Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Law & Order: Heaven Style Jude 14-15 We Believe Sermon Series #12 In the early eighties Mt. Saint Helens became an object of concern the first time as it started sending puffs of smoke hundreds of feet into the Washington state sky. Every piece of scientific evidence collected in the labs and on the field predicted the volcano would soon explode with a fury. “WARNING!” blared loud speakers on patrol cars and helicopters. “WARNING!’ blinked battery‑powered signs at every nearby major intersection. “WARNING” pled radio and television announcers. Lakeside villages, tourist camps and hiking trails emptied as people heard the warnings and fled for their lives. In spite of all that, a man by the name of Harry refused to leave. He was the caretaker of a recreation lodge on Spirit Lake, five miles north of Mt. Saint Helen’s smoke‑enshrouded peak. The rangers warned Harry of the danger. Neighbors begged him to join them and leave. But Harry ignored the warnings. Interviewed on television, Harry grinned and said, “Nobody knows more about this mountain than I do and its not about to blow.” On May 18, 1980 as the boiling gases beneath the mountain’s surface bulged and buckled the landscape to its final limits, Harry was cooking his breakfast. In an instant, in a blink of an eye, at 8:31 A.M. the mountain exploded. Concussive waves of heat traveling faster than the speed of sound, flattened Harry and everything else for 150 square miles. The signs had been evident. They were clearly there. The mountain was ready to explode into the air but Harry ignored the warnings and he paid the price with his life. The vast majority of people in our world today are doing the same thing. We are living in the end of time and God’s warnings are evident. While we do not know the exact time, whether it will be in our generation or the next. What we do know is that those who do not know the name of Christ will hear the voice of God say “I do not know you.” Many who believe they will be spared the wrath of God will suffer the pains of His judgment. Jesus is coming back. The critical question is,  “Will you be ready?” Someday it will be Law & Order: Heaven Style. The Apostles’ Creed states, “I believe in Jesus Christ...[Who] ascended into heaven...from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” The word “quick” is simply the old English word for “living.” Jesus Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. The word still survives with words like quicksilver another word for mercury or quicksand.   This is the only future tense clause in all of the Apostles’ Creed, “He shall come.” As Jesus Christ is our past, the One who’s earthly life and death of perfect obedience have taken the place of our sinful past; and as He is our present, the One in whose exalted life our true life is hidden with God and we are seated in the heavenlies with Him; so He is also our future, the One in Whose coming return and glory all of our hopes will have their realization. But our world, in spite of the popularity of the Left Behind series, is not looking for Christ’s return. When Condeleeza Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she never mentioned the return of Christ once. She did not testify that as she leads our nation in dealing with other nations that she is doing her job in preparation for Jesus Christ’s return. Though he is a professing Christian, when President Bush gives his State of the Union Address, he will not once mention leading our nation to prepare for the return of Jesus Christ...and even as believers, we don’t expect him too. You won’t hear it referred to on CNN or even the conservative Fox News. But that does not change the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back. It’s “Here comes the Judge!” though the world, for the most part, does not know it. If you’re taking notes, let me suggest then that . . . 1. Jesus Christ has promised to return. A newspaper reported of a man in England who for twenty years lived with a sign around his neck announcing, "The end is near." When interviewed by the paper, he said that he had been continually disappointed but that he had not given up hope yet. We dismiss too quickly the end‑of‑the‑worlders. The Apostles’ Creed states, “He shall come...” This unequivocal declaration is in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Constantinopolitan Creed, the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians, in the Thirty‑Nine Articles of the Anglicans, the Augsburg Confession of the Lutherans. It is in all of the great creeds of Christendom. It is found in all of the systematic theologies, the lectionaries, and the hymnals of all of the Christian churches of history. It is part of the great faith of Jesus Christ! Jesus is coming again!! The Old Testament distinctly prophesied it. Scores of passages in the New Testament expressly declare it. Before looking at some passages of Scripture, let me take you on a brief safari. To begin with, here are some facts about prophecy that will surprise most people. While baptism is mentioned nineteen times and in seven of the New Testament books and the Lord’s Supper is mentioned clearly only three or four times, one out of every 30 verses in the Bible mentions the subject of Christ’s return or the end of time. Of the 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are