Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Matthew

  • Investing in the Kingdom: Talents

    Investing in the Kingdom: Talents

    About this sermon

    A master entrusts his property to three servants, five talents to one, two to another, and one to the third, each according to his ability. The first two trade at once and double what they received, and the master commends them: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The third hides his talent out of fear and calls his master hard; the master takes his talent from him and casts him out. The master’s expectation was feasible and fair. “To everyone who has, more will be given.” Those who do not put their faith to use lose it.

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    Sermon transcript

    Remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. Our sermon text this morning is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 25. We will be reading Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30. You can find that on page 987 of your Pew Bibles. This is the Parable of the Talents. This is God’s Word, taken from Matthew 25, starting in verse 14.

    For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also the one who had the two talents made two talents more. But the one who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.

    Now after a long time, the master of the servants came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, and said, “Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more.”

    His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

    The one who had the two talents also came forward and said, “Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here, I have made two talents more.”

    His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

    He also had received one talent, came forward and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed. So I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. But his master answered him, You wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Then you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest.

    Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. There, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    Let us ask God’s blessing on His word. Father in heaven, we ask for Your Spirit, the Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation, the Holy Spirit who inspired men throughout the ages to write down Your word, which by Your providence You have preserved for us to read and hear even this day, Lord. Once again, we need Your Spirit, that these words may not be dead to us, but that we might be awakened and enlivened. May we have ears to hear and hearts to believe. We ask for Your Spirit to be present in the preaching and the hearing of Your word, because without You, we are without hope. So Lord, we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus.

    Amen. You may be seated. The title of my message this morning is Investing in the Kingdom. It is the final parable in our series on kingdom parables that we have been studying. Sermon outlines are available in the back of the bulletin, if you did not receive one when you entered. These may be helpful for taking notes, if you wish. Imagine a world-renowned symphony conductor. After decades of composing breathtaking music, he announces that he must leave for a long journey.

    Before he departs, he gathers three of his most promising students in his grand music hall. To the first student, he gives a priceless Stradivarius violin. To the second, a rare cello. To the third, a beautifully crafted flute. He looks at each of them and says, “I am entrusting these instruments to you. Use them while I am gone. Make music with them. Fill the hall with beauty.” Then he leaves.

    The first two students immediately begin practicing. They compose new pieces, take risks, perform for audiences, and push their instruments to their limits. The music they create is stunning.

    The third student takes the flute, wraps it carefully in a cloth, and locks it in a glass case. When friends ask why he never plays it, he says, “The maestro is a perfectionist. If I play it and make even one mistake, he will be furious. It is better to keep it safe and return it exactly as I received it.” Years later, the maestro returns. The hall fills with the glorious sound of the first two students’ music. But when the third student opens the case and hands back the untouched flute, the maestro’s face fills with sorrow and anger. “I did not give you that instrument so that you could simply preserve it,” he says. “I gave it to you so that you could make music.” We are living in the time between the master’s departure and his return.

    And Jesus has entrusted each one of us with gifts, resources, opportunities, time, and abilities, and of course, the gospel itself. These things are not meant to be locked away for safekeeping. They are meant to be used boldly, creatively, and sacrificially for the glory of the king and for the advancement of his kingdom. Some of us might be tempted to play it safe. Since these gifts ultimately belong to God, I should be extra careful not to misuse them.

    But Jesus tells us this parable to show that the master is not looking for careful preservation. He is looking for faithful investment. In the parable of the talents, Jesus answers one of the most important questions for every Christian: How should we live until his return? The answer is not in passive waiting or fearful protection, but in bold, joyful, risk-taking stewardship. Because what we do with what he has given reveals what we truly believe about him. William Carey, the father of modern missions, captured this truth powerfully when he told his audience in the 1800s: “Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God.”

    This is the heartbeat of this parable. Today, we are going to look at it in three movements in the story. First, the master’s feasible entrustment. Second, the servant’s faithful investment. Third, the servant’s fruitless indifference. First, the master’s feasible entrustment. It is feasible for two reasons. Feasible because it is given to each servant according to his ability. And also feasible because, for the master’s wealth, it is considered a comparatively small amount.

    Verse 15 says, to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. The master in this story has an understanding of his servants and their varying levels of competency. Therefore, he entrusts different amounts of money to each. The master understands his servants well and knows that not all of them are capable of handling the same amounts.

    I believe Jesus includes this detail in the story to teach us about the way that God distributes his blessings and responsibilities in this life. We may have a tendency to question the distribution of God’s blessings and responsibilities among those around us. But Jesus is reminding us to trust God. He knows what he is doing, and he has given to each of his servants according to their ability. Now, as far as the sums of money, I am not sure if you realize this, but the amounts in this story are actually quite enormous.

    A talent was roughly equivalent to about 20 years of wages for the average day laborer earning a denarius a day. Technically, a talent was a measurement of weight, about 75 pounds. Our story does not specify the exact precious metal, which could have been gold, silver, or another substance. If it was gold, and you calculate the worth of 75 pounds of gold today, that would be about 5.4 million dollars per talent. One of the servants received five talents. Even if the talents were in silver, each one would be worth just under 100,000 dollars in today’s silver market. The point is that the master of these servants was a very wealthy man.

    He is a rich man, and he is entrusting his servants with immense wealth. Yet we see him later call these things small. You have been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many. This assignment for the servants was like a job interview task.

    And this points to the abundant riches of our God. How often do you and I think that we are stretching God’s limits, asking too much of Him? How often does that lead us to think small in terms of our lives, in terms of God’s kingdom, and in terms of our church? But just like the master in this parable who gave his servants hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, and called it a little, our God has the riches of the universe.

    He owns all the gold mines, oil fields, mineral deposits, and cattle on a thousand hills. He is not limited by resources or concerned about us exceeding His budget. He gives His gifts generously, and you are not about to bankrupt Him or cause Him worry or displeasure. He has given you a few things, and He wants you to invest them boldly.

    Are you thinking of the blessings of God in terms of kingdom investment? Now, while this parable is focused on money, the application, of course, goes beyond finances. In English, the word “talent” has taken on an entirely non-monetary meaning. So when people speak of a reference to this parable, using their talents for God, what they actually mean in English is skills, abilities, and opportunities.

    We derive this understanding from a more generalized application of this parable based on other parts of Scripture. For instance, the Apostle Peter. In 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter lays out a paradigm by which believers ought to think about and act in light of the skills, abilities, and opportunities they have been given. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 through 11.

    As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. As stewards of God’s varied grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. God has entrusted us with gifts. He does not want us to bury them, but to use them in His strength.

    And this parable shows us something of what it means to have a kingdom mindset. Even the wealthiest people in this age have been entrusted with only a few things, compared to what is to come. This is a perspective check. Here, the servants are given charge of hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, yet it is still described as a few things. We ought to feel a sense of smallness. We ought to recognize the insignificance of these few things with which we have been entrusted. This life is short, and we have been entrusted with only a little, compared to God’s overall riches and what He has in store for those who love Him. This life is like a test, a training ground for eternity. This does not mean that heaven is for those who are financially skilled. It means that in this life, here and now, our possessions are not the ultimate goal. They are tools to learn from and to grow through. They are a stepping stone on our way to handling true riches.

    He says, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.” He says this to the servant who had overseen and doubled the five talents. And this ought to make us consider life in this world versus the life to come. The responsibilities and opportunities in this life are seen as small in comparison to what we will have in the next life. The master entrusted his wealth to his servants and expected them to invest it. And so we will consider next, number two, the servants’ faithful investment. Verses 6 and 7 describe it.

    He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them. He made five talents more. Similarly, he who had received the two talents made two talents more. The text states that the servants went at once and traded. In the Greek, the sentence begins with “immediately.” This immediate action demonstrates their investment in the outcome of the master’s estate. They wasted no time and immediately began working to use the master’s money. Because they treated it as if it were their own, they were fully invested in the outcome.

    This is contrasted with the one-talent servant in verse 18. But he who had received the one talent went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. The servant received his one talent just like the others, but the text emphasizes that he referred to it not as what he had received, but as his master’s money. This reflects the way the servant viewed the money. The one-talent servant refused to take ownership. He kept the funds at a distance and avoided investment in both senses. He was not invested in the outcome, and he refused to use his master’s money in any way that would increase its value. The other servants, however, took ownership.

    They were fully committed to the growth of this money and so they boldly invested it. They traded with it and conducted business using it. The fact that the master mentions the option of depositing the money in a bank suggests that these servants engaged in more risky endeavors.

    This may be compared to investing in the stock market today. Anyone who has seen the disclaimer at the bottom of investment options knows that returns are not guaranteed and that all investing involves risk. This would have been true for these servants managing significant amounts of money. I am not certain what the Roman or Jerusalem financial system looked like in the first century, but it likely differed greatly from the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones, or the S&P 500.

    But there were many ways that merchants and traders could buy and sell to make a profit. This would have involved risk, perhaps even losing all of it. These servants understood and carried out their master’s mission to use the money to maximize its growth. We see that the servants were invested in the master’s well-being through their immediate and bold investment of the money he entrusted to them. We also see their investment in the reward that the master grants them. For the master gives them two things: greater responsibility and entrance into His joy.

    If the servants had not been invested in their responsibilities, this reward would have been unwelcome news. Some of you may have served in jobs where you were good at something, but you did not like it very much. In such cases, a promotion involving more responsibility was actually an unwelcome change. You had abilities and skills in that area, but it was not something you wanted to do more of. But in this case, the servants are not merely doing something they are good at or that they must do.

    They are eagerly doing what they love. Therefore, their promotion to greater responsibility is welcome news to them. Their promotion to greater responsibility is a sign of their investment in the outcome. If you are working for a company or in a position that you love, greater responsibility in that company is a welcome reward. These servants were working for a master whom they loved.

    Notice how they approached their master at his return. Verse 20: “And he had received the five talents, came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents. I have made five talents more.’” Or verse 22: “He said, also, who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here, I have made two talents more.’” They eagerly displayed the profits of their labors, anticipating the joy of their master at the success of their venture. And we see their investment even more clearly in the second reward given by the master.

    In response to the servant’s faithful stewardship, the Master says, “Enter into the joy of your Master.” These servants had been invested in the outcome of the master’s funds because they were invested in the master. They saw his prosperity as their own prosperity. Therefore, they were rewarded by entering more fully into their master’s joy.

    He does not say, “Great job, see you later.” The master’s joy had been their aim all along. So this reward for their service, just like the greater responsibility, is more of the same—what they had been seeking. “Enter into the joy of your Master.” They had taken responsibility for what they had been entrusted with, and they were given participation in their master’s joy.

    It is easy to skip over that description, but I think it is important for us to ponder it. Simon Goulart, a French Reformed theologian in the 1500s and 1600s, says that the eternal and blessed life with God in heaven, accompanied by rest and unspeakable glory, is the goal of faith, the faith of Christians. This is the harbor of their hope, the refuge of all their desires, the crown of their consolation, which they will certainly enjoy after escaping from the travails of this miserable and fleeting earthly life. Indeed, even from death itself, they will fully enjoy, and will enjoy fully and completely, the Lord their God, the foundation and inexhaustible treasure of all good things, who will pour upon them His goodness and His infinite joy, satisfying all their thoughts and desires. This is what we are working and waiting for as God’s servants. The servants sought their Master’s joy on earth, and as a result, they are ushered into His greater joy in heaven.

    But as we consider the contrasting implication from the third servant’s attitude, we see that the primary difference between the first two servants and the third was their own beliefs about the master. So we will consider finally number three: the servant’s fruitless indifference. At first, these two titles may seem to refer to servants, but I have placed the apostrophe in different places for number two and number three. The word “servants” in number two is plural, while “servant” in number three is singular. This is because while the other two servants immediately invested their larger sums of money, the last servant had a different strategy.

    Verse 18: He who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. As we noted earlier, there is an emphasis here on “his master’s money.” The servant views his master’s property as completely distinct from his own, something he is not invested in. We see the third servant’s reasoning for his actions come out in verse 24.

    He also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. And so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” In one breath, this servant displayed his distorted belief about his master, and also removed any excuse of ignorance that he might have had.

    Commentator Leon Morris says, “I knew you are a hard man.” He offers this as an excuse for his failure to use his talent, but in doing so, he undermines his own defense. If he knew his master was a hard man, he also knew that he had been expected to do something profitable with the money entrusted to him. He explains what he means by hardness in this case.

    The picture this servant draws is of a man focused on business, who collects profits from many sources, not only those resulting from his own labor. Rather than justifying the servant’s inaction, this shows that he understood the master’s expectations, just as the other two servants did.

    His failure to invest was not due to misunderstanding, but to fear. The servant says he was afraid. And fear, of course, is never a proper foundation for action. The master responds to the servant’s reasoning in verse 26 and 27: “You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. If I truly were as harsh a master as you claim, you should have placed the money in the bank, where it would have earned interest.”

    The servant appears to be trying to claim that he was afraid of the master’s high standards. But his actions betray his claims. His actions reveal a heart of rebellion. He was doing more than just playing it safe. He was trying to thwart the master’s goals by burying the money in the ground. He wanted to give the master back nothing more than what he had been given stewardship over. Rather than being invested in the outcome, he was actually trying to sabotage it.

    We see the master’s response in verse 28: “Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.” The servant clearly had no investment in the master’s money and therefore had no business managing it. Then Jesus explains the broader application in verse 29: “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” We often use the phrase “use it or lose it” in reference to our physical strength and abilities. We see that principle clearly stated here in terms of faith.

    When the master left, it appeared that the three servants had faith. But by the time he returned, it was clear that only two of the servants possessed true faith. Their investment in the master’s money demonstrated their possession of it, and it grew. Faith is meant to be exercised and invested, not buried in the ground. The third servant’s actions with his money revealed a lack of faith, ultimately.

    And in the end, even what he appeared to have was taken away. Jesus is making a point about faith and the appearance of faith—about possessing faith versus merely professing to have faith. Those who truly have faith will do something with it, while those who do not possess faith remain disinterested and uninvested in the things of God. As we prepare to close, some of you might be hearing this talk of investment and thinking, I’m already stretched thin. I’m exhausted. I can’t even think about doing more. And I want you to remember three things.

    Number one, the master gives gifts according to ability. He knows what is too much for you. He is not raising a whip, reviewing reports, or preparing to rebuke you for what He knows you are able to do. Number two, consider what He desires from His servants. He desires your joy. Stop trying to measure up by your achievements. This parable is not about how to measure up.

    That is what the wicked servant thought. That is what caused him to hide the money in the ground. Because this investment is not about earning your salvation. Jesus has already earned it. Therefore, you may rest in His finished work and in the knowledge of your master’s love. In that knowledge, you are able to invest boldly. Remember, number three, it is His money. It is not your responsibility to provide the funds. He is calling you to enter into His work, the good works that He has prepared for you. Since Jesus is the ultimate faithful servant, He perfectly invested everything the Father gave Him, even His own life, for the joy set before Him. He is our example and our sustaining grace. Through His death and resurrection, we may be forgiven for our own indifference and given a new heart that delights in the master.

    The Puritan minister, Thomas Manton, says this about the joy that is to come and the way the saints love. He says, “The saints love God and delight in Him, in His essence and in His being, as much as in their own glory. And this makes heaven comfortable. It would be a torment to a carnal heart to always be thinking of God and engaged in acts of love and service to God. But the saints delight in Him. They delight in His presence and in their own happiness because God is glorified in it. And there is an inconceivable delight in seeing, knowing, and being loved, beloved by God.”

    The real difference between the servants came down to their beliefs about their master. A third servant believed his master was unjust and harsh, not someone to love or who would offer him grace. The first two servants believed deeply in the grace of their master. This belief empowered them to be fully invested and to invest their master’s money boldly. Their faith in his grace enabled them to do this. Do you want to be one of the faithful servants exercising bold faith, in confident assurance of receiving grace from God? Do you want to become fully invested in God’s kingdom?

    To be able to pray with all your heart, “Your kingdom come,” you need a new heart, of course—a new and renewed heart. And everyone who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance. Ask God to give you that faith in Jesus Christ. And not just once, but boldly ask for more faith. This is one of his favorite requests to grant. Then exercise that faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed. Ask, and he will give you more.

    Take up the rich promises of God and apply them in your life. Pray them. Believe them. Then act like you believe them in the power of the Holy Spirit. All while anticipating the words that are coming: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” Amen.

    Let’s pray. God our Father, we thank you that you are not a hard master, but you are a generous one. You are a rich and generous master, covering our sins and richly blessing us with more than we could even ask or think, by your riches in Christ Jesus. Lord, we ask for eyes of our heart to be opened to see and believe your riches, that we might boldly use what you have entrusted us—not to earn salvation, but out of our delight and joy in what you have given us already. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. In response, let’s stand and sing hymn 469. Hymn 469, who are these like stars appearing? Let’s stand as we sing.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Waiting for the Kingdom: Maintaining Lamps

    Waiting for the Kingdom: Maintaining Lamps

    About this sermon

    Ten virgins wait for the bridegroom with their lamps; five wise ones bring extra oil, but five foolish ones do not. When the bridegroom delays, all fall asleep, and at midnight the cry goes out. The foolish ask to borrow oil and the wise tell them to buy their own; while they are gone, the bridegroom comes, and the door closes. Waiting is hard when prayers go unanswered and Christ seems delayed. The critical difference is readiness, which no one can borrow. Believers must be ready through faith in Christ, even if they pass through death before he returns.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our sermon text for this morning is taken from the Gospel of Matthew. If you would like to remain standing and follow along, please turn to Matthew chapter 25, reading verses 1 through 13. It is found on page 987 in the Pew Bibles. Here now, the Word of God taken from Matthew chapter 25.

    Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

    As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry: “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered, “Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.” And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” But he answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

    Amen. This is God’s inspired word. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord God, you have breathed out this inspired word for us to hear, know, understand, and receive life from. Lord, we ask that you would send your Spirit, who inspired the writing of this word, so that we might receive the life that is here. Open our eyes and ears to see and hear, that you might be present with the preaching of your word. May this be to your glory and to our blessing. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

    You may be seated. There were some outlines in the bulletins this morning in case you missed them. If you would like to find them, please look for them now. The title of the message is “Waiting for the Kingdom, Maintaining Lamps.” We are doing a series on parables. The key words to listen for in the points, for children of all ages, are reality, difference, and finality. Good morning, church. Happy Mother’s Day. Does anyone have difficulty with waiting? Yesterday, many of you were at my home for a baby shower for one of the expectant mothers in our congregation.

    There are a few people who understand waiting better than mothers. You wait nine months to meet your child. You wait through sleepless nights until they finally learn to sleep. You wait years, sometimes decades, to see the fruit of all the prayers, tears, discipline, and love you have poured into them. Some of you may still be waiting for a prodigal child to come to his senses and return home. Motherhood is one long, beautiful, exhausting lesson in waiting.

    This morning we come to a parable that is also about waiting. While the kingdom has come in some ways, Jesus has arrived. Yet there is also a significant sense in which we await the full coming of the kingdom. Jesus tells us a story of ten young women waiting for the bridegroom, who was delayed. Some were prepared for the long wait, and others were not. The difference between them was eternally significant.

    Jesus tells this parable at the end of his ministry, as he prepares his disciples for his departure and his eventual return. In Matthew 24, the disciples asked him about the end of the age and his coming. He responds with teaching about the trials they will endure, and then gives several parables about how his followers should live while they wait for him. This is one of those parables.

    And the main message is clear: be ready. Stay spiritually prepared, because the bridegroom will come at an hour that you do not expect. We will look at our passage this morning under three headings. First, the shared reality of waiting. Second, the critical difference—some were prepared. Third, the final outcome—included or shut out.

    First, the shared reality: waiting. Look at verse one. Then Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” We must begin with a brief orientation.

    As you may have already noticed from the reading, first-century Jewish wedding customs differed from modern Western traditions. In our modern Western traditions, people typically wait for the bride to arrive at the ceremony. The ceremony does not begin until the groom and his attendants are in place and ready. Only then do the bride and her attendants enter, drawing everyone’s attention. We have no detailed records of how Jewish weddings were conducted in a typical first-century context.

    Scholars therefore speculate about the exact details. They only mention that a wedding took place. Everyone assumed they knew how it worked. But fortunately, we do not need to know the exact details of how weddings were conducted in that time to understand this parable. Whether typical or not for the period, the scene is described in sufficient detail for us to grasp its intended meaning. What is clear is that there was an evening wedding celebration that could not begin until the crucial guest—the groom—arrived.

    Most English Bible translations refer to these individuals as virgins who waited for the groom’s arrival. The Greek word is *parthenos*, from which we derive the term the Parthenon, the building in Greece. This term is broad enough to refer simply to a relatively young, unmarried woman. In this context, they are serving as bridesmaids.

    In verse two, five of them were foolish and five were wise. We quickly learn that these bridesmaids, who were waiting, are divided into two groups. One group is described as wise, prudent, or thoughtful. The other group is called foolish. The reason for their classification becomes clear in verses three and four.

    When the foolish bridesmaids took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise bridesmaids took flasks of oil along with their lamps. One group was thinking ahead, beyond the present moment. They had made preparations so that if events did not unfold according to their schedule, they would still be ready. At first, there would have been little noticeable difference between the two groups. However, in terms of what they were actually carrying, there is some disagreement among Bible scholars.

    Although the Greek word is *lampos*, which likely gives us the English word “lamp,” some scholars argue that in this context, these were more accurately torches. In other passages where this word appears, it is translated as “torches” in the New Testament. For example, the Jews came to arrest Jesus in the garden with torches. In the book of Revelation, there are references to torches being cast into lakes and torches burning before God’s throne. All of these uses involve the same Greek word.

    So it makes sense here for the girls to be carrying more than a small oil lamp to welcome the groom, which would have been a candle to the wedding party. These were probably much larger torches that the girls were carrying. But the main point, of course, is that the girls were prepared with extra oil. The wise ones were prepared, and the foolish ones were not. While this difference was unnoticeable at first, by the end, the difference became absolutely monumental.

    Verse five says, as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. While we find in the rest of Matthew 24, and in other places, including at the end of this parable, Jesus warning people to stay awake and be watchful. In this case, there does not seem to be any indictment of the bridesmaids for falling asleep during the delay. Both the wise and the foolish slept alike. The wise slept alongside the foolish, indicating that the sleeping in this case was not the problem. Whether they were sleeping or not was not the distinguishing mark of being foolish or wise. All the bridesmaids grew tired because of the delay and eventually fell asleep.

    So as we consider this story, we see many commonalities. All ten virgins took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. They were all invited. They all had lamps or torches. They all expected him. And when he was delayed, all of them became drowsy and fell asleep.

    Jesus is painting here a picture of the Christian life. We are all waiting. Christ has come, died, risen, and ascended. The next great event in terms of redemptive history is his return to judge the world and to fully establish his kingdom. And we live in the in-between time, the time of waiting. We wait in history. Two thousand years have passed since Jesus promised to return. That is a long delay. We also wait personally.

    Even though we have been born again, sin and suffering still remain, even for Christians. The world is broken. We see it all around us. Things are not as they should be. Even within ourselves, our hearts are still waiting to be fully sanctified. The night often feels long and dark. Waiting is difficult for everyone, and it is difficult for Christians. It is hard because we desire to see, not only to believe.

