Services/Sermon in Phoenix 22.11.2015

For our text this morning, we'll read the gospel text that's recorded for us on this Sunday. And this Sunday is the last Sunday on the church calendar. It's Judgment Sunday. And we'll read from the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 through 46. And the words are as follows in Jesus' name.

When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee, and hungry, and fed Thee, or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in, or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, In so much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Naked, and ye clothed me not. Sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?

Then shall He answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. But the righteous into life eternal. Amen.

Before we begin our study of our text this morning, I would want to bring greetings of love and God's peace from the small congregation there in Payson, where we visited last Monday and held services. There we were able to visit with Leah Simonson, who I'm sure many of you know is now living there with Lauren and Jerry in Payson. She was happy to have services and remembered you, brothers and sisters, here in Phoenix. Many who have been here for many, many years know Leah, and perhaps some who have come later, remember her sitting there in the front pew with the elders. And she, of course, is in, her health is not so good now, and she was having hospice care. But the day that myself and my family visited with her, she was very uplifted and very chatty and was happy to have those believing visitors to see her.

And so we need to even remember those who are sick and have infirmities, those who are living perhaps away from the congregation, and they do cherish those moments when those brothers and sisters come in and visit them even for a short period of time.

We have read a portion of Scripture from words of Jesus that speaks of that day of judgment. This past Sunday, the text was of watchfulness. And oftentimes I feel that these two Sundays are very close to each other, for we know that one needs to be watchful, because in a blink of an eye, one can be taken from this world. And we know that in a blink of an eye, Jesus and the angels will come with the shout of the archangel with the trumpet, and will take those who are believing into that eternal place of glory.

And so, there are many writings in the Bible that speak of this great and wondrous day for those who have faith in their heart when they depart from this world.

I've often thought in this way of how when Jesus spoke to the people of his time, we know that Jesus was a true man and true God. So Jesus grew up as a Jew with the Jewish traditions, and so he knew and he understood Jewish society. He understood the customs of that time. And because he was a true God, he was able to take those customs, and he was able to use those various customs in his teachings. And we know that those teachings are spiritual teachings.

And I've often thought that we who live here today and we hear God's Word and we listen to God's Word, we don't always have a clear understanding of those traditions and those customs of that time as did the people who were hearing Jesus speak.

And I thought about this recently when I was speaking with a couple who are engaged to be married. And we spoke about how we go about the marriage ceremony today, the customs that we have here in American Christianity, and that are often followed through in the various weddings that we have.

And then I was thinking, we were talking about that, and then we began to talk about those marriage customs of the Jewish people and how they are so tightly tied to the Word of God and Jesus' explanation of the last times and of the watchfulness that the child of God must endeavor with.

Last week, we heard of that parable of the ten virgins. And we know that five of those virgins allowed their oil to run out. And even this picture here is part of that Jewish custom of marriage in those days that the bride and her attendants, those virgins, would be waiting for the coming of the bridegroom along with his entourage, I guess you could say, or those men that would serve in the wedding.

And so there are these many different scriptures that tie into that, the Jewish wedding, and many of them have to do with being watchful and of the last judgment and of that eternal life in heaven.

And I thought that perhaps as we study even this text and of this topic that we might be able to touch on some of those traditions and so forth and perhaps be given some understanding of God's holy scripture and of this final day of judgment that is spoken of here.

In the Jewish tradition, there was often a matchmaker, one who would help bring a couple together. And this is spoken of even in the book of Genesis. Go back and look at this in chapter 24, verses 2 through 4. It reads, And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruleth over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

And of course, that wife was Rebecca. So here we see where Abraham had sent one of his servants to find this wife for his son Isaac in that land of his brethren and not of the sons and daughters of the Canaanites, but rather he wanted them to be of a believing nation.

And we can see how in the New Testament, in the book of Corinthians, chapter, or the 2nd Corinthians, 11-2, how Paul writes unto Corinthians, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

So, here we can see in a spiritual sense how Paul, who had the Holy Spirit in his heart, was able to, through God's will, he was able to preach even that gospel unto the Corinthians. And as he said, I am, he said, I have espoused you to one husband, and of course that husband is Christ, and that he may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

He reminded them of that, of those vows that had been made unto Christ, that they would remain in faith unto the very end of their journey.

And in this way, we can say that in the sense that the child of God, when they preach that gospel to those who are in unbelief, are also being a matchmaker between that person and Christ who is the bridegroom.

And there are other similarities in this way throughout God's word.

We know that in Samuel that King David was required to pay a price for his bride, this Michal, who was the daughter of King Saul, that he had to go forth with his armies and slew the Philistines and bring back unto Samuel those hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And that's recorded for us also in the book of Samuel.

