What Happens When We Pass? - 4 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

 

What Happens When We Pass? - 4

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

… based on Romans 14:8-12

Every single day some 164,000 people die on Earth.  In another 90 years, should Jesus tarry, nearly everyone who’s alive today will be gone.

Death can happen at any time, anywhere, to anybody.

So, what happens to us after we die?  That’s the question we’ve been dealing with over the past few weeks.  And there’s 1 Scripture passage that we keep returning to … “Everyone must die once, 

& after that be judged by God.” (Hebrews 9:27) So, what happens when we die? … We find ourselves at the Judgment Seat of God.

Last week we began talking about this.  Everyone who has ever lived will be gathered in front of the Lord, & He will separate the sheep from the goats, (Matthew 25:32), the good fish from the worthless ones, (Matthew 13:48), the wheat from the weeds. (Matthew 13:30) It’ll be a time when each person will be confronted with what they have done for Jesus. (Matthew 25:33-40)

Right now, we meet Jesus as Savior, (2 Corinthians 6:2), but if we don’t know Him in that role, at our passing we will face Him as Judge (Matthew 25:31) … 

& that should be a very scary thought for a lot of people. (Matthew 25:41-46)

For those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ … 

God’s judgment is something to be feared, (Matthew 15:28) 

& it’s connected to some of the most frightening words found in Scripture.

God said, “I never knew you.  Get away from me, you wicked people!” 

(Matthew 7:22-23) “You might even call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ & sit in a Church, & sing hymns, or even preach & perform miracles, for Heaven’s sake, but I never really knew you, personally.  The Holy Spirit didn’t come & live in your heart.

So, get away from me, forever.”

Those whose names were not found in the Book 

“were thrown into the lake of fire.” (The Revelation 20:15)

But what about those whose names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? (The Revelation 21:27) What about you & me?  Hopefully each of us has been “born spiritually.” (John 3:6) … we’ve come to faith through the work of The Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3) And for that reason, & that reason alone … 

we’ll be in Heaven. (John 3:18) We’ve been forgiven. (Colossians 2:13-14) 

The door of Heaven has been opened to us because Jesus opened it with His nail-pierced hands.  No other reason.

All the good things that we may do in this life won’t get us into Heaven.  

“For it is by God’s grace that we have been saved through faith.  

It is not the result of our own efforts but God’s gift.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Jesus has swung the door open, & invites those who know Him, & that He knows, because He lives with them, to join Him in His Heavenly Home. 

(The Revelation 3:20)

So, listen now to Good News from Paul, to the Church in Rome, & also to Bear Creek Church.  Within our hearing now comes the Word of the Lord …

If we live, it is for the Lord that we live, and if we die, it is for the Lord that we die.  So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  For Christ died and rose to life in order to be the Lord of the living and of the dead. … All of us will stand before God to be judged by him.  For the scripture says.

“As surely as I am the living God, the Lord, everyone will kneel before me.

and everyone will confess that I am God.”

Every one of us, then, will have to give an account to God. (Romans 14:8-12)

Jesus said … “How happy are those who hear the word of God & obey it!” 

(Luke 11:28)

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion, to His glory and to our edification. Amen

The Final Judgment … I have this reoccurring nightmare that I’m going to be standing in the Final Judgment line behind Mother Teresa,   

& I’ll hear God tell her … “You know, you should have done more!”

Last week I told you that I was going to answer the question this morning … “will followers of Jesus be judged?”

Okay, here it is.  We will not be judged for our sins … because that’s what God did when Jesus hung on the cross for me & you.  “Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross.” (1 Peter 2:24) It was just as if every sin you & I ever committed … He committed.  Jesus absorbed every sin that had been/has been perpetrated by the entire human race. (John 1:29) And for the very 1st time in all of eternity, in fact, it’s the only time in all of eternity 

… there was a rupture in the Trinity itself. (Mark 15:34) For God the Father …

& exactly what it means, I don’t understand, (nobody does) … 

turned His face from His Son, because God cannot look at evil. (Habakkuk 1:13) And on the cross Jesus was being judged for all our sins; all my sins, 

all your sins. (Romans 5:6) And in Christ, God poured out His wrath, 

His judgment against sin. (The Psalms 7:11) 

He carried our sins in His body on the cross.  He suffered; & He was judged for our sins … yours & mine.  So, when we thank Him for dying for us, 

for taking our punishment … then God declares us, “forgiven.” (1 John 1:9)

So, we’re not going to be judged for our sins … but we are going to be evaluated for the life that we have lived from the moment we came to faith in Jesus.  I want to read some Scriptures & let them speak for themselves.