    It is hard because our culture trains us to expect immediate results, while the Kingdom of God operates according to God’s own timetable. I struggle with waiting myself, and the Psalms are full of calls for God’s people to wait upon the Lord. The alternative we see in the history of the kings of Israel and Judah is the example of those who relied on their own strength, their own timing, and their own resources rather than on the Lord. And frankly, I believe we are often tempted to do the same. If God does not bring about what we desire according to our schedule, perhaps we will try to force it. We may attempt to make it happen through our own resources, our own influence, or our own strength, or through some other means.

    Waiting is hard because doubt begins to whisper when the delay continues. One of my greatest temptations is to think that God has become distracted or has forgotten about me. It is easy to begin to believe that God did not foresee all the challenges I am currently facing. Then it becomes easy to lose hope. It is hard when prayers go unanswered for years, when faithfulness brings cost, when our own sins weigh us down, and when we see the evil in the world.

    And yet, here we are—just like the ten bridesmaids waiting, waiting for the groom to appear. We share this common experience of waiting. But as we continue our story, the second point, we see the critical difference—the critical difference. Some were prepared for the bridegroom’s arrival.

    But at midnight, there was a cry: “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” In the middle of the night, the cry came that the groom was finally arriving. The moment had come that the bridesmaids had been waiting for all night. This was their time to shine. Verse seven: Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The girls woke up, both wise and foolish, and began preparing to welcome the groom.

    The word “trimmed” here refers to the need to adjust the wick of a lamp, but the Greek word is more general and can be translated as “put in order” or “straighten up.” In a different context, one might say “get ready,” but for a torch, it simply means to prepare it and light it.

    Verse eight: And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” Here we finally see the contrast between the bridesmaids as it becomes significant. As they attempt to relight their torches, the foolish discover that their lack of extra oil means their torches cannot remain lit. They naturally turn to their companions, seeking assistance. This is the most immediate source of oil available for their torches.

    They simply request the wise ones to provide some of their extra oil. That should be possible. But this is not an option, verse nine: “But the wise answered, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ What might have appeared initially to be a reasonable solution proves to be impossible.

    The wise have not brought enough oil for two torches. Each has brought only enough to keep one torch lit long enough to welcome the groom. If they share the oil, then all ten torches will burn for only half the time, and all will go out before the groom arrives. They have only enough oil for themselves to each have a burning torch the entire time.

    But being wise, of course, they offer a sensible solution: run out and purchase more oil right now. This is clearly something the foolish ones should have thought of before. But it is not until now that they realize their urgent need for extra oil. The foolish bridesmaids take this advice and rush off. But it is already too late. As we see in this parable, some things cannot be obtained at the last minute.

    And spiritual readiness is one of those things. At the end of the day, you and I, and you, will alone have to give an account for our lives before a holy God. We see this point brought out in the letter to the Galatians. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he states this at the end, Galatians chapter 6, verses 3 through 5:

    For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Each one will have to bear his own load. The boasting that Paul refers to in this passage is not about thinking of yourself better than others, as he makes clear in verse three, but rather whether you are relying on the faith of someone else or your own faith.

    When we speak of a shared faith, what we mean is that we are all trusting the same person, Jesus Christ, to save us, not that we can actually borrow someone else’s faith. I knew a young man several years ago who thought that he was a believer while his mother was alive because he was so close to her and she was such a devout follower of Christ. But it was not until after her early death, leaving him feeling hopeless, that he realized how much he had been borrowing—or trying to borrow—her faith. And it was at that point that he realized he had to make her faith his own. Faith is not something that can be had vicariously. You must have faith yourself. The foolish bridesmaids had to learn this the hard way.

    As we see next in number three, the final outcome. The final outcome included or shut out. Verse 10. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. The foolish bridesmaids had departed, but they were too late. While they were on the way, the groom arrived. The bridesmaids were still in the middle of their preparations. They were following the advice of the wise bridesmaids, but they were too late. The moment arrived and passed, and the girls missed their opportunity. Only those who were present—the wise bridesmaids with fully burning torches—were there to welcome the groom and to go with him into the celebration. Those ready for the groom’s arrival entered, and then the door was shut. But eventually the absent bridesmaids returned from their mission. Verse 11. Afterwards, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

    They had been delayed in their timing, and their mission had become irrelevant. They had been absent and unprepared for the groom’s arrival. They had completely missed the reason for waiting in the first place. But better late than never, right? Perhaps they could still enter the party despite being late.

    So they came knocking and calling out to the locked door. They addressed the groom directly, asking for entrance into the celebration that they had assumed they were part of. But they heard an answer that was utterly dreadful. Verse 12. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. They had assumed they had a place in the wedding party, that they had some kind of relationship with the groom. But from inside the locked door, he told them that he did not know them.

    The foolish bridesmaids were not merely late to the party. They were completely excluded and disowned. Not because they left to prepare, but because they were unprepared at the final hour. There is no room for second chances or do-overs in this case.

    Sometimes when I am doing street evangelism and I ask people where they expect to spend eternity, or if they have thought about it, I sometimes hear the answer, “I’ll figure it out when I get there.” Jesus tells this parable to warn against that kind of thinking. Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, verse 25, Jesus says: “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the guard, and you be put in prison.” Jesus is not merely giving legal advice or encouraging general arbitration. He is making a spiritual point.

    Just as in our parable this morning, Jesus is saying that when the time comes, there will be no opportunity to prepare further. The time to prepare is now. The foolish bridesmaids had all night, but they waited until the moment the groom was announced. The lesson is clear in the next verse: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Jesus repeats this point, which he had already stated twice in the previous chapter. The hour is unknown.

    We must not delay becoming ready, and we must not lose our readiness. So the question is, how do you become ready so that even if you fall asleep, you will still be ready at a moment’s notice to welcome the groom? The wise and the foolish both fell asleep. You and I may and very likely will pass through death while waiting for the groom’s arrival. How do we prepare so that even if we die, we are ready to meet him when he comes?

    Very simply, you cling to Christ now and depend on him daily. Faithfulness to the Lord is not about what you are keeping up with, but who you are clinging to. Being prepared and ready is entirely about fully depending on Christ. It is not about looking within to see if you have extra stores of oil. Being ready for the groom’s arrival, Jesus’s return, is measured by your dependence on him. Are you trusting him?

    The wise bridesmaids knew they did not have what was needed to be ready on their own. So they made preparations. You do not need to wait until the last moment to be ready. In fact, as we have seen, this parable was told specifically to keep you from putting anything off. Jesus is saying the time to be ready is now. The wise bridesmaids made provision for the future. They prepared themselves. And you too can prepare yourself by fully relying on Christ.

    Being ready is not about having your life in order, not about the amount of insurance coverage you have, the adequacy of your retirement savings, a record of charitable contributions and donations, or an accumulation of admirable actions.

    Genuine personal faith is the inward work of the Holy Spirit that sustains us in a real relationship with Christ. It is not enough to have the outward appearance of faith, as the foolish bridesmaids did. It is not enough to grow up in a Christian home, attend church, or have a mother who prayed for you. You must have your own living, sustaining relationship with Jesus.

    Mothers, this is relevant today. Many of you have spent years providing oil for your children, teaching them the Scriptures, bringing them to church, modeling faithfulness, and praying without ceasing. We thank you. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord, but you cannot believe for your children or give them oil. That must come from the Lord. Each person must receive their own supply from the Lord. So, mothers, we honor you, even as we remember you this day, and many of you have been wise bridesmaids.

    You have kept your lamps burning through long, dark nights, and you have shown us what faithful waiting looks like. Keep it up. Keep filling your own lamp every day through God’s Word, prayer, and dependence on the Spirit. In fact, all of us, because your faithful waiting has eternal value. To all of us, old and young, mothers and fathers, singles and children, Jesus is calling us to be those who are wise. Is your faith genuine and personal, or are you relying on someone else’s?

    Maintain your lamp daily. This means regular time in the Scriptures, honest confession of sin when the Holy Spirit brings it to your mind, even through the words of others, prayer, obedience, and fellowship with other believers. And of course, remember that the waiting is hard, but the wise prepare for the long night. The good news is this: we do not have to manufacture our own oil.

    Jesus freely gives His Spirit to all who come to Him in faith. The same Bridegroom who will one day shut the door is today inviting us to come in and receive everything we need. To recognize that Christ has done everything you need, and to grab hold of Him, embrace Him, call out to Him for mercy, and trust in Him and depend on Him hourly to be your supply.

    Amen. Let’s pray. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we wait for your coming. We are those who wait wisely in dependence upon you, not in independence upon ourselves. So Lord, we ask you to pour out your Spirit, to give us faith, grace, and hope, that we might wait faithfully and wisely until the end, that we might endure, and that we might be ready. At the very moment that you come again, welcome us into the wedding feast. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, in response, let us continue our worship and turn, in this case, to hymn 390. It is not what is written in your bulletin, but number 390: “Christ is Coming.” And let us stand as we sing.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Invited to the Kingdom: A Wedding Feast

    Invited to the Kingdom: A Wedding Feast

    About this sermon

    A king prepares a wedding feast for his son, but the invited guests refuse to come; some go off to their business, and others kill his servants. The king destroys those murderers and sends his servants to invite everyone they find, good and bad, and guests fill the hall. Yet one guest without a wedding garment is bound and cast into outer darkness. There is no neutral response to God’s invitation, and no one may trifle with him. Those who come must come on his terms, clothed in the righteousness he provides in Christ.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    If you would remain standing and turn, our text this evening is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14. You can find that on page 983 in your pew Bibles. Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14. Hear the word of God.

    And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner.

    My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready. come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

    But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

    The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Let’s pray. Our father in heaven, Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, you who have breathed out this word and preserved it for our instruction, we ask now that this evening, you would also be present in the preaching and the hearing of your word, that it might be life to us. We need this, Lord. Without you, without your spirit, we are without hope. So we ask you to send your spirit this evening. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

    You may be seated. The title of the message this evening is Invited to the Kingdom, a Wedding Feast. And the children can be, and others, can be listening for the words royalty, results, and requirement. Well, imagine you receive a gold-embossed invitation from the president to attend his son’s wedding at the White House. Everything is covered, the flight, the meal, even a custom tuxedo or gown, waiting for you at the door.

    But when the final call comes, Everything is ready, come now. You ignore it. Maybe your excuse is, I’ve got to check on my lawn, make sure the grass is growing high enough. Or perhaps you even become enraged and assault the courier. That level of rudeness of response feels a little insane.

    And yet Jesus says, this is how we often treat the invitation to the greatest feast in all of history. But before we get there, let’s start with a little bit of context for our passage. As we consider the context of this parable this evening, it comes at the end of three, it’s the third of three parables, which Jesus tells just after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Matthew chapter 21.

    And these parables serve to highlight the fact that the Jewish leaders were being excluded, while those they despised and thought unworthy were actually entering the kingdom. And these parables serve to call out the Jewish leaders. And they got the point, as we see in Matthew 21. But rather than being convicted when they saw themselves portrayed in Jesus’ parables, they only became more intent on destroying him. The context of the parables is Jesus’ second cleansing of the temple on the week of Passover when he is confronted with the Jewish leaders who are challenging his credentials.

    They ask him where his authority comes from and after giving them a question, which they refuse to answer, he goes on to expose their rebellion with this trilogy of parables. The first one is Matthew 21, verses 28 through 32, which highlights the obedience that God is looking for.

    Jesus tells of two sons with different problems. One refuses to obey initially, but then repents. The other son immediately professes a speedy obedience that fails to materialize. And Jesus then asks the question of the Pharisees, which son pleased his father?

    And upon their answer, Jesus spells out his intended indictment of their doubly reprehensible behavior. They refused to believe at first when John came. and then proudly continued refusing, despite the examples of tax collectors and prostitutes repenting all around them. The second parable is in verses 33 through 41, and it’s more extended and more explicit.

    Tenant farmers are set up to take care of a vineyard, and they not only refuse the owner’s rightful claim to the produce, but they rise up in absurd rebellion as though they could take the possession of the vineyard by killing the master’s sons and servant. The Jewish leaders miss the point at first, acting like David when he is confronted by Nathan. They eagerly condemn the absurd wickedness of the tenants, saying that they should receive justice. But Jesus then points out that they, more than anyone else around, most closely resemble these absurdly foolish tenants by their own rebellion against God. And on the heels of those two parables comes this third parable that we’re looking at this evening. And here, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a royal wedding feast.

    Now while many weddings have challenges with the wedding party, the minister, the caterer, the venue, this wedding has one of the most unlikely difficulties of all, a lack of guests. It’s intended to be a big wedding and instead There are no guests coming. We’ll consider this parable under three headings. Number one, the royally invited guests. Number two, the response to the rude refusal. And number three, the remaining requirement of wedding clothes. Number one, the royally invited guests.

    Verses one and two, and Jesus again spoke to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. This would of course been a joyous and important occasion. The king giving a wedding feast for his son. Jesus has compared the kingdom of heaven to many things so far, but here his comparison is to a royal wedding invitations that get ignored and then vehemently refused. And it highlights the folly of those that fail to enter the kingdom. Because it is like turning down an invitation to the most wonderful party ever. You would have to be almost insane. And yet that is the state of sinful man.

    Turning down an invitation to a wonderful party In this parable, the king’s son would be the heir. Before we even get into this parable, knowing what we do from the book of Revelation, for instance, reading from this vantage point, We can see additional significance to the kingdom of heaven being compared to a wedding feast. We see, of course, a picture of Jesus, the son of God and the wedding feast of the lamb, which will of course come at the end of history, which the gospel call is coming and inviting people to the wedding feast of the lamb. But here it is confined to a simple feast in the story. And yet the king sends out his servants, verse 3, to all those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

    Notice it says those who had previously been invited. It was common practice, we have contemporary sources that also mentioned this, to receive an initial invitation, as we do now of Save the Day. And then, once everything was ready to receive the second call to come to the wedding feast, they were receiving the final reminder. In a time that lacked watches and clocks, it was, of course, helpful to be reminded in this way. And their refusal at this point, after having previously been invited, is utterly unexpected. It’s unnatural and it’s rude.

    But the king is not put off. There he sends another servant in verse four. Again he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see I have prepared my dinner. My ox and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.

    Despite the rude ignoring of the invitation, the king generously sends his servants back again. And notice the king’s patience displayed in the wording, are invited. The invitation still stands. He has not rescinded his invitation at the first rebuff. He does not retract the invitation, but extends it all the more, attempting to persuade them with the description of what they can look forward to. The king can’t fathom that they turned down the invitation with full understanding of what is being offered.

    There must be a misunderstanding. And so he reminds them of the preparations that have taken place, the abundance that awaits them if they simply accept the invitation and come to the feast. Jesus wants us to understand that entering the kingdom of heaven makes as much sense as accepting an invitation to a wedding. It truly is a no-brainer. And despite this, we see two insane responses.

    Matthew verse 5 of chapter 22, but they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business. In the Luke sort of parallel version, a similar wedding story that Jesus tells in his parable, in Luke chapter 14 verse 18, the guests state explicit excuses. But in this story in Matthew, when Jesus tells the parable, They do not even give a reason. They just completely ignore and wander off without even giving a verbal excuse.

    And these reasons are clearly non-urgent. They’re simply everyday concerns. Imagine saying, I didn’t have time to go to the president’s ball when I was invited because I had to wash the dishes. Or I had to check on some paperwork at the office, so I missed my daughter’s wedding. The response is utterly disrespectful. The king himself had sent three invitations by personal messenger to these guests, and they completely ignored all of them.

    And the response is the height of disrespect, except for the next response, which tops even the ignoring. Verse six. while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. Their first response is bad enough, utter indifference. But the king’s patience shines through. And despite the rudeness, he had sent another wave of servants with even more vivid details. And yet, the responses worsen, despite the king’s generosity.

    They treated them as absolutely worthless, treated them shamefully, and then killed them. Of course, the most shameful act of all. Just when we thought that these invited guests could not be any worse, we find that some of them even lash out in an irrational rage against those bringing them an invitation to the party. And this is truly bordering on unbelievable, truly beyond belief.

    And yet, Jesus would have his hearers understand that this was precisely the situation between God and his people. Jesus’ previous parable about wicked vineyard tenants highlighted the right of the owner to his own crop. But here, and they had rebelled against the owner asking for fruit from his farm. But here they’re lashing out against a king who is merely inviting guests to a party. Inviting guests to a wedding party and the messengers are killed.

    Jesus wanted the Jewish leaders of his day to see themselves here. They, as leaders, part of God’s chosen people, had received a privileged place in God’s history of redemption by virtue of their heritage. They were those who had received an invitation, a repeated invitation, but instead of responding with joy and faith and repentance at John the Baptist and later Jesus coming, they retaliated in rage. In response to God’s gracious invitation, which culminated in the coming of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ himself, the Jewish leaders responded in murderous rage. Israel had killed the prophets throughout their history. And in a short time, these leaders listening to Jesus here would seek to kill him.

    This is what I like to call the Cobra Heart. The depraved heart that you and I, everyone, is born with. A rebellious heart that interprets God’s very existence as a threat to our own autonomy. When God brings an invitation of life and freedom and joy, we respond with rebellious hatred, lashing out at him and those who represent him, extending that invitation to us. And that is, of course, why it is so important that we receive God’s promise of a new heart. You and I need a new heart. And until we have that new heart, we will irrationally view God’s invitation as boringly yawn-worthy or ominously threatening. But despite the king’s patience and kindness in extending his invitation for a third time, we see in our passage his patience does have a limit.

    So number two, the response to the rude refusal. Verse seven, the king was angry and he sent troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. The king is enraged and with good reason. The invited guests had pushed things way too far. Notice none of them even politely declined. There was no neutrality. Both responses that they gave were completely rude refusals to a kind and generous invitation. But a kind king is not a pushover, and he’s not one to be trifled with.

    In the previous parable, the Jewish leaders recommended that the sentence be carried out on the wicked vineyard tenants. But here Jesus doesn’t ask them for their indictment. He just swiftly states the king’s response. We read 2 Samuel 10 earlier in the service because this story displays a certain parallel to the parable.

    David had sent messengers in kindness to pay respects and to console the new Ammonite king whose father had just died. David was friends with the previous king. who had died and he wanted to show kindness and sought to establish a friendly relationship with the new king. And of course, to David’s great shock, his motives were impugned and his servants were badly mistreated. And the Ammonites soon found, and as we read, that David’s kindness does not mean weakness. And he responded to their disgraceful actions with forceful retaliation. That’s the same type of thing that we see in this parable. The king’s great patience and kindness does not mean that he has no capacity for vengeance.

    Of course, this reflects what we find all over the Old Testament as God speaks of his own vengeance and judgment against sin, even against his own people. We could look at, for instance, Isaiah chapter 5, where we find the Lord describing his judgment that he will bring, even against his own people. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours, verses 24 and 25 of Isaiah chapter 5. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom grow up like dust.

    For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people. He stretched out his hand against them and struck them. The mountains quaked. Their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.

    Jesus is saying we must never think that God’s kindness means he is incapable of judgment. Because as we return to the parable, we see that God is willing, the king is willing to destroy even the city of these rude, refusing guests. But then as we continue moving, we see in our parable that this elimination of his invited guests poses a problem for the king. Verses eight and nine.

    Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. The king has a solution. He will send out vast quantities of last minute invitations. So while his army is marching to destroy the rude refusers, he assembles his servants again to ensure that the feast does not go to waste.

    The priority of the king here is not the worthiness of the guests. Those previously invited had shown themselves to be completely unworthy. But his priority is whether his party is full. He’s got a lot of empty seats to fill and a lot of food to be eaten. He tells them, bring as many as you find, don’t exclude anyone. In fact, the places that he sends his servants suggest the likely character of his guests that will be brought in. Those hanging about on the streets at the street intersections will not be the wealthy or the noble.

    And we see this in the next verse, verse 10. And those servants went out to the roads and they gathered all that they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. We see the description of those that come as both bad and good. All sorts of people are brought in to fill the hall. All apparent levels of deserving this invitation were brought in.

    I don’t think we’re meant to read too deeply into bad and good here. Yes, all men are sinners before God, and thus would be characterized as bad. But in this case, I think we might think of the difference, perhaps, of convicted felons and those that are not. This description is not meant to be a state of one’s standing before a holy God, but one’s characteristic in society.

    It is meant to refer to the extent and the variety of guests who were gathered up and brought in. There’s no discrimination exercised on the part of the servants when extending the king’s invitation. And as many as they encountered, it says, they invited and they brought in to the feast. This is a joyous celebration. The original guests’ rude refusal could not dampen the celebration.

    The king’s wedding feast goes on anyway. Now in the Gospel of Luke, as we mentioned, Jesus tells a very similar parable about a wedding feast. It has a similar storyline. And in Jesus’ version in Luke, he ends it with a celebration. The good and bad Those undeserving are brought in and invited to the feast.

    But here in the version that he tells, in this case, that Matthew recounts, Jesus isn’t done with his parable yet. He has a further point to make. And so number three, we see the remaining requirement of wedding clothes. The remaining requirement of wedding clothes. Verse 11.

    When the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man with no wedding garment. The king goes out to survey the guests and finds one who stands out from the rest, and not in a good way. While all of the riffraff that came in from the sides of the highway are wearing wedding garments, one man stands out from the crowd. He has no wedding clothes on. So the king approaches with a question. Verse 12, and he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Notice again, the King’s ongoing kindness throughout this story. His address of friend is a kind and gentle address to this man. A simple question, how did you escape the provided garments?

    And yet, as we noted last Sunday evening, the Greek word here for friend, an endearing companion, it only shows up in the New Testament in three places, and those all three are in Matthew’s gospel, and they are used ironically. As we looked last time in the parable of the vineyard workers, The worker who worked all day long and got exactly what he earned and grumbled against the vineyard owner, the owner calls him friend and tells him to depart with what he had earned. And here again, we have the king addressing the guest as friend before kicking him out.

    And the third place is when Jesus speaks to Judas Iscariot, calling him friend just before he betrays him. There’s nothing inherently ironic in this word in Greek usage as it shows up in other parts of Greek literature. And yet this makes Matthew’s usage in these two parables and about Judas Iscariot to stand out all the more. In all three cases, friend refers to someone who appeared to be in the right, on the outside, a follower of Jesus, a good guy on the outside, but through his actions was revealed to be the opposite, a betrayer.

    And the king’s question combined with the fact that every other last minute guest was wearing wedding clothes implies that the wedding garments that the king asks about were provided by the king for the occasion. We don’t have this stated explicitly, but I believe we’re meant to understand this. We see this implied especially not only by the fact that all the other guests have wedding garments except for this one man, but it’s further implied by the man’s lack of an answer.

    It says the man was speechless. We shouldn’t think of this as a mere temporary surprise, leaving the man without an effective comeback. No, this man is unable to give any valid defense for his lack of a wedding garment, which would be because the king had provided them. The man did not give the excuse of, I couldn’t afford one. I didn’t have anything nice to wear. I wasn’t given anything, or even I didn’t know that I was supposed to.

