RETURN

[1] WELCOME: Good morning, if you’re new with us or just tuning in for online worship with us, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to fill out our digital connection card at auburncstone.info and let us know you’re here, and a how we can be praying for you. SERIES: We’ve been going through our teaching series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE. And we’ve seen how early Christians used these short biblical statements to teach new Christians what was true about God the Father, Jesus the Son, The End of Time, The Holy Spirit, and the Family of God the Church, and our mission until Jesus comes back. They also said them together in worship to help them cling to hope, joy, and peace when the world around them was dark, falling apart, and seemed hopeless and dangerous. So today we’re getting to the part of the creed that looks into the future and says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty…[2]

FROM WHERE HE WILL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: We have a lot to cover this morning, so I’m going to pray, we’re going to recite the creed together, and then we’re going to jump into our time of teaching together. Let’s pray! [3]

Almighty God and Loving Father, we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to this earth to save us. We worship you for raising Him from the Dead and exalting him as Cosmic King. Merciful and Righteous Jesus, we thank you that even now you are praying for us and advocating for us. We know you are coming again to judge this world and to make all things new. Holy Spirit, help us to hear, respond, and obey the word and will of Jesus. Make us new. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

READ THE CREED TOGETHER-[4-13]

(TEACH) BRIDEGROOM & JUDGE (God)

MATTHEW 25- This morning I’m going to read 2 big chunks from our bible that come from the book of Matthew. That’s the first book in what we call our New Testament. As we’re preparing to get back into gathering in person, I want to start encouraging you to look things up in our own bible, whether it’s digital or paper. [Auburncstone.info] That does two things, it gets you comfortable with knowing where to go and reading on our own, and it gives our poor tech team fewer heart attacks when I have 50 slides of scripture to follow. So, I’m going to read [Matthew 25:1-13] and then skip to verse [31-46.] [14]When we hear about the day that Jesus returns at the end of human history, we are given two major pictures. They are of a BRIDEGROOM & A JUDGE. Let’s start with the image of Jesus returning like a Bridegroom. [15]

·  BRIDEGROOM: Everything that is involved in the Jewish custom of getting married beautifully illustrates why this is such an appropriate image for Jesus. The Bride groom loves his future bride and wants to be with her. The Bride groom is willing to pay a price in order for her to leave her old life and enter into a new one are just a few. In the scriptures we just read though, we see that Jesus is compared to a Bride Groom who [16]

o TOOK LONGER THAN EXPECTED: Often what would happen is that the Bridegroom would come to the parents and arrange to be engaged to their daughter. They would agree on a price that was worthy of their bride. And the bride would get to keep the money once they were married. Then the Bridegroom would leave his fiancé with her parents and go back to his home to build and prepare them a place to live. And because it often took time and resources to get their new house ready to live in, engagements could often last up to a year or more.

§ Often when Christians talk about the return of Jesus, they get made fun of. When’s it gonna happen? It’s been 2,000 years, where’s Jesus? But being mocked about the return of Jesus isn’t anything new. Early Christians got made fun of as well. One of Jesus’ followers named Peter wrote this to help other Christians respond to people mocking them and saying God wasn’t going to show up. [17-18][2 Peter 3:8-9] God is not on our timetable. In fact, he’s not bound by time at all. A million years is a blink to him. The reason that he has not come is that he deeply desires not to have to condemn anyone and wants to give them every possible chance to admit they’ve rebelled and surrender their lives to him. He’s patient and compassionate. But even though it took longer than expected, when the Bridegroom came…[19]

o HE CAME SUDDENLY: People knew it was happening, but at a certain point they just quit paying attention. They went on with their lives. They weren’t prepared. And when the Bridegroom finally did come there wasn’t time to get ready anymore. Right after Peter told Christians why God was taking so long, he also said that [20-21][2 Pet. 3:10] It’ll happen like a thief at night. No one is sitting at home thinking; maybe tonight is the night I’m going to get robbed. It just happens and then you think to yourself, what should I have done to be prepared? And when the Bridegroom came to get his bride…[22]

o SOME ENTERED INTO A CELEBRATION: One of the things about Jewish weddings is that they lasted longer than just a day. When you went to a Big Fat Jewish Wedding, you needed to expect for it to last around 7 days! That meant food, wine, music, dancing, and friends for 7 whole days. Doesn’t that sound amazing? As long as I don’t have to pay for a wedding like that, I think that is the way weddings should be done. And Jesus used this image on purpose because it’s probably the closest earthly image we have of what heaven will be like. I’ll talk more about this in a couple weeks when I talk about life everlasting. But the main idea is that you want to be ready when the Bridegroom comes back because being let into the feast is the place we all really deeply long for. To finally be with the one who loves us more and better than any love we have ever felt and the love we have longed to experience here on earth that no human being can provide. The Great lover of our souls, Jesus himself. But then we see that…[23]

o OTHERS WERE LOCKED OUT OF HIS PRESENCE: There are a lot of things I could say here because there are cultural things that people listening to Jesus would have known. Things like there would have been people trying to sneak into the wedding that weren’t supposed to be there as they went from the bride’s house to the grooms house. And having a lamp that was well supplied was the sign that you were invited to the wedding and not a wedding crasher. But probably the most sobering part of this story is that it is possible to say you know and love the groom, but prove otherwise by choosing to live your life and never prepare for his return. They’ve got a lamp, and no light. Religion and no power. Rules but no relationship with Jesus. And if you look at the end of Ch. 24 and all through Ch 25 of Matthew, he builds a picture of people who either [24]WILLFULLY REJECT JESUS AS KING AND ACT AS IF THEY ARE GOD, OR DECIEVE THEMSELVES AND ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS BUT NEVER REPENT, SURRENDER, AND ACCEPT HIM AS THEIR KING. JESUS PAINTS A PICTURE OF ETERNAL CELEBRATION OR ETERNAL SEPERATION. The second primary image of the return of Jesus is that he will come again as…[25]

