What are we waiting for?
Notes
Transcript
Judgment Day- Sammy Hagar
Judgment Day- Sammy Hagar
We have been taking our time through one of the most challenging sections of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’s Olivet Discourse, His teachings on the end times.
This last section of Matthew 25 is the culmination of Jesus’s answer to the disciple’s questions back at the beginning of chapter 24.
What will the end be like? When will it come? What signs will their be? How should we live while we wait?
And today, what is it we are waiting for? And Jesus’s answer is “Judgment Day”.
I have mentioned the statistics before, more than half of US adults believe Jesus is coming back.
Several years ago, as many at 78% of those polled by Pew research believed the statement “we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins.”
That’s a lot of people, and yet the question begs to be asked “What difference does it make?”
The great philosopher and theologian Sammy Hagar from Van Halen in 1991 sang about Judgment Day.
Oh, tell me why should I (ooh-ooh)
Care or even wanna try?
I just slide, slide on by (ooh-ooh)
Never bad enough to crucify me
Ow! Put it off until Judgement Day
I'll bear that same ol' cross
On Judgement Day, ow
I think Sammy captures the sentiment of many Americans.
He seems convinced that their will be a Judgment Day, but he will “just slide, slide on by” until it comes.
But is that the right approach? I think we will find that Jesus doesn’t think so.
This is one of the most sobering and serious passages in Matthew, along with the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7.
Jesus is challenging the apathy and inattention we give toward the idea of Judgment Day.
I want to spend a few minutes drawing out three clear realities Jesus shows us about Judgment Day.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 “ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’
40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’
44 “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’
45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Judgment is INEVITABLE.
Judgment is INEVITABLE.
Imagine the picture Jesus is painting:
Jesus, the “Son of Man”, comes “in His glory”, surrounded by “all the Angels”, not just some of them, but ALL of them.
In front of Him “all the nations” are gathered. Literally every person who has lived and is living, gathered in front of Jesus and ALL the angels in heaven.
This is the day the prophets spoke about, and it is a day that every human being believes will come in some form or fashion.
Whether it's a religious judgment by God or gods,
a reckoning by the universe and its forces that determine our rebirth,
or, for those who do not believe in an afterlife, the legacy we leave behind through our accomplishments.
Jesus is painting a picture of a reality we all feel deep inside: our lives will face a day when we will be judged for how we have lived.
It's a frightening concept, one we might try to avoid, ignore, or trivialize.
Yet, deep down, we all know it is inevitable.
And yet, don’t we all yearn for it?
The evil and injustice we witness and experience compel us to seek justice.
We believe bad people ought to be punished for their badness and good people ought to be rewarded for their goodness.
Though we might not like the idea of facing judgment ourselves, there is a desire in us all for it to come.
The second thing we see in Jesus’s words is...
Judgment will be CLEAR and FAIR.
Judgment will be CLEAR and FAIR.
There are ONLY 2 groups mentioned, the sheep and the goats.
Jesus knows His audience and knows that farming, especially shepherding, is an analogy that they will connect with well.
Sheep and goats were often kept together, and often looked a lot alike.
So shepherds regularly had to separation their flocks in this way.
It is also pointing to something very true about the Church and those who claim to follow Jesus.
It is often hard to distinguish between those who have genuine faith in Christ and those who merely claim to follow Him.
But there was clearly a difference when the shepherd’s eye was involved.
Jesus’s criteria for judgment is clear as well.
The sheep are placed on His right, a place of honor.
The goats are place on his left, a place of disgrace (not a third highest position as when James and John ask to sit on either side of Him).
And the judgment is made not on how many bible verses they memorized, how many hours they spend in church, or how many times they kept themselves from saying a cuss word when they stubbed their toe on a couch leg.
No, the judgment is based on how, and who, they have served.
For the sheep:
They fed those who were hungry,
Gave drink to the thirsty
Welcomed the lost and lonely
Clothed the naked
And visited those in prison.
And for the goats, the opposite...no feeding, no visiting, no welcoming...
Both groups are puzzled. “When did/didn’t we do these things Jesus?”
And His answer reveals the justice of His judgment.
40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Though it might seem that Jesus is basing there salvation there own good deeds, seemingly going against most everything He has taught them to this point about grace and salvation.
But we would be wrong to understand Jesus’s words like that.
Jesus isn’t saying “you will be judged based on how good you have been.”
