Worship Helps for 2nd Sunday in End Time

 

Artwork: Last Judgment

Artist: Michelangelo

Date: 1475-1564

Location: Sistine Chapel

 

Worship Theme: In the end of the world, Jesus will come back in glory to judge both the living and the dead. Those who believe in him receive a verdict of “not-guilty.” Those who do not believe stand condemned to the eternal suffering of hell.

 

Old Testament: Malachi 4:1 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. ³ Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty.

 

1. What will happen to every evildoer on Judgment Day?

 

2. Those who revere God’s name will not suffer the punishment mentioned in verse one. Instead, they will receive healing from the “sun of righteousness.” What is that “sun of righteousness”?

 

Epistle: Hebrews 9:24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

 

3. The letter to the Hebrews shows how Jesus is superior to every aspect of the Jewish religion. How is Jesus superior to the Old Testament priests and sacrifices?

 

4. What happens to a person when he or she dies? (See 9:27.)

 

Gospel: John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. ²⁴ "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out-- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

 

5. What right has God the Father entrusted to his Son?

 

6. What if someone says he or she believes in God, but thinks Jesus is only a man or a god less than God. Is that person still okay?

 

7. Already in Jesus’ day, sinners were coming to life spiritually. What other day does Jesus predict?

 

Answers:

1. Every evildoer will be punished in fire forever. Eternal separation from God is often pictured in the Bible as fire and burning―a fitting picture for hell’s unending torments.

 

2. John the Baptist’s father Zechariah calls Jesus the “rising sun” from heaven in Luke 1:78-79. This "rising sun” whose wings (rays) grant healing is our Savior and Lord, Jesus.

 

3. Jesus is superior since he did not enter an earthly tabernacle (or temple) but rather heaven itself. He did not need to offer sacrifices over and over again like the priests of the Old Testament. The sacrifice Jesus offered on the cross paid for sin once and for all. No other sacrifice needs to be made.

 

4. When a person dies, his or her body goes back to the ground and that person faces God’s judgment.

 

5. God the Father entrusts his Son with the job of judging the world in righteousness. In the end, Jesus will come back with his holy angels to judge the living and the dead. As verse 24 says, whoever believes in Jesus and the one who sent him (God the Father) will be found innocent and given eternal life.

 

6. No, that person is not okay. Whoever does not honor the Son as much as he or she honors the Father does not honor the Father who sent the Son.

 

7. Jesus says a day is coming when he will raise all the dead. Then will come the judgment with only two sentences―eternal innocence or eternal condemnation. (Don’t be confused by 5:29. Trials and sentencing hearings need evidence. Good works are the evidence for faith in Jesus. Evil works are the evidence of unbelief. Your good works cannot save you. But that does not mean they are unimportant, either to God or to your neighbor.)

 

 

A reading from the Book of Concord for the 23^rd Sunday after Pentecost

            How can the human heart love God while it knows that He is terribly angry and is oppressing us with earthly and endless distress?  The Law always accuses us.  It always shows that God is angry.  God is not loved until we receive mercy through faith.  Then He becomes someone we love.

            Civil works (i.e., the outward works of the Law) can be done in some measure, without Christ and without the Holy Spirit.  Nevertheless, it seems that what belongs only to the divine Law (i.e., the heart’s affections toward God), commanded in the First Table, cannot be done without the Holy Spirit.  But our adversaries focus on the Second Table and political works.  They don’t care about the First Table.  They act as though the First Table were of no matter.  They require only outward fulfillment of the Law.  They do not consider the Law that is eternal and placed far above the sense and intellect of all creatures.  Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.”

            Christ was given, that forgiveness of sins might be bestowed on us.  He was given so that the Holy Spirit might bring forth in us new and eternal life and righteousness.  The Law cannot be kept unless the Holy Spirit is received through faith.  Paul says that the Law is established through faith, and not made useless, because the Law can only be kept when the Holy Spirit is given. – Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article V, Love and Fulfilling the Law (paragraphs 7-11)