What Did Jesus Say About Hell?

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. We're back, and we're talking about hell, unexperienced truth, a word you hear a whole lot of today, but never related to warning people that are going to go there, you know? What the... Yeah, hey, watch your language. So, you know, my little girls used to say, Daddy, there's bad words in the Bible. I'm like, what? She says, hell. I said, stop that now.

She said, Daddy, it's right here. But Jesus talked about hell a lot in judgment a lot. He talks about it in our passage. Robbie, read Luke 10, and start with verse 10 right here. Nevertheless, right there, read the passage for us, and then we're going to go on to these final questions about what it means to be rejected. Are they rejecting you or Christ?

What did Jesus say about the levels of punishment in hell, and how can... could my belief... behavior actually lead people away from heaven? Go ahead, Robbie, read the passage. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Corazon!

Woe to you, Poseida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears me. He who rejects you rejects me.

And he who rejects me rejects him who sent me. So this is a real heavy passage, and this is really... Christ's ministry is really cresting in the northern kingdom. All this miracle work He's done is coming to a head, and He has sent these 70 amazing gifted disciples. And they're amazing, they're gifted because of the giver Jesus, who's put His peace and His power on them to go down and to lead the way to Jerusalem. They're going through all these Judean towns now. They've come back with a report of what God's done.

But He's given this message to them. When they talk about the rejection involved, He's basically throwing this woe out. This is a strong word of condemnation. The word woe when Jesus says, woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, woe to you, Capernaum. The word woe, it's interesting, I read several different perspectives.

The two most prominent ones from these theologians, these guys are a lot smarter than us, which you need to consult. The word woe is a word of anguish and lament. Jesus is heartbroken.

Here they had Him and they rejected Him. Here the Messiah that the Jews had been praying for for centuries showed up, did miracles. Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to do all these things, preach the gospel to the poor, heal the sick, raise the dead, all these things, and you rejected me. So it's a lamentable, heartbreaking thing.

Oh, Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, type heart. But it's also a strong word of condemnation and judgment. It is a woe, it is a curse. And He's saying, look, your light was so great, yet you have run to the darkness.

Unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, who, they were in darkness, but they didn't have all this light coming at them. The thing that I love about the word blessing is that it's a picture of God turning His face towards you. And so the word woe is a picture of God turning His face away from you, which gets back to the reason why they're in hell is because they have rejected and they're moving away from God and He's turned His face away from me because He's been rejected. And so that woe is actually God's turning His face from you in the opposite of the blessing that a Jew would understand.

And they're losing out on that. When you're face-to-face with God, it doesn't get any better than that. Well, and these righteous, amen, these righteous, pious, self-righteous Jews are sitting there saying, hey, listen, we're not, we're no Sodom and Gomorrah, we're no Tyre and Sidon and Jesus saying, woe to you.

They didn't have any near where near the light that you have. It will be worse for you in the day of judgment than them. Anyone listening in our voice right now hearing us proclaim the goodness of Jesus, how He came to die on that cross in your place to save you from hell and from sin and from the bondage, the addiction you're in right now.

He came to save you. The more you hear of that, the more you reject that, the more accountable you'll be and the more heat in hell you'll experience. Those are rough words, but right from the Savior's lips. And then He says this, and asks this question, in what way are people who reject the gospel not rejecting you, but rejecting Jesus?

Wow, what a heavy question. And Robbie, you know, you and I have been in a lot of scenarios we're sharing the gospel. We've been in Bible studies together about inviting people over. You know, we've been through the whole series, you know, that our friends up north put together, the gospel conversations in your home. We've seen people saved.

It's just amazing. But how does that question hit you? Because, like, Jesus said these words. He said, he who rejects you, rejects me. From my perspective, it gets back to when you tell somebody that you're going to need a Savior, you're going to need some help, they don't want to believe that they can't do it on their own. And so you can't fix it for them. Only Jesus can fix it for them. So essentially, they're rejecting the one who can fix it. But that is the real affront, is they can't save themselves.

Yeah. And so, really, it's a profound thought. You know, I did a study, a friend of mine named Dudley Rutherford, who's a pastor in LA, wrote a book called Compelled, and I'm reading it, I'm loving it.

And in chapter 7 or so of that book, he talks about a psychologist, and many psychologists have done these studies on the greatest fear people have. And like, up there above dying and above all these things is the fear of rejection. And, you know, I've heard Greg Laurie and Ray Comfort and many evangelists say that less than 4% of believers have ever led someone to Christ. Here we have the greatest message about the greatest Savior, about the greatest life, about forgiveness and healing and hope, and yet none of us are opening our big fat mouth and sharing with people about it. Right, but in order to overcome that rejection, Stu, if we will move closer to Christ, you know, the opposite of what's going on here, if we move closer to Him, He will give us the courage, and He will give us the opportunity. You know, if we continue to pray, God, you've got to help me, because I'm scared to death. You know, once you get to that place where you admit you can't do this on your own to lead people to Christ, you know, where you find yourself in that place of prayer is where you can actually do these things, which is, you know, what he told them at the very beginning of the passage, that, you know, starts out with prayer. The prayer in realizing who they're rejecting, which, when you realize who they're rejecting, prior to that you've realized who you're representing.

And that's very, when as soon as you put His improminent on you, as soon as you are marked by the blood of Christ, that changes everything. And we've had people on here, Manny Mills, one of them, who just preaches Christ everywhere he goes. Remember Moses Palouse, this Indian missionary radical, hit by a truck, and it flies through the windshield. He's got a big gushing, bleeding head, and he says his son Billy Graham Palouse, he says, put me on the car, I want to preach the gospel, because you know, in India, a car wreck is like a big event over there, right? Not many cars, a whole lot of people, they all came over to figure out, are you okay? And he's preaching the gospel, he had like 30 people saved from that wreck.

