Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Church. We are in the final week of our series asking for a friend.
[00:00:04] And we did this series to really answer cultural questions we have in our world or some subconsciously we ask about. Lynn, what did we start with the first week of this series? If you were here? We started with can we trust the Bible?
[00:00:21] Can we trust that this Bible is reliable, credible, consistent and sufficient? And we worked from that place because that's the foundation through which everything we teach on and lead from. And it's the self revelation of who God is.
[00:00:36] And then from there we talked about how we dealt with addiction, we dealt with gender, we dealt with sexuality. Last week we said, what do I do with my anxiety? But it's all through the lens of scripture as our foundation.
[00:00:49] You see, the thread throughout each of these weeks has been God created us to walk with him for sin and disobedience broke that. And that's now affected how we view ourselves, how we view our bodies, what we hold to, what we're taken by, and how our anxieties can form us and run us. And it's broken and only leads to death, not only here, but eternally from God, but how Jesus comes to save us back into a relationship with the holy God and to renew and free us only in like the gospel of Jesus in his life, death, resurrection is the only happiness that will suffice in this life.
[00:01:29] And why do we keep on coming back to that each and every week?
[00:01:34] Why do we come in here each and every week and you're reminded of this gospel, reminded of the hero that is Jesus? Why do we sing songs about him to remind you of his goodness, of him being ultimate reality and calling you deeper into abiding in him.
[00:01:51] Why do we do that? Why is that so rhythmic? Because we often so easily forget.
[00:01:56] We are often prone to wander and leave the God we love.
[00:02:01] And when we do that, we become complacent, we drift, we fall asleep, we make this whole thing about us. And we look merely at this dot instead of the line of eternity we are called to and we earn on and we forget the grace of God we didn't deserve.
[00:02:17] And ultimately we end up saying, whether we know it or not, hey, we believe in eternity, but we function to live as if all there is is this life.
[00:02:29] So we are gonna be confronting this question. And it was one I've been just convicted of in these prior weeks. And I wouldn't say not looking forward to it, but this is the one that convicts just in such deeper ways that my heart needed a reminder of. Is Is this all there is? Is this life all there is?
[00:02:53] And the simple answer is no. There are two eternal destinies that await all of humanity that we need to teach on, that the Scriptures teach on. And that's is this all there is? Heaven and hell? And so we're going to look at Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46, as our, as our anchor text today.
[00:03:14] And while you turn there, this is, this text finds itself in the life of Jesus about a week out from his crucifixion.
[00:03:23] And so if you know that through my teaching before I've said, hey, last words matter.
[00:03:29] What Jesus sets up for the people and the listeners, last words matter. And so we're going to read some of the last words from Jesus in that final week of his life in the body here. And so we'll read it in verse 31 through 46.
[00:03:50] Jesus says, when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
[00:03:58] Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
[00:04:07] And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
[00:04:22] For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.
[00:04:36] Then the righteous will answer him, saying, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
[00:04:48] And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?
[00:04:52] And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
[00:05:00] Then he will say to those on the left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
[00:05:11] For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked, and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.
[00:05:23] Then they also will answer, saying, lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger, or naked or. Or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
[00:05:33] Then he will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
[00:05:41] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
[00:05:50] What is Jesus speaking to here?
[00:05:54] He's speaking, you'll probably see it right above the text, the final judgment.
[00:06:00] Jesus is telling all who are listening that he will be back and it will be to judge.
[00:06:08] And this judgment has two eternal destinies, either eternal punishment or eternal life.
[00:06:16] You see, these last words matter not only for us, but for every single person we come into contact to.
[00:06:23] Because a simple convicting answer to is this all there is is no, there is eternity waiting in two very different places.
[00:06:31] And so we're going to talk about it today from this text. We want to break it down for who are the parties involved in this text?
[00:06:40] There's one, the Trinitarian God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and two, all of humanity.
