The OBPC Podcast: May 2017

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Tough Teachings of Jesus: Hell

This lesson was taught during the Sunday school hour by Andrew Hoy as part of the series Tough Teachings of Jesus. The audio for the lesson can be found here.

TOUGH TEACHINGS OF JESUS: HELL

Of the tough teachings of Jesus that we have studieD over the past month or so, each one has addressed a specific sinful tendency that we all deal with on a regular basis: pride, self-righteousness, self-reliance, disobedience. These teachings of Jesus are tough because it is painful to examine ourselves, to see our sin for what it is. But as difficult as it may be to be confronted by Jesus and to face our sin, when we bring our sin to Christ in repentance, there is joy and comfort, because we have a savior who has freed us from slavery, who has given us a new life, and made us children of God.

This morning, however, I will be addressing a tough teaching of a different sort -- a teaching that is not addressed directly to those of us who are in Christ. I am not going to be talking about sin (directly) or idolatry (directly); rather I am talking about the destiny of those who die outside of Christ. This morning I will be talking about hell.

Jesus teachings on hell are difficult for a different reason than many of topics that we have covered up to this point -- Jesus teachings on hell are difficult because hell is not a pleasant thing to think about. For some of us it is unpleasant because we have loved ones who we know have died without knowing Christ; for others, it is unpleasant because of the sheer horror that such a place exists. But as we have seen so far in this series, when we take serious all the teachings of Jesus, we will be blessed, even if it is difficult.

In this lesson I will begin with an overview of Jesus teaching on hell, and then address some of the errors that people frequently make regarding hell, and then share ways in which hell is an important doctrine for us as believers.

JESUS TEACHING ON HELL

But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

Luke 12:5

Jesus is not timid or reserved in his teaching on hell. And this is fitting. For who better to speak of torments of eternal suffering and separation from God, but the God-man himself, the one who would endure the consequences of sin himself on behalf of God's elect?

Jesus mentions hell, directly and indirectly, many times throughout his teaching ministry. In fact, Jesus speak of hell far more than anyone else in the Bible. Many of his references are passing remarks, rather than direct teaching on eternal judgment.

For example, in the sermon on the mount Jesus makes the following statements:

²¹"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,^[^a^] and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' ²²But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause^[^b^] shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.

^{Matthew 5:21-22}

and

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

^{Matthew 5:29-30}

Jesus also warns the scribes and Pharisees of the danger of their spiritual with statements such as:

¹⁵"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

^{Matthew 25:15}

and

³³Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Matthew 23:33

But as I read through the passages where Jesus mentions hell, the passage where Jesus most directly teaches about hell is in Matthew 25, where he addresses the final judgment and the separation of the sheep from the goats.

³¹"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy^[^c^] angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' ⁴⁰And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

⁴¹"Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:⁴²for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'

⁴⁴"Then they also will answer Him,^[^d^] saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' ⁴⁵Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' ⁴⁶And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

I am not going to do a thorough exegesis of this passage. Rather I am going to share five things that we learn from Jesus about hell:

1. All of mankind will face a final judgment. At this final judgment, all mankind will be split into two groups: the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus uses the imagery of sheep and goats quite fittingly, as these two groups are not arbitrarily divided, or divided by a small degree, but different in their fundamental natures. There is no such thing as neutrality when it comes to one's relationship with God -- a person is either a child of wrath and an enemy of God, opposing him in everything that they do or, a child of God, born through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, deemed righteous because of life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

2. Hell is the consequence sin. Specifically, it is the consequence of sinning against a holy God. Notice that as Jesus lists the various sins of omission that the "goats" are guilty of, that He (Jesus) is the object of their sin? Again, Jesus said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' There is a critical Biblical truth contained within this passage: no sin is against man alone. And this is why the consequences are so dire. While sin against a man may be dealt with by our earthly justice system, a sin against an infinite holy God must be dealt with by a heavenly justice system; and there is no way that a finite man can ever fulfill the consequence of sinning against an infinite and holy God, which is why hell must be his fate if he is to account for his sin.

3. God actively sends people to hell. Some teachers like to soften the Bible's teaching on hell by saying things like, "God doesn't send people to hell, people send themselves to hell." And while it is certainly true that people send themselves to hell in the sense that they are receiving the consequences of their own actions, this doesn't change that fact that God is active in his judgment.

