Jesus the Judge

Jesus the Judge – Outline Rev. 20:11-15 Our Scripture this morning is Revelation 20:11-15. Revelation is the last book of the Bible. It’s also one of the most difficult books to understand. The Apostle John is given a long and detailed glimpse into the throne room of God during the last days. He sees the saints who were martyred for their faith standing before the throne of God praising. He sees various plagues and natural disasters affect the earth as God judges humanity for their sin. He sees the final battle between Jesus Christ and Satan. And then he sees all humanity stand before God’s holy throne. I invite you to follow along as I read 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. 1 This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Prayer of Invocation: God of all history, thank you for the Bible. Through your Word we learn that you love your people dearly, and we learn that we are your people. Thank you that your Word shapes our identity. Thank you that your Word gives us hope for the future. As your Word is read and preached, send your Spirit so that we can know our role in your ongoing work in our world. Amen. When I was in college, I can remember that every year in the spring around this time a street preacher came and stood in front of the dining hall and told everyone passing by they were going to hell. It stands out so clearly because that almost never happened on my campus. Otterbein is a small liberal arts college in suburban Columbus. It’s not on a busy street with business surrounding the campus. It’s in its own little part of Westerville. So for someone to stand out in front of the dining hall with a sign was noticeable. I remember my junior year, a crowd had gathered around him as he damned everyone who walked by. Several students angered that he would suggest a loving god could or would send anyone to hell. As we continue in our series on the Apostles’ Creed, we come to the line that says: He will come again to judge the living and the dead. This might be the least popular sermon in this series; it might be the least popular sermon I preach all year. Judgment is one of the most unpopular ideas in contemporary American culture. You walk into any bookstore and glance through their religion section and you’ll see many books on many topics. But one topic that you will almost certainly not find is one on judgment. It’s a topic we really dislike as a culture. Sometimes people might say, “This is one of those topics that Christians need to let go of if they want to stay relevant”. As we examine Revelation, we’ll that there will be a judgment day, that we can’t stand God’s judgment, and the judgment that leads to life. Judgment Day We read in verse 11, “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”. We see that judgment will happen at the end of time. John tells us that the “earth and sky fled away”. At the end of time, God is going to undo all of creation. The earth and sky that we know will pass away. Sin has tainted and marred God’s good creation. Eventually, God will recreate the heavens and the earth. But before that, all of humanity will be judged. As the earth and the heavens fade away, a great white throne will appear. That is God’s throne. It is great, meaning it is majestic, splendid. There will be no throne that ever compares to it. The glory and splendor of this throne will eclipse every other throne that ever was. And this glorious, majestic throne will be white. White in Scripture symbolizes purity and holiness. We still associate the color white with purity. That’s why wedding dresses are white. They symbolize the purity of the bride. This throne will be so pure, so holy, the whiteness of it will be brilliant and radiant. Have you ever seen white so pure it radiates light? My final semester in seminary, there was one of the most severe blizzards New England has ever seen. We received 110 inches of snow between January and March. That’s a little over 9 feet of snow. And in the sun, the white of that snow was blinding. It was brilliant, it was pure. The throne of God will be even more brilliant, even more pure than a snow covered landscape reflecting the noon sun. And seated on the throne will be God himself. God himself will be the one to judge. He is not going to pass this off to someone else. He is not going to say, “Well … Bob can handle this” as if he’s too afraid. He will be the one executing judgment as only the one true holy God can. Maybe at this point, you’re wanting to object. You’re starting to get hot under the collar. You’re thinking, “I believe in a God of love not one of judgment. If God is judgmental as you’re saying, those who worship him will be judgmental”. There are two objections there. One that says “love and judgment are mutually exclusive ideas. You can either love or you can judge”. The second says “a God who judges will cause more judgment and violence”. I’m going to do my best to answer both of these. Love and judgment are not mutually exclusive. The opposite of love is not judgment. Many of us in this room are parents, some are grandparents. You love your children. You nurture them and want to see them grow up into mature young men and women. But when they do something they shouldn’t do, like cheat, steal, or lie, what do you do? Do you say, “I love you so I won’t judge your actions”? No. You love them so you say, “Sweetie, cheating is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong”. You don’t judge them or their actions because you hate them. You do it out of your love for them. There are some really shocking and saddening statistics around rape and sexual assault. Most estimates are that 1 out of 4 women and 1 out of 6 men have been sexually assaulted. Unfortunately, two women I care for deeply have been sexually assaulted. These are women I view as sisters. When they told me that they had been assaulted, I was angry. I judged the person who had assaulted them as having committed evil. My judgment wasn’t out of hate or malice. It was out of love for these two women. Scripture says that God’s wrath and judgment come not from hate but from his love. He loves his creation. He loves humanity. And when humanity sins, when we do something that is sinful, something that goes against the created order, he judges that. He judges not out of hatred but out of love. The opposite of love is not judgment. The opposite of love is indifference. God can be a god of love and a god who judges sin and evil. The second objection is that belief in a God who judges will lead to more violence and death. Miroslav Volf is a Croatian theologian. In his book Exclusion and Embrace, he makes that divine vengeance is the only thing that stops the cycle of violence. If you’ve really experienced evil and injustice as many did during the war in the Balkans and many have since then, and God does not judge rape, torture, and murder as evil, what will stop you from exacting vengeance yourself? Divine judgment is what stops the cycle of violence and death. Trusting that God will eventually hold those accountable for the evil and injustice they have committed is what allows people to not take violence into their own hands. When my friends told me about being assault, one of the things that kept me from causing more violence was knowing that God will ultimately judge those who assaulted them. The belief that God judges sin allows for believers to break the cycle of violence and death. We Cannot Stand on Judgment Day We’re seeing that there will be a judgment. But who exactly will be judged? And what will they be judged by? John tells us in verses 12-14, “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. 