Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Statement Of Faith

The Church Part 5

Intro: A man named John Jackson, who is an advocate for the poor in Orlando, Florida, tells of an event that happened one day outside a food distribution center where he was working.

 "The line was long that day, but moving quickly. And in that line, at the very end of the line, stood a young girl who appeared to be about 12 years old. She waited patiently as those at the front of that very long line received a little rice, some canned goods, maybe a couple of pieces of fruit. Slowly but surely, she was getting closer to the front of the line, closer to the food.

 From time to time she would glance across the street. She didn't notice the growing concern on the faces of the people who were distributing the food. There wasn't going to be enough. The food was rapidly running out. Their anxiety began to show, but still the girl didn't notice.

 Her attention seemed always to focus on three figures huddled together under a tree across the street. At last she stepped forward to get her food. But the only thing left was one lonely banana. The workers were almost ashamed to tell her that was all that was left. But she didn't seem to mind. In fact she seemed genuinely happy to get that solitary banana.

 Quietly she took the precious gift and ran across the street where three small children waited. Maybe they were her siblings, maybe not. Very deliberately the girl peeled the banana. Then she carefully divided the banana into three equal parts and placed the precious food in the eager hands of those three young ones. 'One for you, and one for you, and one for you!' Then, for her own meal, she licked the inside of that banana peel." Jackson concludes the story, "And I will always believe that I saw the face of God that day."

 In a world where "religious" people, claiming to speak for God, often appear to know so much, to have such clear and firm ideas about exactly what's right and exactly what's wrong, who's going to Heaven and who isn't. Isn't it refreshing to hear that there are people whose sole motivation for acts of loving kindness......... is compassion?

 Compassion...is an attitude of the heart and an action of the body that Jesus knew well. Often in His ministry, Scripture tells us that Jesus felt compassion for the multitude ....and the individual.  And I want you to understand that none of these were specifically believers, Christians. They were people with great and varied needs and Christ had compassion for them.

 How was the compassion of Christ displayed? Through mercy. A little history on the word mercy. In the OT world at the time of Prophets, mercy was the word 'chesed' and meant an attitude, emotion or disposition that aroused the emotions when seeing someone suffer.

 When the OT was translated into Greek, the word chosen to translate the Hebrew word 'chesed'  was 'eleos'. This word had the additional meaning of faithful actions of someone in a covenant relationship. The word 'mercy' then came to mean not just a disposition to feeling bad about someone who is suffering but acting to help that someone.

 This is seen in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Jesus asked the lawyer who was the neighbor to the person in need and he responded literally, 'the one who did mercy'. The others who passed by may have had merciful feelings, but they did not act upon them, so they were not the true neighbor. This is the same idea we see in our text this morning. There is an emphasis on action, on works. It is not enough to feel bad or to sympathize for those who are in a bad way. This text strongly tells us that true followers of Jesus Christ will show compassion to all by doing mercy.

Background: But, many conservative, fundamental churches today have lost sight of the doing. Why?

 Because of a reaction to what was called the Social Gospel movement of the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Indulge me if you will on a bit of church history as I think it is important to realize why we do the things we do today in the church.

 The Social Gospel movement was a liberal theological perspective on how to Christianize the world. They didn't believe in biblical inerrancy or inspiration and they believed that Christian socialism is the key to the Kingdom of God not personal salvation. BUT, they also taught that the social teaching and actions of Jesus were to be our example of how to evangelize the world for Christ.

 They were promoting Christian Social Action. But because of their unbiblical view of Scripture and their social rather than personal theology of salvation, their work was rejected by the conservative churches. And as what often happens, the baby was thrown out with the bath water. By rejecting the Social Gospel movement, the conservative churches rejected most forms of social aid to the needy and instead concentrated primarily on the spiritual needs.

 That was almost 100 yrs ago and we still struggle with this very same issue. Do we feed people first or do we share the Gospel with them? Do we continue to care for their physical needs even if our efforts to share Christ with them are rejected?

APP: Our challenge today is what I believe is the challenge of our text...As true followers of Jesus Christ, we can not separate the two. Our acts of mercy are a reflection of our faith in God. Our acts of mercy are the Gospel of Christ practically applied to the very real life situations of those we come into contact with. When the people cried out to Jesus to have mercy on them, He didn't give them a sermon, He acted and in His action, the people saw God.

Trans: This text is perhaps one of the most serious and horrifying texts we will read in all of Scripture. Jesus very definitively separates, for all eternity, those who will enjoy heaven and those who will suffer in hell. And what is his basis for this separation? Christian Social Action. Open your Bibles to Matt. 25:31 where we will see the Gathering, the Separation and the Confrontation of those who claim to be the church of God.

II. Social Action (Matt. 25:31-46)
    A. The Gathering (Matt. 25:31-32a)
Read: Matt. 25:31-32a

 The first question that comes to mind is who is Jesus gathering here? The three parables which immediately precede this one all deal with the actions of those who claim to be children of God.  You have the faithful and evil servant, the 5 prepared and 5 unprepared virgins, and the 2 resourceful and 1 lazy servants. All surprised by how the Lord treats them because of their actions. So, I believe Jesus is gathering the people who believe they are the people of God, the church. Most commentators would agree.

   B. The Separation (Matt. 25:32b-33)

 The next question is why the need to separate the church? To answer this we have to go to the parable of the wheat and tares in Matt. 13. The main idea here is that in the church there will be those who are genuinely of the faith and those who only look to be of the faith. There will be those who are truly saved and those who are not. But they will remain together in the church until the harvest at the end time. I believe our text this morning is speaking of that harvest in the church.

Read: Matt. 25:32b-33

 Notice that Jesus doesn't  say that he will put the rich on his right and the poor on his left or the learned and respectable on his right and the unlearned and despised on his left, but the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. All other divisions will be abolished...gender, age, race, denominational affiliation. Just sheep and goats.

