If there are apple farmers here, they could tell you that half way through season, there's a lot of little apples; and so you have to go around, and you've got to knock off a lot of the little apples, so that the nutrients of the tree will go to the rest, so it makes big apples. It's that - its cutting excess off. It's cutting what's not going to bear fruit off, so that things that do bear fruit have the nutrients to do it, okay?
So the word judgement in the Bible, is not a guy wearing a black robe, with a white wig and a hammer. It's more a farmer with pruning shears. Think about how Jesus taught about judgement. He said: I'm the vine dresser, you're the vine. Whatever parts of you are not bearing good fruit, I'm going to cut it off, because it's not helping you. It's called pruning; so when Jesus said things like: judge yourself here, so you will not be judged there; essentially it is pruning. Whatever's on your life that can't exist in God's kingdom, go ahead and get it off of you now! Why would you wait? Don't do that. It's ruing your life.
He said it this way, in one place: it's better to throw yourself on a stone, than to have a stone hurled upon you; which essentially is a First Century parental euphemism. It just means this. Boy, you sort this out, or I'm going to sort this out; and you would much rather sort this out yourself - it's that.
So here's my question: If you walked into heaven tomorrow, what parts of you would survive, and what parts of you would be burned up? That is a better question.
The problem with having hell, fire, and brimstone being our issues and judgement, is that those words tend to, always in our mind, be about other people. When we talk about hell, we talk about ‘them’ and ‘then’, but that's only three of Jesus' mentions of hell.
15 of 18 mentions of hell, was about us, now. It's about: what are you bringing to the earth? How's your lust problem? How's your anger problem? Do you call people fools? How is fear of man instead of fear of God? It's not so much about them then; it's more about us today, what are you bringing to the earth now?
The problem with that, is that in the Bible there are 6 mentions of fire in hell - six! Six times it talks about fire in hell. There are 229 mentions of fire in heaven - 6 mentions of fire in hell versus 229 mentions of fire in heaven. Aaargh! How many sermons in your life have you ever heard on fire in hell? Lots. How many of you heard of fire in heaven? None. How did that happen?
229 mentions of fire in heaven, 6 mentions of fire in hell; so actually if your goal in eternity is to avoid fire, hell might be your better choice. Hell will let you stay a racist, heaven will not. Heaven will not. Lots of fire in heaven.
Now because we're westerners, I have to say this, because white people tend to take things very literally; and so: God is not setting people on fire. As a matter of fact there are several commands in the Bible where He commands people never to set people on fire, so it's like a pretty good idea, right? God is against setting people on fire alright? I know that comes as like a shock, but it's all over Leviticus, Deuteronomy, it's all over the Prophets, that you should not set people on fire right, it's a pretty good idea. These are metaphors!
The word translated 'fire' is 'pure', all forms of the word purity come from that word. They translate it fire, because in their world they used fire to purify things; so one rabbi said it this way: that the fire of heaven is God's relentless pursuit, to make you the best you can be in His kingdom, without taking your free will away.
God is relentlessly going to purify us. That is the deal. Now let's look at some questions then. Here's a question we want to ask ourselves today:
1) If the kingdom of heaven invaded your life today, what part of you would survive, and what parts of you would be burned up?
In other words, be brave enough to take note inside: is there anything on my life that could not exist, if heaven happened today? Whatever that is, go ahead and get it off your life. Why would you wait? It's hurting you! Why would you do that?