A Call to Loving Service
(Matthew 25:31-46)
I. God Calls Us to Loving Service
II. God Calls Us to Simple Service
III. God Will Judge Us Based on Our Loving Service
IV. God Will Bless Our Loving Service
Introduction
One day while walking with some children, Queen Mary was caught in a sudden shower. Quickly taking shelter on the porch of a home, she knocked at the door and asked to borrow an umbrella. “I’ll send it back tomorrow,” she said. The queen had deliberately disguised her appearance by putting on a hat that partly covered her face and by wearing some very plain clothes. The homeowner, reluctant to give a stranger her best umbrella, offered her a castoff she found in the attic. One rib was broken and there were several holes in it. Apologizing, she turned it over to the monarch, whom she did not recognize.
The next day she had another visitor—in man with gold braid on his uniform and an envelope in his hand. “The queen sent me with this letter,” he said, “and also asked me to thank you personally for the loan of your umbrella.” Stunned, the woman burst into tears. “Oh, what an opportunity I missed that did not give my very best,” she cried.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells His disciples a parable with a similar twist. The point of the parable is simple and clear: God will judge us based on our caring service in the face of human need. Please turn it in your Bibles to Matthew 25:31-46 (p. 739)
This parable teaches us four basic truths concerning God’s call to service which He places upon the life of every believer.
God Call Us to Loving Service
The first truth we see in this parable is that God calls us to loving service.
We serve a God who is described as being a loving God. One of the most familiar verses in the Bible—one that many of us have committed to memory—begins, For God so loved the world… (John 3:16). And in John’s first epistle he writes, God is love (4:16). Next to holiness, love is at the very core of who God is.
But the word love, as it is used to describe God, is not merely feelings of sentiment or warm streams of emotion that overwhelm Him experientially. It’s not the love we see portrayed on TV or in the Hollywood productions—just some “primal purge.” When the word love is used in association with God, you will also find an accompanying action. Let’s consider the words of John 3:16 once again: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
God’s love is a demonstrative love. He does not merely say, “I love you,” but along with those words is the proof. The love of God is living and active. It is tangible and easily recognized. When God’s love is poured out, there is no mistaking it.
Our God is the God of love, and he expects us, his children, to be loving as well. Just as we are reflections of our human parents, mirroring them in our appearance in mannerisms, so too, we are to be reflections of our heavenly Father, imitating Him in our actions and attitudes. As one commentator has pointed out, “the real evidence of our belief is the way we act” (LAB, Notes, p. 1707).
The God of love calls us to loving service. It is not enough for us to meet together once a week to confess to one another that we are children of God. We are expected to live as His children and act out our faith in Him. Just as He is a God of giving and sacrifice, so too, we are to give, sacrifice and serve others. We should keep in mind that “what we do for others demonstrates what we really think about Jesus’ words” (LAB, Notes, p. 1707). How well and how lovingly we spend ourselves on behalf of others is the only true evidence of our faith in Him and His words. Again to quote from 1 John, This is love for God: to obey his commands (5:3). God calls, He commands, us to loving service.
God Calls Us to Simple Service
The second truth found in this parable is that God calls us to simple service. Note the activities that Jesus mentions here: feeding the hungry; giving drink to the thirsty; showing hospitality to strangers; clothing of the naked; caring for the sick; and visiting the imprisoned. “This parable describes acts of mercy we all can do every day. These acts do not depend on wealth, ability, or intelligence; they are simple acts freely given and freely received” (LAB, Notes, p. 1707). Any one of us could easily be involved in a number of these simple acts of kindness without stressing our time, money or strength. Jesus does not tell us to fix all the world’s problems in one shot; rather He invites us to make a difference in a simple fashion: one person at a time.
You’ll also notice that Jesus equates our acts of kindness on behalf of those in need around us as acts of kindness given to Him. V. 25 states, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer correctly interprets this saying of Christ as, “in Jesus, the service of God and the service of the least of the brethren were one.”