“You then, who eat only vegetables – why do you pass judgment on others?  And you who eat anything – why do you despise other believers?  All of us will stand before God to be judged by him.” 

Paul is writing here about weaker believers & stronger believers.  

These are all people who have come to faith, Church people, 

in the true sense of that term.

“Why do you pass judgment on other believers? … 

All of us will stand before God to be judged by him.  For the scripture says,

‘As surely as I am the living God, says the Lord, everyone will kneel before me, (not only will unbelievers be doing this … 

we will too) & everyone will confess that I am God.’  

Everyone of us, then, will have to give an account to God.”

Let me say something about sin before I go on.  When we come to faith … our sins are forgiven.  God says that He refuses to remember them. (Job 14:16) 

When I ask in Heaven, “God, what about that sin I committed on 27 September 2026?”  He’s going to say, “What sin?” … My sin had already been judged & punished through Jesus when He died on the cross for me. (John 6:23)

So, even though we won’t be judged for our sins, God is still very concerned with what we’ve done with our life.  All of us will stand before God to give Him a report of how effectively we’ve served Him. (Matthew 25:21) 

“Every one of us, will have to give an account to God.”

“Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder & laid the foundation, & someone else is building on it.  But each of you must be careful how you build.  For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one & only foundation, & no other foundation can be laid.  Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw.  And the quality of each person’s work, (the things we’ve done with our life), will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it.  For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it & show its real quality.  If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward.  But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.”

 (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)  

In other words, we get to Heaven by the skin of our teeth.

Do you understand what Paul’s saying here? … The quality of our work is going to be tested; & if it’s gold, silver, or precious stones quality, it’ll hold up.  But if it’s wood, grass, or straw quality, the fire will burn it up.  The fire will test the work … not the workman.  The fire will burn up the work if it’s not of the Lord.  So, our life will go through this refining fire.

Think of all the words we’ve uttered. … Jesus said,

“You can be sure that on the Judgment Day you will have to give an account of every useless word you have ever spoken.” (Matthew 12:36)

In fact, listen to one of the Proverbs.

“What you say can preserve life or destroy it;

so you must accept the consequences of your words.” (The Proverbs 18:21)

Isn’t it strange that much of the judgment & evaluation we will face after we pass deals with our words?  We’re concerned about actions, 

but Jesus is talking about our words: criticizing, backbiting, gossiping, 

& malicious talk.  And not only sins of commission here … what we’ve said … but also sins of omission … what we should have said but didn’t.

When Paul wrote that “all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged 

by him” (2 Corinthians 5:10) he was thinking about a specific place in Corinth.

Now Corinth was an immoral city.  About everything we can imagine went on there.  But then Paul came to Corinth, & people began coming to faith … lots & lots & lots of people. (The Acts 18:8) And the merchants began to panic, because the bulk of their business dealt with prostitution at Aphrodite’s temple.  And here was Paul preaching the Gospel, & people were coming to faith, & beginning to live moral lives … the sinful merchants were losing money. (Matthew 6:21) So, the businessmen go to Roman governor, Gallio. (The Acts 18:12) “This guy’s preaching heresies that have nothing to do with the god we worship.  He’s going to shut the whole city down.  What are you going to do about it?”  Gallio said, “Bring him to me at the judgment seat.” 

So, they went to the center of Corinth, where the bema (βηματος), 

the judgment seat was located.  Paul was brought in, shaved & beaten … 

& right there, Gallio pronounced judgment on him. (The Acts 18:15-16)

So, when Paul later wrote to the believers in Corinth, telling them … 

“we must all appear before Christ at the ‘bema’” … they understood immediately what he meant.  They knew what a judgment seat was.

You & I will have to stand at the “bema” of Christ & answer for the life we have lived.  We have been saved to serve.  

We’ve been blessed to be a blessing.  And that’s the “gold, silver, 

& precious stones” that will remain when our life has been tested.

What’s the old story? …

A man passes & finds himself standing in front of Peter, who starts showing him around Heaven.  They’re walking down the streets of gold, 

(that’s what INDOT uses on the roads up there, & there’ll be no potholes,

by the way)!  They’re walking around looking at the different houses.

And the guy is getting excited, “which one is mine, which one is mine?”  And they come to this big house, “I wonder if this is it?  I had a big house like this down on earth.  Peter, is this mine?”  “No, actually it’s your gardeners’.”  

