Michael Youssef - The Resurrection and the Judgement

This kind of confusion that we see in our culture today is reminiscent of an incident that the Bible talks about when the Apostle Paul was in the city of Athens in Greece. He found himself thoroughly confused. Two thousand years later, Western civilization and Western culture are entering into a post-Christian era. In fact, some would probably call it an anti-Christian era. The third part is this: Without the Christian faith, society will plunge into dark ages. The Christian faith always brings about civilization.

Turn with me, if you haven’t already, to Acts chapter 17. The Apostle Paul finds himself in the city of Athens all alone. At this point in history, Greece has passed its peak; it was on the decline, just like our Western civilization today. False religions were rampant throughout Greek culture. The last thing these Athenians needed— the last thing—was another philosopher. They were up to their eyeballs with philosophers; the last thing they needed was another fangled teaching about something new. They were knee-deep in false teaching; the last thing they needed was a new religion. They were swimming in all sorts of false religions. What they desperately needed is what our culture needs today: the need to know the truth about the only one who can save them—the only one, the only one true God, who revealed himself fully and completely in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son.

So, he stands on that hill. I stood on that hill a couple of times. It’s right across from the Acropolis. It’s an amazing feeling when you stand there, knowing what the Apostle Paul went through. After he got their attention, he began to tell them about the God of heaven and earth—the God who rose from the dead after three days of being buried; the God who is their only hope for escaping the judgment that is coming upon the world. Paul’s message is very simple, really simple. And the problem is they stumbled over its simplicity. What is it? That the resurrection of Jesus is the proof that he is the only one true God who became man, and that he is coming back to be the judge of the world. The Athenians have turned tolerance into careless indifference; they have turned compassion into compromise. They have turned their need for the one true God into some sort of a mishmash of accepting all kinds of false gods and false religions.

Verse 22: «Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.» Probably somebody here or watching around the world would say, «Michael, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t it good that they’re religious?» No, it is not, because religion kills, but Jesus gives life. Listen, to be sure, everyone in the world is religious. Did you know that everyone is religious? Because everyone worships something or someone. Some people worship self, some people worship money, some people worship sports, and some people worship nature. They’re all like the Athenians of old in Paul’s day—they worship something. Paul said, «As I look around, I saw objects of your worship.» These are statues that have been erected in that Mars Hill area near the Acropolis. He looked at all these statues and saw all the names on these statues. And then he said, «I noticed that just to play it safe, you’ve decided that there must be a God somewhere that you don’t know about. There must be a God somewhere we’ve never heard of.» In order to play it safe, so he doesn’t punish you or doesn’t judge you, out of fear of that god, you have erected a statue calling it to the unknown God. They’re covering all their bases.

Are you thinking that this is a new thing? It’s not. I had a very dear Jewish friend I spent a lot of time with. In fact, many times we were on the treadmill next to each other. He calls himself an agnostic. I would share Christ with him, and I shared history with him; I shared even scientific arguments with him. Until one day he said to me, «I tell you what, I think you’re going to be very happy to know that in my car, I have a rosary that was blessed by Pope John Paul II.» And I said, «But you told me you’re agnostic!» He said, «Sure, every little bit helps. Every little bit helps.» «Every little bit helps» was the motto of these Athenians that Paul was confronting two thousand years ago. They were so worried that there’s some sort of a god somewhere that they have not heard about. So, they just erected a statue and they worshiped this unknown god. In fact, it was said of ancient Greece that they had more gods than men. Think about that. They were forever inventing new gods.

In the 21st century, listen to me, my beloved friends, in the 21st century, we have many who are like the Epicureans of old. They believe that pleasure is what life is all about. We have many others who are like the Stoics of old; they believe in self-sufficiency. And that is represented in the victor’s poem, «I am the master of my fate and I am the captain of my soul.» And that’s precisely why Paul’s message in Acts 17 on Mars Hill is absolutely the most needed message in our culture today. Amen. It is needed for our generation. What was that message? Your eternal life depends on your surrender to the resurrected Jesus. Your eternal future rests on the belief and the surrender to the resurrected Jesus. Whatever religion, whatever object of worship, whatever philosophy you are pursuing, it will lead you to ruin—not only in this life but for all of eternity. Only the resurrected, glorified, and soon-coming-back judge, Jesus, can bless you both in this life and for all of eternity.

