...from the desk of Rande Wayne Smith D.Min., Th.M., M.Div.

The Apostles’ Creed - 8

… FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

2 Corinthians 5:10
“For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.”

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion to His glory and our edification.  Amen.

So, you’re driving on the Elgin/O’Hare, coming out to visit Kathy and me in Bartlett. And as you come over the crest of the hill, all of a sudden, at the right side of the road, you see a friendly state patrolman, with his radar gun pointed right at you. What’s the first thing you do? If you’re like most red-blooded Americans you hit the break … just on instinct. Why? You fear the judgment of the officer. You sit down at night to watch your favorite performer on “American Idol.” She comes out and sings fantastically. You’re excited. Randy and Paula give her good reviews. But then Simon says that in his judgment she sounds like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.

You’re flipping through the channels one afternoon and you come upon one of those great TV shows … “People’s Court” or “Divorce Court” … and this guy, Mr. Eugene Forthwright, is being accused of having an affair with his sister’s aunt’s cousin’s neighbor. She has body piercings all over her face, and her hair is styled in a purple mohawk. And you sit there listening to Judge Wapner, or Judge Judy, or Judge Mathis, or whoever, pronounce judgment on this person.

Judgment is all around us everyday of our life. There is judgment in our world.

This section of The Apostles’ Creed that we’re going to look at this morning contains probably the most politically incorrect topic that we’re going to discuss … judgment.

Now in my study and preparation I read a lot about what scholars and theologians have written about certain subjects. And I’m amazed at how little has been written concerning judgment. As popular as it is secularly, there’s almost an apathy about it theologically. Now we all know that in our society today we’re not to think that one person’s belief is superior to another. Especially if that means that we’re correct and somebody else is wrong. We have the notion that “it’s okay for you to believe whatever you want, but don’t force your beliefs on me.” (I hate the expression, “well, let’s just agree to disagree.”)

We’re supposed to believe that all roads lead to Heaven … and the key to everlasting happiness is to simply to find a road. That’s what society is teaching right now. And sadly, followers of Jesus haven’t been theologically educated well enough to refute that belief.

Now our society certainly has a fascination with judgment. We’re almost entranced with it. How many of us read one of the countless stories about Brian Dugan being sentenced to death last week? Certainly we’ll all be interested to learn the verdict of MAJ Nidal Hasan when he stands trial for shooting all those soldiers at Fort Hood. The Washington D.C. area sniper was executed last week, having been convicted and judgment pronounced several years ago. And then there was the recent Brown’s Chicken Restaurant murder trial.

Even in sports, many fans have been judging New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, all week on his decision not to punt on fourth down against the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday evening. We have a fascination with judgment. With the recent passing of actor Patrick Swayze I watched the movie “Ghost” the other night. It came out about 15 years or so ago. Do you remember it? It dealt with eternal judgment. It was completely fiction, but it made the audience think about what happens to our loved ones when they depart from this earth.

So this morning, as a way to help us understand it, and because it’s one of the most foundational beliefs in all Christianity, we’re going to deal with 5 questions concerning the “J” word, the word we’re not supposed to talk about … 5 questions about judgment.

Let’s start right at the beginning, with something real simple … what is judgment?

Now the judgment I’m speaking about isn’t where we’re judging each other … how a person looks, what somebody has said. The judgment I’m talking about is one of eternal consequences. It’s a judgment that comes in 2 parts … the first one being at the point of death. At the moment of death, “as quickly as the blinking of an eye,” each one of us will be judged according to our faith. And right then we’ll begin our eternity with God and His love … or we’ll be separated from God and His love.

And that leads us right into the second part … where we’ll spend that eternity. Scripture frequently talks about a great final judgment of believers and unbelievers. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and hear His proclamation of our eternal destiny.

“Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sits on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence and were seen no more. And I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing before the throne. Books were opened, and then another book was opened, the book of the living. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. Then the sea gave up its dead. Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held. And all were judged according to what they had done. Then death and the world of the dead were thrown into the lake of fire. (This lake of fire is the second death.) Those who did not have their name written in the book of the living were thrown into the lake of fire.”

The final judgment is the culmination of many things where God rewards righteousness … or punishes unrighteousness. We know from Scripture that Jesus will return again at the end of history and the final judgment will occur. “Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sits on it.”

That sentence leads us to our second question … who will be our judge? Who will judge me? Who’s on the throne? Do you remember the controversy in the 2002 Winter Olympics? The French judge in the skating competition admitted that he was under tremendous pressure to vote for the Russian couple. That left the Canadian skaters with a silver medal. Sports Illustrated wrote at the time, “The controversy renewed complaints over the subjectivity of judging, and brought to mind the cold war era, when many competitors suspected that their medals were sometimes awarded on the basis of politics.”

