Sermon in Minneapolis 22.11.2003

Holy and Righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day of grace, when you have allowed us to gather before your holy and precious Word. We request of you, dear Father, on this snowy and blustery morning, that you would warm our cold and weary hearts, and with your Word we could be uplifted and fed, encouraged as your children on a wilderness journey, traveling one day toward our heavenly homes.

We thank you, dear Father, for the gift of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus, who you sent into the world, who suffered here on this earth, was tried as a criminal, suffered and died on the cross, was buried, and three days later, rose again victorious over death, sin, and the devil, so that all mankind, whoever might believe upon him, could have the hope of everlasting life. We request of you, dear Father, this morning, for service blessing. Amen.

We think about the church calendar in general, looking at it as a whole. It could typically be divided into two different parts. The first part of the church calendar concentrates on the life of Jesus, the coming of the Lord and Savior, His birth, his infancy, and then the work that he did here on the earth. The first part of the church calendar ends with near Ascension Sunday, or Ascension Thursday, when Jesus rose up into heaven. The next Sunday then begins the second part of the church calendar, which is Trinity Sunday, and concentrates on the work of the Holy Spirit.

But now we have come to the end of the church calendar. And in the last month of the church calendar, it leads us up to a climatic event, you might say, or leads us to the end of the church calendar. The last month of the church calendar concentrates on the most important matters. For example, what our responsibility is here on this earth. And also, the foundation of our faith. What is the foundation of our faith? And then last Sunday was watchfulness, being watchful, being ready for the end of the world, or end of this earth.

Today, then, is the final Sunday of the church calendar, and it is Judgment Sunday. And I'll read one of the gospel texts for Judgment Sunday. It's found in the 25th chapter of Matthew, the last part, which begins with verse 31.

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 the shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his 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 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 thee sick or in prison and came unto thee?

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

Then shall he say 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 say unto him, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or imprisoned, 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. Amen.

This portion for today is a portion of consolation, but it is also a portion of warning. In this world, we have understood there are basically two groups of people. There are the believers and the unbelievers. To the believers, this text is a consoling text. It gives us encouragement. But to the unbelievers, it is a warning of what can happen when the last day, the judgment day, comes.

We as believers by faith understand and believe that that which is written in the Bible is true and it will happen. And so based on that belief by faith, we understand as this text began that surely a judgment day is going to come. There are people in this world that don't believe there will be a judgment day. But it will come as a surprise.

This text began, "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him and shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him will be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats."

So, according to those two verses, it says that there will be a judgment day. There will be a judge on the throne which we know is Jesus Christ. When that day will appear, no man knows. There will be signs as Jesus related to his disciples that indicate that the end is drawing near.

Earlier in this 25th chapter of Matthew, the disciples had come to Jesus or rather it's in the 24th chapter of Matthew. They had come to Jesus in the beginning of the 24th chapter of Matthew it says, "And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives the disciples came unto him privately saying, 'Tell us when shall these things be?'" Talking about the end of the world and the earth as we know it and what shall be the sign of the coming and the end of the world.

And then Jesus gives a description of many of these signs here. "Take heed," he says, "that no man deceive you. Many shall come in my name saying, 'I am Christ,' and they will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and pestilences, earthquakes in diverse places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows."

Then if we go later into this 24th chapter of Matthew he gives some more descriptions. He says, "But as the days of Noah were, so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and they were drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so also shall be the coming of the Son of Man."

He says further, "Two will be in the field, one taken, the other left; two women grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other left. Watch therefore," he says, "for ye know not what hour the Lord doth come."

And then he goes on to give other descriptions which we won't go into now, but of that day and hour no man will know it. It says in another place, not even the sun shall know what that hour or day shall be. But there are these indicators, we could say, that help remind us that the end is drawing near and that we should be ready and watchful because this day of judgment will come one day.

