“If there is a loving creator why does He send people to hell?”

Many outside of, and sadly inside, the church ask, “If there is a loving creator why does He send people to hell?”

I believe that this is a question that says more about the failure of the Christian Church in getting the Gospel message out than many others. Why? Simply because the question assumes that God sends people to hell. The truth however is very much the opposite, God does everything He can to keep us, close to Him, within His presence and safe from hell.

The failure of the Church to teach and live out sound doctrine has left us with a mission field of people who think they know all about God, because they’ve heard about Him from churchgoers and they’ve seen a poor image of Him in the lives actions and attitudes of those with a ‘Christian label’.

So what about hell?

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Hell is an eternity that people chose for themselves. It’s not that God has sent them to hell, but rather a free choice, freely chosen.

Those in hell will recognise that they condemned themselves to it by loving darkness rather than light, choosing not to have their Creator as their Lord, favouring easy-going sin to self-disciplined blamelessness, and rejecting Jesus instead of accepting Him (check out: John 3:18-21; Romans 1: 18,24,26,28,32; Romans 2:8; 2 Thessalonians.2: 9-11 for some clarification).

God doesn’t hide the fact of what is right and what is wrong, there is a doctrine called General Revelation, which simply means that God shows all of creation what’s what, and from this angle hell can be seen as God showing respect for human choice.

It’s not complicated, we all receive what we truly chose, from the two choices before us: either to be with God forever in perfect love, worshiping Him, or without God forever, excluded from any love, worshiping ourselves.

Individuals who are in hell will be aware that as well as deserving it for their actions and attitude, they will have wholeheartedly chosen it.

The Bible has lot’s to say about hell, but it’s not to frighten us, it is to make us acknowledge, gratefully grab hold of, and logically choose the amazing grace of Christ that saves us from an eternity of hell.

The Bible speaks plainly about hell, but not just to show God’s anger, it speaks explicitly about hell to show us His mercy and the length He went to, make it possible that we can escape a hellish eternity.

Christians: we can’t now say that we’ve not been warned, and we can’t say that we don’t have a duty to speak the truth of hell to others, but we must frame that truth accurately, and that is in the frame of God’s Grace and Mercy.

Study Questions: Don't Just Stand Up!

Reading: John 5:1-15

If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Don't Just Stand Up!  

1. Does archaeology generally back the biblical account?
2. Jesus just heals one man amongst the many, why do you think that is?
3. Discuss the fact that Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed? Why is that such an astute question? 
4. What were the three points that were picked out in the sermon from verse 8 for us to apply to our lives? Talk them through as a group, taking each one in as much depth as you can.
5. When Jesus heals, it is about wholeness. What should that mean?
6. What would a return to sin mean for this man? And what about you?
7. Spend some time in prayer for each other and for our church as a whole, that we may come more and more to live in obedience to Jesus Christ.

Study Questions: What do you really believe?

Reading: John 4:43-54

If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: What do you really believe?  

1. The Gospels tell us about different kinds of miracles Jesus performed, how many can you think of and what was the main purpose of them?
2. Verses 43 to 45 look a bit contradictory (they're not), so what is going on here, what is John telling us?
3. Discuss the whole of the account of the miracle; considering, especially, the words and actions of Jesus and the Father of the sick boy. 
4. What were the points that were picked out in the sermon for us to apply to our lives? Talk them through as a group.
5. There are lessons in this passage for us in how to approach prayer. What are they?
6. Spend some time in prayer for each other and for our church as a whole, that we may come more and more to live in obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Study Questions: Jesus loves everyone - even you!

Reading: John 4:1-42

If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Jesus loves everyone - even you! 

1. What is sin?
2. Discuss what we may think of a character like this woman today?
3. Talk thorough the way the conversation unfolds, look at the way Jesus and the woman approach the conversation; what do you notice.
4. Discuss verses 27 to 38. What are the key points?
5. How do the people of Sychar react to this woman's new faith?
6. Use verse 26 as a lead into prayer.

The Lie We Tell Ourselves: I want to change but...

How often does a Pastor hear the words, "I want to change but..."
Oswald Chambers says in these few sentences below some straightforward words that many a Pastor would do well to replicate in such situations:


The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be.
If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth.
There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “. . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . .” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realise the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.


We must take responsibility here, who really is your master?

Study Questions: Is your life a success?

Reading: John 3:22-36

If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Is your life a success? 

1. How would you define a successful life?
2. Who is being referred to in verse 26?
3. Discuss what verse 27 means.
4. Talk through how John the Baptist dealt with this situation; is there anything we can learn from this?
5. The sermon picked up on 4points concerning a successful life, what were they? Talk about how we perhaps fail in them and what we can practically do to improve.
6. Use verse 30 as a lead into prayer.

Study Questions: Who condemns you?

Reading: John 3:16-21

If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: So who condemns you? 

1. Read through verse 16 and consider every word and it's significance.
2. What didn't God send His son into the world to do? Discuss
3. How are we condemned. Talk through what this means in a) the way we should live; b) the way we should encourage and challenge other Christians; c) the way we talk to others about Jesus.
4. Discuss what it means to love the darkness and what we should expect as we come into the light.