Sermon Tone Analysis

*When Jesus Says Thank You*

*November 13, 2004** and **November 14, 2004*

* *

* *

* *

*Introduction*

* *

Many people don’t know who said I go to prepare a place for you but almost everyone knows who said, “I’ll be back”.

Jesus is returning.

There is a lot we can say about that.

I want to focus on some things that happen after His return.

I have spent a lot of time and will spend a lot more talking about the events of Jesus’ return and world conditions leading up to that event.

I was thinking this week that there are going to be people at Wal-Mart saying “do you have any more of those lime chickens and boom; in an atomic second they are going to be in eternity beholding Jesus the Messiah!

You may be talking to someone and suddenly they are gone and Jesus is there!

We need to live that way! Are you looking forward to eternity?

We are told to fix our eyes or focus on eternity.

We are to set our hearts and minds on things above.

Otherwise the world can swallow you up.

You start thinking that your only hope is the right president or the right future.

Jesus is our hope.

Whoever has this hope purifies himself.

John 14 NKJV

*/“Let anot your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many 1mansions; if it were not so, 2I would have told you.

bI go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, cI will come again and receive you to Myself; that dwhere I am, there you may be also.*[1]*

/*

*/ /*

-Someone said we would be:

·       *Reunited (with those we have lost)*

·       *Rewarded (for what we have done with our lives)*

·       *Reassigned (this is just the beginning)*

* *

-At the risk of driving you all crazy by repeating this; C.S. Lewis said at the back of the Narnia books something that captured the spirit of eternity:

*“…But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.

All their life in this world…had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before.”*

* *

 

Matthew 25:34 NIV

*/‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

*[2]* /*

*/ /*

-We don’t know the full extent of all that is going to happen in eternity.

Is it mansions really?

What is it going to be like?

We won’t be married yet we will know those we were married to.

What relationship is better than marriage?

 

1 Thessalonians 4 NIV

*/16 /**/For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

*[3]*/*

 

 

“Believers in their spiritual bodies will be inhabitants of a sphere never before existing-not simply heaven (the sphere of God and the angels), but “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev.

21:1)!

Thus being both spiritual (heavenly) and corporeal (earthly) in their nature, they will be adapted to live in this wondrous new creation.”

(Williams from /Renewal Theology)/

/ /

-What will that be like?

-Sometimes we think of eternity as sort of a “Disney Heaven”.

-It is much beyond that.

We were created for eternity and God is creating a special place for us.

He had to get a place ready for us.

The place is almost ready.

*/So what is going to happen to us after Jesus returns?/*

*/ /*

 

 

2 Corinthians 5 NIV

*/Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

/*

*/6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

7 We live by faith, not by sight.

8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

*[4]*/*

*/ /*

*/ /*

*1.                      **WE MUST FIRST BE SWALLOWED UP BY LIFE*

* *

*2.                      **WE MUST APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST*

* *

 

1 Corinthians 3

*/11 /**/For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.

It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.

14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

*[5]* /*

*/ /*

*/ /*

*3.                      **WE ATTEND THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB*

* *

* *

Revelation 19 NIV

*/9 /**/Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’”

And he added, “These are the true words of God.” *[6]* /*

 

-This is like a big wedding reception.

It is a big party with the apostles, Moses, David, Ruth, Paul, Peter, the woman with the issue of blood, the madman of Gadara, Jesus and hopefully you.

-I hope there is an invitation for you.

-Let’s go back to the rewards.

Hebrews 9 NIV

*/28 /**/so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

*[7]*/*

*/ /*

-We were saved by grace through faith and even the faith was a gift.

-When Jesus returns for us it isn’t to *JUDGE SIN*.

Sin was judged on the cross.*/

/*

-He is coming for us to *JUDGE WORKS*.

It doesn’t determine your salvation but your future destiny.

-The Bible uses earthly rewards so we can relate to them.

-He talks about crowns.

-A crown in the original is “*στέφανοσ2* [/stephanos/ ~/*stef*·an·os~/]”

-It literally means a wreath given to the victor.

It is a symbol of victory.

-So in order to receive a crown we have to have a victory in some area of our lives.

-What are they?

-What should we be aiming at?

What are gold, silver, and precious stones?

-Some believers will be “ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ”.

How can we build on the foundation of Jesus in such a way that we aren’t ashamed?

*1.

**Crown of Exultation (JOY)*

* *

1 Thessalonians 2 NIV

*/19 /**/For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?

Is it not you?

20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

*[8]* /*

 

NLT