These notes are from a sermon in a series called “Worthy” (preached at the Community Church Honiton)
The whole point of this series is to consider the person and work of Jesus.
Jesus is so worthy of our passion:
- Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3)
- Jesus is our only hope in a messy, broken world
- Jesus is kind, gracious and merciful
- Jesus is breathtaking
We want to hold up the whole of Christ in our preaching of Jesus.
It’s easy to create Jesus in our own image, to reflect on the aspects of His character and nature that we most resonate with, and to discard the rest.
But Jesus is glorious even in the ways that don’t immediately sit well with us.
Our task is to be prepared to move outside of our comfort zone to observe a new aspect of Jesus and embrace it as much as we embrace the digestible bits.
That’s true of this sermon: Jesus – the judge of all
Scripture intro
It might not feel familiar to us as a topic.
However, the New Testament is full of references to Jesus as judge.
This sermon is rooted in John 5:16-30, but we’ll also need to look at:
- Revelation
- 2 Corinthians
- Romans
- Hebrews
- Matthew
- Ephesians
To bring clarity to this subject.
Let’s start in John as we dive into why Jesus is worthy as judge of all.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
17 In his defence, Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
18 For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
John 5:22 states that all judgment has been entrusted to the son – Jesus.
John 5:24 states that those who hear Jesus’ words and believe in the Father will have eternal life and will not be judged.
Then you get verses like those in 2 Corinthians 5:10.
It’s easy to get confused regarding the topic of judgment.
- Will we be judged?
- Who does the judging: the Father or the Son?
- What are we being judged by?
- If it’s our deeds (like some scriptures suggest) what about grace and faith alone?
- How does it all fit together?
The answer to these questions is exciting because it puts Jesus in the spotlight.
As we look at Jesus, judge of all – we’ll recognise that He is worthy, as the elders in the book of Revelation do when they cast their crowns before his feet and declare:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, ~ Revelation 4:11
Why do we need judgment in the first place?
You might start by wondering: do we even need judgment in the first place?
In our culture, the word, judgement has quite negative connotations. When someone quickly forms a negative opinion about someone else, we might describe that person as ‘judgmental’.
Campaigners for LGBTQ rights have slammed the church for “judging” LGBTQ people based on who they love.
It’s enough to make you consider, is judgment even a good thing?
To judge is to come to a considered conclusion about something. It’s to make a decision.
Taking that definition – there’s nothing right or wrong about judgement itself. There’s nothing wrong with drawing a considered conclusion.
It could go wrong at a human level if our conclusions are wonky.
But Jesus isn’t wonky.
Jesus is God!
In fact, in the passage we looked at in John’s gospel, that’s what’s happening. Jesus has claimed equality with God. It really winds up the religious leaders.
Because Jesus is God, definitionally, He’s perfect in all of His ways.
So, the judgments that Jesus makes are perfect.
But we can peel back another layer on this term: Judgment
The language and context of a courtroom. Every courtroom needs a judge. It is their job to preside over the case, to weigh it all up pronounce a verdict and prescribe a sentence on someone.
And God, too, acts as Judge in this way.
“Yeah ok buuuut, why do we even need judgement bro?” (I’m sure this is exactly how you’d phrase this question).
In practical terms, it helps us navigate life.
In ontological terms, the universe would be chaos without a just judge.
Here’s a simple way to demonstrate this:
When news breaks of a horrible crime, we experience an immediate internal need for justice.
What we’ve experienced there proves that we need a judge to make judgements.
You can’t have justice without a judge to apply it.
But how do God’s judgements apply to humans? What does all of this mean for us?
The stages of God’s judgements
To help make sense of all of this, I’m suggesting three stages of God’s judgement.
Let me outline each of them first, then go a little deeper into each one to bring clarity.
Stage one: God the Father Judges whether we meet his standards or not
Stage two: God the Father gives His authority to God the Son to judge if we’re heaven-bound or hell bound
Stage three: God the Son judges the heaven-bound and issues rewards based on what they did in life
God the Father judges whether we meet his standards or not
When God created the world, we read in the first book of the bible that he judged it to be good.
That includes human beings. God judged us to be good. In fact, He made us in His image, to look like Him, to reflect His goodness.
Sadly, this didn’t last.
Adam and Eve, the first humans, rebelled against God. They sinned and fell short of God’s glory.
This has been the human story ever since, to this very day.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
~ Romans 3:23 (NIV)
And God Judges Sin to be something He wants nothing to do with. His Judgement over us is this: “Stay away from me”.
But, as any Christian will tell you, that’s the point of Jesus’ earthly ministry. God took on flesh in Jesus. He lived a perfect life and then died on the cross on our behalf. He took the judgement – stay away from me on himself. So if our faith is in Jesus, if we’re following him wholeheartedly, that verdict no longer belongs to us. We can be welcomed into God’s presence as if we were Jesus.
