WHY? Part 1: Why Hell?

The doctrine of hell begins with a hard but biblical truth: Jesus talked about hell more than anybody else in Scripture. Jesus, the most loving, gracious, and merciful person to ever live, warned people about hell because Jesus does not want anyone to go there. God does not desire to send people to hell. God desires to save people from hell.

Matthew 5 gives that warning to disciples, not first to outsiders. Jesus tells followers that if the right eye causes sin, it should be torn out and thrown away, because it is better to lose one member than for the whole body to be thrown into hell. The point is not the eye itself. The point is the willingness to make radical changes for the sake of holiness. An app, a relationship, a streaming service, a social media account, a routine, or a habit may need to be cut off if it keeps coming between a person and Jesus.

Holiness does not mean perfection. Holiness means being set apart. Followers of Jesus do not follow the world or the desires of the flesh. Followers of Jesus strive for the ways of God because the ways of God are holy and righteous.

Jesus uses Gehenna to help the disciples picture hell. Gehenna, the Valley of Ben Hinnom, carried a horrible history of child sacrifice to Molech and later became a place of garbage, dead bodies, human waste, and constant smoldering fire. Jesus uses that cursed, death-filled, burning place as an image of hell. Heaven is the eternal presence of God. Hell is the eternal absence of the presence of God.

The lie of the devil would be to convince people that hell is not real. If hell is only a metaphor, then sin feels like it has no eternal consequence. People can reject Christ, chase comfort, satisfy sinful desires, and live with no fear of God. But heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for saved people. Hell is for those who reject God's saving grace in Jesus.

Hell exists for God to righteously punish Satan, the embodiment of wickedness, deception, destruction, addiction, abuse, and every evil work. Hell also exists for God to righteously punish sin. God is holy, so God is just, and evil cannot simply be ignored. Yet John 3 shows the love of God clearly: God sent his Son not to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through him. Sin was already sending humanity to hell, but Jesus made the way of rescue through his death and resurrection.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Sin calls for radical cuts. Jesus' words about tearing out the eye are intentional hyperbole, not a call to self-harm. The image presses the seriousness of anything that keeps dragging a follower of Jesus into sin. Holiness may require painful decisions that feel extreme only because sin has become too familiar. [12:24]
• 2. Hell is God’s absence forever. Gehenna gives hell a smell, a fire, and a dreadful weight that abstract words can avoid. Hell is not merely pain added to life, but the everlasting shutting out from the presence of the Lord. Heaven is God's presence without end, and hell is the loss of every good thing that flows from that presence. [18:53]
• 3. Justice names evil honestly. Satan is not a cartoon character with a pitchfork, but the embodiment of evil, lies, theft, murder, and destruction. A holy God cannot pretend wickedness is harmless or let evil go unanswered. Divine justice is not cruelty, but the righteous punishment of everything that steals, kills, and destroys what God loves. [29:05]
• 4. Grace shines against judgment. The reality of hell makes the goodness, mercy, and love of God more visible, not less. Salvation is not God overlooking sin, but God giving his Son as the perfect sacrifice for sinners. The cross shows that God does not desire to condemn people, but to rescue them from what sin already earned. [38:02]
• 5. Saved people carry eternal urgency. The mission of discipleship is not religious busyness or just attending a service and going home unchanged. The reality of heaven and hell gives weight to sharing faith with family, friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Love tells the truth because eternity is too serious for silence. [25:19]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [02:47] - Opening the Word in Matthew 5
• [03:21] - A Church Family Under One Cross
• [04:46] - Starting the Why Series
• [05:39] - Why Hell Is Hard to Talk About
• [07:36] - Jesus Warned Most About Hell
• [09:41] - Matthew 5 and Jesus’ Disciples
• [11:34] - Cut Off What Leads to Sin
• [15:27] - Gehenna and the Picture of Hell
• [20:00] - The Devil’s Lie About Hell
• [22:40] - Heaven Is for Saved People
• [26:44] - Hell Punishes Satan
• [31:48] - God’s Standard and Judgment
• [35:58] - Hell Punishes Sin
• [39:02] - God Sent Jesus to Save

Bible Reading

Matthew 5:29
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” [11:31]

John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” [39:23]

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
“In flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” [35:28]

Revelation 20:10
“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” [26:44]

Observation questions

1. In Matthew 5:29, what body part does Jesus mention, and what strong action does he describe taking against whatever causes sin? [12:24]
2. In John 3:16-18, what reasons are given for why Jesus was sent into the world, and what difference is described between the person who believes and the person who does not believe? [39:23]
3. According to 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, how is the punishment described, and what does the passage say people are shut out from?
4. What details were used to describe Gehenna, and why would that picture have been so serious to the disciples listening to Jesus? [18:53]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus gave the warning in Matthew 5:29 to disciples. Why does it matter that this warning was first aimed at people already following him, not first at outsiders? [10:18]
2. Jesus uses shocking language about tearing out an eye. What does that show about how seriously sin should be treated, and what kinds of “radical cuts” might that point to in everyday life? [14:30]
3. Hell is described as being “away from the presence of the Lord.” How does that help explain hell as more than physical suffering alone? [35:58]
4. If God did not send his Son to condemn the world but to save it, how should that shape the way people understand both God’s justice and God’s love together? [39:30]

Application questions

1. Is there anything right now that keeps pulling the heart away from Jesus again and again—an app, a relationship, a habit, a routine, or a source of temptation? What would it look like to cut that off in a real and practical way? [13:06]
2. Holiness is not perfection, but being set apart. In what part of life is there the strongest pressure to blend in with the world instead of living set apart for Christ? [15:08]
3. Heaven is for saved people, not merely good people. Is there any place where someone in the group has been trusting in being “pretty good” instead of resting fully in the saving grace of Jesus? [22:58]
4. If hell is real and eternity matters, how does that change the way someone thinks about family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers who do not know Christ? [25:29]
5. Love tells the truth because eternity is too serious for silence. Who is one person that could be prayed for and reached out to this week with real gospel intentionality? [25:59]
6. God does not desire to send people to hell; God desires to save people from hell. How does that truth change the way someone sees God if they have mostly thought of him as angry, distant, or eager to condemn? [23:40]
7. The cross shows what believers have been saved from. When was the last time gratitude for salvation felt fresh and personal, and what helps stir that gratitude again? [38:02]