    It’s utter silence. The Greek word here has the connotations in other places and can be used sometimes to refer to a muzzle. And so the king’s question is in a sense an indictment of the man. He’s muzzled, he’s silenced by his lack of a defense. By asking the question, the king takes away all justification that the man thought that he had for his actions.

    How did you get in here without a wedding garment? He has no good reason for not availing himself of the wedding garment. Quite plainly, he knew that he should have had on the right clothing, and yet he had declined to wear it. The previous invites had declined the invitation entirely, but this man thought he could accept the invitation but decline the clothing. He had somehow sneaked in, knowing he was supposed to be wearing a wedding garment, seeing that they were provided, and still refusing to become suitably clothed with the provided garments. He thought his own clothes were good enough, He thought he could be part of the feast on his own terms, based on his own merit.

    In the end, he made the same mistake as the previous guests, who treated the king’s generosity as something to be scorned and ignored. We might speculate, word might have gotten around about why the king was extending such a last-minute invitation to all these unlikely guests. The ingratitude of the original guests was likely spread around the room as the banquet hall was filled. But while scores of the undeserving guests gratefully accepted the king’s invitation and provision for entrance, this man told himself that he didn’t need it.

    He didn’t want or need the wedding garments. He was better than the original guests who foolishly refused the invitation, but he wasn’t about to submit to the king’s requirement of wedding clothes. accepted the invitation but rejected the king’s provision. He thought his own clothes sufficed. He was wrong. He was quite wrong. Verse 13.

    Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The king’s judgment is swift. There will be no room in his wedding feast for guests who insult him and refuse his provision. And the man suffers a similar fate to those who refuse to come to the feast in the first place. Because even though he accepted the invitation, he stubbornly refused to accept the king’s invitation on the king’s terms.

    As the parable concludes, the metaphor fades away as Jesus describes the place of exile as outer darkness, where there’s weeping, wailing, and grinding of teeth. Jesus uses this description repeatedly throughout his ministry to describe the state of those who fail to enter the kingdom. It’s a description of deep unhappiness with an abiding anger mixed with sadness and regret. And this is the fate of those who refuse God’s grace. In the end, there are only two destinations for humanity. You’ll either be celebrating at a wedding feast, or you’ll be weeping outside in outer darkness. There’s no neutral alternative. Either you’re at the feast, or you’re outside.

    Jesus caps his parable with a final takeaway in verse 14. For many are called, but few are chosen. Don’t misunderstand. Jesus is not saying that the elect will be a tiny remnant. He’s not saying that the size of the remnant. He’s saying that not all who are called will be finally chosen.

    The point is not that there are only a few who are chosen, simply that they are not all, not all the called are chosen. If you think just for a moment at the parable itself, recall the multitude of guests that are filling the wedding hall. And in the parable, only one had no wedding garment and was thrown out of the story. So it would be very strange for the point of the parable to be that there’s a miniscule amount of people that are destined for eternal life.

    Jesus’ point is that getting an invitation, hearing the call, is not the same thing as responding to it. Those who hear God’s call and know of his grace must not think that a call is the same as a response. Knowing about Jesus’s death and resurrection, his perfect obedience, meritorious righteousness, is not the same thing as abandoning trust in yourself and in your own efforts and depending upon him alone. You must not only know about God’s grace, you must embrace it, believe it, and trust it.

    And this third parable that Jesus tells that we’ve been looking at, he has something to say to the tax collectors, prostitutes, the sinners of society, and even possibly Gentiles who were following Jesus. Jesus had just told two other parables which painted them in a good light. It highlighted them as admirable for their response of repentance and obedience. These were the ones who were inheriting the kingdom. while it was being taken away from the other Jewish leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. But Jesus doesn’t want anyone to entertain false hope.

    Merely being invited, even showing up at Jesus’ teaching, showing up at church, does not mean that you’re a Shuin. Qualification remains at the wedding feast. The qualifications have been provided by the king, but they must be embraced. We must accept the garments, which requires humility to acknowledge that what you came with won’t let you in. Strangely for the proud heart, accepting God’s full provision and abandoning self-reliance is so hard that is actually impossible. Only by a divinely granted humility will a person trust in God’s grace of salvation and abandon their own self-reliance. Many are called. The invitation has gone out to the original guests, to the highways and to the byways. And it rings out today through the gospel. Come to the wedding feast of the king. Everything is ready.

    The lamb has been slain. but few are chosen, not because God is stingy, but because many refuse the invitation outright, while others only reject it superficially, accept it superficially, but reject the only garment that qualifies them, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, freely provided. Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? If you rely on church attendance, moral efforts, religious heritage, or good enough life, you will stand speechless before the king, just like the man in the parable. But the good news is this, that the same king who judges also clothes.

    He provides the clothes that are needed. He offers you his son. his son’s robe of righteousness today. And so put off filthy rags of self-righteousness. Humble yourself. Receive the gift of faith and enter in joy into the feast. The spirit and the bride say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take of the water of life without price come. Revelation 22, 17. Will you come fully on his terms? Many hear the call. Few respond in a way that shows that they are chosen.

    But by God’s grace, may you all be among those who feast with the king forever. Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your great generosity in your gospel call, going forth to the ends of the earth. As we read in Romans this morning, that your call has gone out to the ends of the earth and continues going out. Lord, we pray, we pray that you would give your spirit and choose those that receive that outward call, that they would also be called inwardly They would find that eternal life. He would give new hearts. Lord, we ask that you would give new hearts to all here this evening and give new hearts to those as we extend the call of the gospel, the invitation to the wedding feast of the lamb. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. In response, let’s stand and sing hymn 425. Hymn 425. Let’s stand and sing How Sweet and Awesome is the Place, number 425.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Equality of the Kingdom: Vineyard Workers

    The Equality of the Kingdom: Vineyard Workers

    About this sermon

    A vineyard owner hires laborers throughout the day, from early morning to the eleventh hour, and pays them all a denarius. Those hired first grumble, though they received exactly what they agreed to. The owner answers that he has done them no wrong and may do what he chooses with what belongs to him: “Do you begrudge my generosity?” The parable teaches the great reversal of the kingdom, where the last will be first, warns against the resentment of entitlement, and displays God’s sovereign generosity. No one earns salvation; all receive it by grace.

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    Sermon transcript

    If you will remain standing, for our text this evening, we’re looking at Matthew chapter 20, verses one through 16, which is found on page 980 of your Pew Bibles, if you’d like to follow along with those. So this is Matthew chapter 20, starting in verse one this evening. This is God’s word.

    For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, you go into the vineyard too. And whatever is right, I will give you. So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. At about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too.

    And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first. And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house saying, these last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

    Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first and the first last.

    Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we come and we ask, Lord, we are needy people. We have your word before us and your servant has made preparations, but Lord, without your spirit now with us this evening, these will be dead words falling on deaf ears. We ask that your spirit would be present to make these words of truth and life alive and life to us. Ask that you would pour out your spirit on the hearer and the speaker, that you might be glorified and your people might receive your blessing. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this evening is Equality in the Kingdom, Vineyard Workers. And we’re looking at a series of parables as we’ve been looking lately.

    And for children or others, the words you can be listening for is sweeping, self-righteous, and sovereign. Well, have you ever felt like something was deeply unfair? That may perhaps be a child’s favorite phrase. But even when no rules were broken, maybe as you get older, your coworker with happier experience gets the same raise, or a sibling who barely tried gets the same reward you worked for. Group projects are infamous for this type of unfairness.

    And Jesus’ listeners felt this tension as well. In a world that runs on merit, hard work, achievement, and status, he tells a story this evening that we’re looking at that turns that fairness seemingly upside down. Tonight we’re looking at the parable of the vineyard workers. And Jesus said, the kingdom is heaven is like this generous master who’s going out to hire these workers all day long. And even at the very last hour and then pays everyone the same full wage.

    Now, before we get started in our passage, the word for that our passage begins with merits a little bit of context for us this evening. So it’s important that we look back into chapter 19 to find exactly the context that Jesus is giving us here. The reason he’s telling us this parable. So I’ll read actually starting in verse 16 to give us a bit of the context of where this parable is coming in. Matthew chapter 19 verse 16.

    And behold, a man came up to him saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you ask me about what is good? There’s only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And he said to him, which ones? And Jesus said to him, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

    The young man said to him, all these I have kept, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

    And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

    And then Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to him, truly I say to you in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my namesake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. The many who are first will be last and the last first. Jesus is telling this parable in the context of this statement to illustrate his point that many who are first will be last and the last first.

    We have in this situation a young man who thinks he’s kept all the commandments. There’s no one more diligent than this young man. He may have been self-deceived, but if his life were marked with scandal, he would have hardly insisted that he had kept all those things. There would be plenty of people to call him out.

    And then Jesus reiterates his point to his disciples in that passage, that wealth, which is often a result of diligence, industry, and intelligence, has no bearing or value in acquiring entrance into the kingdom of heaven. All the young man’s riches, his self-righteous commandment-keeping, which made him first, in the eyes of all those around him, certainly in society, in the world, had made him last in the eyes of God.

    And this is the point that Jesus is driving home in our parable this evening. We’ve already seen in our look at the parables, God’s sovereignty in the parable of the soils, the mixed reality of the kingdom in the mustard seeds and weeds. and how the kingdom is worth everything, more than everything, in the treasure and the pearl parables, as well as the fact that we will be evaluated in the parable of the dragnet. And now Jesus shows us another side, equality in the kingdom, which is not equal pay for equal work, but the equality of the kingdom is undeserved grace for all. In the kingdom, equality is not based on what we deserve. It’s based on the master’s sweeping generosity. So let’s examine this evening how this story exposes self-righteous hearts and reveals God’s sovereign grace. We’ll look at this parable in three parts.

    Number one, sweeping opportunity. Number two, self-righteous resentment. And number three, sovereign generosity. Number one, sweeping opportunity. Or I think I have in your notes sweeping reversal. I went back and forth between those points. Sweeping reversal for number one.

    This parable opens with a man seeking to harvest his grapes. He needs workers for the day. And so he goes to the marketplace looking for people who can help. He’s up at dawn in the square, And he finds a group of willing workers and agrees to pay them a standard day’s wage. Denarius was a Roman coin, which was the common amount paid for about a day’s worth of work. Now today, at the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, for eight hours, the pay would be about $60. But since a day’s work in this time went for about 12 hours, we can think of a denarius as basically a $100 bill, a single unit of money which was worth about a day’s work at minimum wage.

    So the vineyard owner finds workers right at dawn ready and eager to work in the vineyard. And however, as the day goes on in this story, for some reason the vineyard owner wants more workers. And so perhaps he was trying to ensure that all the grapes would get harvested in one day. We’re not told, but either way, every couple hours, he’s back to the marketplace to see if there are any more workers available. And every time, every couple hours, he finds more, sends them into the field, promising to pay them what is right.

    It’s only the first workers that he agrees on a set amount. It’s not stated in our story whether these workers weren’t around because they slept in. or if there was some other reason that he didn’t find them there the first time. But each time he goes back, there are more. And finally, with one hour left to the workday, the 11th hour, which if we calculate the day starting at roughly 6 a.m., which would be the first hour, and the third hour then would be 9, and the sixth hour would then be 12, The 11th hour would then be about 5 p.m. He’s still going out and getting workers. He finds more idle workers looking for something to do.

    And with these last ones, we get a snippet of their conversation in this parable. He asks them why they’re idle. And they respond that no one has hired them. It’s not completely clear whether this is meant to demonstrate that they are undesirable, no one else wants them, or they simply lacked opportunities.

    But the master offers them employment, even though there’s only one hour left of work in the day. So the first thing we can notice is the vineyard owner is offering this opportunity. This is a gift that he’s offering to these workers. Because all day he repeatedly returns to the marketplace seeking people to give them employment. And if it were not for his offer of employment, they would be sitting there all day without income and without purpose. Any of you who have recently been or currently are job hunting, or if you found your job recently threatened, you can appreciate what a privilege employment is, that these workers were happy to have this opportunity.

    The vineyard owner keeps going back, inviting workers to come in until the very last minute. And so we’re meant to see that this opportunity is offered to every worker. Every worker in the marketplace was offered a chance to come into the vineyard. But the main point here is not how badly the vineyard owner needed workers, but the way in which he kept going back and offering and gathering in all that he found, even with one hour left to go, still bringing them in.

    What might have been less clear with the first few iterations of workers is painfully obvious by the time we see the last group. Jesus’ point is not that this master was desperate for workers, but that he was extending the opportunity to all who were there, even those who were last in the world’s eyes. Those that were there with only one hour left to work. No one was turned away. All day the master was inviting his workers to come. And this highlighted This is highlighted by the conversation that we saw with those last workers.

    This is not a man in need of help, but workers in need of opportunity, and a man who is ready to invite even the last, in the world’s eyes, to be first. And at the end of the day, the owner directs his foreman, of course, to pay the workers for their work, but to start with those who came in last. and to work backwards. The last to come into work are first paid, representing Jesus’s illustration, his illustrating principle for this parable. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Because in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is saying, there is a sweeping reversal of the expected economy of merit and which brings wealth. Which brings us then to our second point, with which we see the self-righteous resentment of the first workers. The self-righteous resentment. The trouble starts as soon as the money is paid to the workers.

    The workers who were diligently slaving away in the field all day watch as the last-minute workers are paid first, and they receive an entire day’s wage, an entire denarius. Then the workers who only worked three hours, they also receive a denarius as well. And finally, we get to the last group who had worked all day.

    And true, they had made a contract with the owner for denarius. But they’re looking at this guy and he seems to be paying people more than they deserve. And so they started to expect that they deserved something more. The ones who worked all day diligently certainly deserve more than the others who didn’t earn their denarius. So surely the longest workers earned a greater share of greater abundance.

    But when it came to be their turn, instead of being satisfied with what they had received and had agreed to, and should have expected, they are resentful. They felt that the master’s generosity had wronged them. They became entitled. They thought the generous vineyard owner actually owed them more than he had offered them.

    Now, on the one hand, I can certainly understand how that expectation began to build. I even would start to have that idea on my own as I’m reading this story. This master is paying people what they don’t deserve. I expect he’ll give me, above and beyond, what I deserve as well. It’s pretty much human nature to think this way, applying the logic of proportionality.

    The others got more than they expected, so the first workers might expect to receive more than they might have expected. But instead, the workers find that despite the varying amounts of work done by each worker, they all received a full day’s wage. Now, if you were an employee at a company, and you found that the brand new employee is starting out at the salary above or equal to the one that you currently have, You would be a little indignant. I certainly would.

    And there might be a temptation to interpret this parable as though there are some who end up keeping all the rules, really suffering for salvation, while others have to do barely anything and still get in. I’ve heard this parable interpreted in terms of those who have lived a long life in the faith. They did all the right things. They kept all the rules. They came to Christ young. They didn’t fall into scandal. And they didn’t fall away.

    And these are the diligent workers who bore the heat of the day. They’ve come to, and this perspective comes to see the various workers as corresponding to various seasons of life in which a person might come to faith. Some come to faith early, but some suffer much in persistent obedience, while others get the privilege of a last minute deathbed conversion without any prolonged battle with sin, like the thief on the cross. just invited in at the last second, no matter having indulged a life of sin and still getting away scot-free. While the diligent workers slaved away year after year, trying to obey God decade after decade. The last minute workers got the most bang for their buck. They get away with the most money per hour, the least work for the most pay.

    But the application in this case, this interpretation of the parable would be that despite how unfair it feels, we should not begrudge God’s generosity, God’s salvation to those who receive it while having done less to deserve it. But that reveals part of the problem with interpreting the parable this way, as I have heard it done before, because this would be a big mistake. To interpret the parable this way would be to adopt the perspective of the jealous workers who got rebuked. Of course, it is important for us to not begrudge those who receive God’s generous salvation, no matter how undeserved.

    But the jealous workers viewed the situation as ultimately unfair because they had worked and they got what they had earned. They earned what they got, while the others received what they did not deserve. In reality, Jesus’ intention here The workers who grumbled in this story are not diligent Christians who did their best all their lives to keep God’s law and never fell into scandal and who also suffered grievous trials for their faith. The ungrateful workers in our story are those who fail to enter the kingdom entirely.

    These are those who self-righteously try to earn salvation for themselves. This parable catches us off guard, as it’s meant to, because if the diligent workers who earned every penny of their paycheck are actually the bad guys, this throws us off. It’s meant to be a little disconcerting. But how do we know that these are the villains of the story? These are the ones who do not make it in.

    Well, to start with, we see the word friend. If you look in our passage, verse 13, he replied to one of them who was grumbling, friend, do you know wrong? Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Now the gospel writer Matthew only uses this word two other times in his gospel. One is in Matthew 22 verse 12. If you would like to flip over and look at that. Matthew 22 verse 12, which is another parable which we’ll look at next time.

    We find here the king speaks to one of the guests that had been brought in. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to his attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. So the use of the word friend here is meant to be ironic. This is not a friend, this is one who gets thrown out.

    The other use that we find in the gospel of Matthew of friend is in chapter 26. Chapter 26, verse 50. In Matthew chapter 26, verse 50, we find the scene of Judas coming to betray Jesus. In 49, verse 49, Judas came up to Jesus at once and said, greetings rabbi, and he kissed him. And Jesus said to him, friend, do what you came to do. Judas is obviously not acting like a friend.

    And the term seems to be put in irony. in which his description, this is not a special Greek word that means something else. It means the same thing in English. But we see the use in Matthew’s gospel of the word friend in the other two places of this specific irony. It’s a term of endearment in Greek, and yet Matthew uses it ironically in all three cases. So that would be one thing that would clue us in at first. this use of the word friend here in this passage.

    But then in verse 14, we see that the vineyard owner tells this one to take what is yours and go. It’s also the word that we often find depart. It’s a very curt rebuke. He’s not welcoming him to stay. He’s telling him, depart. Get out of here. Take what’s yours. Take what you earned and get out of here. None of the other workers are sent away in this passage. Only this one group of grumblers. And this group also, we notice that they receive their wages and nothing more. They are not recipients of gracious abundance in this story.

    These are those who are like the hypocrites that Jesus describes in Matthew chapter six. In Matthew six, when Jesus is talking in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter six, he has three sections where he speaks of giving to the needy, giving alms, of praying and of fasting. And he tells his disciples to not be like the hypocrites, because they do things in certain ways. So in verse two, Jesus warns his disciples, thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

    Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And again in verse 5, relating to prayer. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And then in verse 16, regarding fasting, he says again, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. This is very much ringing true with what we find in this passage. The Master says, take what you earned and go.

    These are the hypocrites. In their case, as Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount, these hypocrites, they were giving to the poor, they were fasting, they were doing all these things in order to make others notice and like them. That was the reward they were earning, that they were seeking by their good deeds. They sought to earn the glory of men. And as a result, Jesus says, that’s all they got. They forfeited any glory from God.

    They’re like the workers, slaving away all day just to get what is owed them. And this is called self-righteousness. And it displaces Christ’s righteousness. Those who are self-righteous have no need for Christ’s righteousness. They’re all set. But self-righteousness is false righteousness. It does not measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. It seeks the praise of men, and that is all it gets. And look at what the self-righteousness produced in these workers.

    Resentment. The phrase at the end in verse 15, do you begrudge my generosity, could be more literally translated in the Greek, is your eye evil because I am good. It’s this great contrast between evil and good. And the master’s goodness brings out only evil from the hearts of those who on the outside looked like the most admirable.

    These are the ones who looked like they ought to be first in payment. These are the ones who looked like they actually earned the paycheck. And yet there I was evil because of the Master’s goodness. The Master says to those who are self-righteous, take what you have and go. Take the benefits that you think you’ve earned. Take what merits that you believe you have and depart from me.

    They receive a denarius in the story, but the point is not the amount of money that each one gets, but whether or not he got what he deserved or what he did not. what he had earned. In this parable, we find two categories, two kinds of workers. Those who got what they had earned, and those who got what they had not earned. The point is, you want to be in the group that gets what you do not earn. Because those who get what they have earned are sent away from the presence of God to receive their wages.

    And as Romans 6.23 says, The wages of sin is death. But contrast this, of course, with the gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So finally, we see, thirdly, the sovereign generosity of the master.

    Number three, the sovereign generosity There’s no indication that any of the other workers were complaining about the inequality of wages. All except for the last group could have complained that they got less bang for their buck. But it’s only the first group that complained. They had agreed to what they were getting, and yet they complained about what they got.

    But notice that they didn’t complain to the other workers, but to the master, not who made us less. Not who made us, brought us down to their level, but you who brought them up to us. You made them equal to us. It wasn’t that the master had wronged the first workers, but that he had given others what they did not deserve, what they did not earn.

    But the owner of the vineyard invokes his sovereignty over his wealth, which entitles him to distribute it as he chooses. The first workers were paid exactly what they were contracted to get, nothing less. He did them no wrong, as he states. And they were told to take what was theirs and go. While the master asserted his right in our passage to do with what was his as he pleased.

    Verses 14 and 15 again. I choose, or it’s the Greek idea of wishing. I wish to give to this last worker as I gave to you. And we find again restated, am I not allowed to do with what I choose? With what belongs to me? This is the word for wish or for willing here in the Greek, in which we find translated in ESV as choose.

    But Jesus is highlighting the owner’s right to do as he wishes, his own sovereign freedom. And this, of course, is meant to represent God’s sovereign freedom, God’s sovereign free grace in salvation, which is stated in what God declares to the prophet Moses in Exodus chapter 33, verse 19, and which the apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter 9, verses 15 and 16. Romans 9, 15 and 16. For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. It didn’t matter how long the workers had worked. What mattered was how much the master wanted to pay them.

    But the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God and salvation makes many people uncomfortable. One reason for this is that people can start to think of God owing salvation to people, to those who are lost. It seems unfair for God to withhold salvation from some people while he gives it to others. How could a loving God withhold such a necessary thing from those who will perish without it?

    But the Bible’s ultimate answer to that question is, God gets to do what God wants to do. He’s free to show mercy to whom he chooses. And he repeatedly insists that his choice has nothing to do with the worthiness of an individual, since all who receive his mercy do not deserve it. In order to avoid the uncomfortableness of this truth, some have tried to place limits on God’s sovereign freedom to do as he pleases. They’ll speak of man’s free will as somehow limiting God’s ability to work in the world or in the hearts of men and women in rebellion against him. But the Bible repeatedly rejects any limits upon God’s sovereignty and salvation. In the end, the choice lies with God and God alone. This is the biblical teaching about God’s sovereign, the sovereign grace of God in all its awesome beauty. There is nothing anyone can do to force God’s hand.

    The choice to show you mercy and to save you is his and his alone. The scary part is you have no say, nothing in yourself that you can leverage against God to constrain him. You have no claim to mercy in yourself. But this is also the comfort. Because a gracious salvation, which you cannot do anything to earn on your own merits, you also cannot lose on your demerits. When God chooses to show you mercy, it had nothing to do with what you could earn. And so there’s no way for you to unearn it either.

    God loved you. And he gave you what you didn’t deserve because of what Jesus earned. It is his riches in Christ Jesus, which he pays out to those who do not deserve a full day’s wage. Your salvation rests upon God’s generous goodness, which never changes. And he gives to the most undeserving. Those who think that they deserve his mercy are the least likely to get it. While those who know fully that they don’t deserve one bit of it, find themselves drowning in riches.