A nineteenth century painting shows a long row of beggars waiting in a soup line. They are all ragged and sleazy looking. But around the head of one, barely perceptible, is a halo. One of them is Christ! You may see no halo around the heads of your brothers and sisters in need, yet to serve them is to serve Christ, for the King is hidden in them.
While it is true that the type of service we are called by God to engage in is simple, that is not to say that is without cost to us. The acts which Christ mentions in this passage all have a ring of personal compassion, and require more than simply writing a check to charity. The call of God to simple service is the call to become personally involved in the lives of those who are hurting and to touch them with our lives.
It is clear from this parable that Jesus is, in fact, warning us to help the helpless. Yet many Christians, including myself at times, have resisted obeying this scripture—except for giving very limited help to our own families and friends.
Chuck Colson tells about an occasion when he was preaching in a conservative church. At one point in his sermon he said, “I believe in the literal truth of the scripture and the authority of the Bible.” In response to that statement, choruses of “Amens” roared through the sanctuary. But he went on to recall, “Later I referred passionately to Christ’s words that we are to visit those in prison. The sanctuary was silent.”
The great Alliance preacher and renowned Christian author, A. W. Tozer, makes this observation: “Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have done!... In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much I have given but how much I have left after I made my gift… Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all! No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice” (Renewed, 2/19).
Ted Engstrom tells about cleaning out a desk drawer and finding an old flashlight. It wouldn’t work. The batteries were badly corroded. He realized he had put the flashlight in a warm and comfortable spot, but that it wasn’t intended to be warm and comfortable. It was intended to give light.
He says, “It’s the same with us. We weren’t created to be warm, safe and comfortable. You and I were made to be turned on—to put our lives to work, to apply our patience in difficult, trying situations—to let our light shine” (The Pursuit of Excellence). God calls us to let our light shine—through acts of simple service.
God Will Judge Us Based on Our Loving Service
The third truth contained in this parable is that God will judge us based on our loving service. Jesus used the images of sheep and goats to describe two different groups of people based on how well they served those who were in need around them. He said that the sheep were those who saw the needy around them and responded to their needs in acts of loving service. The goats, on the other hand, were those who also saw the needs around them, but failed to act to alleviate the suffering they witnessed. As a result of their decisions, each was accorded what was due them—to the sheep was given great reward; to the goats a harsh judgment.
I want you to note the surprise of the sheep, who could not recall ever having helped the King in His moment of distress. You should also note the surprise of the goats, who could not recall ever having passed by the King in His distress. Neither the sheep nor the goats had ever equated the hungry and the homeless with the King. All they saw was either the suffering who needed help and acted compassionately toward them or the “rabble” just looking for a handout and turned the other way, surmising that their plight was what they deserved.
I can’t help but imagine especially the look on the faces of the ones who had neglected to aid those who were suffering around them. As the King pronounced His judgment on them and explained that every act of kindness or neglect thereof was directed toward Him personally, I can almost hear them protest, “But I gave to this charity or that one. I dropped my change in the pot outside the store last Christmas.” Or they might have tried to justify or excuse themselves by saying, “I pay my taxes. I put money in the offering plate at church. I did my part; it was up to those institutions to distribute the funds properly. It’s not my fault.” However, as I pointed out earlier, we have a responsibility to be personally and intimately involved in our giving. It is loving service, not gift giving that we are called to do. “We have no excuse to neglect those who have deep needs, and we cannot hand over this responsibility to the church or government. Jesus demands our personal involvement” (LAB, Notes, p. 1707). It is also worth noting that the ones whom the King was speaking to did not have the advantage of the lessons of this parable, but we do. This parable puts us on notice.