We must take into account all Jesus has said until this point.
We know salvation is a gift Jesus offers to those who trust in Him.
It cannot be earned or bought, so our good deed and service to others isn’t what saves us.
But how we lived and how we love and how we serve will be the clear evidence of whether of not we have received the salvation He offers us.
Jesus’s brother James understood what Jesus was saying when he wrote his letter.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.
What good is faith that has no effect.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him?
At judgment day Jesus will know who the sheep are, by the fruit of their faith.
Because faith transforms us, as Jesus has taught from the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, you cannot know Jesus and stay the same.
Finally, Jesus tells us that...
Judgment is ETERNAL.
Judgment is ETERNAL.
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
It all comes to this.
What is it that we are we waiting for...? Judgment...eternal judgment.
Meaning the outcome of the judgment, for both groups, is not a period of time, whether long or short, but a never-ending, unmeasurable amount of time.
Our finite minds can’t really grasp the concept of eternity on either side of the spectrum.
On the heavenly side, we struggle to understand the magnificence of what Jesus is promising in verses 34 and 46.
“Won’t is get old after 2000-3000 years, let alone a billion?”
Yet we are judging heaven next to our static world.
Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century pastor and theologian, argued that heaven is a dynamic reality, meaning our relationship with Christ and the new heavens and new earth He brings is a constantly growing and developing reality.
We literally experience the infinity beauty, value, glory, goodness, hope, peace, kindness, and love of God every moment in new and incredible ways.
When we think “this could not get any better,” we experience a new, even more amazing aspect of God and His creation again and again.
“When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the son, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.” How true are those lyrics.
In the same way though, Hell is a progressive (and regressive) reality as well.
A journey further and further away from God, a greater and greater degree of separation from the sustaining presence and goodness of God.
The picture of Hell we have in our minds is people begging for God to be merciful to them, and to quench their thirst with a drop of water.
These are biblical images that have truth in them, and yet are also metaphoric.
We don’t really know what Hell will be like, but what we do know is that it will be horrible.
And yet, people in hell never repent.
They remain rebellious, haters of God.
Jesus says that those in hell will be “weeping and gnashing their teeth.”
Weeping means there is despair in hell that is unquenchable.
Despair over what they have lost, despair over their suffering and hopelessness, and despair that they cannot fix their broken state.
Yet, the “gnashing of teeth” means they are angry over their state of existence.
Angry at God and all those who they blame for their desperate state.
Hell is willful rebellion, progressive separation, and regressive goodness.
Hell is where the sins you wouldn’t repent of on earth consumes you, burning like a never-ceasing fire in your heart.
You become your jealousy or your insecurity. Selfishness or materialism. Or racism. Or hate. Pride. Bitterness. Dishonesty. Suspicion and Fear.
Gollum/Smeagle from the Lord of the Rings. Started as a kind and gentle hobbit, but becomes something totally different. He becomes his obsession.
What makes this life we live so good, for everyone, is the presence of God.
What makes Heaven so incredible is that we get to experience more and more of God’s presence for eternity.
And what makes Hell so awful is the He isn’t there as the merciful, sustaining presence He is now.
He is present in all the ways men do not want him to be present and none of the ways that believers enjoy.
Are you ready?
Are you ready?
Remember the invitation Jesus gives in Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
That is an open invitation to any and all who would receive it before they die.
But the day is coming when that invitation will be too late and He will be gentle no more.
There are 3 types of people in the room today:
You’re a goat and you know it.
You don‟t know Jesus, you don‟t have His love in your heart, you know you‟ll be put with the goats on Judgment Day.
The storm is coming. Today is the day of salvation; come to Him before it is too late.
You’re a goat, but you think you’re a sheep.
You think you know Jesus, but your heart is not very full of His love.
The danger for you is you may just know Him in your head, but not in your heart.
You may be among those who say to Him on that day, “Lord, Lord” as if you knew Him, but He says to you, “I never knew you; depart from me” because you never got serious about doing His will.
You’re a sheep, you know Him and He knows you.
Maybe your heart grown a bit cold. You need to get to know Him better, let His love fill you, let it pour out to others.
Maybe you have gotten apathetic or distracted, and you just need a reminder of the goodness and grace of God and the hope of heaven to spark a renewed sense of the joy of your salvation.
Whatever it is, I want to invite you to respond this morning.
