“So What?” – Part III– John 14:1-6

If you could spend an evening having dinner with anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be? Now, for the sake of the story, don’t say Jesus. We all know that’s the right answer and what we are supposed to say, but for now let’s don’t say it. With whom would you like to spend an evening eating your favorite foods? Mexican food with Pancho Villa or lasagna with Michelangelo or sausage and sauerkraut with Albert Einstein? Or how about Greek food with the apostle Paul, Jewish food with King David?

Now, what if you knew that whatever person you chose would pick you as their answer to that question? How much fun would it be to know that the person you wanted most to be with also wanted to be with you? You could sit and talk and eat for hours. Now, the problem with actually having a night like that is that it always has to come to an end. Don’t you just hate it when a great evening ends?

Well, I have some good news. In fact, I have good news on top of good news. Imagine actually being able to enjoy whatever food you want with whomever you want and never having to worry about running out of time. That is just the smallest of pictures of life in Heaven. And even better than all of that, you could enjoy that meal with Jesus Himself. Can you imagine sitting down at a real table and eating enchiladas with Jesus, talking and laughing and asking each other questions? Because He has chosen you as a believer in Him to spend eternity in fellowship with Him, you can spend as much time with Him as you want, knowing He wants to eat enchiladas with you too.

That’s a pretty powerful vision for me, not just because I like to eat but also because I can’t imagine Jesus wanting to spend time with me and yet the Bible would teach us that He does. That’s a far cry from what most people think about how Heaven is going to be. What is the stereotypical view of Heaven? What do all the cartoons show people doing in Heaven? Sitting on a cloud strumming a harp. How boring! I don’t want to do that. That would not be Heaven for me and probably not you.

Gary Larson was the artist for the Farside cartoons and I remember a cartoon he drew one time with that picture of a man sitting in Heaven on a cloud with a harp in his lap. The caption read, “Wish I had brought a magazine.” Why is it that Heaven seems to get such a lame rap? Why is it that Heaven, the place of all joy, all happiness, all health, all fulfillment, all everything we want is depicted as a place that makes people say, “So what if there is a Heaven?”

It’s not the Bible’s fault. The Bible is full of information about Heaven and we will discuss some of what it says today. But where does this misinformation come from? I’ll tell you where it comes from. It comes from the father of misinformation, the father of lies, the opposer, the accuser, the adversary Satan. Satan doesn’t have to prove to us that there is no Heaven. He just has to convince us that Heaven is a boring place and if we believe that then we will be robbed of our joy and anticipation. We will set our minds on things of this life and not the next and we won’t be motivated to share our faith. (Heaven, Randy Alcorn)

Revelation 13:6says that Satan opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in Heaven. What better way for the devil and his demons to attack than to whisper lies about the very place that God tells us to set our hearts and minds? Let’s set our hearts and minds on it this morning by turning to a beautiful passage in the book of John.

This passage is one of my favorites. It has fascinated me since I was a little kid. It has comforted at funerals and has been used to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Turn to John chapter 14 and we will read verses 1-6.

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I don’t know about you but to me that passage is like a favorite pair of old blue jeans. I have read it a thousand times and it always makes me feel good. I’m always glad to read it and every time I do, I feel like I found 5 bucks in the pocket. You know what I mean? It’s a gold mine of good stuff.

You can use this passage to teach all kinds of things but I want to see just 3 things this morning.

1) Heaven is a place.

2) Heaven is a prepared place.

3) Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people.

Every culture that has ever existed has had some sense that this life was not all there is. Anthropological evidence shows that everybody from the Australian aborigines to the Mayans to the Native American Indians has had some kind of God-given sense of the eternal. That’s why you may have heard before that it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to believe in God.

It is natural for us to consider an after-life even if we have never read the Bible because God put that in us. We are wired to see creation and realize there must be a Creator. And if there is a Creator then there must be more to this life. That is especially important to those who go through life in great pain or need or without ever feeling fulfilled. And this nasty old life can sure be that way for a lot of folks. If this is all there is to life then I would have to think it’s not really worth it.

The problem is that too many people see the afterlife just as bad if not worse. It scares people to think of the great unknown especially if we are going to fly around like Casper the ghost singing “Holy Holy Holy” all day up in the clouds. When Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you” He deliberately chose common, physical terms to describe where He was going and what He was preparing for us. He wanted to give His disciples and us something tangible to look forward to – an actual place where they and we would go to be with Him.

He did this because of the fact that Heaven is a place. It is not a state of mind. It is not some spooky, spiritual spectrum of consciousness. People often say things like, “Well, we just can’t know much about Heaven until we get there.” Or,“She’s in a better place; a place of the great unknown.” “We can’t even imagine what Heaven is going to be like!”