C.S. Lewis famously said:

"I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside." The Problem of Pain

And while there is a certain truth here – that it is those who reject God in this life, will not experience a change of heart in the life to come – too many Christians want to appease modern sensibilities of tolerance by minimizing the Scriptures testimony to God as the judge of mankind.

4. There will be great suffering in Hell. While a variety of images are used throughout the Bible for the suffering of hell, this passage uses the classic language of "eternal fire" -- adding that this is the punishment intended for Satan and demons, to clarify any doubt as to the terribleness of this punishment. Through the history of the church there has been much debate regarding the nature of the "flames" and other descriptive words used in the Bible to describe the tortures of hell, but I personally find Calvin very helpful on this point:

"Now, because no description can deal adequately with the gravity of God's vengeance against the wicked, their torments and tortures are figuratively expressed to us by physical things, that is by darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, unquenchable fire, an undying worm gnawing at the heart. By such expressions the Holy Spirit certainly intended to confound all our senses with dread: as when he speaks of "a deep Gehenna prepared from eternity, fed with the fire and much wood; the breach of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it".

Calvin is in not way minimizing the tortures of hell by relegating the descriptions of hell to figurative language. If anything he is saying that these horrible images are the closest experiences that we have for describing hell -- and that the reality of hell's sufferings will be much worse.

But Calvin goes on:

As by such details we should be enabled in some degree to conceive the lot of the wicked, so we ought especially to fix our thoughts upon this: how wretched it is to be cut off from all fellowship with God. And not that only but so to feel his sovereign power against you that you cannot escape being pressed by it." (Calvin, Institutes III.XXV.12)

Calvin understood that ultimately the worst part of hell is not the natural tortures of it -- horrible though they may be -- but the eternal separation from relationship with God. But not just separation from relationship with him -- but to be eternal enemies of God.

5. Hell is eternal, just as heaven is eternal.

Of all the places where Jesus speaks of Hell, his passage most clearly testifies to its eternality. Let me re-read verse 46: ⁴⁶And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Notice that "everlasting punishment" is set next to "eternal life" – these are the two fates which await mankind, and they are both eternal.

And this is possibly one of the most scary things about hell – while the suffering will be excruciating, the only thing that makes it worse is that it will never end. We cannot comprehend this.

Consider the lyrics of Amazing Grace: "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, then when we'd first begun." For those condemned to hell, however, When they've been there 10,000 years, in sin and suffering; they've no less days of suffering then when they'd first begun. Eternal suffering is incomprehensible to our finite minds, and almost unbearable to consider for any extended length of time.

As Tito often says, what we have here is not a complicated Biblical teaching – but we do have something that is difficult. The final judgment and the eternal destiny of the souls of all people are serious matters, and probably not the first thing we turn to for our daily Bible reading. But thinking about them is necessary, and thinking about them accurately crucial, for since the beginning of the church there have been errors and heresies that twist the clear teaching of scripture to appease the sensibilities of man. So what I will now turn to is a few of the most common deviations from Biblical teaching when it comes to hell and the final judgment.

UNIVERSALISM

Universalism is the most overt of errors against a Christian view of hell, for at best it denies its permanence, and at worst it denies its existence.

I'm sure that many of us are already familiar with the general idea of universalism; in its most simplistic form, it says that everyone will be saved.

Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle give a helpful overview of universalism in their book Erasing Hell, saying

"The term Universalist is about as specific as the term Baptist. If you call someone a Baptist, all you've said is that they don't baptize babies--beyond this, it's pretty much up for grabs. In the same way, all Universalists believe that everyone will end up being saved, but this belief is expressed in a variety of ways."

They go on to elaborate that we can talk about religious pluralists who believe that equality of all religions. But then there are the so called "Christian" universalists, who ranged from what they call the "hopeful Universalists" who don't claim with certainty that all will be saved, but think that there is warrant in Scripture to think that it is possible. Yet there are also the "dogmatic Universalists" who teach that all will be saved, at least eventually.

Fundamental to any so-called "Christian" universalism is a belief in a second chance to accept Christ. This was the formulation of the church father Origen -- one of Christianity's the first systematic theologians -- who taught that given enough time, in eternity, not only would all mankind turn to Christ, but also Satan and all fallen angels as well. (It is important to note, however, that Origen was eventually condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constantinople in the 6th century).

Throughout the centuries universalism has continued to linger in various manifestations within the Christian world. A few that come to mind include George MacDonald, the well known fantasy author of tales such as The Princess and the Goblin and Phantasties; Karl Barth, the Swiss scholar, central to the neo-orthodoxy movement, who is esteemed by many as the most important theologian of the 20th century; and in the recent past, Rob Bell, former pastor of an urban Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan (and not to be confused with Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle), with the publication of his book Love Wins.

