The Good News of Judgement (part 2)

The Good News of Judgment, Part II

Jeremiah 23:1-6 • Psalm 88:1-12 • Luke 21:20-36 • Rev 21:1-5, 22:1-5

So many people have asked for the full text of this sermon, it seems best to post it here. Please continue to send us your comments and questions!

This is our second sermon on the good news of judgment. It is my hope that you spent this past week examining your motives and talking to our Lord about some of your false ideas about the end times. I want to ask: What does it mean for you to face judgment? But I want to ask this in context with God’s love.

God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit create the universe out of love. Their intent for us is seen in the early chapters of the Bible. Humans enjoy the friendship of God. They have good work to do as they image God to the rest of creation as they name other creatures and care for God’s garden. When humanity decides to try and become like God, they lose their place of privilege and are driven from the garden. It is not long before humanity is well practiced in every possible human sin. The rest of the Bible can be read as a love story in which God attempts to win us back into relationship with himself. God finally comes as a human and suffers our judgment and condemnation as Jesus dies on the cross for us (John 3:16). Our heavenly Father raises Jesus from the dead to demonstrate his justice, power, and love. As our living Savior—Jesus—gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we might be transformed into those who can love him and learn to live in his love.

What will it be like to live with the great characters of God’s story? Ask the question another way: What would it be like to live in the presence of a holy and loving God if we are not made ready? Could it be that God’s judgment will be good for you?

I. How do we fit in to God’s story? God forgives us and transforms us for his name’s sake!

Jeremiah 23:1-2: Could our human wickedness be more evident than when God’s pastors, priests, and shepherds are charged with destroying and scattering God’s flock?

Jeremiah 23:3-6: The promise of salvation comes as God himself gathers his flock.

Why does God do this? For his name’s sake (Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 14:7 and 21; Ezekiel 20:44).

How does God do this? God comes as the good shepherd, incarnate in Jesus the righteous king. In Jesus, God submits to all the torments of this life, and he dies on a cross for us (Mark 10:45). Psalm 23:3 informs us that our Good Shepherd wants to restore our souls. He wants to lead us in the paths of righteousness – right relationships – for his name’s sake.

This is the big idea this morning: God forgives us and transforms us for his name’s sake! Listen to the witness of the psalms:

Psalm 25:11: For the sake of your name, LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Psalm 79:9: Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.

Psalm 109:21: But you, Sovereign LORD, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

Psalm 143:11: For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

We are forgiven and fit in to God’s plan for all creation for his name’s sake! Why should this matter to God? Remember, he made us in his image and he has work for us to do!

II. How are we made ready to be fit in? Get ready, because we will see that God judges us to help make us ready!

Psalm 88:1-12 show us the depths of our despair if God does not act for us and in us. We do not want to live here! IS there a away out? Yes, but we must go through GOd’s judgment! Isaiah 48:9‑11 brings two big ideas together:

⁹For my own name's sake I delay my wrath;

for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,

so as not to cut you off.

¹⁰See, I have refined you, though not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.

How can I let myself be defamed?

I will not yield my glory to another.

God forgives us for his name’s sake and God refines us for his names sake.

The Apostle Paul picks up these ideas in I Corinthians 3:11-15 and applies them to church leaders. This is the text behind the fearsome place known as purgatory. We don’t believe in purgatory, but the idea of a refining fire in personal judgment can apply to all of us.

¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

I am not suggesting this is a place of suffering or punishment, because I believe Jesus died for our sins. But imagine with me what it would be like to live in his presence and still remember our rebellion and awfulness. I believe this refiner’s fire either removes or transforms all of our evil and selfishness. My entire life will pass through this fire, and in those few places where I responded with God’s love, I will find I am rewarded.

We have to think carefully about heavenly rewards, because most of our human reward systems are based on either greed or competition. Can we discover a reward that will help us keep our motives pure?

Money and wealth will be worth nothing – the streets are paved with gold (Revelation 21:21). We certainly won’t be tempted to boast about our success in the presence of the one who died for us!

I believe the only reward worth having will be an increased capacity to love: to experience God’s love and to respond with God’s love. Do you get it? The two great commands (to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves) are still with us! Only now they become an anticipation of our destiny! We will have the joy of loving God with our whole heart, with our whole mind, and with all of our strength. And it will be our joy to love our neighbors as ourselves.

III. How does it all end? The Apostles John & Paul give us complimentary pictures:

The Apostle John gives us an elaborate verbal picture of life with God after the creation of the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21-22. I wish we had time to discuss both chapters. But here are the opening lines:

Revelation 21:1-5: ¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

Revelation 22:1-5: ¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

I want to emphasize just a couple of things. In 21:3-5 we be with God. God will wipe away our tears and renew all things. Our past—our mangled and broken past histories—will be transformed and made new! We will be free from it all and we will be free to love as we are loved in God’s new creation. In 22:3 and 5 we encounter another huge idea. The saints of God—that’s us!—we will serve God and reign with him for ever and ever.

The Apostle Paul doesn’t give us the same kind of verbal descriptions in his letters. But his thinking is just as profound and it compliments John’s ideas. Let me help you start to meditiate on this:

Ephesians1:7-10: ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-7: ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We were dead, and God made us alive! He did it for his sake—as an expression of his great love! In Christ, we will experience the riches of his grace. Romans 8 tells us we are destined for glory!

Romans 8:18-23: ¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:29-30: ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

In Christ, we will participate in God’s nature (II Peter 1:4). We are made like him, conformed to his likeness (Romans 8:29) and even glorified (Romans 8:30). Because God will be all in all (I Corinthians 15:28; Ephesians 1:23), all creation will be glorified with us (Romans 8:21). And so the rocks will be alive and the Wasatch Mountians will sing bass even as the aspen trees sing soprano and clap their hands for joy! What will our role be? We will lead all creation in worship “for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12, 14; and Romans 1:5).

The Apostle John shows us the ethical call in such anticipations:

²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (I John 3:2-3)

Our Response: Returning to our Gospel text, we draw three imperatives for Luke 21:34-36:

Be careful so your hearts are not weighed down by the daily weight of life lived badly (34-35).

Watch so you will not be surprised. Live in expectation and ready (36).

Pray not to escape persecution, but to escape a loss of faith and apostasy (36).

Even so, let us be bold to pray “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

In the name of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — Amen.

Luke 21: 20-36 • Rev 21:1-5 & 22:1-5