Man in general, the unbelieving world, many of them don't believe there will be a judgment day. I heard a statistic a few years back that there were 80% of the people of this world who believe that there is a heaven but only 20% believe there is a hell. What a nice thought that would be to have. We could live as we wanted with no concern of what will happen on judgment day. But that's not the way it is.

According to the Bible, there will be a judgment day. There is a heaven and there is a hell rather. Many will have no fear of this judgment day until these signs begin to take place.

Lestadius related back in the year 1851 when the sky was darkened at midday. He said there were those in unbelief that ran for cover, you might say, tried to hide in caves, went into houses and buried themselves. He said it was like a rabbit who went and stuck his head into a thicket and thought that nobody could see him. Similar to Adam and Eve when they fell into the first sin in the garden of Eden. They fell into that sin, they realized what they had done, and they knew that God was going to come looking for them. They went and tried to hide but we know that they were not able to hide.

So these kinds of worldly events, natural disasters, can make people think about this world and what may happen to this world one day. It's interesting how Jesus uses these kinds of examples from everyday life to help illustrate the kingdom of God and in this case the difference between the children of God and those on the outside of God's kingdom.

He used this example of sheep and goats. Most of us here perhaps aren't so familiar with sheep and goats but we know in general that sheep are quiet animals and goats have those horns which they like to buck and buck people with or anything around you might say.

I heard of an example that helps to illustrate the nature of these goats. There was one young boy from northern Minnesota who had a goat and he liked to tease this goat. He would go into the pen and he would get the goat mad and the goat would come charging at him and he would stand fast until the goat was close and then jump up in the air, spread his legs and the goat would go zipping underneath him. Then he would taunt the goat again and the goat would come back charging head down and so on again he would jump free himself from the goat but then he would go and stand in front of some obstruction and of course the goat was all riled up and some charging at him he would jump, spread his legs, the goat would go underneath and ram into the obstruction.

He would often do this to his friends that would come from the city and who are not familiar with the nature of goats. He could do this again and again but such is the nature of the goat it didn't learn.

Lestadius also talks about goats in reference to this text about the nature of goats, how they often want to butt the sheep and want to steal the food from the sheep. The types of food that they will eat, they will eat just about anything. A certain friend of mine bought some goats to clear out his property from poison ivy and brush and so on. After he bought these goats it was a short time later and his woods, I guess you might say, was cleared out from these goats.

But Lestadius says regarding these goats because of the types of food that they ate they would eat any kind of rubbish or anything and he said their breath smelled hideous. But then the sheep are a mild animal, quiet animal, defenseless animal. The shepherd would have to care for the sheep. The sheep require care from their shepherd.

And so Jesus used this example to illustrate the difference between the children of God represented by the sheep and the children of the world represented by the goats with the devil driving the habits, you might say, of those in unbelief. And as children of God, of course, we are led by their Lord and Master Jesus Christ who if we follow his life the way that he lived, the nature that he had, it was a loving nature. He cared for those who had gone astray, those who were on the outside of his kingdom.

So this text that we have before us is similar to a court. We especially as children in Sunday school recite every Sunday morning before the beginning of Sunday school the creed and the second part of this creed says that we believe in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried, he descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

And so this is that judge that sits at the right hand of Jesus, sits at the throne of this court and will judge everyone on the last day. Typically in a court there would only be one person judged but in this court all will be judged.

The evangelist John wrote in his vision in the revelations regarding this court in the 20th chapter of revelations, John is continuing in his vision here and I saw the dead, the small and great stand before God and the books were opened. And so in other words indicating that not only the big and the small but the great and so on all will stand before this judge. No person who has lived on this earth will be able to skip this court, you might say. All of us will stand before him and the books will be opened and our works and our deeds will be listed there in that book.

Works and deeds at least before one has come into the kingdom of God. Once one has become a child of God all deeds, all sins that have been recorded in that book will be wiped away clean by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus who as we have already mentioned died for the sins of the whole world.

This text then relates how it will be the response between the judge and the believers and the judge and the unbelievers. We as God's children realize and understand that in and of ourselves we could no way make it to heaven one day. When we look into our own hearts we see nothing but filth, often daily falling into sin, thoughts and words, deeds and actions.