    In the kingdom of heaven, the first will be last and the last will be first. This parable catches us off guard because the good workers turn out to be the villains. Their hard work and long hours become a barrier to them trusting in the master’s kindness. Self-righteousness on their part produces resentment, but sovereign grace, on the other hand, produces gratitude.

    Tonight, if you’re here and you feel offended at how God freely saves late sinners, undeserving people, those that do not deserve God’s grace, examine your heart. You don’t wanna be standing with the grumblers. But if you know tonight for yourself that you have nothing to offer, If you come to Jesus early or late, with a clean past or erect one, you simply receive his mercy. If you know that you are drowning in riches that you don’t deserve, that is the sovereign generosity of God. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. You cannot earn it, but you cannot lose it.

    The good news is this, that Jesus worked the full day in our place. He bore the scorching heat of God’s wrath, so that the latecomers, those invited after standing in the market all day, and those that were starting at three, at the third hour, could receive the same full reward, eternal life. And the vineyard is still open. The master is still going out. Even at the 11th hour saying, you come into the vineyard too. So come to him today.

    Receive him if you don’t, receive what you don’t deserve. Full forgiveness, full acceptance, eternal life in Christ. In the kingdom, the equality in the kingdom means that everyone gets undeserved grace. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you freely give what we cannot earn, what we do not deserve.

    We thank you that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. We thank you for your sovereign generosity in choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world. So there’s nothing that we can do to argue for our acceptance. There’s nothing we can do to make you change your mind. We thank you for this in Jesus name, amen. In response, let’s turn and sing hymn 427. Let’s stand and sing hymn 427, I sought the Lord and afterward I knew.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Value of the Kingdom: Treasure, Pearls, and Nets

    The Value of the Kingdom: Treasure, Pearls, and Nets

    About this sermon

    The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man sells all he has to buy, and like a pearl of great value for which a merchant, an expert in pearls, gives everything. Others may not see its worth, but the kingdom is worth everything else. The parable of the net adds that at the end of the age the angels will separate the evil from the righteous. In the end what matters most is not what people think of God but what God thinks of them, though what they think of him shapes where they stand before him.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our text this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 13, verses 45 through 52, which you can find on page 974 of your Pew Bibles there. Matthew chapter 13, verses 45 through 52. Hear now the word of God. Starting in verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.

    Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

    When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things? They said to him, yes. And he said to them, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

    Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let’s pray. Lord, we would come into your presence and we would ask you to Give us your blessing. Lord, without your spirit, this word, which is living and life-giving, is death to us. We ask that you would give us your spirit, the spirit that inspired this word, that it might be present and give us ears to hear and hearts to believe and treasure what you have for us this morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. You may be seated.

    On July 2009, an ordinary farmer’s field in Staffordshire, England, quietly surrendered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in British history. Amateur metal detectorist Terry Herbert, a member of the Blockswitch Research and Metal Detecting Club, was sweeping his detector across Fred Johnson’s field. near Brown Hills when his machine began to sing.

    What emerged from the soil was astonishing, more than 1,500 glittering items of gold and silver and precious stones, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found in Britain. The pieces dating back to the seventh century were breathtaking in their quality. Most were connected to warfare, ornate sword hilts, helmet fragments, and battle crests, suggesting they once belonged to royalty or high-ranking noblemen.

    Terry rushed to tell the landowner, Fred Johnson, exclaiming that he had found a Saxon hoard. Johnson, skeptical at first, laughed it off. But when he saw the exquisite craftsmanship coming out of the ground, he quickly realized this was no ordinary find. It’s better than winning the lottery, Terry had said, and he was right.

    The experts were left in awe. Archaeologist Dr. Kevin Leahy, who helped catalog the find, admitted that he was losing sleep over its beauty and historical importance. It’s astonishing, he said. We’ve actually been scared by the responsibility of dealing with this material.

    And the horde cast dramatic new light on a powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom, revealing the wealth and warrior culture of kings at the time. It was valued at roughly 4.45 million in today’s dollars. The treasure was declared property of the crown. The money for the treasure was split equally between the finder, Terry Herbert, and the landowner, Fred Johnson. Museums in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent raised the funds to purchase them for the nation to enjoy. Now, if only Terry had kept the secret and bought the field himself, he wouldn’t have had to split the proceeds.

    Today, in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells three short stories about that kind of discovery, and two short stories about that kind of discovery, and one final story that shows why this discovery matters more than anything else in the world. Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven as we’ve been seeing in our parables to seeds and yeast and fields and fishing nets. But in our passage, Matthew 13, 44 to 52, he focuses on one central question. How much is the kingdom of heaven worth to you? Through these images of hidden treasure, a priceless pearl, and a dragnet at the end of the age, Jesus calls us to see the supreme value of knowing Him.

    And He warns us also that what happens if we don’t. We’ll consider our passage this morning under three headings. Number one, the value that others don’t see. Number two, the value worth everything else. And number three, the final valuation. Number one, the value that others don’t see, verse 44.

    Verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He buys that field for the sake of the treasure. Only he understands the value. His friends and neighbors probably thought he was crazy. He spends his entire life savings, sold all his property to buy some old field.

    I mean, having a field might be nice. But if you sell everything that you have just to buy the field, what are you going to do with it? You won’t have any money to build on it, or to plow it, or to do anything else. You’ll own a field and nothing else.

    But this man knew something about that field. He knew its hidden value. What was buried in this field was worth more than all of his earthly possessions combined. And in this parable, this man buys something with hidden value. This treasure would allow him to purchase anything he needed after he had sold all that he had. And once he has the field, the hidden treasure, he’s set for life. And knowing that he had made this bargain of all bargains made him ecstatic.

    Now perhaps you’re wondering a little bit about the ethics of this transaction. And it seems to have been an occasional practice in that time period for wealth to be stored in the ground. In times of danger perhaps, like an invading army or some other reason, But there was always a chance that the owner would have to flee or might be killed in such a case without retrieving that treasure. Normal people don’t leave maps with clues to the treasure’s whereabouts. So if the owner was killed or forgot about it, the treasure could easily become lost as it was in this field. Now, in a case of unclear ownership, there seems to have been a bit of a finder’s keeper’s rule, as best we can tell in this society. And yet, if this man was digging in a field that was not his own, perhaps he was working for someone else. There might have been a dispute about the ownership.

    But by buying the field outright, as Jesus says, the man heads off any claim any ownership claims that might arise from the discovered treasure. He wouldn’t have had to split it with the landowner or lose it altogether. That being said, I still don’t think that Jesus is establishing a precedent for how land purchases and finder’s keeper ought to work.

    Jesus’s point is a man’s joyful discovery. Joyful discovery and then his actions to acquire such a treasure. Because notice it says, then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has. Because contrast this with Jesus’ later interaction with a young man in Matthew chapter 19. In Matthew chapter 19 verses 16 through 22, we come to a rather different story.

    Here we have another young man, Matthew 19 verse 16, And behold, a young man came up to him, saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Jesus said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, Which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said, all these I have kept for my youth. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

    And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. This man found the prospect of selling his possessions provoked sadness and proved to be a barrier, not a path forward. His multitude of possessions, rather than presenting a path to procuring the kingdom, proved to prevent his entrance. The young man couldn’t see the treasure in the field. All he could see was simply an overgrown field that wasn’t worth purchasing.

    This young man came to Jesus looking for one final good work to round out his resume and assure himself of eternal life on top of having everything else. But Jesus made it clear to him that eternal life is not something that can be earned or achieved that way. It’s not found in something you can perform. comes from a person, Jesus Christ. The young man was talking to the one who is life, but he missed it because he was looking for a way to earn it. It was a gift. It’s a gift to be desired above all else.

    And the young man found that he didn’t value eternal life as much as he thought he did. because he didn’t value it as worth more than all of his possessions combined. He wanted just to purchase it with a few more good deeds. To him, following Jesus looked like loss rather than gain. He wanted eternal life as an addition to his wealth, not something worth more than all of it.

    But that is not the case with this man in our parable this morning, who finds the treasure in the field. This man sees the treasure, so he sells everything that he has. Nothing he possesses can compare to the treasure of eternal life. The point of the parable is not that eternal life can be purchased, but it’s the way that the man values it.

    He sells everything he owns out of pure joy. One man went away sad because he had many possessions when proved with the prospect of selling them all. One man sold them in pure joy because of what he values. Because if Jesus is everything, once you have Jesus, Even if everything else is taken away, you still have everything left. The man buys a field for the sake of the treasure that’s buried there. And this is a picture of faith. Faith sees something that others can’t see. It saw the hidden riches in the field.

    Philippians 4.19, Paul tells The believers there, and my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Jesus Christ. The buried treasure would cover all of that man’s needs in the parable. So he didn’t need to worry about holding anything back. He joyfully got rid of everything he owned, convinced his needs would be completely provided for with the treasure that he had in the field.

    And a Christian is someone who has discovered that Jesus can fulfill all his needs. But of course, especially our greatest need, which is a restored relationship with God. Without Jesus, no matter how much earthly wealth and comfort we accumulate for ourselves, we’re still disconnected from our purpose for living. We weren’t made to be robots running around or animals chasing the next temporary comfort or pleasure. We were made to enjoy God, enjoy true riches.

    Which brings us to our next parable about a pearl dealer. Number two, a value worth everything else, verses 45 and 46, we see, Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who in finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Just a bit of trivia, I learned when studying this passage that the Greek word for pearl is margaritas, which is where we get the name Margaret, which means pearl. I don’t know if we have any Margaret’s in the congregation, but the name Margaret means pearl of great price as we’re looking this morning. The previous parable dealt with a man who discovered an invaluable treasure accidentally, but he was immediately aware of its value.

    But in this parable, this second one, we have a man whose whole career is built around the procurement of beautiful pearls. He’s spent his life searching. He knows what he’s looking for and he understands the market value of pearls. His livelihood is built around buying and selling these precious jewels. His career depends upon his ability to understand what each pearl will fetch in the marketplace. But he could have been good at his job, even excellent, and have still no appreciation for the beauty for its own sake. This man could be in it purely for the money. As a merchant, he would still be good at his job.

    But as we see in our story, he is clearly not. For him, it’s the exact opposite. Because once he finds that pearl above all pearls, he’s captivated. His heart is caught. And we quickly see that he not only buys and sells pearls, but he is a true connoisseur of pearls, desiring the beauty of them, and especially that one. And this was a parable for me that I often puzzled over in the past. If the merchant was able to purchase the pearl with everything that he owned, why would he want to do that?

    He would seem to have netted zero. He didn’t make a profit. The previous parable involved hidden treasure, hidden value, that would make his purchase of the field quite profitable. But here it seems as though instead of liquidating, the merchant is consolidating.

    He’s unliquidating his assets and tying them all up into a single possession, a single pearl. Something he could not eat or use. Instead of turning his valuables into cash, he’s turning all his possessions into cash, and then turning that cash into a single, most beautiful, valuable pearl above all pearls. The word describing the valuable pearl is polotimos, which is literally much honor or very valuable.

    And it occurs in two other places in the New Testament. Only two other places. We find it in John chapter 12 verse 3 where it’s used to describe the ointment that Mary poured on the feet of Jesus. It says, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive, very precious, very valuable ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

    In this story, we find a few verses later that Judas remarks that the use of this perfume was not justified. It would have been better turned into cold hard cash since it was worth three years worth of wages, which is today as much as a house. John notes that Judas’ rebuke, however, was based partly in his own intention to skim off some of that cash, supposedly for the poor, for himself. But Jesus also rebukes Judas for thinking purely in monetary value and missing the bigger picture.

    Mary valued Jesus so much that she expected the most expensive thing that she owned. upon him to display how much she prized him. The other place that we find this word of very valuable or much honor is in 1 Peter 1, verse 7. To describe the faith of believers, Peter says, so the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious or very valuable than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire. It may be found to result in praise and honor and glory of the resurrection, revelation of Jesus Christ. This faith is our connection to Jesus. And that’s why it’s so precious, Peter says. Nothing else compares the absolute worth of possessing Christ through faith.

    You were created to commune with the triune God the creator of the universe. Jesus said in John 17, verse 3, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is not merely a life that continues for an infinite amount of time. Plenty of authors of books and stories understand that merely persisting in a life like we have now is not a completely pleasant prospect.

    Many fictional characters who possess immortality find it to be a curse rather than a blessing. And one reason for this is because immortality in that sense often involves separation from loved ones who die one by one. Yes, these characters never die, but they soon find that there is more than one way to die. And continuing on forever separated from loved ones feels like less like a blessing and more like a curse.

    But that is not the biblical picture of eternal life or definition. Eternal life is not merely continuing in existence. Everyone does that. Death is not the end for anyone. Rather, eternal life is rich, sweet, deep fellowship with the source of all life, Himself, Jesus Christ. And you don’t have to die to wait. You don’t have to wait to die for it to start. Eternal life can start now by faith.

    Paul, describing it in Philippians again, puts it this way in Philippians chapter three, verses eight through 11. Paul reflecting on possessing eternal life in Jesus. He says, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, so by any means possible I may obtain the resurrection from the dead.

    That’s what Jesus wants us to understand about this pearl merchant who liquidates his entire fortune in order to purchase and consolidate into a single pearl that makes everything else in the world to him seem worthless by comparison. Once the merchant had laid eyes on this one pearl, There was no going back. He lost interest in all other pearls. It didn’t matter how many pearls he had anymore. He had to get this single one. It was worth more than all the others combined to him. The man who bought the field knew that the hidden treasure would be worth more than all he owned and would supply all of his needs. The pearl merchant discovered the pearl, which was so beautiful and valuable. was the only thing worth possessing to him. But then we see Jesus give a third parable, which takes this idea of valuing something, as the first two do, and flips it around a little bit. Number three, the final valuation. Verses 47 through 50.

    Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad. And so it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    The net described here is specifically, we might say, a drag net. It’s a specific kind of net, a net that would have weights that would sink it down to the bottom of the sea while the fishing boats held the top of it and would draw it towards land. The boats would sail towards the shore, dragging the net between them. Once the water was too shallow for the boats, the fishermen would jump on either side and haul the net up onto the shore. And this would, of course, capture all of the fish that were in that area, not allowing any to escape.

    It would be the most efficient way of fishing at the time, and many boats and fishermen still use it today. So Jesus is saying this common sight that they would have seen many of his disciples even use themselves as fishermen is a picture of the day of judgment. Someone could easily hear the first two parables and think, well, good for those people, good for them. I guess they got lucky.

    But I’m personally not that interested in looking for hidden treasure or valuable pearls. I’ll leave that to them and I’ll live my life now and go on as I please. This type of person today might say, well, religion is nice if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s just not for me.

    Frankly, I meet people like this all the time, especially when I’m doing evangelism. But it’s for this type of person that Jesus tells this third parable. Here there’s an ultimate evaluation of every person by God. The first two parables invite us to choose the kingdom, and the third one reminds us that one day the kingdom will choose us. Jesus described a dragnet, the kind that his listeners knew well. It swept everything in its path, the good fish and the bad, and at the shore the fishermen sorted them. The good were kept and the bad were thrown away. And the question is, how will you be evaluated? Are you a good fish or a bad one?

    The net will drag everything in. Nothing will escape. The unbeliever tries to comfort himself with the possibility of somehow escaping, avoiding accountability for his crimes. But there will be no escape. The net has no holes. and it covers the entire world. Every last person will be caught up and dragged before the judgment seat. The fish will be sorted. They will be evaluated by the fishermen, not the other way around. The fish aren’t choosing which fishermen they like. You will not be the decider.

    Your valuation of God’s kingdom, of Jesus Christ, is irrelevant to his worth. but it is indicative of your own eternal destiny. In the end, what matters not so much is what you think of God, but of what He thinks of you. Is God your friend or your enemy? And yet, at the same time, this does not mean that what you think about God is irrelevant, of course.

    It’s highly relevant. It’s simply irrelevant to God’s position but it is of utmost relevance to your position before God, since it is God who will be dragging the net over all the earth to catch all the fish, and it is God who will be sorting each of the fish. And here’s where we see the relevance of the first two parables, because they portray the response of the good fish. The good fish are those who by faith recognize the matchless worth, the dazzling beauty, the unparalleled value of Jesus Christ. Matthew 16, 24 through 27 highlights this for us.

    Jesus then told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What will a man give in return for his soul? For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

    As we saw with the parable of the dragnet, the fate of your soul hangs in the balance, eternal life or perishing, saving your soul or forfeiting your soul. It’s pretty hard to put a value on your soul, your eternal destiny. But how could never-ending suffering, forfeiting your soul, ever be worth trading anything that you could possess in this life? Jesus says, don’t trade anything you possess for your eternal state, enduring the wrath of God for eternity. Because in Jesus Christ, he’s made a way to escape the wrath of God. and find eternal life, to have fellowship with God for eternity. And that is something worth giving up everything in this life, even life itself.

    Verses 51 and 52, Jesus asks the final question. Have you understood all these things he said to them? Yes. And he said to them, therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. Jesus asked his disciples if they’ve understood his teaching. They say yes. And surprisingly, he doesn’t argue. He finishes up with a final parable or an extended simile, at least.

    During his ministry towards the end of the Gospels, we see Jesus give very pointed, harsh critiques to the scribes and the Pharisees of his day, who had missed the point of the Old Testament, which they were supposed to be experts in. But he’s not against the idea of scribes generally, just against bad ones.

    And here Jesus describes scribes who are trained for the kingdom of heaven. These scribes have understood that the whole Old Testament has been pointing to the culmination of God’s revelation in the arrival of Jesus Christ. And thus these scribes are able to provide insight from the old by looking back and shining the light of the new onto the old. They’re like a master of a house who brings out old and new from his treasures. The Old Testament is not meant to be left behind, but illuminated by the clarity of the new revelation which comes in Jesus Christ. Jesus says his disciples who understand are like scribes of the kingdom.

    These are like a wealthy connoisseur of valuable items, perhaps from travels all over the world. who loves to share them with his guests, invites them over and says, look at this one, which I’ve had for a very long time, but also this one that I just picked up from my trip to India or China or some far off region in the world. And I think this is a good metaphor for what we ought to be seeing in preaching today. On the one hand, the same old truths that have always been there, We don’t want to be inventing new doctrines, but on the other hand, it ought to be presented in a fresh way. Good teaching doesn’t invent new truths.

    It faithfully brings the old truths of scripture in a fresh, joyful way that points to Jesus. So tying this all together, Jesus this morning has shown us three pictures of the kingdom. Hidden treasure worth selling everything for. A pearl so beautiful it captures the heart. And a final sorting where only what is valuable remains. The question he leaves us with is simple. Do you see its value? Will you respond with joy and wholehearted surrender? One day the net will come ashore. Make sure that when it does, you are found among those who belong to the King.

    Amen. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, you who are the pearl of great price, worth selling everything that we have to have possessed you by faith. We ask that you would give us the faith that we need. Give us eyes to see the hidden treasure. Give us eyes to see the pearl above pearls and to value you for who you are. We ask that you would do this for your own sake, for your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen. In response, let’s turn and sing hymn 538, Number 538, take my life and let it be, and let’s stand as we sing this final hymn.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Reality of the Kingdom: Weeds, Seeds, and Yeast

    The Reality of the Kingdom: Weeds, Seeds, and Yeast

    About this sermon

    In the parable of the weeds, an enemy sows weeds among the wheat, and the master tells his servants to let both grow together until the harvest, so that they do not uproot the wheat. Jesus explains: the field is the world, the good seed the sons of the kingdom, the weeds the sons of the evil one, and the harvest the end of the age. The kingdom’s reality is mixed for now, and judgment belongs to God at the end. The mustard seed and the leaven show that it begins small and hidden but grows until it fills the world.

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    Sermon transcript

    If you would remain standing, our text this evening is taken from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, and we’ll be looking at verses 24 through 43. Matthew chapter 13, starting in verse 24. This is the word of God. He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

    But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, Did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?

    He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, no, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn.

    He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree. so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened.

    All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.

    He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

    The son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.

    Let’s pray. Our God, our Father, we ask for your blessing. We ask for your spirit. Lord, we come needy. This is your word you have inspired. You have preserved it for us, and now we need it to be life for us. We ask that you would open up our hearts and ears to hear, that we might find life, that your spirit might be present in the hearing and the preaching of your word, that it might give life, that it might accomplish all that you have for it. We ask for your blessing, your spirit, for we are helpless without you. So we pray for this. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon is The Reality of the Kingdom, Weeds, Seeds, and Yeast. And the kids can be listening for three particular words.

    Not yet, already, and consummation. Well, have you ever been frustrated wanting things to change that just can’t be changed just yet? To be perfectly honest, that’s an almost constant reality for me. I have dreams and visions about things I want to do and accomplish, but the reality then is much slower and messier.

    Callie and I just got a house. Many of you have been in it already. It needs renovations. We still don’t know our neighborhood. And sometimes we just struggle to keep it clean. It can be frustrating to live in the not yet of any part of life. We live in the tension of the already and not yet every day in Pittsburgh.

    The Steelers have already won six Super Bowls The kingdom has broken in. But we’re definitely not in the Lombardi Trophy parade every year. Or think of spring in Pennsylvania. The daffodils, the forsythia, they’ve already bloomed. New life has come. But we still get snow flurries in April sometimes. And the garden is probably already full of weeds that won’t go away until the fall.

    And Jesus is saying the kingdom is like that. New life has powerfully already arrived, but the weeds, the evil, the brokenness is still very much with us for now. Now this is a bit of a longer passage this evening, but I think it’s meant to be all considered together. The parable of the weeds is the second parable that Jesus gives in Matthew. And he provides an explanation with this one as well. And we also see in our passage a reiteration of what we saw last time about the purpose of parables. Verses 34 and 35, right in the middle there.

    All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. And this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. Now at first glance, this sounds like perhaps a contradiction from what we saw last week about the purpose of parables. Seems like they are meant to reveal, bring to light things that are otherwise hidden.

    But when we look at this quote in context, which is Psalm 78, which is why we read that earlier in the passage, we see that it’s actually agreeing with what Jesus and Matthew had said earlier. When we look at the whole Psalm together, we see God is telling and doing things which should have prompted a believing response. And yet instead, repeatedly, if we had read the whole thing over and over, you would see Israel gave the exact opposite, an unbelieving response. And Matthew sticks this in as a commentary because he sees this Psalm 78 as paralleling Jesus’ context. He sees it as the fulfillment of what was laid out in Psalm 78.

    And the parables Jesus tells They are intended to provoke insight, but instead, for many, serve as a barrier to belief. Initially, I was just going to consider the parable of the weeds by itself, but the explanation between is separated by this interruption of two other parables. And so I had two options. Either skip over this introduction and have a beginning and an ending section, and ignore these too many parables, or ask why did Matthew, at God’s inspiration, interrupt his explanation with these two extra parables. As you can see, I took the latter option, which I think this is a good practice for every author that we might read, but especially when reading the Bible. Even if the connection is not always clear at first, It’s worthwhile assuming that there is a connection and an important reason for what is written and how it is arranged. So we’ll look at our passage this evening under three headings.

