God Gives Rebels What They Ask For

If you've got good news and bad news to share with someone, then it's always a good idea to tell them the bad news first. The good news then comes as a relief, especially if the good news outweighs and overwhelms the bad. The gospel is God's good news for the world. And he uses the same principle: tell the bad news first.

In this evening series, we're working our way through an outline of the gospel called 'Two Ways to Live', tying in with what many of us are learning together also in our small groups. It's a six step explanation of the essence of the Christian faith as it's found in the Bible.

Two weeks ago Jonathan took us through step one: God is the loving ruler and creator of the world. That, of course, is immensely good news, but there's even better news than that to come. Before we get to it, though, there's the bad news.

Part one of the bad news was what Ian was explaining last week - that all of humanity is by nature in rebellion against God. We are rebels by nature, and rebels in practice. As a result, we're rebels in deep trouble. But what kind of trouble? That's part two of the bad news. And that's what I'm talking about this evening. The trouble is this, that God Gives Rebels What They Ask For. That's my heading, as you'll see on the back of the service sheet. There's space there for any notes that you might like to make.

As the Two Ways to Live Outline puts it, God won't let us rebel forever. God's punishment for rebellion is death and judgement. As the Bible says:

Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.

That's Hebrews 9.27. God's justice sounds hard, but that's where the good new kicks in. Because of his love, God sent his Son into the world: the man Jesus Christ. Jesus always lived under God's rule. Yet by dying in our place he took our punishment and brought forgiveness. More of that next Sunday evening.

But we can't bypass the bad news. In fact the good news of Jesus only makes sense when we - and those we're explaining the gospel to - have taken on board how very bad the bad news is. You will not take hold of a life-line if you're not aware that you're drowning.

So we need to face square-on the truth about death and judgement and hell. The big question then is: What happens to us after death?

There are very many views about that. We hear stories of near-death experiences, or tales of reincarnation, or confident assertions that death is the end and beyond it is nothing at all, or bland reassurance that there's nothing to worry about because nice people like us are bound to be OK.

But if you want to know about a foreign land, you listen to someone who's been there. And you pay extra special attention to someone who's a native of that land. They know what they're talking about. There's only one man who's come from heaven, been through death, returned to us, and then returned to heaven. And that's Jesus. He comes from God. He is God. And his resurrection and ascension prove it. So when Jesus talks about death and judgement and hell, we need to listen. He knows what he's talking about.

What is more, we need to remember that Jesus is intensely compassionate in his dealings with people. He loved the crowds of people he encountered. He wept over them. He yearned for them to know true peace in their lives. He paid the ultimate price and laid down his life for us all. Any charge of harshness or cruelty laid against him should be summarily thrown out of court.

So it's all the more impressive that the strongest teaching in the Bible about the reality of death and judgement and hell comes from the lips of Jesus himself. His purpose in telling us what's up ahead is to warn us so we realise we need rescuing. So we'd better believe what he says.

We're going to consider just one passage of his teaching on this, this evening, and it's going to be Matthew 25.31-46. We heard it earlier, and you'll find it on p 995 of the pew Bibles. Here's what this teaches us, summed up in three headings. First, Jesus is coming to divide those in the right with God from those in rebellion. Secondly, the rebels go to eternal punishment. Thirdly, those in the right with God are given eternal life.

First, JESUS IS COMING TO DIVIDE THOSE IN THE RIGHT WITH GOD FROM THE REBELS

This is what Jesus tells his disciples about what's going to happen (verses 31-33):

When the Son of Man comes [Jesus very often refers to himself as the Son of Man - so he's referring here to his own second coming at the end of the age] - When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right [which is the position of honour and power - Jesus himself is seated at the right hand of his heavenly Father] and the goats on his left.

At the moment Jesus is at his heavenly Father's right hand, on the throne of heaven, ruling all of history behind the scenes. He is hidden from sight. But it won't always be like that. At the end of history as we know it, Jesus is going to return to earth.

When he comes again, he will come with supreme and absolute divine authority. Daniel 7.14 says that the Son of Man is the one who is given 'authority, glory and sovereign power' over all the nations. No one will be able to stand against him.

And he will come in glory. His rule will no longer be hidden. It will be open and obvious to everyone. There will be no more obscure stables in equally obscure middle-eastern provinces. His glory will blaze across the world.

And all his angels will be with him. Today Jesus has legions of angels at his disposal. They too stay hidden for now. But when Jesus returns they will be a magnificent guard of honour, and then we'll see what's always around us though we're blind to it all now.

