The Last Day
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
Intro
Recap:
Jesus is coming back to wrap up this world and bring in the next
He’s coming after periods of tribualtion and rebellion, there could be more to come.
Jesus will decend from heaven, his people will meet him in the air, and then he will come to the earth for Judgment day.
Now as a reminder, we’re not getting into the weeds of all the interpretations about the End of the World - eschatology. What we are doing is making sure we have the essentialls down pat
The Return of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming
Today, the Resurrection & Judgment
Then the New Creation.
These events are discussed from different angles across the pages of Scripture, so we don’t always have a clear picture of how everything will play out. Much as if you were a pre-incarnation beleiver from the OT. If you were reading your bible you would get all these overlapping images of the coming messiah, but you would not know exactly what Jesus would do, and what he would be like until it happened. It’s easy to look back and put the pieces together, but much harder to look forward.
God has given us enough. He has given us enough detail to bring comfort, to assure us, and to give warning about the dangers of refusing the Lord.
The Resurrection
The Resurrection
Why Does Resurrection matter?
God made us physical beings, and he intends for us to live that way.
Sin has brought death, but God is taking away sin and removing death. The proodf that sin is dealt with is that death can be overcome. Jesus showed us this in his ressurection.
While we beleive that the souls of dead beleivers even now are in heaven, this is a temporary state. God intends for us to live in bodies in a physical AND spiritual world.
When will we be Resurrected? and Who will rise?
On the last day, if we are not already alive we will be resurrected to meet Jesus:
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.
Now we are told that all the dead will come before the Lord for judgment. So the enemies of God will have some kind of reanimation, to come beofre the Lord. But that will not be anything like the resurrection Christians will receive.
What will our ressurection be like?
Perfected Bodies
Eternal, like Jesus resurrection body
freed from curruption!
The Last Battle
The Last Battle
What happens at the Last Battle?
That appears to happen on the last day
For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
Jesus return to earth is not just gentle, it is a Richard the Lionheart returning to cast out Prince John, it is Odyseuss returning to kill the suitors eating up his estate, he is Aragorn come to break the siege at Minas Tirith.
The OT mentions this war in passing and Revelation gives us more vivid description of events:
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
How this battle fits chronologically with the return of Christ and Judgment day is a little obscure. What is abundatly clear from OT and NT is that God will come with vengance, so that God’s enemies are overthrown, God’s wrath is revealed.
Paul comforts Christians with the the knowledge that Christ is coming in vengance, because it means all those who have afflicted and persectued them will get what’s coming to them:
since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, 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.
Kings and nations and spiritual powers and individual people often seem like they escape justice. But take comfort that all injustice will be dealt with in time.
And when the time comes where is it seems as if the whole world is opposed to Christ, the odds seem overwhelming and the church appears to be overun, just remember that Jesus needs only open his muth and cast them all down.
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
The Final Judgement
The Final Judgement
Who will be judged?
Everyone.
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.
“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.
What will happen to the condemned?
punishment, lake of fire, outer darkness,
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
What will happen to the Elect?
Brought into eternal blessedness.
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.
Is God fair to judge?
All are without excuse!
God is perfectly fair. He is the standard fo Justice.
Us judging God’s justice is like Preschoolers assessing the egineering plans for a rocket. They may grasp some of the principles, but it is completley uspide down to truts the preschooler over ther engineer.
Judicial, the books opened. The Book of Live vs the other books.
Judged by our deeds, saved by our faith. Our faith ins Jesus saves us, but the evidence will be obvious in our actions.
Jesus has made propitiation for Christians, so wrath can pass over us because Jesus took it.
So what?
So what?
We want people to hear about Jesus because we beleive it is the only option for eternity!
We do have to share the bad news that sin is leading to eternal death and the wrath of God
But we also have to good new that Jesus overcomes death and sin - he gives resurrection!
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
