June 22, 2008, "Heaven and Hell are Gated Communities"

Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church

I shared with Pastor Kevin who was a philosophy major in college and a very deep thinker that I was planning on preaching about Heaven and Hell are Gated Communities. Seeking an intelligent, profound, and mature way to introduce such an important and serious theological subject, Kevin suggested he had come across a clip about gated communities and since I trust Kevin completely I told him to just put it in the computer so that is how we are going to begin today.

(We showed a 2:30 Veggie Tale clip of a song, The Gated Community.)

The Veggie Tales song reveals, in a humorous and exaggerated way, a potential downside of gated communities - those inside them may not be concerned for the needs of those outside them who are not welcome or invited. The church has to be on guard against becoming like the gated community in the video – a place where we bask in all that we have and enjoy, “what a lovely bunch we are!” while not being as concerned about those who are not a part of our community. There are at least two kinds of gated communities – one you’d like to be inside of because of all the benefits and privileges, “they’re the place you want to be.” Then there are gated communities that you don’t want to be inside of and would like to get out of anyway you can.

Gated communities can be very exclusive – the place where my parents stayed in Maui this winter where we celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary was a gated community. There was a gate that barred you from driving in and an attendant who checked to make sure you had a sticker that demonstrated you belonged and had rightful access to all that lay beyond the gate – a place to stay, the beautiful landscaping, the beach. It is almost like heaven on earth in terms of the beauty. But we only had access to it for a very short time. If we went now we would not be admitted because our time there ran out.

On the opposite end of gated communities that are for the wealthy and well-off, there are gated communities we call jails or prisons. The United States has more people in these gated communities than almost any other nation on the face of the earth. These gated communities are intended to keep people in, to prevent them from leaving, and behind those gates life can be frightening, depressing, and severely limiting. They are not a place people want to be and those who are in them are separated from those they love, and from freedom, and opportunities most of us enjoy every day.

The Bible describes heaven and hell as places that have gates to either welcome people in or to keep them from leaving. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew followed by a few words of John’s vision of heaven in Revelation.

Matthew 16:18-19, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Revelation 21:22-25, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.”

Some people do not want to believe or accept that there might be a hell, that there might be a place where people are separated from God and all that is good, true, and beautiful. There are those who think that a good and loving God wouldn’t allow anyone to go to hell. Some resist the idea because we have loved ones or friends who do not share our beliefs and we are concerned about their eternal future. It may be because we don’t believe the descriptions of hell in the Bible to be literally true. However, the Bible speaks many times about the fact that after we die we all are going to be accountable for the life we have lived and for some people the consequences of how life has been lived will be unpleasant to say the least. The Bible describes both Heaven and Hell as gated communities. There is access to both but there is also a boundary. Let’s talk about hell first and then move on the good news about heaven.

The notion that the realm of the dead had one or more gates controlling movement into and out of it is a very ancient one that appears in the Old Testament in Isaiah 38:10[1] and in the New Testament in Matthew 16:18. “Gehenna” is the word most commonly used in the New Testament for the place where sinners will be after death. In Matthew 5:22 Jesus says, “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell (Gehenna) of fire.”

In another passage Hades is presented as a place of torment where you definitely don’t want to be. Luke 16:19-26 (NIV), “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell (hades) where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

The torment and agony of hell in this story is that one can see the goodness and blessing of being with Abraham and the angels, but one cannot cross over to enter the place of blessing. “Hell” is the English word used to translate the Hebrew terms “Sheol;” and “Gehenna” as well as the Greek term “Hades.” In Christian tradition it is usually associated with the notion of eternal punishment, especially by fire. The book of Revelation describes a lake that burns with fire and brimstone in which the wicked will be eternally punished (Rev. 19:20; 20:14-15; 21:8). The bad news is hell is a place where individuals are separated from God and all that is good, true, and beautiful because of their sin, wickedness, or evil done in this life (Revelation 21:7-8).

So, how about some good news? In Revelation 1:18 the risen Christ says that he has ‘the keys of Death and Hades.’ The saying implies that Christ is able to unlock and lock the gates of Hades, that he has power over life and death. The saying in Matthew 16:18 about the gates of hell not prevailing against the church means that the powers of death and other God-opposing forces will not triumph over the church - the community of believers in Jesus the Christ. It also means the church is not to be like a gated community, the church is not to have a fortress mentality where we stay safely within our walls and take care of ourselves. The church is to be an unstoppable force in the world doing God’s will.

What can we say about heaven from the Bible? Briefly, in heaven we will give our worship and receive God’s comfort. We will hunger and thirst no more – no one will be starving, all will be satisfied. Jesus, the Lamb will be our Shepherd. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Not only will heaven be a place where their will be no more tears from mourning, grief, suffering and persecution, but we will see people who have preceded us in the faith and that is very comforting as well.

