Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] I want to say a special thank you to Sarah for her heroic work last week.
[00:00:17] Although I didn't appreciate my friend saying you ought to get sick more often.
[00:00:27] It God's favor is on this church. I hope you sense that God's favor is on this church.
[00:00:36] Our dear heavenly Father, we're trying to learn to discipline ourself toward godliness.
[00:00:48] We're trying to learn how to quit trying and start training.
[00:00:54] And so I pray that you would open our hearts and minds and we might see the real value of spiritual disciplines and make them a normal part of our daily lives.
[00:01:10] And I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[00:01:18] For three years, Jesus taught day after day after day.
[00:01:27] I hope you don't think that everything Jesus taught got written down in the Gospels, because John said if he tried to write down everything Jesus did or taught, the book would be too big to handle.
[00:01:48] And so we don't have everything that Jesus said and taught.
[00:01:54] But we know for three years, day after day, Jesus found interesting ways to teach his disciples and the people who followed him about the reality of God and the meaning of life.
[00:02:15] And then we get to what is called the Passion Week.
[00:02:20] It's the last week of Jesus Christ's life.
[00:02:25] And in the last week of his life, there's a great deal of teaching, there's a lot of teaching.
[00:02:36] And it feels to me like this last week of Jesus's life.
[00:02:43] He's saying to his people, okay, time's running out. I want to tell you the really most important stuff.
[00:02:54] I have saved the most important stuff for this week.
[00:03:03] And we have parables like the rich man who gave talents to his workers and asked them to put that money to work, and the ones who did a good job, he said, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things. I'll make you Lord over many.
[00:03:29] But in one of these last teachings, there is an edgy story.
[00:03:44] Jesus said, when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
[00:03:58] Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
[00:04:13] And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left.
[00:04:21] I want to stimulate your imagination.
[00:04:27] I want you to do the very best you can to imagine the largest crowd you have ever seen.
[00:04:39] And in front of that large crowd, there's an elevated platform.
[00:04:47] And on that platform there is an emerald Throne.
[00:04:56] And sitting on that emerald Throne is a being who is so majestic, so beautiful, so glorious that you're stunned to look at them, you're stunned.
[00:05:20] And this glorious being says to the crowd, you're going to think a thought.
[00:05:32] It's going to be go right or go left.
[00:05:38] And this massive crowd, the biggest crowd you have ever seen, they begin to cross pathways, some moving left, some moving right.
[00:05:56] But there are other witnesses.
[00:06:01] Somewhere above or around this emerald Throne of the majestic One, there are armies and armies of divine beings, angels, the separation of peoples.
[00:06:36] Christ is saying to his people, he's saying to you and I, we live in a world where everything gets mixed up.
[00:06:53] And because we live in a world where everything gets mixed up, we have a tendency to be deceived, that everything is somehow or another equal.
[00:07:10] We live in this world of a moral equivalency, where somehow or another, good and bad, decent and indecent, holy and unholy, they get all mixed up.
[00:07:30] And we begin to believe that it doesn't matter.
[00:07:36] Our culture starts saying to us, it's all relative.
[00:07:42] You believe that they believe this.
[00:07:46] There's really no distinction.
[00:07:51] But Jesus said on this third day of the last week of his life, it does matter.
[00:08:03] It matters a lot.
[00:08:05] It's all mixed up today. But there's coming a separation.
[00:08:11] There's coming a day when God said, I'm going to make some things clear, that you have misunderstood.
[00:08:23] And then Jesus said that the great king who is sitting on this throne, this majestic one, this one who is absolutely stunning, he turns to those on his right, and he speaks to them with the most pleasant voice.
[00:08:50] He says, come.
[00:08:54] You who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the wOrld.
[00:09:06] He looks at those on the right and says, I've prepared something, and I've been waiting a long time to share it with you.
[00:09:19] And this is the moment that I'm giving you your divine inheritance.
[00:09:28] He said, I want you to know why I have prepared this for you.
[00:09:35] For I was hungry and you gave me food.
[00:09:39] I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink.
[00:09:45] I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.
[00:09:49] I was naked and you clothed me.
[00:09:53] I was sick, and you visited me.
[00:09:57] I was in prison, and you came to me.
[00:10:04] I don't know what kind of invitations you have received in your life.
[00:10:10] An invitation to a party, an invitation to a wedding, an invitation to a graduation.
[00:10:20] I'm sure you have received some delightful invitations in your life, but I'll have you know, Church, there is no invitation that will ever match the invitation of the great King when he says to people like you and like me.