Well, actually we can imagine it. We might not be able to do it complete justice but we have an idea because it is going to be similar to how we live right now. When Marco Polo returned to Italy from China he described China as a world that his audience had never seen. They felt he was making it up but it wasn’t that China was a fairy tale or a lie. It was similar to Italy in that it had streets and mountains and trees and people but it was just different.

The Bible teaches that Heaven is a familiar, physical, tangible place; a place that we will be very similar to what we know here on earth. Heaven is described as having streets, buildings, cities and countries. It is said to have walls, gates, real gardens, banquets and bodies. Yes, we will have physical bodies. Just as Jesus was resurrected and then came back in His physical body in Acts 1, so will we. Moses and Elijah appeared physically with Jesus at the Transfiguration and so it makes sense that we, too, will have physical bodies in a physical world.

The Bible teaches that we will be known in Heaven as we are known on earth. Jesus says in Matthew 8:11, “many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven”.

Obviously we will somehow recognize each other even though we will have perfect bodies as it says in Philippians 3:21, in heaven Christ “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body”. So, while we can’t know everything about Heaven we can know that it is a real place.

And not only is it a place but it is a prepared place. In verse 2Jesus says that He is going to prepare a place for you. I wanted to know exactly what that meant so I looked it up in the giant concordance I have of biblical words. I looked up “prepare” and “place” and do you know what? I didn’t learn a thing. It means to prepare a place, just like we would use those words.

I’ve told you before about going up to Wyoming to see Yellowstone Park a few years ago. It is an incredibly beautiful place and I would love to go back there some time. In some places it feels like another world because it is so different than anything I’ve ever seen. I stopped at some point just along the side of the road to look over a mountain range and I decided to walk down the mountain I was on just a little ways. There was no path and this wasn’t a rest stop. Nobody else was around and I’m quite sure nobody would ever find me if I fell down the mountain into the heavy brush. (That may be why there was a fence with a warning sign right there now that I think about it.) But anyhow, I walked down a little ways and looked around and then started back up and I saw on the backside, the downhill side, of one of the trees was a vine growing with a big, beautiful flower growing on it. It was a huge flower with bright yellow and orange and red and green. And it was growing way down the mountain on the backside of a tree.

I stared at that flower for a long time and I wondered if God had put that flower there just for me because He knew I would be the only one dumb enough to walk down there…or if He made it just for Him and I just happened to see it. At another solitary place out in the desert with nobody around for miles and miles he prepared an incredible sunset and it was like God said, “Here, Todd, this is for you.” And those were just fleeting moments of God showing me His handiwork. Can you imagine what Heaven is going to be like? He has prepared a place for you; just for you, customized by Jesus just for you.

Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham “was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Can you imagine what the buildings are going to look like in Heaven? But there will be more than just buildings he is preparing for us. In I Timothy 6:17 we are told to “put our hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” I believe we can expect to find continued enjoyment in Heaven. In Isaiah 25:6 it says, “On this mountain theLord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.” I would like to point out what is not mentioned here. There is no mention of vegetables! No veggies. There’s no broccoli in Heaven. Nope.

God has prepared a place for you; you personally; not one generic place for everybody but He has hand-prepared a special place just for you. In other words, God loves you so much that He wants you to enjoy your place in Heaven just like a good father here on earth would want his kids to enjoy their place.

When my oven didn’t survive “the bacon incident” a few months ago, my mom told me she wanted me to have her little toaster oven. She said she got it at a garage sale but it worked great and she had spent a long time cleaning it up. It was bigger than most and she really wanted me to have it because it was so nice. She told me she hardly ever used it and so I should take it. I knew she did use it but she insisted and it has worked great ever since. I know that gave her great joy to give that to me because she loves me and wanted me to have something that worked well.

Can you imagine the joy it will bring to Jesus to know that you are enjoying your place, your mansion, your room, whatever it is? It is just the right color and has everything you want and more. What kind of a father would welcome his child home saying, “Well done my good and faithful child! Now here is your shed to crash in. Don’t mind that old mower. Just push it over to the side but don’t step right there. That board is loose.”

No! The same God who loved you so much that He sent His only Son to die for you has prepared a place for you in heaven close to Him for eternity.

That should bring great joy and anticipation to all of us. Well, it should bring joy to those who are prepared. Because just as Heaven is a prepared place, it is a prepared place for prepared people. Last week in our study of Hell, we looked at Revelation chapter 20. And the last verse of that chapter says, “Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Those who are not prepared will not have their name written in the book.

Ruthanna Metzger, a professional singer, tells a story that illustrates the importance of having your name written in the book. Several years ago she was asked to sing at the wedding of a very wealthy man. The invitation said the reception would be held on the top two floors of Seattle ’s Columbia Tower . At the reception, waiters in tuxedos offered luscious hors d’oeuvres and exotic beverages to the guests. The bride and groom approached a beautiful glass and brass staircase that led to the top floor. Someone ceremoniously cut a satin ribbon draped across the bottom of the stairs. They announced the wedding feast was about to begin. Bride and groom ascended the stairs, followed by their guests.