I believe heaven will be more beautiful than we can imagine. There was a wealthy man who wanted to take some of his wealth with him to heaven. He prayed and begged God for years that he would be able to do so and the Almighty got so annoyed that finally the Lord gave him and told him he could bring whatever he could fit in a suitcase and unlike an airline, he wouldn’t be charged for it. So the rich man had a large amount of money converted to gold and made gold bars that he put into a special suitcase. When he died he showed up at the gates of heaven with a suitcase. Peter looked at him and asked what he was doing with a suitcase – nobody showed up at the gates of heaven with luggage. The man insisted he had been told he could and Peter checked with the Boss and was told it was okay. Peter said, “Wow, you must have brought something pretty special to be allowed to bring it through the gates of heaven. Would you mind showing me?” Beaming with pride the man opened the suitcase and Peter looked with disbelief and said, “Paving stones! You could bring anything into heaven and you brought paving stones?”

In Revelation, John’s vision of heaven includes the most precious stones and metals being used for construction materials both because they are beautiful and because compared with Almighty God and Jesus Christ and with the eternal worth of people they are worthless in comparison. Heaven will be beautiful but it will not be exclusive in the same way a gated community is on earth where one needs money or membership to get in. Author Mitch Albom wrote a best selling book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. In an interview with Barbara Walters he said, "There's one thing I would say about heaven. If you believe that there's a heaven, your life here on Earth is different. You may believe that you're gonna see your loved ones again. So the grief that you had after they're gone isn't as strong. You may believe that you'll have to answer for your actions. So the way you behave here on Earth is changed." While Albom didn’t try to write a Biblical view of heaven, he is correct that if we believe there’s a heaven our life here on earth will be different in every way. Every week in worship, on our own each day perhaps, many of us pray the Lord’s Prayer that says,

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Lord’s Prayer affirms our belief in heaven and opens and closes by focusing on God. The more we focus on God in heaven, the more inspired we are to live the Lord’s way on earth.

June is a month for many commencements and graduations, June 11 was the night of commencement at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Talk about a gated community. The New York Theological Seminary (the same seminary that my two grandfathers met at and graduated from more than 70 years ago) offers a program of theological study leading to the degree of Masters of Professional Studies, with all courses taking place inside the walls of the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. In twenty-six years this extraordinary and courageous seminary training program has graduated hundreds who then go on to ministry, both inside the prison system of New York and back in the community when their sentences are finished.

Theo Harris was selected by his fellow students to give the "class reflection." He spoke of the "School of Hard Knocks" whose three core curricula were "street education, peer pressure, and ghetto economics." He said all his fellow class members had to go through the school of hard knocks before they got to go to this school of preparation for the ministry. Theo said he had learned "the greatest lesson of my life....that no one is beyond redemption. That is what sustained me, that is what motivated me, and that is what brought me to where I am today: redeemed." He then named each of his fellow graduates, observed their special gifts and vocations, and then concluded, "We have expressed our desire to make a meaningful contribution to our community. Now, all that remains is for us to go out among them, roll up our sleeves, and really make a difference." Two recent graduates are Julio Medina and Darren Ferguson. Last week, Julio came back to the commencement at what New York Theological Seminary calls their "North Campus," now as an alumnus who spends his days running a very successful drug rehabilitation program in New York City. Darren was busy being the newly installed pastor of a church in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Queens where some recent shootings had him out on the streets that night instead of at the Sing Sing commencement.[2]

This side of heaven and hell it is important to remember that no one is beyond redemption and that our Creator’s desire is for everyone to have a personal relationship with the Lord that leads to heaven. God doesn’t desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and eternal life. God doesn’t want anyone to go to or be in hell.[3] According to Jesus in Matthew 16:18, it is the task of the church to go to hell – to break down the gates of hell that cannot prevail against the church that goes into all the world bringing salvation, hope, help, healing, compassion, service, justice in the name of Jesus.

That is what that New York seminary program is doing. That is what we are called to do as well. In Matthew, the gates of hell are portrayed as closed to keep people in, but the church’s job is to bust open those gates to redeem people out of hellish situations of sin, abuse, oppression, poverty, addiction, meaninglessness, and emptiness.

In Revelation, John says the gates of heaven are always open which symbolizes the Lord’s desire that everyone would come enter into an eternal relationship that begins now and extends into heaven. We can’t possibly know all there is to know about heaven – John is attempting to describe the indescribable. There are questions that we cannot fully answer, such as, who will get into heaven? What about people who never had the opportunity to know Jesus either because they lived before he did or lived in a place where they never heard about Jesus? We have to accept and trust that God who is just and loving, holy and merciful will do what is right for each individual.

I don’t claim to know all there is to know about heaven, but I do know this – if you want to go there, then believe Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross that your sins may be forgiven. Believe that he wants you to live as he taught his followers to live – as his loving, humble, generous, compassionate, serving people. Share with others this life changing good news. Trust Jesus completely. If you get to the gates of heaven and someone asks you why you should be allowed to enter, don’t talk about your achievements, generosity, or service, or what a good moral person you were - say you trusted Jesus and humbly sought to love him and live for him every day.

Heaven is a place where God’s children from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages will be worshiping God and the Lamb on the throne and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes - and that’s the place we want to be.

[1] Isaiah 38:10, “I said: In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.”

f Gk say Raca to (an obscure term of abuse)

h Gk Gehenna

[2] Story by Jim Wallis from Sojourners web site.

[3] 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”