Just to give you a flavor of this modern manifestation of so-called "Christian" universalism, here is an excerpts from Rob Bell's book:

I've written this book for all those, everywhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pule rate to rise, their stomach to church, and their heart to utter those resolute words, "I would never be a part of that."

You are not alone.

There are millions of us.

This love compels us to question some of the dominant stories that are being told as the Jesus story. A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It's been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus's message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.

I hope that for everyone here, Bell's words seem foreign to Christianity. But it is important to note that Bell was a very influential teacher in Evangelicalism not even 10 years ago. He put out a popular series of videos (the Nooma series) that were embraced by conservative Evangelical churches. And while his book was largely dismissed by Evangelicals, there was an unfortunately large minority who embraced his thesis.

I could easily spend an entire Sunday school lesson examining the basis of so-called Christian universalism and show a Biblical case against it, but for this morning I would like to look at just one central dimension of it: the claim that you can get a second chance at salvation after you die.

This is central to Bell's own thesis in his book, and Chan and Sprinkle claim that "the one thing all Christian universalists agree upon is that after death there will be another chance (or an endless string of chances) to choose Jesus."

There are two clear Biblical cases against this position. The first is easy: there is no passage in the Bible that even alludes to the idea that anyone will have a chance to accept Christ after death.

The second is contained within the following passage from the Gospel of Luke:

And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'

(LukE 13:23-28)

While there is much that could be said of this passage, there is one thing that is clear: the door for salvation does not remain eternally open; there are those to for whom the door will be shut, and that will be a bitter and sorrowful day.

ANNIHILATIONISM

But while universalism is the most gross and blatant denial of hell, there are more subtle and cunning errors that I think that we may be more prone to accept, chief among them (in my view) is a position called Annihilationism.

Annihilationism, in short, claims that hell is a place of annihilation. It is not a place of eternal suffering and torment, but a place where all that is evil will be destroyed…for good.

Personally, there was a time when I found this view very compelling. In fact, when I came back to Christ when I was 21, there was a period in which I thought that I had lost my chance to be saved (based on a misinterpretation of the warning passages of Hebrews). During these days, the thought of hell was excruciating -- especially it eternality of it. Remembering those days still makes me shudder -- the thought of being damned to an eternity of suffering made me sick and almost crippled me.

In this season, even after I came around to believing that I had not lost out on my chance to be saved, thinking too long about hell would make me literally sick. So when I read about this idea of Annihilationism, I was drawn in. And there were verses that seemed to give it strong support, especially Matthew 10:28, which reads:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

And yet, as I continued to wrestle with this doctrine, I never felt settled with it. I believe that this was because I had read too much of my Bible – there is simply too much of a testimony to the eternality of hell in Scripture to deny this aspect of it. In fact, it was the verse that I quoted earlier, Matthew 25:46, which cornered me: in this passage the eternality of heaven and hell are set immediately next to each other – making it very difficult to justify how the "eternal" for hell is somehow different from the "eternal" for heaven. I was cornered, and as difficult as it was to accept, the truth had been made known to me.

A BETTER STORY

There is a third and even more subtle error regarding Hell that I would also like to address this morning. It is not an official heresy or something that is widely taught, but it may be the most likely error to be found here among us this morning.

For some, there is a casual, maybe even embarrassed, acceptance of hell, but not a true embrace of it as being part of God's perfect plan and reconcilable with his goodness and love. This is something that I have struggled with over the years, and at points still struggle with to this day.

For those who may not be tracking with me, let me frame it like this:

God is infinitely holy and good in all that he does – including his decision to damn sinners to hell. And I frequently find myself kicking against this reality, hoping that it isn't so, thinking that surely there must be another way. However, when I say in my heart that I don't like this, what am I really saying? That I know better than God? That I have a better plan? That I can tell a better story than God?

And my suspicion is that some in this room, especially those who have given serious thought to hell, have struggled with this as well. Now, I don't want to give the impression that the struggle itself is sin – but I do think it is sin to settle with an attitude of, "well God will do what he will do, but I don't like it." This isn't much different from the attitude of the annihilationist or the universalist – they also don't like God's plan, they just rewrite the ending. But is accepting the ending, but saying that you hate, it any better?