At the top of the stairs, a maitre d’ with a bound book greeted the guests outside the doors and asked for their names.

“I am Ruthanna Metzger and this is my husband Roy”

“Would you spell it please. I can’t find it.”

Searching some more, the man said,“I’m sorry but your name isn’t here.”

There must be some mistake. I am the singer. I sang for this wedding!”

The man said, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did you cannot come in because your name is not in the book.” “Waiter, please show these people to the service elevator.”

She said she was humiliated as they walked toward the elevator and passed by beautifully decorated tables with shrimp, salmon, and incredible ice sculptures. They passed through the area where the orchestra was practicing with all the musicians dressed in dazzling tuxedos.

They made it to their car and her husband asked her what happened. She told him she got busy and didn’t think she would need to RSVP since she was the singer.

We learned last week that to be cast out of Heaven won’t just mean having to go home. It will mean being thrown into the lake of burning sulphur. And no explanation or excuse will matter. You can explain that you were a member of a Baptist church and that your Mama was a Sunday School teacher and Daddy was a preacher but God is going to say,” You can’t come in. I never knew you.”

God has prepared a place for you if you have prepared a place in your heart for Him. John said in I John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” But what does it mean to believe? It means that you have given your life to Him in full faith and trust and that since your sins are now forgiven you have devoted your life to Him. Does that describe you? If so, then you should be looking forward to Heaven with all your heart. It is a real place that Jesus has prepared for each one of us. But you have to be prepared. Why not do that right now?

*Special credit to Randy Alcorn’s book entitled Heaven for much of the information in this message.

“So What?” – Part II – Rev. 20:11-15

For those of you that are new here, you might think you caught me on a bad day. You might think the pastor is in a bad mood or not on his game or something but today’s message is a little bit different. I usually start by doing something or saying something that will be dramatic or get your attention but due to the somber nature of the scripture passage before us this morning I would like to go straight to the Word and read Revelation 20:11-15. Please turn there if you have your Bibles.

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Now that we have read the passage you can understand why I don’t want to start with a joke or by doing something funny. I believe of all the passages in the Bible, this one should be the most motivating of them all. It should motivate believer and unbeliever alike. It should scare all of us into either making sure that we are true believers and if so, to make sure that everybody else is a believer as well.

I know that anytime someone preaches on hell somebody somewhere is going to roll their eyes and say, “Oh, you’re just trying to scare people into Heaven.” And my response to that would be, “You are absolutely correct!” I will preach it again next week if I thought it was needed. I would come to your house and stand in the yard with a megaphone if I thought that would convince you. How do you read that passage and not want to scream “Jesus” from the mountain top? How do you read that passage and not want everyone you know to be scared of hell? That’s my response.

Now, let me tell you what the Bible’s response is. Leviticus 25 says to fear your God. Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me. Joshua 24 says Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Psalm 2 :11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Luke 1:50His mercy extends to those who fear him. In Acts 9 the church grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. And finally from this same book of Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth--to every nation, tribe, language and people.

He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.”

Most of you know that I am not usually a “hellfire and brimstone” kind of preacher but I do preach the entire canon of scripture and I will always preach all of it and I make no apologies for preaching something that Jesus Himself spoke of so many times. And so I continue our series entitled “So What?” by asking the question, “So what if there is a hell?” Last week we asked, “So what if Jesus comes back?” and next week we will ask, “So what if there is a heaven?”

I find it hard to believe that anybody could ask such a question about hell, but they do it all the time. The thing is, most people don’t believe in hell and if they do hardly anybody thinks they are going there. And of those few that would admit they believe they are going there they have a serious misunderstanding of the place because they talk about partying down there with all their friends. Or they joke about Satan being afraid they are going to take over or some other foolishness.

They obviously don’t understand this passage and so I want to look at this a little closer. This is a passage speaking about the last judgment that will be cast onto all unbelievers at the end of time. As most of you know there are actually 2 judgments. In II Corinthians 5:10Paul talks about the Bema seat or the Judgment Seat of Christ and it is there that we as Christians will be judged and rewarded for our good deeds and scripture teaches that we will have already gone through that when the Great White Throne judgment takes place where all unbelievers will be judged.

So, with that in mind I want us to see 3 things in this passage this morning. As your bulletin insert says,

#1. God is worthy to judge.

#2. All will be judged.

#3. Hell is the judgment.

Inverse 11 the author, John, says he saw a great white throne. He doesn’t say who is sitting on it and he doesn’t have to. He has had this revelation come from God and John has seen in this revelation God, specifically Jesus, sitting on the throne. And as the King on the throne He is worthy to judge. The same type of person who would ask, “So what if there is a hell?” might also question the authority of the one on the throne making these judgments so let’s look at what makes God worthy.