And Jesus will be the judge of everyone. Jesus is not one great religious figure among many. He is not merely a supremely holy man, or a teacher full of insight into the human condition. He alone is the one who holds our eternal destiny in his hands.

And he will be our judge. Judgement day is not a medieval fantasy, or a good title for a Hollywood blockbuster. The fact that the notion of it is scorned or ignored in our society doesn't mean it's not coming and its not real. It is.

And there is no escaping it. There will be no exemptions and no exceptions. Every single one of us will appear before Jesus to give account for our lives. Rich and poor. Powerful and powerless. Famous and unknown. Whatever our nationality. Whatever our religion. Jesus is the one before whom we will stand.

And he will divide humanity into two groups. Only two. There is just one fundamental divide. Middle-Eastern shepherds used to have mixed flocks of sheep and goats which they would separate out at night, and Jesus uses that analogy to describe the division that he's going to make. So it won't be a matter of being more or less talented, more or less successful, more or less religious, more or less good. We'll either be on one side or the other.

The sheep, in Jesus' imagery, are those he calls the righteous - those who are in the right with God. The goats are the rest - the rebels. So what's going to matter in the end is simply whose side we're on come judgement day. That's the issue.

And what's the test of whether we've turned back to God and ceased our rebellion? The test is how we treat Jesus. You can't be on God's side while rejecting God's Son.

So we mustn't be in any doubt: Jesus is coming to divide those in the right with God from those in rebellion. That's point one.

Secondly, THE REBELS GO TO ETERNAL PUNISHMENT

We'll come back to what Jesus says here about the destiny of those who are in the right with God - but first, let me read again what Jesus has to say about the rebels. This is verses 41-46:

Then he [that's Jesus - the judge] will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Who are those separated onto the left hand side of Jesus? Who are those who go away to eternal punishment? The determining factor is this: they are those who have not served Jesus. Jesus says, 'I was hungry, thirsty and so on - needing to be served. And you did not.'

Now that rejection of Jesus might be overt and direct. People might say quite openly, 'I want nothing to do with Jesus. I'm not having him tell me what to do.' And in that case, they're making very clear where they stand with him.

On the other hand, people can keep their thoughts to themselves and their rejection of Jesus can be indirect. But it's shown unmistakeably by their rejection of God's family, which is the church - which the Bible elsewhere describes as 'the body of Christ'. Jesus is inseparable from his people. He loves them. He bought them with his own blood. He is the head of the church. What is done to his family is done to him. That's what Jesus means when he says - it's there in verse 45:

I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.

Who are 'these' people, of whom Jesus speaks? Jesus has explained, back in verse 40, where he says:

… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Who are the brothers of Jesus? Could he not mean anyone in need without distinction? So then our eternal destiny would depend on whether we help people in general - whether we're kind and compassionate people?

Certainly we have a general duty of care - Jesus makes that clear, for instance, in the parable of the Good Samaritan. But that's not what he's talking about here. Who are his brothers? They're his family. Who are his family? They're his disciples - those who believe in him and live for him.

There was an incident earlier in Jesus' ministry where he makes this abundantly clear. You might like to turn back a few chapters for a moment to Matthew 12.46-50. Keep your finger in this passage as well - but turn back to p 978. Matthew 12.46-50. Listen to this:

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.'He replied to him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' Pointing to his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'

It is the disciples of Jesus who are the family of Jesus. And they are the ones who hear and obey the word of God - and indeed, who are charged with the task of spreading the gospel in the face of hunger, thirst, illness and imprisonment.

I tell you the truth [says Jesus the judge], whatever you did not do for one of the least of these [that is, my brothers, my disciples], you did not do for me.

Then they will go away to eternal punishment…

Our attitude to Jesus is revealed by our attitude to believers (and to the message they carry). If we welcome them and serve them, that shows we're on the side of Jesus. We have abandoned the side of the rebels.

Rebels reject Jesus. They do that directly, or indirectly by rejecting his people. They do that by open hostility, or by passive neglect.

Either way, such people, says Jesus, are cursed. Verse 41:

Depart from me, you who are cursed…

What does it mean to be cursed? In biblical terms, the curse is what falls on those in rebellion against God. God cannot allow such rebellion to go unnoticed or uncorrected. God is angered by such sin because it's a direct assault on his glory and holiness, and it destroys what he has made good. That anger, that wrath of God is just and holy and right. It's not like our anger which is always tinged with an unholy self-interest, if it's not driven altogether by selfishness. And the anger of God issues in judgement, expressed in the form of a curse.