 1. The Sheep
     The sheep are those who are the truly saved in the church. Those who have honestly and personally placed their trust in Christ for their salvation. They are put on the right, the place of honor.

 2. The Goats
     The goats are those who may have had only a head knowledge, or understanding of Christ. They may have said the sinners prayer and gone through baptism and church membership. But, they never had a true conversion experience where their heart was broken by God because of their sin and then turned to Christ for forgiveness and a new heart for God. They are put on the left, the place of dishonor.

 The local church today is made up of those who have made a true profession of Christ and who possess Him in their heart. And those who have made a profession of Christ but do not possess Him in their lives. Remember Jesus in Matt. 7 said not every one who cries Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, only those who do the will of my Father.

Trans: What is that will? How is it followed? Lets look at vss. 34-46

    C. The Confrontation (Matt. 25:34-46)
Read: Matt. 25:34-46

 1. The Sheep
     The reason for the separation of the sheep on the right and the goats on the left is given. The sheep showed mercy, they did acts of kindness to Christ. They fed him when he was hungry, they gave him drink when he was thirsty, they opened their homes to him, they clothed him, they visited him when he was sick and in prison.

 The sheep responded with surprise because they didn't ever remember doing that to Him. Jesus replied that when they did it to the least of his brothers they did it to him. You see, they knew that as they cared for those in need, they were doing it in the name of and by the love of Christ, but they never realized that the Lord accepted those acts of mercy and compassion as a personal service done..... to Him.

 What was their reward for their acts of mercy and compassion? Jesus declared to them 'Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'The true follower of Jesus Christ will do good works, acts of mercy and compassion to all they come into contact with. Why? It is who they are, in Christ, and it was determined that they would do that from before the foundation of the earth.

Read: Eph. 2:10

 Good works, acts of mercy and compassion are not the requirement for salvation but the result of or indication that you are saved, because you were saved by God to do good works. These sheep were only doing what was natural as true believers in Jesus Christ to do...be like Christ by showing mercy and compassion to all in need around them.

 2. The Goats
     The goats however, are a different story. Even though they may consider themselves to be good church going people, Jesus condemns them to eternal suffering in hell. Why? Not because of what they did, but because of what they didn't do.

     You see, for whatever reason, they just didn't care about the needs of those around them. They were not deserving enough, they didn't attend this church, they didn't want to do anything to help themselves, they didn't....and the requirements for help keep being piled on so that no one is really deserving of their help.

ILL: In the book The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis, a devil briefs his demon nephew, Wormwood, in a series of letters, on the subtleties and techniques of tempting people. In his writings, the devil says that the objective is not to make people wicked but to make them indifferent. This higher devil cautions Wormwood that he must keep the patient comfortable at all costs. If he should start thinking about anything of importance, encourage him to think about his luncheon plans and not to worry so much because it could cause indigestion. And then the devil gives this instruction to his nephew: "I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with people who do not care."

 The point here is that Jesus confronts them with their sin...they never really repented and accepted Christ's forgiveness. If they had, it would have been evidenced by their acts of compassion and mercy to others. As a result they are condemned to eternal death instead of inheriting eternal life.

Conclusion
 Ministry, evangelism, doing good, is the outreach mission of the local church. I like a term Washington Gladden used for his version of the Social Gospel. He called it Applied Christianity. What a great term and so relevant to our text this morning and to the outreach mission of the local church.

 James tells us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Applied Christianity.

 Jesus had compassion and physically touched the lives of those hurting around him, Applied Christianity.

 Paul said 'I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some' Applied Christianity.

 Paul also said 'Do good to all men, especially to those of the household of faith' Applied Christianity.

Challenge
 Let me ask you a few questions.

 If you personally and we as a local church were judged by Christ today for the criteria Jesus lists in this passage, would you and this church be praised or cursed?

 What do you see as your obligation to the poor and needy?

 What about this churches obligation?

 If CBC was to close it's doors tomorrow, would anyone outside this local church family care?

 We can not run from this passage or spiritualize it away. Christian must do mercy because we have received mercy. And mercy by definition is something we DO.

HOW?
 How can we as individuals and a local church be faithful to the command of this text?

1. Be with people who need help
2. Step out of your comfort zone
3. Bring the kingdom of God, in word and deed, to the needy
4. Make yourself available
5. Pray for opportunities to do mercy and show compassion
6. Watch for God to bring people with needs across your path
7. Manage any fear by serving with at least one other person
8. Sow liberally

 Let me end with this illustration

 A Christian group stopped at Pinkie's Bar to see if they could wash their windows for free as anoutreach to the local community. Waylon Jennings was on the juke box and the place was full of customers. This was no classy place...beer was served in the can. I asked the barmaid if we could wash the window as an act of showing God's love and she said...whatever turns you on. As I began to clean the window, a group of the customers called me over to the bar. We heard what you said to the bartender about doing this to show God's love.  We want to know what kind of church would do something like this. I spent several minutes telling them about our fellowship. then a woman with tears in her eyes asked Do you think people like us would fit into a church like yours?

 This is a reality we must think about and be challenged with. When we begin to truly reach out and show mercy and compassion to the needy in our area, God only knows the kind of people He will bring to our fellowship.

 If I were a betting man I would say that wouldn't be much like us...educated, middle class, solid families with 2 cars and nice vacations. They will be the undesirables of the world, the unlovely, the outcasts of society, whose Sunday best is a part of old blue jeans and a flannel shirt.Will they be welcomed in our church and our hearts...just as they are, w/o trying to make them like us, w/o trying to clean them up before the Spirit has time to move in their hearts?

 It comes down to compassion, doing mercy. It comes down to this....Will we be like Christ?