Hebrews 9:27-28 * November 12, 2006 * Last
Judgment * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
Just a note as to where we are in our corporate worship life. Three weeks from now we will enter a new “Church Year” with the season of Advent. Advent will lead us into Christmas, and for the next six months – called the Festival Half of the Church Year – we will follow the major events in the life of Christ.
This means that we are in the final weeks of the old Church Year. Although technically aligned with that long series of Sundays we simply refer to as “the Sundays after Pentecost,” these final four weeks have their own designated theme. We call them the Season of End times. This four week period began with Reformation Sunday last week, will continue with Saints Triumphant Sunday next week, to be followed by Christ the King Sunday. All of these Sundays have a triumphant and victorious tone to them.
Today, I believe, is different – not necessarily in reality but in perception. Today is Last Judgment Sunday. It calls to mind the final phrase of what we confess in our Creeds about Jesus Christ: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” And there always seems to be a certain somberness when we observe this Sunday.
But serious and sober reflection on who we are and what we are and what will be is not at all a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. That’s why Last Judgment Sunday is a very important Sunday of the Church Year. It confronts us head-on with lessons and truths that are vitally important for us to hear.
That being said, on the basis of this text and this Sunday, let us devote ourselves to considering
THREE GREAT END-TIME TRUTHS
1. Regarding our death
2. Regarding our judgment
3. Regarding our redemption
Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Let’s spend just a minute or two setting the context for this passage.
The Book of Hebrews was originally written to Christians who came from a Jewish (or Hebrew) background. As such, they would have been very familiar with Old Testament religious practices. For example, they would have grown up with animal sacrifices. On a regular, repeated basis the blood of animals would be shed as a part of their worship.
This was not just a bad habit they picked up from their pagan neighbors. God had instituted this practice for a very specific reason. He was teaching His people about the seriousness and the consequences of sin. Sin could not be overlooked. It had to be paid for. And with each sacrifice they were reminded that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
However, one of the features of the Old Testament sacrificial system was its unfinished nature. These sacrifices had to be repeated again and again. That’s because they were not effective in and of themselves. Their power came from what they laid hold of and pointed to. They looked forward to the ultimate sacrifice for sin that was to come.
That ultimate sacrifice for sin, of course, was Jesus Christ. You might remember that John the Baptist described Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And the point the writer to the Hebrews makes here is that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross was the “once and for all” sacrifice that needed to be made. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it. Everything necessary for our salvation was completed. The price was paid. No more sacrifices would ever be needed.
As a way of stressing the permanent, one time nature of Jesus’ sacrifice, the writer to the Hebrews uses an illustration everyone could understand. Physical death. “Man is destined to die once” we are told. And we are reminded of the first great end-time truth of the day: Life is terminal. Unless the Lord comes in our lifetime (which certainly could happen), we are all going to die.
Outside of those who have some morbid and unhealthy fascination with it, most of us prefer to avoid thinking about this. We’d much rather spend time thinking about the fulfillment of our life rather than the inevitability of our death. But, again, this passage reminds us of the simple stark reality that one day we will die.
It also tells us what comes next. “After that [we will] face judgment.” There are some who say when you’re dead, you’re dead; you simply cease to exist and live on only in the memories of those whose lives you’ve touched. Well, that’s wrong. After we die, we face our personal Day of Judgment. We will stand before our Maker. At that moment we will be judged. And the verdict will last for all eternity.
A rather sobering thought, wouldn’t you say? The big question we need answered, then, is: on what
basis will we be judged?
If the answer is on our performance here on this earth, we’re all sunk. If we hope to achieve heaven through our own efforts at keeping the Ten Commandments or by living a moral life or by “doing the best we can,” it’s all over. Because if that’s the basis, then we need to know that the standard God demands is perfection. And as we often say (especially when we want to excuse our own faults), “nobody is perfect.”
But thank God, our performance is not the basis on which will be judged. We will be judged on the performance of Jesus Christ and where we stand in relationship to Him. While “nobody is perfect” is true about us, it is not true about Him. Jesus was perfect. He did keep all the demands of God. And He did it in our place. In doing so, he satisfied the demands of God.
