OPEN: One night a woman dreamed that she was having a conversation with God. She was angry about all the suffering and evil she saw around her, so she complained to the Lord. “God, why don’t You do something about all this?”
God gently replied: “I did. I created you.”
APPLY: Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to talk about a concept we’re calling our W.A.T.S. series: We Are The Sermon
Here in Matthew 25, Jesus is telling His followers that He wanted them to be a sermon. He wanted them to be walking, talking, living, breathing sermons
I. Now, this is one of the hallmarks of Jesus ministry. This is what He did.
When the crowds were gathered around Him, Jesus said: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
In the book of Acts, Peter tells us “how (Jesus) went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38
And Luke tells us Jesus taught His followers: “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” Luke 14:13
Jesus taught this.
He lived this.
He modeled this.
And He conducted His ministry in this way because that was what God had ALWAYS said He wanted of His people:
In Proverbs 19:17 God promises us that “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.”
Proverbs 22:9 says “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”
And Psalms 41:1-3 gets really explicit by promising: “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”
Being kind to the poor and downtrodden was central to what God had always asked of His people. In fact, this was so expected by God that He condemned those who failed to it.
When we think of Sodom and Gomorrah, we think they were destroyed because of the sin of homosexuality. And that was part of their wickedness.
But the prophet Ezekiel told Israel there was more to their iniquity than just that one sin:
“…this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” Ezekiel 16:49
Proverbs 21:13 tells us “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
ILLUS: One person observed how prevalent this truth was in Scripture, and so he rewrote Matthew 25 in this way:
I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger.
I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.
You seem so close to God; but I am still very hungry, and lonely, and cold.
The person who wrote that, realized that if we only talk about doing good for Christ - the result is an empty and powerless faith.
II. Now, before we go any further, there’s one issue about this passage that troubled me as I was preparing this message.
If you were to simply read Jesus’ comments here in Matthew 25:31-46, you might get the impression that Jesus was teaching that good works can buy your salvation.
Jesus tells one group that because they…
· fed the hungry
· gave drink to the thirsty
· gave a bed to strangers
· clothed the naked
· looked after the sick
· visited those in prison
… they were going to heaven.
Then He tells the others that because THEY DIDN’T practice those kinds of things they were going to hell.
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots and say:
“Hey! If I do enough good deeds, I can get into heaven!”
In fact, this is the teaching of every world religion - except for Christianity.
By contrast: Christianity has always taught that:
“(Jesus) saved us, NOT BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUS THINGS WE HAD DONE, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” Titus 3:5
Ephesians 2:8-9 says “… it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast.”
In other words, you can’t buy your way into heaven by doing good deeds - which is a good thing, because it would drive us nuts trying to figure out if we’d ever done enough to be acceptable.
So, if that’s true (if we can’t buy our way into heaven) what is Jesus telling us in Matthew 25?
(pause…)
He’s telling us that if we are His children, we will be known by our good deeds.
In Matthew 7:16-20 Jesus said:
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
ILLUS: A couple of years ago, I had a e-mail correspondence with an atheist. He intended to challenge me on the supposed advantages of Christianity. In the course of his arguments, he maintained that the church failed miserably in Nazi Germany. And I’m sure he was right… at least partially.
Sometime after that e-mail, I ran across some comments by Albert Einstein. Einstein was not a Christian, in fact he was born a Jew. But he had seen first hand what took place in Germany in those terrible years, and he observed:
“Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.”
(Arthur Cochrane "The Church’s Confession under Hitler" - Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1962 -indicates his source: Wilhelm Niemoller in "Kampf und Zeugnis der bekennenden Kirche" p.526)
Now, bear in mind, Einstein was not a Christian. In fact, from what I’ve read about him lately, he wasn’t even a good Jew. And yet, Einstein recognized the significance of the church, because the church stood up for righteousness. The church stood up on behalf of the weak and the downtrodden.
By it’s fruits, Einstein recognized it.
In Matthew 25, Jesus is telling us what Christians will look like.
He said they will…
· feed the hungry
· give drink to the thirsty
· give a bed to strangers
· clothe the naked
· look after the sick
· visit those in prison
This is how you’ll recognize the followers of Christ.
