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Sermon ~ “Hell”

Matthew 13:49-50

 

Our Lord spoke about the doctrine of hell, and often, even as we read from Matthew 13:49-50, and we do so in Jesus name:  "This is how it will be at the end of the age.  The angels welcome and separate the wicked from the

righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teach."

 

According to a 1990 Gallop Poll, 78% of Americans say that they believe in the existence of heaven, while only 60 percent indicate that they believe in hell. I'M AMAZED AT THIS!  Not because fewer people believe in hell than heaven-- I expect that!-- but that 60% of the people interviewed actually believe in hell.  I would have thought that far fewer people would have taken hell seriously.

 

To say it another way, I don’t believe that 60% of Americans live as if they believed that there really could be a hell for them in their future.  I don’t see lots of evidence that people are concerned about hell.  For example, the average weekly worship attendance within Christian congregations is 1/3 of its total membership.  We at Immanuel have about 800+ souls, and we average about 325 in weekly worship attendance.  So we’re slightly above the 1/3 watermark.

 

Still, if 60% of our people really believed that hell could be in their future, it seems to me that at least 60%, or 480+, of our people would be attending weekly worship.  Doesn’t that seem to make sense?  It does make sense, unless, and I think that this is the key to our quandary, many of those 60% who believe in hell have made it so difficult to get into it that they feel sure that they’ll never end up there...  nor will their uncle who never worshiped...  nor will their friend who is an adulterer...  nor will Sam who uses God's name constantly in bad circumstances... etc., etc., etc.

 

I really think that many Christians who say they believe in hell don't see a significant relationship between sin and damnation, and so they’ve made hell almost impossible to get into.  This was not the view of Jesus when he said, "Enter by the

narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to

destruction, and those who enter it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

 

It’s so easy, for example, to stay at home on Sunday morning rather then worshiping our great God.   It's so easy not to take on duties in the church.  Then again, it’s so hard not to channel our money into the things that give us pleasure and short-

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