But through the works of our Lord and Savior Jesus we are then heaven acceptable. And as I mentioned we don't feel that we deserve this kind of gift. But when Jesus comes before us, children of God who have our sins washed away by his merit works, this will be then the response.

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 he gave me drink. I was a stranger and he took me in. Naked and he clothed me. I was sick and he visited me. I was in prison and he came unto me.

Then the righteous, we can hear, see the thought of a believer. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee 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 thee sick or imprisoned and came unto thee?

We of ourselves we don't see any good in ourselves. We are, as I mentioned, filthy, filthy as garments in and of ourselves. And so this is what we see when we think of our own good work here on this earth. They are not heaven acceptable.

And then Jesus then illustrates here why it is that we are heaven acceptable. Then shall the king answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

But then we look at the other side, those that are sitting on the left, those goats as Jesus used in this example. Then shall he say also unto them on the left, 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. I was naked and ye clothed me not. Sick and in prison and ye comforted me not.

So then these goats then begin to lift off all of their good works. They don't understand that they are saved by and through grace, through the merit works of our Lord and Savior. They are similar to this parable of the publican and the sinner who were there in the temple to pray here in the 18th chapter of Luke. Jesus spoke a parable to certain people. He says who trusted in themselves and they were righteous and they despised others.

He says two men went up in the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes to all that I possess."

Would not lift up his eyes unto heaven but he smote upon his breast saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

So just another example of this difference between the believers and the unbelievers. And so Jesus as the judge here in this parable of the last judgment tells them, "I was hungry and you gave me no meat, thirsty and you gave me no drink," and so on.

But then they answer as this publican did here. Then shall they also answer him saying, "Lord, when saw we thee in hunger or thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison that did not minister unto thee?"

When Rockford was beginning planning for the new church, the building committee members had gone to several churches to get different ideas about how they operate and so on. And it was somewhat interesting to those building committee members that had gone to these churches of the world, they noticed that these churches do many different things for their children.

And it was perhaps the understanding of those members, those people in the development and so on of these programs, understand that by and through these good works they are made heaven acceptable. But we understand that it is only by grace as Paul writes in one of his letters, "By grace we are saved, not of works, lest any man boast," and so on. By grace we are saved. It is a gift of God.

And so we as God's children do these works, do these works not for any merit to make us heaven acceptable but by and through, led by the Holy Spirit as God's children do works of faith which uplift us, they strengthen us on this narrow way of life.

The evangelist John then writes again in the 20th chapter verse 12, "And I saw the dead, the small and the great stand before God and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works."

We understand that by and through their own works they are not made heaven acceptable. But we as the believers have our names recorded in the book of life which we've heard so many times and by next to our name there will be listed no sin. That book will be completely white and it is only by and through the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

But for those on the outside Jesus ends this text, "Then shall he answer them those goats 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."

There was a certain terminally ill patient in a hospital and apparently this patient had cancer and his days were not long on this earth. One particular day the nurses heard this beautiful singing and they were running to and fro around the hospital trying to find out where this singing was coming from.

They finally came to this man, this man who was a believer who was terminally ill and they wondered how could this man who was terminally ill be so happy and be able to sing so beautifully.

This man related to those nurses who had come to his bedside that what you hear is a vision of what I see of what is to come. As Jesus says, "The righteous shall go into life eternal."

And so that man was able to see a vision of what that might be like and he was able to express this vision in song so that those on the outside could hear this beautiful singing.

And so we as God's children realize and understand in and of ourselves we have no merit for everlasting life but by and through the grace of God we have a hope of everlasting life which was described in song by that terminally ill patient.

And so in closing this morning each of you brothers and sisters can lift up your hearts and believe by grace through the merit works of our Lord and Savior Jesus all of your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

And I ask for myself, can I believe my many sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name? Amen.

We'll close this morning with a 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 the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.