This Sunday is the last Sunday in the church year. Next Sunday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving and the Sunday after that is the first Sunday in Advent. The scripture readings for the last Sunday in the Church year direct our eyes forward to The End of creation as we know it. In our gospel lesson Jesus tells us to “Be on guard!” “Be alert!” because the “Son of Man is coming in clouds with great power and glory.”[1] In our second lesson we are told to prepare ourselves and others for the coming of the last day. And, in our first lesson, upon which we will focus our attention this morning, we are told about a day that is speedily drawing near.
After I got done doing my text study and before I started writing, I was talking with my wife about this sermon. I told her I was going to be preaching a sermon on The End and that I was struggling a little bit because I didn’t want to just preach an academic sermon about what the The End will be like. I told her I wanted to make eschatology (that is the doctrine concerning the end times) real and relevant to your lives in the here and now. For a few moments, my dear wife listened to me express my frustration, but finally, and with all the sensitivity of a jackhammer breaking up a concert slab, she said, “what’s so hard about preaching on The End?” “Just tell people to get their stuff together or they will go to hell because the end is coming.” My wife is one of those old school German theologians who get to the point without the burden of tact or diplomacy, but I must admit her theology is sound. This is if by “get your stuff together” she means “confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead”[2].
“Turn or burn” is the tone many adopt when talking about the end. The End is often referred to with ominous words such as “Armageddon” or “Apocalypse” that elicit images of death and destruction. It is not without reason that they do so. The words “Armageddon” and “Apocalypse” are found in the book of Revelation and there are some intense images of death and destruction prophesied in that book. Further, in 2 Peter 3:10 the end is described with these words, “10 …The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Further still in Matthew 24:29 Jesus describes the end saying, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” Jesus is quoting what the Holy Spirit wrote through the prophet Isaiah. The full quote says, “9 See, the day of the Lord is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.”[3] You read through passages such as these and you understand why many have adopted the “turn or burn” tone when discussing The End.
While I will not dispute the technical merits of my wife’s “turn or burn” theology, I am not sure it has the positive tone I was hoping this sermon might convey. In fairness to her I did not actually read her the words of Isaiah which I am preaching on. I think if I had, she would have softened her tone. So as not to repeat my oversight as we discuss the end this morning, allow me to read to you what the prophet Isaiah writes in 51:4-6. The prophet writes, “4 “Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. 5 My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” Isaiah’s description of The End in these verses has a much more optimistic tone than we typically hear. He writes of the coming of righteousness, salvation, and justice that fill God’s people, such as yourselves, with hope. And then, in verse 6, Isaiah gives us two real reasons to be hopeful as we wait for The End to come, and, as I see it, each one of those reasons has two things that are relevant to the way we live our lives here and now.
The first real reason we can have positive tone about The End is, this side of The End is temporary. Isaiah invites us to look at this side of The End and recognize that it will “vanish” it will “wear out” it will “die”/pass away. This is comforting because this side of The End is full of pleasure and pain. There is no denying this side of The End is full of pleasure, some of it sinful, but not all of it. Even for the believer there is pleasure in this world. The majesty of creation, the joy of relationships, and the beauty of music and the arts to name but a few. But a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, even godly pleasure, is not fulfilling. Which is why even if we were able to experience all the pleasure this world had to offer, we would still want more. Additionally, there is no denying this side of The End is full of pain, some of it as a result of our own sinful behavior, but not all of it. Even for the believer there is pain in this world. The death of a loved one, the betrayal of a friend, and the ailments of age to name but a few. The pains of this side of The End are plentiful and persistent, and they can have a discouraging and draining effect on even the most robust believer. We can have a positive tone about The End because when The End comes the unfulfilling pleasures and persistent pain of this side of The End will vanish, wear out, and pass away.
Knowing that both pleasure and pain are temporary is relevant to the way we live our lives in the here and now. First, temporary pleasure motivates us to live sanctified lives in the here and now. Sanctification or Holy Living fulfills us in a way that the pleasure of this world can’t. Primarily because holy living is what we were designed to do. In the beginning God created Adam and Eve with the ability to live perfectly holy lives. But, as you are well aware, they were deceived by the devil and gave up that ability. Which meant neither they nor we, their descendants, were able to do what we were designed to do. But because of God’s rich mercy and great love we regain, in a limited capacity, what we had lost. In Ephesians 2:10 we are told, “10 … we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Living a holy life here and now is fulfilling because we are practicing how we will live in perfection when The End comes.