For me, coming around on this issue took much time and prayer, conviction and repentance. It likely will for some of you too. But please don't settle. Please don't allow yourself to think that you know better than God. Rather, when you struggle, turn your eyes to him, turn your eyes to the cross, and remember that he is good in all that he does.

Listen to these words of N.D. Wilson – he gets it:

Is [God] anti-gay? Is He anti-science? Does He think that the earth is the center of the universe and all the planets and stars go through drunken epicycles to lap us? Then so do I. (He would know, after all.) Does He think Darwin is an idiot or a prophet? Does His story include creatures meant for damnation till the end? Know that He is good and can do no evil. If that's His story, then there is no better story (whether we understand right now or not). And there is no other Jesus for us to turn to. We cannot swap God for a newer, greener, and more culturally sustainable model -- and we shouldn't want to." N.D. Wilson, B&C Jul/Aug 2011, p. 13

WHY WE NEED HELL

Let me conclude this morning my addressing some specific reasons that we can't shirk this issue (other than that its Biblical) and how it positively shapes our thinking about God, sin, and the world.

THE URGENCY FOR GOSPEL EVANGELISM

Thinking about hell should make us shudder, and we should be reminded of the horrible fate that awaits those who die outside of Christ. And while we, as Reformed Christians, firmly embrace the doctrines of God's sovereign grace in salvation, we must never forget that he has chosen us as his vessels in the world to spread his message of salvation. Today I have addressed some errors regarding hell that we must be careful to avoid, but let us also take a moment to consider an error that we fall into far to often: thinking that since God has elected some to salvation that we can kick back, relax, and watch the show.

Consider these words from the apostle Paul, contained within the majestic 9th chapter of Romans which so clearly testifies to God's sovereign grace:

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

(Rom 9:1-3)

This is the same Paul who just verses later will unfold the weighty truths of God's sovereignty in salvation – but this does pacify his concern for the souls for his Jewish brothers and sisters who had not seen that Jesus was the messiah. And I think that we all know enough of our Bibles to have seen the great sacrifices that Paul made for the sake of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us follow his example.

Let us take opportunity this morning to remember the urgency of spreading the Gospel, of taking serious our call as ambassadors of Christ, and remember to share the good news that has saved us from the horrible torments of hell.

THE HEINOUSNESS OF SIN

Hell also helps us to see the heinousness of our sin. It is all to easy to forget how serious our sin is – but when you consider the eternal suffering that is the necessary consequence, you are forced to acknowledge that our sins are much worse than we would like to admit.

When I find myself doubting the necessity of hell, all I am doing is revealing my own ignorance of how serious and grave a thing it is to sin against a just and holy God. For if I truly understood what sin was, there would be no struggle to accept the reality of hell, but rather constant humility, awe and adoration of the God who saved me from it.

Sam Storms captures this well as he talks about Jonathan Edwards and his understanding of sin:

"In our therapeutic, anthropocentric world, many would say to this Puritan, "Ease up, Jon! Don't be so hard on yourself. You're not nearly as bad as you think you are. You just need a little help with your self-image." I can only conclude that Edwards' description is not the result of what we today would call "low self-esteem," but comes from a biblically-informed "high God-esteem"!

Could this also by why Edwards had such a profound view of hell and its eternal torments and the justice of unending punishment? Resistance to the concept of hell is the direct result of ignorance of God. With the knowledge of God comes the awareness of sin. And with the awareness of sin, hell seems not so unreasonable. We minimize God and thus find the notion of hell unjust."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit, p. 209

THE COSTS OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE

My final point this morning is really just the flip side of my previous point: to understand hell is to understand the cost of sin – that is, what Christ had to pay for us when he sacrificed his life for those who would believe.

D.A. Carson puts this much better than I could when he said:

"For at the end of the day, what hell measures is what Christ paid for those who escape hell. The measure of his torment, in ways I don't even pretend to understand, is the measures of his torment as the God-man, is the measure of the torment that we deserve. And he bore it. And if you see that and believe it, you will find it difficult to contemplate the cross for very long without tears.

May we remember this morning that all truth is God's truth, and that all truth should turn our hearts to God in praise. As difficult as it is to consider to realities of eternal punishment for those who die in sin, let us turn our hearts and eyes to the only true God, who is good in all that he does.

http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2017/05/tough-teachings-of-jesus-hell.html

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Tough Teachings of Jesus for the Religious Pluralist

This lesson was taught during the Sunday school hour by J.C. Van't Land as part of the series Tough Teachings of Jesus. The audio for the lesson can be found here.