[00:06:50] All of humanity is in view in this text. And like I mentioned, there's two never ending places for all time for humanity, one of punishment and one of life. And we're gonna talk about both parties involved. And so as it relates to the beginning point of this message, the thing I wanna put before us is this simple point that God alone is truly eternal.
[00:07:13] God alone is truly eternal.
[00:07:17] Psalm 90, verses 1 and 2 say, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
[00:07:23] Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
[00:07:34] What does this from the psalmist mean?
[00:07:37] What this text means is God alone is self existent.
[00:07:42] God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. He has no beginning, has no end outside of time and space, eternal by nature, Everything was created by him, for him and through him.
[00:07:57] And so why does this simple point matter for this question?
[00:08:01] Is this all there is?
[00:08:04] Because oftentimes when we come to this text or texts like this on heaven and hell and eternal punishment and eternal life, we don't like them.
[00:08:16] We don't like to believe that a good loving God could allow room for people to be punished eternally. We like the heaven part, right?
[00:08:27] But we don't like the suffering, torment, the eternal punishment part.
[00:08:34] So here's what we do.
[00:08:36] We read through these texts fast.
[00:08:40] Maybe say we believe them, but we functionally brush them aside as if it doesn't really matter or we don't believe it at all. Because by my human reason idea, it just is not right and it doesn't fare so it's not true.
[00:08:56] And what we must remember is this, that since he alone is eternal, we must remember that we are not.
[00:09:05] And his ways are infinitely higher than ours.
[00:09:09] And this whole book is the very word of God.
[00:09:14] And Matthew 25 are the very words of Jesus. And he says that these eternal realities are the eternal destinies of all humanity.
[00:09:24] And when we understand that he alone is truly eternal and he alone is God, we don't come to these texts and ask, we may ask why, but we better not come to them thinking we know better because we are created and he is not.
[00:09:40] You see, Job did that in his questioning of God. And how did God respond to job 38:4 and 38:4? Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
[00:09:49] Tell me if you have understanding.
[00:09:53] Or Isaiah 64:8. But now, oh Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter. We are all the work of your hands.
[00:10:03] Like he's the One who forms, he's the One who designs. We are created by Him. And so he knows the fullest extent of all of creation and the whole plot and the whole story. We do not.
[00:10:15] We must remember that since God alone is eternal and created this, these very words of Jesus, we must deal with them on his terms, not on ours.
[00:10:25] And this is what the text in Matthew 25 tells us about this Trinitarian God. Jesus is coming again.
[00:10:33] He is coming again.
[00:10:36] And it will be in the blink of an eye at a point in time in the future. And what does it say? It says he will sit on the throne as king and as judge and all nations, all in other places of scripture, all the living and all of the dead will come to him. And he will separate the righteous from the unrighteous.
[00:10:57] There will be a final judgment that we will be face to face with Him.
[00:11:02] And he will either invite people to the Father eternally or there will be people separated eternally from the Father. That's what His Word says, not just Michael Tropa saying that God alone is eternal and we must deal with what His Word says. And this is where we must root ourselves then as it relates to this question. Humanity has an eternal destiny.
[00:11:26] All of humanity has an eternal destiny.
[00:11:31] When I was seven years old, this is before I knew anything about Christianity.
[00:11:37] We went down to my grandparents house. They lived in Charleston, South Carolina. And my aunt and my uncle, they lived down there as well. And they were part of this small little Baptist church.
[00:11:46] And this is where I got my first experience of understanding this idea of Final Judgment. Because there was a. There was an Easter play they would put on and it would talk about the crucifixion and ultimately the resurrection of Jesus. And at the end of this play for multiple years, it would always be the same picture. There would be a final judgment and there would be an angel that would be there looking in the book of life.
[00:12:10] And there would be about five people that were walked through this final judgment.
[00:12:17] And here's what I came to understand and the way they set it up was there would be a few people that would come before this angel person there and the person would look in the book of life and they would say, well, you did more good than bad. So you're in like that was great theology, right?
