to be saved by what he

understands to be a very special gift. Friends, Hell is a real place, and it is the default

destination of humanity, apart from the Lord Jesus. That is not my opinion; it's the

opinion of the Lord Jesus. Don't believe anyone about the Afterlife other than the creator

of the universe and his word, the Bible, because you can't afford to get this one wrong.

My Clinical Pastoral Education advisor at Asbury Methodist Home was a

revisionist man who told me he thought Hell was a fantasy of people who have a bizarre

need to see others punished in order to feel good about themselves. His argument wasn't

with me, but with Jesus. Jesus speaks about Hell frequently in the Holy Scriptures to

warn us away from it. He spoke of "weeping and gnashing of teeth," (Matthew 8:12) and

of "the fire that cannot be quenched." (Mark 9:43) Jesus' word for Hell is gehenna,

which was the valley of Hinnom just south of Jerusalem. In this place, the Israelites under

bad king Ahaz placed children on a fiery altar dedicated to the god Molech. (2 Chronicles

28:3) This valley became the city dump where refuse and the bodies of criminals were

burned. The Bible tells us that Hell was originally created for Satan and his angels, not

for humanity.

Does this mean that hell is a literal furnace of fire where all the lost will scream

in torment for all eternity? Based on Scripture, the Church Fathers, Luther, Calvin,

Francis Shaffer, and J.I. Packer all say no to that suggestion. (RBC Ministries, What

Does the Bible Say about Hell?) Jesus tells us that different degrees of culpability will

result in different degrees of punishment. Jesus said that the ancient inhabitants of

Sodom would be treated with more mercy than those of his day who deliberately rejected

him. (Matthew 10:15; see also Luke 12:48) God is just and absolutely fair, and even as

rewards in Heaven differ, so will punishments in Hell. As Dante depicted in Inferno, it's

only the worst offenders who will face the worst torments for all eternity. Even so, Hell

will never be Heaven. My sad acknowledgement that my dear mother, who was an atheist

all her days, is very likely there, has always motivated me to tell others about Jesus.

Hades is another Greek term that was translated as Hell in the King James

Version, but it is distinct from gehenna, which is the final doom of unbelievers. The rich

man in our gospel story from Luke 16 is found in Hades. This corresponds to what in the

Old Testament was called "Sheol." While Hades is a place of suffering, it is the

intermediate state or holding cell for unbelievers until their final judgment by the Lord

Jesus at the Great White Throne at the end of time. (John 5:24-30; Revelation 20:11-15)

C. S. Lewis, in his masterly novel about a bus trip from Hell to Heaven called The

Great Divorce, tells us that Hades is a bleak place, but its inhabitants' characters have

been so formed that they would not choose Heaven even if they were to be given the

choice to go there. Note that this is a novel, and the Scriptures give us little hope that

anyone will be given a second chance after death, as the rich man in torment found that

there was no movement across the great chasm in Luke 16. In Lewis' story, an apostate

Anglican bishop is given the chance to repent and go to Heaven, but he refuses, because

he does not want to live in a place where the answers to the big questions have all been

settled. He'd rather have his debating society in Hell. As you and I read this story, we

see how absurd this man's logic is, but we realize that this is what he has chosen. People

who choose Hell have a perverted understanding of what they are doing. Lewis says this:

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be

done", and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done". All that are in Hell

choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and

constantly desires joy will ever miss it." (Lewis, ch. 9)

What will happen to you when you die? That will depend on what you've chosen

to do with Jesus. If you know Him as Savior and Lord, you don't have fear death; you

won't need to wake up in the middle of the night wondering what will happen to you

when you die. Even though we sin, our salvation is not at issue when we sin, if we have

real faith, a faith that leads to repentance. The Apostle Paul asks at 1 Corinthians 15:55,

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" If you know Jesus,

death won't sting you at all, because, verse 56 and 57, "The sting of death is sin.... But

thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

One day a little boy was riding in his car with his father when a bee flew in

through the window and started buzzing around. The boy began to scream, "The bee is

going to sting me!" But his father reached out and grabbed the bee. He held it in his had

for a few seconds, and then released it. The bee began to buzz around and the boy started

to cry again. But his father said, "Son, you don't have to be afraid. All the bee can do

now is to make noise." Then the father held out his hand, and there in the palm of his

hand was the bee's stinger. (Tony Evans)

On the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ took the stinger of sin, which is death. So

all death can do now is make noise for those who trust in Jesus Christ. While our bodies

will one day die, our souls will live forever. One day, we will all be held accountable for

what we did with Jesus Christ, and what we did with our lives. On that day, both death

and Hades will be destroyed. (Rev. 20) Our Father in Heaven does not want any to

perish, but that all would have everlasting life. God is long-suffering and patient, but one

day our time to choose will urn out. Don't forget God's promise of Heaven. That is what

we were made for. A place of no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrow. We'll have

new resurrected bodies and joyful relationships. We'll enjoy an everlasting reunion with

our loved ones at the heavenly banquet, and we won't have to watch calories!

I got a phone call last evening from a man who was facing death from cancer, and

he was afraid to die. He was afraid that he might not go to Heaven. If you'd like to be

sure that you are going to Heaven, you can have that assurance today. All you need to do

is to pray to give your life over to God, to confess your sins, and to receive his

forgiveness and the comfort of his Holy Spirit.

Don't stare at the Gates of Hell forever! Let's pray. "Lord, I admit that I'm a

sinner. I want to be with you forever - not in Hell, but in Heaven. I believe that you took

the sting for me when you died on the cross, so that I could live forever with you. Send

me your Holy Spirit, and help me to grow in you. I love you, Jesus. You are my Lord

and

Savior.

Amen."