I. Intro.

a. This morning we're going to have our 7^th and final lesson on "Tough Teachings of Jesus." We have by no means covered all of Jesus' tough teachings, because really everything that He taught was a difficult lesson on some level for some group of people.

b. Who is Jesus? Who does the world say that Jesus is?

c. Most of the world recognizes that He was a real person who lived approximately 2,000 years ago. This is evidenced by the fact that our entire accounting of years revolves around His life. Before Christ, and In the Year of our Lord. BC and AD. He must have had some influence if that is the case.

d. Was He a great teacher? Some sort of prophet? Someone who could heal? Some sort of moral authority? Or was He more than that?

e. Many religions identify Him as at least one of these things. But Christians identify Him as much more than that. Our religion's name is based on Jesus' name. And it is this distinction that separates Christianity from all other religions.

f. Let's turn to John 14:1-11 for the passage that we'll be talking about this morning.

II. The Difficulty of Jesus' Teaching.

a. John 14:1-11: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."

b. Why was it difficult for the disciples to understand that Jesus and the Father are One? They had been with Jesus for so long, and they still could not wrap their heads around the fact that Jesus was the Son of God and that He and the Father were One and the same.

i. It can be difficult to think of this-2 Beings as one, much less 3 Beings as one. It makes my head hurt sometimes just thinking about how the Trinity can exist. 3 in 1 and 1 in 3.

c. The first interaction in this passage takes place between Jesus and Thomas. Thomas claims that they (the disciples) do not know the way to the Father.

i. How does Jesus respond to this inquiry? He could have said, "Repent of your sin, follow the Law, obey God, love your neighbor, and be saved." But this is not the way that He prescribes.

ii. He says "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

iii. This is where Christianity differs from all other world religions: our works do not save us. We only have access to the Father through another person, one of the Members of the Triune God.

d. The second skeptic in the passage is Philip who struggled with unbelief. After Jesus says that if you know Christ then you know the Father, Philip still asks for Jesus to show them the Father. He did not take Jesus' word at face value and did not believe despite the signs that had been shown them. Jesus had laid it out for them plain and simple: He and the Father were One. The only way to access the Father was through Christ. Simple.

i. At this point in His life, Jesus had turned water into wine, calmed a storm, walked on water, given sight to the blind, fed over 5,000 people with a five loaves and two fish, raised Lazarus from the dead, and conducted countless other miracles. The disciples had been with Him for these miracles; they experienced them; they had even been on the receiving end of some of the miracles.

ii. Jesus tells Philip that if he can't believe what Jesus is saying, if he doesn't think He has this authority, then at least believe because of all of the miracles that Philip has seen Him do.

iii. This is reminiscent of Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus. When the rich man is tormented in Hades, he begs Moses to send Lazarus back from the dead to testify to his five brothers. Abraham responds "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he [the rich man] said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"

iv. Jesus did miracles to help prove that He was the Son of God. People saw the miracles and still didn't believe. People saw Him rise from the dead and still didn't believe. Even His own disciples didn't believe, though they had seen the majority of His miracles and saw Him rise from the dead.

III. Who is Jesus?

a. The passage that we read in John 14 ultimately begs the question: who is Jesus, really? This is the questions that the disciples are struggling with. The disciples knew Him on a familiar level. They probably recognized Him as some sort of moral teacher and authority. They obviously had some sort of respect for Him, since they all left their professions, dropped what they were doing, and followed Him when He commanded. Like we just talked about, they had seen Him perform many miracles and teach great and wonderful things, putting even the smartest religious elite to shame in what must have been spectacular debates.

b. Was Jesus a great teacher? A moral person? A good example? A prophet? He was all of those things, but if that's where His identity stops, if that's all He was, then He was also a lunatic because a great, moral teacher who is not God would not claim to be God the way that Jesus does in this passage and in so many others.

c. Our church holds to what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about the Holy Trinity: "In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son."

d. It takes all three Persons of the Trinity to make up the triune and true God. Without any one of the three, we would not have God.

e. John Calvin comments on this passage: "The whole may be summed up thus: 'If any man turn aside from Christ, he will do nothing but go astray; if any man do not rest on him, he will feed elsewhere on nothing but wind and vanity; if any man, not satisfied with him alone, wishes to go farther, he will find death instead of life'…For Christ proves that he is the life, because God, with whom is the fountain of life, (Psalm 36:9) cannot be enjoyed in any other way than in Christ. Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments."

f. The bottom line is, if we worship a god that doesn't include Christ (or any One of the Three), we worship a false god.

g. Religion that is separated from the True Christ is no religion at all.

h. We must have an accurate understanding of who Jesus is if we want to know who God is. His disciples did not have the understanding until after the ascension. They found His teaching incredibly difficult that He and the Father were one.

i. Today, people still have difficulty believing Jesus' claim that He and the Father are One and that He is the only way to the Father.