That curse is what fell on Adam and Eve right at the start, and it's overshadowed mankind ever since. We're all born rebels - rebels at heart and rebels in practice - and we're all under God's curse unless and until Jesus rescues us from it. The curse is firstly the promise of judgement, and secondly the carrying out of that judgement. Phase one of that judgement is experienced in this life, in the form of all that's wrong with the world. Phase two is our physical death, which would not have happened if Adam and Eve had not rebelled. Then phase three, the final phase of the outworking of the curse, is the eternal punishment to which those who die in rebellion are sent.

The sufferings in this life that are caused by our sin, and the fact of physical death, are intended by God to act as warnings to us of the danger of eternal death if we don't turn back to him. But if we ignore the warning signs, then by the time the day of judgement comes, it'll be too late.

Do you see how, in verse 44, even the rebels call Jesus 'Lord'. On that day everyone will bow the knee before him, rebel or not. The Lordship of Jesus will be unmistakeable, unavoidable, and undeniable. But for rebels, the recognition that Jesus is Lord will come too late. Indeed, by then their rejection of Jesus will have set like stone. They won't be able to deny his rule, but they will still hate it.

So what will become of those who remain under the curse? They are sent away from the presence of Jesus and his Father, and into the place where the devil and all the other angels in rebellion - the demons - are cast. Verse 41:

Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

There is no neutral ground, either in this life or beyond. We cannot be alone. Either we're with Jesus, or we're with the devil. Verse 46:

Then they will go away to eternal punishment…

Eternal means both 'belonging to the age to come' and also 'everlasting', just as it does in relation to 'eternal life'. This is what the rebels have chosen. They have wanted life without God. Now they get it, with all its consequences. That is hell. And, as someone has said: "… there is no shred of evidence in the New Testament that hell ever brings about genuine repentance. Sin continues as part of the punishment and the ground for it."

These are solemn warnings indeed that come from the lips of Jesus, who loves us so much that he gave his life so we could escape the curse.

First, then, Jesus is coming to divide those in the right with God from the rebels. Secondly, the rebels go to eternal punishment. Then finally:

Thirdly, THOSE IN THE RIGHT WITH GOD ARE GIVEN ETERNAL LIFE

These are the ones Jesus calls the 'righteous'. But their righteousness is a gift. Listen to what Jesus says about them. Back up then to verses 34-40:

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

The righteous are in the right with God by grace. It is his initiative - they are 'blessed by my Father' says Jesus, in other words the curse is lifted and reversed, and its God who does that. It is his plan - from before the creation of the world. It is his promise.

The righteous inherit the kingdom of God. It's precisely the nature of inheritance that you don't earn it. It's a gift that comes to you by virtue of who you are - in this case a son and heir of God himself, a member of his family.

The righteous serve Jesus, and they serve his family - his other disciples - because they love Jesus and they love the brothers and sisters of Jesus.

The righteous are welcomed into the presence of Jesus and his heavenly Father: 'Come…' says Jesus. So the righteous enter into eternal life.

It is all a gift of God's grace. It is not anything that we deserve. What all of us deserve is eternal punishment. But we've been given a way out. It's been paid for by Jesus through his death. It's here for the asking. And we'll be hearing more about that from David next Sunday evening as he explains just why Jesus did go to his death on that cross.

So there it is. Jesus, who loves us so much, doesn't mince his words in warning us of what lies ahead. He is coming to divide those in the right with God from the rebels. The rebels will be sent to eternal punishment. Those in the right with God will be given eternal life.

In conclusion, then, how should we react to that solemn message? Here are four ways.

First, get real. This life is not a game, or a joke. It's for real. It's deadly serious. There's plenty of room for fun. There's lots of scope for joy. But the issues we face are issues of life and death. Our eternal destinies are being decided. Get real.

Secondly, get right. We cannot afford delay. The time to get right with God is now. We have to make that decisive shift from being on the side of the rebels - which is ultimately the side of the devil - to being on the side of Jesus, and in God's family. Get right with God.

Thirdly, get ready. Not a single day should go by when we're not very aware of the fact that one day Jesus will come back to judge the world. This life is not where it all ends. It's just the beginning. One way or another, it's our preparation for eternity. So get ready.

Fourthly, get to work. The top priority of all our lives should be to serve Jesus. We do that best by caring for and supporting and joining our brother and sister believers who are carrying the message of Jesus out among the rebel population that won't care for them. And as we serve, we also need to be hard at work praying that God will be patient with us as long as possible, rescuing countless thousands. And all our work should have a great urgency about it - because we know that one day, God's patience is going to run out, and he's going to give rebels what they've asked for.

Get real. Get right. Get ready. And get to work.