I. Introduction
“My god would never send anyone to hell.” I’m sure you’ve heard that, or something similar to that, said by one who was appalled at the thought that God would do such a thing. They say that since “God is love,” He would never do that. That’s the position held by most of today’s liberal theologians, seminaries, denominations, and clergy. If there is a hell, and many religious liberals would argue that there really isn’t, but if there is, it must be reserved for demons, if there really are such things, and of course, Hitler. Hitler seems to be the benchmark. Even most religious liberals consign him to hell.

There are at least three things you can be sure of about people who argue that God would never send anyone to hell.
• First, you can be sure that they do not grasp the reality and the full ramifications of God’s absolute holiness, righteousness, and justice. They fail to understand that God’s love, while truly amazing, does not and cannot override His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice.

This is because all of God’s attributes are absolute. That is to say, not one of them can in any way be altered, expanded, diminished, or somehow improved upon. All of God’s attributes are perfect and unchanging, complete and eternal.

• Second, religious liberals argue that God would never send anyone to hell because they do not comprehend the reality and depth of evil, or the gravity of their own personal sin and the full magnitude of its offense against a holy, righteous, just, and yes, loving God.

• Third – and this is the primary reason for the first two – religious liberals, by their very nature, only believe those parts of God’s written Word that they like and/or agree with. Now to be totally honest and fair, there are some conservatives who don’t believe all of God’s Word either. But the vast majority of conservative Christians, by their very nature, do believe the Bible.

They may disagree with one another on various fine points of theology, doctrine, and the relative importance of traditions and practices within the church, but con-servative Christians believe what God says is true. That’s one of the core beliefs that make them conservative Christians.

In summary, religious liberals humanize God, deify man, and minimize sin. But in one sense those who say, “My god would never send anyone to hell,” are correct. “Their god” – the god whom they have invented, the god who is a lot like them, the god who is willing to wink at sin – their god would never send anyone to hell. The god of their own making wouldn’t, but the God of the Bible will. Having said that let me be very clear.
The God of the Bible will judge sin, condemn it, and punish sinners because He must.
He must because He says He will. But although sin has caused us all to turn away from Him, the God of the Bible still loves us and has mercy on us. That mercy is seen in God sending His own Son to take on Himself the punishment that we deserve.
*Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus…

These verses speak to three great truths, three aspects of God’s character if you will – jus-tice, mercy, and grace. Look at v. 5. Because of our sin we are spiritually dead. But in
v. 4 the outworking of God’s love results in Him extending mercy to spiritually dead sin-ners. Then He goes further and showers us with grace. That’s what v. 6 is about.
• We are sinners deserving of judgment. The judgment is eternal punishment for anyone who breaks God’s laws. That is divine justice!
• However, because of God’s compassion on us, He punishes His own Son in our place. He pours out His wrath for sin on Him instead of us. So we do not receive what we deserve. We do not go to hell. That is divine mercy!
• But then God pours out good things on us that we have no right to expect. He blesses us with the gift of eternal life. We go to heaven. That is divine grace!

Most religious liberals think that we Christian conservatives worship a cold, angry, and vengeful God. Of course, that is not so. But it illustrates their failure to understand who God really is. Jesus Christ did not come to earth for the purpose of finding those who do not believe in Him so that He could send them into hell. He came to earth for the purpose of finding those who do believe in Him so that He could take them to heaven.

Someone may ask, “What’s the difference? Isn’t that simply two sides of the same equa-tion?” The difference can be seen in the world’s concept of the condition of the human race. Worldly thinking says that man is essentially good and only learns how to think, say, and do, “bad things.” This, they say, is due to his environment and other external influences. It’s not his fault. That’s why criminals are often portrayed as victims today. The idea is that given enough time man can eventually solve the problem of evil.

But God’s Word teaches that man is not essentially good at all. It teaches that man is a depraved sinner who cannot fix himself. It teaches that man’s real problem is not exter-nal, but internal. It teaches that unless God provides the remedy, unless God provides the cure, there is no hope for man. That’s why God sent His Son. He sent Jesus to provide the only remedy, the only cure, and by it, to give us hope for the future.

Jesus said it Himself in what is arguably the most well-known statement He ever made.
*John 3:16-18
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Do you see the essential truth here in v. 18? The whole world was condemned because of sin before God sent His Son. “…he who does not believe has been judged already…”
The world was already lost. That’s why Jesus could say, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).” And it’s why He could say what He says at the end of this morning’s passage in Luke – “…(I) did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” But I get ahead of myself.

The idea that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost has no impact on those who don’t think they’re lost, those who think they’re basically good. They don’t think they need Jesus. Self-described “good people” don’t need a Savior. And they can get pretty indig-nant when they’re told the truth. They say, “Who are you to tell me I’m a sinner? Who are you to judge me?”

