Last Judgment
John 5:19-24
A few years ago, right as I was beginning my vicar (intern) year, my supervising pastor gave me an assignment. I had to sit down and write a sermon. And I did that, but this is a sermon that I have never preached, and probably never will preach. It was a funeral sermon that he wanted me to write. But here was the catch: I didn’t know whose funeral this sermon was for. You see, when we are vicars, all of our sermons need to be approved by a pastor, to make sure that there isn’t anything false or goofy in the message. And just in case Pastor Naumann was ever out of town when one of our members passed away, he wanted to make sure that I had an approved sermon all ready to go.
But I have to tell you, it wasn’t the easiest sermon to write. It had sentences in it like, “all of us here are sad at the passing of _________. But we know Jesus died for the sins of _________. And we saw evidences of _________’s faith in Jesus when they did things such as __________, ___________, and __________. But of course, because of Christ’s promise, we know that we are going to see __________ again in heaven.”
Today is Last Judgment Sunday. And it’s the day when we especially focus on the fact that we live a breath away from death…and judgment. You each live a car crash, a stroke, an accident, a heart attack away from being able to insert your name into that unpreached funeral sermon. And, that sermon wouldn’t fit for everyone. It only applies to those going to heaven. So the real key here today is how can you be sure that what is preached at your funeral will be the truth? Is the pastor going to have to lie, and make you seem better and more godly than you really were? As we study our text this morning, we see that Jesus tells us how to be prepared for the Last Judgment His advice is: Get to Know the Son Before Meeting the Father. The Father entrusts the raising of the dead to the Son. The Father entrusts judgment to the Son.
Part I
You’ve heard expressions such as, “like father, like son,” or, “just a chip off the old block.” Basically these idioms say, “the offspring are similar to the parents.” But if you were to go up to a teenager and say, “you know, you remind me exactly of your parents,” a teen probably isn’t going to take that as a compliment. At times we tend to look at actions in our parents that we don’t like. We value our individuality. We want to be our own person, and not be compared to our parents, even if they are good, godly people.
Jesus didn’t think that way. Instead of distancing himself from his Father, he goes out of his way to stress the close relationship that he has with God the Father. What had happened in the verses before our text is Jesus had healed a man who was paralyzed. Imagine how different your life would be if you were like that man, unable to walk for 38 years. The way you live would be completely different than how you live. Many of the things you enjoy doing, and many of the things you do because you need you, you would be unable to perform those actions. And if someone came along, and in a millisecond gave you back the power to walk, how could that be a bad thing?
It couldn’t. And that’s the point that Jesus is making here. This miracle of his was met with opposition by the Jews, because Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath.
Like Father, Like Son. Does God the Father take the Sabbath off? Does he stop working one day out of every week? The world could not afford to have God take even a 5-minute break from his constant work of preservation. Like Father, Like Son. If the Father needs to work on the Sabbath, the Son needs to show mercy on the Sabbath. What a callous Savior he would be if he said to the paralytic, “Sorry, you caught me on a bad day. Try finding me tomorrow and I’ll heal you.”
Listen to how Jesus expresses his closeness to the Father, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” Our world values individuality. I once saw a commercial where a guy went to his buddy’s apartment to pick him up because they were going out for the night. But when they see each other, they are wearing the same jacket, and the same hat. Tragedy! They can’t go out like that! So one of the guys puts his hat backwards, the other reverses his reversible jacket, and now they’re all set, because they each have their individuality back. Here in John, Christ Jesus is interested in conformity, not uniqueness. He wants to be the same as the Father. And he is the same as the Father, and there is no need to hide it.
Jesus said, “the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” Somebody once asked me, “why do you talk about Jesus so much in church? I go to Christian churches and I hear about Jesus all the time, but what about God the Holy Spirit, and what about God the Father? Why aren’t they mentioned as much?” And you know, that’s a fair question. I know that in every sermon that I’ve ever preached, Jesus was not only mentioned, but he was prominent. On the other hand, there have been plenty of devotions and sermons where I haven’t specifically mentioned God the Father or the Holy Spirit. What do you think? Is that bad? Do we give Jesus too much emphasis at the expense of the other two members of the God-head?
Jesus is so prominent in our preaching because of this verse: “the Son gives life to who he is pleased to give it.” Jesus isn’t saying, “the Father raises some people, and I raise others to life.” Instead, the Son dispenses the Father’s life. This raising to life refers to the inner raising of the dead that goes on inside the soul of an unbeliever when they hear and believe the Word. Without Jesus, a person is dead. Yeah, they might be living here on earth, but they’re dead. They don’t really have any purpose in life. They don’t mean any meaning in life. They are just living for themselves and for the here and now. They are living a dead life. But listen to the change that occurs when you add Jesus into the mix, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” Pay attention to the tense of the verb. A believer has life. Here on earth. At conversion, all of a sudden there’s a shaking up of priorities. God fills the believer up with a life that now looks to serve others. That’s different than the selfish so-called life before faith. And…this life Jesus says is eternal. Believers have it now. They will have it forever.