What makes any judge worthy to judge anything? How many of you saw the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on TV a few nights ago? It was won by Banana Joe, an Affenpincher, whatever that is. It’s a little monkey-faced mutt that looks to me like it wandered in from the junk yard, but what do I know? You see, it is the judge who knows what an Affenpincher is supposed to look like. He knew what the standard is for that breed and so he has the right to judge.

God has the right to judge because he has the knowledge of what we are supposed to look like. We are supposed to look like Jesus. God knows the Law and He knows what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to look and so He is worthy to judge. As Christians, as Jesus-followers, as believers having asked Jesus into our lives and for forgiveness of our sins, God sees us just as He sees Jesus and so we meet the standard. We are pure and spotless just like Jesus because we look like Jesus, not because we deserve it but only through our faith in Him.

Not only is God worthy to judge because He knows the standard but also because He is perfect. In Matthew 5:48we are told to ^“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” He is also worthy because He is the creator. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image.” He is the creator and as such He is worthy to judge. And the worthy judge sits on the Great White Throne.

Not only is He worthy to judge but all people will be judged. John goes to great lengths here to show us that all people will be judged. Everyone, the great and the small, those that have died on land and on sea, from days of old to the present will be judged by the worthy King. All will be judged according to their deeds including Hitler and Stalin down to that foul-mouthed Madonna down to the sweet little old lady down the street who has refused to ask Jesus into her life.

John says the books will be open and those books have recorded everything the unbelievers have ever done, good and bad. Every act, attitude and thought will be recorded and will be read for everyone to hear and then God will judge those people on how they have lived. So many people think they will be judged on a scale where hopefully their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds and when God asks them for an account of all they have done that is where they will point.

is where they will point.

But Jesus, on the throne, the great I Am, will say, “I Am the standard. I Am the way you are supposed to look to get into Heaven. I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through me. And you don’t look like me. I modeled the standard while I was on earth. I gave you the rules in my Word. I made it plain what you had to do and your salvation from hell has nothing to do with how many good works you have done in your life but it has everything to do with asking Me into your life to be Lord while you were alive on earth. There are no more chances. You have been weighed on the scales, not your deeds. You have been weighed and have been found lacking. You are judged.”

And just like when the Supreme Court of the United States makes a judgment there is no appeal. There is no more arguing. There is no more evidence to bring out. The Supreme Court has the last word when it comes to justice in America but when it comes to eternity, God is the worthy judge and all will be judged and the judgment is always going to be hell. Hell is the judgment at the Great White Throne. Verse 15 says that anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Some people get distracted here trying to figure out if this is a literal passage or if it is symbolic. Is it really a lake of fire? How could a lake be fire? Is God really opening literal books or is it something else? And to be honest, I don’t know for sure if it is a literal lake or if it is something else. But remember, this is a revelation to John and he is using the best words he can to describe what he sees and I know that if what he is seeing is not literal then it is worse. I don’t want to know what a lake of fire looks like and I believe that is John’s point here. When it comes to hell it doesn’t matter.

I want you to notice a couple of things in this message. I am not using a bunch of illustrations at all and I’m trying to let the scriptures speak for themselves. But I am also not using any horror stories of people who have been dying and screaming about what they have seen in hell or how they feel as they go there. I’m not trying to be dramatic. I’m not screaming at you and I’m not trying to make you feel guilty or sad.

But hear me say that there is a literal hell and there are literally people all around us who are dying in their sins and going there every day. And when I say that hell is the judgment for those unbelievers I want you to know what the Bible says about it.

Jesus says in Mark 9:44 that the fire in hell never goes out.

Some people think hell is a place much like before we are born. Or they want to think that we will be unconscious but the rich man in Luke 16 was very much conscious in hell and it says he was in torment begging for the beggar Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool the man’s tongue.

Matthew tells us in chapter 8 and chapter 22 that hell is a place of complete darkness.

Luke 13 teaches that hell is a place of complete separation from anybody else. One of the things about heaven that I look forward to the most is seeing friends and family again that have passed away but in hell the unbeliever is all by himself. Not to mention the fact that he will be completely cut off from God Himself.

Several places mention the fact that hell is a place of absolutely no hope. Hebrews 6:2 and Matthew 25 both say it is a place of eternal judgment or punishment.

The one thing they will have in hell is their memory; memories of all their family and friends, memories of all the people who tried to talk to them about God and heaven and Jesus and knowing that the judge was fair and righteous and holy and worthy and that the only person to blame was themselves.

I don’t like preaching about hell. I really don’t. I look forward to next week when I get to talk about heaven. We could do that every week, just come together and tell ourselves how blessed we are to be going there and what it’s going to be like. But just like preaching about hell, there is a time for that but we can’t do it every week. I appreciate those that went to the Wednesday evening series on soul-winning. We all learned a lot.