    Number one, the not yet of the kingdom. Number two, the already of the kingdom. And number three, the consummation of the kingdom. Number one, the not yet of the kingdom. Jesus is saying that there, with the kingdom of heaven, there is very much a not yet aspect to it. While Jesus’s arrival does mean something significant, things are far from perfect, and in fact, they always will be to the end of this age.

    Now as we get started in this parable, we need to be clear on who or what this parable is about and what it is not about, because that can affect how we interpret its meaning. This parable is about the kingdom of heaven, which is not the same as the covenant community, the church. Bible and commentator and scholar D.A. Carson says, The parable does not address the church situation at all, but explains how the kingdom can be present in the world, while not yet wiping out all opposition. That must await the harvest. This parable deals with eschatological expectation, not ecclesiological deterioration. Because there are some that would interpret this parable as the church is always going to be full of the wicked. While the scriptures do not shy away from the reality that the covenant community within the church is always a mixed multitude of those who are truly saved, this is not what this parable is intending to highlight.

    The kingdom of heaven that Jesus speaks about so often is bigger and broader. It is God’s rule in the hearts and lives of his people that is invading this world. Scholars and commentators have written and debated much about what the term the Kingdom of Heaven means in the Gospels exactly. And as we move through these parables, we’ll look at different nuances and attempt at a definition that is more rounded out. But for now, at its core, the Kingdom of Heaven in this case is the rule and reign of Christ within the hearts of those who joyfully submit to his lordship over their lives.

    There’s a very real sense in which God rules over all creation. He made everything and everyone. He is God, the Almighty. He is the judge of all the earth. And in that sense, God’s kingdom extends over the whole earth. But it’s much more common for the Bible to speak of God’s ruling over those who are willingly submissive. And in this sense, God’s kingdom is growing and spreading by the regenerating power of God’s Holy Spirit. More and more people are willingly surrendering sovereignty of their own lives to the Lordship of Jesus.

    And we’ll come back to that more in a moment. But the point in this first parable is not about the advancement of the kingdom, but how it exists in the world alongside opposition. We have a story of planting and harvesting cycle on a farm. The story starts out quite ordinarily. A man sows his crop that he intends to harvest within his own field. In this parable, there’s no mention of different soils that we saw last time. The seeds and soil are considered equivalent with uniform growth potential. In this story, the variation comes from an entirely different kind of seed. While his servants are sleeping, an enemy comes and sows different seeds. He sows weeds. Now a word about this word weed in this parable. The Greek term is zizanion. Kind of reminds me of the word zinnia, but this is not a flower at all. The word zizanion only occurs in this passage in the New Testament.

    And it technically refers to a specific kind of weed that in English is called Darnell. Now this specific plant, Darnell, it looks very similar, especially when it is young. But when it is full grown, it becomes very obvious that it is not weed. It produces black poisonous seeds.

    Now as urban 21st century You may not be familiar with Darnell, which is probably why most translations simply say weeds, but he is being rather specific in his imagery of a particular plant that would look similar to the wheat, especially when it was growing young.

    But you and I don’t need to know the ins and outs, the similarities of Darnell and wheat to get the main meaning of the passage. We can still understand that between the weeds and the wheat there was a similarity and a risk of mistaken identity, especially when they were quite young. The master forbids his servants from pulling up the darnel since it could jeopardize a single plant of wheat. We see his concern for the wheat overrides his concern to uproot the darnel early.

    The landowner is aware that the abundance of these weeds is not due to natural processes. You and I, if we find weeds in our garden, we’re likely to assume nature has been spreading the seeds back and forth. But in this parable, the owner knows that it has been specifically the work of an enemy, an act of garden terrorism. And the field hands, they’re zealous to remedy the situation immediately, and yet the master restrains them. The preservation of the crop that he had planted outweighs the need to eliminate the weeds. And there seems also to be an aspect in which maturing is required to properly distinguish between the good and the bad seed.

    The distinction is not yet obvious enough, because the fruit from each plant is not ripe. It makes me think of a phrase that we find in Genesis chapter 15, verse 16. Genesis 15, 16, God tells Abraham about his offspring, the Israelites, and he tells Abraham, and they shall come back here to Canaan in the fourth generation to wipe them out, to wipe out the Canaanites, because The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. God tells Abraham the reason he’s not wiped out the Amorites is that their wickedness is incomplete. He’s letting Canaan grow weedy to maturity before he cuts them down.

    Having your wickedness complete was not a good thing, by the way. You could think of this as a little bit like a sting operation in which the law enforcement are capturing a high-powered gangster. They might know that he’s done some bad stuff, but they might want to catch him in the act of doing some worse things. And so they set up a situation for him to be recorded committing the crime. And they hold off arresting him for the lesser stuff. not because they’re being nice or because they don’t care about the lesser things and crimes, but because they want absolute confirmation and proof that he is as bad as everyone says he is, that his wickedness has matured. And I think that’s sort of the situation that we find here in this first parable. The landowner is waiting for the weeds to mature to make their fruit even more obvious.

    Jesus is saying we need a reality check when we’re thinking about the kingdom. Whether you’re a believer or an unbeliever, you need to understand what is going on. Why did Jesus not just bring fire from heaven and zap all the wicked people immediately when he came? When you hear John the Baptist speaking, you might think that that’s what he was going to do. The ax is laid to the root of the trees. Jesus is coming to bring fire from heaven.

    So how come the world is full of evil still, even after Jesus came? The time that we are living in is the pre-harvest season, Jesus is saying. There is definitive good and bad seed, weeds and wheat. growing beside each other, and it’s not perfectly clear always which is which. In this age, there remains a mixture, an ambiguity in certain aspects, and instead of eradicating all evil instantaneously, the kingdom of heaven is growing alongside of evil. The harvest is not yet. But that does not mean that the kingdom is not already here and growing.

    Number two, the already of the kingdom. These next two parables are, as I said earlier, they appear to be intentionally placed to add nuance to the message of the previous parable. Look at verse 31 and 32. He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

    It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree. So the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Mustard seed, and you don’t even have to be a gardener these days to have encountered one of these. You may have put dry mustard seed into a dish that you’re cooking or spread whole grain mustard on a bratwurst at our Easter party. So it’s likely you’ve seen one of these little mustard seeds, even if you haven’t done a bit of gardening. Now, a mustard seed is small, but if you’re like me when I was young, I was wondering, I’ve seen seeds that are smaller than a mustard seed.

    So how do we reconcile that? Well, there are explanations that people sometimes give of The way that in Jesus’ situation and time, it would have been the smallest seed. I think the easiest explanation is much simpler, that Jesus is simply using hyperbole, as he does in many other places. Hyperbole, of course, is to speak in a strong way to make a point.

    It certainly is a very small seed, the mustard seed, compared to many other in the garden. But we do not need to worry if we can find a few seeds that are smaller, because the point is the contrasting size to which the tree grows. Jesus seems to have chosen the mustard seed because of the great contrast between its seed and its mature size. From what I’ve read, it seems to be able to grow six to 10 to even some as much as 15 feet.

    And when placed beside the previous parable, we see that Jesus is highlighting the reality that the kingdom will start small, but will get big. We should not think of the incomplete eradication of evil, that that means that the kingdom will remain small.

    Jesus’ ministry started small, Him and 12 disciples. By the time He had ascended, there were 120. disciples gathered in the upper room, praying on Pentecost. But by the end of that day, there were 3,120. And within another few days, it was over 5,000 of just the men. Today, there is an estimated 2,674,000,000 self-identifying Christians in the world. The kingdom started small. but it will grow. It is growing and it’s got a big trajectory. But Jesus’s next parable adds some nuance to this point by speaking of the means by which this growth will happen. Verse 33, he told them another parable.

    The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. When I make a loaf of sourdough, I usually start with about six or seven cups of flour and a quarter to a half cup of starter or leaven, which is what Jesus is talking about here, a kind of starter.

    Well, the woman in our parable is making a very big batch of bread because it says she has three measures of flour. And a measure in this case, in the Greek, is a specific unit which refers to 12 quarts or 48 cups each. So this woman has 144 cups of flour in the dough that she’s making. She’s either a commercial baker or she’s baking for a feast.

    But the point is not what she’s making the bread for, but the point is the way Despite the massive quantity of flour, once it’s all mixed in, it’s completely permeated. And the description we have of her hiding the leaven in the flour is very apt. The process of incorporating it into the dough is like hiding. And once you mix the leaven in, you can’t tell them apart. It’s indistinguishable from the rest. But you’ll know that the leaven is in or not because over the next few hours, it will begin to rise. Of course, interestingly, leaven is often, in other places, portrayed as a negative thing in scripture. It has negative effects of permeating things.

    In chapter 16 of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees, referring to their teaching and their hypocrisy. The Apostle Paul also uses this imagery in his letters in 1 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 5. telling the churches to watch out for the leaven of sinful behavior and of tolerating it because it will spread and infect the culture in the church there. But in this case, Jesus is speaking of leaven which infiltrates. Jesus flips the usual negative imagery of leaven to be something positive.

    And Jesus is speaking here about the way in which the kingdom achieves the surprising growth illustrated in the previous parable of the mustard seed, because the kingdom’s growth is hidden. We might think of how Nicodemus, Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that just as you cannot see the wind, but only its effects, the Holy Spirit cannot be observed directly, but you can see his effect on people.

    You cannot see the leaven working in the dough, but you can see its effect. The dough will rise. The kingdom will permeate vast quantities of people, but in hidden and subtle ways. It will not be loud and ostentatious, which just means showy. It will not have becoming with political power, but it will permeate and conquer in obscure and even unexpected ways.

    The parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven serve to round out the reality portrayed in the parable of the weeds. In the wheat and weeds, we see the good and evil will persist side by side until the end of the age. The kingdom is not yet. But then we see in the mustard seed that the kingdom is here. It is growing. It’s got a big trajectory. In the parable of the leaven, we see that the great growth of the kingdom will not be ostentatious, but will be subtle. The kingdom is already here. It started small and hidden, but it is here and it is growing. So number three, the consummation of the kingdom.

    We noted earlier that Matthew breaks up his parable and its explanation by the interjection of the two other parables. He wants to let the parable hang, uninterpreted for a minute, before coming back to it. But now we’re here. We find it in verse 36 through 43.

    Then he left the crowds and went home, and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the field, of the weeds of the field. He answered, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds is the son of man. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

    The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. And the son of man will send his angels, and they will gather into his kingdom, all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

    The metaphor is removed, and we get the official interpretation. Matthew gives us Jesus’ official interpretation for these first two parables, which both have to do with sowing and harvest. And the explanation is straightforward, as we saw. As D.A. Carson says, this parable deals with eschatological expectation. This parable is a very forward-looking anticipation of the final consummation, the day when the Lord will judge all people.

    And the point is that while there is ambiguity in this age, there is coming a day of clarity. The darnel does not look like wheat forever. Sooner or later, the darnel is revealed to be a different kind of plant altogether. When the harvest comes, it’s not hard to tell apart the wicked. And by the way, notice which order the plants are gathered.

    There are some denominations within Christianity, particularly dispensationalists, which often speak about and believe in a rapture. in which they see as a removal of the righteous from the earth. But the scriptures repeatedly portray as the opposite, as we have here in this passage. It is the wicked that are removed. And here, as in other parts of the scripture, the righteous remain.

    But don’t miss the fact that within the ambiguity that exists in this age, the mixed character of the world, which contains both wicked and righteous, there still remains a binary. In the end, and all along, there are only two groups of people in the world. There’s not a spectrum of people existing in various shades of wickedness and righteousness in the final sense. There is either one or the other, weeds or wheat. Wicked and righteous.

    And actually, the reality is, of course, that we’re on our own merits all wicked. All humans are born wicked. God’s rule over our lives as evidenced by our refusal to obey his commands and prize his glory above all things. And if judged purely on our own actions, we would be all those who will be gathered out of the kingdom like weeds that don’t belong and burned up because we’re all lawbreakers.

    So who then is the group called the sons of the kingdom, the righteous who will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father? This is they who are righteous, not on their own merits, but declared righteous on the work of him who sows the good seed, Jesus. Based on his death and resurrection, he sends the Holy Spirit to plant the good seed of faith. causing the righteous to reject their evil ways and embrace Christ and his righteousness, to love God as their father.

    And this is not some exclusive club to which all newcomers are refused or banned. The kingdom is growing like a mustard seed. It’s permeating the world like leaven as God’s spirit moves and gives people new life. And if you have not, you’re invited to call on the name of the Lord and be saved.

    But don’t miss the warning Jesus is giving in his parable. While he’s letting the wicked weeds grow for now in this age, he won’t wait forever and he won’t be mistaken. Every last weed, no matter how much it tries to hang out with the wheat, will be judged and found out. So don’t just hang around with the wheat or try to look like the wheat. Ask Jesus to take away your lawbreaking, to save you from your sin and all its destroying properties and its consequences. But for those of you who already know Jesus, know that he has made you righteous.

    Take heart. This age is passing away. The new age of righteousness is coming. The kingdom is growing. It’s on a hidden, but definite trajectory. God will not let evil remain forever. He is coming again to make everything wrong come untrue. And if you’re in Christ, you won’t be hidden away in obscurity, despised by society and others, or hated and mocked for your faith forever. you’ll be shining like the sun. Just as all evil will be finally purged from the world, so will all good be purged from your own soul. And you will shine with a dazzling and pure brilliance that only comes from being glorified by God himself.

    What a day that will be. What a thought. What a hope to hold on to as you go into this coming week. Amen. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we would pray with the saints, with the Apostle Paul, with the Apostle John, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We ask that you would come and banish all evil from our hearts, from our souls.

    Lord, we look forward to the day when you will make everything right. We look forward to the harvest. Lord, we ask that you would make us ready. You would fill our hearts with hope and confidence and faith and joy. And yet you would come again soon. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. We’re responding.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Least of These My Brothers

    The Least of These My Brothers

    About this sermon

    When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will gather all the nations before him, and he will separate them as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. In this life justice is approximate and often fails, but the final judgment will set everything right. To those on his right the King says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom.” Their deeds of mercy to the least of his brothers, his disciples, are evidence of the grace they already received, not the ground of their entrance. Those on his left, who did not receive Christ’s people, go away into eternal punishment.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. This morning, my sermon text is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 25, beginning at verse 31 and reading to the end of the chapter, Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46. You’ll find that on page 988 in your Pew Bible. Let’s hear God’s holy word.

    When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

    Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

    Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

    Then they will answer 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? Then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

    And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray together. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that we who are believers are united to Christ, that we are identified with him, that we are his brethren, and he is our elder brother, our savior, our king. Lord, as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture, we ask that your spirit would cause your word to find a lodging place in our souls and grant that your word would bear much spiritual fruit unto sanctification and holiness in our lives. Oh Lord, we thank you for your word. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, a guide to our way. May we be guided and directed by your word this day, and we would ask, Lord, also, that you would grant to me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare your word with clarity and power. Indeed, Lord, set a guard over my lips, that I might only speak that which is faithful to your word and edifying to your people and glorifying to your holy name.

    We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, this morning, the title of my sermon is The Least of These, My Brothers. And children, I want you to listen for three words in my sermon today. Those words are judgment, vindication, and condemnation. Judgment, vindication, and condemnation.

    Well, dear friends, our passage for this Lord’s Day morning is a portion of God’s Word that sadly has often been misunderstood and misused to teach things that our Lord Jesus was in fact not teaching in this passage. And let me just give you one example to offer a recent example of how this passage is sometimes misinterpreted.

    I’m sure some of you, if you’ve been keeping up with the news and culture these days, some of you may have heard of James Tallarico. Now, Mr. Tallarico is a professing Christian, and he’s actually a Presbyterian seminarian. He is a seminarian who serves as a Texas state representative, and he is currently a U.S. Senate candidate. Now, I’m not here to comment upon his politics, but I will comment upon his understanding of Matthew chapter 25, because he’s been very public about that. In a recent television interview where Mr. Tallarico was criticizing the so-called religious right, he made the following comments to his interviewer, and I quote him. He says, Jesus in Matthew 25 tells us how we’re going to be saved, by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger.

    Nothing about going to church, voting Republican, It was about how you treat other people. And then he goes on to say, I’ve said before, don’t tell me what you believe. Show me how you treat other people, and I’ll tell you what you believe. Now, I want to be charitable towards Mr. Tallarico and try to find at least some common ground. So I would certainly agree with Mr. Tallarico that Jesus in this passage says nothing about our voting habits or our political affiliation. That was not on his radar screen. And I would also certainly agree that we Christians are to demonstrate the reality of our faith by good works in loving our neighbor and in acts of kindness.

    That’s basically what is taught in James chapter two, that faith without works is dead. However, Is it really true, beloved, that Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 teaches that we are saved by doing good works? Good works like feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and so forth, as Mr. Tallarico seems to believe.

    Or to put it in another way, is Jesus our Savior in Matthew chapter 25, is he denying what the Bible and what Jesus himself clearly teaches elsewhere about salvation? Namely, the fact that we are saved not by our good works, not by anything we do, but saved purely by God’s grace alone, through God-given faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works of the law.

    Well friends, as I hope to demonstrate in my sermon for this morning, interpretations of this passage, such as those offered by the likes of Mr. Tallarico, are way, way off base when we consider the actual context of this passage and read it more deeply than merely at a surface level. It’s very easy to misunderstand what our Lord is saying here if we don’t understand him in context and don’t read everything that he’s saying in this passage. Just to mention another popular misinterpretation of Matthew 25. This misinterpretation is summarized well by the biblical scholar, Dr. R.T. France.

    Dr. France writes, this passage is often understood to teach that ultimate salvation is based on acts of kindness alone. so that there is nothing specifically Christian about the criteria of judgment. But that, he goes on to criticize that view, he says, that is to ignore the important description of the recipients of this kindness as the least of these brothers of mine. This phrase, the least of these my brothers, suggests that it is not just anyone that the righteous have helped and that others have ignored. It is disciples in need. Jesus’ judgment is based on how they treat those who are his followers, the least of these my brothers, as he calls them.

    And many other misinterpretations could be offered. But since there seem to be so many popular misinterpretations and misunderstandings of this portion of scripture, let’s dive into what our passage teaches us for today. And let us dive into this text with open minds and open hearts. We need to understand, first of all, the context of this passage.

    Jesus here is wrapping up what the scholars often call his Olivet Discourse. And this discourse emphasizes and focuses on the topic of eschatology, in other words, the end times. And as Jesus is wrapping up this passage of his teaching on the Olivet Discourse, he ends this instruction by giving us a description of the final judgment. And as we will see, the Lord Jesus will preside when he comes again at the final judgment, as he comes again in glory at his second advent.

    Now, it’s important to understand this passage has some parabolic elements. Believers are described as sheep. Unbelievers are described as goats. But nevertheless, this is not, strictly speaking, a parable. This is more of a prophecy. This is a description of how things are gonna play out on the day of final judgment.

    So here in our text for today, we get a glimpse of the return of the son of man, namely God’s chosen messianic king. And we get a glimpse of his exercise of his kingly power as he judges the nations of humanity. So let’s dive in, brothers and sisters. And first of all, notice the setting of our passage. The setting is the final judgment day. We see that our setting is the final judgment day.

    It says this in verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. In that one verse, there’s a lot packed into that one verse, and we need to kind of take this language apart and understand it. First of all, we learn here of the presiding judge on judgment day.

    And how is this presiding judge described by Jesus here in verse 31? Well, he is described as the son of man. Who is this son of man figure that Jesus is referring to? Well, here Jesus is almost certainly using this terminology of the Son of Man as a messianic title.

    In fact, the language that our Lord uses here in this passage, language not only about the Son of Man, but about his coming, about his glorious throne, language about angels and judging, all of this language seems to derive from Daniel chapter seven, verses nine through 14. And I believe it’s very likely that our Lord Jesus has that passage in the background as he is giving this teaching.

    So let’s turn to Daniel seven and look at verses nine through 14. Daniel chapter seven, verses nine through 14. It says this in this passage. beginning at verse nine. Again, notice some of the parallels in language between this passage in Daniel and what we’re reading in our passage for today from Matthew 25. It writes, Daniel writes, as I looked, thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat.

    His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames. Again, a glorious throne. Its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. Those would be angelic attendants to his glorious throne.

    The court sat in judgment. It’s a judgment scene, it’s a courtroom scene. And the books were opened. I looked in because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and as I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. So there’s judgment, there’s fiery judgment.

    But then notice, we learn here of the Son of Man beginning at verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days. The Ancient of Days is a reference to God the Father, and clearly this Son of Man figure is a divine figure, a royal figure, a messianic figure. This is a prediction of Jesus. And by the way, in verse 13 in particular, this is a prediction of his ascension, because he doesn’t come from the Ancient of Days, he comes to the Ancient of Days. Nevertheless, he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. and to him was given dominion. He’s a king, he’s royalty, and glory, and a kingdom, and all people’s nations and languages, that all people’s nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

    So when Jesus talks about the Son of Man coming, it is very likely, it’s almost certain that he has in view this messianic Son of Man figure, this royal divine Son of Man figure that is predicted by the prophet Daniel. And what’s interesting to notice, if you’ve read the Gospels carefully, one of the things that you will notice about the Gospels is that Jesus refers to himself more frequently as the Son of Man than he does the Son of God. And some might say, well, is Jesus denying his own divinity by referring to himself as the Son of Man? The answer is no. When we understand that term the way Daniel used it, the Son of Man figure is a divine figure. And so Jesus, his favorite self-designation was son of man.

    And so Jesus is talking here about himself. When he says, when the son of man comes in his glory, he’s basically saying, when I come in the glory of my second advent. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. The focus and emphasis is on the external glory that will be unimaginable at our Lord’s glorious second advent. That external glory, the glory that attends our Lord’s return will mirror the internal divine glory of His own being.

    And then verse 32, before Him will be gathered, who? Who’s gonna be gathered before Him? Is this gonna be a judgment of just believers? or just unbelievers? Is this gonna be a judgment of the Jews or the Gentiles? Are there separate final judgments? No. It’s one coming, one judgment, because it says, before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

    So there is an eschatological coming of the glorious, divine, messianic Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will gather the nations, he will gather them, and he will separate them. Again, clearly Jesus is presented in this Son of Man figure as a royal figure, as God’s chosen messianic king. And clearly this passage teaches that it is our Lord Jesus Christ who will one day preside over the proceedings of the final Judgment Day. And some might wonder, well, why doesn’t God the Father preside over the Judgment Day? Doesn’t the Bible teach that God will judge the nations? Yes, God does judge the nations, but remember, Jesus is also God. He’s true God and true man.

    And we learn in the scriptures that the Father has given authority and commission to the Son to conduct judgment. And many places in the New Testament affirm that. Just to give you an example, let’s turn to John 5 and look at verses 24 through 30. John chapter 5, verses 24 through 30. Here again, the Lord Jesus makes it very clear that the Father has entrusted authority to the Son to give judgment.

    But Jesus, first of all, says, truly, truly, literally, amen, amen. Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus speaks on his own authority, because he is divine. He is speaking with divine authority. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. There’s sola fide, salvation by faith alone.

