…from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

There was this soldier, Jim, who was an American soldier in the Vietnam war who was stationed in Thailand. He was walking around while he was stationed there and saw this elephant who was super upset. It kept stomping one foot in a really peculiar way. Jim was pretty good with animals, so he very carefully went over and looked at its foot, and saw that it had a really big thorn in it. So, he very gently took it out, and the elephant stared at him. Elephants are really smart and have a really good memory, so Jim felt like he had just maybe made a friend that day.

Years later, after he had made it back to the states, he went to a circus. He saw that they had Thai elephants, and so he went to go see him. When he got there, he saw that there was a really angry elephant there, and it was stomping its foot in the exact same way. Jim was pretty shocked, but he knew that it could be possible, and he knew that elephants had really long memories. So, he ignored the fence and the trainer, and walked right up to the elephant and tried to calm it down because they had a relationship.

The elephant looked at Jim, and then stomped on him, killing him instantly.

It probably wasn’t the same elephant.

But this shows our attitude towards quick judgments!

We are told all the time, correctly, that we’re not supposed to judge other people.

You aren’t the judge or arbiter of a person. We do not have the ability to truly make the call on the personhood of someone.

And yet God is!

And this can lead to a lot of problems with the church.

You or your friends at school can maybe dismiss Christianity because they can say “A truly loving God would never judge someone” or “I just believe in a God of love” or “Why would God punish people who were really good, but not Christians?”

So, that’s what were going to talk about today! Let’s talk about judgment!

We’re going to start by reading the Apostle’s Creed together, and then we’l talk about the really good stuff in the Bible!

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Amen.

Revelation 20:11–15 “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.”

So, in this picture that John the Apostle receives, Jesus, at the end of time, calls forward all people, and they are judged according to what they’ve done. If they are deemed good, they go to be with Christ, whoever isn’t is thrown into a lake of fire.

What were going to talk about today is the 3 main questions that we have about judgement.

Why do we have to be judged?

“God, You’re loving and You forgive all the time, why can’t you just forgive everyone and call it good?

This is a common question, that’s pretty reasonable to ask: why?

Judgment ensures justice.

Without judgement, there can be no justice.

See, we’re really big on mercy… when it comes to ourselves. But when it’s someone else, that’s a different story.

Let’s do an example from history.

For much of the history of the world, including now, the plight of black people in western countries has been dismal. They’ve been enslaved, murdered, and cruelly treated for hundreds of years. And yet, so many of them were Christian. When asked why, many of them would say two things: Jesus has been where I’ve been, and judgement. First, Jesus suffered under cruel oppressors, so He understands the plight of the oppressed. But also, the belief in judgment means that God will right the wrongs that were made to those who were oppressed. He will end the struggle with racism that our world has been dealing with, and everything will be made right.

To remove judgment would be an insult to all of the people who have been oppressed! It would be the same as saying that the cruel and horrible treatment that they received was actually allowed and encouraged by God.

NO! God is a God of love and justice, and to remove justice is to remove the goodness of God.

Now, we don’t want to deal with that when it comes to us is the problem!

We might say, ‘But I’m not that bad! I’ve never oppressed people! And we’ll talk about this in a little bit, but who are we to make the statement on who is good and who isn’t? Certainly not me!

That same argument could be said by the slaveowner in the 1800’s! “I at least don’t beat my slaves, I just own them!”

See, our own relative idea towards goodness can’t hold up, we need a standard that is eternal, and that’s what God provides.

What about people who are really good but aren’t Christian?

‘What about Ghandi?” ‘What about people who give to charity and are super nice?’ ‘Do they really deserve to be judged and go to hell for not believing?’

The answer is actually yes, whether we like it or not.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Just because someone has done good does not mean that they are good.

We were created to have a relationship with God. Any time that we don’t have that relationship, we are going away from what we were created to be, and sin is the way in which we go away from that relationship!

This all has to deal with purpose. What were you created to be?

So, for instance, who likes tacos?

What’s your favorite taco to get?

Now, let’s say I decide that I’m going to take you to go get tacos at an awesome food truck. The food’s supposed to be really good, it’s not to expensive, it’s going to be a good time.

So we order our food and we’re waiting, and then we ifinally get the bag of food and we open it up and it’s just a bunch of shredded tax documents.

You’d probably be pretty upset! This taco truck was supposed to give us tacos , not shredded taxes, that’s not what it’s built for!

You and I would probably walk away and say, “I hate that food truck. That is a bad food truck, it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.”

When you and I sin, we are going opposite of what we were created for.

Sin is rebellion against God and a rejection of His plan for our lives, and it is to make tacos into tax documents.

The only way to be saved from our sin is through the gift of life by Jesus.

This is the line. It’s not ‘be a good person and then you’ll be fine.’ It’s not, ‘pray sometimes and I’m sure God will forgive you.’

What does it mean when we say God forgave you? It’s like if you owed someone money and then they forgave that debt. The money didn’t disappear, they had to lose that money to pay for what was lost.

Jesus, on the cross, took our punishment. God didn’t just give up punishing sin because of Jesus, He put all of the punishment for our sin on Jesus.

You have been forgiven only through Jesus because He is the only way to be forgiven! Nothing else will ever work!

So, Ghandi, even though he did a lot of God, was not good, because he did not do exactly what he was created to be, which is to love God. All the work that he did was great and helpful, but it did not change the station of his soul.

How can God be loving and still judge us?

This is the last question we’re going to ask today.

We in the church have done a pretty good job of telling people that God is loving, and then a really bad job of telling people what that means. So, here’s what we mean.

God is not just loving, He is love, and it also just.

If there were no justice in God, there would be no love.

Remember the men and women who were under slavery who became followers of Jesus?

What if, at the end of time, God just didn’t do anything about the violence done to them?

How could he tell them that He loves them if He didn’t care at all about their suffering?

God hates sin.

If God was just loving, but didn’t have any anger towards sin, then He wouldn’t be very loving!

He passionately loves, but because of that He passionately hates sin and will not allow it to continue.

I really love my family. I care for them deeply. Because of that, I don’t like it when people hurt them physically or mentally.

People have said negative and mean things about my children in front of me before and it takes an act of will to not be physically or verbally violent to them!

And I love my family, but the love that I have for my children is a candle next to the blazing inferno of love that God has for you.

SO OF COURSE HE’S GOING TO HATE SIN!

He knows what sin does to you! He knows how damaging it is! And so, sin needs to be punished., because our God is a good God.

But above all, we need to know, the judgment of Jesus is where we find the forgiveness against our judgment by God.

You are forgiven because of the sacrifice of the Son so that you don’t have to experience the weight of judgement.

Questions.

What is one highlight from school starting?

Have you had questions like this about the judgment of God? Did the sermon help answer some of those?

Why is it that someone who does good but doesn’t know Jesus receive judgment?

What is sin, and why does God hate it so much?