2nd Sunday of End Time – Last Judgment – at Epiphany on November 9, 2008

Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

We will be judged

The scene is a courtroom. The judge, robed in a black gown, has taken his seat. A prisoner, handcuffed, is led into the room. As he sees the judge, his heart quakes, and he is filled with fear. He has good reason to fear, since the judge must pronounce sentence on him for his crime. Then suddenly, a young boy enters the courtroom, makes his way through the seats filled with spectators, runs up to the judge and whispers something into his ear. The judge reaches into his pocket and gives the boy a dollar, and the boy exits in a happy mood. The boy had no fear of the man robed in black. The judge was his father.

And so it is with us. In Christ God is not our Judge. In Christ God is to us what the judge was to the little boy — our Father — and we can approach Him fearlessly; He will provide for all our needs.

Jesus presents a picture story of a shepherd dividing sheep and goats in his pasture and of a king judging between the unbelieving wicked and the righteous believers in his kingdom. The criminals who remain in their sins have good reason to fear, since the Judge will pronounce the sentence of guilty and lock the criminals away in eternal punishment in hell. The children of the Judge have nothing to fear for they will allowed to enter the eternal life of heaven.

There are problems in our American judicial system. Some judges will use the power of the bench to create or change laws instead of interpret and enforce laws. Some judges will use their position to affect social change rather than carry out justice. Some judges are appointed and face the temptation to rule on cases in a way that may favor the judge’s political party. Other judges are elected and face the temptation to rule on cases in a way that favors public opinion. All judges are faced with possibility of mistakenly putting innocent people in jail and allowing criminals to go scot-free.  

The son of a famous American was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. He pled guilty to reckless driving, a plea bargain that saw the drunk driving charge dropped. Two policemen, one an eighteen-year veteran and former vice detective, were arrested for using an escort service as a prostitution ring. They pled guilty only to obstructing justice, a result of plea bargaining that saw the more serious charges dropped. It’s amazing what serious violations of the law can be overlooked in the prosecution of lawbreakers. Allowing felons to plead guilty to lesser charges is an affront to our sense of justice and mocks the entire judicial process.

There are plenty of problems with our American judicial system. But on Judgment Day, there will be perfect justice, flawless rulings, and accurate interpretation of holy law. There isn’t a chance of corruption, dishonesty, or mistakes. We have a perfect Judge sitting on the bench. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” Jesus has never made a mistake and he never will – certainly not on Judgment Day. 

On that Day of Judgment, there will be no plea bargains over unforgiven sin. Unforgiven sin is not forgotten, minimized, or excused, and no allowances will be given for position, fame, or wealth. With the Judge that none can corrupt, all unforgiven sins will be punished. Those who refuse to surrender their sins to Jesus will pay a penalty. That is the threat of the cross when its forgiveness is refused.

The perfect Judge won’t miss anyone either. Every human being who has ever lived or who will ever live will be miraculously gathered by the angels in an instant and brought before the heavenly throne of the Son of Man.  No one can run away. No one can hide. God spoke through Jeremiah to people who thought they could get away with sin without God noticing, “Am I only a God nearby … and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? … Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:23-24) Even the dead will be raised. Then Jesus will separate all humanity – sheep on the right, goats on the left. Jesus paints the picture of sinners who will end up on the left (his bad side) and those who are not sinners who will end up on the right (his good side).

If you’ve had enough coffee this morning, you may have noticed a problem with my last statement. I said that the Lord Jesus is going to separate all humanity into two groups, sinner and non-sinners. Did you catch the problem? You and I realize that we all are sinners. Uh-oh! That means when Jesus comes in glory, we’ll all be in big, big trouble, right? Not at all! Our focus in worship today is on the Last Judgment, also called Christ’s second coming. Let’s not forget that there was a first coming! The Son of God entered our world, breathed the atmosphere of this planet, walked on this earth, lived according to God’s high standard of no-sin-ever, dragged a crossbeam to Calvary and was nailed to it, poured out his blood in death, and came back to life. At his first coming Jesus did what is impossible for any of us to do. He paid for all sins and covered us with the umbrella of his forgiving love. All who have their sins covered by that umbrella of Jesus’ blood will be considered innocent, sinless, not sinners at all. The Bible says, “Through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the multitudes will be declared righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

Sad to say, there are people who foolishly push aside the umbrella of his mercy. On Judgment Day they will be caught unprotected and will be drenched in Jesus’ holy anger. The Bible says, “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

Earthly judges make mistakes. Our heavenly Judge will get it right. He will be pronouncing a sentence of heaven or hell on each individual so he better have his facts straight because he only has one chance to get it right. He holds the eternal destiny of the human race in his hands!