“My gardener?”  And they went a bit further & came to a little tiny hut, 

& Peter said, “Here, this one is yours.  Nice & clean & white.”  

“This one’s mine?  This little hut?”  And Peter looked a bit apologetic, 

“Well, we did the best we could with the materials you sent up.”

And there’s more truth in that story than we might realize.  

So, what materials are we sending up? (Matthew 6:20)

Okay, an “evaluation” will take place, & then God’s appreciation will follow, which are the rewards spoken of in the Scriptures. (The Revelation 22:12)

1st of all … Heaven itself is a reward! (Matthew 5:12)

That should be obvious.  Heaven is going to be Heaven … an amazing place, 

a wonderful place, an indescribable place.  It’s a place that we can’t wait to get to. (Philippians 1:23) It’s where Jesus is, it’s where our loved ones are.

It’s the destination that we’re anticipating.

I remember clearly the day my Mom passed, 31 October 1995.  

I came home from the hospital, made some calls & set up a few appointments, & I had about an hour before going to see her Pastor, 

& then on to the funeral home.

Now where my Mom had been living, there was a balcony porch off her bedroom.  So, I went out there & sat down & was enjoying the beautiful rolling hills & trees of western PA in late October.  And all kinds of stuff started coming into my mind.  Things that I had done that I’m sure disappointed my Mom; regrettable things that I had said.  (Where was this garbage coming from?)  And I started really feeling sorry that she was gone, 

& I wanted her back so I could apologize for all this hurtful stuff.

So, I started praying, & I picked up her Bible,

& turned to John 14, my favorite chapter in Scripture.  

It’s the hub; everything else springs from these incredible words that Jesus said in the Upper Room.  He talks about the place He’s preparing for us.

“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you.  I do not give it as the world does.  Do not be worried & upset; do not be afraid. … 

If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father ….”

(John 14:27-28)

“If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father.”

Here I was wrestling with guilt when I should have been rejoicing for my Mom.  And so, The Holy Spirit reminded me that I needed to think about Jesus & my Mom in Heaven … instead of myself here on earth.  

Heaven is a reward.  And if that cannot comfort us when we think 

of our loved ones there … we’re in a poor state, indeed.

Another reward will be rest.

And to be honest, that sounds pretty good.  Please understand, I never get tired of the work of God, but sometimes I get tired in the work of God.

“The Lord will bless everyone who has faith in him when they die. … They will rest from their hard work & they will be rewarded for what they have done.” 

(The Revelation 14:13)

Now rest in Heaven doesn’t mean that we’ll be sitting on a cloud somewhere playing a harp.  There will be work to do, 

but we will never feel the physical fatigue that we experience now.  

We won’t have to go to sleep every night (The Psalms 121:3-4) … 

because we won’t have these old bodies that get tired out!

One of my heroes in the faith was Stuart Briscoe.

He pastored a Church up near Milwaukee.  Stuart wrote dozens of books, 

& up until a few years ago when he passed at 91, was traveling the world with his wife, Jill, ministering to people.  Stuart said, “I was born tired.  

I’ve lived tired.  And if nothing changes, it looks as if I’ll die tired.  

However, if I’m still tired when I get to Heaven, I’m coming straight back.”

Heaven will offer us rest.  So, we have Heaven itself, 

& a rested resurrected body!  Those are rewards.

Paul writes about our resurrected body in his 1st letter to the Corinthians.

“Someone will ask, ‘How can the dead be raised to life?  What kind of body will they have?’  You fool!  When you plant a seed in the ground, 

it does not sprout to life unless it dies.  And what you plant is a bare seed, 

perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up.  God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.  And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, & fish another.  And there are heavenly bodies & earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies. The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, & the stars a different beauty; & even among the stars there are different kinds of beauty.” (1 Corinthians 15:35-41)

There will be diversity in Heaven.  There will not be a sameness.  

When Scripture indicates that we’ll all be like Jesus, (1 John 3:2), it doesn’t mean that there’s going to be millions of little Jesus’ running around Heaven.  No, there will be incredible diversity; as much diversity as flower is from flower, insect is from animal, sun is from moon.  That’s what Paul’s saying.  It’ll be so interesting.  And the bodies that God has prepared for us will be as diverse as our bodies are here on earth.  We will not all have the same bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:52) But it will be an amazing spiritual body.  

And it’ll be a recognizable body. (Matthew 17:3)

“There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body.  