    Jesus himself teaches it. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Jesus is not denying there, by the way, that believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. He is saying that we as believers, we will not come into the condemning judgment of God because Jesus has already taken that condemning judgment upon himself and we’ve already passed from death to life.

    So he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment. but has passed from death to life.” That makes me want to leap for joy. Doesn’t it make you want to leap for joy? We’ve already passed, brothers and sisters, from death to life. And then he goes on to say, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

    For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. And notice verse 27. And he, the father, has given him, the son, authority to do what? To execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. And so we see that the Father has entrusted judgment to the Son, and therefore, the Son of Man who is also the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, He is the presiding judge on the final judgment day that is coming.

    But who are the ones to be judged on that judgment day? Well, again, as I pointed out from verse 32, it will be all the nations. Everyone will be there on that final judgment day. All human beings who’ve lived in all ages of human history. This would include Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers. It will include the sheep and the goats. Now, what are some takeaways that we can learn from what we’ve considered thus far in this passage? Well, one of the things we learned, brothers and sisters, is that ultimate accountability is coming.

    We live in a time when many folks are almost allergic to personal responsibility. And it’s maddening, isn’t it? Especially as believers, as we look at the world around us and we see so many instances of injustices not being properly addressed. Many folks, you know, justice in this present age is at best approximate and relative and often falls short. And we see instances of people literally getting away with murder. We see corruption in high places and no one being held accountable.

    But the doctrine of the final judgment day assures us that ultimate accountability is coming. There will be a final judgment day, a judgment day in which all people will be held accountable for every thought, word, and deed. for all that they have done, said, and thought in this present life, a day when God will ultimately right all wrongs and bring justice to bear.

    But that being the case, how should we take that? How should we take to heart that truth in our own lives? Well, dear friends, take to heart that all of us will give an account of himself or herself to King Jesus, the Messianic Son of Man. One day, each and every one of us will stand before King Jesus, and we will look Jesus in the eye, he will look us in the eye, and we will give an account of every thought, word, and deed. Are you ready to answer to Jesus Christ on Judgment Day? If you’re here today and thinking, I’m not sure if I’m ready, how can I know that I’m ready? You can only be ready if you are in Christ.

    You see, Jesus came to this earth to die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. And he rose from the dead so that whoever believes, whoever trusts in him, might not perish but have everlasting life. That’s a promise of God. If you believe, that is trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your very own Lord and Savior, the word of God says you will be saved, your sins will be forgiven. So dear friend, if you’re here today or you’re listening through the internet and you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, come to Jesus today. He offers himself to you in the gospel. By the sovereign grace of God, may you come to receive and rest upon Christ alone. as your savior from sin. The Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus today. Have personal dealings with Jesus today if you’ve never had personal dealings with him before.

    And call upon his name. You say, well, what do I say? He’s not interested in your eloquence. He’s interested in your heart. So turn to Jesus and rest in Him, and you will be ready for judgment day, because His blood will cleanse you of all sin. Not only will He wipe the slate clean, He will clothe you in His perfect everlasting righteousness.

    See, you need a perfect righteousness to get into heaven, and you and I don’t have it. We lack it. Not only that, we have a sin record that is more than we realize. But not only did Jesus die to wipe the slate clean, He rose and he by his obedience gives us a perfect everlasting righteousness that serves as our title to heaven.

    So if you trust Christ as he’s offered to you in the gospel as your savior. He’ll forgive all of your sins, He’ll seal you with the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and He’ll clothe you in Christ’s perfect everlasting righteousness, and He will promise you ultimate salvation. He’ll make it certain. Jesus didn’t just die to make us savable, He died to save, to actually save His people from their sins. Is He your Savior today? May you trust Him today for your salvation from sin.

    So we see the setting is the final Judgment Day. But one of the things that we notice in this passage as well, we learn here of the vindication of the righteous on Judgment Day. The vindication of the righteous on Judgment Day. And the righteous are described in this passage as the sheep. How does the Lord, the Son of Man, address the sheep? Well, look at verse 34. Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

    Now it’s important to understand that the judgment of the saved on judgment day will be a judgment of vindication, not a judgment of uncertainty. You see, sometimes the way the Judgment Day is pictured is that there will be many folks standing before King Jesus on Judgment Day who are gonna be shaking in their boots, wondering, I wonder where I stand. Am I in or am I out?

    But friends, understand that those who are saved, at least most of them, will already have been with the Lord in heaven. What happens, Christian, when you die? Do you go into soul sleep until the day of resurrection? No. The Bible says to be absent from the body is what? To be present with the Lord. So praise God. When we breathe our last and our soul is separated from our body and our body goes into the grave, where does our soul go? Our soul goes immediately into the presence of Jesus.

    And so on judgment day, there will be multitudes of saved on judgment day who will have been with the Lord Jesus for many years, perhaps many millennia. So they’ll already know that their eternal destiny is heaven. And likewise, the wicked, what happens to the souls of the wicked when they die? They go to hell. There’s, again, there’s no evidence in scripture for soul sleep.

    I know sometimes the Bible uses the term sleep to describe death, but that’s just describing death as it appears to us. The Bible makes it clear that the soul lives on after death. So again, many of the believers will already have been with the Lord Jesus in heaven for many years by the time the final judgment day comes. In addition, on the final day of judgment, you’ll know where you stand before God by virtue of which group he places you in.

    Look at verse 33. It says this, and he will place the sheep on his right. Okay, hope you know your right from your left, right? He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. So you’ll be able to know where you stand, not only because of where you’ve been, where your soul has been, but also by virtue of where he places you. everyone will know what the outcome will be even before the final verdict is pronounced.

    And some might say, well, wait a minute, then why does there need to be a final judgment if the eternal destiny of the judge is already determined before the proceedings of Judgment Day even begin? Well, God has many wise and good and holy reasons for conducting a judgment day. For one thing, the judgment day will be a public vindication of God’s justice in the righteous condemnation of the wicked. And it will also be a public display of his glorious grace. in the gracious salvation of his elect. So God will be glorified through the proceedings of Judgment Day, and his people, his people who so often in this present age have suffered persecution and rejection, his people will be openly and acknowledged, openly acknowledged and vindicated on Judgment Day.

    I like how our shorter catechism summarizes this in question and answer 38. You’ll find that on page 970 in the back of your Psalter hymnal. I just want to read this quickly here. It says, in Shorter Catechism, question 38, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? Well, the Bible-based answer to that question is this.

    At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity. We are acquitted in the courtroom of heaven the moment the Spirit brings us to faith in Christ. The moment you believed in Jesus as your Savior, the gavel of God goes down in the courtroom of heaven, declares you justified, and you are justified once and for all and forever.

    Justification cannot be added to. There’s not a present justification and a future justification. No, in the courtroom of heaven, your destiny is sealed. It’s been sealed from eternity, actually. because you’ve been chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Yet on judgment day, that secret pronouncement in the courtroom of heaven will be publicly announced to gathered humanity. These are my people. These are my blessed ones. And here is the evidence that they are blessed. They showed the fruit of my grace in their lives. And by the way, the final judgment proves that the righteous are saved by grace, not by works.

    I mentioned the misinterpretation of Mr. Tallarico, and those like him focus almost entirely on verses 35 and 36, but they often overlook verse 34. What does Jesus say the king is going to say to these sheep on that day? He says, then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are what? Come, you guys are such good, wonderful, virtuous people. Come on in, you’ve earned this, you’ve merited this, right?

    No, he says, come you who are blessed by my father. The language of blessing implies grace, not merit. it implies God’s gracious gift of salvation. He is saying, come you who have been blessed by the Father’s gracious gift of salvation. You haven’t earned it, it’s a blessing, it’s a gift.

    And he says, come inherit the kingdom prepared for you from when? From the time you were converted and the time you started showing that you were good enough to stay in? No. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Christian, do you realize before God created the universe, he planned for you to inherit eternal salvation? Even before you were born, even before you had done anything good or bad, if you are in Christ, you can be assured you’ve been loved with an everlasting love.

    That is the only basis for and ground for their entrance into heaven. And so, again, this language here demonstrates that they are blessed with salvation. This is clearly alluding to divine election, sovereign, gracious election. But what’s the fruit and evidence of that election? Well, that’s what brings us to the good works that are mentioned in verses 35 and following.

    Jesus says, for I was hungry and you gave me food. Now, he’s not saying, look, here’s how you get into heaven. You gotta check this off your to-do list. You gotta give food to the hungry and clothing to the naked and so forth. Again, the righteous do these things, but they do them Not for personal glory, not for attention, it’s not like those videos you see sometimes online where someone will give a huge tip to a waitress and really be a blessing to them and they’ll film it and they’ll look so virtuous in doing that, no. The righteous give spontaneously out of gratitude because of God’s gift of salvation. The righteous demonstrate the reality of their faith by self-sacrificing service to God’s people without thought of reward or commendation.

    That’s why Jesus says, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And what’s the response of the righteous? They say, oh yeah, Lord, we did that, yeah. Pretty good, aren’t we? The righteous are like, what are you talking about, Lord? Look at verse 37, the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you a drink?

    You see, one of the things to realize, the more you grow in Christian maturity, the more of a wretch you will realize you are. The more you grow in Christ, the more sin you see in your own heart, and so, Christ’s brothers, the least of these brothers of His. If you’re in Christ, you know, hey, I’m a wreck. I’m a sinner. I’m a wretch.

    I need grace. Each and every day, I’ve never fully arrived. I need His grace. They say, when did we do this, Lord? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? What is Jesus’s answer in verse 40? The King will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

    Let us realize, friends, that the good works we do out of gratitude for our salvation, they’re not the cause or basis for our salvation, they are fruits and evidences of God’s saving grace in our lives. They are works that we’ve been prepared for, As it says in Ephesians 2 verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

    We’re saved by grace through faith apart from works, but we’re saved for good works. God can see your faith, but others can only see your faith by your works. And that’s why the works of believers are brought up on the final judgment day before gathered humanity. Because other people can’t see your faith, but they can sure see your works.

    And the key thing here, is what was your attitude and behavior and treatment of those who were disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus. And notice Christ’s close identification with his people. He says here in verse 40, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers. He doesn’t say, as you’ve treated my followers. He says, no, as you’ve done it to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me, me. Why does he say that? Because he identifies with us and we are in union with him. Jesus uses similar language earlier in Matthew’s gospel in Matthew 10 verses 40 to 42. Let me just read those verses really quickly. Jesus says here in Matthew 10, beginning at verse 40, whoever receives you, receives me.

    Whoever receives you, you who are my followers, whoever receives you, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

    You may say, well, wait a minute, does this mean that Jesus is only commanding us to be kind to our fellow Christians and to ignore the non-Christians in our life? Well, no, of course not. Of course, God’s word commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, not just our Christian neighbor, but all of our neighbors. We are to seek to do good to all, as Paul writes in Galatians 6, verse 10. Insofar as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men and do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

    However, the main point of this passage is that the way we treat God’s people is an indication of our true attitude towards Christ. Because if you hate Christ’s people, doesn’t matter what you say, you actually hate the Christ that they follow. If you love God’s people, that is a sign that you love the God of those people. Do you and I really value our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we value them enough to be willing to lay down our lives for them just as Christ laid down his life for us?

    So we see that for us believers, we need not fear the judgment day. Yes, we must live holy lives and pursue a new obedience out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation. We need to be careful to guard against sin, but we need to realize there will be no shame for God’s people on judgment day.

    Christ took our shame upon himself. And by the way, did you notice when Jesus talks to the sheep, he doesn’t bring up their sins. He only brings up their righteous deeds, deeds done by grace. Because the sin problem’s already been taken care of. Jesus paid the penalty for that sin. And he covers our shame.

    But what about the wicked? We see finally the condemnation of the wicked on Judgment Day. Judgment Day will be a judgment of vindication for the sheep of Christ, but it will be a judgment of condemnation for those who have rejected the Lord. The righteous and just basis for their condemnation will be clear for all to see. Now, how are the wicked described here in verse 41?

    Jesus says, then he, the son of man, will say to those on his left, that would be the goats, what does he say to them? Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Now compare the address of the son of man to the wicked with his address to the righteous. In the case of the saved, what does the king say? He says, come, you who are blessed. But in the case of the unrepentant wicked, what does he say?

    Depart from me, you cursed. It’s an opposite address. He’s saying depart from me, get away from me. This is the opposite of the righteous. Why, why are they to depart from him? Why this condemnation and separation? because they did not show love for God’s people, but rather their indifference toward the needs of God’s people demonstrates their unbelief and hardness of heart.

    As Jesus goes on to say, for I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Again, notice Jesus identifies himself with his people. And he’s saying, you never, showed compassion and kindness to me because you never showed it to my people, the least of these my brothers. And how do the wicked answer? How do they respond? Then they also will answer 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?

    We were good people, we were virtuous, we gave to charity, we recycled, right? We voted for the right political candidates, right? We were such good people. You know, you talk to many folks on the street and you ask people in evangelistic conversations, do you think of yourself as a good person? Well, I’m not perfect, but I am a pretty good person.

    So if you were to die tonight and stand before God and he were to tell you why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say? That diagnostic question. Many folks, even many who profess to be Christians would say, well, Lord, I should be let in because I tried my hardest. I tried to keep the golden rule, the Ten Commandments.

    If that’s how you would answer, then you don’t know Jesus, and you need to repent of your unbelief. See, none of us can get in by our own bootstraps. It has to be a gift. It’s all of grace. But notice they’re surprised, or at least they pretend to be surprised. They say, Lord, when did we not minister to you? We were good people, we were virtuous.

    But Jesus makes it clear. They are dug in on their self-righteousness and self-delusion. Jesus says, he will answer them, verse 45. Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. You did not treat my people, my sheep, the least of these, my brethren, with kindness or compassion because you did not love me or trust me.

    And then we read of the eternal destiny of the wicked in contrast to that of the righteous in verse 46. Jesus ends his Olivet Discourse with these sobering words. He says, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now, some would try to say, well, yeah, eternal life, that’s forever in duration, but eternal punishment, that’s just talking about the quality of the punishment, that it’s a punishment of the age to come without necessarily speaking to its duration. But it’s interesting, Jesus uses the same Greek word, ionion, for both eternal punishment and eternal life. The implication is that if the eternal life of the righteous is a life of never-ending duration, then it would make sense to understand the eternal punishment of the wicked to likewise be of never-ending duration. In other words, eternal conscious torment.

    This is a sobering and difficult doctrine. I acknowledge that to be the case, but it is what Jesus teaches. Dear ones, there will be no limbo, no third alternative, no second chance, no reincarnation. The Bible says it’s appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. There will be no soul sleep, no ultimate annihilation, and that’s, you know, in spite of the fact that annihilationism is making a comeback in evangelical circles today, that’s not what Jesus taught. See, there is only one of two alternatives. There is only eternal life or eternal punishment. There is only the fate of the sheep or of the goats. Which side will you be on? Are you on the side of Christ?

    Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, God, that our Lord and Savior, the Son of Man, Jesus, is coming again. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us this blessed hope. We pray that this hope would inspire courage within us, as well as compassion. And we ask, O Lord, that you would help us by your grace to indeed show love and kindness to the least of these, your brothers, and indeed to all. Give us the grace to do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s rise and we’ll close our service by singing together 480, I Have No Other Comfort, 480.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Commandment of the Church Militant

    The Commandment of the Church Militant

    About this sermon

    The risen Christ meets his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and declares that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. On that authority he commands them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. The goal is lifelong obedience, far beyond a single moment of conversion, and the command still binds the church, carried out chiefly through ministers, teachers, and missionaries. Every believer shares in it by giving, praying, encouraging, and sharing the gospel, and Christ promises to be with his church to the end of the age.

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    Sermon transcript

    Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. Tonight’s passage is from Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20. You can find it in the Pew Bible on page 993. Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold I am with you always to the end of the age. Let us pray. Lord, once again we thank you that you have preserved your word for us.

    That 2,000 years after the Apostles wrote down these words, that we still have access to the words of Christ and to the command that he gave the Apostles. I pray, O Lord, that as we read these words, as we hear the word preached, that you would open all of our hearts so that we would receive your words and that we would act upon them. O Lord, I pray that your spirit would be upon me, that I would speak only the truth, and that these words would be an encouragement to your people, that they would lead them closer to Christ. And I pray, O Lord, that as we study your word, that we would be more motivated to bring the gospel to the unreached. In Christ’s name we pray, amen. You may be seated. William E.

    Gladstone, a former Prime Minister of Britain, once wrote there is but one question of the hour, how to bring the truth of God’s Word into vital contact with the minds and hearts of all classes of people. While this quote may sound like an exaggeration, it does get to the heart of the command that Jesus gave his disciples in our passage this evening. And that is that the gospel is to be taken to every tribe, every nation, and every tongue, that disciples be made out of all of those from every corner of the world. Now much ink has been spilled trying to understand and apply this passage. And almost every single word that Jesus proclaims in this passage has significance. And there is much more that could be said and should be said than I will say tonight, but for the sake of time we will limit the study of tonight’s passage to a more broader exposition of the Great Commission.

    Some questions that arise from the text that you may have may be addressed tonight and others I might not have the time to get to. But hopefully through tonight you will have a better understanding of what Christ is commanding us. And to do so, to rightly understand this passage, we will consider the following from our passage. First, the command’s foundation. The command’s foundation from verses 16 through 18. Next, the command itself from verses 19 through 20. Lastly, the promise for those who keep the command in verse 20. The promise for those who keep the command in verse 20. Let us now consider the command, the command’s foundation in verses 19 through 20. Before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 26 verse 32 that he would meet them in Galilee. And he confirmed this message through the women after his resurrection in chapter 28 verse 10.

    In an obedience to Jesus’s command, the disciples gathered on that hill would become one of the most significant events in history for the church. It was there 2,000 years ago that Jesus gave his apostles the church’s mission statement. Matthew reports that when the disciples saw Jesus, they worshiped him, though some doubted. Now this likely does not mean that they doubted that Jesus had truly risen, because John chapter 20 shows that those doubts had already been resolved. A more plausible understanding is that when they reached the mountain, they were still some distance from Jesus. And once Jesus came closer, they then recognized him. This is supported by the very next verse, which says that after some of them had worshiped Jesus, Jesus them came closer. And when Jesus did so, he declared, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

    These words, in these words, Jesus is proclaiming the foundation on which he stands to command his disciples to go out into the world and proclaim the gospel. John Calvin writes in regards to Jesus’s declaration the following, No ordinary authority would here have been enough, but sovereign and truly divine government ought to be possessed by him who commands them to promise eternal life in his name, to reduce the whole world under his sway, and to publish a doctrine which subdues all pride and lays prostrate the whole of the human race. In other words, if one is to dare to set the goal of the church and to send out the disciples to carry out that goal, he must have divine authority, and Jesus does. But what does Jesus mean when he says that all authority has been given to him?

    Didn’t Jesus already possess all authority? Because isn’t Jesus God? Well, we find the answer to this question in Daniel chapter 7. Please turn with me to Daniel chapter 7. Let’s read Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14, Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14. Verse 13, I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples nations and languages should serve him his dominion is everlasting is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. We see in Daniel’s vision that from hundreds of years before Jesus came to this earth Daniel prophesied what occurred in our passage this evening.

    According to Daniel, the son of man would come and he would be given dominion over all nations all peoples and over all who speak and over all languages and the reason that this would occur is that so that the gospel could go forth to all nations and Jesus fulfilled this very vision. The first federal head of all mankind that is Adam failed to uphold the covenant of works and thus lost his rightful place as authority over the earth. Instead Satan usurped Adam’s authority and thus he ruled the earth. Not in any absolute sense as God ultimately rules all things but in a confined sense Satan had power over the nations and Satan as we read earlier offered this very power to Jesus in the desert when he tempted him. According to Satan Jesus would not have to go through the pain of the cross or through the wrath of his father.

    All he had to do was submit to Satan and he would receive this authority but Jesus Jesus understood that this reward could only be received from the father. He understood that he could only receive it if he conquered sin and death through his death and resurrection and thus Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations. Thus Jesus submitted to the father. Jesus fulfilled the law and Jesus did what the first Adam failed to do and thus the God man that is Jesus was given dominion over all the earth by his father. This authority that the father gave him was the basis for the commandment which followed. Verse 19 begins with go therefore meaning on the basis of what I’ve said in verse 18 therefore go and preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. So the reason that Jesus gives for why the gospel can now go forth from Jerusalem to all the ends of the earth is because the father has bestowed the authority on the son and Paul confirms this fact in Philippians chapter 2.

    There he writes being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and on under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. This is the moment that the Old Testament scriptures have been anticipating. He has brought the kingdom of God he has conquered sin and death and he has risen from the dead. Now the gospel can go forth to the ends of the earth and this brings us to our second point which is the commandment itself. Based on this authority Jesus commands his disciples in verse 19 and 20 go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

    In English it’s not very clear but in the Greek it becomes clear that these are not three separate commands. It’s not that they are to go and just make disciples and baptize and command rather it is one command to go and make disciples and they are to do so by baptizing and by teaching all that Jesus had commanded. We learn from this that it’s clear that Jesus is not merely commanding some modern methods of soul winning where the sinner says a sinner’s prayer and never comes to church. Rather what he desires is the conversion and the maturing of the believer’s faith. As one commentator notes the Commission, the Great Commission that is, is far more comprehensive than is normally understood. It consists of the aggressive worldwide discipling of people who are initiated into the visible communion of Christ increasingly obedient to every everything that he commanded.

    Evangelism is only one aspect of the Commission. It is not, it is not its distilled essence. Obedience to the commands of Christ is the goal of the Commission not merely initial conversion. Thus Jesus is commanding his disciples to go to the ends of the earth and not merely to create converts who have a vague understanding of the gospel but to create disciples of Christ who understand and follow all that Jesus has commanded them. Questions remain regarding this command. For example, to whom does it apply? Does it, does the command continue to be in effect and how do you, the believer, help to carry out this command? Now some argue that the Great Commission was given to the disciples as representative Christians and therefore applies to all Christians directly and equally. However, the text does not support this.

    Matthew seems to be emphasizing the unique nature of this command by showing that Jesus summoned specifically the eleven disciples to the mountain. And the passage indicates that they were alone, they alone were present to receive it. Furthermore, the command to baptize is a responsibility giving to ordained ministers alone. As one pastor noted, it is impossible to apply the Commission individually to each Christian since it explains discipling the nations in terms of baptizing and teaching. Both of these activities were the official duty of the ordained and could not be passed on to the Christian individual. But the command must apply to more than just the eleven disciples because how could just eleven men go to the ends of the earth? The disciples whom Paul describes in Ephesians 2 as the foundation of the church received the Great Commission on behalf of the entire church, as Christians but as Christ’s anointed representatives.

    But what does this mean? This means that the Apostles obeyed Jesus by preaching the gospel, planting churches, appointing ministers and elders to lead those churches. And these ministers then continued the work of that Christ had entrusted to the Apostles. Since the command involved reaching the ends of the earth, it was never intended for the eleven to fulfill alone. Its scope requires the ongoing ministry carried out through ordained leaders. And we see this confirmed in Ephesians chapter 4. Please turn there with me to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 8 through 13. Ephesians 4, 8 through 13. Verse 8. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth.