[00:10:39] Come.
[00:10:41] I'm inviting you.
[00:10:44] I have something I have prepared with you in mind.
[00:10:49] My focus on all of this is you.
[00:10:54] And I want you to come into the kingdom of my father that has been prepared for you since the foundation of the world Church.
[00:11:09] There's coming a day when you won't want anything more in the world than to hear the mighty, Majestic Christ say to you, I want you to come with me.
[00:11:23] Everything else that you've ever thought was important, everything else that you've always thought you wanted, everything else that you thought would mean everything to you that will fade and become totally insignificant. And your heart won't want anything more than to hear this majestic one say to you, come.
[00:11:53] This is for you, Church.
[00:11:57] I know it's easy to get deceived in this world. I know it's easy to start longing for the wrong things. I know it's easy for our values to get messed up.
[00:12:10] But in the last week of his life, Jesus said, I want to give you some clarity.
[00:12:17] You don't want anything in the world more than you want to hear the great Majestic one say to you, come, blessed of my father.
[00:12:31] I have an inheritance that is specifically for you, Church.
[00:12:41] It's an inheritance. You can't buy it and you can't Earn it. It's a gift.
[00:12:49] Can you hear this?
[00:12:52] It is an inheritance. And it is more valuable than anything you can earn or you can accumulate for yourself.
[00:13:04] If the majestic one is everything that the New Testament has taught us that he is, if the majestic one is capable of doing. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what the majestic one has prepared for those who love him. Church, there isn't anything that is its equivalent.
[00:13:35] And Jesus went out of his way to say, God had this all in mind when he created everything before he created everything he had in mind. That beautiful day when he could say to you, come blessed of my father, I have something so awesome for you that I've been waiting and longing to give to you.
[00:14:06] How do you know if you will hear that?
[00:14:13] How do you know if you'll be one of those standing on the right? In the great separation, Jesus said, there are evidences in our life.
[00:14:27] These things that he lists, these six sacrifices and services that he lists, they don't mean you earn it. They just mean it is evident. These make it evident that you'll be on the right.
[00:14:45] If you're looking for proof in your life that you will be on the right, Jesus said, look for these six things first of all, I was hungry and you gave me to eat a church. We don't do feed the need because we are a social service organization.
[00:15:14] We don't feed 265 kids every weekend because we are a social service organization.
[00:15:25] We don't run a food bank at Old Brooklyn and in Illyria because we're a social service organization.
[00:15:33] We do these things because Christ said, this is what my people do.
[00:15:42] Can you hear this? Church we do this because Jesus said, my people care about feeding the hungry.
[00:15:53] And if you care about feeding the hungry, it is a symbol that God has done something right in your soul, that the faith of Christ is alive within you, and then you can look forward to that wonderful day.
[00:16:16] Church Sharon and I are going to give a significant amount of money again this year to the Christmas offering because I want to Hear the majestic say to me, I was hungry and you fed me.
[00:16:38] Church.
[00:16:41] Do you find that anywhere in your heart or does something annoying rise up within you? When I talk to you about giving to the Christmas offering and buying food again for another year, do you begin to think about what it'll cost you and what it'll mean to you?
[00:17:05] Do you feel a little annoyed that feeding hungry people is what God is calling us to do?
[00:17:14] Church, it matters.
[00:17:18] I'm telling you, it matters.
[00:17:21] The second thing Jesus said was I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
[00:17:28] We don't feel the intensity of this because we have clean water everywhere we go.
[00:17:36] You can go to the water fountain here and drink clean water. You can get clean water out of the tap. Clean water is a normal thing in the world we live in, but the world Jesus lived in, clean water was not the normal thing. You didn't go to the tap and pour yourself a cup of cold water.
[00:17:56] Clean water was something that was valuable and people treasured.
[00:18:05] Jesus said to those on his right, I was thirsty in a place where clean water wasn't easy to get. And you gave me a drink.
[00:18:20] You know, several years ago, we were a part of a clean water project for the Christmas offering.
[00:18:27] And you gave money and we sent it to this organization. And the organization went to these villages and they gave the families filtration systems.
[00:18:40] If those filtration systems were taken proper care of, they were supposed to last, I think, 15 or 16 years.
[00:18:51] Why did we give filtration systems to people in Africa who we don't know and we never met?
[00:19:01] Because Jesus said, when I needed a drink of clean water, you gave it to me.
