Here are the answers to questions that were submitted after Sunday’s message,”Jesus Is _______________.” I hope that you will be here Sunday as we continue the “How To Survive The End Of The World” series.
1. Do the Old Testament prophecies of restoring Israel, i.e. Joel 2-3, refer to the “end times” as in Revelation? Yes. They were also an immediate call to repentance to those that Joel was originally communicating with, but they definitely refer to the end times. In fact,the restoration of Israelis one of the key elements of the end times and a significant piece of evidence for the truthfulness and reliability of Scripture.
2. Are we 1 of the 7 churches or do we heed all instruction to all 7 churches? The 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 were literal, historical congregations. The letters were specific words from Jesus to those specific churches. However, God included them in the Bible which means that all of the letters apply to every church. So, we should heed all of the instructions to each of the churches. I do not subscribe to the interpretation that each church represents a particular age in church history. I think that is reading into the Bible instead of taking it at face value.
3. Explain the tension between faith and works and between works not getting us into heaven but being held accountable in judgment. I will address this in a later message in the series so this will only be an overview. Revelation20:11-15 says, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it,from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” This the Great White Throne Judgment, which is a judgment of condemnation for unbelievers. The Scripture says here that people are judged according to their works if their names are not written in the book of life. Our names are written in the book of life when we trust Christ. If we trust Christ, there is no condemnation because He took our judgment and condemnation on the cross (Romans 8:1). If we are not trusting Christ, we are under the wrath of God because of our sin and unbelief (John3:36). The works written in these books are basically a record of our lives. God knows everything about us, and we are condemned by our own sinful actions. None of us measures up to God’s perfect standard of holiness (Romans 3:23). That is the sense in which works is being referred to in this passage.
However, works relates to something different in other Scripture passages. James 2 tells us that”faith without works is dead.” Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The reference to works in these passages are acts of obedience that are produced by faith for the glory of God. We are not saved by our works because we are sinful and our works of self- effort only add to that because they produce sinful self-righteousness. However, when we trust Christ and are living for the glory of God, Jesus produces good works through us by means of our faith. So, a saved person will do good works,but they are by grace and for God’s glory. An unsaved person cannot do godly works and is condemned by their sinful works. That is the distinction.
4. What happens when a Christian dies? This is something I will be addressing in the message on Sunday so I won’t go into a lot of detail here but basically give an overview. Death is separation. It is essentially the separation of the body and the inner person (spirit/soul). It is clear that the body goes into the ground to decay or to the crematory to be turned into ashes. Eventually, at the Rapture, our bodies are resurrected, and we receive our eternal, glorified bodies (1 Thessalonians4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58). The real question is what happens to the inner man. I would answer that with the following Scriptures. In Luke 23:43, Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross before he died, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 says, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Philippians 1:23 says, “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ,which is far better.” I think these verses make it clear that ourspirits go to be with God in heaven immediately after death. The previousverses show that we receive our glorified bodies at the resurrection/rapture,and the joining of our perfected spirits and glorified bodies prepares us foreternity with the Lord.