We can be confident in perfect justice because this Judge knows everything about everyone. He knows which toothpaste you use. He knows you’d rather get a silly birthday card than a serious one. He knows you don’t like pickles on your burger. And he knows about the time you were goofing around with your sisters and broke one of your mom’s Hummel figurines and super-glued it back together without her knowing. Or maybe that wasn’t you – that could have been me. (Sorry Mom.)

Yes, the Judge knows it all. Others may not know your secret sins but he does. Your friends may not think that your wild weekend was immoral but he does. What others may call “youthful indiscretions” are called “sins’ by God. Your conscience may not be convinced that it’s wrong to think selfish, lustful, or greedy thoughts but God is convinced. “O, Lord, you know me," the Psalm writer confesses, "You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar … you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” (Psalm 139:1-4). He knows it all. Are you prepared to face this all-knowing judge at the doors to eternity?

When the Judgment comes, there might be some people who end up on “the other side,” who will ask, “Lord, how come we are stuck here on your bad side, and those other people are on your good side?” Even though he doesn’t have to, Jesus will publicly report the reasons for his Judgment Day rulings. So that all can see and hear, “the King will say to those on his right, ‘… I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

No one will be more surprised than believers like you and me. “’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Being nice to people, doing our work faithfully, loving our spouse, parents, and children, being careful about what comes out of our mouth, helping others – these are all good things Christians do. But we know that none of those good things earn us a spot in heaven. Every true Christian knows that earning a spot in heaven is impossible. But the good things we do serve a purpose. They measure the depth of our Christianity. They demonstrate the sincerity of our faith.

I know a lot of people who do wonderful and kind things for neighbors, friends and even strangers. But because their hearts are not under the umbrella of Jesus’ forgiveness, on the Last Day their works won’t be either. The good things believers do are still tainted by sin. But because our hearts are under the umbrella of Jesus’ forgiveness, our works are under there, too. Isn’t it nice to know that when we will be judged by the Lord we won’t have to prove anything? Jesus did it all for us. Love Jesus and live for him.

“The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world’ … Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ … The [unbelievers] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

A man in a dream found himself on Judgment Day on the wrong side of the Judge. The terror of his situation grew when he saw his children, whom he had always dearly loved, near him. He implored the Judge to save at least his children, even though he might hope for no change of his own fate. But he was told that if he had felt the same concern for his family when he and they were still on earth, the end would have been altogether different; now it was too late. He awoke and without delay sought salvation for himself and his family.

Hell is horror that defies description. There will be no appeals, no second chances. Once sealed in hell, that’s it! And those who are there will know it and regret it for an eternity.

Heaven will be the exact opposite. An unknown author once said, “As a boy, I thought of heaven as a city with domes, spires, and beautiful streets, inhabited by angels. By and by my little brother died, and I thought of heaven much as before, but with one inhabitant that I knew. Then another died, and then some of my acquaintances, so in time I began to think of heaven as containing several people that I knew. But it was not until one of my own little children died that I began to think I had treasure in heaven myself. Afterward another went, and yet another. By that time I had so many acquaintances and children in heaven that I no more thought of it as a city merely with streets of gold but as a place full of inhabitants. Now there are so many loved ones there I sometimes think I know more people in heaven than I do on earth.”

The Day is approaching when we will all be judged. Which side will you be on? Disregard and ignore Jesus and you’ll be on his left. Love Jesus and live for him and you’ll be on his right. For us who are the Judge’s children, it will be a time of great rejoicing and reuniting. Amen.