[00:19:09] Church, if you want to be where Christ says, come, you blessed of my father, search your soul.
[00:19:22] Do you want to feed the hungry? Do you want to give clean water to people who need a glass of clean water?
[00:19:33] And then Jesus said, I was a stranger, and you took me in.
[00:19:42] Oh, how many times have I stood at this pulpit and said to you, we have to create a pleasant place for people who are far from God to come back to Jesus.
[00:19:56] It matters how we treat people in the parking lot.
[00:20:00] It matters how we treat people on Main Street. It matters whether you greet somebody in the aisle you're in.
[00:20:09] Jesus said, it matters.
[00:20:12] I was a stranger. I walked into that building for the first time. I didn't know anyone. I felt uncomfortable. I didn't know if I had any sense of belonging at all.
[00:20:28] And you walked up to me and stuck out your hand and said hello and greeted me, church.
[00:20:40] Why do we have to go out of our way to create a welcoming space? Because Jesus said, that is evidence that the faith of Christ is compelling to us.
[00:20:54] Don't tell me of your great faith in Christ if you can't spare a penny to feed the hungry.
[00:21:02] Don't tell me of your love of Christ if a cup of clean water to someone you don't know doesn't matter to you, don't tell me Christ is beautiful to you if it's easy for you to snob the person who so desperately needs to be recognized and greeted.
[00:21:32] And then Jesus said, I was naked and you clothed me.
[00:21:41] The best I can do on this is have you ever dreamed that you were naked and you're trying to get home?
[00:21:52] Anybody?
[00:21:53] Am I the only one? Okay? Thank God.
[00:22:00] I've had a dream from time to time that somehow or another I was out naked and didn't have any clothes on, and I'm trying to get home.
[00:22:15] If you haven't had that dream, you're lucky if you have. I guess we'll start another support group in the church.
[00:22:30] I can tell you it's a miserable feeling, is all I can tell you. It is a miserable feeling.
[00:22:38] Do you know there are people who feel exposed, they feel overexposed.
[00:22:49] They feel people have seen them at their most vulnerable.
[00:22:58] And Christ said, when people are like that, we ought not to pile on.
[00:23:06] We ought to be the people who raise their sense of comfort and well being. Church, can you hear this?
[00:23:17] People make mistakes.
[00:23:21] Can you admit you've made a mistake?
[00:23:25] People make mistakes. And when people make mistakes, they are the most vulnerable.
[00:23:32] They're exposed.
[00:23:34] The part of themselves that is not the prettiest is shown, and it's the church's job to help them find well being again.
[00:23:47] For you who like the hard line, I want to remind you that the scriptures say, love covers a multitude of sin.
[00:23:59] One more time for you hardliners, love covers a multitude of sin.
[00:24:08] Christ said, if I don't have it in my heart to look at the broken people around me whose brokenness has been exposed and they're feeling naked and vulnerable, if I don't have it in me to cover them and close them with the covering of love, then my faith is not a compelling faith. Church.
[00:24:40] And Jesus said, I was weak, and you looked in on me.
[00:24:53] I was weak.
[00:24:55] I was worn down.
[00:24:58] Things hadn't turned out the way I had dreamed.
[00:25:02] I had a sense of disappointment.
[00:25:07] I wasn't sure that anyone cared.
[00:25:11] And Christ said, you cared.
[00:25:16] You gave me attention.
[00:25:18] You showed me some gentleness and some kindness.
[00:25:22] Church, I was in prison, and you came to me.
[00:25:32] Church, I don't want to give you the impression that if you do these things, you earn your spot in heaven. That's not what Jesus is saying. Listen what he's saying.
[00:25:47] If you don't want to do these things, you need to check and make sure that the faith of Christ is a reality in your heart and you have not deceived yourself.
[00:26:00] Let a person examine themselves and see whether they're being the faith. What should it look like? Jesus said, if I have a real faith in him, it's going to look like the impulse to be doing these things.
[00:26:21] And then the people on the right answered Jesus and said, when did we see you like this, Lord?
[00:26:34] I don't remember seeing the majestic one hungry.
[00:26:39] I don't remember seeing the awesome one thirsty.
[00:26:43] I have no memory of ever visiting the majestic one when he was weak. He's Almighty.
[00:26:55] And Jesus said, yeah, you've missed the point.
[00:27:03] As much as you've done it to one of these, the least of my brothers, you've done it to me.
[00:27:10] Church.
