[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 26th of March, 2017, the fourth Sunday in Lent. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Each week of Lent we come closer and closer on our journey that leads to the cruel cross. And each step along this trip we have choices to make. I don’t just mean the biggest choice, of deciding whether to believe in and follow Jesus as Lord or not. There are also a lot of little decisions, little choices, we must make along the way. Little choices, perhaps, but their consequences are huge.
Jesus often tried to give us suggestions and warnings about just how we should live our lives, and what should direct our decision making processes. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew, from chapter 25, verses 31 through 46, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
Jesus often tried to give us suggestions and warnings about just how we should live our lives, and what should direct our decision making processes. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew, from chapter 25, verses 31 through 46, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
--Matthew 25:31-46 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, we can read in our Bible where Jesus told us time and again how to live, what to do, how to act, so that we might be granted entry into Your kingdom of heaven and then rewarded once there. We read, but we don’t always understand, nor do we always follow what we do understand. We need Your guidance, Father. Let Your Holy Spirit speak directly into our hearts the message You would have us hear this morning. In the beloved name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
While walking down the street one day, a corrupt Senator was tragically hit by a car and died. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. "Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high ranking official around these parts, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," says the Senator. "Well, I'd like to," responds St. Peter, "but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity." "Oh, I've already decided that one. I want to be in heaven", says the Senator.
"I'm sorry, but we have our rules", and with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a beautiful green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians he had worked with over the years. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and the finest champagne. Also present is the devil, who seems to be a very friendly guy, going around dancing and telling jokes. They are all having such a good time that before the Senator realizes it, it’s time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens in heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him and says, "Now it's time to visit heaven.” Twenty-four hours pass with the Senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and before he knows it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity." The Senator reflects for a minute, then he answers, "Well, I would never have said it before - I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell." So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
This time when the doors of the elevator open, he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. All his friends are dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls to the ground. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around the Senator's shoulders.
"I don't understand," stammers the Senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time! Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?" The devil smiles at him and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning. Today, you voted."
While that little is humorous and maybe hits a little too close to home in our present age, it does point out that we need to be very careful in our decision making processes. Our decisions carry consequences, whether we’re willing to accept responsibility for them or not.
Columbia researcher Sheena Iyengar determined that the average person makes about 70 decisions every day. That works out to 25,500 decisions a year. Over a 70 year lifetime, that's 1,788,500 decisions! 20th century philosopher Albert Camus once said that, "Life is a sum of all your choices."
We could say that if we put all those thousands of choices together, we’d have a picture of who we are right now. Each one of those decisions represents a fork in the road of our lives, where we went one direction or the other. Put them all together and we end up here. But Jesus says there’s more to it than that. Much more.
Jesus says that when He returns, everyone who is alive or who ever lived will be brought to stand before Him. And then He will separate us, just like a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep. The prophet Ezekiel foresaw this judgment, as we can read in the 34th chapter of his book, verse 17…
While walking down the street one day, a corrupt Senator was tragically hit by a car and died. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. "Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high ranking official around these parts, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," says the Senator. "Well, I'd like to," responds St. Peter, "but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity." "Oh, I've already decided that one. I want to be in heaven", says the Senator.
"I'm sorry, but we have our rules", and with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a beautiful green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians he had worked with over the years. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and the finest champagne. Also present is the devil, who seems to be a very friendly guy, going around dancing and telling jokes. They are all having such a good time that before the Senator realizes it, it’s time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens in heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him and says, "Now it's time to visit heaven.” Twenty-four hours pass with the Senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and before he knows it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity." The Senator reflects for a minute, then he answers, "Well, I would never have said it before - I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell." So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
This time when the doors of the elevator open, he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. All his friends are dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls to the ground. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around the Senator's shoulders.
"I don't understand," stammers the Senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time! Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?" The devil smiles at him and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning. Today, you voted."
While that little is humorous and maybe hits a little too close to home in our present age, it does point out that we need to be very careful in our decision making processes. Our decisions carry consequences, whether we’re willing to accept responsibility for them or not.
Columbia researcher Sheena Iyengar determined that the average person makes about 70 decisions every day. That works out to 25,500 decisions a year. Over a 70 year lifetime, that's 1,788,500 decisions! 20th century philosopher Albert Camus once said that, "Life is a sum of all your choices."
We could say that if we put all those thousands of choices together, we’d have a picture of who we are right now. Each one of those decisions represents a fork in the road of our lives, where we went one direction or the other. Put them all together and we end up here. But Jesus says there’s more to it than that. Much more.
