The Good and the Baaad 7Apr19

Introduction

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 292: Bullying Reward

In A Painted House, John Grisham describes seven-year-old Luke Chandler’s reaction to a Sunday school teacher’s eulogy for a mean boy, Jerry Sisco, who had been killed the night before in a back alley fight after he picked on one person too many.

“She made Jerry sound like a Christian, and an innocent victim,” said a little boy who had seen the fight with his friend Dewayne. I [Luke] glanced at Dewayne, who had one eye on me. There was something odd about this. As Baptists, we’d been taught from the cradle that the only way you made it to heaven was by believing in Jesus and trying to follow his example in living a clean life and moral Christian life.

Anyone who did not accept Jesus and live a Christian life simply went to hell. That’s where Jerry Sisco was, and we all knew it.

—Based on John Grisham, A Painted House (Doubleday, 2001)

What are you afraid of? What are the things that make you really afraid? It seems there are so many phobias out there. Is it spiders? Clowns? Heights?

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. So what are we afraid of? Well, lots of things.

In a 2005 Gallup Poll (U.S.), a national sample of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 were asked what they feared the most. The question was open-ended and participants were able to say whatever they wanted. The top ten fears were, in order: terrorist attacks, spiders, death, failure, war, criminal or gang violence, being alone, the future, and nuclear war.

In another estimate of what people fear the most, book author Bill Tancer analyzed the most frequent online queries that involved the phrase, "fear of..." following the assumption that people tend to seek information on the issues that concern them the most. His top ten list of fears published 2008 consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, failure, and driving.

As we think about what scares us, especially as religious people, I think someone who is familiar with religion and God might also be afraid of God’s judgment—both in the here and now and in the hereafter.

To tell you the truth, I have preached many funeral sermons. In all honestly I always make the funeral sermon honor and lift up the deceased. I know several ministers who do this too. What happens when you try to preach a person into heaven? Not much really, everyone in attendance pretty much knows if the person is heaven-bound or not.

T/S In our Scripture lesson for today, Jesus is preaching about who gets into heaven and why. From where he stands, those who get in and those who don’t, are the ones who either do good or don’t do good. If you’re afraid of death and what might come after it, Jesus’ words offer a glimpse into a solution to our fear of death.

Explain the Text

In this passage, Jesus culminates preaching 6 parables with this apocalyptic drama.

God’s Judgment Explained

This passage is about God’s future judgment. There are two types of God’s judgment, that which happens now and that which will happen at the end of the age. Like God’s kingdom, which is both the here and now and the future, God’s judgement happens now and will happen in the future.

God judges the world by identifying and condemning sin and by vindicating and rewarding the righteous. God exercises temporal judgment on the world and on his people; final judgment will take place when Jesus Christ returns.

But our text here and for the last several weeks has said it’s a little of this and a little of that. It is both believing in Jesus and doing good works, which include following God’s commandments. Those very commandments include doing good or not doing bad to others.

The Bible also records instances where prophets and God’s people wonder what is taking God so long to pass judgment on people who continually do bad things to God’s people. (Give examples)

The Bible also records instances where prophets and God’s people wonder what is taking God so long to pass judgment on people who continually do bad things to God’s people. (Give examples)

MAIN POINT: The ultimate judgment that happens to everyone will happen at the end, when the good and the bad are separated. The good go to one place, while the bad go to another.

The Apostle Peter explains it this way: (NLT) — “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

This makes sense to me because God is always giving second chances—even to people who don’t like me. There is usually more to the person who hurts us than we care to admit: It’s like the old saying, ‘Hurt people, hurt people,’ so maybe God is waiting to help them through their hurts.

One challenge we have when it comes to people getting what they deserve: We sure want God to act fast when it comes to avenging the grief we experience but we want God to delay when we’re at fault.

There are Things We’ll Never Know

A friend of mine’s son died in his early 30s. She wants to know why her son had to die. She thinks God is unfair for having taken him. This whole idea comes from the ideas that God has

When it comes to God: There are things we want to know.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do bad people get away with so much?

Why do good people suffer? Where’s God’s judgment when we need it?

[Books answer this question: Why do bad things happen to good people?]

Commentary:

The Fallacy of: Everything Happens for a Reason

[Show memes]

If God punishes the wicked and rewards the good, sometimes when bad things happen to us we’re left with the bad theology that everything happens for a reason that God directed.

Sometimes there is a reason bad things happen to us—we’re stupid and make bad decisions.

But there are some things completely out of our control, as when a child dies. [Talk with Jane or Barbara about how they answered this question.]

Sometimes our thirst for revenge reveals an inward ugliness that God wants to change. (meme: never forget, never forgive)

What We’re Missing

We cannot know the mind of God, although we have clues.

Theologies have been invented to explain God’s purposes. (Calvinism, movies like: The Adjustment Bureau, The Umbrella Academy)

Trust in God. We’re torn between making our own decisions and learning to lean onto God when bad things happen, believing that God can give us strength when we turn our anxiety over to Him. (Grandma losing her parents and the family farm.)

POINTS TO CONSIDER INCLUDING

: Faith + good works = salvation, both together, not one or the other.

We should hope God never gives US what WE deserve. We’re a lot more selfish than we’d admit. We’re a lot darker inside than we hope no one finds out about. We justify our actions in ways that were they revealed to others, would shock and dismay them.

Pope Francis quote: We are to pray for the poor and then go feed them. That’s how prayer works.

[Look into Serendipity Bible for questions for people to consider.]

We should hope God never gives US what WE deserve. We’re a lot more selfish than we’d admit. We’re a lot darker inside than we hope no one finds out about. We justify our actions in ways that were they revealed to others, would shock and dismay them.