But now it’s time to use what we have learned. Sure, we could all stay right here and pat ourselves on the back for being saved but Jesus says in John 4:35 that the harvest is ripe. Romans 10 asks how they can hear without a preacher? Jesus left the disciples with the task of spreading the Gospel to the entire world and there is no Plan B. Everybody we see we ought to be thinking about what we can say in the 30 seconds we have with them at the grocery store or the 30 years we live with them that will bring them to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

So, while there is no good news to someone already in hell there is still Good News that we can share. And that Good News is that while we were yet sinners Jesus died for us because He loves us so much. He died because the penalty for sin is death and the only way we can pay for that is by death in hell but Jesus paid the debt that we owed with His death on the cross. Then after 3 days He rose again and is the only God of any religion that is alive today and so therefore He is the only true God because only God can defeat death and keep us out of everlasting hell. Have you asked Him into your life today to forgive you of your sins and be Lord of your life?

"So What? - Part 1" - Mark 13:26-37

*Pause 10 seconds before preaching*

I hate waiting. Don't you? I only paused there for less than 10 seconds and yet, how uncomfortable was that? When you know something ought to be happening and it doesn't, that is so frustrating. We live in a world where we expect everything to happen right now. In this world of computers and telephones and microwaves and planes that can take you across the world in a day, waiting 10 seconds with nothing happening can seem like an eternity.

About a month ago I went with Brian and some other guys out somewhere in west Texas to go goose hunting. I had never been before but I was as prepared as I could be thanks to Brian. I had my cold weather gear and a shotgun. One of them I didn’t need at all and the other I needed more of. We got out to this big open field out in the middle of nowhere about 530 in the morning and set up a bunch of decoys and then lie down on the ground surrounded by these decoys and then for the crowning touch we put a giant plastic goose on our heads. No kidding.

And then we just laid there. And laid there and laid there. And laid some more. 20 degrees and no geese and I’m in a frozen field with a plastic goose on my head. It would be pretty funny if it was happening to somebody else. I can’t see anybody else because of the goose on my head but I can see out of it enough to see geese flying way up in the sky way out of range. And every time they would fly over the guide would say, “Ok, here they come. Get ready.” And the geese would just fly on by.

It didn’t take too many hours of this before I have to admit that I really didn’t believe the guide anymore. At first I was all tense and ready to jump up and shoot but after a while I was just lying there trying not to freeze solid. I knew that they could fly down to our field and I knew it had happened to other people before but I just didn’t think that any geese would ever fly within range of our guns and, sure enough, they didn’t.

Unfortunately, some of us are the same way about watching and waiting for Jesus to come back. We start off watching the sky, thinking that it can happen at any moment. We have read that it will happen in the twinkling of an eye and we are ready and waiting and watching. But He never comes. In fact, people have been waiting for thousands of years and still nothing. So what do we do? Do we keep on watching or do we just try to get through this life to the end?

And even if He does come back, so what? What does that mean for us today? I’m starting a 3 sermon series today on the question, “So what?” So what if Jesus comes back? So what if there is a hell and so what if there is a heaven? Because that is the question people all around us are asking; maybe not out loud, but they are basically asking with their lives and their habits, “What relevance does all that religion stuff have for me?” And if we are not able to answer that question their lives will be as fruitful as our goose hunting trip. The only difference…is eternity.

Turn to Mark chapter 13 to see what Jesus Himself said about His return. This is a difficult chapter to understand in some respects because Jesus is talking to His disciples about 2 different things in one conversation. He is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in one sentence and His imminent return in another. But with careful study of verses 26-37 we will see clearly the relevance of His return.

- Mark 13:26-37-²⁶ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

Several of the commentaries I read on this passage mentioned that it was a difficult passage to understand and the first time I read it I certainly agreed. To fully appreciate the passage you need to know that Jesus is responding to a question asked by His disciples. Earlier in the chapter it says that Jesus and His disciples were walking out of the temple and one of them remarked about how beautiful the temple was and Jesus replied that soon not one stone would be left on top of another.

This had to be a curious response for the disciples to a harmless statement and so they asked Him about it later and our passage today is part of His response. What is difficult about this is that He was answering their question by telling them about 2 different things that were going to happen; the fall of Jerusalem and His second coming. He intertwines the 2 stories in this one conversation and even 2000 years later we have a hard time understanding so you can imagine the disciples’ confusion as they walked along.

Nevertheless, there are 3 easy to understand truths that we can see in this passage and I want to focus on those this morning.

1) He is coming back

2) We have jobs to do

3) We are to keep watch

How many of you have ever been part of a military family? My dad was telling me that his dad was in WWII and would often write home to my grandmother telling her how much he missed her and that he would be home soon. In fact, he was probably telling her exactly when he would be home but my grandmother never knew it because the censors would censor all the mail and literally cut out all the details about where they were and when they were leaving. And so my grandmother never knew when he was coming but she waited and watched every day hoping it would be that day. Maybe some of you can relate to waiting for your loved one to come back from military duty.