·  JUDGE: Let’s just be honest, the majority of people either hate or are extremely uncomfortable with this image. But here is why I believe that we can’t ignore it, change it, or rage against it. [26]WE ARE HARDWIRED TO WANT JUSTICE WHEN FACED WITH EVIL. How many of you are Harry Potter fans? As bad as Voldemort is, there is another character that is absolutely horrible. Her name is Dolores Umbridge. [27] When you see that horrible little woman smiling and drinking tea as she tortures children, it makes you sick. It makes you angry. You can’t wait for her to get punished. And when Dolores gets carried off by centaurs, you find yourself yelling in triumph. What we see in movies is true in real life. [28]When children and women are sold as sex slave we cry out for justice. When people are herded into train cars and slaughtered like cattle, we cry out for justice. We know that evil needs to be dealt with. When planes fly into skyscrapers, we cry out for justice. And the bible tells us that even when we don’t see justice done in this life, we can trust that it will happen in the next. And it says that Jesus will judge everyone. And he will decide who enters the Kingdom, the wedding feast, and who experiences eternal punishment, and gets locked out of the presence of the bridegroom. Jesus will decide who is a sheep and who is a goat. And we need to see that…[29]

o JESUS IS BOTH THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE JUDGE: Some people want to think Jesus is all love; the great bridegroom that lets everyone into the party regardless of whether they truly loved him or cared if he came back. Surely the bridegroom would never send anyone to hell. They say “That’s not loving” but they ignore these teaching of Jesus. And if you grow up experiencing true evil and heartbreak, you long to know that there is justice, and that God is good enough to not let evil go unpunished. A pastor and theologian from Croatia named Miroslov Volf said this. And I’m paraphrasing the first part. Imagine standing in a war torn country like he came from where people had watched their cities bombed, burned, and destroyed, watched their wives and daughters experience horrible things, watched their sons and fathers throat cut, and then tell them that God won’t punish evil because he’s love and that you shouldn’t retaliate. [30-33] Only when we trust that Jesus is going to judge evil, can we truly live with evil being done in this life and not take revenge. Yes, Jesus is the great Bridegroom. And he is coming back for those he loves and who love him. But he is also coming back as judge to punish those who reject him. Not just the people we say are the really bad people, but everyone who has not surrendered their life to Jesus. [34][Jn 3:36] And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” And that will be absolutely terrifying if you have not chosen to love and follow Jesus. But if you have, you need to know that…[35]

o WE WILL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGE WHO HAS TAKEN OUR JUDGEMENT. We deserve to die, to be separated from God forever because of our sin. We have broken ourselves, each other, this world, and our Heavenly Father’s heart. But instead of punishing us, Jesus took our place. He took our punishment on the cross. So when we give our life to him willingly in this life, we don’t have to fear him. He looks at us and says “NOT GUILTY, I TOOK YOUR PLACE AND YOU ACCEPTED IT.” That’s one of the reasons why I love the phrase that Jesus says [36]“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.”[Matt. 25:34] It uses the word…

§ INHERITENCE: An inheritance is a gift you are given after the death of the original owner. They share it with you after their death. We can’t do anything to justify ourselves before Judge Jesus! All we can do is give him our lives and say I surrender. And then accept the gift of grace and eternal life that is made possible because of his death. So this morning I want to end by saying…[37]

(APP) REJOICING AT JUDGEMENT DAY (You)

YOU HAVE THE CHOICE WHICH JESUS YOU WILL FACE, THE JUDGE OR THE BRIDEGROOM. And you need to know that it is God’s deepest desire for you to meet His Son as the Bridegroom. So much so, that he sent him to die for you. That he has an inheritance ready for you to claim someday. To finally be in the presence of the one who will love you better than you’ve ever been loved. That loves you the way you long to be loved. He’s got a party that’s gonna last for eternity waiting. And if you’d like to know more about giving your life to him [38] [AUBURNCSTONE.INFO] And for those who have given their lives to Jesus, it will not be a day of terror. [39]We will be able to

REJOICE AT JUDGEMENT DAY BECAUSE IT IS THE DAY WE’LL BE WITH OUR BRIDEGROOM!

I get the chance to do a lot of weddings as a pastor. And the thing I love more than anything is seeing the look on the face of both the groom and the bride as they finally get to see each other. And it’s the beginning of something new and wonderful. And as wonderful as these earthly ceremonies are, it’s nothing like the love we’ll see in the face of Jesus and the party that’s gonna get thrown in heaven! Let’s pray. [40]

Come Lord Jesus! We long to be with you and for you to come and set this world right. We also know that you are waiting and giving everyone as much time as possible to repent and give their lives to you. So until you come again, may we be your faithful people and pray for those who you want to save. May we love well and help us to live with hope and be preparing for your return. Come Lord Jesus! Amen!