But there will be those who will CLAIM to be Christians - but they WON’T do things like that. In Matthew 25, Jesus is essentially saying: “if you’re not BEARING My fruit, you’re not really WEARING My name.”
It’s the difference between fake Christianity - and real Christianity
ILLUS: (have a vase of fake flowers.)
This is a vase of artificial flowers. I personally like fake flowers. I don’t have to water them, I don’t have to fertilize them. I just stick them in the ground and their beauty will last forever.
But they have a few shortcomings. They can’t reproduce. They have no life nor aroma of their own. They’re fakes.
That was the difference between the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. If you didn’t know a lot about sheep and goats, you might believe that there wasn’t much difference between the two.
The goats kinda looked like the sheep. But they were a mere imitation of the real thing. They didn’t have God’s kind of life in them…the kind of life that produced the aroma of selflessness and sacrifice for others.
(pause…) There’s one more application to be found in REAL flowers.
Do any of you grow plants and flowers? Tell me, if a plant doesn’t have flowers on it – is it still a rose or a rhododendron? Of course it is.
That’s because the flower is the fruit of a plant… it’s not the root. Even if there were no visible flower on the plant, it would still be a rose/dandelion or a rhododendron.
My point is this:
Good deeds are THE FRUIT of your salvation
THEY ARE NOT THE ROOT of your salvation
Good deeds don’t MAKE you a Christian.
But IF you’re a real Christian…they’ll be the flower of your faith.
III. Some Christians might become anxious at this point.
They might ask: “What if I’m not doing enough good deeds to please God?”
Now, it’s possible to ask the wrong questions in this life. And that is the wrong question.
The question should be: “Since good deeds please God… how can I do more of them?
The first question is born of fear and apprehension.
The 2nd is born of love and expectation.
That’s because God’s kind of good deeds are those which are a reflection of our love for God.
ILLUS: Shortly after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter was undergoing a crisis of faith. He had denied Jesus 3 times he had failed the master that he had said he loved and would die to protect.
I believe that in his humiliation, Peter actually thought it would be better to return to fishing than to risk disappointing Jesus ever again.
I think that’s why Jesus sat down beside Peter at a fish fry and He said
"Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
Peter do you love Me? Then do the things you know will please Me.
Do YOU love God? Well, then you’ll do things that you know will please Him.
IV. Like I said earlier - this is our W.A.T.S. (We Are The Sermon) series
And our desire is to create an atmosphere where we can ALL experiment with new ways to please God.
In your bulletin, you’ll see a list of possible places to serve. You are not limited to those. I’m open to any additional suggestions you might have. But later this month we’re going to set aside a couple of Saturdays to go out and volunteer at one or more of these organizations.
The sign up sheet is back on the table in front of the sound booth.
You might ask, why am I encouraging us to set aside a day and do this all together?
Why can’t I just go out and do all this on my own?
Well, I’m doing it this way because – when we work at this together – we’ll be able to encourage each other in our service.
ILLUS: There’s a story about a man who’d driven his car into a ditch in a desolate area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his horse named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, “Pull, Nellie, pull!”
But Buddy didn’t move.
Once more the farmer hollered, “Pull, Nellie, pull!” Buddy didn’t respond.
The farmer repeated this action again, with the same results.
THEN the farmer nonchalantly said, “Pull, BUDDY, pull!” And the horse finally dragged the car out of the ditch.
The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.
The farmer said, “Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn’t even try.”
The beauty of pulling together on this project is that we’ll encourage each other (as Hebrews says) unto love and good works.
CLOSE: During World War II, a church building in Strasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, the members surveyed the area to see what damage was done. They were pleased that a statue of Christ with outstretched hands was still standing. It had been sculpted centuries before by a great artist.
Taking a closer look, the people discovered both hands of Christ had been sheared off by a falling beam. Later, a sculptor in the town offered to replace the broken hands as a gift to
the church. The church leaders met to consider the offer and decided not to accept it. They felt the statue without hands spoke to them of the fact that Jesus had called them to be His hands and to minister to others.