For the scripture says, ‘The 1st man, Adam, was created a living being’; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.  It is not the spiritual that comes 1st, but the physical, & then the spiritual.  The 1st Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the 2nd Adam came from heaven.  Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven.  Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.  What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh & blood cannot share in God’s Kingdom, & what is mortal cannot possess immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:44-50)

We’re talking about a spiritual resurrected body that bears the likeness 

of the body we’ve had here, but with lots of added improvements. 

(The Revelation 21:4)

A body that can move through space at the speed of thought, (The Acts 8:40), 

a body that will even go through closed doors or walls. (John 20:19) 

It’ll be as different as the flower of the daffodil is from the bulb.  

That’s what our resurrected body will be.  They’re both the same thing … 

but the bulb is of the earth … & the daffodil is outside the earth.

Paul uses lots of picture images to describe this.

“For we know that when this tent we live in – our body here on earth – 

is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, 

a home he himself has made, which will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

Tents wear out.  They’re not permanent.  

Our resurrected bodies will be whole & healthy forever.

And on top of all this, there are crowns that God will give us.

The crown (στεφανον) is like an athletes’ victory wreath. (1 Corinthians 9:25)  

Paul explains that we don’t receive the victor’s crown unless we’ve competed according to the rules.  

“I have done my best in the race.  I have run the full distance, & I have kept the faith.  And now there is waiting for me the victory crown.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)  

We run … we finish … we’re faithful.  We don’t quit.  We don’t drop out.  

We finish the race.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see Jesus’ face … 

& then hear Him say, “Well done, you good & faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21)

Not, “well done, you good & successful servant!”

You see, God doesn’t ask us to be successful … He wants us to be faithful.

And our crown will be His joy.  Our crown will be to see joy in the face of Jesus, because of something we have been able to do for Him, 

because He has done all these things for us. (James 1:17)

“We will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow & grief.” (Isaiah 35:10)

There will be a crown for those of us “who wait with love for him to appear.”  It’s a crown for those of us who are looking forward to Jesus’ return.  

God’s going to give us a crown for that.

“Thank you for wanting my Son to come.  

Thank you for anxiously waiting for Him.”

There will be a crown for the evangelist.  We’ll have a star in our crown 

for every person who has come to faith because of our witness.

And then there’s the promise of the crown of life.  Jesus says, “Be faithful to me, even if it means death, & I will give you the crown of life.” 

(The Revelation 2:10)

But what are all these crowns for?

The crowns are not so we can sit around in Heaven & compare ourselves to others.  “My Dad has more crowns than your Dad.”  We’re given crowns so that we will have something in our hands to lay at God’s feet.

“They throw their crowns down in front of the throne & say,

‘Our Lord & God!  You are worthy to receive glory, honor, & power.

For you created all things, & by your will they were given existence & life.’” 

(The Revelation 4:10-11)

If I’ve ever done anything for Jesus, it’s only because He gave me the gift & talent to do it.  We don’t get prizes or rewards for gifts.  God’s grace gave me the ability to do the good that I have done. (1 Corinthians 12:7) 

And I do what I do for Jesus because I love Him.

And He has done what He has done for me because He loves me. (John 15:13) We do it out of love, not in order to receive rewards.  Nevertheless, 

God does promise that Heaven awaits those who believe in Him. (John 11:25-26)

An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years & years, 

& were now returning to NY to retire.  They had no pension; 

their health was shaky at best; they felt defeated, discouraged, & afraid.

As the trip began, they discovered that they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.  They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.  But throughout the voyage no one paid any attention to them.  

As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, “Something is wrong.  Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years & have no one care a thing about us?  Here this man comes back from a hunting trip & everybody makes a big fuss over him, but nobody gives 2 hoots about us.”

“Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said.

He replied, “I can’t help it; it just doesn’t seem right.”

When the ship docked in NY, a band was waiting to greet the President.  

The mayor & other dignitaries were there.  

The papers were full of the President’s arrival.  No one noticed the missionary couple as they slipped off the ship, & disappeared in the crowd.

They found a cheap apartment on the East Side, & began looking for something to do to make a living in the city.  That night the man’s spirit broke.  He said to his wife, “I can’t take this; God is not treating us fairly.”  

His wife replied, “Why don’t you go in the bedroom & tell that to the Lord?”  

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different.  His wife asked, “Dear, what happened?”  “The Lord settled it with me.  I told Him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one even met us as we returned home.  And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put His hand on my shoulder & simply said … “You’re not home yet.”

What’s going to happen when we pass? …

We’re going to find ourselves standing in front of the throne of King Jesus.  What is He going to say to you?

MARANA THA