well over 300 references to the return of Jesus Christ. Just 4 of the 27 New Testament books fail to mention Christ’s return. That means one‑twentieth of the entire New Testament is dedicated to the subject of our Lord’s return. In the Old Testament, such well‑known and reliable men of God as Job, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and most of the Minor Prophets, fixed at least part of their attention on the Lord’s return. Jesus Christ spoke of His return often, especially after He had revealed His death. He never did so in vague or uncertain terms. Those who lived on following His teaching, who established the churches and wrote the Scriptures in the first century frequently mentioned His return in their preaching and in their writings. Jesus Himself told us unmistakably that, “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mt. 26:64). The Apostles also say we are waiting, “for the blessed hope‑‑the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And that, “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21). In that day, “we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1Thes. 4:17). “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels...” (2 Thes. 1:7). “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4) The Apostles warned us that scoffers “will say, ‘Where is this “coming” He promised’?” (2 Pet. 3:4). And in the Book of the Revelation, the Apostle John declared, “Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him” (Rev. 1:7) and “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). At the same time when we direct our attention to the area of eschatology (the study of the "last things") we are moving into a theological sphere that is loaded with pitfalls. It is one thing to interpret, reconstruct, and analyze the past; it is quite another to develop a theology of the future. The task is magnified not only because we are dealing with future time rather than past, but because we are also entering a sphere where the Biblical information often comes to us in a particularly difficult literary genre, namely, in apocalyptic‑type literature. This type of literature is overflowing with highly imaginative symbolism that is frequently extraordinarily difficult to interpret. This type of writing is seen particularly in the Old Testament Books of Daniel and Ezekiel and in the New Testament Book of Revelation. These visionary passages of Scripture are often elusive to the most highly skilled biblical scholars. We need to proceed here cautiously, not arrogantly in our search for an understanding of the return of Christ. As we look at this promise of Christ’s second coming, we have to examine the possibilities. What does this promise mean? Various theories have been advocated at different times. For instance, some people say Jesus returns for us at death, and the promise of His return simply means that when we die, in a sense, He comes to take us into heaven. But 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” If His coming is only for us in death, why does the promise differentiate between those who are still alive and those who are already dead? Then, others say that the Second Coming is the coming of Christ into our hearts by faith when we trust in Him for our salvation and receive Him as Lord and Master of our life. But that is the spiritual coming. The Second Coming is a physical return. The Second Coming is also not referring to when Christ poured out His Spirit at Pentecost as maintained by some who have tried to evade the clear teaching of Scripture. The Holy Spirit or Comforter came because Jesus was absent. Nor is it Christ’s coming in great cataclysmic judgments in the history of the world, such as the destruction of Rome.   There’s an element of truth in all these things. Jesus does return for us at death. He did return in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And He does come into our lives at conversion. Yet none of these are a physical, return. It’s very clear, based on the words of the angels on the day of His Ascension that we’re talking about a literal return.   speaks powerfully in apocalyptic language about a dramatic return of Christ. You remember what the angel said: "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way" (Acts 1:11). This same Jesus in the same way will return. So when we look at what Scripture teaches about the return of Christ, we see the promise, we explore the possibilities, and we come to the conclusion that we’re talking about a literal return in glory. All of these other views are quite diverse and very different from that which is described in Scripture as the Second Coming or Advent of Jesus Christ. 3. There are some common problems with Christ’s return. When it comes to the Second Coming, unlike Christ’s Virgin birth or bodily resurrection, most of the problems are generated, not by skeptics or Bible-deniers but sincere Christians. A problem of the unregenerate is alluded to by Peter, 2 Peter 3:3-4.   