And we know that the bridegroom, our Lord and Savior, Jesus, that there was a price paid on our behalf. In 1 Corinthians it's written in this way that I think it's in chapter 6 verse 20. For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.

So there was this price that has been paid on our behalf by our Lord and Savior Jesus who is our bridegroom that he bought us and redeemed us from the debt of sin. He paid for us on that middle cross of Golgotha and as such we are betrothed to him or we are engaged in a more modern term that we believe upon him and we are in this betrothal period.

During the time of Jesus in that Jewish tradition the man and the woman also had this period of waiting before the wedding feast before their marriage was consummated. We know that they came together, they were brought together and they had a feast and at this feast then that promise was made between that man and that woman that they would become engaged.

There was, if I remember right, they had a toast where they drank to each other and then the man would give the woman a coin similar as we would give an engagement ring today and as such they then were engaged and that engagement was for a period of a year or approximately a year and it was a very serious type of engagement.

We remember Joseph and Mary how they were engaged during that time and in that Jewish tradition when they made that promise one to another that it was as if they were married. They were considered to be man and wife even though they had not come together yet the marriage had not been consummated.

And so we know that in the case of Joseph and Mary that during that period that Mary became pregnant and because of the Jewish law and Deuteronomy Joseph was encouraged to put his wife away because they thought that she was unfaithful during that period.

And when we consider even the engagement of even us as believers today we can look at that as the wedding has not yet occurred but we are engaged to Christ. We have been promised to believe that our sins are forgiven in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

We are traveling towards that time when that wedding will occur, that final day of judgment and this during the Jewish time this period was for about one year.

And we can say that even as believers today that we take this vow that we have made when we have promised that our sins are forgiven us in Jesus' name and atonement blood that this is a commitment from our heart unto Christ and we would want to be faithful unto our Savior, unto our bridegroom.

We would want to travel in that way that we would not fall into that spiritual fornication where we would no longer believe on that simple gospel message but rather we would want to turn to our brother and sister in faith and confess our sins and our faults one to another so that we can continue to endeavor in the blood of Christ on this journey of faith to that eternal home in heaven.

In the Jewish tradition the engagement lasts for about a year and when that time came then everyone involved, the bride, the bridegroom, those ten virgins that is spoken of in that parable or we could say that those attendants of the bride, the whole wedding party knew that that time was close but even the bridegroom did not know exactly when the wedding would occur.

In the Jewish tradition only the father knew so the bridegroom had gone and he had built the bride chamber over the course of the year he had prepared it for the wedding day and then the father decided when that time would be.

And this is even how it is in our life of faith today no one but the father knows when that wedding day will occur when that final day of judgment will occur.

In Matthew it's written in this way in chapter 24 verse 36, But of that day and hour know no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

So no one knows, not the angels, not the children of God, not even our Lord and Savior Jesus knows when that day might be. All we do know is that we need to have our lamps filled with that oil, we need to have faith in our hearts and to be ready on that final day of judgment.

That particular parable is written in that way and oftentimes the marriage party when the father said that it is time then the bridegroom would go with his attendants and they would carry torches which were filled with oil and of course were lit so it was bright and they would head towards the bride where the bride was with her attendants and then they also too would have those torches which were filled with oil.

Then there would be a shout for a trumpet. They would come as a thief in the night to take that bride and the bridal party there to the bridegroom's chamber and it is there in the bridegroom's chamber that the bride and the bridegroom would enter and then their marriage would be consummated. They would come together.

And this is also a spiritual picture of how it is with the kingdom of God. We know that the Lord Jesus and his angels will come with the shout of an archangel. We know that there will be the Bible tells us there will be this trumpet that we will hear and then the bridegroom will come with his angels to take the bride unto that bridal chamber where there in heaven that marriage will be consummated and then the bride and the bridegroom will join that marriage ceremony.

Even as we remember that marriage there at that feast there in Cana that Jesus attended and there will be that great wedding feast in heaven where all of the believers and the angels of heaven and the bride and the bridegroom, the heavenly Father will be able to celebrate unto the very end which will be forever and ever because there is no end in eternity.

And this is what we are traveling towards even here today dear brothers and sisters in faith.

So when we go even going back to our scripture which speaks of that day of judgment, we know that Jesus spoke much before of this. He spoke of in that chapter 24 and 25 he spoke of how no man would know of that day. He spoke of that parable of the ten virgins and then he spoke of that final day of judgment that we have heard of.

And when we read this and when we think of this portion with our carnal minds it's difficult to understand. He speaks of in this way of how he gathers all the nations together and on one side he puts the sheep and on the other side the goats and we know that the sheep are again it's a spiritual picture of the kingdom of God of those believers who have received the forgiveness of sins who have died with faith in their hearts that had that oil when the bridegroom came to take the bride away to that chamber.