The story is told of a young boy in the ghetto being teased by someone who said, “If God loves you, why doesn’t He take care of you? Why doesn’t God tell someone to bring you shoes and a warm coat and better food?” The young boy thought for a moment, and then with tears starting in his eyes, said, “I guess He does tell somebody, but somebody forgets.” I believe that there are many individuals that God places along our paths to help. I believe that He has chosen us to be the answer to much of the suffering that takes place all around us. And I believe that God will call us into account for those opportunities—offering us blessing or judgment. God will judge us based on our loving service.
God Will Bless Our Loving Service
The final truth we can learn from this parable is that God will bless our loving service. In a world full of great problems, we might think that our small, personal service is not meaningful. We might wonder if our service can really make a difference. I know it sounds wonderful to feed the hungry and help the helpless, but I also know that often times our efforts to help those in need can lead to great frustration. Even Albert Schweitzer, the great missionary to Africa, got discouraged. He reported the following incident:
One day, in my despair, I threw myself into a chair in the consulting room and groaned out, “What a blockhead I was to come here to doctor savages like these!” Whereupon, Joseph, his friend quietly remarked, “Yes, doctor, here on earth you are a great blockhead, but not in heaven.”
We may not receive the pats on the back, or the praise, or the feelings of accomplishment we would like as we serve those in need, but those acts do not go unnoticed and they do bring blessing both to us and to those whom we serve.
About 25 years ago, Cruz and Debbe Santiago met at Coney Island beach in New York City. They were homeless. They were addicted to drugs. They were experimenting with witchcraft. They were involved in gangs. They lived in the meager shelter underneath the Coney Island boardwalk. That was their home, except when they were in jail. Jail was their second home—their home away from home.
Then, one evening when Debbe was in jail, something happened. It was a little thing—such a little thing that you wouldn’t think it would make a big difference—but it did. The little thing that made a big difference was a Bible. A jail matron handed Debbe a Bible.
What about that matron? Did she expect her two-dollar Bible to make a difference? She had given Bibles to prisoners before. She had seen them leave without changing. She probably felt like you and I feel sometimes—that we do our best, but nothing happens. Perhaps she still feels that way, because Debbe didn’t change either—not right away.
While she was in jail, Debbe read the Bible. She read it every day. It fascinated her—and what else did she have to do? But then she fell into using drugs again. She ended up in the hospital in a coma. She woke up to the hissing rhythm of the respirator at death’s door. She woke up to the path of death on which she was walking. She had been there before. But this time it was different, because she had been reading the Bible. This time she knew what to do. This time, she asked God to release her from the drugs—and He did. This time, she dedicated her life to Christ—and Christ made the difference.
When she was released from the hospital, Debbe went to the jail to visit Cruz. Cruz noticed the difference. He said, “She was clean. She talked about the Lord. She left me a Bible.” Cruz became a Christian. In 1988, Cruz and Debbe were married.
But there’s more! (If Paul Harvey were telling this story, he would say, “And now the rest of the story!”) The rest of the story is that Cruz and Debbe started the “Salt and the Sea Mission” near Coney Island. They’re helping people just like the people they used to be—homeless, addicted, headed for jail. They preach the gospel. They feed anyone in need—60 on an ordinary day—hundreds at Thanksgiving. They operate a latchkey program. They help 350 children in a nearby welfare hotel. Every Sunday after church, they walked down to the beach—and poke into the secluded places—and give people a piece of bread—and give them the Bread of Life.
All because a jail matron gave a Bible to a junkie. All because a woman kept on handing out Bibles! God will bless our loving service.
Conclusion
We see in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, four truths about how God expects us to live out our lives as His children. He calls us to loving service. He calls us to simple service. He will judge us based on our loving service. And He will bless our loving service. To live the way that God calls us to is not an easy task. But when we live with the attitude that every act of kindness is a direct service to Christ and that we will be rewarded by Him, we will find sufficient energy and drive to meet the needs that come our way.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, wrote a challenging poem that I would like for you to listen to closely and etch upon your hearts:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
May this be the way in which we live and are recognized by those we meet each day.