13 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. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire”. In these verses we see that all humanity will be judged and we see how humanity will be judged. John tells us that he saw “the dead, great and small, standing before the throne”. Everyone who had ever been alive is now standing before the throne of God. Great and small, powerful and powerless, important and unimportant. All the trillions of humanity standing before the throne of God as the earth and sky disappear. In my mind’s eye, I picture a black background that is illuminated by the great and white throne that radiates God’s glory. Not a single person is missing. This is a courtroom scene. Everyone has been brought before the judge and he will now pronounce the verdict. So what evidence will God use in his judgment? There is a record of everything that everyone has done. Just imagine there is a record of all that you have done. Every thought, every action, all of it recorded. Nothing has been omitted. I’m sure there are volumes of everything I have ever thought, said, and done, much of which I’ve forgotten. God will open up the volumes that pertain to us and examine every thought, word, and deed of ours. He will compare all of our thoughts, words, and deeds with the Ten Commandments. He would look over the book and say, “Chris, on May 5th, 2017 you thought this about your parents. You know what Exodus 20:12 says right? It says, “Honor your father and mother”. Was what you thought honoring either your father or mother? No? No, it wasn’t. A little later that same day, you were at work and smashed your finger in the grounds drawer of one of the coffee machines. Do you remember what you said? You cried out my name, but it was more of an expletive than a cry to me. Does that not violate the second commandment?” As God examines all of our thoughts, words, and deed, do you really think you will be able to stand after that? We won’t be able stand that judgment because we’ve sinned hundreds of thousands of times. Paul tells us in Romans that a single sin is deserving of death. We can’t stand the judgment. Hold on, I get that those of us who have heard the Ten Commandments will be judged by them but what about those who have never heard them? The Apostle Paul tells us at the end of Romans 1 that everyone has some knowledge and his ways, we just suppress it. While someone might not know the Ten Commandments per se, but they know lying is wrong; they know adultery is wrong; they know murder is wrong. So they have some idea. A prominent apologist puts it like this: everyone has an invisible recorder around their neck and every time someone says, “You ought” or “This is how it should be” the recorder records those statements. Then when that person goes before God, God gets out the volumes of their words and deeds and compares it to the recordings. “Joe, I know you didn’t know much about me or my ways but you had an idea about how life should be. Let’s listen to this. June 3rd, 2011 you said no one should lie. Let’s look at this section of the volume on your life. This section is all of the lies you’ve told throughout your entire life. Its 256 pages long. Let’s listen to this, March 5th, 2015 you said it’s wrong to use someone, to treat them like they’re an object. This section of the volume is all the times you used someone in your life. This section is 359 pages long.” It’s clear there is no chance we could stand the judgment we face before the throne of God. We can’t even live up to our own standards let alone his. We see that that there is a judgment and dismissing it doesn’t actually lead to a better life; it leads to a deepening of the cycle of violence and retaliation. But we also see that we cannot live up to the standards to withstand judgment. Is there any hope for us? The Judgment That Leads to Life John tells us that there is a judgment that leads to life. In verse 15 he talks about the book of life. The book of life is a phrase that occurs only a handful of times in Revelation. The real key to understanding it comes in 3:5. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the letters to the seven churches. Here, Jesus is speaking to the church in Sardis. The church in Sardis was considered to be very much alive by the other churches but Jesus, looking at their heart, saw that for the most part they were spiritually dead. Then he says that a few of the members in Sardis walked with Jesus. And those persons Jesus says he will never blot out of the book of life. The judgment that leads to life is the judgment that Jesus is lord. It is the judgment that says that Jesus is lord and I will walk with him that leads to life. See it’s a dismissal of divine judgment or thinking that our thoughts and deeds will allow us to withstand judgment. It is our judgment that Jesus is lord that writes our name in his book of life. When Jesus returns, the heaven and earth that we know will fade away, the dead will rise, and we’ll stand before the throne of God. We’ll still experience God examining our lives. He’ll show us all our sin. But because we have put our trust in Jesus, we won’t experience the judgment that leads to damnation. Jesus will step in and say, “Count all of my perfection theirs and their imperfection mine”. We talked about this a few weeks ago. That Jesus suffered on the cross so we wouldn’t. He suffered on the cross so that when we stand before the throne we won’t get we deserve; we’ll get what he deserved. When we say Jesus is lord that is a judgment that says, “I recognize I’m a sinner, that I deserve death. But Jesus died so I could live”. That is the only judgment that will lead to life. What that means is that we recognize it’s not our works that allow us to withstand God’s judgment. God will examine our lives, our innermost thoughts and deeds. They’ll be exposed. We won’t just fail to meet God’s standard but we’ll see just how much we fail to meet our own standard. But thanks be to God because he intervened. It is because of Jesus’ works that we will be able to withstand judgment. Once we understand that, we can humbly engage with injustice and sin in this world. We recognize that Jesus has been judged for us. We no longer have to project an image of superiority to others; an image that we are perfect. On the other hand we can faithfully engage in the world and say, “That’s wrong. There is right and wrong. And one day, God will judge humanity for the wrongs we have done, the sins we have committed”. We can do that not out of a place in vindictiveness or revenge but out of the recognition that God is just and he will be the ultimate judge. Our culture may not like this; many may hear this and scoff. But God is love and because he loves his creation, he judges our sin as evil. He sees the sin and evil we have committed, how it has married his good creation, and he judges it as wrong. Only a God who loves his creation, who loves his people, judges. Just as a parent judges it wrong when the child they love lies, so does God. And if we are in Christ, we have already had our judgment. Let us pray.