Message Description

Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund continues the message series Reasonable Faith teaching out of the book of Acts to discuss the good news in the truth of God's final judgement and Christ's atonement for our sin.

Message Transcript

Good morning and welcome to Orchard Hill. Just before we jump into the teaching today, we're in week 3 of a 4-week series we've called Reasonable Faith, looking at some of the issues from Acts 17. And today we're going to talk about judgment, but just before we do, I want to share a few things with you. First, today is the first day for our congregation in Butler to meet in their new building. I think we have a picture of their worship right now. There's the building, and I think we have a shot from inside as they're meeting. And so that's kind of fun just to see that come together. So, we have loved just watching that come together and all the ways that it has. Also, I just want to say great job with the Love Pittsburgh Initiative. So many of you have brought food. We've been overwhelmed by that. That'll all go to the North Hills Community Outreach Center that takes care of resourcing people who need food. So that is something that you've done well. 

And I've heard good stories from some groups, engaging with some of the suggestions that we've had, some individuals doing that, and we've just loved watching that happen as well. I do also want to just say a word to those of you online. I want to start to encourage you to consider what it is that it would take for you to reengage personally. And what I mean by that is, what is it that you're waiting for, looking for? And by articulating that saying, what will be my trigger to say it's time to come back and worship in person as the Bible commands us to do, to gather with others and to be together. And certainly, online has been a good option over this last year, but sometimes our new habits can be hard to break. 

And so, what is it that you would say, I want to be in a space with people that allows us all to worship together? And certainly, if you're staying home from work, you're social distancing, you're not doing all kinds of things. It makes sense to continue to say, we're not there yet, but if you're beginning to live your life, out to dinner, flying all over the country to see people, doing other stuff, "Then why not church yet?" would be my question. And I'm not trying to guilt, I'm just simply asking the question and saying, at some point you have to at least wrestle with that and say, you know what? Maybe this is something that we can consider. We have options for how to do it. Social distance. We've tried throughout this time to do it in a way that has given people options so that your comfort level can be respected while we can respect other people's preferences. And by and large, we've done this with great success and there is still room to come and be here socially distanced. And we'll have more options in the days ahead. 

So, I appreciate you staying engaged online, but just want to encourage you to start identifying what it is that you need to say we'll re-engage in person. So, let's take a moment and pray together and we'll jump in. Father, thank you for what you're doing in Butler, in the Strip District, in Wexford, Online. God, I pray that you would continue just to work in all of those of us who participate in Orchard Hill on a regular basis life. And that you would draw us to yourself and draw the community to you through what you're doing in each person who's part of Orchard Hill. And God as we're gathered today, I pray that you would speak to each of us and that my words would reflect your word in content, and in tone, and emphasis. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 

So, I don't know if you've had a conversation with somebody who says something like this, and that is, I don't believe in God. And you find yourself in a place where you are trying to articulate why it is that maybe you believe in God. Maybe you're here and you're saying, I'm one of the people who struggles with belief in God. But one of the things I've found effective when somebody says that to me is, I'll just simply say, well, tell me about the God you don't believe in. And usually what happens is they'll talk through a litany of things and I'll say, well, you know what? I don't believe in that God either. But let me tell you about the God that is revealed in the Bible. 

And often it's a radically different picture of God than what they had in their own mind about who God is. And as I think about that, and I think about what we're talking about today, this is one of those subjects where it doesn't actually work for that. And here's why I say that. In the Bible, we are told about God judging people, and sometimes people will object to God because they'll say I don't like a God who is judging, or who will judge anybody. And as a result, they'll look at things and they'll say, that's part of my objection to faith. But what I want you to see is that Paul in Acts 17 doesn't shy away from the subject. He actually goes into it, headlong and talks very pointedly about judgment. 

Now Acts 17, this is where we've been basing this series, is where Paul comes into Athens. And when he comes into Athens, a very intellectual engaged city, he engages the people there around God, as the creator, Jesus, the savior, God is the judge, and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he goes directly at this issue of judgment. And here's what I'd like to say just at the beginning. And that is, you may think that you don't want a God who judges the world, but you actually don't want to live in a world without judgment. And here's why I say that. If you've ever been around kids, what are some of the first things that kids learn to say, certainly no, mine, those kinds of things, but what else do they learn to say, it's not fair. Yes. Why do kids say it's not fair? Because it isn't fair, but where did they get the sense of fairness? 

Because there's something internal that says you shouldn't talk to me like that. You shouldn't take more than I get. You shouldn't treat that person that way, because there's something even in kids that says, there's a sense of morality here, that this is how the world should be. And if you take judgment out of the world, you take any sense of this is how the world should be out of the world that we live in. And what I'm saying is you don't actually want to live in a world that doesn't have some sense of here's how the world should be. When my wife and I had the Coronavirus, we spent some time binge watching a television show. This is a moment of confession. 

