Worship Helps for End Time 2 - Last Judgment
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.)
The Last Judgment is something unbelievers don’t like
to discuss very much. It promises to shake the very foundation of their lives
as all that “stuff” in which they have placed their trust will be destroyed in
the fire. Considering this, the temptation is to “eat, drink, and be merry”
because tomorrow everything could be destroyed. Praise the Lord for compelling
us, his people, to “revere” his name. The “stuff” of this world is not something
in which we place our trust. Instead we are to manage it during our life to
God’s glory. May the way we manage our “stuff” reveal people as joyful and
carefree as a calf leaping in the spring, since we are awaiting our joyful
entrance into heaven.
A reading from the
Book of Concord for End Time 2
27] If now you are asked, What do you
believe in the Second Article of Jesus Christ? answer briefly: I believe that
Jesus Christ, true Son of God, has become my Lord. But what is it to become
Lord? It is this, that He has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death,
and all evil. For before I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the
power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.
28] For when we had been created by God
the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and
led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His
wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited
and deserved. 29] There was no counsel, help, or comfort
until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had
compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us. 30] Those tyrants and jailers, then, are
all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life,
righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost
men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into
the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under
His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom,
power, life, and blessedness.
31] Let this, then, be the sum of this
article that the little word Lord signifies simply as much as Redeemer, i.e.,
He who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to
righteousness, and who preserves us in the same. But all the points which
follow in order in this article serve no other end than to explain and express
this redemption, how and whereby it was accomplished, that is, how much it cost
Him, and what He spent and risked that He might win us and bring us under His
dominion, namely, that He became man, conceived and born without [any stain of]
sin, of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, that He might overcome sin;
moreover, that He suffered, died and was buried, that He might make
satisfaction for me and pay what I owe, not with silver nor gold, but with His
own precious blood. And all this, in order to become my Lord; for He did none
of these for Himself, nor had He any need of it. And after that He rose again
from the dead, swallowed up and devoured death, and finally ascended into
heaven and assumed the government at the Father's right hand, so that the devil
and all powers must be subject to Him and lie at His feet, until finally, at
the last day, He will completely part and separate us from the wicked world,
the devil, death, sin, etc. – Large Catechism, Apostles’ Creed, Article II,
paragraphs 27-31
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