The comedian Steven Wright quips, “I know when I am going to die because my birth certificate has an expiration date on it.” Every generation, or so it seems, has believed theirs to be the last generations, at least that is the thinking with each generation. Things have gotten so bad that they believe, this must be the end. From the time of the promise of a Messiah until His actual birth, God waited some 3000 years. Before His ascension, Jesus promised He would return. So far we have waited only 2000 years. Will God wait another thousand years? Will God return during our lifetime? I do not know. What I do know, and what I would encourage you to know is that He tells us to be ready and He gives us examples of those who were not ready; those not ready for the flood, those not ready for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and likewise those who will not be ready for His return on the last day. And what I do know is that we will stand before the Lord to be judged by Him and that day will be, either when He returns, or when we pass on from this world, when we die and go to Him, either way, it will happen, we will see our last day and I believe that last day will be sooner than we know and sooner than we might expect. So, it is indeed, truly important, to be ready at all times.
In our text for today, words given by God through Isaiah, especially to the children of Israel, but words to us today as well, we are reminded that the time is coming, the end, the day of Judgement is coming. As the end approaches, Isaiah reminds us that God knows our works and thoughts. We begin at verse eighteen, “18“For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory” (v. 18). On the last day, on the day of judgement, the Lord will gather all people, believers and unbelievers alike and we will all stand before Him to be judged and we will be judged, not by any outward appearance, but by the contents of our hearts as the Lord will look into our hearts and know our thoughts.
Continuing on at verse nineteen, Isaiah reminds us that God will gather all nations to be judged, “19and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations” (v. 19). All people from all over the world will stand before the Lord. Isaiah tells us, in slightly different words, what John says in God’s Revelation to him, that on the last day, all nations, all people, believers and yes, even unbelievers, will bow down and acknowledged that Jesus is Lord.
Continuing on at verse twenty, until that day, the day of the Lord’s return on judgement day, the Lord will send out missionaries to call people to faith, “20And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord” (v. 20). Of course, we are reminded that this does not simply mean sending missionaries out to people in far off foreign lands, because today we, you and I are missionaries. Just look at the cultural diversity we have here in our own country even in our own neighborhoods. People from countries where Christianity is illegal, have come here to our country, to us, and as we have opportunity, as we live lives of faith, as we live as priests in the priesthood of all believers, as we live as living sacrifices, and as we are asked, so we are to boldly, with God’s authority and His promise to give us the words and the courage to speak, we are to share the good news of the message of salvation to all those the Lord gives us opportunity to speak to.
Verse twenty-one reiterates this priesthood idea. Those who have been given faith are to serve in their vocation as priests, “21And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.” (v. 21). What a privilege, to be a witness, to be a missionary for our Lord as He gives us the opportunity.
Perhaps we do not think about it enough, but our days on this earth are numbered and are few, especially compared to eternity. It will not be long and our Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth. On the day of judgement the Lord will separate the believers from the unbelievers. Those judged to eternal life will share in His glory, verse twenty-two, “22“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain” (v. 22). Those who have been given faith and who remain in faith will be given eternal life in heaven with the Lord.
And this eternal life in heaven will be eternal, forever, with not end. As for this concept of time, in heaven there will be no time. In heaven time will be the eternal present and complete holiness, picking up at verse twenty-three, “23From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord” (v. 23). Heaven will be an unending place of eternal joy.
So, what does this mean? As we have been reminded the last number of weeks and so as we continually need to be reminded, which is the reason we come to divine service every Sunday, because of our constant need to be reminded, God is the prime mover. God acts first. God gives and we are given to. God gives life, faith, forgiveness and eternal life. And God’s usual way of giving the good gifts and blessings He has to give is through means, namely the means of grace, His Word, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and His Holy Supper. These are the means God uses to give us faith. As we live lives as priests in our vocations, as we have opportunity, we invite others, especially our unchurched family and friends to “Come and see,” to “Come and hear,” the Word preached and taught, so that the Lord might work through these very means to give faith to those who do not yet know Him.
Not only does God give faith through His means of grace, He also uses these same means to strengthen and keep us in faith. Just as a person who fails to go to the grocery store to purchase food, may run out of food and starve, so it is with those who fail to go to the Lord’s spiritual grocery store, those who fail to be in divine service where the Lord distributes His gifts and blessings. The questions is not, “Do we have to go to church?”, rather the joy is, “When do we get to go to church?” As King David said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalms 122:1). It is as we make regular and diligent use of the Lord’s means of grace that He has His way with us, that He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith because the day will come when the Lord will return, or we will go to Him.
The day will come when God will judge. He will come to judge the living and the dead. He will come as a thief in the night. He will come on a day and at an hour no one will suspect. He will come and all will know that day has arrived.
And when He comes to judge, God knows if we have faith or not. And it is this faith, or no faith that will determine our eternal destiny. There are those in our world who have friends and family members who are not Christians, who do not know the Lord and unfortunately rather than confront their family or friends, because you know how it is, we do not talk about religion or politics, many have simply adjusted their belief to think that God will save all people, no matter what they believe, as long as they are sincere. I am sorry to inform you, but that is not what God says.
God tells us that those who are without faith, will receive their reward of eternal death in hell. Those are not my words and that is not my judgement. Those are the Lord’s Word and His just judgement. God’s just Words reminds us, then, of our need to bear witness of the faith which He has given to us so that others might be saved.
God also tells us that those with faith, will be given their reward of eternal, everlasting life in heaven. It is faith in Jesus Christ alone and His work, His life, His suffering, death and resurrection for us that saves us. God knows what is in our hearts. He knows if we have faith or no faith. And to those He has given faith and to those who have not refused the faith He has given, He gives eternal life in heaven.
Thus, we have Jesus’ encouragement to keep watch and be ready. We do not know the day or the hour. We do not know when we will die or when the Lord will return. We do know that this world means nothing compared to the world to come. We do know that all that we might amass in this world means nothing in the world to come. We do know that the most important thing in this life is having a right relationship with Jesus. And so that is what Jesus encourages us to work on, our relationship with Himself.
This morning we also have God’s encouragement, through Paul, to rejoice in discipline, which helps keep us ready. We talked about this discipline before and the fact that God does discipline those He loves, not because He likes to see us in pain, but because He wants to keep us on the straight and narrow, because He wants to keep us faithful, unto death, so that He might give us the crown of life.
This morning, then, I also encourage you. Keep ready and strive to help others to be ready. Live lives of faith. Make regular and diligent use of the Means of Grace. Be in divine service and Bible Class. Come and be loved by God. Come and be given to by God. Come be filled so that you might go and live and bear witness.
I know none of us has an expiration date on our birth certificate and I am glad. I do not think any of us wants to know the day we will die or the day the Lord will return, that would not help us in the being ready always department. What we do know is that the Lord has promised that He will return or that we will pass on, that we will die and go to Him. We do know that the Lord has acted first in our lives as the prime mover, giving us faith, either through our Baptism or through His Word. We do know that the Lord stirs in us through the means of our remembering our Baptism, through the means of His Word, through the means of our confession and absolution and through the means of His Holy Supper to strengthen and keep us in faith. We do know the Lord loves us and has created us to love us. And we do know that He will be with us, giving us His authority to speak when asked for the hope that we have in Jesus, as we have opportunity as we live lives of faith as priests in the priesthood of all believers. And so our whole lives say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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