September 12 2021
John 5:19-29
Well, this past Thursday the NFL got off to a great start with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers facing off against the Dallas Cowboys. What has already happened, even before this first game was even played is that the analysts and the pundits have been hard at work speculating about which teams will win their divisions and even going so far as to predict just who will win the Super Bowl this year. To me this is just bordering on lunacy because the whole fun of watching football is watching a team that everybody has written off that finds a way, using a bunch of no-name players, to beat the odds. Everyone loves a good David vs. Goliath story where the incredible happens out of the hands of the little guy. So, I’ve come to the point where I refuse to even read anything that smacks of predictions and speculation because what I have come to realize is that all these analysts are toting is just their best fictional story about future events. I mean, if I wanted to read fiction I might as well read a novel by an author that I know can weave a tale that’s half way engaging.
The church is not immune to endless speculation, either. Nowhere is this more true than in the endless theories put forth about the end times and the return of Jesus. I cannot begin to tell you just how many different takes there are on the meaning of the book of the Revelation to John. Most of the discussion revolves around just where we are at in relation to the thousand year reign of Christ described in the twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation. This thousand years are called a millennial and so people either believe that today we are living before this millennial which is called premillennialism or we are living on the far side of that time which is called post-millennial. Premillennialism believe that Christ will come back soon to rescue his followers from a world that is growing ever more spiritually dark. Post-millennials hold that the kingdom of God is now here and that we are to live in the truth of that reign. Its pretty easy to see that there is a wide difference between these two positions. What is amazing is that both of these beliefs were found among the various groups who came together to form the Church of the Nazarene. Many did not believe that those who held such very different beliefs on the second coming of Christ could be united into one denomination. In the end though, they came to the conclusion that they did not regard the theories surrounding this Bible Doctrine concerning the Second Coming of Christ as essential to salvation. That is why in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene we find in the fifteenth article of faith the following statement: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again; that we who are alive at his coming shall not precede them that are asleep in Christ; but that, if we are abiding in Him, we shall be caught up with the risen saints to meet the Lord in the air, so that we shall ever be with the Lord. So, yes, Jesus is coming back and yes, those who are abiding in Christ will be with the Lord forever. There is no speculation concerning the Lord’s return because his return is a certainty. You see, my problem with all of the speculating is that this is so vastly different from how we believe in Jesus Christ. Our belief in Christ is not speculation; our belief is founded on the truth that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. If this fact is not true than our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. This fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead then leads us to understand that he is not just a man, a Jewish rabbi from Judaea but is in fact the Son of God who was raised in power according to the Spirit of Holiness. Here then, is how we come to our belief in the Incarnation, that Jesus is God in the flesh, our mortal and corrupt flesh but without sin because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It was because he had taken on our flesh that on the cross Jesus condemned sin in the flesh, putting it to death when he died. Through the shedding of his blood Jesus forgave all of our sins as the perfect once-for-all sacrifice and through the shedding of his blood Jesus created one new humanity through the peace which resulted from his death. Three days later when Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus was justified through the display of the power of the Holy Spirit raising him to life and because we are forever united with Jesus, we are justified as well. Through the hope we have of the resurrection we know that Jesus is our future so that now we no longer need to be enslaved to fear, worry or anxiety. In the absence of fear then faith can be created in us and out of this faith, we can be people who love in the present moment fulfilling the Law through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You see, all of what we believe is not some speculation on our part but is in fact founded on the true event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, it seems wrong to have our faith begin on the solid standard of truth only to get to the end and there decide that we should try and stand on some flight of fiction. As our founders knew all too well, these speculations of the end times really have no bearing on our salvation and it is our salvation that should be of our utmost concern.
With our salvation in mind then, let’s have a look at our final article of faith found in the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, which concerns Resurrection, Judgment, and Destiny. Article Sixteen: We believe in the resurrection of the dead, that the bodies of the just and the unjust shall be raised to life and united with their spirits-“they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
We believe in future judgment in which every person shall appear before God to be judged according to his or her deeds in this life.
We believe that glorious and everlasting life is assured to all who savingly believe in and obediently follow, Jesus Christ our Lord; and that the finally impenitent shall suffer eternally in hell.
Here then is what we should focus on as we concern ourselves with the end times, the time when the final resurrection is at last upon us. What is interesting is that everyone will be raised from the dead, this is what our article of faith confesses to and it is backed up by our scripture verse for today from the fifth chapter of the gospel of John. The reason why we know this to be true is that Jesus, taking our flesh upon himself, has forever united himself with each person, dying for each person, in their place, upon the cross. So, the salvation that Jesus has secured is a salvation that is offered to every person. This is exactly what Jesus teaches us when he tells us in the third chapter of John, that this is how “God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but he sent his Son into the world in order that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus did not come to condemn the world but he came to save the world and this salvation is already a reality for each and every person on the planet. It is not then our faith which makes our salvation a reality but rather it is the salvation that Jesus has secured that creates our faith because only as our future is secure are we able to experience the perfect love of God which casts out all fear and when fear is dispersed then faith can come in to our hearts.