I don’t know about you, but when I think of someone judging my eternal destiny, I don’t want them to be swayed by outside pressure or politics or gut feelings or bribery. I want somebody who is impartial and just and fair.

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead.” Right there’s the answer … who’s the judge of the living and the dead? It’s Jesus Christ. Our judge is Jesus.

Scripture says, “Nor does the Father himself judge anyone. He has given his Son the full right to judge.” And Jesus is a judge who is fair and perfect and all loving and just and all knowing … and came to earth not to condemn the world but to save the world.

Our Judge is also our Savior! “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.”

“The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.”

You’ve heard the expression, “that’s going to happen over my dead body.” Think about it, Judge Judy cannot claim to bring sentence over someone’s dead body. However the Judge of our eternal destiny can make that claim. We literally have to go around Jesus to get to hell. I don’t know about you, but having a Judge like that makes the “who is our judge” process an encouragement rather than a discouragement.

Question #3 … what happens to those who don’t believe? Let me talk to you about a place that doesn’t get talked about very often. It’s generally considered impolite in our day to bring it up. It’s described in imagery that’s dark and bleak. Nobody thinks they’re going to end up there … but people do. I need to talk to you about Wrigley Field.

In all seriousness, hell is a subject that is frightenly critical. In fact, it just doesn’t get any more serious than this in all of life. I mentioned earlier, in our day and age, most people don’t believe that they’ll go to hell. They don’t believe that their “good” friends, or that they themselves, as “good” people, will go to a place “where they will cry and gnash their teeth.”

However, we simply cannot read Scripture without recognizing that there is such a place. This isn’t a grey issue at all. It’s black and white.

“For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it.”

That’s the key verse … salvation is God’s gift, it cannot be earned. Too many people have this idea that their eternal judgment is based on their good works. So when they die, if their duffle bag of good stuff is fuller of than their sin bag, they’ll be welcomed into the Kingdom. But what people fail to realize is that we must be perfect because God cannot have any imperfection in His presence. Jesus said, “You must be perfect – just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

“(God’s) eyes are too holy to look at evil.” And add to that, James’ words, “Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all.” Wow! We’re in big trouble aren’t we? I suspect that most of us have broken at least one commandment already this morning. Add to that, every wrong word and wrong deed that we’ve ever done … it’ll all be remembered on the Day of Judgment. “You can be sure that on the Judgment Day you will have to give account of every useless word you have ever spoken.”

“God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.”

Okay, I’m going to go out on a Pastoral limb and do something we never do. I want you for just a moment to think of one of the worst things that you’ve ever said, or one of the worst things you’ve ever done. … Now can you imagine if we were to put your picture on the cover of our program and list below it what that wrong deed was, what you did … can you even imagine what that would be like?

There’s been stuff in the news recently about Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California, i.e. pictures that were taken, things she did. How embarrassing. Think of David Letterman, or Bill Clinton, or John Edwards, or Mark Sanford, or our own former governor … the whole world seeing their worst sins. What if it were you?

Well, in one respect you need to recognize that God knows all of your sins. He knows what would be on this program cover. And when the time of judgment arrives … your private sins will be made public in the spiritual realm. And that’s bad, disastrous news for those who have not come to faith in Jesus. Their judgment will be an eternity of separation from God and His love.

“Jesus answered him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except through me.’” There’s only one way … and society doesn’t want to hear that. But there was only one sinless person, one Lamb of God … and so there is only one way, because there had to be a sinless sacrifice to conquer death.

Buddha wasn’t sinless … and his tomb is full. Mohammed wasn’t sinless … and his tomb is full. St. Peter wasn’t sinless … and his tomb is full. Mary wasn’t sinless … and her tomb is full. Hare Krishna wasn’t sinless … and his tomb is full. But Jesus, our Judge, was sinless … and His tomb is empty. Praise God! There is only one way to a perfect God and that’s through the perfect sacrifice of the sinless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

But for those who want to go around the dead and then resurrected body of Jesus Christ the end judgment is an eternity of horror. That means that there’s the potential of your friend Joe, and your friend Sally, and your Uncle Tim … they may be in this place of horror. You don’t know, I don’t know, but it’s a real possibility. I had a friend John, I had an Aunt Nina, I had an Uncle Harry who may be there, and when I stop and think about it … it eats me up. Because I know that I didn’t do all that I could have done to help turn them from that eternity of horror.

The only thing that you have some control over is if you’ll be there, and how much you help your friends and family from going there.

But the Good News is to those who believe and confess Jesus’ name, they’ll be saved. It’s not simply a head belief; it’s a belief of the heart.

