INTRODUCTION:
Children look forward to special days, well, we all do don’t we? Holidays, prize-givings, birthdays, Christmas, Easter. How many of us look forward to the Judgement Day of the Lord?
Today is supposed to be the day in the Christian calendar when we think about the Last Judgement Day – we could call it “Last Judgement Sunday”. It doesn’t have the same ring about it as Advent, Christmas, Easter Day, or Ascension Day. (‘Look forward to Judgement Day’ a sermon preached by Joel Pankow)
Is it a day we should look forward to? Look at what Job said 19:23-29. Even though he was in pain and despair on his dung pile, he saw a flash of hope (even joy) (v25) “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” And again (v26) “yet in my flesh I will see God;” (v27) “How my heart yearns within me!“ His heart was pounding with anticipation of the wonderful day. He would be free!! Free of pain and anguish. Free of his friends’ useless babblings. Free of this world’s emptiness, it’s striving for fulfilment and substance in material things.
But, he also had a warning for his friends, judgement. (vv28, 29) "If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.” There will be judgment for us all. Jesus in his parable talks of separating out the sheep and the goats. His people from those who are not his people.
Jesus was very firm and clear about a subject we often like to forget about: heaven and hell. We often talk about going to heaven, almost as if everyone is going there, but, ‘Don’t mention the other place please, it might be a bit sensitive; it might even offend.’ In our politically correct world, it is wrong to cause any form of offense. We need to be careful about some of the laws that are coming into place. It is our duty to draw people’s attention to the fact that following anyone except Jesus Christ is wrong and leads to hell. Mohammedans may not like to hear this – tough – it is true! Jesus says that there is no other way to heaven except through him John 14:6 “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” But, do the Mohammedans want these laws? No, the only people that want these laws are those who do not want to know the truth, but would prefer to live in a comfortable world now and forget about the future, after this life. Luke 12:15-20, the rich man who was doing so well that he had to tear down his barns to store and hoard all his crops, then one day (v20) "… God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.’”
When God turns to you and says “This very night your life will be demanded of you” how will you respond, how will you feel? Do you look forward to the coming day of judgement?
The eternal destination.
What does Jesus tell us about heaven and hell? They are for eternity. (v46) "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
This will include all people (v32) “All the nations will be gathered before him”. As Paul reminds us Phil 2:9-11 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”, which echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah (45:23). Also Rom 14:9 “Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”
Finally, let us remind ourselves of Jesus words in John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him."
None shall be missing; all shall have to come to him on that great and terrible day.
And there is an eternity for both states. Heaven is an eternity with God. Hell is an eternity without God. It is a time of remorse; of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. What hell is like exactly we do not know; there are but indications that it is something to be feared and avoided. We do know it is a place without the presence of God. Revelation refers to it being a lake of fire and lava.
If you want some indication of the wonder of heaven though, read Revelation 7. There’s a story about a wealthy Christian who somehow got obsessed with the idea of taking some of his wealth to heaven. Now he knew the Bible clearly teaches that you can’t take it with you. But so obsessed was he with this desire that he just prayed & prayed & prayed that God would give him permission to take some of his wealth to heaven with him.
Finally, his persistence in prayer paid off. God spoke to him & said, "Okay, enough all ready! You can take one suitcase with you into heaven."
Well, the story continues with the man deep in thought, "What do I take? What are the most valuable things that I can put into my suitcase?"
Well, he finally decided, & filled his suitcase full. Then one day he died, & when next we see him, he is slowly approaching the pearly gates dragging his suitcase behind him.
St. Peter met him there at the gate & said, "Wait a minute. What do you think you’re doing? You’re not allowed to take anything into heaven." The man answered, "You don’t understand. I have special permission from God Himself to take this suitcase into heaven."
Peter rubbed his beard & said, "Well, that’s very unusual. I can’t imagine God letting you do that. Let me look inside your suitcase & see what’s there." So the man dragged the suitcase over, & Peter opened it to see that it was filled with gold bars & gold bricks & gold ingots.
Peter said, "Well, all right. If God said so, I suppose you can take that in if you want. But why in the world did you go to all this trouble just to bring more pavement into heaven?"