Well, Jesus tells us in this passage that He is coming back and there are dozens of other passages that tell us as well. I won’t go through them all but I have to include these 3:

Acts 1:11"Men of Galilee," they said. "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Colossians 3:4“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory

1 Thessalonians 3:13 “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

Ok, I gotta give you one more. I could do this all day. I get excited about this and you should too. Let me just tell you that the word “amen” just means “that’s the truth” or “I agree” or “so may it be” and that would be very appropriate after reading passages like this. I’m just throwing that out there. One more…

Revelation 1:7-8 “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. So shall it be! Amen.8"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Man, that gets me excited! I am so ready. I hope you are. I hope you are ready and I hope you are excited. It says that we will not know when and it’s almost too much to think about but if someone were to ask you, “So what if Jesus comes back?” I hope you can be excited as you share with them what it means to all of us. And that leads me to my next point. While we are here we have jobs to do.

In verse 34 Jesus says the man leaves his house but each of his servants has assigned tasks. We have jobs to do while we are here on earth and there are at least 2 facets to this I want to explore. First, what is our job while we are waiting on Him to come back? Is it to have a big church? Is our job to be comfortable while we wait? Is our job to judge sinners? No. None of that is in our job description.

What was the last thing Jesus told His disciples (and us) at the end of the book of Matthew? Turn there in your Bibles if you would. I want you to see it, not just hear it. I want you to know what your job is because Jesus wasn’t just talking to His disciples here. This is our Great Commission as well.

Matthew 28:18-20: ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Go and make disciples. That’s our job. Let’s say you took a job with Bob’s Ditch-digging Service and the boss told you to go dig a ditch. He told you in writing when you signed on that your job was to dig ditches. And you said you would do it. You agreed and shook hands and signed on the dotted line knowing that all the tools you needed were available in the shed. But at the end of the day, the boss comes back and sees you leaning on the shovel and you have not dug but a couple of scoops of dirt, what are you going to say?

It’s too hot. It’s too cold. I’m too young. I’m too old. Digging ditches makes me uncomfortable. I never really had the opportunity. Digging ditches is not my gift. I’m digging on the inside. That’s how I do it. Oh, that’s the foreman’s job. What do you think the boss is going to say? What do you think God is going to say when you get to Heaven and you haven’t done your job?

That brings up the other facet of this point that we have jobs to do and that is that God trusts you to do the job. We think of having our faith and trust in God but He also has faith and trust in you that you will do the job of an evangelist as it says in II Timothy 4:5. You are expected to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, according to 1 Peter 3:15. Mark 16:15 says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” And that’s what the disciples did. Jesus trusted them and there was no Plan B. It’s the same today. It is up to us and Jesus put his trust in us to get the job done. He even says that He will be with us always. Everything we need to get the job done is at our disposal but the way some of us live it is as if we are saying, “So what if we have jobs to do? So what?”

So, we know He is coming back and we know we have jobs to do. The last thing we are to do is to keep watch. I am reminded of the passage later on in Mark where Jesus is in the garden praying and the disciples keep falling asleep. Jesus asks them if they couldn’t just keep watch for one hour. Nobody wants to be like that but what does it mean for us today to keep watch?

Verse 35says, “Keep watch, for you do not know when the owner of the house will come back.” I heard about a man who went to Europe on vacation and went to one of the castles in Spain called the Castillo de Coca. The vacationer found only one man on the whole property; the gardener. He asked the gardener where everybody was and the man said he was the only one there but he would be glad to take him on a tour. The vacationing gentleman noticed that every inch of the place was just immaculate. The gardens were tended. The lawn was mowed. Fresh flowers were in the window sill. Even the interior was spotless with beautiful linens and sparkling silver.

The guest asked the gardener how often the owner comes by. “He hasn’t been here in 12 years.” Well then how do you get your orders and your pay? “The owner’s handlers take care of that.” Well how often do they come? “Never.” The man was surprised and said, “Well, you must expect your master to come any day now.” “No sir,” said the gardener. “I expect him back today.”

Our job is to tell others the Good News of Jesus while we are here but while we are here we are also to keep watch over everything God has given us. That means we are to go to work and do our earthly jobs as if God were our boss. Paul says in Philippians 1 that we are to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. I Peter 3:16 says to live so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

To keep watch means to be prepared all the time for Jesus to come back and no matter when He comes you won’t be ashamed of what you are doing and have done. Where do you want to be when Christ comes again? Where do you not want to be when He comes? That’s a good question too!

And if He doesn’t come back today you will be able to say, “So what? I’ll be ready tomorrow.”

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Freedom" Galatians 5:16-26

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Freedom" Galatians 5:16-26

I would like to continue our worship time this morning by playing that opening song, “Come Now is the Time to Worship” on the piano. I want to play a beautiful version of that on the piano right now. Does anybody have any problem with me playing and continuing our worship? Would that be ok? I would really like to but there is a problem. I don’t have the music. And actually there is another problem. I can’t play the piano. At all. But I really want to.