If we’re honest with ourselves we have to admit that there are times when we have very little patience with such people. (We often forget that we were once just like them.) But more than that, we’re offended and hurt when we see and hear our beloved Jesus ignored, dis-respected, mocked, and ridiculed, and hear His name blasphemed.

Even though you and I don’t always represent Jesus and honor Him as we should, we find ourselves frustrated, saddened, and angered when He and His gospel are disdained by so many self-righteous people.

In this morning’s passage in Luke, we’ll see that the disciples are just like that. They see Jesus rejected and they want God to bring swift and sure judgment down upon the offen-ders. In fact, they’re more than willing to help God execute His judgment. And so Jesus must teach them about compassion. They already know about God’s wrath and the judg-ment to come, but they know next to nothing about God’s mercy and grace.
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II. Review
Consider what has already taken place in our study of Luke. Jesus has been transfigured. Peter, John, and James have seen Him in His glory. The other nine disciples, although they’ve been given the power to cast out demons, have been unable to do so in Jesus’ absence. Jesus has told they failed because they lacked two things.
They had not prayed and they had exercised little faith. But there was a bigger problem. Although they believed Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, there were far too many occasions when they didn’t believe what He said. Yet when a true believer from outside their own immediate circle was found casting out demons in Jesus’ name, they were upset and wanted the Lord to stop him. Do you think they may have been a little jealous?
*Luke 9:49-50
49 …John said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to hinder him because he does not follow along with us.”
50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.”

That incident marks the end of Jesus’ primary ministry in Galilee. From here on He will be moving toward Jerusalem and the crucifixion. He will make brief detours during His journey but He will never lose sight of His goal. He is going to Jerusalem to die and nothing can change that. At this point in time there is less than a year left before Jesus will be nailed to the cross.

In these final months Jesus will redirect His focus from the crowds that were always fol-lowing Him to the preparation and training of the Twelve. They still have a lot to learn.
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III. Text
From Luke 9:51-19:27 Luke departs from what has been largely a chronological account of Jesus’ life and ministry. But from here until Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday and the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, Luke will present us with a more topical view of the Lord’s ministry.

Here in the central portion of Luke’s gospel God will teach us much. There will be no less than twenty-two parables. Among them will be the Parables of the Good Samaritan, the Faithful Steward, the Mustard Seed, the Lost Sheep, and the Rich Young Ruler.

Beyond that Jesus will teach us how to pray, we’ll witness His confrontations with the religious leaders, we’ll gain insight into heaven and hell, and Jesus will reveal truth about His Second Coming. And those are just some of the highlights. But it all begins with Luke 9:51.
*Luke 9:51-56 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
51 And it came about, when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem;
52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him. And they went, and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make arrangements for Him.
53 And they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;
56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

Some time has passed since the transfiguration and the events described in the first fifty verses of Luke 9. Jesus has already made the disciples aware of what must come to pass.
Luke 9:22, 31b, 44
22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
31b (Moses and Elijah) were speaking of (Jesus’) departure which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
44 “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”

Just as Jesus was rejected in His own home town of Nazareth in Galilee, He will now be rejected in Samaria as well. But, as we will see, this only provides Jesus with another opportunity to teach the Twelve a lesson about God’s mercy.
*Luke 9:51
51 And it came about, when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem;

Three important points are found in this verse. First, Jesus is fully aware of what He is doing. Second, He is in complete agreement with His Father’s plan. The word translated “resolutely” or “steadfastly” in your Bibles is “stērizō,” meaning something fixed and immovable. So Jesus not only agrees with God’s plan, He is determined to carry it out. Third, with regard to Jerusalem, Luke doesn’t dwell on the cross. Rather he sees it as a steppingstone to the ultimate victory – Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven.

Both the Apostle Paul and the writer of Hebrews tell us that Jesus went to the cross with full and complete knowledge of what lay beyond it.
Philippians 2:9-11 (because of Jesus’ humility and obedience…)
9 Therefore God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in hea-ven, and on earth, and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 12:2
2 (Jesus) who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
With these two passages in mind it’s easy to see that Luke doesn’t view Jesus’ crucifixion as the end of anything. He sees the ascension as the culmination of what has been called “the Christ event” on earth. That “event” began with Jesus’ conception, continued with His birth, life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ended with His return to His Father, His ascension into heaven.

All of that was necessary because God has mercy on sinners like you and me. Had Jesus not gone through with His mission, we would have no hope. What He set out to do as He “…set His face to go to Jerusalem” was truly a mission of mercy. Along the way the disciples would begin to understand that.
*Luke 9:52-53
52 and (Jesus) sent messengers on ahead of Him. And they went, and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make arrangements for Him.
53 And they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.

A journey through Samaritan territory would normally take about three days. So Jesus sent messengers ahead to secure lodging. After all, such planning ahead was necessary because the feeding and lodging of thirteen men would require the modern equivalent of a reservation. But Samaria was not friendly territory.