We had not a lot to do, didn't feel well, so we had binge watched the entire series of Cobra Kai. Yes, we did that. Now, if you aren't familiar, Cobra Kai tells the story of the Karate Kid, kind of a franchise from years ago. If you're a child of the 80s and maybe even past that, you know about the whole Karate Kid thing. And the Karate Kid movies now fast forward to today, and it's all these people as adults interacting with a whole new group of people. And the base story of Karate Kid is there's a bad dojo and a good dojo. The karate people and the bad dojo is led by this man named John Kreese, who teaches his kids, that they should never show mercy, and that only the strong survive, and that you strike first, and you strike hard. And then there's the other dojo from Mr. Miyagi, who basically says no, karate is about self-defense, they're the good ones. And in the end, the good prevails. 

Now, fast forward to Cobra Kai. This does have a point by the way. And here's what you have, is you have the whole replaying of this, except now the kid who was defeated is teaching karate to others. And he's kind of swinging over to the good side. And then John Kreese comes back on the scene. And when John Kreese comes back on the scene, they show a flash back in his life to where he came to his philosophy when he was in Vietnam about only the strong survive. And there's no good. There's no wrong. There's no right. There's no bad. There's just the weak and the strong. And at one point he stands and addresses a group of kids. And he says that very thing. He says, listen, this is after they'd gotten in trouble for a fight. He says, listen, there's no right. There's no wrong. There's no good. There's no bad. There's just the weak and the strong. And here's my point. 

When you watch that, even all these years later, the way the whole thing was set up was so that when you watch that, you go, no, that's not right. There is a right and a wrong because nobody wants to live in the world where John Kreese's philosophy lives and rules the day. And yet, sometimes we say, I don't want any judgment. I don't want anything like that, but here's the truth. We all long to live in a world in which truth is prioritized over lies, or life is prioritized over death, where kindness is chosen over cruelty, loyalty over betrayal, peace over violence. But that requires judgment. And an atheist may be for equality, but it doesn't make sense why they're for equality, because at the end of the day, if we are all just products of chemistry and there's no moral hard wiring in our lives, then there's no reason for any of us to say, one thing is better than another. 

Now I'm not saying that atheist don't actually believe in equality or causes. What I'm saying is it just doesn't make a lot of logical sense because we want a world where there is some sense of how things should be. Now, here's how Paul addresses this. In Acts 17, in verse 30 and 31. Here's what we read. It says this. "In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." And then it says this. "For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he's appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead." Next weekend, we'll look at that idea of resurrection, Josiah will be teaching about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But today we want to talk about this idea of judgment. And I think there are three realities that we see here about judgment. 

The first is this and that is, God has set a day, says it right here. "For he has set a day when he will judge the world." And the reason that this is important is because a lot of times, when we think about judgment, we don't think about it being fixed. And in the Bible, there are a lot of ways that the Bible speaks about the future day. In Romans chapter two, verse five, we're told about a day of wrath. In second Peter, chapter three, verse seven, we're told about a day of judgment. In Matthew 10:15, we're told about the last day. 

Sometimes we're told about the day of the Lord and all of these are pointing to a future time when God will settle the things of this world that haven't been settled. And today is not that day, but he set a day. I was thinking about this the other day, a lot of days, but I was thinking about this because I had my car, my windshield wipers started to fray. And so, I did what I should do. I ordered new wipers. They came to my house and I thought I should put those on my car, but the sun was shining. And so, I thought, well, I'll do that on another day. And then I had the thought on another day that I should do it, but I was like, ah, it's nice today. I don't need to do it. And then of course, you know what happened. On a day, I had to drive three hours, I had not changed my wipers and it rained. And my wipers were like not functioning the best possible way. 

And all of a sudden, I faced the decisions that I had made in a past day, on a future day. That's the idea of God has set a day. One of the things I've said to my kids for years, and they, I'm not sure believe me when I say this, but I'll always say to them, in life, you will either pay first and play later. Or you will play first and pay later. And then here's the part that they may not agree with. And that is I'll say to them. And usually if you pay first, the play is better later, and if you play first, it costs you more to pay later is what I'll say to them. And they're like, Oh, I don't know about that. But that's one of those just dad things that I say to my kids. But here's what, again, in the text that we're seeing is God saying, there will come a day. You may not think that there will be a day, but there will be a day when God will judge the world. 