[00:12:37] But that is what my 7 year old mind comprehended as this picture. And then you saw this person skipping away in joy, like into the arms. And I was like, maybe that's it, maybe that's what it's like. But then there was the other side of the coin. There was this one or two people that would, they'd look in the book and their name wasn't written the book of life. And they would say, hey, you've done bad in this life.
[00:13:03] And all of a sudden you hear them pleading their case before this person. And all of a sudden a door opens up and it's like red in the background. You hear screams coming out of this door and there's restraining of this person cause they don't want to go into a hell and they get thrown into this room with screams. And I'm like, that was my idea of this final judgment. I found out later there was a cushy mattress at the bottom of the store. So that was at least a good point of it.
[00:13:32] But that was my idea of this idea of heaven and hell.
[00:13:37] And I guess there's a thing down here in the south called hell houses that try to scare the hell out of you to make a decision, right?
[00:13:47] And just to have hell and fire insurance. So you pray a prayer so you get out of hell free card. Like that is this idea that we have been cultured by. And that is a wrong picture.
[00:13:59] That is not the best gospel motivator. And oftentimes we've prayed a prayer and we think we're saved when he's not Lord and Savior of our lives.
[00:14:10] Or we think, well, maybe I'll just do more good than bad and I'll get in. And so we question really whether we will be in heaven.
[00:14:19] You see, we've had, there's Many pictures in our place of eternal punishment or eternal life.
[00:14:24] But those pictures miss the point of this entire text and the entire emphasis of Scripture at large.
[00:14:32] You see, as I often do, I point back to God's intention for all of humanity at the beginning.
[00:14:40] How God created us and how he spoke this world into existence. And he made us humanity, male and female, in his image. We are created beings. God is everlasting to everlasting. We are created beings that live eternal lives.
[00:14:57] But in the beginning we were created to walk with him in perfect loving relationship.
[00:15:01] And what did he say? Hey, cultivate in the garden, work it have offspring, being flourishing. Walk with me as your God in perfect relationship and in satisfaction. And it will be well with you. Except just don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if you eat of it, what happens? You will surely die.
[00:15:22] Flip the page of Genesis 3. What does the enemy tempt Adam and Eve with? Hey, you will not surely die. Die.
[00:15:30] And so they keep chewing on that truth like that God is not fully trustworthy or God is not truthful. And so what do they do? They eat.
[00:15:41] And while Adam and Eve do not physically collapse at that moment, death enters into the equation. Spiritual separation, corruption and physical death eventually.
[00:15:52] And sin passes from Adam and Eve into all humanity. And no amount of good works on our parts can right what sin has done. Because we are trespasses.
[00:16:01] We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:16:06] That's the reality.
[00:16:09] But as we say each and every week, God in His love didn't just let sin and death have the final words with ones he created.
[00:16:18] No. At just the right point in history, he sent Jesus this one, speaking these very words in Matthew 25. To walk perfectly as we were designed to walk, to be crucified, a death that we deserve to provide forgiveness for our sins.
[00:16:31] And he overcame sin death in the gave, so we can be transformed back into relationship as we were designed.
[00:16:38] And I love and I will always talk about the dramatic love of God.
[00:16:42] But I also will talk about our need to repent of our sin, our need to repent and believe as Jesus in His first words in his ministry, come and repent and believe. For the kingdom of God is at that. He wasn't just a good prophet, a good teacher, a good man. He is the way, the truth and the life. And he is the only way to God. Not through any other means of good works or bad works.
[00:17:11] It's based on his resume and works, not ours.
[00:17:15] And why do I say that? Because there are two outcomes in our time and space in response to that gospel.
[00:17:22] Two eternal destinies, eternal punishment, or eternal life.
[00:17:29] One of those eternal destinies is what the Scripture says is eternal punishment.
[00:17:35] Like, let me just be very frank. That's like life separated from any bit of goodness, any bit of God's goodness. We have common grace here today, but we will be eternally separated once we die and apart from God at this final judgment.