    He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the Apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. Now the word here in English for ministry in verse 12 is probably better translated as service because in our modern English ministry has a loaded meaning of teaching and sharing the gospel as a vocation. But that is not what the Apostle means here in Ephesians 4. He means for the service of the saints, to love, help, teach, encourage, support, care for, and strengthen others. So understanding that, Paul in Ephesians 4 is teaching that Jesus has raised up Apostles, but not only Apostles, he has also raised up evangelists and shepherds and teachers in order to make disciples of all nations, to build up the saints and to bring the gospel to the elect who do not yet believe.

    Thus, Jesus gave the command to the Apostles as the representative heads of the church and equips the church to fulfill, to continue to fulfill the Great Commission chiefly by giving it teachers and preachers and evangelists. But is this command still binding on the church? Because some say that the command was given to the Apostles and it lasted until the New Testament was ended. But we see that this is not the case from other passages like 2nd Peter chapter 3. Please turn there with me. This is the last passage that you’re gonna have to turn to. 2nd Peter chapter 3, we are gonna read from verses 1 through 9. 2nd Peter 3 verses 1 through 9. Verse 1. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the Holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your Apostles, knowing first of all that scoffers will come in the last days of scoffing following their own sinful desires.

    Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the Fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and that the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same Word the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. This is the important part. But do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill this promise as some count slowness but as patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.

    We don’t have the time to confirm this fact tonight but the commandment that Peter mentions in verse 1 refers to the commandment that Jesus gave the Apostles in Matthew 28. In other words, Peter is telling the church in all Christians to remember this commandment. Why? Because Jesus according to Peter will not come back until all the elect are brought into the fold as he says in verse 9. Some say that Jesus is slow to come back but Peter says it’s because they have forgotten the commandment of the Lord. They have forgotten that there are many still yet lost who the Father has chosen who must be brought in. There were some who had lost sight of the mission statement of the church and Peter is urging them to remember the commandment and to press on.

    Now using the same logic that Peter does we must conclude that because Jesus has not yet come back the command still stands. One of the church’s primary goal remains to bring the gospel to the remote remotest parts of the earth to bring the elect into the fold and to disciple them in all that Jesus taught us. And this brings us to our third question which is what role do you play in fulfilling this command? Now you might be thinking to yourself at this point what role could I play when the command is only given to the Apostles and to the ministers and to the evangelists? The answer is that the command is given to the church as a whole and the duty primarily lies at the feet of the evangelist and to the pastors and to those who are called to the work but this does not mean the individual believer cannot support and further the mission the mission of the church.

    We are all members of the body of Christ and thus participate in carrying out the mission of the church by giving by praying by encouraging by teaching our children and yes by sharing the gospel in our personal everyday lives. This is not to say that we should place an undue burden on the believer that the scriptures do not. That somehow we should all meet a quota of sharing our faith. Do not take every single chance that you have to share the gospel with an unbeliever you are somehow sinning. The primary responsibility does lie with those whom the Lord has gifted but this does mean that the individual believer should not or cannot help in the ways that he has been gifted. An analogy to this is that Jesus has gifted some to be teachers of the world or the word I’m sorry.

    The church does not let anyone and everyone who desires teach the church yet the scriptures are clear in both the Old and the New Testaments that fathers and mothers are to teach their children about the wonderful works of God and scriptures. So while the primary primary responsibility rests with the teachers of the word there is some responsibility that remains for the individual private lives. And likewise while we are not all called to the special work of evangelism that we cannot play a part by inviting unbelievers to the church or by encouraging them to Christ to turn to Christ in a time of difficulty. When you get a chance to speak of Christ from the scriptures or even more simply to speak of what Christ has done in your own life. When you get a chance to do so to an unbeliever who is around you take advantage of that beautiful chance.

    That may be one of the only times that that man gets to hear about Christ. It is a good and loving thing to desire that those who are dying and their sins and trespasses know the same peace that you have in Christ Jesus. So tell them even in simple terms the love of Christ and if you cannot do so just invite them to church and all of these things help the church further her goal to carry out the Great Commission. So then just as Peter encouraged the Saints of old be stirred up or rather literally wake up and remember the commandment of our Lord so that we must that we must bring the gospel to every tribe to every nation and to every tongue and remember the reality that the work of the church is not complete.

    Come back until all who the Father has chosen from before the foundation of the world are brought into the fold. This brings us to our third and final point that is the promise for those who carry out Jesus’s command. Let us return to our passage in Matthew 28. Jesus did not leave the Apostles alone and he has not left us alone to carry out this great command. He says in verse 20 and behold I am with you always to the end of the age. The work of the Great Commission is not easy work. There have been many missionaries and many pastors and many individual believers who have been persecuted and even killed for sharing the gospel to those who do not know Christ and even if you are not killed the idea of giving up the comfortable lifestyle in America where all your family and friends live and going out to a different country is a daunting one.

    Even the idea of moving from one state to another to minister in a congregation there is a daunting one. These are truly difficult decisions and there will be hardship along the way. Growing up on the mission field there was much hardship and much pain that existed for us precisely because we were in a foreign culture as missionaries. But the question for us should not be what if it’s difficult or what if problems arise. We can all think of all kinds of issues that might arise if one is to be called to be a pastor or a missionary. The question should not be what if but rather it should be how is it that the believer will be sustained when he takes on this difficulty and hardship. He answers this question in two ways. First he assures the disciples in verse 18 that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him thus they should go boldly trusting that Christ will bless them and work through them if they are faithful to him.

    Second he promises to be with them to the end of the age. That is wherever those who are called to carry out the Great Commission go their God will be with them. This should be a great comfort to us because as believers we know that we are weak and we know that we make mistakes and when we consider the work that is before us we often buckle in fear. But Jesus will sustain us and to work in us so that we can carry out this work. Remember what the great apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians. But he said to me my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ then I am content with my weaknesses with insults with hardship persecutions and calamities for when I am weak then I am so if you are considering ministry or missions take heart because Christ will be with you if you are a believer and have a different vocation take heart for Christ will be with you as you seek to help the church carry out the mission that Christ gave her.

    The Great Commission is the carrying out of the promise that was given to Abraham to David and to the prophets that the salvation of God’s people would not be limited to the nation of Israel but that it would be for men and men and women girls and boys of every tongue and every nation. It is indeed a great task which is not yet complete so let your hearts be stirred up and remember the command which Christ gave the church pray for new missionaries and ministers to be raised up encourage those who are already doing the work and pray for them. I will end with the words that Paul left the church in Thessalonica for God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing we ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work be at peace among yourselves and we urge you brothers admonish the idol encourage the faint-hearted help the weak be patient with all see that no one repays anyone evil for evil but always seek to do good for one another and to everyone rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances let us pray Lord we thank you that you are a gracious and merciful God that you are pleased not only to bring salvation to the nation of Israel that you are pleased to bring salvation to the whole world through your son Jesus Christ we thank you a Lord that you would save sinners like us and while we were yet sinners you loved us and you gave your life for us so that we may have life in you we pray oh Lord that as we go forth from this place that each one of us would remember what Christ has done for us that we would remember the command that Jesus has given the church that we would work to help the church fulfill it in any way that we can in Christ’s name we pray Amen.

    Please stand as we sing hymn number 291. hymn 291.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Performative Religion versus Pure Piety

    Performative Religion versus Pure Piety

    About this sermon

    Jesus warns, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,” like the hypocrites who sound trumpets when they give. Performative religion, like modern videos of staged kindness, already has its reward. Instead, when believers give to the needy, they should not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing, and the Father who sees in secret will reward them. Jesus’ language of reward is not a theology of merit; God graciously rewards the works that flow from the salvation he has already given.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    You may be seated. Well, there are six words that children can be listening for in my sermon this morning. The words kingdom, warning, religion, motive, piety, and grace. Well, friends, when it comes to the posting of video content online on social media platforms, you know, platforms like Facebook or TikTok or what have you, one popular trend that I’ve noticed recently is the posting of videos where the content creator of the video performs a random act of kindness or charity to a total stranger. And so, for example, there are videos out there of the video creator offering food or perhaps offering a new item of clothing to a random homeless person. Other acts of kindness that these videos feature include such things as giving a huge tip to the pizza delivery or door dash delivery person or perhaps paying for a stranger’s grocery at the checkout line at the local grocery store or paying for a stranger’s gas at the gas pump.

    And the list goes on and on. Now, I’m no expert on such video content, but I have to wonder if these kinds of random kindness videos may even be competing in their popularity with the ever-popular funny cat videos that are out there. I mean, who doesn’t love a funny cat video? But in any case, these random acts of kindness videos, they can often be very touching and uplifting and heartwarming. I’ve found myself drawn in to some of these videos as well as I’ve watched them. And often the recipients of these random acts of kindness that are featured on such videos are genuinely appreciative, genuinely thankful, even sometimes touched to the point of shedding tears. But having said all of that, I have to be honest with you, friends. In the case of at least some of these types of videos, I have to wonder about the actual heart motivations that lie behind the video recording of such random acts of kindness.

    Now, if the video creator is simply doing this to try to encourage others to be generous and kind and give random acts, do random acts of kindness to strangers, then okay, that’s one thing. But are these recorded acts of kindness and charity primarily motivated by a pure heart desire to actually benefit strangers in need? Or are they merely acts of performative theatrical charity, acts of charity designed to make the content creator look good to others in order to get more clicks, more likes, perhaps more subscribers to his or her page, and perhaps as a means of psychological self-validation? Well, friends, obviously there was no such thing as the internet in our Lord’s day, and thus no such thing as social media in the days of Christ. But nevertheless, our Lord Jesus had to confront similar types of performative kindness in his own day and among his fellow Jews.

    There was a tendency among certain Jews in our Lord’s time to perform acts of mercy and piety hypocritically and for the primary purpose of making themselves look good before others. There was a tendency back then as there is even today to be more concerned about pleasing man and making themselves look good to man than to be pleasing to God and to genuinely show love to their neighbor. In our passage for this Lord’s day morning, we see the clash between the hypocritical performative religion that characterizes fallen humanity on the one hand and the pure piety that is displayed by those who through God’s sovereign grace have become citizens of the kingdom of God on the other hand. Now our passage for this morning is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Matthew has rightly been called the most Jewish of all the Gospel accounts.

    It seems to have been written to a Jewish audience, an audience of Jews who Matthew was trying to convince that Jesus is the Messiah or Jewish Christians. To quote from the Bible Project’s excellent introduction to this Gospel, and I quote, “‘Matthew shows how Jesus is the continuation and fulfillment of the whole biblical story about God and Israel.’ First of all, Matthew’s Gospel shows that Jesus is the Messiah from the line of David. Number two, that he is a new authoritative teacher like Moses. And thirdly, that Jesus is God with us. He is Emmanuel, God in the flesh. Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Matthew structured his Gospel to include five blocks of our Lord’s teaching materials. And the passage that we are considering this morning is taken from the first major block of our Lord’s teaching material presented in Matthew’s Gospel.

    Because of these five blocks of teaching material, some Bible scholars and commentators believe that what Matthew is doing in structuring his Gospel this way is he is mirroring the five books of the Torah, the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Now, as we work our way through Matthew, in chapter four, we see our Lord Jesus beginning his earthly ministry. And he begins his earthly ministry by announcing the coming of God’s kingdom by calling his first disciples and also by beginning to minister to the crowds with supernatural signs of the kingdom, such as the miraculous healing of the sick and the casting out of demons. Well, that brings us to chapter five. Chapter five begins our Lord’s famous sermon on the mount. And this sermon on the mount extends all the way through chapter seven.

    Now, friends, in this section of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is presented by Matthew as a new Moses. He is presented as a greater than Moses figure. Not only that, there is a parallel between God’s revelation at Mount Sinai on the one hand and our Lord’s revelation on this unnamed mountain as he delivers his sermon on the mount to his disciples on the other hand. Just as Yahweh declared his law to his people who were gathered around Mount Sinai in ancient times, so our Lord Jesus declares to those who are blessed to be citizens of God’s kingdom and who are gathered before this unnamed mountain, he declares to them the ethic of God’s kingdom and the lifestyle of discipleship that is expected of his people in the kingdom of God. And it’s interesting, while it’s not an exact parallel in terms of wording and concepts, we do see that there is a parallel between the preface to the Ten Commandments on the one hand and our Lord’s opening statement in the sermon on the mount.

    Let’s just briefly go back to Exodus 20 and let’s look at verses one and two. I read this a little bit earlier in the service, but let me reread it and remind you of the context. Remember, Yahweh the Lord had rescued the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm. He had saved his people from slavery. Now he has brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai, and here he audibly declares to them his covenant, his Ten Commandments. And we read these words, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. As we learned a number of Lord’s days ago, as I preached on the purpose of the law, we see that the law of God was revealed in the context of grace.

    God had rescued his people. He doesn’t say, do this so that you can become my people. He doesn’t say, keep the Ten Commandments as a condition for being my people. He says, no, I’ve already taken you to be my people. Therefore, this is how I want you to live. Now turn to Matthew five and let me just read the opening verses of Matthew five. It says in Matthew five, and this is after Jesus has called his first disciples and crowds begin to follow him, it says, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. See the parallel? God speaks his law to his people from Mount Sinai here. Jesus is going up to a mountain and when he sat down, that was the posture of the rabbi, of the teacher back then. When he sat down, his disciples came to him as the children of Israel were gathered before God at Mount Sinai, so Jesus’ disciples, his professed disciples are gathered before him.

    And he opened his mouth and taught them saying, and then we get the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes are not law, they’re not conditions that we need to follow in order to become citizens of God’s kingdom. Rather, they are characteristics of those who, through grace, have become members of the kingdom of God. That’s why Jesus declares the Lord’s blessing upon them, just as the Lord from Mount Sinai reminded his people of the blessing of grace and deliverance that they had received. Well, in any case, here they are gathered before the Lord Jesus on this mountain, this unnamed mountain. And our passage for this Lord’s Day morning is found in the midst of this famous Sermon on the Mount. And it focuses on acts of righteousness that are part of the kingdom lifestyle.

    In particular, Jesus gives three examples. He gives the example of giving to the needy, of prayer, and of religious fasting. We focus in particular on the opening section of chapter six today. And what we find here is we turn our attention to the first two verses of our passage for today. We find here, first of all, a serious warning against performative religion. Jesus here issues a serious, almost stern warning against what might be called performative or theatrical religion. He says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. He doesn’t say it’s wrong to practice righteousness in public, but he says it’s wrong to practice righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

    Here in verse one, we have Jesus presenting us with this general warning. Now, I would remind you, brothers and sisters, understand that in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord is addressing His professed followers. He is addressing professed believers, those who by grace through faith have been made citizens of the kingdom of God. In the opening Beatitudes, which I just referred to, our Lord had described the blessedness and the characteristics of those who through sovereign grace have been made members of God’s kingdom. In this passage found here in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus confronts head on the ostentatious and hypocritical practices of piety that were common among some of His fellow Jews. Perhaps He had in mind in particular, the scribes and the Pharisees of His day. It’s interesting, what does Jesus say in verse one?

    He says, beware of doing what? Practicing your righteousness. The Greek word is dikeasune. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people. And we find a link here between this verse and what Jesus said about the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Back in chapter five, verse 20, if you turn to that verse, Jesus says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness, your dikeasune exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God. That might be tempting as Protestants to think that Jesus in that verse is speaking about the need for the imputed righteousness of Christ. And of course, that is true for our justification. But Jesus rather is pointing out that the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, many of whom were unconverted, many of whom had not been born again by the Spirit, their righteousness was a merely external form of righteousness.

    They did works of righteousness that were good on the outside, but their hearts were corrupt and sinful. And so Jesus is saying, if your righteousness proceeds from a sinful heart rather than a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit, then you will not enter the kingdom of God. This is another way of Jesus saying what He said to Nicodemus, that unless you are born again, you will not see much less enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so getting back to this warning in chapter six, verse one, Jesus is here saying basically, He’s saying to His professed disciples, look, don’t imitate the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. In other words, don’t engage in acts of quote righteousness, hypocritically, merely or mainly to be seen by other people, to get accolades and praise and acclaim from other people.

    Don’t seek glory and recognition from men, but instead seek to honor God in your practices of piety and your acts of righteousness. Avoid performative show-off religion, religion which is motivated by a sinful, unregenerate desire for human acclaim and praise. Instead, seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. In fact, Jesus will go on and say that later on in this chapter, if you skip down to Matthew six, verse 33, Jesus says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Now, the fact that Jesus gives this warning to His professed disciples, what does that teach us? Well, that teaches us that this tendency, brothers and sisters, towards show-off religion, towards performative piety, this is not just a problem among the unconverted, among unbelievers, though it certainly is a problem in the case of those who do not know Christ as their savior.

    But it can also be a temptation for the true believer as well. So yes, we need to take this warning to heart. And what is the consequence of practicing performative piety? Well, Jesus says, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Show-off religion results in no reward from God. Now, let’s step back a second. Some of you might be wondering, well, why does Jesus talk about a reward? Is Jesus here preaching works righteousness? Is He preaching salvation by works? Is He saying that we can somehow put God in our debt so that He has to reward us? Why does Jesus use this language of reward? Well, understand, beloved, Jesus is not preaching a merit theology simply because He uses this language of reward. He’s not preaching a works righteousness or merit theology as if by our works, we could somehow put God in our debt.

    The fact that He is not preaching a merit theology can be seen on the face of it when you notice that Jesus speaks of God as your Father who is in heaven. In other words, those whom He is speaking to have a relationship with God as their loving heavenly Father. They’ve already experienced God’s grace in their lives. Contrary to the common view out there that says everybody is a child of God, the Bible doesn’t teach that. Jesus said of His enemies, you are of your Father the devil. Now, everyone is a creature of God. Every human being is related to God as a creature to his or her creator. And so in that generic sense of creator and creature, we could perhaps say that God is the universal Father of all humanity in that generic sense.

    But in terms of a spiritual saving sense, not everyone is a child of God. If you are outside of Christ, if you have not received and rested upon Christ alone for your salvation, you are not a child of God in the spiritual sense. You are spiritually a child of the devil. And it is only by the grace of God that you can be brought out of the devil’s household and into and adopted into the household of God as a child of God by grace through faith. So the point here is that as disciples of Jesus, we are related to God as our heavenly Father. And that is a relationship not of merit, not of works, not because we are worthy of it. That is a relationship of grace. It is a gift of God, not a fruit of our good works.

    But as our heavenly Father, God graciously chooses to reward our kingdom service done in faith. So again, when Jesus uses this language, He has in view a reward of grace, not a reward of merit. So He says, again, He gives the general warning in verse one, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. And then He gives us three examples. He gives us the example we’re considering this morning, giving to the needy. He also mentions the example of prayer and the example of religious fasting. But we focus on the first specific example that He gives here in verse two. He says, thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

    Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Again, Jesus here gives the first of these three specific kinds of examples of performative religion. And He was, and here He gives instruction on giving to the needy. And He mentions those who are hypocrites. The Greek term is huppocratai. And it’s interesting, friends, in the older Greek, the word huppocratais meant an actor. It was a term that applied to the theater. And so ancient actors, ancient hypocrites, if you will, perhaps a lot of actors today are hypocrites too, but hypocrisy is something that extends beyond any particular calling in life. It’s very common among fallen mankind. But in the ancient world, these hypocrites, these theater actors would often change masks when they played different roles on stage. And so this term came to evolve and came to expand to include, beyond the theater, to include those who play roles in life and who see the world as their stage.

    In other words, those who are inauthentic, those who live their lives to get acclaim from others and they pretend to be that which they are not in fact. Again, Jesus says of such, truly I say to you, He says amen or verily, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. They desire human acclaim. They desire human recognition and human praise. That’s all they’re gonna get. They’re not gonna get divine approval, divine recognition. They get human praise alone. That’s it for their reward. And Jesus repeats this warning two more times in this section. He had made the warning in verse one. He repeats it here in verse two. He also makes the warning down in verse five when he talks about prayer. He says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

    Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And then skip down to verse 16. Jesus says in verse 16, and when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. You get the point? He drives the point home through this repetition. Now, important clarification that needs to be made here. Is Jesus saying that it is somehow wrong or sinful to give to the genuinely needy? And by the way, when Jesus talks about the needy, he’s talking about what they used to call the worthy needy. He’s not talking about people who are needy because they’ve made sinful choices or because they’re lazy or because they’re entitled and they’re gaming the system.

    He’s talking about those who are in genuine need. Well, it should be obvious brothers and sisters that our Lord is not here condemning acts of generosity toward the needy. Rather, he is pointing out that God is concerned about the heart motivation behind giving to the needy. He’s not only concerned about what we do for the needy, although he certainly is concerned about that. But at a deeper level, our Lord is even more concerned about why we do what we do for the needy. But having said that, understand that generosity to the needy, to the genuinely needy is itself commanded in God’s law and it was reinforced in the prophets of God in the Old Testament. Just to give you a couple samples of that, let’s go to Deuteronomy 15, Deuteronomy chapter 15, and let me just quickly read verses seven through 11.

    The prophet Moses, as he’s instructing the children of Israel as they are preparing to go in and conquer the promised land, he writes this under the spirit’s inspiration. He says, if among you, one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need whatever it may be. And notice that even Moses under the Old Covenant, he speaks to the heart here. He says, take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, the seventh year, the year of release is near and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother and you give him nothing and he cried to the Lord against you and you’ll be guilty of sin.

    You shall give to him freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him because for this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake for there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. So again, God’s law expects this kind of generosity from God’s people. After all, God has been so generous to us. If we have received the gracious generosity of God, that generosity should flow out of our lives and be expressed to others as well. And as an example of the prophets taking the people of God to task for their lack of generosity, for neglecting the poor, let’s turn to Amos 2 and let me just read verses six and seven.

    Amos chapter two, verses six and seven. Hosea Joel, Amos 2, verses six through seven. The Lord says this, it says, Thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they sell the righteous for silver. In other words, they oppress. And the needy for a pair of sandals who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted and so forth. Not only that, not only does God’s law expect generosity from God’s people, not only do the prophets enforce generosity, but generosity toward the needy will also be brought forward on the judgment day as evidence that our faith in Christ was a true and living and genuine faith. As we are here in Matthew, let’s turn to Matthew 25 and let me just quickly read verses 34 to 40, Matthew 25, verses 34 through 40.

    And here, Jesus is painting the scene of the final judgment and he talks about the separation of the sheep who are the righteous, the saved, and the goats who are the lost. And here’s what he says about those on the right hand of King Jesus on the day of judgment. Verse 34, then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous, I love this answer, then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?

