Hell is For Real | Mark 9:42-50
Do you believe in hell? A recent poll said that 72% of Americans believe in heaven and 71% expect to go to heaven when they die. By comparison, about 62% believe in hell, but less than 1% think they are likely going there. The trend of popular culture is the hell doesn’t exist and even in evangelicalism there are those who don’t take hell very seriously any more. The reason is as a Times writer suggested, “It’s just too negative; Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer-oriented. Churches today feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding.” In a day in which the doctrine of hell is dismissed, denied or diminished, we are left with one important question: Did Jesus believe in Hell? The answer is YES! The majority of what we know of hell comes from how Jesus described it. So even if you don’t want to talk about it, if it is a real destination then surely, we would want to talk about it to make sure that we and no one else we know goes there.
These passages are hard and shocking sayings of Jesus. These verses did not make the Kids Storybook Bible; they are not put on bumper stickers or put in pictures. These statements are a part of the oral traditions of the apostles and will reappear in different contexts in the other gospels. But Mark has placed them into this context of Jesus’ teaching his disciples about what it means to follow Him. Jesus is teaching this on the hills of the disciples arguing over who was the greatest and their rebuke and rejection of another believer serving Him. In this section, Jesus is going to teach his disciples about the severity of sin and the reality of hell.