“Get a life!” Back when I was in high school, that was a common expression to say to someone who spent too much time studying….too much time playing video games…too much time on the phone. “Get a life!” Go, do something useful with your time. How much more important it is that we get true life, especially before we die and meet the Heavenly Father. Get to Know the Son Before Meeting the Father, because the Son has life!
Part II
The raising to life, or the bringing to faith, isn’t the only job in which there is a close connection between Father and Son. The Father has given his Son another of his tasks: judging.
“Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” You know, you hear all those jokes about dying and going to the pearly gates. Standing before God. Sometimes those jokes have you talking to St. Peter before you get to heaven. The Bible has a different take on the judgment. Jesus is the Judge.
And that’s one part of Christ’s work that isn’t done yet. Or better to say: it’s still to come. We confess in the Apostles’ Creed, “[Jesus] ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.” Look for similar words in a few minutes when we confess the Nicene Creed. Each Sunday we admit that Jesus is going to be the judge.
And that’s why this is the Gospel text for Last Judgment Sunday. Because we are living in the last days of this world. Every time we get to this part of the church year and study the passages that talk about the last days of the earth, I become convinced that when we talk about the end of the world, we are talking not decades, not years, but months. Now I know Jesus said that no one can predict the day. But if you look at what he says the church is going to look like in the last days, and what the world is going to look like in the last days, I can’t help but think that there are just a few more grains of sand in the hourglass, and then, boom, human history ends. Eternity begins.
Look at the signs in the church. Jesus here hints about one of the problems in the church during that last days when he says, “all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” And yet, we see in these last days, churches that do not honor Jesus the same as the honor the Father. In these latter days, the Church of Jesus Christ – Latter Day Saints does not place the Son on the same level as the Father. Jesus says to watch out for that dangerous thinking. Other parts of the New Testament talk about the Church in the last days, “people will not put up with sound doctrine.” Christ predicts that the Church will be plagued by factions in the last days. There will be false Christs, church leaders who aren’t true to the Word…and many will be led away from the truth by a shallow, feel-good message that really doesn’t get to the root problem: sin. Another sign: the love of many will grow cold. Even believers will have a hard time showing love in the last days. And we should ask ourselves whether that is not happening with us as individuals. How far up on your priority list is helping someone that couldn’t possibly ever help you in return? What about mission work. Do we ever feel as though we give our money to missions, therefore we have done mission work. But is that where mission work ends…handing it off to someone else?
And then there are all the signs in the world: the natural disasters, and the man-made catastrophes: wars, fires, terrorism, earthquakes would all fit neatly into that category. Last Tuesday I drove home from catechism class at the church at about 7:00 p.m. There were about a dozen police cars in and around our subdivision. There was a helicopter hovering above our neighborhood with a spotlight, frantically searching for someone. At the same time I flipped on the news and heard about solar flares from the Sun, flares which have never before been witnessed in such intensity. And on Tuesday, it especially struck me: all the signs are here. We are living in the last days.
How do I know if I am ready to meet the Father, the Creator? Well, if I have a good rapport with the Son, the Father is going to accept me too. And Christians do have a good relationship with Jesus. Yes, our love grows cold toward other people we really should be helping. Yes, far too often we plan so much for this life and very little for the next. But despite that, we have a good relationship with Jesus. He forged that close bond between him and us by his sacrifice of his own life on the cross. The Bible calls Jesus our brother. And think about it: if Jesus is our brother, the God the Father is our Father as well. And if God is our Father, we are all set for the Last Judgment. We are set because we have gotten to know the Son before meeting the Father.
Conclusion
There is a good chance that I will be preaching the sermon for one or more of you at your funeral. Though many of us feel that we have a number of years before we need to worry about death, we know that there are no guarantees relating to the timespans of our fragile, human lives. And by the way, should that happen to you, I promise I won’t pull out that vicar year sermon. But whether I preach it or another pastor does, unless Christ comes in the next 100 years (which he very well may!), all of us are going to have a funeral. Some people, many people, wouldn’t like to dwell on that thought. But focusing on our mortality puts us in a solemn mindset. Life isn’t all fun and games. There’s a lot more to it than that. And for that we have Jesus to thank. None of us has ever seen Jesus. But all of us know him. All of us love him. He’s our dearest friend. And because we know the Son, we know his Father as well, and we have nothing to fear in the Last Judgment. Amen.
sdg
