Gospel.com Blog

Here are a few sermons on heaven and hell from sermonindex.net:

Hell, What is it like?

What and Where is Heaven?

Heaven

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Revelations 4:

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Absolutely they do!

But not just because they’re ‘good.’

The apostle Paul teaches us that we’re saved by grace through faith, which is good because everyone–yep, everyone–needs that grace. Your pastor? Needs grace. Billy Graham? Definitely needs grace. The Pope? Yep, even he needs grace.

No matter how ‘good’ we are, we’re still ‘bad’ so to speak. Think of it like an unexplored piece of land, the second someone sets foot on that land it ceases to be unexplored. It’s been fundamentally altered. The second we do something wrong, the second we sin, the second we step outside of the bounds of what God wants for us, we’re no longer good by God’s standards, which means we need God’s grace.

This article from Acts International explains even further:

God is also a God of absolute justice and therefore all sinners—no matter how small—must be judged, otherwise God wouldn’t be God. Because God IS God, the just judgment of all sin is death; that is, spiritual death which is actually eternal separation from a holy and just God in the place the Bible calls hell, whatever and wherever that may be.

…fortunately however, God is also a God of absolute love. That’s why he sent his Son Jesus to die in our place on the cross to pay the just penalty for all of our sins. If being good, religious, sincere, or being anything else could have qualified us for getting into God’s heaven, Jesus would never have had to come to earth to die for our sins.

Head over there and read the whole thing. And if you want to know more about how to receive the grace that God extends to us, click here.

Do Christians really believe in Hell? And do they really believe that anyone who isn’t a Christian will be tormented in a lake of fire for all eternity? How could a loving God send people to Hell?

Few aspects of the Christian faith are as difficult to understand, and unpleasant to ponder, as the doctrine of Hell. Add to the mix the common stereotypes about lakes of fire, pitchfork-wielding devils, and a condemning God, and you have a doctrine that’s seriously misunderstood by most people (including many Christians!).

But it’s just too important a part of the Gospel story to ignore; if there were no Hell—no threat of eternal separation from God—there would be little point to Jesus’ death and resurrection! So today, let’s take a look at some resources that explain what Hell is, why Christians believe it’s real, and what it all means for you right now.

• Probably the #1 question people have about Hell is how could a loving God make people suffer in Hell? It’s a good question—and the Bible has some good answers. Answers in Genesis has an excellent breakdown of this question, asked by a Christian who was having trouble grasping this idea.

  A similar question worth asking is do Christians really believe that people who haven’t heard of Jesus will go to Hell? Here’s a second answer to that question if you want more.

• If you want to read for yourself what the Bible says about Hell, here’s a list of verses from the Bible that talk about Hell (and Heaven too). And if you need a hand interpreting what they all mean, you can’t do better than RBC Ministries’ online booklet What the Bible Says About Hell.
• Pastors and church leaders—are you shying away from talking about Hell in your sermons or study lessons because it’s such a touchy subject? It’s really not a subject you can just ignore—here are some ideas for broaching the subject of Hell in logical ways during sermons.
• A famous creed of the Christian faith states that Jesus “descended into Hell” after his crucifixion. What does it mean that Jesus descended to Hell?

There’s lots more about Hell and the afterlife over at Gospel.com’s Hell topic page. It’s not a fun subject by any stretch of the imagination—but it’s important, and while it’s tempting to just ignore or breeze over the doctrine of Hell, it’s too important a part of the Gospel story to just overlook. So take a few minutes and see if the above links don’t answer a few of your questions about Hell!

Heaven and Hell. Hades and Paradise.

Is heaven harps and wings? Does it look like Dante’s Paradisio? Is Hell like Sarte envisioned? Type ‘Heaven’ into any search engine and marvel at how many different ideas people have concerning heaven.

There’s quite a bit of misinformation about the afterlife screaming to be heard. You can find people that will tell you just about anything about what happens after we die. Want heaven to be a place where your wildest fantasies come true? Well, there are teachers that would love to tickle your ears about just that.

Obviously, for Christians the question of whose version of eternity is correct is kind of important, as that question is key to our understanding of the gospel.

That’s why this week we’ll be looking at some of those different questions, exploring the beliefs of Christians and pointing out some resources we’ve found to help you with your understanding of the Afterlife.