Jesus says that when He returns, everyone who is alive or who ever lived will be brought to stand before Him. And then He will separate us, just like a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep. The prophet Ezekiel foresaw this judgment, as we can read in the 34th chapter of his book, verse 17…
17 "‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats."'"
--Ezekiel 34:17 (NKJV)
And did you hear in Ezekiel’s words that God called us His flock? As we just learned in Bible Study recently, Jesus called us that, too. This comes from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 12, verses 29 through 32…
29 “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. 30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
--Luke 12:29-32 (NKJV)
Last Sunday evening at Memorial, I read from the Apostle John’s Gospel account, which includes the most famous of all Bible verses: John 3:16. I spoke of how, ultimately, we have the decision to make of whether we want to be saved, or condemned.
Saying it like that, the choice would be easy, wouldn’t it? Like the Senator in our story first said, we’d rather be saved and go to heaven. But it isn’t that easy, as the Senator learned. Satan wants to make sure it isn’t easy.
So it doesn’t just come down to that one simple question, of being saved or condemned, of choosing to believe in Jesus or deny Him. Every one of those 70 decisions we make each day is an opportunity to do something to please the Lord, or to sadden Him. Every choice we make reflects our true heart, and tells the truth of whether we have fully accepted Jesus as Lord or not. The TV shows and movies we choose to watch, the books and magazines we choose to read, the music we choose to listen to… The list goes on and on, but in each of those choices we declare where our heart is. Do we allow Satan to tempt us to watch or read something trashy, or something wholesome that will help us in our Christian walk?
In our scripture reading from Matthew, Jesus clearly tells us that even the little choices we make will ultimately determine our fate. When we help feed the homeless, like we did last night, Jesus sees that as feeding Him when He was hungry. When we try to help make clean drinking water available to those who do not have ready access to it, Jesus considers that as giving Him water when He was thirsty. When we provide for the needs of those who are not one of us, not like us; when we visit the institutionalized, the lonely, the sick; when we go to those in jail and prison and carry the Good News to them and offer them love and support – in all these acts, it is just as if we were doing them for Jesus as for other people. For just as we do to the least of God’s children, we do for Jesus, God’s Son!
We have some tough choices to make in life. We can choose to give up a few hours here and there to take an active role and help see to the needs of others in a meaningful way, or we can ignore them and do the kind of activities we enjoy most. We can show the love of Jesus to everyone we come across, or we can save our love for ourselves and our families.
We can be as sheep, heeding our Master’s voice, obeying His commands, following Him in our daily walk, to later share in all the glory of the kingdom of God forever and ever. Or we can be like the goats our Lord will separate off to His left and send to the everlasting fire with the condemnation, “Depart from Me, you cursed”.
The choice is ours, and we make that big choice with each little choice. Earlier I noted that philosopher Albert Camus said, "Life is a sum of all your choices." Well, family, little flock, our final choice is a sum of all the choices we have made in our lifetime. Remember this the next time you have to make a decision, any decision, regardless of how small or trivial it may seem. Every choice matters. Choose wisely.
All in the blessed name of our Redeemer Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, Your love and Your mercy knows no bounds. You love us so much that You sent Your only Son to us so that we can be saved from the consequences of all our bad decisions if we would only believe in Him. Even then You give us a choice. We can believe in Jesus and receive everlasting life with You in heaven, or we can deny Him as Lord and be doomed for all eternity. May our love for You, Father, and for Your Son Jesus, be reflected in everything we think, do, and say.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You from our hearts, acknowledging our belief in Your Son Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Master, rededicating ourselves to His service, promising to repent of our disobedience and sin, seeking Your forgiveness, listening for Your voice…
Lord Jesus, we do believe in You. You are the one true Son of God, sent by the Father to offer us the gift of everlasting life. We recognize You as our Savior - now please help us accept You as our Master, as the One who rules over us, Whose will we have sworn to obey.
Gracious Lord, we do not want to be culled out and sent to the left with the goats. You have made it very clear what we must do to be counted among Your sheep. First and foremost we must believe in You and accept You as our Lord, our Master. Precious Jesus, if there is one present this morning who does not know You or who is unsure in their belief, then please lead them to me that together we might bring them to You.
And then Lord You show us that we must love each other, no matter what. We must show that love in tangible ways, put that love into practice by helping others when they are helpless. We must understand that You consider us to be ignoring You when we ignore others in their time of need. Lord, may we never ignore You. Thank You, Jesus, for showing us the way we must walk.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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