One Last Promise
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“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 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. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Welcome - completing our series on the statement of faith and I am so glad you could all be here with me
So I’ve had a rough couple of weeks. First, my beautiful 2016 Ford Flex went to beautiful car heaven. I fought it - to the point that I got pricing to actually rebuild the motor - but my wife’s cooler head prevailed on this one.
But then, a dear friend of mine lost his father to cancer. That really puts losing a car you liked into perspective. And this man who passed away was a good man. He was heavily involved in his church for his whole life. He was a community leader. It was amazing to hear all of the accolades people were giving him.
And this man was a fighter. He fought cancer for 24 years. He was given days to live about 10 times over the last 8 months of his life.
Even when the cancer had spread and he was losing kidney function quickly and the family decided to stop all treatment and make him comfortable - he fought for another 2 weeks. He finally went peacefully.
And when I saw my friend we hugged and we cried and I reminisced with him about the last conversation I had with his dad, and at the end of that, I said to my friend “He’s a good man, I can’t wait to see him again.”
And I could say that, because he was a man of faith. Of great faith. And after all the suffering he went through and that his family went through - after such a great loss for so many - that knowledge, that we’d see him again, made my friend smile.
Because that really helps put things in perspective - even suffering and loss - even death, when you stop and think about it.
No matter what happens. No matter what the world throws at you. Regardless of the schemes of the devil.
No matter the pain of losing someone close to us.
No matter what it was that was weighing heavy on you this morning. No matter what it is that you have to deal with this coming week that you are dreading.
No matter what… if we know Christ, we know that the best is yet to come.
Brothers and sisters, our Savior is coming again. And the dead will rise. And we will see Him face to face. And we will be with Him forever.
Do we believe it?
Because we have spoken about how every statement in this series builds on all the previous statements. Well, everything builds to what we are talking about today - not just the statement of faith, but all of history - everything that has ever happened and will happen until the very end - it will all culminate with the last promise of God being fulfilled.
Christ is coming back, and every eye will see Him, and every knee will bow to Him and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, all to the glory of God.
Christ is coming back, and we will see Him as He is because we will be made like Him.
Christ is coming back, and we will be with Him forever. We will be with Him physically in the new heavens and the new earth, singing His praise endlessly.
Christ is coming back. And He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death will be no more.
Christ is coming back. He will dwell with us, and we will be His people, and He will be our God.
Do we believe it?
Do we live like we believe it?
We need to believe it. That’s why our statement today reads:
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ shall come again to raise the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, and that the righteous shall enjoy everlasting life and the wicked shall endure everlasting punishment.
For all the debates that have persisted over exactly how it will all unfold, the Bible is very clear on these things:
Jesus Christ is coming again.
The dead will rise when He comes again.
Everyone - both those who are righteous because they are in Christ and those still in their sin - everyone will be raised and sent into their forever. The righteous into eternal life, and the wicked into eternal punishment.
Let’s think about these things. Often.
⬇️When we started this series, we started with Who God is and what He reveals in His Word. He reveals Himself. We believe in the God revealed in this book.
But there’s more here, because God doesn’t just reveal Himself to us, He does it through covenants. In other words, He makes us promises.
This book is a book full of promises. And God has kept those promises - He hasn’t failed yet.
As I said in that first sermon in the series: We worship and serve a God Who makes and keeps promises.
He kept His promise - the promise that He made way back at the Fall - that there would be a Redeemer.
And the Bible promises us a Redeemer who would overcome our sin, and Satan, and death - and Who would even overcome the world.
Christ is the promise that was made, and Christ is the promise that has been kept.
And that would have been more than enough.
But God wasn’t done. He is still keeping promises. And Christ is the promise still being kept. Right now at this moment.
Because He is continuing to overcome the world through His church. He sent the Spirit - as He promised - and He made His home with us - as He promised - and He continues to work redemption through us - His body - as He promised.
He continues to overcome the powers of darkness as we shine His light into the world and souls are saved from the domain of darkness into His kingdom.
He continues to overcome sin as He grants us greater and greater faith as we obey His commands.
He draws near to us as we draw near to Him and He grows us in holiness and Christlikeness.
And He continues to overcome death as those who are brought into His kingdom receive eternal life. So for us, death is not the end. To be absent from the body is to be present with Him in heaven.
And that is certainly way more than enough. More than we could ever ask or think.
What more could we ask for?
And yet, He gives us more.
There is still a promise yet to keep. Spiritual death has been overcome for those who believe. That is a promise already kept.
