Photo by Dennis Zhang on Unsplash

Audio: iTunes | Spotify

Thursday Outline

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all His holy are with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne; and before Him all nations will be gathered.”

᛭ INI ᛭

Christ “will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead,” and His “kingdom will have no end.” Christ tells us a parable today about what that’ll all look like when it finally happens. The Last Day will be glorious and terrifying. (Did you hear our Epistle?) And “at His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds.” (Athanasian Creed) Believers “will be raised imperishable.” (1-Cor 15) Unbelievers will awake “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12)

Christ gives the picture of a shepherd separating sheep from goats—dividing believers and unbelievers. He is that Shepherd. He is the Son of Man, the One foretold in Daniel 7. When He arrives, He will have all authority, power, dominion, and might. There will be a gathering, and then He’ll speak. He’ll render His judgement.

It’s possible to summarize the Last Day, well, and also all the Last Days, the end times with these two themes. Christ gathers. Christ speaks. And these two main emphases offer us eternal comfort and peace…

(2. Christ gathers all nations before Him.)

First, Christ gathers. He gathers or has His angels gather all nations before Him. This will happen at His Second Coming, of course. At His arrival, from the end of heaven to the end of the earth all people from all times and places, “all peoples, tribes, languages, and tongues.” (Dan 7) All mankind will be judged by Christ, the eternal Son of God. As Christ says, “The Father has given all judgment to His Son because He is the Son of Man.” (Jn 8) Since Christ is both God and Man, He is the perfect One to judge all mankind, not only as God but also as man!

More than that, He’s the one who’s gathered all the sins of mankind into Himself. He is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1) “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to Myself.” (Jn 12) All their sins, for “He is the propitiation for our sins, but not ours only but the sins of the whole world.” (1-Jn 2)

But the gathering of all nations doesn’t just happen on the Last Day. Christ is actively gathering all nations to Himself, including you and me! He’s gathering all nations into His body, the Church, by Holy Baptism. As Christ commands, “Make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 28) This means that Christ, the Son of Man, has already gathered you to Himself. He’s made you His subject, and He is made your Lord. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1-Cor 12) “for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ IHS, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have be clothed with Christ.” (Gal 3)

But this being gathered into Christ by baptism through faith also includes gathering before Christ and His throne. Christ gathers all nations before Him, and we’re part of that each time we gather here. We gather before the throne of God and Christ today! “You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of [righteous] men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” (Heb 12)

To capture this many older churches have altars that look like Christ’s throne on our bulletin cover. That’s even what the design of the sanctuary here is all about. You’re meant to get the sense that you’re before the throne. Which is why, as we’re in a period of the Church Year (now through Advent) when we’re penitentially awaiting the Final Judgment, I’ve started using the altar facing that way (ad orientem).

(Transition.)

So, Christ gathers. He gathers all nations before Him, before His throne—gathers you there, too! That’s the Last Day. That’s now. But what of the comfort and peace? Well, that’s the second part: when He gathers all nations, Christ speaks.

(1. When He gathers all nations, Christ speaks.)

What does Christ speak? On the Last Day He renders judgement, and when He does He speaks two things: pardon and condemnation. He speaks promise and praise to His sheep, who by their works have done nothing wrong. Having been made righteous by faith in Him, the sin that clung to their works was overlooked—forgiven! He speaks woe and guilt to the goats, who by their works have done nothing right! Without faith in Him, there is nothing redeeming about them, nothing forgiven, only guilt remains.

Christ still speaks pardon and condemnation. He condemns us for our lack of action, that we have sinned against God “by what we have left undone.” We always view it as someone else’s responsibility to love our neighbor. They can be someone else’s neighbor. This is especially abhorrent when Christians do this with one another. Letting fellow believers go without because we don’t want to bear the cross, the challenge, the burden for them. Yet, Christ’s Words today are a call to feed and clothe and visit and welcome. We should be that kind of people, for that’s how the earliest Church behaved in Acts 2. As Paul says, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal 6) And doing it for them, you’re doing it for Christ, who is within them.

Let us love one another earnestly, for we have already been given pardon and peace in the suffering and death of Christ. He purchased us from all sins. It is the death of the Good Shepherd that makes the sheep good by faith. He has spoken peace to you, pardon to you, forgiveness to you. You are made His sheep in baptism. He absolves you. “Hear what God the LORD [speaks], For He [speaks] peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.” (Ps 85) Let them not be “As a dog returns [that] to his own vomit, a fool [that] repeats his folly.” (Prov 26:11) A sinner who rejects the Lamb’s redemption (forgiveness of sins) will wind up going “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

For this reason the Lord gathers you around Himself, today—that this would not be your end. Like I said before, He gathers us around His throne today. His throne is at the head of the Table! From His throne He delivers His body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins, that you would be the people, the sheep, He’s claimed you to be. That you “may be enabled constantly to serve.” And you can depart in peace, to live and “serve Him without fear, holy and righteous in His sight, all the days of your life,” as you love and serve in real ways: feeding, clothing, visiting, welcoming.

(Conclusion.)

When it comes to the Final Judgment, Christ gathers and Christ speaks. With the goats, those who rejected Him, it’s condemnation. For the sheep, those who hear His voice and trust in Him, we see that

CHRIST GATHERS [them] BEFORE HIS THRONE TO SPEAK PARDON AND PEACE.

“Come, blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

As we prepare for the final judgment, we rejoice that Christ is indeed the one preparing us for it! For even now,

CHRIST GATHERS YOU BEFORE HIS THRONE TO SPEAK PARDON AND PEACE.

So as we are gathered by the Spirit before the throne today, we’re getting ready to go to the Final Judgment. Some pastor said, “We go to the Sacrament as if we’re going to die, so that when we go to death, it’ll be like going to the Sacrament.” (It’s why we sing the Nunc Dimittis more often than not…) But another way of putting this, and this is why it is importantly to use occasionally even a free standing altar as if it weren’t. It’s so that as we approach this throne for Communion, we’d approach the judgement throne as if it were coming for communion—looking for the Lord’s “pardon and peace,” which is, of course, why the Lord gathers us together in the first place!

CHRIST GATHERS YOU BEFORE HIS THRONE TO SPEAK PARDON AND PEACE.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4)

And He has it: “My body and blood for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

᛭ INI ᛭