Worship Helps for the 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 4:1-3

Look! The day is coming, burning like a blast furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord of Armies, a day that will not leave behind a root or branch for them. ²But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, and there will be healing in its wings. You will go out and jump around like calves from the stall. ³You will trample the wicked. They will surely be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I take action, says the Lord of Armies.

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 9:24–28  

²⁴For Christ did not enter a handmade sanctuary, a representation of the true sanctuary. Instead, he entered into heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf. ²⁵And he did not enter to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶Otherwise he would have needed to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once and for all, at the climax of the ages, in order to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷And, just as it is appointed for people to die only once and after this comes the judgment, ²⁸so also Christ was offered only once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear a second time—without sin—to bring salvation to those who are eagerly 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 5:19–30

¹⁹Jesus answered them directly, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. And he will show him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he wishes.

²²“In fact, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life.

²⁵“Amen, Amen, I tell you: A time is coming and is here now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live. ²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to execute judgment, 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 ²⁹and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, but those who have practiced evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰I can do nothing at all on my own. I judge only as I hear. And my judgment is just, for I do not seek my own will, but the will of 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.)

Putting your faith into action

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

704  Lo, HeComes With Clouds Descending

1  Lo, he comes with clouds descending, Once for ev’ry sinner slain.

Thousand, thousand saints attending Swell the triumph of his train.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Christ reveals his endless reign.

2  Ev’ry eye shall now behold him Robed in glorious majesty;

Those who ridiculed and sold him, Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing, Deeply wailing, Deeply wailing,

Shall the true Messiah see.

3  Those dear tokens of his passion Still his dazzling body bears,

Cause of endless exultation To his ransomed worshipers.

With what wonder, With what wonder, With what wonder,

Gaze we on those glorious scars.

4  Yea, Amen, let all adore you High on your eternal throne.

Ev’ry knee shall bow before you; Come and take your people home!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

You shall reign and you alone!

This glorious Advent hymn by Charles Wesley is set to its traditional English tune, HELMSLEY.

Text: Charles Wesley, 1707–1788, alt.