[00:17:55] Jesus in the New Testament writers describe hell as a real and terrible state of eternal separation from God, marked by ongoing judgment, loss, regret, and exclusion from his kingdom.
[00:18:07] And if you read the Scriptures at large, how does the writers describe hell? As outer darkness. Jesus says there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, unquenchable fire.
[00:18:19] Even terms such as gehenna, which is a constant fire on the outskirts of town, is constantly going, that has no end.
[00:18:29] Whether you believe those to be literal or figurative, they are all horrible.
[00:18:36] And that's what the writer and Jesus is trying to say. There is eternal separation that exists. Luke 16 portrays it as conscious torment, an irreversible separation, while the book of Revelation describes the lake of fire and exclusion from the very presence of God.
[00:18:59] For many people, life on earth right now is as close as they're gonna get to any bit of heaven.
[00:19:07] Like this is as good as it gets, and there's pain and hurt, but this is the closest they're going to get to heaven.
[00:19:16] And so ultimately, eternal punishment is eternal separation from the God humanity was created to know, to love and enjoy forever.
[00:19:29] On the other end is eternal life.
[00:19:34] See, the New Testament describes heaven as eternal joy and life in the presence of God.
[00:19:40] Jesus speaks of it as eternal life, the Father's house and the kingdom prepared for his people.
[00:19:46] The book of Revelation describes a restored creation with no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, where God dwells with his people forever. The greatest joy of heaven is not merely comfort, but everlasting communion with God Himself face to face like this is the hardest it's going to get for those who are in Christ today.
[00:20:11] And what Jesus is saying in Matthew 25 is there is a final judgment coming when he returns, that we will be held accountable for these eternal destinies and no amount of good works. As some of this passage, some read this passage to be dictates, that it's based on transformed lives submitted to Jesus that produce transformed hearts, that produce this fruit of feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the people in prison.
[00:20:38] And we will be judged on Jesus record or on ours that is why Jesus invitation isn't merely to. Merely simply to be loved, to be loved by me, but to repent and believe to repent of us being Lord and Savior of our own lives, to rest in his Lord and Saviorship.
[00:21:01] Because there will be a final judgment ahead that that will be asked.
[00:21:07] So my question simply today based on is this all there is?
[00:21:13] The answer is no. From the totality of Scripture because there is eternal life and eternal punishment that awaits. My question for you is whose life are you resting your record on?
[00:21:25] Like if we were to look at your life, did you maybe pray a prayer just to get out of hell? Or did you pray a prayer to be submitted to Jesus and Lord and Savior and he worked and transformed your life?
[00:21:37] Did you maybe believe a gospel that said, hey, if I just do more good than bad and then I can just sprinkle Jesus on top of it, then I'm in.
[00:21:47] But that's never actually produced deep fruit and deep death within you to become more like Jesus because if just prayed a prayer without actually having a submission of our lives. And I'm just gonna let you know eternal, this is as good as it's gonna get for but this doesn't just have an effect on you and me in this room.
[00:22:10] This has effects for all of humanity.
[00:22:15] And if we believe that only the cross of Jesus is the act that saves us and welcomes us back, we cannot be indifferent in this room.
[00:22:24] And so this is my last point. We must be witnesses.
[00:22:31] One of my Favorite quotes from C.S. lewis is a quote that will be up on the screens.
[00:22:35] He writes, there are no ordinary people.
[00:22:40] You have never talked to a mere mortal.
[00:22:44] Nations, cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal.
[00:22:49] And their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.
[00:22:54] But it is immortals whom we joke with, who we work with, who we marry, who we snub and exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
[00:23:07] You see every single day. We work with people that are not mere mortals.
[00:23:12] They are image bearers with eternal destinies.
[00:23:16] They're ones we work alongside, ones we are friends with, ones we're married to, like the quote says, ones we play pickleball with, ones we go to the gym with. There's kids in the back that we get to disciple each and every week that aren't mere mortals.
[00:23:30] They're the people we get our coffee from. They are on our sports teams.