A) The problem of unbelief. One problem that comes up when we talk about the return of Christ is that some people mock this promise saying, "Come on, the church of Jesus Christ has been talking about this for two thousand years, and He still hasn’t come. What makes you think He’s coming?” The scoffers that Peter was dealing with in his day went a step further than that. They not only suggested that He hadn’t come, but they also said the reason He hadn’t come was that He wasn’t coming at all. The reason we know that He isn’t coming, they would say, is that from the beginning of creation things have just continued without any sense of dramatic, divine intervention. Peter responds. noting that these critics are carefully forgetting something: There was at least one incident where God dramatically intervened, and that was the Flood. Those who operate on the premise that God does not intervene and therefore God has not intervened and will not intervene in the future, are operating on a false premise—because He does intervene. He has intervened and He will intervene and Christ will return.   B) The problem of a lack of discernment.  Some of you may remember, in 1988 a little booklet came out entitled, 88 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1988. The author’s theory was worked out very carefully with a vast amount of ingenious figuring that Christ would come at the feast of Rosh Hashana during a weekend in September. When it was pointed out that the Bible tells us quite clearly that we do not know the day or the hour, the response simply was, "Well, we may not know the day or the hour, but that doesn’t mean we can t know the year and the month and the week.” During that time one young woman who worked in her church’s bookstore went to her pastor and told him, “I’m having a terrible time this week. Our phone is ringing off the hook." “Why,” he asked. And she said, “People are calling and asking, Do we have copies of the booklet ‘88 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1988"? We told them, ‘No, we’re not stocking it.  And they said, ‘Why are you the only Christian bookstore in the city that isn’t stocking this book? " She continued, "I don’t know what to say." And her pastor wisely told her, “Tell them to call again at the end of September.” Clearly, Jesus did not return on the date that he had very carefully worked out. So the author came out with a new book claiming that he had miscalculated and Christ would return in 1989. We have a problem here. While some disbelieve that He will ever return, others who’ve been told that they will not be able to figure out when He is coming, still insist on trying to work it out. And this is something that people have done through the centuries. The remarkable thing about it is that they all have one thing in common: they were all wrong. But that does not deter them. They look for all sorts of signs, like wars or bar codes or new credit cards with micro-computer chips, or tsunamis, or new world leaders. Martin Luther thought he had proof that Christ was coming in his lifetime. So did Jonathan Edwards. Preachers in recent times have taught that Hitler or Mussolini or Henry Kissinger or even Bill Clinton were the Anti-Christ. And they had one thing in common, they were all wrong! We must accept the fact that this area of theology called eschatology is not the easiest. Corrie ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place, was asked one day, "What is your position on the millennium?" She said, "What do you mean?" The person then asked, “Are you a‑, pre‑, or post‑?” And Corrie ten Boom’s answer was a classic. She said, “I consider that a pre-posterous question.” Now I personally hold to a pre-tribulation rapture position and that is the doctrinal position of Grace Church. I believe the Bible teaches the imminent return of Christ, that it can happen at any moment and nothing more needs to be fulfilled. And the pre-tribulation rapture position fits best in my mind with that teaching of Scripture. That being said, this whole issue is not a matter of orthodoxy. There are godly believers who hold a mid-trib position or a post-trib. Now I do believe that it is important that one be a pre-millennialist, that is that you believe that Christ will return prior to His millennial reign. What is at stake in an a-millennial or post-millennial position is, what I consider a dangerous approach to hermeneutics (or the interpretation) of Scripture. Those who are not pre-millennialists approach the interpretation Scripture symbolically or allegorically. While there are obviously some symbolic passages of Scripture but when the Bible is symbolic, such as the Book of Revelation, It is obviously so. We become subjective in our interpretation when we decide when Scripture is allegorical when It is not obviously so. For example, Hell even Christ’s resurrection or virgin birth can become symbolic, even salvation itself. Many years ago A. T. Robertson, without question the greatest Greek scholar of the last century, toward the end of his life commented that he wished that he had come out as a pre-millennialist saying, that he had never met a liberal theologian who was also a pre-millennialist. This is the Christian’s hope. We are not waiting for death, though we may die, nor for a spiritual experience, though we may have spiritual experiences. We are waiting for God’s Son from heaven. As Paul explains, “while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Scripture is unmistakably clear about the fact of Christ’s return, but not as clear about its timing. Sincere Bible students disagree in their interpretations. The truth in Christ’s Second Coming should inspire and uplift us! It should turn our hearts heavenward! 