Some sermon topics can get a pastor fired.

Take the idea of hell, for instance; many Christians today don’t want to hear much about the danger of going to hell.  Pastors who address this topic too much [or any at all] can be in danger of criticism from their flock.  What topics bring in the new members?  Here is an example of a popular message: “God is love and He loves you!  We all sin but God forgives us all!  God is the great benevolent Father in heaven above, nothing to fear there; just go about your lives and everything will be ok because He really cares… After all, how can a loving, a just God create and fill a place like hell?” [Chandler, 44]. Many Christians hear words like these and answer, “A loving God would not create Hell.  A loving God would certainly not put me in hell.  I think I am ok with God [at least in my own minimal way].”

Matt Chandler in his book The Explicit Gospel wonders how Christians can just ignore Scripture that explains the existence of hell.  In the section of his Chapter entitled “The Place of God’s Justifiable Wrath” Chandler packs a powerful Scriptural punch, hitting the reader with Matthew 18: 8-9.  You know those verses that tell us that it would be better to cut off body parts than to be thrown into hell.  Then Matthew 25:41-46 where he admonishes us to share our blessings with those less fortunate and if we can’t do that, we risk eternal punishment [in hell].  If those Scriptures are not strong enough, look at Luke 12:4-5 when Jesus warns us who to fear; He says we should fear the One who has authority to cast us into hell [that would be The Lord].  Can we get more graphic?  Let’s look at Luke 16:19-26, the parable of the rich man who ignored Lazarus (the poor man).  Poor Lazarus is covered in sores and feeds himself by scooping up scraps from the rich man’s table.  Lazarus died and the rich man died.  Lazarus goes to heaven and the rich man goes to hell, where he lives in torment crying out for Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue.  Hell is a place of torment, a place of fire.  The rich man is in anguish, eternal anguish.

I can hear Christians say “well, you can’t take that Scripture literally.”  In the consideration of Matthew 18 I can hear today’s Christian saying “that is too harsh” but this Scripture raises the horribly tough question: is it more important to do anything that you can do to avoid hell or just assume hell does not exist?  If you had to choose between an eye and going to hell, what would you do?  Would Christians today choose to lose an eye?  [I doubt it].  Chandler writes, it is better to avoid anything that will keep us from God’s eternal kingdom than to do sinful things and count on Him to excuse our behavior.  Too many Christians just count on God to excuse their behavior.  Their attitude is surely God is not as serious as He appears to be in Matthew 18.

Too many of today’s Christians have forgotten that the bar is set high for the Christian life.  God has expectations for us, and those expectations do not jive with the contemporary attitude that we can let our behaviors “slide” and it will be ok.  “God is a ‘laid back’ God.  He is not wrathful and condemning.  Surely, He will not punish me for the little ole sins that I commit.”

Chandler has a lot to say about the blessings that God bestows on us.  We should give God the glory for all the blessings we receive in life, but do we?  In today’s materialistic culture, we do everything we can to get the best “stuff” we can and too often, we admire folks who have better “stuff” than we have.  Ask the Christian on the street who “owns their stuff.”  I suspect very few will reply that “God owns it all.”  Chandler says it best: “all that we possess was given to us by God, through God and for the glory of God.  When we act like we own these things, like they were given to us by ourselves for the glory of ourselves, we belittle the name of God.”  Then he goes there: “The universe isn’t Burger King; we don’t get to have everything made our way” [46-47].  When we read in Scripture that we should share our blessings with those less fortunate, are Christians inclined to do this in today’s culture?  I seriously doubt that many know they are supposed to do that.  What if we don’t?  Matthew 25: hell.

Chandler is trying to explain God’s justifiable wrath.  Focus on the word “justifiable.”  If we behave according to today’s worldly stands, what do we deserve?  We deserve God’s wrath, no matter how many popular preachers sermonize about the awesome nature of God’s mercy for us sinners.  I wonder how many readers stop reading Chandler’s book after pages forty-five to forty-eight.  The news about what will really happen to the Christian who does not follow God’s [Jesus’] teachings is hard to bear, maybe too hard to consider.  We all fall short and Chandler says God will reckon with us in the end.

People who allow the culture to determine their values [yes there is such a thing as “cultural” Christians] put themselves in jeopardy of eternal separation from God.  The possibility of torment. Life in a place of fire.

Sermons on this can indeed get a pastor fired.  Writing books like this can hurt a writer’s book sales Pastor Chandler.

However, Chandler thinks he is being true to the Word of God…merely explaining The Explicit Gospel, you know, that Gospel we assume we know…

But we really don’t.