[00:27:13] Those kids who sat down in their little apartment yesterday and opened up that bag of food we gave them, those kids who are pillaging through that little bag of food today to see what's in there that might fill their empty stomach, Jesus said, I identify with those kids.
[00:27:42] When you gave it to those kids, you gave it to me.
[00:27:48] Those people who get in their car on Saturday morning and get in line, and they drive by our food bank, our food distribution, and people in this church put boxes of food in their car.
[00:28:06] Jesus said, I identify with those people, and when you've done it for them, Jesus said, I take it personally.
[00:28:20] I take it personally.
[00:28:26] You see, in the end, our sacrifice in our service is really to more than people. Our sacrifice and service is to the majestic one who sits on the throne.
[00:28:40] We are sacrificing and serving him. We're just doing it through other people.
[00:28:47] Church, you will never place anything in Christ's hand that he needs.
[00:28:55] He's self sufficient.
[00:28:58] But Christ said, I don't want you to place it in my hand. I want you to place it in the least of my brother's hands.
[00:29:07] Because when you do that, I take it personally.
[00:29:13] It's the same as giving it to me.
[00:29:20] And then Jesus looked to those on his left.
[00:29:26] I hear the tone in his voice change.
[00:29:31] It's not that it's sharp.
[00:29:34] It's more the sound of sad seriousness.
[00:29:45] And his first Word to us was come.
[00:29:50] His first Word to those on the left is depart.
[00:29:58] Go away from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
[00:30:09] Oh, if come is the most beautiful invitation you will ever hear, then go is the most dreadful dismissal you'll ever hear.
[00:30:21] If come lifts the human soul, if it raises us above the dreary demands of the day, if it fills with hope and blessing that Christ has come, you blessed of my Father, then how absolutely dreadful is the dismissal when he says, go away from me, you cursed Church.
[00:30:53] I believe in the grace of Jesus Christ. I believe in the mercy of Jesus Christ.
[00:30:59] But I also believe in the justice of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:04] I believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I believe in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:11] I can't take the characteristics about Christ that make him the most comfortable and throw away the characteristics of Christ that make him frightening Church.
[00:31:27] It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. And we mustn't ever become so sophisticated that we lose sight of the fact that Christ is playing for keeps.
[00:31:43] I know you're thinking I'm throwing hell, fire and brimstone at you. I'm not throwing anything at you. I'm telling you what Jesus said in the last week of his life. And I'm asking all of us to take it very, very seriously.
[00:32:06] It the inheritance was prepared before the foundation of the earth.
[00:32:17] But the place of dismissal is a place in which the fire of the age burns forever and ever, and God only ever really intended it for the unholy one and his messengers.
[00:32:38] Everyone who ends up there ends up there because they chose there.
[00:32:48] There will be not one soul in this place of sorrow that did not personally choose to be there.
[00:32:58] I have shared with you on occasion, C. S. Lewis's book, the Great Divorce.
[00:33:06] And he says, the gates of hell are locked from the inside.
[00:33:12] Church.
[00:33:16] What does the life of those who are headed for the great dismissal look like?
[00:33:24] They refuse to sacrifice and serve anyone other themselves.
[00:33:31] When they see the hungry, they say, it's not my problem.
[00:33:38] When they hear an appeal to feed the hungry, they say, let someone else do it.
[00:33:48] When they hear the call to give the thirsty a drink, they say, it's not in my budget.
[00:33:57] I've got other plans.
[00:34:02] Strangers are just that, strangers.
[00:34:06] And they don't have to be treated the very same way I treat my friends.
[00:34:13] Those who think that are headed for the great dismissal.
[00:34:24] They find it easy to shame the naked, easy to criticize the weak and judgmental toward those in prison.
[00:34:38] Church.
[00:34:40] And they sit in churches all across America Sunday after Sunday and tell themselves, I'm all right.
[00:34:50] Can you hear me?
[00:34:53] Christ said, this is a serious thing and we need to pay attention to the reality of what's going on in our soul and what do we really want to do with this single life that God has given us?
[00:35:13] Those on the left say, whoa, whoa, this isn't right.
[00:35:23] We see you, the majestic one. You're on the great Emerald Throne. We never saw you hungry.
[00:35:31] We never saw you thirsty.
[00:35:34] We never saw you in these conditions you're talking about. How can you possibly dismiss us when we never saw you the way you say we did?
[00:35:47] And the great king says to them, yeah, you did.
[00:35:53] Yes, you did.