And in Luke chapter 18, there's a parable that Jesus tells that shows us about the reality of justice, because the longing for that day is really a longing for justice. And it's called the parable of the persistent widow. It's in Luke 18 verses 1 through 8. And in the parable, there's this woman who keeps coming to what's called an unjust judge. And she keeps pleading her case. And we're told that the judge doesn't fear God or care what anybody thinks, but he ends up giving to this woman, what she asked for. And the text says, Jesus says, so that he wouldn't be bothered by her persistence, by her continuing to come. But here's the part that catches my attention. Verse six and following it says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, will he keep putting them off?" And then here it is, verse eight. "I tell you; he will see that they get justice and quickly." 

God is not like the judge. He's more loving. He will give justice to his people. But when? Here it is verse eight. "However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on Earth." I think what Jesus is doing here is he's saying I will set the world right but the judgment or the justice that you want will come when? When the son of man comes. In other words, our problem with injustice in this world is a timing problem. It's that we want it now, but God says, I've set a day. There will be a day when I will set things right. And we can endure injustice now because of the knowledge of that day. This is what you see in the Psalms over and over as the psalmist will plead with God for something. And then they say, but I can continue because I know that there will be a day when you'll make things right. So, the first thing we see is that God has set a day. 

Here's the second thing, second reality. And that is God will judge with justice. Again, verse 31 of Acts 17. It says, "For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice." This is what God will do. He will judge the world with justice. There's a theologian named Miroslav Volf, who lived in Croatia for years. He now teaches here in the United States, but he some time ago wrote about this idea of God being a God who doesn't judge, because of some of the people in our world who will say, I don't like the idea of a God who judges, because it leads to violence. And here's what he said. And the reason I mentioned his Croatian background is because where he lived and grew up, he was the person, a person who was the object of violence and oppression. His people were. 

Here's what he writes. He says, "My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many in the West." In other words, he's saying, in order to not respond with violence, you actually have to believe in judgment, divine vengeance. He says, it's going to be unpopular in the West because people in the West don't like the idea of divine judgment. But he said this, he said, "But it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis, that human non-violence results from the belief in God's refusal to judge. In a sun scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die with other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind." 

And here's why this is a significant statement. Here's what he's saying. We tend to think, I don't want a God who judges, because it's not fun to think about that. And that leads to violence, but the opposite is true. It's when you say, God has set a day and God will bring justice to the Earth that we end up in a place where we can say, I don't have to take matters into my own hands. 

Now, one of the problems with this idea of judgment is that the Bible uses the idea of judgment in at least two ways that we tend to think about. And in the second way there's two prongs of it. So, hang with me for a moment. The first way that we tend to think about judgment is we tend to think about judgment now. In other words, what is happening to us today, is God judging us for the things that we do. Now, the Bible rarely uses the word judgment for that, but there is a sense of consequences that runs throughout the Bible. This is Galatians six. "And whatsoever a person sows, he or she will also reap." This is Malacahi three, where the people had turned their back on God and God said, okay, I'm not going to let you have a crop this year. And so, they had economic devastation, like there are consequences to our choices in the Bible. 

But that is different, I believe, than judgment, but it confuses it sometimes because we tend to think, oh, this is what judgment is. It's what happens to me now. When usually what God does is that he allows natural consequences to take their course. Now that doesn't mean that there's never a time in which God intervenes, but it means that if you are hateful, usually there's not some cataclysmic event that happens to you, some catastrophic event, but simply your bitterness impacts your relationships negatively. If you're greedy, it's not like God sends a catastrophe your way. It's that he allows you to be dissatisfied with simple pleasures. If you lust, it's not like God sends a lightning bolt usually. But what happens is you find it hard to enjoy and embrace the gift of a spouse that maybe God has given you. It's a natural consequence that often happens. 

But when the Bible speaks of judgment, it speaks more in the future. This is the second way, but here's what's challenging about that. When it speaks about judgment, I believe that it's using the word for two different things. One, there's a judgment for what I'm going to say, non-believers. This is in Revelation chapter 21, verse 7 and 8. And it's in other places as well. But this is what we tend to think about when we think about judgment. And the reason that this is sometimes confusing is the Bible says in essence, that if you come to faith in Jesus Christ, then you don't face this judgment. This is Revelation 21, verse 7 and 8. Some older translations had the phrase white thrown in here. So, this is sometimes called the white throne judgment. Newer translations for various reasons, don't have that exact wording, but here's what it says. 