God warned Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree, on that very day he would die - and he did. He died spiritually. He became spiritually dead. Spiritually separated from God.
Just like we all were in our natural state.
But Christ has overcome that in us by grace through faith. He overcame that through the cross and His resurrection.
But there was also the curse of death pronounced on Adam - physical death.
And that has yet to be overcome. I saw it with my father’s friend this past week. Even for those with eternal life, physical death is all too real.
But that promise to overcome that death will yet be kept.
When Christ returns, physical death will be overcome once and for all. Those who are His who in the grave will rise in glorified, physical bodies. And those of faith who are alive at His coming will be given glorified, physical bodies.
You see, Christ has one more promise to keep.
And He will.
Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians. Before we get into the symbolic writings of the book of Revelation, let’s look at clear, instructive writing from the Apostle Paul.
And Paul wrote this letter, because some in the Thessalonian church were confused about the coming of Christ. They had questions. They were concerned about the brothers and sisters in Christ who had already died.
What happens to them when Christ comes back?
Are they going to miss it?
Paul tells them:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Notice a few things here.
When Christ returns, He will come with the departed saints. They will come with Him in spirit.
And their bodies will rise to meet their spirits and they will be made whole. Their bodies will rise just like Jesus’ body rose at His resurrection.
And those who are alive will have their bodies changed and will be caught up with them and with Christ as He returns.
And we will all be together forever.
But let’s not miss the great promise that this is all based on. Paul assumes it. The Thessalonians assumed it in the question they asked Paul.
Christ is coming again. This will all happen, Paul says, at His coming.
And the word that Paul uses for “coming” here is interesting.
Because it was a word that was commonly used in the pantheon of Greek gods to describe the god Dionysus. He was the god of wine, and theatre, and fertility, and a few other things.
He was a very busy god.
Do you know what Greek god had the largest cult of followers in Thessalonica? Dionysus. Thessalonica was a Dionysus town.
Dionysus was known as “the god who comes” or who arrives. That’s the same word Paul is using here of Jesus.
And Dionysus was called that because it was believed that he had to come physically into an earthly city to claim it for his own, because he wasn’t like other gods. Dionysus was unique among the Olympians.
Because he was the son of the supreme god, but he was born of a mortal woman.
He was often called the twice-born god because he was divine, yet born human.
So he had to come to each place and conquer it for himself if he was to claim it. Because he was an outsider, as it were, no matter where he was, because he was neither fully human or fully divine.
And he was worshiped in many places, because he was known as a god that attracted the marginalized - women, slaves, non-citizens - anyone who didn’t belong - because he himself was marginalized in the world, even though he was a god.
We see some parallels here between this false god and Jesus, don’t we?
Do we see how the powers of darkness teach lies based on truth?
Because there is, in fact, a God Who was born of a woman. The Son of the Most High God.
And He was considered an outsider even by His own people. And He attracted the marginalized and was Himself marginalized.
Jesus Christ is the God Who comes. He already came to overcome sin and spiritual death.
And this is the God Who is yet coming.
So when Paul talks to the Thessalonians about Christ as the God Who comes, this would have meant quite a bit to the Thessalonians. Because He is the twice-born God who was born 100% human and died, but raised unto glory to prove He was 100% God.
In fact, He is the God-Man Who makes all His people twice-born.
He is the God Who became human and was treated like an outsider - Who was marginalized like His followers have often been.
And He will one day be coming from heaven as a conqueror - coming physically from outside - to claim the world for Himself.
This is what the Bible teaches.
And Paul wants to make sure the Thessalonians trust God’s revealed Word, and not the ways of the world.
He is saying that the world has its “truth”. Because the influence of the powers of darkness creates lies based on the truth. Because our sinful hearts are so eager to believe that what’s wrong, is right.
Because the mind of the natural man cannot accept the things of God.
The world makes its own “truth.”
And if that is where the Thessalonians’ hope was - in the world’s “truth” - in the wisdom of the world or the lies of the powers of darkness or the weakness of the flesh - they were going to have some trouble.
Because they were going to doubt and they were going to wonder what was true. Especially about death.
They would have to wonder if death was really the end.
Because they’d have no assurance of anything outside of this life.
In short, they’d have no hope.
Just like those who today believe this world is all there is have no hope.
But if the Thessalonians believed that there is a God Who is coming. A God Who is coming to conquer - a God Who is coming to be with His people - then there is hope.
Especially if this was a God Who already came, and kept His promises.
Especially if it was a God Who already proved that death is not the end and that there is life after the grave.