Second, temporary pain encourages us to live patient lives in the here and now. One of the things I have often told my boys as they were posing for a family photo for their mom, or working their summer jobs, or going away to a school in a place that is much closer to the artic circle than anyone should have to live is, “You can endure anything, for a time.” Pain is always painful, but knowing the pain will end makes pain bearable and it makes us, the bearers of that pain more tolerable. Even amid pain, a believer is as Saint Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed”. We can live patient lives in the here and now because we know when The End comes our pain ends.
The second real reason we can have a positive tone about The End is the other side of The End is eternal. Isaiah invites us to look at the other side of The End and see that it “will last forever” and it will “never fail”. This is comforting because the other side of The End is full of “salvation” and “righteousness”. The other side of The End is full of salvation. Which is really really good news for sinners such as us. On the other side of The End the sinners’ debt has been paid in full, the sting of death has been removed, and the stain of sin has been washed away. Because of Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death all the sins of all people who have ever lived on this side of The End have been forgiven, including your sins and mine. Additionally, the other side of The End is full of righteousness. It is grace upon grace that sinners such as us should have salvation on the other side of The End. But your God is not content to simply rescue you, He has decided that He will also renew you. On the other side of The End all things are made new. Your mind is made new, your body is made new, your heart made new. In other words, on the other side of The End all that is wrong with you will be made right. We can have a positive tone about The End because when The End comes the salvation and righteousness that fill the other side of The End “will last forever” and “never fail”.
Knowing that our salvation and righteousness are eternal is relevant to the way we live our lives in the here and now. First knowing that salvation is eternal makes us zealous for the lost in the here and now. The other side of The End is forever; it is without end and for those who do not believe in Jesus as their savior that is a forever spent in outer darkness and it is a suffering that is without end. God doesn’t want that for anyone. Through the prophet Ezekiel our sovereign LORD declares, “As surely as I live… I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.”[4] God doesn’t want anyone to spend forever without end in hell. Which is why we are so zealous about reaching out to the lost. It is why we have uncomfortable and awkward conversations with people about sin and why we are bold to proclaim salvation through Jesus alone because we want what God wants, we want all people, not just you people and me people but all people to be saved.
Second, knowing that righteousness is eternal fills us with confidence in the here and now. The here and now, for people like you and me, does very little to boost our confidence. This side of The End we fall into the “the good I want to do I do not do, and the evil I don’t want to do this I keep on doing” camp. One would think that after a few years in the faith you would grow and mature beyond certain sins and temptations. But I have found that I am just as incompetent today as I was when I was a much younger Christian, in fact in some areas I am forced to confess I am probably a more incompetent Christian now than I once was. Anyone else feel the frustration of constant failure? That we are simul justus et peccator (at the same time sinner and saint) does very little to boost our confidence as Christians. However, from the other side of The End Jesus declares failures like you and like me to be righteous. Jesus is able to declare us righteous not because we have done such a good job being Christians but rather because He has done and is doing such a good job at being the Christ. The good Jesus wanted to do, He did. The evil Jesus did not want to do, that He did not do. Jesus achieved righteousness on this side of The End and now lives on the other side of The End in eternal righteousness. Jesus did that for you. Jesus achieved righteousness for you. Jesus knew you could not earn righteousness on your own, so He earned it for you. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:22 “righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” You can be confident of your righteousness here and now and forever in eternity because your righteousness come, not from you being a Christian, but rather your righteousness comes from Christ.
I understand why most conversations about The End have a “turn or burn” kind of tone. But I hope today through the prophet Isaiah you have heard a much more positive tone. This side of The End with its unfulfilling pleasure and persistent pain is temporary which allows us to live sanctified and patient lives in the here and now. The other side of The End which is full of salvation and righteousness is eternal which allows us to live zealous and confident lives in the here and now. For you who believe a conversation about the end properly has a positive tone. After all, The End, for you, is full of hope. Amen
[1] Matthew 13:26-37
[2] Romans 10:9
[3] Isaiah 13:9-11
[4] Ezekiel 33:11