And here we see it in that other way of the way Jesus describes it of how there would be the sheep on one side and the goats on the other, the sheep being the believers and then he then the king speaks of in this way, For I was hungry and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me, I was sick and ye visited me, I was in prison and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungry and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink?

Do we brothers and sisters sit here today and even consider these words? I know in my life it certainly does not feel this way that how did we give unto the king this meat and this drink? How did we clothe him?

This is answered for us here in another portion of scripture which is recorded for us in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 10, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which he has showed towards his name in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.

The saints of God are God's own. We know that Jesus is our brother in faith. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of love, it's a kingdom of grace, it's a kingdom of forgiveness of sins.

And when we look around us and when we consider all of the help and all of the love and all of the hope that we have received from our dear brothers and sisters in faith, we can begin to more clearly understand these words of the Lord Jesus.

We cannot obtain heaven, we cannot obtain salvation if we try to do this on our own. We cannot be isolated from the children of God. We know who the saints are. We know that the kingdom of God has a border and within that border there is much love and mercy and grace.

We care for one another along the way and the journey. We give a helping hand when that is needed.

But we can say this in a temporal way and we certainly see oftentimes where we can help one another temporally in this kingdom but even more important than that is that love that God showed unto us by sacrificing his Son on our behalf and we have been given that gift of faith.

The Lord Jesus has given unto us the keys to the kingdom where we are able to help one another upon this way and not only one another but we know that there are those who travel even unto this moment in darkness on the outside of this kingdom.

There are those sheep who are out there amongst the goats who have yet to be brought into this sheep fold and it is even to those ones, those strangers that perhaps we have not known as of yet but who are also there wandering in that wilderness, those who at some moment in time according to God's will will be called to the door of God's kingdom.

And it is even to those that this work and this labor of love will one day be shown when they stand at those grace doors and knock and those doors are opened and they are able to enter into the kingdom, they are able to enter, have their sins forgiven and receive the gift of living faith by and through the grace of God.

And so the heavenly Father when he speaks in this way unto us this is what he means. He says, And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

But then he turns and he speaks to those on the left hand, his left hand. These are those goats, these are those ones that we can say and with our own carnal mind we might look at this in two ways.

There are those who are self-righteous, those who have attempted to reach God and Jesus through their own works, through their own understanding of the Bible. There are many churches in this world today, there are many different faiths and understandings.

Oftentimes a person when they are searching for a church or a faith in this world they want to find that which matches their own ideas, their own thoughts of what Christ is, of what a doctrine should be and there are many different places a person can go in this world to find a place that meets their own needs.

But this is not how God's kingdom is. We come to these grace doors in this way as a lowly child, one who looks towards his mother which is the congregation of God and looks towards the Father who is the Word, for the heavenly Father this Word of God and they wish to enter into the kingdom in that lowly way as a little child giving up those ideas, giving up all those opinions that leads a person into self-righteousness but rather they seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto thee.

And this is how one needs to approach God's kingdom and these are those who will stand.

Those ones who have not approached God's word and have approached his kingdom but rather have sought to find another way unto heaven even as those who tried to reach heaven when they tried to build that tower of Babel.

We know that they will not know God nor will God know them.

And then there are also those who lived a godless life who participated in the many sins of this world. We say the sins of the flesh who will also be on that left side.

We know that the enemy of the soul has created many different obstacles for one who has been born into this world. We know that there are many temptations, there is much confusion, the winds of this world blow a person from here to there.

Even those who have given up their childlike faith, those who have left God's kingdom.

We know that every child who is born into this world is born as a believer and even those who die before they reach that age which only God understands, that age of reason, are brought safe into the arms of Jesus into the bosom of Abraham.

But then there are those who give up their childlike faith. Many are born into unbelieving families but then there are also those who are born into believing families that give up their faith.

And it is even for those that we pray on their behalf that they too would find these grace doors so that on that final day of judgment they can stand before the face of the heavenly Father and be put on that right hand of God there amongst the sheep who will be given that receive that gift of eternal life in heaven.

Even this morning every one of you can lift up your hearts and believe all sins, doubts and temptations forgiven and washed away in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

This is how we wish to travel on this journey of faith so that we would have that oil in our hearts, that our lamps will be burning on that final moment of time in this life.

And even for my own many sins and shortcomings and doubts and coming here before you I want to also hear my sins forgiven.

I promise to believe with you dear brothers and sisters in faith we have a good and a gracious heavenly Father, one who keeps his promises.

And what a joyful time that will be when we are taken into that eternal home of heaven in Jesus' precious name. Amen.

Let us unite our hearts together in closing benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.