Sermon – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead

Easter 3

April 14, 2013

We all would like to see into the future. We want to know what will happen to ourselves and our children in the years ahead. We worry about our futures. This is why so many people go to astrologers and psychics with questions about our futures. But the Bible is very clear about this. It is not a good idea for you to know what will happen. You are to remember the past and focus on the present and your relationship with God. Do this and the future will take care of itself. But there is one exception to this rule. Scripture wants your to know that Jesus will return. With Jesus returning we are filled with hope in our futures. And it is this hope that we will be looking at today. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. ¹⁴ We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage each other with these words.

There is and old story you may have heard before about the second coming of Christ. It goes this way. A breathless cardinal runs into the Pope's office and says that he has good news and bad news. The Pope asks him for the good news. And the cardinal tells him that Jesus Christ has returned and is calling him on the phone right now. “This is really good news!” the Pope said, “but what could be the bad news on a glorious day like today?” The cardinal looked at the Pope and said, “Jesus is calling from Salt Lake City”

We are all a little ambivalent about Jesus' return. We are told it will be a glorious day, but it might not be what we really expect. We just might be surprised by what happens. And we will certainly be surprised when it happens. But there are some things we can do to prepare ourselves for Jesus' second coming. And so we return to the Apostles Creed.

The Apostles Creed is a statement of our trinitarian faith. It starts with our belief in God the Father and proceeds to Jesus Christ the son. Today we will finish up with what the creed says about the Jesus Christ, and when I return from vacation in two weeks we will start our examination of what it says about the Holy Spirit. We have seen that Jesus Christ has a past, his life, death and resurrection. He also has a present, sitting at the right hand of God. And today we see that he has a future, coming again as judge.

The creed states, “He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead.” Let's start at the end of the phrase. “The quick and the dead” simply means “everything”. “Quick” is Old English word and means “living”. We still have the word “quicksand” or “living sand” that will pull you down if you are not careful. It would be better if we simply said, “the living and the dead.” And if all who are alive and all who have died are included when Jesus returns then everyone is included, you and me too. So what will happen to everyone both living and dead? The creed says that they will be judged. The implication of this is important. Everyone will be judged even those who have died. Death is not an escape from God's judgment as modern atheists hope. Death is only temporary until the day you are resurrected by God to be judged.

Judgment is closely tied to justice. By justice we mean that good will be blessed and evil will be punished. Judgment is how we correctly apply the principles of justice. We judge that someone has committed a crime and must pay the penalty. We judge that someone has won a beauty pageant and will receive a scholarship. Judgment can either lead to something good or something bad. So when everyone, everyone living and everyone who has died appears for judgment will the result be good or bad? We don't really know. Justice requires that evil be punished. Sinners, those who disobey God, certainly will be punished. Won't they? Some will be blessed and some will be cursed on judgment day. But we can't say with certainty who will be in one group and who will be in the other. We have no way of knowing how someone else will be judged. We don't even know how our own judgment will turn out. We don't know these things because we are not the judge and we are not to judge others.

Judgment will occur when Jesus returns. We know that Jesus, right now, is in heaven at the right hand of God. And we know that heaven and earth come close together through the church and it's sacraments. One day heaven and earth will come together. We have an biblical image of a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Jesus Christ will be in control of both heaven and earth and all the kings of the earth will bow down before him. We pray for this to happen every Sunday when we say, “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

The big question we have is, “when will all this happen?”. The disciples asked Jesus this very question and he refused to tell them. There have been many Christians who have tried to figure out when Christ will return. Some see prophecy being fulfilled in today's headlines. So far, every prediction of when Christ will return has been proven wrong. For some reason Jesus does not want us to know when he will return. What we are to do is to watch and to wait. And so that is what we do. We watch for the signs and wait for Jesus to return.

The most important part of this phrase from the Apostles Creed is the beginning. There we find out who will judge us. And this is really good news. The one who will judge us is the one who died for us. The one who will judge us is the one who gave up his life to pay for our sins. The one who will judge us is the same one who sits and the right hand of God interceding our behalf. The one who will judge us also the one who comes to save us, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so we have nothing to fear from judgment. Although one day we will be judged the one doing the judging is the very one who loves us.

Once we are judged we will then live forever in the presence of Jesus Christ. Creation will be restored by God. The effect of the sin of Adam and the sins of Adam's children will be washed away. Everything will be made new. I think that for all of us we are looking forward to this day, because this is our hope as Christians. Sadly, some people will reject this new life and new creation. They will not want to live in a world governed by Christ any more than they want to worship him today. These people will exclude themselves from Jesus' love and forgiveness. And they will get what they really want, eternal life separated from God in a place called hell. But for all who believe and follow Jesus the promise is eternal life in his presence.

So what should we do to prepare ourselves for judgment? First, we must know what God wants us to do. Ignorance of the law is no defense. We learn how God wants us to live our lives from the Bible. And that it why it is so important to meditate on scripture every day in your prayers. It is so important that you study the Bible in small groups. It is so important that you gather around the word of God with others in worship every Sunday. Do these things and you find out what God wants you to do. And do them so that when the day of judgment comes Christ will say of you, “Well done”.

So we know that one day Christ will return. At that moment sin will be defeated on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus will bring about a new Jerusalem, a restored creation, where all the kings of the earth and all the people who live or died will bow down to Jesus as Lord. We don't know when this will this occur so we watch and wait. And while we are waiting we prepare ourselves for that glorious day by developing a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and by be obedient to God's will.

Father in heaven, we thank you for sending Jesus into our world to save us from sin. We ask that you prepare us to receive him when he returns. We look forward to the day when earth is just like heaven and we can live in it forever in the presence of Jesus. This we pray in his name. Amen.