The Samaritans were a mixed race of idol worshipping Jews and Gentiles who had their origins at least six hundred years before the time of Christ. By Jesus’ day they had aban-doned their idols and had begun to worship the true God. But centuries of mistrust and animosity between Jews and Samaritans had taken their toll. The simple fact of the mat-ter was they didn’t like each other. That sounds a little like today’s racism, doesn’t it?

The problem was that the Samaritan’s land was situated directly between Judea and Gali-lee. So Jews travelling from Galilee to Jerusalem had to pass through Samaria or travel a great distance out of their way in order to complete their journey. But the Lord Jesus would neither be deterred from the Samaritans nor detoured around them.

The fact that Jesus would be denied food and lodging was not necessarily a personal affront. It’s very unlikely the Samaritans even knew who He was. They would not have known of His teachings, healings, or miracles. All they would have known was that He was a Jew surrounded by twelve other Jews. They were just thirteen Jews on their way to worship in the temple in Jerusalem. And since the Samaritans believed God was to be worshipped on Mt. Gerizim, which was in located in the midst of their own territory, they would have seen no need to welcome Jesus at all.

This denial from people the disciples considered inferior and beneath them was too much. They were furious. Jesus had been disrespected and rejected. But I suspect there was more to it. Do you think it’s possible that the disciples’ individual egos were bruised a little too? “We’re pure Jews? How dare these ‘half-breeds’ treat us like this?”
*Luke 9:54-56
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;
56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

May I paraphrase v. 54? “Lord, your honor (and ours) has been besmirched. We won’t stand for it. Let’s fry ‘em!” I am not trying to be funny here. That is precisely what the disciples wanted to do. At least we know it’s what James and John wanted to do. These two brothers were hot-tempered and intense. It’s not surprising that Jesus called them, “Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17).”

The brothers might have gotten the idea from what God did to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, or they might have gotten it from 2 Kings 1 where Elijah called down fire on those who worshipped idols. Either way, they must have felt there was biblical precedent for destroying these so-called infidels. But by Jesus’ day the Samaritans were no longer worshipping idols; they were worshiping the God of Israel. Even so, two of Jesus’ disci-ples were willing to kill them! Where is mercy? Jesus’ disciples still had a lot to learn.

How is what they wanted to do any different from what the world has done to Christians for the last two thousand years? How is it any different from the Middle Ages when the Protestants who, due to their rejection of the Pope and Roman Catholicism, were brutally beaten, cruelly tortured in inhuman, and vile ways, and burned alive? How is it any dif-ferent from what would eventually happen to all but one of the disciples themselves?

In Luke 9:55 Jesus responded to their request to destroy the Samaritans. And He did so in no uncertain terms. He rebuked them. For one thing, they understood very little of Jesus’ standards when it came to dealing with unbelievers. For another thing, it proved how little they understood about why He had come to earth in the first place.

The judgment of the lost that the disciples wanted to see will come from the Lion of Judah at His Second Coming, not from the Lamb of God at His first. In John’s gospel Jesus made that point crystal clear. With regard to His First Coming He said, “…I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world (John 12:47b).” But take comfort in this. Divine judgment will come, and when it comes it will be swift and it will be sure.

However, this is the church age. You and I live in that moment of time between the first and second advents of Christ, and in this age we are not called to judge anyone’s soul. That will come later, but for now we are called to a different standard. We are called to have mercy on the lost, regardless of what they think, say, or do. We are not to pour out our anger on them and seek vengeance against them. Isn’t that what Jesus is teaching His disciples…and us?
Luke 6:27-28, 36
27 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, (and) pray for those who mistreat you…
36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Mercy! Jesus’ mercy will bear fruit later. We will get a glimpse of that fruit in Luke 17:11-19 where the Lord will heal ten Samaritan lepers. Still later, after the church is born in the Book of Acts, many Samaritans will come to saving faith.

Philip (Acts 8:5), Peter and this same John (Acts 8:25), Paul (Acts 9:31), and Barnabas (Acts 15:2) will all preach the gospel and minister in Samaria, and they will all see the salvation of many. It’s a good thing that judgment wasn’t left up to James and John in Luke 9. They would have rained fire down on the Samaritans. But Jesus was there, and in v. 56 He said, “…the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
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IV. Conclusion
What can we learn from all of this? Jesus did not come the first time to send people to hell. He came to keep people from going there. The offer to receive Christ stood in the first century and it still stands today. Today we’re to love those who are against us, not condemn them.
Matthew 5:44
44 “…love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”

We are to forgive those who hate us and would do us harm, not seek revenge.
*Romans 12:17-21
17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance in Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

When the time is right, God will condemn all who have rejected His Son. When the time is right, God will have His vengeance on those who have hated you and persecuted you. Jesus did not need James’ and John’s help when He was about to cross the Samaritan border and He doesn’t need our help now. When the time is right, He will judge the lost perfectly and completely. In the meantime we are to have mercy on them and love them.

~ Pray ~