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Hell is a topic repeatedly on the lips of Jesus. Sadly, we rarely speak of it. As Jesus explains the realities of the judgement he will deliver, it brings great seriousness to the decisions and directions we choose in this life. We are not atomised individuals living meaningless lives.
16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
17 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
This transcript has been automatically generated
Matthew chapter 11, verses 16 to 24. But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, we played the flute for you and you did not dance, we sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!
Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.
Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgement for the land of Sodom than for you. Our subject this evening is one that has become profoundly unfashionable.
It is, however, one that is repeatedly on the lips of Jesus. This New Year series is prompted by Jesus’ teaching through Matthew’s Gospel, in which I’ve been conducting a lengthy series on Tuesday lunchtime. One of the benefits of working consistently through a book of the Bible, as we do midweek and on Sundays, is that one is forced to deal with the things that one might otherwise not look at. The agenda is set. By Jesus rather than us.
And as we’ve considered Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s Gospel again and again and again, we’ve come up against this reality of which Jesus speaks so regularly. There are at least 30 deliberate and direct references to it in the Gospel from the lips of Jesus and multiple indirect ones. And our method in this brief 4-week series is to spend time simply in the, the account of Jesus’ life recorded by his disciple Matthew. For the first 1,800 years of the church’s life, this was considered to be the earliest of the accounts of Jesus’ life, and I personally hold to that view. Matthew contains the famous Sermon on the Mount, which unarguably has formed the basis for the vast majority of our shared values in the 21st century West.
Our subject is hell, and last week from the Sermon on the Mount we saw that Jesus believes in hell, You can’t remove it from Jesus’ teaching. It’s why Jesus came, to save us from it. We saw that hell is a real place. Yes, metaphors are used to describe hell, but hell itself is not a metaphor. And we saw that hell is a place of punishment.
Hell is isolation from the favour of God. And we saw that hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, pain and dis-ease, and that hell is forever. I have an aim really, well a number of aims in this series as we consider this subject. That we begin to see the majesty and the supremacy of God more clearly. He judges, he decides, our eternal destiny is in his hands, he is God.
Sin is serious and highly significant. Our rejection of God in God’s world is of utmost and absolute severity and seriousness. And then that we see the extraordinary and unfathomable love of Jesus that he should come to save us from hell.
And that we see the plight of those who insist on rejecting Jesus and the urgency for our Christian lives of giving ourselves to the same priority of Jesus. To see people saved from hell. Now last week we saw that Jesus believes in hell. This week we see that real people go to hell.
As we begin, someone says, oh well, I find this teaching from the lips of Jesus so unpalatable. It seems as if you are trying to frighten me. That’s entirely inappropriate. I once witnessed a house fire. And at the time, we believed that one of the occupants and his small children were in the house.
And until the point when he emerged— not from the house, actually, from somewhere nearby— everyone, everybody went to their utmost ends to extricate this individual and his children. We trying to frighten him? Well, in a sense, yes, because it was real.
Well, we skip over the second major section of Jesus’ teaching. Just so that you’re clear, hell is mentioned in it. Chapter 8, verse 12— chapter 8, verse 11, back 2 pages. Jesus says, I tell you, many will come from east, west, and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. That’s 8:12 then.
While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into, notice, the outer darkness. And in that place there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are at least 2 references to hell in the second major section. This week we’re in the third part of Matthew’s Gospel. First, Jesus will judge.
Now that much is undeniable from the verses in today’s reading. So chapter 11 now, verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. It will be more bearable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
You, Capernaum, will you be exalted? You will be brought down to Hades. If the mighty works done by you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. It will be more tolerable on the day of judgement for them than for you. Jesus speaks of the day of judgement.
He speaks words of woe. And he speaks to confirm the destiny and the final state of those who reject the rule of God. There is a day of judgement. It is set. And on that day, the destiny of everyone will be determined for all eternity.
Your destiny will be determined and so will mine. The Day of Judgement for all eternity.
The language of woe speaks of utter desolation. Jesus uses this language here in a way that none have before him. You find some individuals in the Bible crying, woe to me, because of periods of particular desolation. The prophets in the Old Testament speak of woe in they act as a third party speaking on behalf of God, pronouncing God’s judgement as God’s spokespeople. Jesus takes the position of judge himself.
Woe to you!
I was teaching Matthew’s Gospel a couple of years back, just as we came out of a lockdown. I do teach in other Gospels as well, but I just happened to be in Matthew’s Gospel a couple of years ago. I was speaking from the lectern here on midweek service. Somebody came up to me, oh, you teach the Old Testament message of God of judgement. I believe in Jesus and the message of love.
It’s interesting, judgement from the lips of Jesus. We were looking at Matthew’s Gospel. And that individual had clearly completely failed to understand Jesus. And it may be that some of us have done too. We haven’t grasped that Jesus speaks of judgement.
My one reference outside of Matthew’s Gospel this evening is from page 1108, Acts chapter 10. Acts 10. This is the first public sermon to non-Jews in the book of Acts.
