The Creed 18 - He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Intro

I wonder what your response would be if I asked you:

“is judgement good news?”

Judgement in general.

Our news is often filled with stories of politicians and those in authority being brought to justice, or the courts investigating wrong doing.

Recently, we’ve seen Joe Anderson the Mayor of Liverpool arrested recently around evidence of corruption, David Cameron is currently being grilled around preferential access to government spending to secure contracts for a private company, and over in the states, we’ve heard about the Brooklyn Police officer who shot and killed unarmed Daunte Wright through mistaking her gun for a Tasar.

Where there is injustice, where those in authority cause harm intentionally or unintentionally, we seek justice.

When someone wrongs us, when someone we love is harmed, we want justice.

About 6 years ago when we were living in Cambridge, I was caught speeding on my way back home after a long day. I was looking forward to seeing the family, and I think there was a celebration that day. I was on a long straight road I knew well and I didn’t keep a close enough eye on my speedometer, and I crept from the speed limit of 30 miles an hour to 36.

Of course within a couple of weeks, a letter arrived, my first and only speeding offence.

I felt the guilt of what I’d done and was annoyed at myself. I hated that I’d been judged and found guilty. So of course I paid the £90 and attended the speed awareness course. I’d done the crime, and I did my time.

But, a week after my speed awareness course I was driving on the motorway with a 50 limit due to the road work being done on the A14. And then I got a tailgater. He came right up behind me and started beeping me because I wasn’t going faster than 50 as that was the limit. I was also on the inside lane and there was plenty of space in the next lane. Frustrated, annoyed and angry, as he finally left me alone and sped off, I called down judgement from on high on him. I can remember telling God that he should punish that man and make sure that he got caught by the next camera which I knew was just up ahead.

I wanted to see justice done to that man. I want to see corruption brought to justice. I want to see those who have done wrong, and who are without repentance for their crimes against those I love, punished.

We see that instinctive need for justice in children. When one of the kids smacks the other round the face, they want justice. And often they take it into their own hands.

So we come now to our passage.

What a passage?

I don’t know how familiar with this passage you are but I wonder how many people heard it for the first time today or heard it with fresh ears.

If you’ve heard it before did you think “O hear we go, it’s that one”

Did you hear if for the first time and think “No, Jesus did not just say that did he? Isn’t Jesus loving? Why does he talk about judging and eternal life both with God and without?”

And this passage comes after Jesus uses the destruction of the temple as a metaphor for his death and resurrection in Chapter 24, and starts to explain about the last days. He says that the hour of judgement is unknown, even to Him while He’s on earth, but he warns that that day is coming.

We have the parable of the 10 Virgin’s who all know that the bridegroom is coming to the Wedding, they just don’t know when. The wise are ready with plenty of oil and the foolish end up going looking for oil and miss the return of the bridegroom and are not allowed entry.

Then we have the parable of the bags of gold, where the master entrusts a different amount to each servant before a long journey. On his return he passes judgement on each servant as to how they have used and invested his money.

And then we reach this passage. Jesus said:

Judgement

Matthew 25:31–33 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

This image wouldn’t have been so unfamiliar to the original hearers as it is to us. We’re not particularly agricultural, and we don’t see the regular sight of sheep and goats feeding together.

These were two of the smallest and most common domestic animals in Israel. It was a common site to see them together, however sheep are more hardy, and so on colder nights or in colder seasons, the mixed herds would need separating out to keep the goats warm and allow the sheep to continue grazing. Sheep were more favoured than goats, partly because their produce was richer and they were more hardy.

That image in itself is not particularly troubling. It’s Jesus’ use of the image and that it is Jesus that says it that hits us at the core.

The first listeners to this word picture suddenly realise that Jesus isn’t speaking about goats and sheep, but about them, about humanity, about who gets eternal life with God and who doesn’t.

And it troubles me this picture, and that’s the point, it’s meant to. None of us should be happy with the idea of anyone having an eternity without God. But here we have Jesus sharing that this is a reality. If we gloss over this core teaching of Jesus we miss the gospel. That justice is equally important to God as love.

Another important thing to note here is that this is the only point when Jesus refers to himself as King. He’s asked if he is King, and his response was either to leave before answering the question, when the crowds wanted to make him King, or to the charge ‘are you the King of Jews’ he says, ‘You have said so’.

But here, he does share with those listening that he is King.

And this is essential. This is so important. In this passage Jesus reveals that it is Him, the Messiah, God the Son who sits on the throne of judgement over all of humanity. This same Jesus who we’ve heard teach “love your neighbour as yourself”, “Love your enemies”, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”, the one who heals, who restores, who seeks out the oppressed and the marginalised and tends to their needs. This same Jesus is also the judge.

As Jesus talks about judgement, he says

Matthew 25:34 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

34 ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

The inheritance is the Kingdom, the place where the King reigns, and this was planned for them since before the creation of the world, since before the fall, since before God spoke “Let there be light”.

And why are they given this inheritance? Because. unlike Adam and Eve, they were faithful. Jesus tells them:

Matthew 25:35–36 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

They are not saved because they did these things, but because they followed Jesus and his way, because they had become the sort of people who live a Jesus life.

Their good works flow out from their transformation through Jesus.

In following the Jesus way, they had ministered and served Jesus himself through these acts of meeting the needs of those most in need.

And the sheep are surprised. They just lived following him. But they don’t remember those moments when they helped him directly, and Jesus explains

Matthew 25:40 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

40 ‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

It was through service to those in need.