IV. The Fruits of Inaccuracy.

a. What happens when we don't believe that Jesus and the Father are one? Where does this belief lead us?

b. We get the idea that "all gods are the True God." Or "as long as you believe in a (any) god and do the right thing, you'll end up in heaven." Or "if we just love everyone, it doesn't matter who Jesus is to you." These are all beliefs that people have told me they hold to.

i. Side-note: if you ask, "who is Jesus to YOU?" then you're not truly seeking the Christ of the Bible. If you ask who He is to you, then you're going to make Him into whatever imaginary figure you want Him to be (and that imaginary figure will more than likely not demand anything uncomfortable of you and that imaginary figure most assuredly did not bear the weight of our sin). We need to ask "who is Jesus," and only by answering that question will we see how He relates to us.

c. When I was in college, I spent a couple months of one summer in Ghana on a school-funded trip with a non-profit (and non-Christian) organization. I was there with 8 other people, 2 of whom were Christians, 2 Atheists, 2 Hindus, and 2 non-committal. The village we stayed in was completely Muslim, as was the family that we stayed with. Needless to say, we had many interesting debates and my eyes were opened, me being a kid from a small Christian, conservative farming town. Growing up I kind of thought these other religions were a fantasy because I'd never met anyone other than Christians. I think that's a great way to grow up. Aware of false religions, but protected from them.

d. One of the Hindus and I talked a lot about religion, and I continually shared the Gospel with her, and tried to lay out the reason for the Christian faith as best I could.

e. She continued to say things to the effect of "we all worship the same god," and "I like to think of life as all of us walking through the forest. We all take different paths, but in the end we all end up in the meadow on the other side." Now that sounds nice and loving and would make for a good bumper sticker, but it really makes no sense.

f. I tried several times to lovingly point out a grievous error in the logic (or lack of logic) of her thinking-mainly, that the God of my religion says that He is the only way, so how can that religion mesh with her thinking that all religions lead to the same place? Also, if all religions are the same, then why don't we all believe the same thing? The Muslim faith commands them to kill anyone who isn't a Muslim, so how does that belief/command jive with what she just stated.

g. At one point in our trip, all of the people in the group wanted to pray with our Muslim family during one of their daily prayers. I was a little bewildered, especially by the Atheists, who were probably the 2 most excited people in the group to pray. They all begged me to pray with them, but I politely declined. I still to this day ponder on who the Atheists thought they were praying to and if the Hindus thought that they were praying to the same god as the Muslims and if the Christians who went thought they were praying to the same god as the Muslims, or if they were truly praying to the God of the Bible.

h. That was a very eye-opening trip for me. I tell you this story as evidence that there are lots of people in this world who really think that either it doesn't matter what you believe, or they think that as long as you believe in some sort of deity, you're good to go.

i. Last week Andrew taught about several wrong views on Hell that can be very damning. Today, we're going to talk about some religions that are damning. These religions have the wrong view on who Jesus is, and a wrong view on Jesus will end in Hell.

j. At the very least, I think, I hope we all already agree that Hindus and Buddhists do not worship the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, we're not going to spend time talking about the differences there.

k. I don't know that the thinking that ALL religions are the same is prevalent in the Church today, however, I think what is much more common in the Church today (the Church at large-not necessarily our church) is the idea that a few others (such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Muslims, Jews, and Christians) all worship the same God. Or at least some people claim that we all recognize the same God the Father, just because each religions' holy books reference various parts of Scripture.

l. This gets to the main point of the lesson. Jesus' teaching in John 14 is difficult because He claims that He, Jesus Christ, is the only way to the Father. He says that He and the Father are One and the same. In this statement, he refutes all religions that say anything to the contrary.

m. It's easy to accept false beliefs for the sake of being politically correct and not offending friends or coworkers. And it is tough to accept the narrow path. But, Christ has told us in Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

n. This Scripture passage confirms my friend's claim that "all paths lead through the forest and end up in the meadow on the other side." However, what that view fails to acknowledge is that the meadow on the other side is death. And it fails to admit that there is another, lesser known, narrow path that runs along the side of the forest. And only that path leads to the river of life. That path is the narrow way. The Way is Christ.

o. Let's talk about some of those wide paths that lead through the forest. Even though they sound like the narrow and right way, they are not. We're going to move from furthest from the Truth to closest to the Truth. But, saying that they are closer to the truth is like saying that this side of Earth is closer to the Sun than the other side of the Earth. In the grand scheme of things, we are no closer to the sun than the other side.

