May 2025-DANGER, DANGER!

In Edinburgh, by far the most famous landmark is the castle. And the castle is located at the top of a 430 feet rock which means that you can see it for miles. And people come from all over the world to see it. And there once was a time when you could walk along the path which was located at the bottom of the rock. And if you were feeling brave enough you could even try and scramble from there up to the castle. But you’re not allowed to do that anymore. Because with the passing of time the rock has slowly begun to crumble. And now there’s a great big gate that blocks access to that path and on the front of it is a big yellow sign that says ‘Danger; falling rocks.’

Now you could look at that and think what killjoys the people at the council are.  After all, are we not meant to be trying to attract people to visit the castle rather than deterring them? However, I think the people at the council, the ones who put that sign there in the first place, would argue that the sign isn’t there to spoil people’s fun. The sign is there to save people’s lives.

The ideas of heaven and hell run right through the Old Testament. However, the bulk of what we know about them, we learn from the lips of Jesus. In fact, Jesus speaks about heaven & hell more than any other topic in the gospels. He talks about hell as being a place of agony and torment where the worm does not die and where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. He talks about heaven and the new creation that God will bring about as a place of feasting, celebration and great joy. It’s clear that Jesus cares about heaven and hell and wants us to know about them. We are just relaying a warning that comes from the lips of the most loving and truthful human being who ever walked the earth.

But maybe you hear that and truth be told it all falls into the category of things that you wish Jesus hadn’t said. Maybe it’s the small print that you try and hide when talking to your friends about the gospel. No-one wants to be the fire and brimstone preacher. Particularly concerning hell: why would a good God create such a place and then send people there? Can we not just leave it?

Well as tempting as that may be, let me suggest that it’s not the God-glorifying nor the loving to do.

So how do we speak to our friends about heaven and hell?

Here’s 4 quick tips for us. 

Number one. Let’s sharpen up on our convictions. 

We need to be clear on why we believe what we believe. Let’s grapple with some of the more difficult parts of the Bible. Let’s seek to understand better the character and heart of God. When people say, ‘how could a good God possibly send people to hell?’ or ‘surely in the end God’s love will triumph over his judgment and all will be saved!’ have we thought about what we might say in response? Let’s get good at asking some questions of our own. What do people envisage hell to be like? What do they think heaven might be like? Who might be in both and why? 

Number two. Let’s listen to people’s questions.

We need to be willing to enter people’s worlds and listen to their experiences. For some people this question about heaven and hell will be wholly philosophical. However, for others it will be deeply personal. It will bring back memories of loved ones who have died. Or it might reopen painful wounds from times when they have been on the receiving end of terrible injustice. The old cliché is true. That people don’t care what you know until they know that you care.  

Number three. Let’s look out for gospel connections.

The fact that God has put eternity into each and every human heart is our great companion in evangelism. 

Take the modern-day longing for justice. Something in all of us longs for justice to be done and is rightly outraged when it isn’t. Whether it’s George Floyd, Jimmy Savile or conflict in Europe and the Middle East everyone agrees that justice is necessary and good. 

However, the longing for justice raises questions. Who gets to decide what needs to be punished? Who gets to decide what that punishment is? What if justice is never done? Can there ever be such a thing as perfect justice? What a gospel opportunity. If we are grieved by evil, just imagine how God feels about it. What kind of God would he be if he wasn’t? The fact that God is angry about sin and will bring about justice by setting a day of justice is not a reflection of anything lacking or negative in his character. It is rather a demonstration of his goodness. In other words, it’s precisely because God is good, just and loving that there is a hell. To be able to talk about a day when every wrong will be made right is a really powerful and moving thing.

And if there is such a thing as heaven, who gets to go there and why? It was Scottish author Iain Rankin, famous for the Rebus detective novels, who wrote in the aftermath of the events surrounding mass murderer Myra Hindley:

‘We prefer to demonise certain people. Put evil in a world of monsters, because it prevents us from confronting the fact that these people are just like us, the people next door. It lets us off the hook.’

Heaven: who deserves to get there? Well no-one. All except that is, one. What a wonderful opportunity to talk about Jesus living the perfect heaven-worthy life before dying in our place for our sin. Jesus has opened up the way for us to be reconciled to God as our Father and to know eternal life with him. How will anyone get into heaven? By faith in him alone. As Mumford & Sons famously sang;

‘It seems that all my bridges have been burned

But, you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.’

So study and delight in Jesus and see that far from wanting people to end up in hell, God longs for people to avoid it. 

And number four. Let’s be full of Christ’s affections. 

I always love how as Mark records in chapter 10 of his gospel Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler who asks Jesus in v17 ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And despite the man telling Jesus how he’d lived an obedient life Jesus perceived that he loved money more than God. And Mark records how Jesus looked at him and loved him. It wasn’t a wish to embarrass but a desire to love that moved Jesus to point out the faulty logic in this man’s mind. 

Our world says if you want to love someone you need to affirm them. And if you don’t agree with them you aren’t loving them. Not so says Jesus. He is our compelling example of what an all-out commitment to truth and all-out commitment to love looks like as the only one who can save us from hell. 

Stephen Hawking mocked the very idea of life after death. He famously called it a ‘fairy story for people afraid of the dark’. Well it was Oxford Professor and Jesus follower John Lennox who respectfully and cheekily responded by saying that if faith is for those afraid of the dark then ‘atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light’. And that’s our goal. To introduce people to the one who said (in John 8:12)

 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”