God the Father gives His authority to God the Son to judge if we’re heaven-bound or hell bound
In John’s gospel (John 5:27), Jesus declared that the Father had given Him the authority to judge.
And we read how this plays out in two places: Revelation 20 & Matthew 25 →
This judgement is described as the great white throne of Judgement in the Book of Revelation.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
~ Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus describes this judgement like this:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 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.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
In both passages, we see this judgement as separating two categories of people.
Matthew → Sheep and Goats
Revelation → Those whose names’ are IN the Book of Life and those whose names are NOT
In both passages, we see this judgement resulting in two different outcomes.
Matthew → The Sheep take up their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, while the goats depart to the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.
Revelation → Those whose names are not in the Book of Life are thrown into the lake of fire. Those whose names are written in the Book of Life form part of the New Jerusalem mentioned in chapter 21.
This judgement is all about separating the saved from the lost.
God the Son judges the heaven-bound and issues rewards based on what they did in life
The third stage of judgment is at the judgment seat of Christ.
We read about this in Romans 14:10-12
For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
And also, in 2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
This might initially feel a bit odd to us because this last passage makes it clear that:
- All Christians will stand before this judgment seat.
- Jesus will judge us
- This happens after we die
- We get judged according to the things we’ve done (works).
It’s not just an isolated verse, either. The bible is littered with references to a judgement according to works/deeds:
Take Matthew 16:27:
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Or Revelation 22:12
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done”
But as Christians, we also read elsewhere in our bible that we’re not Condemned.
For example, Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Or that we’re saved by grace through faith and not by our deeds or works, as in Ephesians 2:8
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
That feels like a contradiction.
Are we judged by our works or saved by grace?
John Piper solves this puzzle for us in His book Future Grace.
On page 364, he discusses the courtroom scenario.
When we stand before Christ’s judgement seat and give an account, the good things we do in this life are not considered when deciding whether we’re in or not.
No.
We’re already in.
Instead, our good deeds are weighed as evidence that we possess the faith that gets us in.
A quote from Future Grace:
Now because of justification, we know that in the judgment that separates the sheep from the goats is a judgment that will declare us to be perfect. Perfect in Christ, but perfect. We have nothing to fear as we come to stand before God. And because we have nothing to fear with regard to that, we can long for the day when God evaluates all our words, actions, thoughts, disputes, and snarls. Let us say you had a falling out with a friend. What this doctrine does is help you to yearn for the day when God will tell you whether you were right or wrong. And if you can’t yearn for that day, this means that you already know that you were in the wrong.
This leads me to my concluding question:
Why is Jesus worthy to be celebrated as judge?
Jesus is worthy because we all deserve to be lumped in with the goats, judged accordingly, and receive what they receive.
Hell.
Separation from God forever. A place described biblically as a lake of fire. A place of eternal and conscious torment where the first thing we’ll hear is the heavenly host rejoicing that we’re not with them, that we’ve been removed.
In our sinfulness, that’s what we deserve.
But Jesus has chosen us before the foundations of the world to possess faith, to be judged as sheep, and to pass into an eternal kingdom full of reward.
The evidence we’ve been chosen? A life of gratitude that overflows into passion for Jesus, Passion for his church. Passion for preaching the gospel. Passionate for giving. Passionate for praying.
Application (aka – here’s what to do about all of this…)
There are two responses to this message.
If you’re a Christian—if you follow Jesus—then your response is to worship Him for His perfect judgment, perfect mercy, and perfect grace.
It’s important to pray before God and ask Him to highlight areas in your life where the evidence of your saving faith is lacking.
🙏 Jesus, where do I lack in passion? Would you highlight for me in this moment where my witness to your grace and mercy falls short. I know i’m not saved by the things I do, but in my thanks to you for what you have done, I want my life to point to you in every way. Lord, show me where that’s not happening right now. Then Jesus, help me to lay those things aside. Holy Spirit, empower me to be a good and faithful servant, give me the strength I need to slay sin and the passion to be Christ’s ambassador in my day-to-day life. Amen.
If you’re not a Christian – This message presents you with a choice. As it stands, the God of heaven has judged you to fall short of His glory. There’s nothing you can do to please Him or make it right. But, he has offered you a way. Jesus. Jesus can save you from this judgement and bring you into a permanent relationship with God.
Your choice: continue to reject Jesus and, on that final day, have Jesus give you what you want → separation from God. Or, welcome Jesus into your life, embrace and trust Him and Him alone with your salvation. Then, one day, when you close your eyes for the last time in this life, you’ll open them again and see Jesus beaming at you as he proclaims over you, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful with a little, I’ll set you over much”….
You might want to take a moment to pray:
🙏 God, I recognise now my sinfulness. I’ve lived a life rebelling against you. Denying your existence and not seeking to follow you. I have rejected your precious son, Jesus. Forgive me. I recognise now that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. I trust in Him alone for my eternal salvation. I know I can’t do anything to make it up to you, so I plead the name of Jesus. I put all my hope in Jesus alone. Amen.