This was part of the heart behind TANGO our local outreach project with the furniture and clothes shops and the caf.

TANGO wasn’t started to do good works so that the workers could get into heaven. TANGO is not about serving so that we get a reward.

TANGO is about following the call of Jesus. Out of an overflow of love for Jesus, the natural response is to help those in need. Through the furniture shop we’re able to provide affordable furniture to the community, through the clothes shop we’re able to provide very low cost clothes and through the cafe to provide good food at low prices.

But an element of TANGO which we have seen recently restored is giving to those in need without benefit to ourselves. When we become aware of someone in need, we are providing furniture, clothing and food without cost to the individual.

I have an exciting meeting with a few of the staff and a lady called Naomi from Together Liverpool this week to explore a food pantry to then involve a wider group in seeing a food pantry established alongside the work of TANGO in something we’re calling TANGO+.

I share this with you not to show off what we’re doing, but to encourage you that as a Church we are passionate about meeting people’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Not just talking about faith, but practically coming alongside the community.

Living the Jesus way is about loving service and about challenging injustice. We seek to support those who are overlooked out of the overflow of love Jesus has poured over us.

In our society the injustice of racism and sexism have both come to a head during the past 6-12 months, and we are seeking justice for all those who have been victims of abuse at the hands of those they trusted.

We seek justice, and we have a God who will bring justice. But justice in His eyes, the only eyes that can truly see everything.

There are many who have been entrusted with a lot, and who have fallen very short of the way the world expected them to act. In the eyes of God, all who have sinned and walked away from him are destined for eternal death, unless they accept God’s free gift of life through Jesus.

Jesus himself said

John 14:6 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

6 Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Hell

And with all this in mind are those who don’t serve out of an overflow of God’s grace, from the love of Jesus. All those in our world who actively reject God.

Matthew 25:41–43 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

41 ‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was ill and in prison and you did not look after me.”

There are many images of hell throughout scripture and there are all sorts of theories about whether it’s a firey place or just a place of deep darkness devoid of all love. Whether there are demons prodding people with pitchforks (more a medieval idea than scriptural) or just being there itself is punishment enough.

Scripture is clear on two things. Firstly, that there is a reality for those who don’t believe in God

And secondly, that God is not there.

And that is as much as I need to know.

I’d love to be a universalist which is someone who believes that we all go to heaven in the end, that what Christ did on the cross makes a way for everyone whether they believe or not, and that in the end, no matter how bad someone treats God’s creation, including how bad they abuse other humans, everyone will have access to eternal life with him.

There is a theory that at the judgement we will have a second chance, and facing Jesus face to face how could anyone deny it.

The problem is that we don’t find that in the bible at all. We find that God’s heart is that all will be saved, in fact we know that Jesus paid the cost for everyone, but we do need to accept his free gift of love and turn away from the wrong in our lives. The gospel according to Jesus is “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news”.

Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near

The myth of universalism is created by those who, like me, hate the idea of an eternal punishment for unbelievers, but who struggle to match it with their image of Jesus. And because these teachings don’t match up with their image of Jesus, they reject this hard teaching.

It doesn’t take long, when we look at the passages cited by universalists to prove universalism from scripture, that each of the passages they look to are in a wider context of judgement. You often only need to look a few verses before or after to see that there is a major misreading.

A book which has really helped me explore this topic with you today is a book by Francis Chen and Preston Sprinkle called Erasing Hell. It’s easy to read, spoken through Francis Chen with the deep scholarship of Preston. And I highly recommend this book to you. I’ll admit, I’ve had it on my shelf for 10 years, because none of us like to think about Hell, but if we have the wrong understanding of Hell and we think everyone will end up with God forever, then we cease to share about His love with eternal consequences for those around us.

You may say, “Well I don’t know if I want to believe in a God who sends people to Hell?”

But we’re not asked whether we want to believe in a God who sends everyone to heaven without justice of judgement for what we have done to each other and against God. Jesus doesn’t say “follow me if you like the way I think”. He says “Come and follow me.”

God is God.

Paul uses this image of the Potter from Isaiah

Potter

Judge, judged in our place

Paul says that our comments of “God, that’s not how I’d do it if I were you” are like the clay in all of it’s knowledge speaking to the potter and saying ‘I wouldn’t make me like that if I were you’

Romans 9:14–23 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 19 One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ’ 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? 22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

The good news of Jesus comes with a warning.

And we need to be careful not to take that judgement seat as Adam and Eve did. Choosing to be the judges ourselves is why humanity is in the mess it’s in. When we decided not to let God be God.

Jesus teaches love for God above all others, he teaches us to love our neighbours as ourselves, he reveals that we have walked away and yet God is calling us back into adoption as His children. Since before the creation of the World God knew you and loved you. And he wants you to be with Him for eternity. That is His hope and His heart for all of us. But God won’t force anyone to be with Him forever.

For those who reject Him, for those who don’t follow His way. there will be eternal life, but it won’t be with Him.

It’s a sobering teaching, but one we must not miss. Jesus calls us with urgency to share His love. Trusting God to be God.

The one who will judge all, is the one who was judged in our place. Who took upon himself the wrath, and anger of God against the sin of the world, He took it upon himself so that we can be with Him forever.

So I wonder as we close who God is laying on your heart to pray for, to pray that they would come to know Jesus, to experience eternal life with Him which starts the day they meet and accept Jesus?

I wonder where you see injustice in the world around you and how Jesus is calling you to call our injustice?

I wonder who Jesus is calling you to serve this week, meeting the needs of the poor, the homeless and the lonely?