Page 1108, Acts 10. It’s the Apostle Peter speaking. He says this, verse 42, Acts 10, Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.
You may think you know somebody who is not in the set of the living and the dead. Well, maybe you do. They are not ordinary.
Might I suggest that this reality of a day of judgement with Jesus at the head of it is in reality a good thing? That we are not just atomized specks drifting meaninglessly. There is a point and purpose. We are accountable. God sees, God cares, God knows, and God will judge.
Jesus will judge.
Secondly, from this brief little piece in chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will judge according to the degree of revelation each one has received. And you can see that from verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. It will be more bearable on the day of judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum are the towns and cities of Galilee in northern Israel where Jesus performed the vast majority of his miracles and his teaching. The Sermon on the Mount was delivered in Galilee. In the second section of Matthew’s Gospel, we find Jesus healing the leper outside Capernaum, healing the centurion’s servant in Capernaum, Healing Peter’s mother-in-law in Capernaum, gathering all the people who were sick in the city of Capernaum and healing them all, calming the storm just off the coast at Capernaum, driving out 2 demon-possessed men just on the other side of the sea at Capernaum, healing a paralytic who was let down through the roof in Capernaum, healing a woman who spent a lifetime with desperate gynaecological conditions in Capernaum. Raising the synagogue ruler of Capernaum’s 12-year-old daughter from the dead, and healing 2 blind men, and giving speech to a mute in Capernaum.
Jesus doesn’t kind of launch in with immediate judgement. He doesn’t pronounce judgement on these cities without prior opportunity. He offers the possibility of repentance and faith. But he judges according to the level of revelation to which each has been exposed.
Of course, the people of the Old Testament in Sodom and in Tyre and Sidon had had limited exposure to God’s revelation. The people of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin had had much, as have we.
We live in the West.
Vast numbers of us in this building would have had Christian parents, grandparents. Many will have had a Christian aunt or godparent.
We live in a country seeped in the teaching of Jesus. Our literature, laws, high culture and street culture are all influenced by the teaching of Jesus. Increasingly, we find ourselves living alongside men and women who have come to live in this nation from other nations who are much more concerned about the teaching of Jesus. We have opportunity to hear from them. We have been to schools where some level of Christian exposure is made compulsory.
There are churches on every street corner. We have a Bible in our own language. There is the internet. We have access to sermons. Jesus will judge each according to the level and degree of revelation.
That they have been given.
Third, Jesus, and I say this with a degree of caution, it requires some careful thought, Jesus appears to know how people might have responded had they received more revelation. Now there’s something so striking about Jesus’ teaching in these verses that I’d never really noticed until last November. Verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Sodom, if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
We may never have heard of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon were trading ports off the coast of modern-day Lebanon, just north of Israel. Tyre was an island city and Sidon was attached to the coast. Both had deep harbours. I like to think of Singapore.
Fly into Singapore, you see these boats lined up, hundreds of them waiting to come in. The centre of economic, financial, educational, cultural, fashion life. This was Tyre, this was Sidon, the pride of the Middle East, key to the economy, setting the tone, educationally vital. You can read of Tyre and Sidon in the prophet Ezekiel. Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Sodom was a city of notorious depravity, scene of one of the most grotesque crimes in the whole of the Bible story.
To repent is to turn round, to turn back to God in surrender, to recognise God for who he is. If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. Sackcloth and ashes. If the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
Now this is extraordinary. Jesus sees and Jesus knows. And Jesus can see so deep into our souls that he appears to now know how each one might have responded to had we been given more revelation.
And to that extent, final judgement is in effect a confirmation, a rubber stamp you might say, on the decisions we have taken thus far.
I think this answers the false assurance that so many, especially here in the city, have that, oh well, when I get there I’ll be able to bluff my way in or blag my way with God. No, Jesus can see us through and through. And he appears to know, on the basis of the revelation we have received, how we might respond alternatively.
And this makes this evening of the most acute significance.
You know, even as we hear revelation now and are exposed to the truth of the Christian gospel, why, it’s as if there’s a sifting taking place.
A person comes to a carol service brought by a colleague. They’re a Christian, the colleague, that is. At a carol service, they hear the offer of eternal life. Well, Jesus will judge on the basis of the revelation that has been received.
Jesus judges, Jesus judges according to the revelation each has received. Jesus appears to know how each would have responded had they been given more revelation. There will be degrees of punishment in hell. That much surely is clear from verse 22 and verse 24. It will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
It will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgement for the land of Sodom than for you. So Jesus knows precisely what opportunity each has had. Jesus knows what advantages and disadvantages each has experienced. The person who has known little by way of nurture or has come from circumstances of great deprivation will receive different levels of punishment to one who has had great opportunity.
This should give us great cause for thought.
Pause. Consider what we’ve heard this evening. This is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus comes into the world to save sinners. Consider how privileged we are just from what we’ve heard tonight.