I want to be able to play something beautiful here on this piano. The problem is that while I have the liberty to play (there is no law stopping me from banging out some notes) I don’t have the freedom to play because I never learned how. I was never disciplined enough to sit down and be obedient to a lesson plan long enough to learn to play anything more than “Oscar the Octopus” and that is not very worshipful so I will spare you.

See, in our spiritual lives there is a difference between “liberty” and “freedom”. So many people think that freedom is the license to do whatever a person wants, but true freedom is the ability to do what is right. It takes obedience in order to have true freedom. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching)

Another illustration of this is the unchained dog lying in the sun in the front yard with no fence. He’s just lying there soaking up the sun watching the cars pass. He has the liberty to run off down the street. He can but when his master caught him he would be in trouble. But true freedom for that dog means he is obedient and therefore he can come and go as he wants from the front to the back and all over the yard instead of being chained or fenced. There is a difference in freedom and liberty.

Paul says in I Corinthians 10:23, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.” As Baptists, there are several subjects that we all kind of have an unwritten understanding that we don’t talk about much; subjects like drinking, smoking, dancing and gambling. There are no laws saying you can’t do any or all of that and lots of people do. But the problem with these things is that they either lead to an addiction or they lead to other things that are destructive so while we have the liberty to do them, freedom comes from the Holy Spirit.

Now, on the other hand, many of us wish we could do incredible things for the Kingdom of God but it seems like for all of our good intentions, we get bogged down just trying to survive without killing somebody. How many of you know that feeling? One minute you are thinking of some powerful work that you could do to bring others to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and the next thought you have is“Lord, forgive me for the horrible thought I just had about that person”. Isn’t that frustrating? What can we do about all of that?

That must have been how Paul felt when he said in Romans 7:18, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” So, again, the Holy Spirit tells us that we have the liberty to do all things but not the freedom. And we have the desires to do good things but too often we do the bad things we don’t want to do. Man, are we messed up or what?

So, I go back to my question. What can we do about all that? Well, fortunately for us there is an answer that will help us to not only know the difference in what we should and should not do but it will also give us the power to do all those good things that we want to do and more. Turn to Galatians chapter 5 and let’s see the answer.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God .

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited; provoking and envying each other.

Last week we looked at the 10 Commandments in Exodus and between the Sunday morning and Sunday night services we saw why they were written and why they are still relevant to us today. And by the way, if you aren’t coming to the Sunday evening services you are missing a blessing. But we talked about how we are not under the Law as followers of Jesus but we are under grace and we are grateful for that, right? And yet, while we are not under the Law, the Law is still relevant to us and we are still supposed to keep the Law. Jesus Himself told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19to “Obey the commandments.”

Thankfully, we are not saved by keeping the commandments but we are saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. But that doesn’t get us off the hook for obeying the commandments or anything else God tells us to do as individuals. We all know that there are consequences to falling short in that area. I will say again that there are BOOCOD, benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience. We know we are not supposed to lie and there are consequences for that. And guys also know that there are consequences for answering your wife incorrectly when she asks, “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?”

That’s just a mean question. Ladies, don’t ask that. And guys, there is a correct answer there that is both truthful and will keep you out of trouble. I don’t know what it is but I’m sure there is one. Anyway, we want to do the right thing as opposed to the wrong thing but we struggle with that and we also want to do great things for the Lord but we struggle with that. This passage shows us the secret to doing both and then it tells us how to know when we are doing it wrong and also how to know when we are doing it right.

Let’s look at the secret to life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom as told by Paul to the church in Galatia . When 56 men sat down in Philadelphia and ratified the text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it included the famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They said the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were endowed to us by our creator and I would like to add that the pursuit of spiritual freedom is not only endowed by our creator but is the only way in which we will ever find it.

And Paul makes the secret sound so easy. He says in verse 16, “Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Just live by the Spirit. Look, honey, we’re just gonna live by the Spirit. Hey, honey, what’s it mean to live by the Spirit? Well, I’ll tell you, honey, what that means. Let’s learn some more Greek. When Paul uses the word “Spirit” he is obviously talking about the Holy Spirit but the word he used was “pneuma”. It’s the word from which we get pneumatic and means having to do with air. It just meant air or sometimes wind.

What I found interesting in my study of this was that it always meant a powerful wind. There is another Greek word that means a calm, gentle breeze. This is the significance behind the wind at Pentecost that blew into that upper room with a loud noise in Acts chapter 2. There was no mistaking it for a calm breeze. It couldn’t be ignored. It was obviously the work of the Creator and it was powerful. The Spirit of God is the most powerful force in the universe and we have the ability to live in it or your text may say walk in it. And not only do we have the opportunity to walk in it but we are commanded to here by Paul who was, as he wrote this, under the powerful influence of the Spirit and so, therefore we are commanded by the Spirit to live in the Spirit. Not to do so is sin.

