Judgement Day

Mission and vision

We are continuing our sermon series Beginning with the end in mind

Just like looking over our mission and vision every Sunday… we focus on the goal. Looking at the end helps us as believers to align our everyday lives with the mission of God

Another thing that beginning with the end in mind does is, it keeps you focused on the right things

We as people get so caught up in the everday things that we forget about the big picture

We forget that the story of our life isn’t about us

That’s right. THe point of your life isn’t about you and how you feel and how you want your way and you want to be comfortable… that’s not the point of life. To make you happy

THe point is, was, and always will be Jesus and his Glory

Looking at the end, especially during this first month of the year, helps us to realign our priorities for this year with what truly matters

We’ve discussed the end of the end. We talked about how God’s end game is the redemption of the world, of all creation and how he is going to walk with man and woman in constant communion

Then we looked at the Day of the Lord and the Last Days

Understanding that God will right all wrongs and Jesus will come again.

The point is are you going to be found working when he returns?

Today we are going to dive into Judgement Day

Judgement is one of the things that is a buzz word for our culture

You can’t judge

Don’t judge me

There is a false understanding of what judgment is and who gets to judge

The common understanding of judgement falls under the definition of forming an opinion

If this is the case…then telling someone that they are judging is a judgement and therefore brings condemnation on the one telling the judger not to judge

What people misconstrue is that in that form of judgement which is just forming an opinion, is ineveitable. We do it 1000 times a day

What scripture talks about with judgement has more to do with condemnation than opinion

People feel like they are being condemned by others and they fire off with the catchphrase about judgement

The truth is, and we see it in our text from today, that there is only one who has the authority to condemn… the only one who can condemn or justify is Jesus Christ

The only one who truly judges is Jesus Christ. And he’s the one we want to judge because he is the only one who will judge righteously

Before we dive into the passage.. how do we know it is Christ who will be judging?

I mean the passage doesn’t say Jesus by name

John 5:22–27 ESV

For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

One more thing before we continue

There are actually 2 different judgements mentioned in scripture

The first is the judgement of the saints

This is when you as a believer in Christ will be judged by what you have done for the kingdom of God

We know this a couple ways

One- WE see here that the dead great and small stand… well when those who are alive in Christ Jesus die to this world, we continue living in the presence of the Lord

As Paul tells us in 2 corinthians that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord

We will talk more about this next week

When Jesus was questioned about the issue of marriage and resurrection by the sadducees in

Jesus’s response to them was that God is the god of the Living.

We are going to talk more about that next week when we go over end of life

But Christians are going to be judged by what we did with what Christ has given us to build on

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that everything we build in this life

Meaning where we use what God has given us

Will be tested with fire

Anything that is built for the kingdom of God will remain but everything you waste your God given talent and time on that is not for the kingdom of God will be burned up

paul tells us that on THE DAY there will be some who are saved but they get in as one escaping through the flames

Meaning that they trusted in Jesus, however nothing they did in this life will carry on into the next one. They were too busy building up an empire for themselves that they were not ones who were working for the kingdom of God

Lets jump into the second judgement though… the great white throne judgment

So we know this is Jesus who is going to be the one seated on the throne

So let’s dive into this passage

It is in this place the great white throne that Jesus Christ judges every

We see the great white throne right off the bat

Great - talks about the power of Christ

White - purity and righteousness

Throne - The authority and Majesty of the one who judges. he doesn’t judge from a bench he judges from a throne

In courtrooms today you have judges who sit in a chair, but the area that they sit is actually called the bench

The one who judges us is not going to be someone who can be corrupted or slanted or bought or coerced

Jesus is going to judge with all power and authority from the throne of power that is his

Remember all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus…

Side note… we have no idea where in physical time and space this judgement is going to happen

We see that at the presence of Jesus in judge mode that earth and sky fled from his presence… so who knows where this will actually take place

Then we see in v.12

The dead great and small standing before the throne

There is no one who will escape the judgement seat of Christ. Whether it is as a believer or a non believer

Now how we are judged will be different based on if you are a believer or not, but no one gets out of accountability

You will be held accountable at some point in your existance

if you buck accountability on this side, you will stand in front of Christ and at that point there will be no more excuses

Listen.. the sky will run away from Jesus… and you think that you’re going to be able to come up with something that will justify you in front of the Lord for why you spent your time ignoring him… Not listening… bucking the Godly advice given to you… bucking the accountability that is built into the church to keep you walking with the lord

So we see taht books were opened and then another book was opened

Now here is where we do our best investigative work

Because scripture doesn’t tell us exactly what the books are

We know what the singular book is… that is the lambs book of life

The way this process works is those who have trusted in Jesus as the Lord and savior… they will be written in the lambs book of life

If your name is not found in THE book then Jesus is going to start looking at the books

So whats in the books?

we see here that the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done

Lets look at another take on this scene from Jesus himself

If you still have your bibles turn to

This is one of the most terrifying passages in all the bible to me

We see that Jesus will be hold us to the fire of his truth and expose how we lived and what we truly believed.

The scary part is that on the day of judgement there are going to be people from every faith walk including faithful church members who were baptists, or nazarene, or methodist, or Mennonite… but were never Christian

People who sat in church every week but never got it

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

There will be people who think that they are good enough, that they are moral enough, that they are kind enough… that will be sent away from the presence of the love of Christ and have to face the wrath of God in its full force

So this is what the reading of the books is going to look like

Jesus is going to look at your life and say did you live up to who I created you to be by finding salvation in me?

NO … so then lets see… did you even live up to your own standard?

The truth is, no one can even measure up to their own standards of perfection

If you were to judge who got into heaven and hell and someone were to show you an HD video of every moment of your life, you wouldn’t even measure up to your own standard

This is why it has been said that God never throws anyone into hell, they choose it

When Jesus is reading off the list of things that went undone or were intentionally done wrong… no one is going to say, well you can clearly let them in

And the ones who get invited into eternal communion with God will be so floored by the unimaginable grace that has covered us we wont be able to do anything but to praise his Holy Name!!!

The reason I tell you all this is not to scare you into anything, but the reality of the situation we find ourselves in is that everything we do or don’t do will have to be accounted for

You will one day stand in front of Jesus

And at that moment you won’t get a do-over

You don’t get another morning… at that point its reconning time… you will have to tell Jesus why you spit in the face of grace everyday?

Our Lord doesn’t want us to parish. He doesn’t want any of us to be cast off.

But we choose whether we are going to follow him or not on a daily, sometimes a minute by minute bases

It all starts with with the decision to accept the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross

At that moment your name is written in the lambs book of life

Now you show that you’ve truly accepted this atoning sacrifice by allowing him to fill you and letting him lead you

You are no longer your own, but he now has say so in your life

This means that you choose now whatit is you