Oh, my beloved friends, this is the only Easter message that is worthy of your consideration. Verse 24: «The God who made the world and everything in it.» Oops, they never heard of him. «The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by men, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives all people life and breath and everything they have.» He gives everything, whether they know it or not, whether they believe it or not. He is the God of power and might; he is the God of glory. He’s the God who revealed himself to Israel—now he’s revealing himself to the world. Look at this verse with me, please: «The times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent.»

You say, «Why?» I’m glad you asked. It’s a good question because he set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he appointed, and by this he assured us by raising him from the dead. Here’s the message in all of its simplicity: up to this point in your life, up to this point before you’re hearing the message of the resurrected Christ, in the past—whether you knew Jesus or not; in the past—whether you believed in Jesus or not; in the past—whether you knew that Jesus is the only way to heaven and to the Father or not; in the past—whether you believed in the resurrection or not; in the past—whether you comprehended that he is the way, the truth, and the life or not; in the past ignorance or not—even if you did not know it doesn’t matter—that time God has overlooked. But now, as of this day when you’ve heard the message of the resurrected Jesus, when you’ve heard the good news of the gospel, from now on you know that there’s only one option if you want to save your soul: repent of your sin. Repent of your unbelief. Repent of your indifference. Repent of your ignoring God’s message to you that’s been speaking to you in a variety of ways for so long. Repent of your hesitancy to commit your life to him and come to him that he might bless you out of your socks.

Now that’s a rough translation, but you get the meaning: as of this Easter Sunday and going forward in your life, turn around from your dark and dreary road on which you’ve been traveling. Turn around from pursuing false philosophies. Turn around while you can. Turn around before it’s too late. Turn around and receive God’s mercy while it is found. Turn around and experience the grace of God while it is possible. For the time is coming where the one resurrected Jesus, who wants to be your Savior and your friend now, will be your judge. The time is coming when everyone who has rejected him as Savior, friend, and redeemer will have to stand before the bench and face him as judge. Amen.

Why? Good question. Why? Why can’t I just believe whatever I want to believe and get away with it? Why? Why can’t I just believe that if I’m a good person, God will have no choice but to accept me? Why can’t I just think I can do my best and then God will have to accept me? First of all, we don’t make the rules. If you have a kid in school who goes up to the headmaster and says, «I don’t like this idea of coming to school at 8:30 in the morning. I want to come at 10:30 in the morning. I want to sleep in,» we know what happens. God makes the rules, and God said in his word that there is no one—not one, other than Jesus—who is good. That’s right—no one. None of us. Not this pastor. Nobody. We are all born with our backs to God; we are born to say no to God.

And so, God made a way to remedy the situation—only one way. He didn’t say, «Well, here’s a variety of ways—choose your way.» No, no, no. There is one way and only one way: his Son, who coexisted with him in the Holy Trinity. The Son, the second member of the Holy Trinity, left heaven because he loved us enough. He came from heaven to earth as the only perfect person who ever lived, the only sinless person who ever lived, so that he can redeem repented sinners like me. Jesus died to redeem everyone—everyone who would come to him in faith, believing in him and repenting of their sins. Then he rose again to assure every one of his believers of their own resurrection in heaven.

My friend, make no mistake about it: all the so-called founders of other religions are all dead and in their tombs. And because of that empty tomb, not only does it set him apart, as we sang, he has no equal. He has no rival, and nobody even comes close. Not only does it set him apart, but he commands everyone everywhere to repent and turn to him. Don’t miss this; please don’t miss this. Don’t miss this: he said God commands everyone everywhere. He didn’t say, «Well, God just requests» or «God suggests.» «Oh, God really recommends that everyone—» No, no, no, no, no, no. Why? Because his resurrection power qualified him to be the only judge of the universe. Because of his resurrection power, he’s the only one who has the authority to command. Yes.