V. The Wide Paths to Destruction.

a. Now, I am not a scholar on other religions. I think there is a great danger in opening yourself up to other religions' teachings, even if the intent is to better evangelize to them. I think there is a great benefit in knowing what other religions believe, and I think we all need to know some basics of popular religions so that we can intelligently and lovingly point our neighbors to Christ, and knowing the basics of other religions can help affirm your faith in Christ, but I think there is a danger in studying too much of other religions. You open yourself up to false teachings and can start to doubt your own faith. At least, I think this is something that I would struggle with. But, let's learn a few of the basics about some false religions.

b. Islam. Is the Islam Allah the same God as our God the Father? Many people think so.

i. According to Islamic tradition, the angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet Muhammad over the course of 20 years, revealing to him many messages from God.

ii. Muslims recognize many of the same earlier Judeo-Christian prophets and figures—including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and even Jesus.

iii. They even believe that Jews and Christians worship the same God as they do, however we do so imperfectly.

iv. In Islam, Muhammad was the last and greatest of the prophets, whose revelations alone are pure and uncorrupted.

v. There is a growing acceptance of Muslims in the Christian community these days. As Muslim "extremism" continues to grow, congregations are calling for peace and unity with Muslims, saying that Allah and God are the same.

vi. This sounds great on the outside. After all, like we've just established, Muslims recognize many of our same prophets, and they even recognize Jesus as a prophet and moral teacher. So why can't we worship with them?

vii. Because Jesus is not just a moral teacher. He is the Son of God. And we are not to add to His Word.

viii. And as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 1:1-4: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."

ix. God has spoken His Word. He used the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament. He did not speak His Word to Mohammad.

x. Anyone who claims that God has spoken to them is lying. God's Word is already complete.

xi. I have friends who are missionaries in Jordan and their main mission is to evangelize to Muslims. The way they do this is by reading the Qur'an with them, and then slowly introducing the Bible. The whole premise of their missionary style is thinking that Christians and Muslims already worship the same God the Father, but Muslims just need to admit that Jesus is God's Son. Once they verbally admit that Jesus is God's Son and not just a prophet, these "Muslim Christians" are encouraged to continue living their lives the same way they previously did-praying 5 times a day during the call to prayer, attending services at their Mosque, etc. This might sound harmless, but it is a lie from the pit of hell to say that we and Muslims worship the same God the Father.

xii. We do not worship the same God as Muslims. As nice as it might be to evangelize using the Qur'an, the Qur'an is not the Word of God.

xiii. Muslims are close to the Truth, but they misidentify Jesus, which is a grievous and damning error.

xiv. They do not recognize Jesus as God's Son. So, even though they claim we have the same Father, the Father is not the same without the Son, since they are one.

c. Jehovah's Witness. Do Jehovah's Witness worship the same Jesus, the same God as we do? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

i. Regarding Salvation, Jehovah's Witness believe the following. This is pulled straight from the JW website's list of their beliefs and doctrine: "Deliverance from sin and death is possible through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus. To benefit from that sacrifice, people must not only exercise faith in Jesus but also change their course of life and get baptized. A person's works prove that his faith is alive. However, salvation cannot be earned—it comes through 'the undeserved kindness of God.'"

ii. That sounds fairly accurate, right? They must believe the same thing we Presbyterians believe, right?

iii. Well, let's see what they have to say about Jesus: "We follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor him as our Savior and as the Son of God. Thus, we are Christians." Sounds pretty good so far, right? "However, we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God and that there is no Scriptural basis for the Trinity doctrine."

iv. There you have it. Yes, they believe that Jesus is A Son of God, but that He was created before creation. That God created Jesus and that Jesus is not a member of the Trinity.

v. Do you see how destructive this teaching is? How they are so close to the truth, but without the proper belief in Christ, it is completely and utterly false! They believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, the same way that we do, they acknowledge that salvation comes through faith in Christ's sacrifice, which is true, but they miss the mark when it comes to defining who Christ actually is.