We also know that the eternity in one place cannot be changed to the other. Once a goat, always a goat, once a sheep, always a sheep. (Luke 16:19-31 Rich man and Lazarus with Abraham at his side). When Bishop Philip Brooks, author of “O, Little Town of Bethlehem,” was seriously ill, he requested that no friends come to see him. But when an acquaintance of his named Robert Ingersoll, a famous anti-Christian propagandist, came to see him he allowed him to come in right away. Ingersoll said, “I appreciate this very much. Especially when you aren’t letting any of your close friends see you.”
Bishop Brooks responded, “Oh, I’m confident of seeing them in the next world, but this may be my last chance to see you.”...
Remember, hell is not the natural state for man. To go to hell is to go to a foreign land, but a foreign land to which we are not suited. God did not make us for hell our bodies and souls are not suited to it; he made us for heaven, that is our natural place. Hell is Satan’s place. Heaven is God’s place, God’s kingdom and we are the children of God.
The judgement scales.
The big question is not what is heaven or hell like, but how do we get to either?
At first sight we could well take the meaning from Jesus’ parable that it is what we do that makes the difference. Our good works in this life. But closer scrutiny shows that the sheep did not realise that they had done any good works for Jesus.
We have to go back to John 14:6 “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” This gives us the answer. It is through following Jesus Christ and accepting His sacrifice as our means of salvation that we are saved.
Col 1:13 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We have been redeemed through Jesus Christ; his death on the Cross is the only sacrifice that we need. Keeping the law has only been a failure for generations of men and women. In fact, the law only tells us where we have gone wrong and failed Rom 7:7 “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law.”. It tells us when we have sinned and how often (if we wanted to count up the occasions). All it reminds us of is the fact that we have failed. Christ died to save us from all this sin and failure. He died so that God would forgive us our sins and at that moment transfer us into His kingdom.
It is not good works that save us. It is only faith in the saving grace of Almighty God. His grace was so great that he was willing to give us the greatest gift of all time, His own Son, Jesus Christ. As it says in 1 Peter 1:18,19 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
The judgment scales are not weighing up our good deeds against our bad deeds. They only weigh up whether we have faith in Jesus Christ or not. We have to reach out in faith, even though we may be in fear and trembling at times.
C.S. Lewis "The Chronicles of Narnia"
"Are you not thirsty?" said the lion. "I’m dying of thirst," said Jill. "Then drink," said the lion. "May I- could I- would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill. The lion answered this only by a look and very low growl. As Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. "Will you promise not to- do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill. "I make no such promise," said the lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer the lion. "Do you eat girls?" she said. "I have swallowed up, consumed girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it. "I daren’t come and drink," said Jill. "Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion. "Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then." The lion said, "There is no other stream."
This world is full of those who are thirsty. If we go to the stream we will be devoured, we will be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, but I would rather be on fire now, consumed now, than forever on fire and never burned out, in the fires of hell.
The victory smile.
The victory smile is not a smile of glee, or self satisfaction. It is a look of amazement. (v37-39). We cannot save ourselves, we can only grasp hold the offer of salvation made by God through his grace. The cost to God was enormous. He gave His only Son, whom he loved dearly. As E K Simpson said, “Salvation is no half-measure but a foundation laid in heaven.”
That salvation is something we cannot ignore. We can only do one of two things accept it, or by not accepting it, reject it.
There was a king who had all this world could afford. The thing he loved most, however, was to laugh.
Once, while being entertained, a jester came along wishing to join in the festival of activities and also wishing to perform for him. His opportunity came and he put the best comical show together he had ever done and the king never laughed so hard.
Once the activity was all over the king wanted to hire this jester to be his personal jester. Once hired the king, in humour, handed him a small stick and said, "You are the most foolish man alive. When you find someone more foolish than you, then you give them this stick," and the king laughed heartily.
After many years had passed by the king lay sick on his death bed ready to go at any moment. He called for his jester, for he wanted to laugh one more time before he died. When the jester was through he asked to speak to the king personally.
Once alone with the king the jester asked, "King where are you going?" The king responded, "On a far journey." The jester asked again, "and how do you plan to get there?" the king responded, "I don’t know." Then the jester pulled the stick from his back pocket and handed it to the king. The king was stunned and asked why he had given him the stick. The jester replied, "King, today I have found a more foolish man than I. For you see, I only trifled with the things of life, but you have trifled with things of eternity!"...
Are you trifling with your eternity? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your saviour? Do you know where you are going? Is it heaven or hell?