And if it is true (and it is) that sin is so offensive to
God that “there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood” and
that “the
wages of sin is death” Jesus also took care of this. In the words of a beloved hymn: “Chief
of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me.”
The best news yet?
Everything Jesus did is transferred to the account of those who trust in
Him as their Savior. Practically
speaking this means where we stand with
Jesus Christ is the basis of our judgment. And we stand among the redeemed. In John chapter six Jesus says that “everyone
who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will
raise him up on the Last Day.”
…Which takes us to another related subject in our text. We are told that Jesus will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Whereas the moment of our death is our personal Day of Judgment, we know that Christ will one day come again. This second coming we often refer to as “Judgment Day.” That will be a day of public judgment. On that day Jesus will raise all people from their final earthly resting places and reunite our bodies with our souls, and we will be forever with the Lord. And the salvation Christ won for us will be complete.
When will that happen?
We don’t know. Jesus has not told
us. Despite that, people throughout the
years have tried to set a date. They
have always been wrong, and have identified themselves as false teachers along
the way. A better approach is this: Around the dial of a clock in a church in
What are your personal thoughts about Judgment Day? The first instinct for many of us is nervousness. The thought of standing in the presence of holiness makes us very aware of our sinfulness. Furthermore, listening to the description the Bible gives us of the Last Day makes us very aware that it will be something like we’ve never seen before. Signs in the sky. Disruption on the earth. Mass confusion. Jesus and angels coming on the clouds of heaven. Maybe some of you have seen some of those medieval paintings which were composed specifically to cause fear in those who viewed them. Pretty scary stuff.
But we have nothing to fear. Jesus once said that when these things begin to happen, we can lift up our heads, because our redemption is drawing near. Rather, as we reflect on what we are and who are in Christ, the Last Day is something we need not dread, but can actually look forward to.
Death. Judgment. Redemption. These are the three great end-time truths of our text. But, as always, God’s truth is meant to be used by us. How do we personally apply these truths to our lives? I believe that can be done through each of us asking and then answering three corresponding key questions:
Question number one: In view of the fact that we are going to die, how shall we live now? On our tombstones there will be two dates. In between them will be a dash. What will that dash represent in terms of the way we lived our lives, the things we made important, the legacy of faith we have passed on, the witness we have given to our Lord?
Question number two: In
view of the fact either personally or cosmically the world could come to an end
at anytime, what perspective does this provide us for the present? Someone once said that God has granted us the
morning, but he has not promised us the evening, so we should live each day as
if it is our last. Because it might be. Maybe we could put it this way: How would you live if you knew the end or
your end would come exactly one week from today?
Would you have to
scramble to get your spiritual house in order?
Would you have to mend some fences?
Would you have some people you’d need to grant forgiveness to or seek
forgiveness from? Would there be some
acts of Christian kindness or consideration that you’d finally get around to if
you knew you only had a week left? Would
you kick yourself because you spent your time on the urgent things as opposed
to the important?
Each of us will have
to answer those questions for ourselves.
Where repentance is called for, let us repent. Where action is called for, let us act.
Final question: In view of the fact that we are the redeemed, what direction must we take in the time we have left?
Let us think deeply
about this. Because we are in the end times and because we have the only truth that can change Judgment Day from
being a negative to a positive experience for those who don’t know that truth,
we must renew ourselves personally and as a church to do mission work. That was one of the major emphases behind the
“Real Treasure” every member Bible Study we’ve been involved in as a
congregation.
There is something
each of us can do. Like what? Pray.
Support. Contribute. Witness.
Look for opportunities. Pray for
opportunities. The fact of the matter
is, we don’t know how much time is left.
We have Jesus. Others don’t. And so we must proceed in our work with a
sense of energy and urgency. In the
words of Jesus, we must work while it is day, because night is coming when no
one can work.
The bottom line and
a closing thought is this: Last Judgment
Sunday is not meant to scare us, but it is meant to prepare us. It is not meant to frighten us, but it is
meant to heighten us in our awareness of who we are and why we are here and the
time we’ve got left to do it.
Therefore, may the
three end time truths we have considered today about death, judgment and
redemption move us to a prepared and purposeful life in and for Christ. Amen.