And then after it's like, hey, we probably need to get you to a doctor, you know, he's got blood coming out. But there's a boldness that comes because we realize they're not rejecting me, they're rejecting Jesus, they killed Him, they're going to kill me, kill me, I'll be with Christ. What Paul said for me to live is Christ to die is gain, right?

Philippians 1. And so what you said is profound, realizing who you represent, that they're rejecting Him. Jesus says He rejects me, rejects Him who sent me, literally goes back to that statement, the kingdom of God has come near you. So sir, I'm standing before you, and you want nothing to do with Christ or Christians.

You like me, you're nice, because we both have the same shirt, we both swing the same kind of golf club. I'm glad about that. But sir, let me just tell you, with all love, the kingdom of God has come near you, and you are not rejecting me right now, or some philosophical paradigm that I'm presenting. You are rejecting the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What happens next is completely up to you, but you have heard, and your blood is not on my hands. And that's some pretty heavy stuff, Robbie, when we think about the accountability responsibility of sharing the good news, but the pressure takes off me to know that, hey, they didn't just laugh at me, they laughed at the Savior. Well, I listened to that with some caution, because I don't think that's there for me to share with a person that I've just shared Christ with. It's there for me to understand God is trying to tell me, you're not being rejected by, I'm being rejected. So don't take this personally, Robbie.

Don't let this keep you from sharing it with the next person. And don't let you stop praying for that guy, because if I try to confront that guy, argue with that guy, I see all sorts of issues. Well, I'm not saying arguing, but I'm saying Christians need to realize that every appointment is a divine appointment.

Oh, I couldn't agree with you. Don't take it lightly, and even if you don't— And in that moment, that moment, okay, he rejects you. I think, you're on your knees, like, God, what do I do here? What do I do here? And if he says, confront that man and tell him you're rejecting Christ, then go for it. But if he says, Robbie, here, let's try this. And let him lead us, because this stuff's too hard.

Which leads us to this question here, which you're going to love. Just read this, because this opens the door up to— How could a believer's behavior lead people to reject them instead of rejecting Jesus and his gospel? You know, how many times have we seen it, where my behavior—you know, sir, I'm so confused by your reprobate behavior that I'm not hearing about your redeeming Jesus, you know? Has there ever been an incident where you—the fact is, they weren't rejecting Jesus, they were rejecting that guy who was swinging this sword of the Spirit at them, cutting their head off, you know? The self-righteous spirit that is like—so when you share how you've bled, when you share how you struggle, where he's the hero of the story, not you, you know, where he made the difference, and that's why you have testimony time right there, because that's the one who—that's who's the hero of the story.

Ask these three questions on testimony time, and remember, go ahead, the questions will bring out the final thoughts, and we'll wrap up. Jesus, how am I intentionally engaging those around me with the gospel? Yeah, okay, so that's a question of how intentional am I about engaging people with the gospel?

Okay, go ahead. Is there anything in my life that is a distraction—is there anything in my life that is a distraction from bringing others to follow Jesus? No, that's a heavy question, and I put 1 Corinthians 9, 19-23, you know, I'm all things to all men that may win them more, Philippians 1, 27-28, you know, everything I have is for the distribution, the meeting out, the sharing of the good news of Christ, and we've got to really get on our knees and ask God to remove those things that would distract from Him, you know? And it could be hell, fire, and brimstone are real, people need to be warned, but the question is, are you warning people out of a heart of love? Or are you angry and trying to pound them in the head with it?

Really cool right here. If you look closely, right after Jesus cleared the temple, you might wonder, why did He do that? Well, right after He cleared the temple, look at it, in Matthew actually, He started healing. And so, He's got to clear our hearts to bring that shalom.

Then people feel that peace when you walk in the room, and it changes everything. And He said, my house will be a house of prayer. Not a bunch of hoodlums, not a bunch of idolatry, and how many Christians need to do that and need to look at ourselves. When's the last time you warned someone to flee the wrath to come? So Jesus said that repeatedly, you know, John the Baptist said it, the life we live is very short. We want to warn people about the wrath to come, flee from it, but we want to tell people to flee to Jesus. And I think sometimes we give so much good news, we forget to tell them what the gospel delivered us from, which is the bad news, from our sin, from our hopelessness, from our shame, from our guilt, from our depravity. And therein lies the beauty of God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.20 tells us how we're to share that message as ambassadors for Christ, which means when they see me, they see Him. And so how are we intentionally representing Him today?

I love the Christian Car Guy Show, Robbie, because every time that mic goes hot, Kingdom Pursues, all the shows you do, Masculine Journey, you are an ambassador to, again, bring people to Him. Well, the neat thing is the way you can tell a disciple according to Jesus is if you love, by the love. And if you love somebody, how in the world could you not introduce them to the one that made all the difference in your life? You know, sometimes we have to dig deep in there and find out, you know, wow, I need more of Jesus in order to get to the point where I desperately need to love others the way He loved me. All right. That's a great word. Great way to close. Experience truth this week, Luke 10, 11 through 16. Be intentional about sharing Jesus. If you don't know Christ, come to Him. And there's power in the Word. So continue to study the Word, share the Word, preach the Word, and memorize the Word, meditate on the Word. Share the Word with those that don't know Jesus. And within your own family, we've got to go truthnetwork.com is the website. We'll be back next time on Experience Truth. This is the Truth Network.