[00:23:35] And they are all headed to either be immortal horrors, eternally separated from the goodness of God, or everlasting splendors in the presence of God.
[00:23:47] And this is where I've had to do a whole bunch of repenting these past few weeks because I've been convicted, that I'm not living with the urgency that this reality comes with.
[00:23:59] I've had to do a lot of repenting in my spirit that I have lived so much of my life living for this dot, this vapor of a life instead of the line of eternity. I'm called to remember that, that I'm a part of.
[00:24:13] I'm not living as an actual, fully as an exile, as a stranger to this world, or fully as the ambassador and witness I've been called to be.
[00:24:22] And I've had to do a lot of repenting. God give me opportunities to live with urgency in this world, to share this not only my life, but also the gospel.
[00:24:34] So the Lord's been doing a beautiful work in me over the past as I continue to be faced with this reality.
[00:24:43] There was a experience that happened about a week and a half ago, my wife and myself and my daughter Aurora, and we were pushing Abram around the neighborhood. And we pushing, I mean, running, jogging.
[00:25:03] But we were going for about a mile and a half run.
[00:25:06] And I've been praying these prior few weeks to continue to have my eyes to see, lord, where would you have me continue to share? Who can I? Just give me opportunities. And so as we're running, we're about three houses down from our house over near the Pollard park area. And all of a sudden, there's a girl going by on one of those little hoverboards, and she's just weeping.
[00:25:28] And so my wife and I and Aurora stop and we say, hey, what's going on? What's your name? What's going on?
[00:25:37] And she's selling all those pest control services.
[00:25:42] And she said, people are so mean.
[00:25:46] And she goes on to tell there was one person that pulled a gun on her when they went up to the door.
[00:25:54] And she said, just the things people have been berating her with with regards to what she's doing. And so she's just weeping. And I said, hey, do you have faith, by any chance?
[00:26:05] And then she shared, hey. She's like, I grew up Mormon. I'm from Utah. I believe in some Christianity. And I got to share a little bit about her, about what we believe. Cause she's like. She said, hey, you guys are so nice, you know, thank you so much. And we prayed for her right there in the middle of Hudnall Drive.
[00:26:24] And then my wife gave her her number and said, hey, next few Days you're in town. If you need anything, just shoot me a text and we'll connect. Well, as that evening 7:30 rolls around, my. My daughter, my wife and I, we're all sitting down. We just put abram down at 7:30. We're getting ready to watch American Idol because that's what we do.
[00:26:45] And so we sit down and my wife gets a text from this girl.
[00:26:49] She's like, can I come over?
[00:26:51] Like, here we go. This is what we asked for, Lord.
[00:26:54] And so she comes over, sits in our living room for an hour and a half, and we get the opportunity to hear her story, hear what she believes, and we get to opportunity to love her. My daughter's asking her questions and we get to share about the hope that we have in Christ and how she can know, she can know this great God.
[00:27:22] The end of the conversation.
[00:27:24] I really wish I could tell you that she prayed a prayer to receive Jesus and none of that happened.
[00:27:30] But I gave her a book that I got from the church leaders conference at Watermark about Jesus, and it's just straight scripture. And we got to pray for her. She said, there's something different about you. And we just got to proclaim the greatness of God and the relationship she can know through him because she is an image bearer with an eternal destiny that I. And we need to do the sharing and let Jesus do the loving and transforming with.
[00:27:58] Just because this gospel is true, because eternity is real, because Jesus is truly king and alive, because there's eternal destinies ahead, and because the gospel is really the difference between eternal life and eternal separation from God, how can we stay silent?
[00:28:19] Like when Thomas Newhoff is up here talking about mentoring alliance and stepping in a moment to mentor. That might be someone's only opportunity to see a Christian in their life. And how can we stay silent and not step into moments like that?
