LIVE LIKE YOU’LL LIVE FOREVER
Live Free from the Fear of Judgment
A Campaign Concluding with no Fear

1. Many ______________ candidates.
2. The _________ candidate:  _______.
3. Sin is ______ ______ with:  A judgment of _______.
4. You know the ________:  It is ___________.

Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church.  We exist to glorify God.  We have set out to do this by gathering around the Gospel so that we may grow in the Gospel and go to others with this Gospel.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, our Lord:

There have been a few important events in the last few weeks.  Manitowoc Lutheran, some of you go there, they won the State championship in volleyball.  Wrightstown is going to play for the State championship for football next week.  I think we had a member on the news on Thursday sharing about how she has written in a journal every day for 76 years.  That’s some big stuff.  Has anything else happened?  Something big that people have been waiting for a year and all these commercials?—I’m sure you may be happy that it’s over because now you don’t have to see those commercials.  But have you ever thought about in an election and a campaign how much worry and anxiety comes from that?

These are a few articles that I saw right before the election that were posted.  This is from NPR.  It says “Election anxiety is real.  A doctor explains how to manage it.”  Leading up to the election, were you one of those people that were so anxious and worried?

Or this one from Psychology Today:  “8 Strategies for Managing Election Anxiety” 

The next one is from MBC:  “Election anxiety is real, no matter who you’re voting for.”  So much worry.

And the last one is from Psychology Today:

“I’m a Therapist:  Here’s How I’m Coping With Election Anxiety.”  Then she actually lists a few key points.

* Uncertainty over an outcome (e.g., who will win an election) is a trigger for anxiety.
* Focusing on what you can control in the present moment can decrease overwhelm.
* Planning how you’ll cope if your non-preferred candidate wins can provide a sense of control.

I think if you’re like anyone or if you see just how things are, there was so much anxiety and worry with the election. So much fear, so much of “What is going to happen?” On whatever side, no matter who you voted for, there was all this fear. Why? She talked about it being an anxiety over the unknown, a fear of what is going to happen, what the result is going to be, and what is going to happen afterwards. I think that’s something we can all relate to. Maybe you had fear and anxiety. Maybe you didn’t. I preached on Thursday and said “Maybe you had fear and anxiety” and someone back there was like “No.” They were all calm. I think most people, though, do.

Well what does that have to do with the Saints Triumphant and our lives?  When we look ahead to the end, does Judgment Day, does the coming of Jesus and the end of your life fill you with fear?  Are you filled with anxiety and doubt and fear of what is ahead?  Today, if that is how you feel, my prayer is that you can leave today not having that fear; to have a confidence in Christ and a confidence in what having faith in Jesus and forgiveness means.  Then as Christ returns, He has a campaign concluding with no fear.  And as He returns, we have no worries.  We know what is ahead and we know what has happened and is ahead for our loved ones.

As we look at our text today from Hebrews 9, we see the writer to the Hebrews is writing to Jewish people who know Christ but they are struggling to understand how He fits in with all the stuff that they were used to from the Old Testament ways of sacrifice and the temples and understanding Jesus completely.  Really, a lot of what the writer to the Hebrews writes about is that Jesus is greater.  Jesus is greater than angels.  Jesus is greater than Moses.  Today we are going to see who else He is greater than and what especially He is greater than that the Jewish people would do all the time.

He starts out by saying this in Verse 24:  ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.  ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.  Here the writer talks a lot about what Jesus did, but what we’re going to focus on is what He is replacing or what He is better than.

If you notice there, he is talking about sacrifices that had to happen again and again and the Old Testament priests, the Jewish priests that had to go in and sacrifice for them and do it every day.  So what is he teaching us?  He is saying that there were many insufficient candidates.  There are many insufficient ways of making our sins be forgiven.  This is what God had given to the Old Testament people to show and to point out to them that they needed their sins forgiven.  That there needed to be a sacrifice but it didn’t accomplish it because it wasn’t good enough.  It was to point them and to direct them to what needed to come.

It was also to tell them that sin was serious!  If you would enter into the temple courts and you would see the sacrifices happening over and over again and see the work and the need for blood, we might say “Why?”  Our sin is serious and we always seem to say “It’s not that big a deal.”  “My sins don’t hurt that many people.”  Or “It’s just between me and really, is it a big deal?”  But our sins are serious!

The writer will go on into Hebrews 10 to say this about those sacrifices.  For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.  If they actually accomplished what they did…But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.  ⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  It was not enough.  It was insufficient.  So the High Priests had to sacrifice for them and they had to sacrifice over and over again.

Now think again about an election.  How frustrated are you when the candidates aren’t sufficient?  Are you like “Ugh, why do we have to vote for these people?”  Think about how frustrating it is that those things didn’t take away sins.  The High Priests were sinful.  The blood and goats didn’t accomplish what it needed to do.  And we’re insufficient.  We cannot make up for our sins.  So we need something else.  We need something greater.