Verse seven, "Those who are victorious will inherit all of this. I will be their God and they will be my children." Talking about believers and the new heaven, the new Earth, the things that God gives. Then verse eight. "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, and idolaters and liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur." This is the second death. In other words, the Bible says there will come a day that if you haven't come to repent, that's why Paul says repent. There's a day coming when God has set to judge the earth that you will experience this. This is why we don't like to talk about it because it sounds what judgmental to say, if you don't believe in Jesus, that's what waits for you. 

But I would suggest once again, it's not judgmental. It's actually way more compelling to say that it's not on the basis of what we've done. There’re not good and bad people. And I'm good and you're bad unless you believe like me, but it is the mercy and the grace of God that says all people, anyone, it's for everyone, can come and experience this grace and be free from that judgment. 

But here's again, part of why this is challenging. I believe Bible also speaks about judgment for believers. And I believe that this for a variety of reasons, let me show you just a couple. In Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10. We're told that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and the original language here uses the word bema, which was a word for a tribunal. And so, some people have called this, the bema seat judgment of Jesus. Second 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 well in the body, whether good or bad." 

Now, some people would say that this is actually still referring to things here because we receive in the body. Although it says the things done well in the body, but there are other places that speak very clearly about this idea of believers being judged. In first Corinthians chapter three, we see this as well. Here's what we see in verse 13. Actually, I'll start at verse 12 and I don't have this one on the screens, but here's what it says. "If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, straw, their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it about." See how that's being used. "It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder receives the reward. If it's burned up, the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved even though only as one escaping through the flames." 

What you have in the Bible is you have this idea of every non-believer appearing before the judgment seat of God, the white throne judgment, and then believers still going through this evaluation of themselves. I had somebody last night after teaching on this say, aren't we all even in heaven, like if their status, won't I be unhappy. But if you read through the gospels even, Matthew 25 and the parable of the minors in Luke 19, what you see is even Jesus saying, well done, my good and faithful servant. There will be a difference in recognition. There'll be a difference in responsibility in Heaven. But somehow, you'll still be perfectly happy. And when I talked to the person last night afterward, I just use this example off the top of my head. But I said, if for example, you and he was with a woman. I said if you did 20% of your income and she did 2% throughout your life, like in a sense, you'd say, well, which one is better? But if you did 2%, it's not like you're going to be unhappy in heaven, but it's not going to go unnoticed. 

And here's again, why that matters because we live in a time. So, the positives, the negatives will both be there. First Corinthians 4:5 says, "Everything that's hidden will be revealed." Matthew 12:36 says, "Every word that we say." Colossians 3, verse 23, 24, say that, "We should live entirely as unto the Lord because we will be rewarded." In other words, what the Bible indicates is that how we live matters. And yet we'll be perfectly happy in heaven no matter what. In other words, this idea kind of like the youth sports of our day, everybody gets a medal. Everybody is a winner. Nobody's a loser. It's not really a biblical idea. In the Bible, there's the great white throne judgment, but there's also an evaluation for which we will say, have I been responsible with what God has given me? And there will be different levels of condemnation and responsibility, even though we will be completely joyful. But it changes the way we think a little bit when you say one day, I'm going to have to give an account to God for everything. 

Here's the third thing. And that is, God has appointed a judge. Verse 31 of Acts 17. It says this. "For he has set a day when he will judge the world by justice, by the man he has appointed." And it's my belief that here, he's referring to Jesus Christ, the creator, the savior, the judge who's perfect and has a right to judge the world, who's also merciful and just. And what this means is that ultimately doesn't matter what everybody else thinks. And it doesn't give you or me a right to judge because that right is reserved for Jesus. 

Now we live in a culture today that is actually growing in its desire to judge. And it's funny that we talk about this and this is a big objection to God, but we actually are living in a culture that loves to judge. Let me give you two examples from the news or the culture in the last little bit here. So first, The Bachelor, now I know you're saying, wow, were you sick that long? I did not watch The Bachelor, but one of my friends told me about it and supposedly his wife got him to watch it. So, I'm going to tell you his take on this so I might be a step removed, might have some of my facts wrong, but here's what happened on the last season of The Bachelor as I understand it per my friend who watches it for his wife. 

As he watched The Bachelor, he said the bachelor this last year, and the premise is a guy is taken and put here with all these women. And then he gets to decide through interactions who he wants to stay with or continue evaluating a relationship, gives a rose to them. And they keep kind of moving through a season until the lucky 1 of the 30 gets to go on a date with the guy or something. I don't know, anyway. So evidently this last time, the guy who was the bachelor came out and stated that he was a Christian and there was a Christian woman in the group that also kind of connected with him. And the two of them had a great relationship and it came down to the end of the whole show and things were going really well. And then all of a sudden it came out that in her past, when she was in college, she had attended an antebellum party. 