Let me give you 2 quick verses on how to live by the Spirit. First, Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” That’s worship. That includes preaching and teaching and singing and prayer, fellowshipping with other brothers and sisters.

Secondly,Romans 8:5 says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Do you know how you set your mind on what the Spirit desires? Let me just tell you, it is hard to gossip when you are quoting Proverbs 18:7 over and over. “A fool’s mouth is his undoing. A fool’s mouth is his undoing. A fool’s mouth is his undoing”

It’s hard to lust when you are singing “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.”

Or how about trying to steal, lie or cheat when you are praying the prayer David prayed in Psalm 51 after he sinned with Bathsheba,“Create in me a pure heart oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

In other words be prepared for temptation to come and be ready to set your mind on what the Spirit desires by immersing yourself in Him. Have a verse ready and memorized to combat whatever your favorite little nasty sin is. Or have a song or a prayer or whatever it takes to continue living in the powerful Spirit of God.

When I see some guy with a flat belly, I think, “Man, I’d like to look like that again.” I’m tired of having this gut and I really want to be thin. I really do. But do you know how much I want to be thin? I want to be thin this bad (patting stomach). I want to be thin but I have not done everything I can to be that way. I have not used the tools and the knowledge I have to make that happen and it is the same way for us when we struggle with the same sin over and over. God has provided a way and the tools and the power necessary to accomplish it. It’s just up to us to use it by living in the Spirit.

Now fortunately, Paul tells us how to know when we are not living in the Spirit just like our bathroom scales at home tell us when we have not been living correctly in that sense. He has a long list of sins but the list is not exhaustive as Paul says at the end in verse 21, “…and the like”. He lists, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies.”

When we read this we might be tempted to see this as a list of only the worst of the worst; a list that we can be proud of not having anything to do with things like debauchery or witchcraft or orgies. But look closer. You can know you are not living in the Spirit when you have impurity of any kind in your life. You can know you are not living in the Spirit when you have discord or jealousy, dissensions or factions. Think about that and that is why I say that any time there is discord in the church you can always trace it back to sin somewhere. People don’t always have to agree on everything but when there is dissension or quarrelling you can bet somebody is sinning.

That’s why Paul puts envy right next to idolatry. One is just as bad as the other and both are proof that we are not living in the Spirit. It is so serious that he ends the paragraph saying that those who live like this (and that verb means to continually live, not a one-time lapse) will not inherit the kingdom of God . If you can read that list and name any single one with which you have an ongoing problem then you need to take drastic measures because you just stepped on the scale and broke it! Paul is not saying that if you do all of these then you are in trouble. He is saying you are in trouble if you do any one of these.

Now, I have a question. It seems to me that Paul is being pretty judgmental here. In fact, just a few paragraphs earlier in chapter 2 verse 16 he says that we are not justified by keeping the law but here he is saying that those folks who don’t keep the law are not going to inherit the kingdom of God . How do you justify that?

Some have thought this to be a contradiction in his theology but a closer look shows that the evidence that the Galatian believers had been justified by faith was the presence of the Spirit in their lives. People love to quote Matthew 7that says, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” But Paul is saying that the proof is in the pudding. When you see someone continually living that way you know that they are not living in the Spirit and therefore will not inherit the kingdom. It’s not about keeping the law and it’s not about being judgmental. It’s just proof.

So we know that the secret to living in freedom is to live in the Spirit. And we know what it looks like when we are not living in the Spirit. Now let’s see what living in the Spirit looks like. Paul says that when we are living in the Spirit we will bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Just like the previous list would prove that someone is not living in the Spirit, so it is that this list is proof or the fruit of living in the Spirit. And the first thing I want to say about this is that the proof of the maturity of a Christian is not the gifts of the Spirit but the fruit of the Spirit. I Corinthians 13:1-2 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Paul is telling the Corinthian church that it doesn’t matter if they have the gift of tongues or prophesy or knowledge or anything else, without the fruit of love they are just wasting their breath. It doesn’t matter to us today if you are a great teacher or preacher or musician or any other gift you have, the proof of your maturity as a Christian will show up in the fruit you bear.

Secondly, we might have the tendency to read this and think that we will never bear all of this fruit because that is when life is perfect. Only a perfect person with a perfect life can have love, joy, peace, patience, etc., right? That’s not what Jesus said in John 15:2. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Sometimes a fruitful person can be pruned by God which, in itself is what brings the maturity. So it is not the gifts of the Spirit that show one’s maturity. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

So, again, we have seen the secret to living in freedom is to live in the Spirit. We know what it looks like when we are not and when we are living in the Spirit. And I love how Paul ends that list. “Against such things there is no law.” You not only have the liberty to have love and joy and peace even in the difficult times, you have the power and the freedom as well.