What this means then is that rather than our faith securing our salvation it is rather our disbelief that condemns us. Further in the third chapter of John, we hear Jesus explain that “this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and people have loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” So, here we are told plainly the criteria for our future judgment which is a persons works, what they are using their energy and their resources on. Those willing to be close to the light, who is Jesus who has come into the world, are those whose works are carried out in God. These works are what Jesus speaks about in our scripture for today when he states that he doesn’t do anything of his own accord but he only did what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing.” And further Jesus explains the works that his Father is doing telling us that just “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” So, if our works are to be carried out in God for us to be living in the light then it just makes sense that our works are to be works that are life giving works. If Jesus has united us with him through the taking on of our flesh then for us to remain united to him we have to be willing to be focusing our energies in the same direction that Jesus is doing which is the giving of life. This is what is meant by being people who are doing good, because as God alone is good and God alone is the giver of life then in order for us to do good we also must be givers of life even if it means that to do so we must lay down our life. This laying down of our life is the way that Jesus in the tenth chapter of John defines the greatest love of all. Love then is also about being life giving. This is what has to be kept in mind when in the twelfth chapter of John, Jesus cries out, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge them; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word I have spoken will judge them on the last day. For I have not spoken on my authority but the Father who has sent me has himself given me a commandment…” This commandment, as we learn in the thirteenth chapter of John, is the new commandment that we are to love as Jesus has first loved us, loving each other with a love willing to lay down our lives so that others might live. This is the very same thought that we find in the third chapter of John’s first letter, where we are told that we know we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer has eternal life in them.” Judgment day then no longer becomes some day in the far future but instead judgment day is any day when we refuse to love, when we refuse to give another person life for this is what we do when consumed by our hatred. And if we refuse to give life then it just follows that we cannot be part of God’s eternal life because God’s life is all about giving life.
It might seem though that this idea about God’s judgment is mere speculation however the reality of God’s judgment was put on display in the life of the Israelites, the people who were known as the very people of God. They were the ones who Jesus came into this world to live as one of them and they rejected him. They rejected Jesus because they refused to believe that the God he was was indeed the one true living God. They refused to believe that their God would actually insist that they not resist the evil one, that their God would insist that if someone were to slap them on one cheek then they should let them have a go on the other one. They could not accept that their God would teach them that if anyone were to take their coat then by all means, let them have your shirt as well. They could not handle that their God would be so absurd as to expect them to not only carry a Romans gear for a the required mile but to just go on and carry it the next mile as well. I mean what kind of God would actually think that it would make sense for us to give to anyone who begs and for us to not refuse to give to any who would borrow from us? The final straw of course is that Jesus would not budge in his conviction that the only God there is is one who loves the very people who hate him. What kind of nonsense is this? And then because Jesus held that this was who God actually was, then we too were to love our enemies. You see this is why Jesus was nailed to a cross because he would not let go of this idea that the God of Israel was this kind of God but by nailing him to the cross, as the very Son of God, this just proved this was indeed who God really was, a God who loved his enemies, willing to give the life of his Son to prove it. Before his death though Jesus, pronounced judgment on those who would not accept the reality of who their God really was, telling them that when the people of Israel refused the ways of peace, the ways of God, then all that was left for them was for them to experience judgment. Judgment came as Jesus had foretold it when in A.D. 70, the people of Israel went to war against the Roman forces that occupied their country and the Roman forces destroyed the very Temple where the people of Judaea believed dwelled the God who would give them victory. Yet, the one true God was not there because he instead dwelled with the people who believed in Jesus, the people who trusted that in Jesus was the very life of God who had given life to them and because of that they were to be people who gave life to others.
You see, the people of Israel believed wrongly that being the people of God meant that they were to carve out of the world a place that would separate us from them. What they failed to realize is that there is no “them” but only us as the whole world stood condemned to death because of their sin, and the whole world needed the life that only could come to them through the death of Jesus. The people of Israel serve as our reminder that this world and its desires is passing away. Here we can firmly state that there is no lasting city, no lasting country, no lasting anything and this is why we are to be people who live as people for whom this world is not worthy. To try and establish something permanent in this world would mean that we would have to resort to the ways of this world and the ways of this world all find their power in death. Instead what Christ calls us to do is to witness to the life that is to come, to live the life of God’s new creation within the old creation. This means that we are to be life givers in all that we do. This is why when Jesus spoke of the final judgment he put it in terms such as these, as found in the twenty fifth chapter of Matthew. “Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come those who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to me.” It is acts of love towards even those who least deserve them, this is the way of life, the way of the kingdom of God. The eternal consequences of these acts is heard in Jesus stating that these acts were done to him. They were done to him because he has forever united himself with every person when he took upon himself their flesh, when he died in their place. So, when love is shown even to one considered to be our enemy in that very moment we are loving the very One who has bound himself to our enemies life. So, when we choose to not love our enemies we, at the very same moment, have chosen to not show love to the very One who out of love has chosen to bind his life to theirs. Can you begin to grasp the eternal consequences that are bound up in our every day decisions? If we can understand how our judgment centers on life then we can understand the reasoning behind hell and eternal punishment. When we refuse to have our life be about the giving of life then we have separated ourselves from God who is the giver of life and apart from life it just stands to reason, there can be only death. The original images from where our ideas of hell come from are images of the garbage dump, a place of smoldering decay, and this is all that can be when one has cut themselves off from life. This is not of God’s choosing for he has done everything to give life but when one refuses life, as one is free to do, then the consequences can be only death. So, knowing Jesus then we do not have to speculate on the end of things because if Jesus is our life then beyond this life, beyond our death, there will be simply more abundant life. May God grant that it be so for all. Amen.
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