11/24/19 Matt. 25:31-46 “Do You Measure Up?”

22 Nov 11/24/19 Matt. 25:31-46 “Do You Measure Up?”

11/24/19    Matt. 25:31-46      “Do You Measure Up?”

We are shifting back to the New Testament this week as we look at a very famous passage in Matthew.  Although this looks pretty straight forward, there has been a lot of misunderstanding here.  Some people want to think that Jesus is pointing to doing good works that will get you into heaven.  And that really isn’t the case at all.  Today we are going to peel back the onion a little as we take a look at how our salvation by faith and works are related.  Hopefully, by the time we get done you will see how you cannot have one without the other.

We begin with an old cobbler story by an unknown author.  Conrad, the cobbler, lived in Europe and he had a very vivid dream one night where the Master (Jesus) would come and visit him in his shoe shop.  The next morning he was up early and he cleaned his shop.  Then he made breads and cakes in anticipation of this visit.  As the day went by Conrad saw an old man outside in the cold with no shoes.  He felt compassion and had the old man come in and warm himself.  He gave him a pair of shoes.  Then he continued to wait for Jesus.  There came a knock on his door and there stood an old woman with a bundle of sticks.  She hadn’t eaten in some time so Conrad brought her in fed her the cakes and bread he had made for the Master.

After she was done he helped carry her sticks to the edge of the village.  He hurried back home in fear that he had missed the Master but He hadn’t showed yet.  Later in the afternoon he heard a soft rap on the door.  He opened it to find a little boy who was lost and needed help to get home.  He couldn’t just leave the boy so he left and took him home.  He hurried back but still no Master.  Finally, Conrad cried out from his heart, “Why is it, Lord, Your feet delay?  Did you forget that this was the day?”  Then he heard a soft voice in reply, “Lift up your heart for I have kept my word.  Three times I came to your friendly door, and three times my shadow was on your floor.”  Jesus Christ came to Conrad as an old man with no shoes, a hungry old woman and a lost little boy.  Jesus Christ comes to us today in those who need help, are hurting, are hungry, thirsty, lost, sick or locked up in prison.  Things haven’t changed.

Of course you could look at this passage and story that I just told and say, “But Pastor John, this is about works and not faith.”  But that is not quite right.  I would like you to take a look at verse 34.  It says in part, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”  In this parable, the sheep are blessed.  In other words these are the people who already know Jesus Christ.

As I am trying to explain this, I realize that it is very hard for anyone to understand who doesn’t know Jesus Christ.  Scripture doesn’t mean much to someone who doesn’t know Jesus.  When we accept Jesus as our personal savior, then He reveals himself through Scripture.  Thus we begin to gain understanding.  These passages then take on real meaning.

And as we gain knowledge here, we understand that there can be no separation of faith and works.  But to those who don’t know Jesus, this looks like something totally different.  They look totally separate.  They will be the first to say that this is about works and you can be saved by works.

If we listen carefully, we can hear this in our world.  Christianity is the only religion where you can be saved by faith.  All others are works dominated.  You earn your way in Islam.  You earn your way in Buddhism and Hinduism.  New age thinking is based on works.  I have never figured out in any of these religions, how much work do I have to do before it is enough.  How do I measure up?  We will get to that in a minute.

Another thing to note about this passage is that Jesus is talking about sheep and goats.  One of the characteristics of sheep is that they will follow.  Goats are completely different.  So we have sheep that are blessed by God or they know Jesus and they will follow Him.  And what are we supposed to do when we follow?  We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We are to tend to the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, those needing clothes, the sick and those in prison.  These are the things that you will automatically do because you are in a relationship with Jesus.  These are not works but the marks of a Christian.

Now I want to get back to measuring up for a minute.  We live in a world where we are bombarded with advertising and friends who want us to measure up to them or to some standard that is all but unattainable.  Eloy Gonzalez shows us this very well in this story he told.  He had been watching the Health Channel on TV.  They were showing all the different kinds of plastic surgery that could be performed.  This is amazing.  If you want more luscious lips, they just shoot in a little collagen and you have downright pouty lips.  Now I personally don’t care about pouty lips or anything that resembles pouty so I don’t understand why anyone would do this, but they can.  Anyway, you can also get higher cheekbones with a tug and a lift.  And if you need your legs to be smaller, they can do it.  There was even a body builder who thought that he had been given legs that were too small and he got calf implants to make them shapelier.  You name it and they can probably do it.

All of these things make one wonder, “Why do people do this?”  These surgeries are not cheap.  They are also very painful.  The guy with the leg implants hobbled around for weeks.  Sometimes there may be good reasons for these procedures.  But most of the people interviewed on this show seemed to doubt that they were ok.  They felt that they didn’t quite measure up.

So how do you feel?  How do you measure up?  I would guess that we could go around here today and everyone could tell of something where they are weak.  There would be an area in your life where you feel that you don’t measure up.  And that is ok as long as you know that you have Jesus.  It is only through Him that you can measure up.  Jesus Christ is the way to find your path through things like this.  If you don’t know Jesus, then ask Him into your life today.  This is just another of the millions of reasons to make Him a part of your life.  He will help you measure up.  Do this today.