So, you can either thankfully accept the gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life or not. The choice is yours. Some of you here in this beautiful sanctuary, many of you who are watching around the world, some of you are angry with me right now and you’ll be saying to me, «I don’t like this business that I have to accept Jesus as my only Savior and Lord of my life to be saved.» Others may be totally indifferent, saying, «Yeah, so what? So Jesus rose from the dead, so what?» Totally indifferent. You don’t care if this is your last warning or not. You don’t care if God is speaking to you and trying to get your attention or not. You don’t care about the resurrection or the judgment of God that is coming. Please, please, please, I plead with you: do not blame the manufacturer. Do not blame the warning that your creator and your maker and your redeemer is giving you. Don’t just shrug and say, «Who cares?» Eternity is a very, very, very long time. Trust your creator; trust your maker. Trust in the one who loved you enough to die on the cross for you.

But then, there may be others here, or watching again around the world at the sound of my voice, who are living a stressed-out life, who are experiencing emotional depression and don’t know how to get out of it. There are probably some questioning the very meaning of life. Today, I tell you on the authority of God’s word that the one who rose from the dead can meet you at your very point of need. He knows your need and he wants to meet that need. Only Jesus can do that. The church cannot; pastors cannot; no one can. Only Jesus can, and he can do that today—here and now—and give you meaning in your meaningless life.

I want to tell you something for those visitors here. I know Easter always brings visitors, and I’m so grateful to the Lord for bringing you here. You are welcome; we love it when we have visitors, and I’m so glad you’re here—so glad you’re here. In this church, we have no small print. Are you with me? You know how advertisements give you all the stuff, and then there’s the little tiny small print, but only if you have qualified and you have to come there in the middle of the night on Tuesday every second Tuesday? No small print in this church. We have no small print.

So I’m not saying that the moment you commit your life to Christ, all of your problems are going to be over. That would not be true to the word of God. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that in 1964, when I committed my life to Christ, my problems started. But here’s what I promise you on the authority of God’s word: that the power of the one who rose from the dead, when you surrender to him, he will sustain you. He will lift you up above the difficulties of circumstances. He will elevate your vision above all of the challenges of life. He will help you to keep your eyes on your eternal home. Yes, he will. For those of us who’ve experienced life without Christ, and then now we’re experiencing life with Christ, hands down—we would never want to go back. Never want to go back.

The times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent. Question: Why does he command us? Oh, because he loves us enough not to leave us in a life of purposelessness. I want to tell you this as I conclude. I pray to God that if the Holy Spirit has spoken to you wherever you are, that you would not leave your seat today without coming to Christ, receiving him as Savior and Lord, and then telling somebody about it. Come and tell us about it.

Many of you have seen the Titanic movie, the old one and the newer one. I assume everybody, probably, at the sound of my voice knows about the Titanic. But what you probably don’t know is that after the sinking of the Titanic, the families and friends of the passengers who were on that terrible ship—the loved ones—they all flocked to the head office of the company that owned the Titanic, White Star Line, in Liverpool, England. They came from all over and filled the streets in front of the head office there. Not just a street in the front, but streets on the side. Everywhere anyone could find a place to stand, they were happy to come. They wanted to know if their loved ones made it or if they drowned in the Atlantic.

The company officials put two signs on each side of the door of their head office. One sign read the names of those who are known to be saved, and on the other side it says the names of those who have perished. Two categories, two signs—no third. Every now and then, one of the company officials would come with a cardboard with a name on it and he would hold that cardboard up so everybody could read it; everybody could see it. They said that every time a person came out with that name on a cardboard, even though there were masses of people, there was deathly silence. Deathly silence. People were literally holding their breath to see which side the name is going to hang— is it among those who are saved or those who perished? Two categories, no third.

Oh, my beloved friend, in far greater ways, in far greater ways, in far more eternal ways, on the day of judgment, there are going to be two signs, two categories of people: the saved and the lost-no third. Which side will your name be on? Which side will you be on?