4. There are implications of Christ’s return for the ungodly. In one of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips, Calvin and Hobbes are lying under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day. Calvin, the hyperactive little boy, asks, “What if there is no heaven? What if this is all we get?” Hobbes, the tiger answers, “Well, if this is all we get I guess we’ll just have to accept it.” Calvin replies, “Yeah, but if I’m not going to be rewarded for my good deeds, I want to know it now.” Friend, how would you feel if Osama Bin Laden got away with it? What if Charles Manson was just paroled? What if Sadaam was allowed to just walk? What if Hitler, Stalin, Mao – all got away with it? How would you feel? The Apostles Creed’s statement that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead summarizes several truths about judgment. First, Christ is more than a Savior; He is also a Judge. The Father, He said, has given the Son  “authority to judge” (John 5:27). Later, Paul said that “God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ” (Rom. 2:16) While no one likes the idea of judgment, nearly everybody acknowledges its rightness. Conscience itself demands it. Paul says that even the Gentiles who do not know the Ten Commandments show “that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them”(Rom. 2:15). When Paul spoke to the Roman official, Felix, about judgment to come, the man trembled. His conscience confirmed the appropriateness of judgment and warned him that he was unprepared (Acts 24:25). The second truth that the Apostles’ Creed implies is that the Bible distinguishes between classes. It does not lump everyone together in one big, final judgment. The phrase "the quick and the dead" may be interpreted in two ways, according to Biblical teaching. One view is that Christ will come to judge those who are living when He comes and those who have died. But the same words may be used to distinguish between those who are spiritually alive and those who, though physically alive, are nevertheless spiritually dead. Both interpretations are correct, and both are used in the Bible. The first is obvious: there are living people, and there are dead people whose remains are buried somewhere. The second interpretation is justified by passages such as Ephesians 2:1, in which unconverted people are described as “dead in transgressions and sins.” At conversion God makes us alive together with Christ. When He comes, Christ will judge both Christians and non‑Christians. He will appraise the lives of Christians and give out rewards. For Christians, eternal life is not the issue; that was settled forever the moment we first trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. But judgment for unbelievers is very sad, though just. As Thomas Carlyle once said, “Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice, but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life and death!” Too many lost people will say something like, “Everything is going to work out all right in the end. God is a loving god, and therefore He’s going to gather everybody into heaven.” But that would not be justice. The apostle Paul tells us that the judgment that God has committed into the hands of Jesus Christ is going to be based on reality. There may be many ways of hoodwinking the legal system. There may be many ways in which the legal system itself is inadequate or even erroneous. But the judgment that God will execute through his Son is based on total reality and utter truth. That means that there is good and evil, right and wrong, and Jesus the great judge will separate between those who know the Lord and those who do not, the righteous and unrighteous. How appropriate are the words of J. I. Packer in his book, Knowing God, “Run from Him now, and you will meet Him as Judge then—and without hope. Seek Him now, and you will find Him (for He that seeks finds) and you wilt then discover that you are looking forward to that future meeting with joy, knowing that there is now ‘no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” 5. There are implications of Christ’s return for the godly. But what about the godly people? What does the recognition of Christ’s return do for them? Let me suggest four implications.   A) We need to be ready. In Matthew 25, in the story of an Eastern wedding ceremony, the bridegroom would come from his home and start walking down toward the place of the marriage, and the bridesmaids would be ready with their lamps. On this particular occasion the bridegroom was delayed, so they grew careless and some of them weren’t prepared when he came. They never got into the feast. This story is unmistakably clear: The godly must live in a state of readiness. There is a story about a young couple, Jeff and Jenell Youngbluth’s first date. Jenell was expecting Jeff to show up. She was dressed and ready for the date. She waited patiently for an hour for him to show up and finally gave up. She figured that he stood her up. So she went to the bathroom took off her makeup, and slipped into her pajama’s, grabbed a pint of ice cream and sat down in front of the TV. Two hours had passed since the designated time of the date when guess who showed up at the front door, that’s right, Jeff...Jeff took one look at Jenell in her pajamas and said “I’m two hours late and your still not ready!       