Now I didn't have any idea what an antebellum party is. I'm a northerner, but evidently, it's a party that celebrates the culture of the South. And it goes back into the time of slavery, which is understandable, why that's offensive. Don't misunderstand me here saying that I'm like pro antebellum party. But what quickly happened was the bachelor said, I can't be with anybody who would ever go to an antebellum party. I'm done. Despite her, I was wrong. I'm sorry. I didn't understand it was offensive. And there was no way that I understood all of that. And I'm so sorry and there was no allowance for growth. And then the host of the show came out and tried to say something similar and was quickly fired from the show or dismissed or mutually agreed to part. I'm not sure which phrase they used because he had come out and said, well things were a little different and may have been a little fuzzy. 

And here's my point. What we've done as a culture is, we've said, I have the right to judge. You do anything in your past that's objectionable. We are going to cancel you and tell you that you are unworthy of any standing in our culture. The Christian way is to say, there's only one judge, and it's Jesus Christ. I don't have the right to judge and cancel you, but not only that, I want to live in a world in which people forgive one another, because they say the only judgment that's going to matter is the judgment of God himself. Do you see the difference? 

And the thought has been in history that Christians are the judgmental people in the culture. But I want to tell you that it should be exactly the opposite, that Christian people should be the least judgmental, because we have the most confidence that there is a judge who will one day reveal everything and set everything right. Therefore, I can be as generous with forgiveness as God has been with me, which is incredibly generous. And it is the idea of people in our world who say, no, no, no, there is no judgment. Therefore, we must cancel you because you went to an antebellum party. 

Another situation this week. Shooting in Atlanta. Horrific. Quickly identified by many as Asian hate crime. I don't know if it's Asian hate crime, if the person just had a vendetta against massage parlors, hard to say. I don't think everything that happens is a result directly of race. But the woman who was an editor at a liberal magazine had at one point in her life, when she was in her teens, tweeted a few things that had derogatory statements about Asians that she thought were funny. Not cool things to say, I'm not excusing the tweets, but she apologized but was dismissed from her magazine, her online blogging, whatever it was, because if you made those statements, you're contributing to the problem. And therefore, you can't have space in our culture. 

The Christian way is different. The way of the gospel is different. It doesn't excuse everything and say, oh tweet whatever you want. It doesn't say that, but it says there is room for growth. There is room for forgiveness. There is room for another chance because it's God who will hold us accountable. He is the judge. We are not the judge. So, what do we do with this? Let me suggest just three things. 

First, make sure that you have Jesus as your savior, that the judge is your savior. The Bible's very clear. God has set a day. He will judge with justice and he's appointed one to be the judge. But the good news of the Bible is that Jesus is the judge. And he's also the savior. And what that means is you can come and face that first judgment, that white throne judgment with complete confidence saying, it's not my record. It's Jesus. Meaning anything that somebody can go back and say, wow, you did something really stupid when you were 17, you did something really dumb when you were in college, you did something idiotic last week, you were a jerk on your way to church today. Anything that they want to find, you can say, Jesus has seen it. He knows it. And he's forgiven it. If you've come to believe in Jesus Christ, that is good news. 

Second. Know that everything will one day be brought to light. Everything. This should be something that gives you patience when you are in a place where things seem to be going against you and people seem to be getting ahead who don't follow the God of the Bible, who don't play by any of the rules, who don't have a sense of morality. When the John Kreese's of the world seemed to get ahead, you can have patience because you can say, I know that God is going to set it right, and it can give you resolve to say, I am going to follow God, even in the little details of my life. Because even though my joy will be complete one day, whatever my status is, I know it'll all be seen. 

And that leads me just to the last thing. And that is just live your life before an audience of one. Whoever wants to cancel you in culture, whoever wants to say anything about you, there is only one judgment that matters. The judgment of God himself. And so, choose to say, I'm going to live my life before an audience of one, before God himself. See judgment is actually good news because it means you don't have to try to make everything fair. You don't have to be the kid crying about this isn't fair because you can say, God will set things right. Therefore, I can live in this world without trying to make everything come together in a way that makes sense for me. 

And you can live without the inner voice of condemnation. You saw that little video that started off the message with the regret, and then the woman's sitting and kind of looking up and saying, there's one whose judgment about me is even better than my judgment on myself. That is the hope and the beauty of the Christian message. 

Father, we thank you for a chance to gather, and God, I thank you that we don't live in a world without justice. It may not happen on our timetable, but you set a day and you will bring about justice. And God, I pray that that message would bring hope and encouragement to each one of us, unless we need it to challenge us to come to Jesus first and foremost, or to change some things about how we're living here today. And we pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great week.