Jesus the Judge of the World

John 5:19-29 Jesus the Judge of the World Introduction: This passage before us concerns the doctrine of the final Judgment. Not only that, but we are introduced to the final Judge himself - The Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture teaches that all those who have ever lived will be called before God, in their physical bodies, to receive judgment for the deeds they have done, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. “These are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. But I must say what I think true. Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” -C.S. Lewis Most people whether Christian or not, religious or not, or even Theist’ or not, believe in a Judgment Day. Whether they believe it is a “Divine act” or just a kind of “Cosmic Karma” varies. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject, myriads of movies have been made and are still being made, news and media talk about it. It’s everywhere. Example: Remember Harold Camping? Initially he was mocked about his prediction of the end of the world (i.e. Judgment Day) but as the predicted date drew closer, many people were filled with fear, they began asking christian co-workers about it, calling christian radio stations, and going to churches to get more information concerning this event. Again proof that many people, in the back of their minds, believe and know that a day of Judgment is coming. Why is this so? I think it’s because in the back of all our minds we know that something is wrong with the world, each of us knows that there is true truth (meaning a higher standard by which we should live) and that we each have veered from it, and believe there must be a day of reckoning to set everything straight that is wrong with the world. Judgment in the biblical understanding has both positive and negative connotations. Scripture sees judgment first in the sense that God is cleansing, restoring and making whole that which has been broken, that which is out of line, restoring balance; making all the crooked paths straight. Negatively this means that he is condemning and destroying all evil, darkness, and every false way. Everything that is opposed to his goodness, holiness and his creation. The question is who has the authority to judge; who is above or over the law, in such a way as to administer judgment with true equity, and justice? John presents to us the God-Man, Jesus Christ. He is the one who will administer true righteous world judgment. “ “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.” - Revelation 19:11 1. Why does Jesus have Authority Over Judgment? 1. Because He is the Only Son Of God. 1. “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” 2. God alone has the right to judge the world. He created all things, He alone knows all things, he alone has witnessed all the sin (wrong doing) in the world whether in thought, word, or deed. He alone has the power to carry out judgment, and finally he alone is the perfect standard of righteousness. 3. As we saw last week when Jesus speaks of God, Yahweh, being his father. He does not use this term in a general sense but refers to him as his own Father. 1. “What Jesus, as the one and only son of God, claimed was to be sent by God, on mission for God, doing the works of God, obedient to God, and bringing glory to God. That is not the role of someone who displaces God but one who is a representative or emissary of God.” -Borchert 4. Jesus paints a picture for the Jews that they would understand -the relationship between a father and son. As a son, for most of human history, would be his father’s apprentice, to carry on the work of his father, Jesus also has this with his Father. Jesus, if you will, is like the apprentice Son of the Father. He does all, and only, that which he sees the Father doing. And the Father is the one showing the Son, his ways. The scriptures make this very clear elsewhere that Jesus acts in perfect conformity with the father. 1. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17 2. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. -Hebrews 1:1-4 1. “All these different phrases, that the Son does or says what he has seen or heard with the father, give expression to the same idea, namely, that he is “The Revealer” in whom we encounter God himself speaking and acting.” - Bultmann 2. The only way we can know the Father, the only way we can see and understand his ways is through the Son. He is the exact, and perfect representation of the Father. This is the first reason Jesus has authority to Judge. 2. Because He is the Son of Man. 4. “And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” 5. So who is the Son of Man and why does he have authority to Judge? 2. “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” -Daniel 7:13-14 6. “What the Father has given to the Son, then, is the right to execute judgment on his behalf. The explanation that Jesus gives here (because he is the son of Man) draws on the ancient Jewish picture of ‘one like the Son of Man’ in Daniel 7, who is given authority over the world, and particularly to bring God’s just judgment on the forces of tyranny and evil that have oppressed God’s people. You could put it like this: God has longed to put the world to rights; now, with his apprentice son on the job, he is doing so at last. But bringing new creation to birth can only be done if the evil that has corrupted the old creation is named, shamed and dealt with. That’s what judgment is all about.” -Wright 7. All throughout the gospels Jesus identifies himself as “The Son of Man”. Because Jesus is not only the divine Son of God but also the truly human “Son of Man” who is the eternal world ruler, the true king of the world, prophesied by Daniel, the Father has given him authority to carry out the final judgment of every human being. 2. But why has the Father given the Son the Authority over Judgment? 1. “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” 4. The Long Silence 2. At the end of time, billions of people were seated on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly, not cringing with cringing shame - but with belligerence. "Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?", snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!" In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black !" In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world. How lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was sweetness and light. Where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said. So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the vast plain, they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever. Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man. Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die so there can be no doubt he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it. As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered a word. No one moved. For suddenly, all knew that God had already served His sentence.” 5. Jesus Christ has the right to judge all sin, for he is God in flesh, he himself has suffered more from sin than humanity ever has - Jesus suffered the full wrath of God at the Cross. 6. In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul talks about the honor, praise and recognition that is going to the Son for his work of Salvation. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 7. Here’s how I understand what’s happening here - Every person who has ever lived, at the end of time, will be brought before Jesus Christ for judgment; they will see him, with his nail pierced hands, they will know his pain and his suffering. And out of their own mouths they will confess (not necessarily in a salvation sense) That Jesus Christ is master, the ruler, and they will bow their knee in recognition of Christ authority, glory, and power! Every single person who has ever lived will recognize Jesus’ worth, his beauty, his authority, and his perfect judgment over all 8. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son so that all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father. Conclusion: How we’re schizophrenic when it comes to Judgment.. “The trouble is that one part of you is on His (God’s) side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it. and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible-ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger-according to the way you react to it. And we have (all) reacted the wrong way”. - Lewis But here’s the good news: the same one who has the power to judge and condemn also has power/authority to pardon and give life - “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, 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 also to have life in himself.” and “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” “The future judgment is good news because the one through whom God’s justice will finally sweep through the world is not a hard-hearted, arrogant, or vengeful tyrant but rather the Man of Sorrows, who was acquainted with grief; the Jesus who loved sinners and died for them; the messiah who took the world’s judgment upon himself on the cross” -N.T Wright And this is the reason that he has come: that we might live - “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” -John 20:31 “The Son makes alive whomever the Son wants” - “In the whole sermon, life giving has precedence over judgment. This precedence is because in the fourth Gospel, God’s saving will always prevails over his judgment..judgment is merely reserved as a self imposed fate for those who refuse to believe in His Son.” - Schnackenburg So what?