vi. Without Jesus, the Trinity is not the Trinity and God is not God.

vii. We must be incredibly vigilant when interacting with these other "Christian" religions. Jehovah's Witness say that they are Christians. Their statement of beliefs say that they are.

viii. We must heed Jesus' warning in Matthew 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

ix. It might sound like Christians and JW worship the same God, they even claim that we do, but we do not. It's interesting that they call themselves Christians even though Christians identify Jesus as a member of the Trinity, part of the Godhead. It should be considered blasphemous to them that we call Jesus "God."

d. LDS: Does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe in the same Jesus, the same God as we do?

i. No. They believe that all people (including Jesus and Satan) are spirit-children of God the Father. Similar to Jehovah's Witness, Jesus was created by God. Jesus and Satan were the firstborn children, and we all existed in spirit form at the beginning. The Heavenly Father called all of the "Spirit Children" together and laid out His plan for the world. Jesus accepted this plan and wanted to give glory to God. Lucifer did not like this plan and wanted glory for himself.

ii. All of the spirit children that followed Lucifer (1/3) did not receive physical bodies. All of the spirit children that followed Jesus did, or will eventually, receive physical bodies.

iii. Bottom line: Mormons believes that Jesus, Satan, and we are all children of God.

iv. This is dangerous because it is close to the truth, but it is not the truth. Yes, we are all children of God. But we are not children of God the same way that Christ is the Son of God. He is a member of the Trinity. We are not. Satan is not.

v. In addition, Mormons hold to the Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible. This goes back to Hebrews, where we know that God's Word is complete. God did not speak to Joseph Smith.

vi. It might sound like Christians and Mormons worship the same God, but we do not.

e. Jews.

i. Our final religion of the day. This is probably the most difficult one to hear and some of you might think that Jews will be with us in Heaven.

ii. How do Jews not worship the same God the Father that we do? Don't they ascribe to all the books of the Old Testament?

iii. Abraham and his descendants were chosen by God and set apart for Himself.

iv. This is all fine and dandy, right?

v. But, we need to ask the question we've asked of all the other religions: what do they believe about Jesus Christ?

vi. The Jewish religion does not believe that Christ has come the first time. They are still awaiting the Messiah's first arrival.

vii. In Acts 4, Peter and John healed a lame man in the name of Jesus and preached Jesus' name. Many were coming to faith in Him. Then, they are arrested and brought before the high priest and his compatriots. These men were the Jews of the Jews. If anyone was a Jew, they were. And they question Peter and John, "'By what power or by what name have you done this?' Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, 'Rulers of the people and elders of Israel (he is speaking to Jews): If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

viii. Peter makes a great distinction between the Jews and now the Christians. Between those who rejected the stone, and those who accept Him as the cornerstone.

ix. If they do not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, then they do not believe in the One True God.

x. Judaism is so close to Christianity. We share the entire Old Testament with them!

xi. They believe in the God the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

xii. But without Christ, apart from the narrow way, it is not Truth.

xiii. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

VI. Final Thoughts.

a. Hopefully by now the concept has been reinforced: God the Father and Jesus are One. Even if we say we are worshiping the same "Father," if we separate Him from Christ, He is not the same Father.

b. Christ is pivotal to the truthfulness of a religion. He is key to what we believe. If you are curious about the validity of another religion, or if you have a discussion with somebody about religion, the first question to ask is "what does that religion say about Christ? Who do you believe Christ is?" That is the most important aspect of belief.

c. Jesus is the only way to the Father. We can only have Christ and the Father if we have all of Him, including His difficult teachings.

d. I had a buddy in college who was a Catholic, or almost more of a Universalist of sorts. We would talk about differences in faith, and I talked about many of these concepts with him. That apart from Christ, no one can be saved. He said to me one time that "anyone that loves is really showing Christ to people because God is love."

e. This sounds great. As long as you love people, you are a child of God. But what's wrong with this thinking is that love doesn't define who God is. God defines what love is.

f. So, why is it a difficult teaching that Jesus is the only way to God? Because as much as we would like everyone to be saved and all paths to lead to Heaven, that's not what Christ said.

g. All of these religions sound great. They might sound like they recognize and worship the same God that we do, even if it's only the "God the Father" part. But, God the Father is not God the Father without God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. If we want God, if we want salvation, we must have all of them. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2017/05/tough-teachings-of-jesus-for-religious.html