Now personally, I don’t understand how Jeff is still alive to tell the story or how in the world there ever came into being a Mr. and Mrs. Youngbluth. But the point of the story is obvious. We know Jesus Christ is coming back and it does not matter when or what time He comes, but we must be ready.   B) We need to be supportive. When Paul was writing to the Thessalonians, he was explaining to those Thessalonian Christians, who were relatively new believers, what had happened to those who had already died, and he said, "Listen; let me explain to you. Those who have already died are going to be with Christ when He returns, and those who are still alive will be with Christ when He returns. Therefore, encourage each other with these words." Believers are to continually live in a state of readiness and constantly exhibit an attitude of supportiveness. We have brothers and sisters who are in difficulty. Some of them want to give up. Some of them are weary of life. We need to constantly encourage them that this world is not the end, Jesus is coming back! We’re going Home and Jesus is coming to get us!!   C) We need to be holy. 1 John 2:28 says, “And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.” To be unashamed means having nothing to hide. This is probably describing some sense of inner shame, that feeling of being disgraced when you’re caught doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. Those who faithfully obey and walk with Christ will have nothing to hide. They won’t shrink back in shame or hang their head with regret. This implies though that some followers of Jesus Christ will have something to fear and something to hide when Christ comes again. They won’t be ready. Our lives must be characterized by a commitment to holiness.   D) We need to be purposeful. Matthew 24:14 is the final word on what the return of Christ means to the godly. It says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then will come the end.” This means that those who genuinely believe in the return of Christ should have a tremendous sense of purposefulness about them because they realize that when Christ comes, the day of grace will be over. They realize that at this moment of time there are many millions of people who need to know about Christ, and their lives have a sense of urgency and purposefulness about them. The Great Commission must be a priority in the life of every Christian. You see when the day Christ finally does dawn we will never regret having attempted to share our faith with someone who is lost. Thanks to Steven Spielberg most of us have heard of Oscar Schindler. During WWII this German businessman used his factory as a haven for 1100 Jews....people he saved from Hitler's gas chambers. At the end of the Spielberg's film there is a scene in which Schindler prepares to leave his factory running from the advancing armies of the allies. And, as he leaves, the Jewish factory workers line both sides of the road to thank him. One presents him with a letter signed by each person, documenting his deed. Another gives him a ring, formed out of the gold extracted from a worker's tooth. On it is carved a verse from the Talmud, "He who saves a single life saves the world entire." At this point they presented him with a gift and he showed emotion for the first time in the film as he leaned toward Isaac Stern, the factory foreman, and says with a low voice, "I could have done more." Pointing toward a car he could have sold, he says, "That would have released ten prisoners.” The gold pin on his lapel would have bribed an official to release two more. In that moment, Schindler's life is reduced to one value. Profit is forgotten. The factory doesn't matter. Only one thing counts....People...only people. When Christ returns we will feel the same. We won't regret that we didn't own a bigger house or get a bigger promotion at work. We won’t regret not going on that cruise or dream vacation or buying that new car. All that will matter is people. We'll wish we had witnessed more, worked harder to lead more individuals to make that decision that makes anyone ready for Christ's return. Conclusion: The doctrine of Christ’s return, to judge the quick and the dead, is a powerful doctrine. It reminds those who are careless about spiritual things that the day of opportunity might slip away from them, and it reminds those who are committed to Jesus Christ that they are called to purposefulness, readiness, and holiness. That’s why He has told us these things. Now let me ask you a couple of questions. Are you ready for Jesus Christ to return? Have you made your peace with God? Have you committed your life to Jesus as your Savior and Lord so that when He returns for you, either personally, with death, or in great glory to consummate his eternal purposes and to end this world’s history, you will be ready? Either way, when He returns, will you be found among those who are His? Let me ask you another question. Do you profess to be a believer? Arc you living in the light of His return? And is your life characterized by readiness, holiness, and purposefulness? You see, it is when we consider these things in the light of His return that we have tremendous incentive to get our lives right before the Lord. One famous minister coined a phrase when his health was failing and the public knew that he was dying, “My bags are packed.” And He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Are your bags packed?