And if you do know Jesus and you feel like there is more that you can do, then step out and do it.  There are hungry people to feed.  There are people who are homeless.  One of the reasons for depression and staying in depression is that people don’t have enough to do.  They aren’t busy.  There are countless opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ here on earth.  I have known several people who do lots of good things for God.  But if you ask them about it, they would disagree with you and point out what still has to be done.  And that is because when you are working for Jesus, then it hardly seems like work at all.  It is something that we just do naturally, without much thought.  You want to and do help in any way possible.  That is just a part of who you are when you come to Christ.

Also our passage talks about how we will measure up in the eyes of Jesus.  Some of us don’t have to worry about this.  My prayer would be that all of us wouldn’t have to worry about this.  One of the things I hate to hear is that when something bad happens people will say, “How can a loving God allow such things to happen?”  God allows us to make poor choices through free will that can and will cause personal disasters.  I really don’t like it when someone blames my Father for their disaster.  Our God is a God of love but he is also a God of judgment.  There will come a time when some people will be the goats and will be banished from the presence of God.  This is the judgment and you make the decision as to where you will spend eternity.  No one else makes that decision.  You make it yourself.

I’m going to talk about this just a little bit today, Judgment.  In the previous verses right before this, Jesus is telling his disciples about the end times and what is going to happen.  Today’s reading is about judgment.  Now if we go out into the street and ask someone, they will tell us that we shouldn’t judge them or anyone else.  And this is true to some extent but some of us, including me, are guilty of this once in a while.  But what most people don’t understand is that most of the time their behaviors have already been judged.  When God talks of this behavior being bad or that behavior being an abomination, our God is telling us that He has already judged these things.  No matter what we think of it or no matter what society tells us, God has judged certain things as wrong and certain things as right.

A few of years ago, at the annual conference, I was seated with some people from within 100 miles of here.  They were not from Fargo.  Anyway, we were talking about a pretty controversial subject and one man came out and told me that I should modernize my thinking to this century.  I will try to do this.  But I will not try to tell God that God is wrong and that what society and this man say is right.  I still firmly believe that whatever God says is wrong is wrong.  God has judged certain things and His judgment is final.  May God have mercy on those who think otherwise!

It is very important for us to know and understand that this final judgment is because of the tremendous love that God has for us.  We all know how much Jesus loves every person in this world.  He came to save the world through His death and resurrection.  Jesus would like nothing better than having every man, woman and child join Him for eternity in heaven.

And that is why we have judgment.  Jesus will not allow evil into heaven.  He will not allow this place of perfection to be polluted with evil.  He will not allow this to happen because of His tremendous love for His people.  This is the part that people don’t understand.  Most people only think in terms of this world and that is a very natural thing to do.  It is really hard to think of heaven because we really know very, very little about the place.  We can only compare it to things that we know and this world is all we know.  But luckily for us, God can see the big picture.  And that big picture includes a heaven where there is no evil.

And it is all your choice as to whether you will be a sheep or a goat.  It is much easier to be a goat and follow the wide path of this world.  But you will never know happiness.  You will never know satisfaction. You will never know love.  You cannot have these things without God.  It is much harder to follow the narrow path of Jesus.  It is much harder to focus on and do the good of God in a world where we are bombarded constantly with evil.  Sometimes it is hard when we have two choices and the only good choice is the lesser of two evils which is still evil!

And this is why I will ask you just about every week if you know Jesus is a personal way.  This is important.  Your eternal life depends on that one decision.  And if you make that decision to follow Jesus, then you will open yourself up a wonderful new life.  You will find a happiness you never knew before.  You will find that you can actually become satisfied.  You will find for the first time in your life what love is all about.  And all of these things and more will happen as you combine together, naturally and effortlessly, your faith and your works.  It all goes together.

I would like to close with a beautiful story from another unknown author.  A wise woman was traveling in the mountains and found a precious stone.  The next day she met another traveler who was hungry so the wise woman opened her bag to share her food.  The man saw the stone in the bag and asked the woman to give it to him.  She did so without hesitation.  The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune as he knew the stone was worth enough to keep him comfortable for the rest of his life.  But a few days later he returned to the woman and returned the stone.  He told the woman, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back to you in the hope that you can give me something more precious: Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me that stone.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each of you has that special something inside of you that this wise woman had.  Let it flow out of you as you do the work of Jesus Christ whenever and where ever you meet someone.  We are the sheep and that is the Good News.  You measure up in Jesus.  Put your total faith in the one who is always there, Jesus Christ.  And then let Him work through you.  This is the perfect plan of Christ and you will never regret helping Him help others.  I praise Jesus for the work He did in someone who helped me come to know Him.  Thank you Jesus for the wonderful work you do and thank you for first loving us.  Let’s pray.