From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead
or, The
Once & Future King
We
Believe – The Apostles’ Creed part 9
Text: Revelation 22:12 – “Behold, I am coming quickly. And My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” (NASB)
Intro: • This series (recap)
· novel – The Once & Future King (T.H. White); Arthurian legend
· Jesus really is coming back! He really is the once and future king. We believe in Christ’s return and judgment.
·
“The
coming of Christ is a central theme in the New Testament. It’s called the
blessed hope, and is mentioned over 300 times in the New Testament, so it
was definitely on the minds of early Christians. It was central to their
hope in this hostile world. Some may doubt the Lord Jesus’ coming in our
own time, but the New Testament itself ends expressing what is the proper
Christian attitude and prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” And one
of the great barriers to our drawing strength from this great truth is
precisely our worldly-mindedness. We are caught up in the affairs of this
world, even in the good things of this world, to the point that we fail to seek
the better things. The good things that we enjoy here and now, the pace
of our lives, squeeze out our desires for the better things, the best things,
and keep us from meditating on, hoping in, and looking for the best things for
God, for the coming of Christ, for fellowship with Him. But the constant
refrain of the New Testament is, “Christian, don’t let that be so. Be
ready. Be prepared. Be alert. Live in light of His coming. He
is coming again. Be ready when he comes.” Over and over, Jesus in His
teaching, Peter and Paul, John, Hebrews, and the other authors of the New
Testament remind us that we are to live in light of the coming of Christ.”
(Ligon Duncan, The Apostles’ Creed)
Transition:
Let’s hear again God’s
word in Revelation 22 beginning verse 12. This is Jesus
speaking. “Behold, I am coming quickly. And My reward is with Me, to
render to every man according to what he has done.”
Amen. Thus ends
this reading of God’s holy and inspired word, may He add His blessing to
it. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, help us to understand what it means that Jesus is coming
again to judge the living and the dead, to believe it, and to express our
active faith in it in our lives. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thesis: Belief in Jesus’
Second Coming and judgment makes a difference in how we live our lives here and
now.
I.
Jesus is coming back
1. Promised 300 times in Scripture
a. Our verse
b. “You may want to use Nave’s Topical Bible or Strong’s Concordance and look at the remaining 300 or so passages” (Duncan)
2. Promised by Jesus Himself
a. Matt. 24:30b-31
b. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also,” (John 14:3).
3. Linked to the ascension – Acts 1:11b “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
1. Soon
a. Rev. 22:17, 20, 21
b. “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay,” (Heb. 10:37)
2. We can’t know the exact time and date
a. “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority,” (Acts 1:7).
b. Foolishness of people ignoring Jesus’ statement
3. Perhaps connected with the Great Commission
a. Matt. 24:14
b. We must do our God-appointed role of taking the Gospel to all the world
c. On the other hand, God is still sovereign; He isn’t bound by us (if we don’t get the job done, we’ll be bypassed, and He’ll find other servants who will)
4. Maybe not in the immediate future, but then again…
a. People have been thinking it was just around the corner for 2000 years
b. ex. Old man I met who was convinced beyond a doubt it would happen in his lifetime
c. Signs of the times – they’ve been there a long time
d. But then again, if we don’t know, and if we’re to expect it when we least expect it, it certainly could be today (or another several hundred years later)
e. The point is, be prepared at all times – “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect,” (Luke 12:40)
1. Theme found throughout OT
2. But also found throughout NT
a. It’s a mistake to say that the God of the OT is a God of judgment, and the God of the NT is one of forgiveness and love
b. They’re one and the same, and this God is unchanging!
c. We see the promise of judgment throughout the NT, and even from Jesus – He’s not some softy pushover “mamby-pamby” person
1. What does it mean, the quick and the dead?
a. The living and the dead
b. Quick – Old English term, from Old Teutonic, Old Frisian, Old Norse
c. Those who are still alive at the return and all those who have died throughout human history
d. So basically, everyone (Heb. 9:27)
2. “Great White Throne Judgment”
a. Saved & unsaved (Rev. 20:11-15)
b. cf. the sheep & the goats (Matt. 31- 46)
3. “Bema Seat Judgment”
a. A judgment of those who are saved by faith in Christ
b. Judgment of how we’ve lived our lives
c. I Cor. 3:12-15 – works that remain like gold & silver, or works that are burned like straw, hay, & stubble
d. Not a judgment of saved or unsaved, but of the degree of reward for the saved
1. We know the end of the story
a. We’ve read the final chapter
b. Illus: like reading the last chapter of a suspense novel ahead of time. You may find it suspenseful, but you know all along how it’ll turn out
2. This world is not all there is
a. Death is not the end
b. cf. the Hope of Easter
3. God’s justice & righteousness will prevail
a. Isaiah 11:4 – “But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.”
b. Duncan – “This is the expression of Isaiah’s hope, that one day God will set things right. Those who are poor and afflicted, those who are overlooked by eh world today, those who are mistreated by the world today, God will settle accounts and He will do that which is right towards those who are wicked. It is a grand hope of the Old Testament.”
c. That’s what God will do
1. Parable of 10 virgins (Matt. 25:1- 13) (don’t read; just summarize)
2. Parable of talents (Matt. 25:14-30) (don’t read; just summarize)
1. II Cor. 5:10 – “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Duncan – “Notice, Paul the preacher of grace, Paul the preacher of salvation by grace, says that the final judgment will be done in accordance with our lives, with our works, with our deeds, it will correspond to our lives, our works and our deeds.”
2. Whatever you have done (or not done) to the least of these, you have done (or not done) to Me – Matt. 25:40, 45
·
“If
I were to ask you this question, “If you were to stand before God on judgment
day, and He were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven,’ or ‘Why
should you be given the privilege of fellowshipping with Me for ever,’ ‘On what
basis have you been made right with Me,’ my guess is that everybody in this
room would have something like a right answer to that question. Now,
there are many reasons why you might have a right answer to that question. But,
what if the Lord were to say to you, “What evidence is there that you really
trusted in Christ for salvation? What evidence is there that you are
really My child? What is the evidence that you are really a
Christian? What is the evidence of real gospel grace in your heart?” What
would you say? That’s what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24 and 25,
and the evidence is a life of faithfulness that flows from faith that flows
from God’s grace. A life of faithfulness characterizes those who truly
trust in Christ.” (Duncan)
· We’ve read the last chapter – we know Who wins in the end. Now let’s live in light of that truth!