So as it talks about Jesus and He entered once, we see what else Jesus did.  In Verse 26 it says:  ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.  But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Notice in the Old Testament it had to be done over and over and over again.  What about Jesus?—once; once and for who?  Was it just for Himself?  Did He sacrifice for Himself?  No.  It says the sacrifice for all.  He took away the sins of the world.  How could He do this?  It’s because Jesus is the perfect candidate.  The perfect candidate is Jesus, the one who is God in heaven and came down to represent you and me, to fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament.  He was Prophet, Priest, and King.  He had all the power, but He came to serve instead.  He is the Word of God, so we can trust what He says.  He IS the perfect High Priest that doesn’t need to sacrifice an animal.  Instead, He sacrificed His perfect blood.  Though He was innocent, He went to the cross.  He suffered for you and for me.  John the Baptist points and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” ^(John 1:29)  All of this is pointing forward to Jesus, way back to the Passover; that Passover Lamb that saved the Israelites, this is Jesus, your perfect sacrifice.

So what does it mean that we have a perfect candidate?  He did it once for all.  He doesn’t need to be sacrificed over and over again.  He is sufficient.  On the cross, He said “It is finished.” ^{(John 19:30)}  It is done.  Your sin is forgiven.  That’s what the writer of the Hebrews goes on to say.

One more thing here—we have one picture to begin with.  In the beginning of this section it says that He didn’t enter into a copy.  We’ll hear that the writer to the Hebrews says that all those things in the past were shadows of what was to come. ^{(Hebrews 10)}  This is a picture I took of the Great Wall.  This is almost 20 years ago.  That’s when I first went there.  You can see really far.  It’s a pretty thing.

When you go to travel somewhere, and maybe you’ve seen a picture and you are like “Oh, this is so pretty!  I want to go there,” when you go there then, do you stare at that picture?  When you ARE at the place, when you are at the REAL thing, do you then continue to look at a picture of the thing?  Of course not.  This is a beautiful picture, but when you get to the final thing, you rejoice in the beauty and the majesty OF that thing.  That is how it is with Christ.  He’s not a reflection or a shadow of the forgiveness of sins.  He IS the forgiveness of sins.  So when the writer to the Hebrews was writing to the Jewish people, he was saying “Don’t go back to the other ways.  Don’t trust in your works.  Don’t trust in anything else.  Trust in Jesus.  He IS the fulfillment.  He IS the real thing.  He did it once for all.”

What does that mean for us?  It says:  ²⁷Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many…  Notice what it says.  Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many…that these sins are done away with; that we have no fear; that as our loved ones enter heaven, their sins are gone.  What are they now wearing?  They are wearing robes of white, forgiven and at peace, cleansed in the blood of Christ.  Or as the Psalmist writer says in Psalm 103:  ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Our sins are not on us anymore.

What does that mean for us as we approach Judgment Day, as you have a loved one approaching heaven, or we know about our loved ones who have gone into heaven?  What is that judgment now?  It is no longer based off of our good works.  It never has been.  It’s a judgment of faith.  There still will be judgment that happens but it’s not based off of me.  I’m insufficient.  I can’t do it.  All my good works stacked up, they are like filthy rags.  But Christ says you’re forgiven, that He took upon Himself all the sins that we have committed.  So now the judgment is, do you believe or not?  Do you believe that Christ IS sufficient?  And if He is, that changes things.  You know what is ahead, because that’s what the writer says.  …and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

When you think about elections, there is a lot of fear and anxiety about the results.  I know people like to stay up and watch.  In the past it used to take days, or in the last couple of elections.  It takes days and weeks to figure it out.  Everyone is waiting for the results.  What about Judgment Day?  What about your life and death, life eternal?  You know the results:  It is salvation.  He says Jesus comes a second time, not to bear sins.  He has paid for our sins.  He went to the cross.  When He returns, He will bring salvation.

Does it fill you with joy to think about the end?  It’s not a fear or a worry, but when Jesus comes, if that is the day that this world ends or the day that He calls you home, it means salvation; that there is no fear.  For those of us who believe that Jesus is our Savior, there is no fear.  It is salvation.  He doesn’t come to bear sins.  He has brought us that gift of salvation.

What does that mean for us now, as we live this life like we can live forever?  There is a picture here that explains a little bit that once you have faith, could you say that you have eternal life now?  As you have been baptized and your sins forgiven, in a way, can you say that you now have eternal life?  The whole theme for this series of End Times is Live Like You Will Live Forever.  You do!  Think about every soul that you meet is an eternal soul, someone that is not just for this life but for eternal life, and the importance of sharing this message, to go out and speak to others who are in fear because yes, we have the knowledge.  We know what the result is.  We know where our loved ones are.  They are standing before the throne in those white robes, praising their God, with sins forgiven, with pain removed, eternal and perfect.  Our joy is to go out and share this message of what the results are.

There are so many in the world that are in fear, in doubt and worry of what is ahead.  What is the result?  What is in store for us when death comes?  The joy that we have is we can go with confidence.  We know that there is a campaign with our Savior returning and He is the perfect candidate.  He has redeemed you and forgiven you.  He has done it all.  So we can live a life of thanks and peace, not to earn our way but to share that love and joy and thank Him for what He has done.  With the chance and opportunity to share that good news with others, that they, too, may be confident in the result of what awaits them.  You have life eternal now and life eternal with Christ in heaven because your sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ.  Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ^{(Philippians 4:7)} Amen.