The Sunday School teacher smiled at her class because they had listened so attentively to her and exclaimed, “All right class, all those who want to go to heaven, raise your hands.” Everybody in the class had a hand raised, except one boy. “Don’t you want to go to heaven?” asked the teacher. “I can’t” came the reply. “My mother wants me to come straight home after church and I can’t go anywhere without her permission.”

Last time, Richard left us with the incredible truth that Jesus was raised from the dead. Time did not permit Richard to explore the various appearances of Jesus to people, but we do know he appeared to over 500 people on several different occasions. One thing that is clear from the description of Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection, is that He still possessed a recognisable real physical body – after all, he enjoyed having breakfast on the beach with his disciples (who wouldn’t enjoy that!), but there was one crucial difference - this new body was no longer subject to the limitations of time and space that we know our human bodies are limited to.

So now it was time to return to his Father – his work was complete and in Luke’s Gospel, we have the account of how Jesus takes his 11 disciples up the mountain and disappears from their sight. He ascends into heaven to the place where His Father dwells and this event is what we affirm every time in the Apostle’s Creed when we say ‘He ascended into heaven’. Imagine the homecoming party that greeted Him – when I think of this, I imagine this! (play excerpt) – all of heaven singing Handel’s ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ from Messiah as his welcome home fanfare! But the Creed doesn’t finish there, because the best is yet to come!

Now, how many of you have been to a concert or event at the Royal Albert Hall? Like any concert hall, there are a range of seats to choose from. If you want, you can sit way up high in the gods where all the performers look like ants and you need the Hubble telescope to see what they’re doing, or you can often sit in the choir stall behind the stage where you get the best possible view of all the performer’s backsides! Some of the best seats however, are the boxes, and the best of all is perhaps this box (picture of Royal Box?). Now, if you didn’t know the layout of the seating in the Royal Albert Hall, and the restrictions that sitting in some seats brings, then you might not hear, see or understand all that’s going on, on stage. In a similar way, because we do not live in the same culture as the early Christians did, because we do not share the same worldview as they did, it is all to easy to miss the significance of what is meant when we declare next in the Apostle’s Creed that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. So what does this mean when placed in its original context?

Well if you had lived in Roman society, you would have known that the location of where you sat in the presence of an emperor was indicative of your rank and importance in his court. So, if you sat at the emperor’s right-hand, not only did you possess one of the best seats in the house (like sitting in the Royal box in the Royal Albert Hall) - a statement in itself of a place of extreme importance, but it also served as a visual reminder to all that you shared the emperor’s political and military power – in other words, the words you spoke carried the same weight as if the emperor had spoken them himself.

And so, by using the picture language of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father, the Apostle’s Creed is making the statement to all that Jesus is unequivocally God because unlike the exercise of human authority which is open to anyone, no one but God can share in the exercise of his power and might. Not even Simon Peter or the Apostle Paul can play this part! Only Jesus is able to do this. And what are his credentials for this? As we discovered a few weeks ago, Jesus, the Word of God has always been, before He took on flesh and became human - He who lived on earth, teaching and demonstrating the power of God and who fulfilled his purpose to reconcile us to God through dying for us, He who has ascended to heaven again - it is He and no other who can sit at the right hand of the Father. And inherent within this position comes the most enormous, gigantic, earth-shattering eternal implications for the whole of humanity, and guess what, we’re told what these are in the next line of the creed which reads ‘He will come to judge the living and the dead.’

So, not only has Jesus ascended into heaven to be with the Father again, not only does Jesus sit at the right hand of the Father exercising authority, but now we’re told that he will be coming again to earth. Now, most of us if asked could share something of Jesus’ first coming – the church celebrates this with much excitement every December…but let me ask you, have you ever stopped to think about what Jesus’ second coming is going to be like?

The New Testament is filled with many descriptions of some of the hallmarks of his second coming. For instance in verse 16 of our reading, we read ‘For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.’

Have you ever compared this picture of Jesus’ second coming with his first coming? It’s such a massive contrast. Think about it for a moment: A baby, poverty, a manger, a cave in Bethlehem the first time; but the second time, Jesus will appear in all his heavenly glory and majesty – the first time was a rather meek and a quiet occasion – but his second coming will be glorious and triumphant – what a contrast! So we celebrate Jesus coming again, but why is Jesus coming again – is He coming for a picnic? No because Jesus is coming to judge. Why is He coming to judge? Why do we even need judging?

The answer in a nutshell is because of sin and evil, and it is only through Jesus’ second coming that evil will at long last be banished forever. Now, it’s probably true to say that one of the biggest questions that Christians have to deal with is the presence and problem of evil in the world. Yes it’s true that through his death on the cross, Jesus dealt with the penalty and power of sin once and for all, but life is still a struggle because we live in a world tainted by evil, from which we cannot escape. As such, while it does not undermine the work of Jesus, the victory of the cross can only see its ultimate completion in the second coming of Jesus.

Let me illustrate this for you. Some have likened this to events in the Second World War. When D-Day took place, the Allies knew they were going to win the war, but some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles had yet to be fought, especially by many of the enemy who fought on in full knowledge that they had already lost the war. In the same way, Christ’s achievement on the cross, which we remember [as we come round the communion table shortly,] is like D-Day. Evil we know has been defeated, but the war continues. And the second coming is like VE day – the day the war finally ended – this day is the day when Jesus will come again to end evil’s domination of this world. But the reality between now and then is that there will always be a struggle because Satan knows his days are numbered and he continues to fight on.

In our Newspapers, we read every day of the evil being perpetrated in our world and this is the reason why Jesus will come again – to finally put an end to all of this. As such, regardless of who you are – whether you’re a believer or not, whether you’re living or have already died, we are told all people will be judged – there are no exceptions to this rule.

Think of it this way: how many of you have played Monopoly? How many of you have received a ‘Get out of jail free’ card? Now if you’re about to be sent to Jail, it makes sense to play it, so you avoid jail – in other words, if you’re in possession of the appropriate information or free pass, you can avoid the consequences. In contrast, there is absolutely no way whatsoever that you or I can avoid God’s judgement - there are no excuses, there are no cards that we can play that will fast-track us past God’s judgement.

As Paul reminds us in Romans 14:10 ‘For we will all stand before God’s judgement seat’ and then in verse 12: ‘each of us will give an account of himself to God.’ Despite the many beautiful, lovely, gentle, tender and loving things Jesus said, this has a sting about it. Let me ask you, does the thought of judgement scare you?

On one hand it should scare us in that it reminds us all to watch our lives and what we think, say and do so closely! On the other hand, it shouldn’t scare us, because if we know Jesus as our Saviour and can call Him Lord, then it will be a day of great joy – a day when Jesus will say to us welcome friend. In contrast, for the non-believer, that day will be a day full of fear.

This concept can be hard for so many people to grasp, because they like to think that it really doesn’t matter what you believe in, after all, God is a God of love and all will be welcomed unconditionally because all paths lead to God. But Scripture tells us in John 14:6 that Jesus said ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If your really knew me, you would know my Father as well.’ This is the truth of the Christian faith – this is the truth contained in the Apostle’s Creed – this is the truth that should both encourage and urge us to action to ensure that the day of judgement can be a day of joy all we know - our family, friends, neighbours and all who live in this world.

Today, the challenge is do we allow the truth that Jesus is returning as judge to affect our lives and the way we live – because it should. Can I encourage you this week to live your lives with a greater awareness of Christ’s return and a passion to make him known?