[00:28:34] How come oftentimes I have to continually put before men to be disciplers, to share four days out of a year to invest into young men, to be witnesses, to share this gospel. But we're okay just being like, hey, we're gonna hang back, we're gonna play around to golf at night. We've done a whole bunch of working during the week. You know, we're gonna dial it in. No, these are image bearers that have eternal destinies ahead of us, and we aren't getting in the game to actually share and witness the greatness of Jesus with them.
[00:29:09] We live for this blip and this vapor of a life instead of the eternal Line in reality that we are all a part of.
[00:29:18] Why don't I? And we continue to live with urgency because people lives are at stake and they could be six feet away from us and we're fine with them being eternal punishment away from the goodness of God. Why are we okay with that?
[00:29:33] And so we don't share.
[00:29:34] My call for us as a people is imagine if we lived with the urgency that Jesus is coming back tomorrow and this final judgment awaits.
[00:29:47] I'm not trying to guilt you. I'm trying to say, if you've experienced the great love of God through Jesus, why aren't we sharing not only our lives, but with our words and speaking the truth of the gospel lovingly, boldly, graciously?
[00:30:05] Some of the things I've told throughout the series of, of people who are struggling with gender dysphoria, just get to the table.
[00:30:15] Just go to the table and love people where they are and be ready to share the hope that you have.
[00:30:21] Because people are starving for truth and are gonna be eternally separated from the Father. And we have the greatest message, but we keep it quiet.
[00:30:30] Some of the things we're gonna be pressing into in this next year is evangelism and training and walking through what that looks like. And again, we're responsible for the sharing. J. Jesus is responsible for the transforming.
[00:30:42] My question is, are we being witnesses to this great news that people are either eternally separated or eternally in the presence of God and that awaits for all of humanity, and that's what Jesus says is coming, and are we living accordingly?
[00:31:00] Church I'm gonna pray to close us into transition into this time of worship. And we're gonna sing a song about he is coming again, because he is.
[00:31:09] If you do not know Jesus as Lord and savior of your life, this is the reality. And I'm not trying to scare the hell out of you. That's not my heart.
[00:31:21] My heart is to say that there is a God who loves you that sent Jesus as the rescuer. And the only way to be in eternal life in heaven with him is through Jesus Christ.
[00:31:31] And I want you to pray with me as I pray over you during this prayer time. And if you have been sitting on the sidelines and not sharing your faith, I'm gonna pray for boldness for you to have eyes to see and ears to hear, to be stepping into being an actual witness ambassador, not living for the vapor, but living for the line of eternity that we are a part of and praying for you to share that great news with others. So Would you pray with me, Church?
[00:32:00] God, I pray right now.
[00:32:03] If there is anyone in our midst right now that is living for themselves as Lord and Savior of their own lives, I pray that your spirit convicts them to believe that you are the Lord and Savior above all else in their lives. And I pray for repentance. I pray for belief and submission to that reality that Jesus is. Is alive and king. And they believe and submit to the King Jesus out of great love. And they're transformed by the gospel today.
[00:32:38] And God, I pray for those of us in this room who believe and trust the gospel today. And it's transformed us that we don't just sit idly by watching people go to hell, but we love, we share the greatness of Jesus with them because it is true.
[00:33:01] And people are either going to eternal punishment or eternal life. But we just share and be witnesses and ambassadors and give our lives away for this gospel.
[00:33:11] Let us not be ashamed because we have the greatest news ever of the love of God displayed in Jesus. And he's a risen king who's coming to judge the living and the dead. And we live with urgency today.
[00:33:26] God, I want to continue to foster that among us. And I pray that deep within us that we become evangelizers. To those who you put in our path, maybe our kids, maybe our spouses, maybe our neighbors, whomever we come across, let us live with urgency to love them and show the greatness of who you are to them.
[00:33:47] God, you are coming again.
[00:33:50] This is not a mere thought, it's a fact.
[00:33:54] And let us live in light of eternity today, bringing as many people with us to be a part of the great story you've welcomed us into because of Jesus. God, we love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Church, let us stand and sing in response to the Word today.