Jesus Christ and His coming was their only hope.
And that is our only hope.
Through Christ we have obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand, and so we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
As we saw - we are the church - and there is one body and one Spirit - just as we were called to the one hope that belongs to our call.
That is our hope laid up in heaven.
And Christ is coming and bringing heaven with Him.
I ask you all: Is Jesus Christ your hope?
Because anything else your hope is in will fail. It will come to an end.
There is only One in Whom eternal hope can be found.
Put your hope in Christ.
Because the world has one understanding of where the world is heading, and there's no hope in that. Look around. People look to all kinds of things to give them hope.
That’s why the fads of the world change so quickly. People place their hope in the latest cause, and then change that a month later.
That’s why the fickle hearts of men put their hope in other men to lead them, only to have to put their hope in someone else.
People are desperate for hope.
But if they look only to this world, they won’t find any.
But God has promised that there is hope. It’s the blessed hope of Christ’s return. And it's the only hope.
So there is the way the world looks for hope, and the hope God offers.
Brothers and sisters, let me ask you, which do we live like we believe? How do our lives reflect our hope?
Because where our hope is matters.
Notice what Paul says to the Thessalonians at the end here. He says encourage one another with these words about Christ’s return.
Encourage one another by reminding each other that Christ is coming.
Encourage one another by always helping each other remember that there is more to come.
Encourage one another by looking together to that best that is yet to come.
In other words, be encouraged now, in light of then.
This is why this is such an important doctrine. Our faith in what He will yet do, will give us the faith to do what we’re called to now.
What we do now is all about what He will do then!!
We talked a few weeks ago about what was to happen next after Jesus ascension - about how the Apostles themselves felt doubt about what would come next.
Well, we saw, what would come next is the church.
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
What was next - after the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ - was His next work: the church.
And since then, we carry out our commission to be His witnesses to the end of the earth.
And we do it until… when?
Until the time that God does retore His kingdom.
And how will that happen?
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
⬇️Jesus talked a lot to His disciples about Him leaving and coming back. And they didn’t really understand a lot of what He said.
And He gave the promise of the Spirit - and kept that promise - so they and we could understand.
And He said that once they had the Spirit, the church was to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
And after He made His promise and His final command, He ascended to heaven, and two angels - messengers of God - said to His disciples “hey, why are you standing there. You have your marching orders. And you have the promise that He’s coming back.”
They tell the Apostles that He would come back the same way He left.
He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight.
All the church needed to know to carry out its mission, was that He was coming back.
So one day, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail when it happens.
Wait! This is such a wonderful promise. Why will there be wailing?
Because:
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ shall come again to raise the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, and that the righteous shall enjoy everlasting life and the wicked shall endure everlasting punishment.
You see, what is a promise to us, is a warning to unbelievers.
The reassurance the Apostles had that Jesus would come back in the clouds was the promise of judgment Christ Himself made to unbelievers.
Think about those who put Him to death - the people who rejected Him even though He came to them.
They arrested Him, and they tried Him - asking if He was the Christ.
And:
Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
He told them, “I am the Christ! And the next time you see me, you’ll know it, because I’m coming as the Son of Man in power from heaven.”
And this warning to them that He is the Christ and that this would happen, is what convicted Him before these men.
After He said this:
Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”
The Judge was judged wrongly. When He comes, He will Judge rightly.
⬇️This is sometimes a forgotten part of the Gospel. If the Gospel ended with the ascension, as I said, it would be more than we could expect and so much more than we deserve.
And Christ would deserve our loyalty and faithfulness just based on what He has done.
But the Gospel doesn’t end there. The Gospel ends… with the end. But that end matters now.
Because, as I said, we have the sure promise to look forward to.
That’s why I asked: what are you looking forward to? Where is your hope?
Because it's the future promise that makes the here and now what it really is.
We are to live today in light of our glorious future.
But there’s more to it than that, because Christ is coming again, and He is coming as Savior… and He is coming as Judge.
He will come as Savior for those of faith, but as Judge for those who don’t believe.
Does the judgment part of that affect how we live now?
Do we look to that day of judgment, and so shine the light of Christ now, so those around us will be received by a Savior instead of facing a Judge?
Do we look to share the Gospel so those who hear know there is a day coming when they will be judged if they don’t place their faith in Christ?
In other words, Christ is not just coming for us.
Those who hear us and see how we live… Christ is coming for them too.
And whether they get a Savior or a Judge… well, that’s why we’re here. That’s why Christ left His church on earth.
