All good things are worth waiting for. But waiting isn’t very easy. Take children on a trip in a car, and you know what I mean. But we adults can be impatient too. The history of Israel is littered with the bad examples of people who grew tired of waiting for God to keep his promises and gave up, finally calling God a liar and forsaking him. But God never yet failed to keep one of his promises—or his threats. Last week we spoke about the flood. God announced the impending judgment of the flood 120 years before the rains began, which gave folks plenty of time to believe and repent. Noah and his family took God seriously—but no one else did. But that didn’t matter. The flood still came as God said it would. God isn’t a politician who commissions a pole before he does something. Through his prophets God patiently warned of the impending destruction of Jerusalem for over a hundred years. In the meantime many mocked "Where is this coming destruction you prophets keep talking about?" We heard one of those warnings in our Old Testament Lesson this morning. After Jeremiah spoke it, instead of repenting, the people of Jerusalem called him a liar and threatened him with death. Still, God kept his threat, and in 586 BC Jerusalem was leveled. If only people had listened! Before Jesus returned to heaven, he began warning of another coming destruction—the greatest one of all. Once again, the majority refuse to listen. Still, God will keep his threat. No opinion polls will be taken. Whether people listen or not, whether they believe or not, "Judgment Day Is Coming!" That’s a truth 1. We Need to Be Reminded About. And it’s a truth 2. The World Needs to Be Warned About.

For us who believe, it’s an important encouragement. When you know something is true, but can’t prove it, it sure is nice when the proof finally comes along. Last week we watched the sequel to "Jurassic Park" on network TV. The movie begins with one of the characters from the first movie riding on a subway. People are making fun of him because he’s told the news media about the dinosaurs he saw, but the company who built Jurassic Park has denied everything in the media and made him out to be a crazy man. When a dinosaur finally shows up in San Diego and goes on a rampage through the city, he’s finally proven not to be nuts after all. What a relief. It’ll be the same kind of relief for us, who know the truth about Jesus’ return, when he does actually appear on the horizon "in blazing fire with his powerful angels." Finally the world will see who the crazy people really are.

God knows how we need to be reminded that it’s really is going to happen. The Thessalonians needed this reminder too. They needed special encouragement because of their particularly difficult situation, being persecuted and harassed as they were. Paul wrote to them, "⁴ Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. ⁵ All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. ⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels."

The Thessalonian congregation had been founded amidst persecution. A man named Jason, at whose house Paul had been staying, and some of the other congregation members were dragged before the court when an angry mob couldn’t find Paul and Silas. Paul had to leave, but Jason and the others couldn’t. That was their home. They were harassed by the pagans there. But the Jews, among whom Paul had begun his missionary work there, were the biggest source of trouble for these new Christians. They were really zealous bigots, according to the story in Acts. (Ch. 17)

Our situation isn’t always easy either. Trends in our country are making it harder to be a confessional Christian all the time. Insist that the Bible is all true, or that the world was created in six days, or that it’s wrong to join in communion or prayers or worship with people who deny parts of the Bible, and you’re sure to be labeled a fanatic, or worse.

Like the Thessalonians, though, we need to look at such name calling and shunning as a gift from God that helps us to grow in our faith. Paul wrote of them: We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. The trials and persecutions they were enduring forced them back to the Word. It brought them to treasure the times they could gather around the Lord’s table and partake of the sacrament together. They were brought to a stronger appreciation of who their real friends were and they cherished those true friendships in the church more and more. And they looked more and more forward to the day Jesus would appear in the sky, and prove that they were right all along. When you stand up for your faith, and the world despises you for it, I pray it has the same effect on you: That you prize your eternal brothers and sisters in the faith even more, that you long to study the word with them and take communion with them, and that you look forward more and more to the day when Jesus comes back and proves the truth of his Word.

Judgment Day Is Coming. We need to hear that for encouragement. But sometimes, we need that reminder as a warning—a warning to wake us from our lethargy, a warning to not neglect our Father’s business, like the lazy man in Jesus’ parable of the Minas did. (Lk 19:11ff.) He buried his coin in the ground and didn’t even return it with minimal interest. You heard how Jesus reacted to his slothfulness. He was condemned to die. Sad to say, we have people like that among our own members—people who never partake of the sacrament, people who never come to hear God’s word, people who never give a cent to the church’s ministry. Their punishment will be even worse than what others suffer, because they had the chance to hear and heed—but they turned their back on the gospel just like Judas the betrayer. And it can happen to any of us, if we let down our guard. Judgment Day Is Coming. Let that fact serve as a warning to be ready. Paul commended the Thessalonians because they "obeyed the Gospel." That means they believed in Jesus. They put their trust in his cross for the forgiveness of sins. They believed that they would go to heaven because Jesus lived for them and died for them. And then they made it their goal to grow in faith. They studied the Word. They made sure they were at all the gatherings of the congregation, in order to encourage their fellow brothers and sisters, and that knit them all closely together in a special bond of Christian love. Paul says that … "All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering."

So, what does the evidence say about you—my fellow members of the church of Christ in Benton Harbor, now that Judgment Day Is Coming?

We’re not the only ones who need to be reminded of Judgment Day. Jesus is coming to judge all the living and the dead. Every person on this whole planet needs to be warned before it’s too late. Sadly, we have a tendency to only want to tell those we think want to hear it. And we can’t think of too many people who want to hear that Judgment Day Is Coming, can we?

What about Jeremiah? There wasn’t anyone who wanted to hear what he had to say. So did God tell him to keep his mouth shut? Hardly. "This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word." (Jer 26:2) God knew the hardness of these people’s hearts, but he told Jeremiah to tell them the whole, unpleasant truth. Why? Because they needed to hear it. Everyone needs to hear that Judgment Day Is Coming.

And that includes those fellow members of yours whom you haven’t seen in church for a while, or who’ve started living in some sin that only you and they know about. God told Ezekiel, "When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood." (Ez. 33:8)

"Judgment Day is Coming" Jeremiah needed to say it. Paul needed to say it. It’s an essential part of preaching the whole truth. We need to say it too—loud and clear. Lest we underestimate the importance of warning people, Paul describes the torment that awaits those who don’t hear and believe. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power ¹⁰ on the day he comes….

Lots of folks, including the Seventh Day Adventists who are all around us, don’t want to believe it’ll really be that bad for unbelievers. They deny the everlasting torment of hell. But Paul doesn’t leave any room for such wishful thinking. Jesus tells us there will be pain that will never end. Scripture describes hell as a place of flames, a lake of fire. "Their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind," wrote Isaiah by inspiration. And worst of all, they’ll be "forever shut out from the presence of the Lord." They’ll never be able to ask for mercy. God won’t be there to hear them. It’s too late for that, once the judgment has come.

People don’t like to hear that because they feel it’s unfair. ‘God couldn’t be so mean. That would be unjust.’ People who say such things just don’t really know how awful sin is—or if they do, they don’t want to admit it. But it’s true—sin really is that bad before a holy and righteous God—especially the sin of rejecting his mercy, extended through Jesus. The punishment of hell will last forever.

"Judgment Day is Coming." It could be today. It could be tomorrow. It just might be 1000 years from now, if God so chooses. But don’t count on it. All the signs have been fulfilled. The only reason for delay is God’s mercy. He wants more people to repent and believe and join us in heaven. But that will only happen if we Christians do our job. It’s our job to warn people that Judgment Day is Coming and to share with people the precious Gospel, that Jesus died for the worlds sins, "that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (Jn 3:16) Use the time well! Amen.