[00:35:56] When you didn't have it in your heart to do something for someone that you saw beneath yourself.
[00:36:05] You didn't have it in your heart to do it for someone who is obviously above you.
[00:36:15] If you couldn't do it because it was the right thing to do, then you wouldn't have done it if I would have shown up in all the majesty you see me today.
[00:36:33] Church, we do what we do in obedience to Jesus Christ.
[00:36:42] I stand up here at this time of year and ask for you to give a generous Christmas offering so we can feed the hungry, so we can give clean water to the thirsty, so we can serve those who are underserved.
[00:37:01] And we do it in pure obedience to Jesus Christ.
[00:37:06] Do you understand that?
[00:37:08] It's not your money that I'm after. It's your soul.
[00:37:14] It's not the cash that I'm worried about. It's the soul I'm worried about.
[00:37:21] When the Great separation comes, I want all of Christchurch standing on the right side.
[00:37:29] Some of you are going to have to change your politics.
[00:37:36] You're not used to being right of sinner, but this time you want to be. This is the day you want to be on the right side church.
[00:37:52] This is frightening enough, but in typical manner, Jesus won't let it go.
[00:38:00] All these parables commonly come with one last powerful moment.
[00:38:10] And this one ends in a powerful moment that almost makes my knees Buckley. Those on the left will go away to eternal punishment, but those on the right to eternal life.
[00:38:41] Do you hear this?
[00:38:43] The Great Separation is not temporary, it's eternal.
[00:38:51] The Great Separation is not one day, it's forever.
[00:38:58] The Great Separation isn't the separations we feel where someone we love dies and goes into eternity before us, but we have the hope, the beautiful hope of being reunited with them.
[00:39:16] This is a separation that will never be undone.
[00:39:22] This is a separation that will create the realities of eternity.
[00:39:29] Those who have heard, come, you blessed of my father, enter into the kingdom that is prepared for you from the foundation of the earth.
[00:39:41] And. Oh, go away from me, you cursed church.
[00:39:49] I want us to remember that as a church, our ultimate service is to souls.
[00:40:00] Yes, we want to feed the hungry. Yes, we want to give clean water. Yes, we want to clothe and we want to heal, and we want to be a blessing. We want to do all those things, and we want to do them passionately.
[00:40:15] But ultimately, this church exists for something that is a little bit bigger than all of that. It exists for the human soul.
[00:40:27] The church exists to create space for the Holy Spirit, to whisper to hearts and let those hearts hear Jesus say, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:40:46] This church exists to say to broken souls, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
[00:40:56] This church exists to remind people, though your sins are scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
[00:41:06] Ultimately, this church exists to take people who have lost their relationship to Jesus Christ and reintroduce them to the majestic one who once hung on the cross, but today sits on an emerald throne.
[00:41:23] Our heart's desire, our longing, our purpose. The most important thing we will ever do is week after week, person after person, soul after soul, connect people to Jesus Christ in the kind of way that on that great separation day, they get to hear the most beautiful invitation of all. Come, you blessed of my father Church.
[00:41:59] Christ is playing for keeps, and so are we.
[00:42:03] And so I'm asking you at the end of this year and at the beginning of a new year, that you examine your heart to see whether you're in the faith. Are you a true believer in Jesus Christ, I ask you to examine your heart. What do you want to do with your life?
[00:42:23] What do you want to do with your life? Are you willing to make some sacrifices? Are you willing to do some service that makes you everything Christ desires you to be?
[00:42:36] Or do you find yourself a little annoyed with it all?
[00:42:41] I want us to ask ourselves, as a church, are we doing the very best we can to help people to come to faith in Jesus Christ?
[00:42:52] Are we praying for each other? Are we encouraging each other? Do we take an opportunity to say something nice about Christ when we get a chance?
[00:43:02] Do we look at the people we love and care about and say, what can I do to make sure they are invited to the right on that great day of separation?
[00:43:15] Our dear Heavenly Father, I'm so delightful, I'm so delighted that Christ speaks to us the way he does.
[00:43:37] And sometimes when I look at these harder teachings of Jesus Christ, I have a sense of new seriousness.
[00:43:57] When I look at these challenging teachings of Jesus Christ, I ask myself, am I taking Christ as seriously as I should?
[00:44:11] Father, I pray for myself this morning. I pray for everyone who's here. I pray for everyone who's watching online.
[00:44:20] May your Holy Spirit do His perfect work in us, and may we stand with you on that great day without spot and without blemish. In Christ's name, amen.