There will be degrees of punishment in hell. Hell will be fair. The punishment will fit the crime. There’ll be no need for second opinions. There’ll be no court of appeal, no cause for sentence review.
No, the judgement will be perfect. And for those who’ve received much revelation and rejected it, then the punishment will be all the more severe.
Finally, whatever justice any might or might not have experienced here on earth, there is yet a final judgement to come. Again, this is something I had never spotted before, but I think you can see it here in these verses. For Tyre and Sidon and Sodom had all experienced a form of judgement on this earth, and yet there is a judgement to come. It will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgement for Tyre and Sidon than for you. There is going to be a further future judgement.
For Tyre and Sidon. It’ll be more tolerable on the Day of Judgement for Sodom than for you. There’s going to be a further future judgement for Sodom, though Sodom and Tyre and Sidon experienced an aspect and a degree of God’s judgement in this age.
Now, in a sense, this is a great relief, isn’t it, that there is yet a judgement to come? Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. There is judgement here and now in various degrees. God has set up kings and rulers and courts and so forth, so that there are degrees of judgement here and now. And God uses in his sovereignty the events as he orders them in this world to begin to bring degrees of judgement here and now.
But whatever justice we might or might not have experienced in this life, there is yet judgement to come. And if you’ve been watching, as I have, open-mouthed at the injustices that went on in the Post Office and the people who you might think are never going to receive any sense of justice, well, this is an extraordinary relief.
As a broader observation, the further a culture drifts from understanding that God will ultimately judge and that there is a final judgement, the more frenetic and desperate become the concerns over injustices in this world. You’ll notice it.
Of course, we want to find justice in this world, but we won’t always. And it is of great comfort, perhaps to some of us who have suffered appalling injustice, that will never be found out, to know that God will judge.
We must draw to a close and ask the question, well, what is it that Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin have done wrong? And I think the answer lies in verses 16 through 19. And then again in a tiny little phrase, so telling, there in verse 23. Let’s have a look at verses 16 to 19.
To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates, we played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. For John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon. And the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.
Now this is such an interesting little piece. To make sense of it, we have to understand the bit indented in verse 17. You have got to picture 2 groups of kids in the playground. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. So the group over here are wanting to play grown-ups and they have decided, they have seen grown-ups at weddings, they want to play weddings.
And so they are playing the flute. Come out and play, they say to the group over here. We want to play weddings. And the group over here shout back and say, no, no, no, no, no, we are feeling sad today. We want to play funerals.
And so the group who want to play, well, they change their instruments. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. So they start singing a sad song. Let’s play funerals, they shout. And the group over here say, no, no, no, no, no, we want to play weddings.
In other words, they are utterly contrary, the group over here. You offer them one option and they say, oh no, no, no, we are not interested. And then you offer them a different option, oh no, no, we are not interested. And then you offer them another option, no, no, no. They just are contrary.
They won’t come out to play. And here is Jesus speaking of the ministry of John the Baptist. He came warning of the coming judgement of God. Repent, the kingdom of heaven is on its way. Oh no, no, we’re not going to take him seriously.
He’s far too serious. He’s a preacher of judgement. Along comes Jesus. There is opportunity of salvation. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
Turn to Jesus. Oh no, no, no, that’s too much too soft, and, uh, and so forth. In other words, they’re not gonna— they’re just— they ask a question on creation and evolution, you answer it. They ask a question on suffering, you answer it. They ask a question on the evidence for the Gospels, you answer it, and then they ask a question on creation and evolution.
It could be any conversation you have in the pub, couldn’t it? They are just contrary. They will not respond. They are dead set on rejecting Jesus. Judgement will fall.
And that may be one of us this evening. It may be that our friends have brought us to this and our friends have brought us to that, and actually, we are just not prepared to take the evidence seriously.
And that’s why Jesus says at the end of the piece there, wisdom is justified by her deeds. He’s just talked about the mighty deeds of the Christ. The Christ is justified by his works. And if you’re serious, well, we’ll look at the evidence. As we’ll look at the evidence, we see it stands up.
But if we’re just contrary and play silly monkeys, as it were, Judgement will fall and we’ll be judged on the basis of the revelation we’ve received. And Capernaum, that little phrase there in verse 23, will you be exalted? That’s exactly what Babylon said. I sit above the gods in the heavens. I am enlightened.
I see and I know, and I don’t need God. And Babylon was brought crashing to the ground by God and will face future judgement on the Day of Judgement. Let’s pray together.
Just 2 or 3 sentences later, Jesus says this, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
We do thank and praise you, our Father, for the love and kindness of Jesus, that he offers rest for our souls.
But we thank you for the majesty, the magnificence, the courage, and the strength of Jesus, that he doesn’t soft-pedal. He says it as it is.
Forgive us for not taking him sufficiently seriously, we pray. We ask that we might see him more clearly and surrender to him more absolutely. For his name’s sake. Amen.