Because everyone is going to come face to face with Christ. Not just believers.
Because everyone will be resurrected bodily when He returns. Not just believers.
When Christ comes, He will call everyone out of the grave, and we will all stand before Him.
We see it in the Old Testament. Daniel is given his prophecy and he is told what will happen at the end of it all. Those who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up - some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt.
We see it in the New Testament. We see it in our passage today.
This is what Christ told His disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Every person who ever lived will stand before Christ. And He will separate the righteous from the wicked. He will separate those in Him, from those still in Adam.
And everyone will have to answer for what they’ve done.
As Paul told the Corinthian church, we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that we can all receive what is due for what we’ve done in this life.
Everyone will face Christ, and everyone will get what’s due to them.
We who have placed our faith in Christ, we will receive what is due to us. And what is due to us, is salvation.
But it’s not because of what we have done. No, we know what we really deserve.
It’s only because of what Christ has done.
Because what Christ has done - lived perfectly before God - is imputed to us - it is given to us as a gift. His righteousness is credited to us - He gave it to us.
And our sin is paid - He took it when His sinless body was hung on the cross to die.
Our salvation is the great exchange of what we are for Who He is.
That’s what happened at the cross, that is what is worked out in real time in our lives here and now - that is what will be consummated upon His return, when He will be to us a Savior forever.
But everyone else…
⬇️Those whose sin Christ did not take on - those who have not received Christ’s righteousness - they will also get what’s due to them.
And they will be judged for their sin.
Brothers and sisters, time is short.
And we should live now in light of then. We have to!
We should be totally sold out for Christ and His kingdom because of all He has done and will yet do for us.
But we should be totally sold our for Christ and His kingdom because of what He will yet do to those who don’t repent and believe.
It’s why we’re here. It’s why Christ is building His church.
Because it doesn’t end at the judgment seat of Christ. There is still a forever after that.
And in that forever, the righteous will enjoy everlasting life and the wicked will endure everlasting punishment.
⬇️That second part is actually denied by some. There are even good theologians who are solid that do a dance to explain why the wicked won’t be in conscious punishment forever. Like it’s somehow beneath God to do that.
But what’s beneath God is not being perfectly just.
So eternal punishment is a reality.
And I get it - I wish it weren’t true. I look at my unsaved family and friends and the idea of everlasting punishment brings me to tears at times.
I wish it wasn’t true.
But like we saw last week, what I want to be true doesn’t matter. What the Word of God says matters.
And what does the Word of God say?
What happens once the sheep and goats are separated at the judgment seat?
We see it in our passage today:
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Paul had to write a second letter to the Thessalonians and explain further what would happen at Christ’s return - in particular to explain what will happen to the wicked when Christ comes. And he told them:
when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
In the book of Revelation, John sees a vision of the last judgment:
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
We, brothers and sisters, have our name written in the book of life. If your faith is in Christ, He took your punishment, and you have eternal life. Our sin has already been judged, and the Just One will not judge sin again.
We have been twice-born, so we will not die twice.
But those who are not found in the book of life, every thought, word, and deed will be written in another book, and they will have to answer for their sin forever.
Because Christ said He is coming again in glory, and He will repay each person according to what they’ve done.
And they will be judged and thrown into eternal torment.
That’s their forever.
That should affect what we do now.
And what should we do?
Christ has told us:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life [In this World] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it [that’s in the world to come]. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Are we living in light of the sure end? Of our great promise of eternal life?
If we want to, we need to deny ourselves and follow Christ.
Are we living in light of the sure end, of the terrifying promise of judgment for those who don’t believe?
If we want to, we need to deny ourselves and follow Christ.
Are we hoping in Christ rather than this world? Looking for what is true gain rather than the fleeting things of this world?
If we want to, we need to deny ourselves and follow Christ.
That the hour has come for us to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But let us all put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Christ is coming. His last recorded words in the Bible are “Surely I am coming soon.”
To that, we need to say “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!”
And we need to be ready for Him when He comes.
We need to be awake, living in light, always looking to His coming.
Because He is a God that makes and keeps promises.
He died to keep His promise. He did it for us.
He rose to keep His promise. He did it for us.
And He will come again to keep His every, last promise.
And He will do it for us.
Amen, Come Lord Jesus!
I leave you with the prayer Paul prayed for the Thessalonians:
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
PRAYER:
Thank You, Jesus, for calling us. Thank You for Your faithfulness. Thank You for keeping Your every promise.
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Colossians journals - series starts next week