And Jesus wipes away all that sin you were thinking about earlier. It’s gone. Now there maybe some memories that still linger, there maybe some consequences that must be dealt with. But, from the spiritual perspective, once you’ve come to faith in Jesus and ask Him to forgive you, the eternal effects of that sin are gone. Your slate has been wiped clean. And if you haven’t already, I pray that you won’t leave here this morning without making that decision. It’s the most important decision of your entire life. It will determine where you’re going to be 10,000 years from now.

Question #4 … what happens to those who believe? Let me ask you … do you look forward to meeting your Savior face-to-face? Boy, I hope so. Paul gives us a little preview of his Heavenly Judgment while he was still on earth. He’d been living in Corinth for several months, and was spreading the news of the Gospel at every opportunity when trouble hit. His enemies dragged him into court and charged him with “trying to persuade people to worship God in a way that is against the law!”

Scholars believe that a raised marble platform that’s visible in the ruins of Corinth today is the exact spot where the magistrate sat to hear Paul’s case. That platform is called “bema” (Judgment Seat). The same word is applied to where officials sat at an athletic contest. The bema represented authority, justice, reward.

At Paul’s hearing he stood before the Roman governor, Gallio. Paul’s enemies argued for his punishment. But Gallio had already decided that Paul had done nothing wrong. So there, at the Judgment Seat, because Paul did not have any crime on his record, he was free to go.

3 years later, in a letter sent to the church in Corinth, Paul talked about another bema, this one is in Heaven. “For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.” 2 important phrases in that verse … “Each will receive” … clearly indicating reward or repayment for those who are believers at the bema seat. And then “everything we have done … in our bodily life.” The reward we receive will be based on what is done while alive on earth. We will all stand at the bema, the Judgment Seat. We’ll stand there alone, and our Judge will be Jesus Christ Himself.

“All of us will stand before God to be judged by him. … Everyone of us, then, will have to give an account to God.”

What does it mean “will have to give an account to God”? Paul answers that by using an analogy of a building. He says, “You are … God’s building.” And this “building” is constructed by the “works” that we do. And the Day is coming when our building/life will be tested by fire. “Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.”

The purpose of the bema seat is to show our works. “Will be seen” … “will reveal” … “show.” On that Day, all that we have done for God in our life will be clear and apparent. The second purpose of this bema seat is to test our works. “If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.”

Notice again, as a follower of Jesus, our beliefs aren’t being tested here. Our destination for all eternity is not being determined … it’s our works that are being tested. And it’s only after the judgment fire that we finally see how a person’s life has added up for eternity. The fire will make truth obvious to all.

And the judgment fire will test not only what we did, but how we did it, and why we did it. That will separate the gold work from the straw work. In other words, some of us will suffer lose in Heaven.

We don’t understand it all, but there will be consequences of missed opportunities and lost reward that will go with us. But any shame or regret will not. “He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.”

My guess is, however, that you will want to stand before Jesus at the bema seat and be rewarded and receive your crown of jewels. This isn’t a bragging thing. It’s a victorious celebration. I pray that this bema seat, this great white throne, will be an encouragement to you either to continue, or to begin to lead a new life of service and love and of selflessness, and of jewel gaining, today.

Question #5 … so what should I do now? I don’t know. I don’t know. But God does. So pray.

But let me give you some choices of what you could do. If you haven’t truly come to faith at this point in your life, you might leave here this morning saying, “that was kind of interesting, but … I’m going home and watch the game; or, I’m need to go shopping.” And simply settle back into your life in the world.

Or, you could pray and ask Jesus into your heart, to wipe away your slate of sins, to forgive you, and give you a place with Him forever in Heaven. And the result will be that you’ll have a new purpose and joy in life, and an opportunity to gain jewels for your crown.

As a follower of Jesus you need to decide if you’re truly living for yourself or for God. If we were to peek up at your crown right now, what would it look like?

You can have some indication by looking at how you’re spending your time. How you’re spending your money. You can look at the spiritual direction of your family. You can look at the people who have come to the Lord, or have grown in their walk with the Lord, because of you. If you’re doing all that faithfully, in accordance to Scripture … praise God! … keep it up.

But, if you feel like your crown’s a little sparse. You could begin this morning by turning more of your life over to God.

How? Become more regular in your prayer life. Start giving more. Start serving more. Start spending more time in the Scriptures. Become more faithful in worship attendance. Be more obedient to Him.

And, I hope, for all of us, that we will all share Christ more. That’s the bottom line of it all. Why do we study Scripture? Why are we in fellowship? It’s so that we become more like Christ. “Your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.”

As we close this morning, I want us to do a little exercise. I want you to close your eyes. I want you to imagine that you have just died, and you find yourself standing in front of Jesus Christ, who has ascended into Heaven, and is sitting on His throne. He’s looking you right in the eye. He opens His mouth to pronounce judgment on you, and your life. What is He going to say? Where are you going to spend eternity? Will Jesus reward you for a life lived for Him?

MARANA THA