What we believe about eternity really matters because our response to message of the gospel determines where we spend eternity...

This week we have been looking at the tenth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This tenth statement addresses what we believe as a church when it comes to how our response to Jesus determines our eternal destiny.

This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Am I responsible and accountable to God for how I live my life here on earth? And am I responsible for how I respond to the claims of Jesus and the message of Jesus? What happens after I die? And how does my response to Jesus determine what happens to me after I die?” So let’s look at this tenth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

So far this week we have discovered that the person who places their confident trust in Jesus life, death, and resurrection will not be separated from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, but will experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for. And that is the good news of the gospel: God loved, God gave, so that those who believe and place their confident trust in Jesus would receive life in relationship with Him.

We also discovered that God commands humanity to respond to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their response to the question “Who is Jesus”. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their response to Jesus message and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our selfishness and rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God we were created for.

All of humanity will be responsible for their actions and their response to God based on the amount of revelation that they have received about God. Regardless of the level of our exposure to the claims of Christ or the message and teachings of the Bible, our consciences testify and provide evidence of our guilt or innocence. Whether it is the American who listens to Christian radio and podcasts and has five Bibles scattered around their home, or the pigmy who lives in the jungles of Africa, all will stand before Jesus to give an account of their lives.

For those who never read a Bible or heard the message of the gospel, they will be held accountable for how they respond to God’s general revelation of Himself through the creation and through their conscience. For those who have received God’s special revelation in the form of the letter that make up the Bible and exposure to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel throughout history, they will be responsible for their response to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And the standard is the same for all: perfection.

We also discovered that, based on the verdict of that judgment by God, all humanity will spend eternity in one of two places. Today, we will see that all humanity will be held accountable for all eternity for their response to Jesus message and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our selfishness and rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God we were created for.  We see this reality in one of the final sections of the final letter that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the book of Revelation. So let’s look at that section together, beginning in Revelation 20:11:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Here we see John give us glimpse into what will happen when Jesus returns to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense and defeat selfishness, sin and death at His return to earth. To understand what is being communicated in these verses, we first need to ask and answer a few questions.

The first question that we need to ask and answer is “what is the Great White Throne and who is sitting on it?” The Great White Throne is the Throne that Jesus after He returns to earth will sit on as He judges all of selfish and rebellious humanity who rejected God and the things of God throughout history. The second question that we need to ask and answer is “what does John mean when he says the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life?” The phrase “the books were opened” refers to the books that record every activity of every human being throughout history. The phrase "and another book was opened, the book of life", is referred to as the Lamb’s book of life. That book records every individual throughout history who experienced a right relationship with God as a result of placing their confident trust in God.

Here John is revealing for us the reality that at the end of God’s story here on earth, every human being who ever lived will receive an eternal body and will stand before Jesus to give an account of the life that they lived while here on earth. For those throughout history who rejected God and the things of God and whose names are not found in the Lambs book of life, they will experience what is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the Great White Throne Judgment.  This judgment seals their eternal existence in what John refers to as the lake of fire, or Hell.

Hell is a real and eternal place where those who have rejected God here on earth will consciously experience the absence of the presence of God and the physical and emotional punishment that will come from demons and the selfish actions of other humans in Hell. For those throughout history who responded to God’s transformational intervention and activity in their lives by placing their confident trust in God and who have their names in the Lamb’s book of Life, they will be judged and either receive or lose rewards based on their how they followed Jesus while here on earth and will reside for all eternity in the presence of God, worshipping, serving and living in the relationship Him and one another that they were created for forever. We see John reveal for us the reality of Heaven in Revelation 21:1:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

The New Heavens and the New Earth will be the renewed creation that will fulfill the purpose that God had when He created the universe where we will dwell in the presence of God. Heaven is a real and eternal place where followers of Jesus will experience the presence and the relationship with God and one another that they were created for without all of the evil and corruption that resulted from selfishness, sin and rebellion.

Now this leads us back to the question that will run throughout this series, which is “Dave does what we believe about eternity really matter?” And the answer to that question leads us to this timeless truth about why it really matters. And that timeless truth is this: What we believe about eternity really matters because our response to message of the gospel determines where we spend eternity.

What we really believe about eternity really matters because the question is not whether or not you live forever; the question is where are you going to live forever. What we believe about eternity really matters because all humanity is responsible for their response to the question “Who is Jesus”.

What we believe about eternity really matters because all humanity is responsible for their response to Jesus message and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our selfishness and rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God we were created for. What we believe about eternity matters because our response to message of the gospel determines where we spend eternity.

So, how have you responded to the question "Who is Jesus?"