    We’re thirsty and give you drink. And when did we see you as stranger and welcome you and naked and clothe you? In other words, when did we do all these great things you say that we’ve done? All we remember being were dirty rotten sinners. You were so gracious to us. When did you see us doing these things? And Jesus says, verse 40, and the king will answer, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Now many folks misread this passage or misunderstand this passage as if Jesus was saying that deeds of charity are a condition for entering into heaven. But the fact that that’s not what Jesus is saying here is made very clear in the opening words of the king recorded in verse 34, where the king, Jesus says, come, you who are blessed of my father, they’ve been blessed with the blessing, with the gift of salvation, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

    In other words, they’re chosen, they’re elected from before the foundation of the world by his grace. But because they are blessed and chosen, this is how they showed the reality of their faith. And so the generosity described in this judgment passage is a generosity that was produced by grace, not a result of works. But what do we learn from this warning? Quick things by way of application. Your listener, are you a man pleaser or a God pleaser? Are your acts of charity and piety motivated by a desire to seek human praise, human acclaim, or by the desire to glorify and please your loving heavenly father for the gracious generosity that he has showered upon you through your savior, Jesus Christ? May God grant us the grace to be God pleasers, not man pleasers. And that leads to my next and final point.

    It will be a brief one, I assure you. Consider next an earnest call to pure kingdom piety, an earnest call to pure kingdom piety. Jesus says in verse three, but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. And here’s the promise, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Don’t look for validation and accolades from man, from your fellow men and women. Look for the approval of God. And as you do these acts with self forgetfulness, you do them for the glory of God. Now in verse three, think of it, think of the context. Our Lord Jesus has seriously warned us against the pitfalls of performative religion. But now having warned us and told us what to avoid, he now gives us instructions on how we are to give in a manner that aligns with the values of God’s kingdom.

    Now notice the language. First, notice that he says, when you give to the needy, he doesn’t say, if you give to the needy, this is how you are to give. No, he says, when you give to the needy, this is how you are to give. You see, showing generosity and kindness to the genuinely needy is a kingdom value. It is a value of the kingdom of God. And our Lord Jesus expects that his disciples will be characterized by such kingdom generosity. And then he says, he explains what this looks like. He says, when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, as if each of our hands has a brain of its own and can act on its own. Obviously, Jesus is speaking figuratively here. But the point that he’s making in this language is that genuine generosity to the needy ought to be done in a manner that is as self-forgetful as possible.

    When you give to the needy, you shouldn’t be thinking, ah, I’m such a good guy. You pat myself on the back. Aren’t I wonderful? Aren’t I great? Instead, you should give spontaneously and then move on to the next thing. As Jesus goes on to say in verse four, so that your giving may be in secret. In other words, genuine kingdom generosity is not done to show off. It’s not done to get attention or validation or praise from others. It’s certainly not done to get clicks or likes or subscribers online, as seems to be the case with some of these random acts of kindness videos that I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon. Instead, it is a generosity that flows naturally and spontaneously out of a heart and life that have been touched by the amazing, forgiving, justifying, transforming grace of God.

    The grace of God that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has secured for us by his redeeming work, his life and death and resurrection. The grace of God that has been sealed to us by the Holy Spirit who has caused us to be born again and to become followers of Jesus. Such kingdom generosity is the fruit of divine grace and not the product of human worthiness or human will or human effort. And that is why our heavenly father graciously rewards it. For in rewarding such acts of self forgetful, secretive generosity to the genuinely needy, God our father is rewarding the fruits of his own transforming grace. Dear listener, the only way to avoid the pitfalls of performative religion and to practice the pure piety of God’s kingdom is to be a part of God’s kingdom, to be a citizen of the kingdom of God.

    Are you a citizen of God’s kingdom, dear listener? In other words, have you accepted and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ in Christ alone as your very own Savior and Lord? Christ who died upon the cross, Christ the God man who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and who rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him by faith might not perish but have life everlasting. Come to Christ today, receive him as your Savior and Lord and you will experience the divine generosity in your own life and the outflow of that generosity, that divine generosity is that the Lord in his sanctifying grace will make you more and more generous toward others. Amen, let us pray. O heavenly Father, we thank you for your divine generosity to us in Christ. We ask that you would grant us the grace to demonstrate kingdom generosity to others that we might bear good fruits and bear faithful witness to our Savior for it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said, amen.

    As we respond to the preaching of God’s word, let’s rise and we’ll sing hymn 488. May the mind of Christ my Savior.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Covenant Meal, Consummation Feast

    Covenant Meal, Consummation Feast

    About this sermon

    At the Passover, Jesus took bread and said, “Take, eat; this is my body,” and gave the cup as “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal: God sets the terms of the covenant of grace, and his people receive them. It reminds them that they are sinners whose debt Christ paid with his blood. It is also a consummation feast, pointing ahead to the day when Jesus will drink it new with his people in his Father’s kingdom.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. Our directory for public worship states that it is appropriate for suitable preparatory sermons on the subject of the Lord’s Supper to be preached periodically, and that’s what we’re doing this morning. We’re considering Matthew’s account of our Lord’s institution of the Lord’s Supper. And so my sermon text this morning is Matthew 26, verses 26 through 29. I’m going to begin reading in verse 17 to fill out the context a bit. Let us hear God’s Holy Word. You’ll find this on page 989 in your Pew Bible. Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover? He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand.

    I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve, and as they were eating, he said, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him, one after another, Is it I, Lord? He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said so.

    Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. Dear ones, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, what an amazing privilege it is that we have access to your word, that you have spoken to us, you’ve spoken clearly, and you’ve given to us your word and your spirit, who illuminates the word and helps us to know and understand it.

    We would ask that your spirit would be powerfully at work in our hearts and in our midst this day, as we consider this portion of your holy word. And we would ask, O Lord and Father in heaven, that you would set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, would declare and speak forth only that which is faithful and true to your word, edifying to your people and glorifying to your holy name. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. Amen. You may be seated. There are sermon outlines available in the foyer. And if you have your sermon outline, you’ll notice there’s a number of words that you can be listening for in my sermon today if you find that helpful for following along. And five words in particular, the words sacrament, covenant, consummation, lamb, and feast.

    Well, dear ones, if you study the history of the Christian church, one of the things that you will notice is that there have been great controversies and even tragic divisions within the church over the subject of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And that is indeed a tragic thing. On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ instituted and gave this Holy Supper to his church as a gift, as a blessing, a sacred feast intended to cement and strengthen our union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. A sacrament meant to signify our spiritual unity as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ and also meant to spiritually nourish us in the church as we together make our pilgrim journey in this life to our heavenly home in glory.

    However, it is a sad and grievous feature of church history that this very sacrament, which our Lord Jesus intended to signify among other things, our unity, our oneness as fellow members of Christ’s body, the church, this very sacrament of unity has tragically become a major source of dispute, dissension, and even division among the professed people of God. And dear ones, as I said, that is indeed a spiritual tragedy, a spiritual tragedy indeed. Just leave it to sinful fallen man to distort, to corrupt, and even to destroy the good gifts of God and to turn that which God has intended as an occasion for unity and the church’s strengthening and unification, to turn that into an occasion for the weakening and division of Christ’s church. However, while some of the divisions in the church over the Lord’s Supper can be blamed in part at least upon human sin and stubbornness and hardness of heart, let me suggest to you brothers and sisters that another major cause of the church’s divisions over the subject of the Lord’s Supper have to do with the fact that many Christians are simply not well instructed in what the scriptures actually teach about the meaning and the significance of the Lord’s Supper.

    In other words, friends, many Christians, and sadly even many Christian leaders, are not well versed or well taught on what the Lord’s Supper actually is and what place the Lord’s Supper should have in the life of the church and in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Likewise, many professing Christian churches and denominations have fueled the fires of this disunity by teaching a distorted, unbiblical, and in some cases even heretical doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. And of course, few things can destroy true unity in the church of Jesus Christ more than heresy and false doctrine. And that is why on this Lord’s Day morning, I would like to have us briefly consider some important truths that we learn about the nature and purpose of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And we do so today by considering what we can learn about this Holy Sacrament from Matthew’s account of our Lord’s institution of the Holy Supper.

    And among the things that we learn in this passage, we learn two things that I want us to focus on today. First of all, we learn that the Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal, and we’re going to spend some time kind of fleshing that out and talking about that. But beyond being the covenant meal that our Lord has appointed for his church in this new covenant era, we learn also here in this passage that the Lord’s Supper is a consummation feast. It is a covenant meal, and it is a consummation feast. Let’s first of all, as we turn our attention to our text for today and consider verses 26 through 28, let’s consider first the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as a covenant meal, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as a covenant meal. Now, you’ve heard the saying, a text without a context is a pretext.

    You’ve probably heard that more times than you’ve wished to hear it from this pulpit. But it is true. We always have to situate what we’re reading in the text within its context. And what is the context within which our Lord instituted this sacrament of the Holy Supper? Well, we learn from our passage that Jesus our Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper within the context of celebrating his final Passover meal with his disciples. It says in verse 26, now as they were eating, let’s pause there, as they were eating what? Well, it’s very clear from the previous passages, the previous verses that they were eating together the last supper, the final Passover meal together as master and disciples. And our passage makes it clear again that it was while Jesus and his disciples were gathered together in covenant communion around the table and were eating their final Passover together that our Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper.

    Now, of course, this is significant because the Passover was the sacramental covenant meal that was celebrated by God’s people under the old Mosaic covenant. It was the old covenant equivalent to what we celebrate today in the Lord’s Supper. It was a covenant meal that commemorated an event of immense redemptive historical significance, namely the event of the Lord, Yahweh’s, passing over the homes of the Israelites during the final plague against the Egyptians, that final plague being the death of the firstborn. And that final plague was, that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. That was the plague that finally motivated Pharaoh and his supporters and the Egyptians to say to the people of Israel, get out. They finally said, we need to let these people go. And so the Passover was a commemoration of the Lord’s mighty deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt and his deliverance of them from that slavery ultimately into the promised land.

    And the blood of the Passover lamb that the Israelites were to smear on the two doorposts and the lintel of their homes would shield them from the Lord’s destruction of the firstborn, which would be visited upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, causing, again, causing the Lord to pass over and spare the Israelites from the destruction of the firstborn. And if you’re interested in reading more about that, you can consult Exodus chapter 12, which explains this in greater detail. Again, friends, the Passover was an old covenant sacrament. It was a covenant meal that commemorated not only the final plague, but the Lord’s gracious deliverance of his people from their slavery in Egypt. So from a redemptive historical standpoint, it’s highly significant that it was during this final Passover meal with his disciples that our Lord Jesus instituted this new covenant meal that we call today the Lord’s Supper.

    And the context of our Lord’s institution of this Supper shows both continuity with the symbolism and meaning of the Passover, but also distinction. Because Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of the old covenant Passover meal. Indeed, as John the Baptist had testified of Jesus back in John chapter 1, verse 21, verse 29 rather, John 1, 29, what does John the Baptist testify of the Lord Jesus when he sees Jesus? He says what? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The implication, my friends, of this setting is that Jesus Christ, the true and final Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, he is giving us a new covenant meal to replace the old covenant meal of the Passover. And think about who is gathered there at that final meal.

    It’s Jesus and his twelve apostles. Jesus had a broader group of disciples that followed him beyond the twelve apostles, but here he is celebrating this final Passover meal, this last supper with his twelve apostles. And that’s significant. The number twelve is significant because, again, our Lord’s twelve apostles gathered around the table with him. They represent the foundation of the church in its new covenant expression, just as the twelve tribes of Israel served as the foundation of the church under the old covenant. And so by celebrating this, by instituting rather, this sacrament during the celebration of the Passover with his disciples, this represents the church of the new covenant, the reconstituted Israel of God. And therefore, how appropriate that our Lord Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, the Passover Lamb who gives us his broken body and his poured out blood of the new covenant for the forgiveness of our sins, how appropriate that he should institute this new covenant meal, a covenant meal that would be appropriate for this new redemptive situation that Christ would bring about by his atoning sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary, by his glorious bodily resurrection and ascension into heaven, and by his pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon his church on the day of Pentecost.

    So this is a new covenant meal to fit a new covenant, the new covenant situation that Christ would bring about by his death and resurrection and by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. But that raises the question, okay, well what is a covenant? If this is a covenant meal that we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper, we need to have at least a basic understanding of what a covenant is. So what is a covenant, biblically speaking? What is it, what is God’s covenant with his creatures? Well it has been said that trying to define a biblical covenant between God and his people is sort of like trying to define the word mother. The word mother does have a technical definition to it. It can be defined in the technical terms of biology, but who can deny that a mother, especially a loving, nurturing mother, is much more than simply the biological female who happened to give you birth?

    And likewise, when it comes to God’s covenants with man, certainly God’s covenants of man can be defined in technicalities, but a covenant of God with us is something that establishes a relationship, a relationship that goes beyond, in a sense, goes beyond the technicalities of definition. However, in Scripture we can say at least a few things about God’s covenant relationship with man. Such a covenant relationship implies a number of things. First of all, when we’re talking about a covenant between God and mankind, a covenant between God and man involves the voluntary self-commitment of God to his people in response to which his people are expected to commit themselves to God. It’s voluntary. God doesn’t owe it to you or to me as his creatures to enter into a covenant relationship with us, but he chooses voluntarily to come down to our level and enter into a covenant relationship with us.

    And of course, in such a covenant arrangement, God is always the one who initiates the covenant relationship and establishes its terms, and man’s appropriate response to God’s covenant initiative is to agree to those terms, to submit to the terms of the covenant. In other words, when we’re talking about God’s covenants with man, God is the one who takes the initiative. And in a divine covenant, God and man are not equal parties in the covenant, as is the case with some human covenants. There are some, for example, there are some business agreements or covenants where the two parties of the covenant are equal parties and can negotiate the terms of the agreement. Not so with God. When God initiates a covenant, he sets the terms, and our role is simply to accept the terms as his creatures, and especially if we’re talking about the covenant of grace as his people.

    Now in terms of God’s covenantal dealings with man, after humanities fall into sin with the fall of Adam and Eve, a covenant may be described, in terms of God’s redemptive covenant with us, a covenant can be described as a bond in blood sovereignly administered. A bond in blood sovereignly administered. That’s how the reformed theologian and biblical scholar Dr. Opalmer Robertson defines it in his helpful book, The Christ of the Covenants. Now in our text for this morning, Jesus references his body and his blood, and what he is in essence saying in this passage is that his atoning sacrifice of himself establishes a covenant relationship between God and his church, his church being represented by the twelve apostles. So let’s dive in and let’s consider the elements of this covenant meal, and the significance of those elements, the covenantal significance of those elements.

    It says in verse 26, now as they were eating, again they’re eating the Passover meal together, and this probably takes place toward the end of their eating of the Passover meal. As they were eating, what does Jesus do? He brings in what is to their perspective as Jews, he brings in an innovation. It says he took bread, and what does he do with the bread? After blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples, and then he explains to them what he wants them to do. Take, eat, and then he interprets the significance of this broken bread. He says take, eat, this is my body. Here friends we have what the theologians and scholars call the sacramental actions. Here Christ performs these simple yet deeply profound acts, these acts that convey rich spiritual and saving truth.

    He took the bread, and remember Jesus himself is the bread of life who sustains our souls and feeds us unto life eternal by his word and spirit. He took this bread and he blessed it, and that was the custom for the head of the household, the husband and father in the house at a meal, a Jewish meal, the man would offer a blessing, he would offer thanks for the food that the Lord had provided. And so Jesus is serving as the host at this covenant meal. He takes the bread, he blesses it, and then he breaks it. And he gives it. And thus the minister of the word and sacrament also takes and blesses and breaks and gives. You may wonder why when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together I follow certain protocols and basically do the same thing every time that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

    Well because it’s my responsibility as a minister or servant of the word and sacrament to follow Christ’s lead, to undergo the same sacramental actions that our Savior underwent in order to, because ultimately Jesus is the host of the Lord’s Supper, this covenant meal. And so he performs these simple actions. And then he gives a command. He says take, eat. If you’re a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ, you are obligated to make sure that you are able to partake of the Lord’s Supper. It is for your spiritual good and edification and building up. But you are commanded to take and eat it. And then Jesus interprets the significance of this action. He says this is my body. Now again I mentioned church history at the beginning of this sermon. A lot of ink has been spilled by theologians in the history of the church over the meaning of the term the word is.

    What is the significance of is in this passage? And some have insisted, well Jesus means that the bread literally is his body. That it miraculously is turned into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ through an act of supernatural transubstantiation. That’s what our Roman Catholic friends believe about this. But my friends, this would not have even entered the thoughts of our Lord’s disciples gathered there around the table with him because Jesus’s body was right there with them. They clearly would not have understood the term is to mean that the bread literally is the body of Christ. It’s reading into the text that which is not actually there. It’s Isagesus to interpret this overly literalistically as our Catholic and our Lutheran and other high sacramentalist friends do. Instead what Jesus means is this represents my body.

    If I meet someone who finds out that I’m a pastor they might ask me, pastor what is your church? What church do you pastor? And I might pull out a business card and say to them, here this is my church. Is that business card Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church? No. That card represents the church. The term is has a wide semantic range. And so again we need to avoid getting into silly disputes over what the word is signifies. It means here clearly represents the body. And then verse 27, there’s another aspect of this covenant meal. Jesus gives them the bread which represents his body which was to be broken for us and for our salvation. And then in verse 27 he took a cup. This was probably the third cup in the Passover celebration, the cup of blessing.

    And when he had given thanks, he does what? He gave it to them. It’s a gift. It’s not something they earn or deserve. It’s given to them saying drink of it all of you. Some translations say drink ye all of it as if Jesus is saying make sure you don’t leave any. Make sure you drink it all up. But I think the ESV is more correct in representing the meaning that our Lord is trying to convey. In other words, all of you drink of it. And this is one of the reasons by the way that the Protestant churches have stood firmly against the withholding of the cup from the laity. It was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. I think in some cases it still is practiced today. And it disturbs me that in some even Presbyterian and Reformed churches have revived the practice of intinction where you take the bread and you dip it into the cup.

    Jesus didn’t say dip it all of you. He said drink of it all of you. And this is a command. We don’t have the right to change what our Lord is commanding in terms of sacramental actions. In any case, notice again the simple yet profound actions, sacramental actions. Jesus took the cup and after he had given thanks he gave it and then he issued a command. Drink of it all of you. All of you drink of it. Because Jesus’ blood was shed for all of his people all who trust in him for salvation. And then in verse 28 our Lord further interprets the significance of the cup. He says, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Now this is likely an allusion or a reference to Exodus 24 verse 8.

    I invite you to turn there briefly. Exodus chapter 24 verse 8 Exodus 24 verse 8 The prophet Moses confirms the old covenant with the people of Israel. And it says this in Exodus 24 verse 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said behold the blood of the what? The blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. That same language the blood of the covenant. Jesus uses that language when referring to the cup where he says drink of it all of you for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Now some ancient manuscripts there’s a textual issue here because some ancient manuscripts speak about the blood of the new covenant.

    Whereas other manuscripts lack the term new. Although Luke’s account of the institution as well as Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 11 includes a reference to the blood of the new covenant. But whether or not that term new was in the original reading here in Matthew. It is clear that there is at least an implicit reference or allusion here to Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant. In the background of what Jesus is saying here in verse 28 is Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34 and I’d invite you to turn there as I read that passage briefly to you. I just want you to see what’s going on here in the background. There’s so much going on. The prophet Jeremiah writes under the spirit’s inspiration in Jeremiah 31 beginning at verse 31. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt my covenant that they broke though I was their husband declares the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord.

    I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying no the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord and notice what he says here for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. One of the blessings of the new covenant in Christ is full free forgiveness of sins and Jesus makes this clear when he explains the symbolic significance of the cup he says this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for what? For the forgiveness of sins. How are sins remitted? How are sins forgiven?

    Only by the blood of Jesus as the hymn writer says what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And furthermore this poured out language that Jesus uses here may also be an allusion to the suffering servant prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 53 particularly Isaiah 53 verse 12 again I’m just going to read that briefly to you Isaiah 53 verse 12 where it says therefore I will divide him this is a prophecy of the sufferings of Christ very clear prediction of the sufferings that Christ would endure in his crucifixion Isaiah writes therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he did what? Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

    Do you see that there’s a really there’s a lot going on in the background here of Jesus’s words to his disciples as he institutes this new sacrament this sacrament of the Lord’s Supper this sacrament of the new covenant. So what are some of the implications or what are some of the lessons that we can glean from what we’ve considered so far? Well one of the things we learn from passages like this is that we are sinners. We are those in other words who’ve missed the mark and fallen short of perfectly obeying the holy law of God. We all fall short. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And because God is holy and cannot simply wink at or ignore or turn a blind eye to our sin therefore our sin needs to be punished it needs to be paid for we need an atonement that is capable of remitting our sins lest the angel of death the angel of the messenger of God’s holy wrath against our sin be visited upon us.

    We need beloved a Passover lamb that will spare us from the judgment that we deserve for our sins and our rebellion against our creator. Where do we get such a Passover lamb? Well hallelujah Christ Jesus is our Passover lamb as Paul writes I think it’s in 2 Corinthians of Jesus. Behold the Passover lamb let us keep the feast. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast. Dear listener is the Lord Jesus Christ your Passover lamb? Has he applied his blood to the doorposts of your heart? That is have you trusted in his sacrifice alone to save you from your sins or are you trying to work your way into heaven? The Bible says if you try to earn your salvation by your good works guess what you have to be perfect.

    You have to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself all the time without interruption. And you have to do that your entire life from your birth till the end of your life. And the fact is none of us can do that because all of us were born with the sin nature. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re sinners. We’re born with a fallen nature in Adam. And so friends we need a Passover lamb. Praise God God has provided for repentant believing sinners a perfect Passover lamb. His name is Jesus. Is he your Passover lamb? If you’re not sure come to him today in faith and prayer turn to Christ in faith and repentance receive and rest upon Christ alone for your salvation and you will be saved your sins will be forgiven and you will receive the gift of eternal life.

    And so we see the Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal. But in conclusion we also learn here in verse 29 that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a consummation feast. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a consummation feast. It says this Jesus says I tell you and by the way when Jesus says I tell you he’s saying you really need to listen to this. Of course everything that Jesus says we really need to listen to but in particular when he emphasizes it he says I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until when? Until that day when I drink it new with you in my father’s kingdom. He’s talking about the final consummated kingdom. You see friends for us in the church today the Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal that commemorates what our Lord did on the cross by dying for our sins.

    But it not only points us back to the redemption that Christ accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary. It also points us forward to the messianic banquet to that eschatological marriage supper of the lamb that we read of in the book of Revelation. It points us forward to the feast of the consummation of our eternal salvation which we will enjoy with Christ when he returns in glory at the end of this age and ushers in the consummated kingdom. As Dr. D.A. Carson writes just as the first Passover looks forward not only to deliverance but to settlement in the land so also the Lord’s Supper looks forward to deliverance and life in the consummated kingdom. In other words friends the Lord’s Supper is not only a covenant meal that commemorates our Lord’s redeeming work on the cross.

    It is also a feast that points us forward to the ultimate consummation of our eternal salvation which will be accomplished at the return of Christ at the end of this age. So what’s the take away? Well many lessons we can learn from this. But I would suggest to you in closing friends that the Holy Supper should impact us in many ways but in two ways in particular at least. First of all the Lord’s Supper should fill our hearts with gratitude for what Jesus did for us on the cross. He poured out his lifeblood to redeem us to save us from our sins. Remember the Bible says that the blood represents the life and when it says that Christ poured out his blood for us that means he sacrificed his life that our lives might be spared that we might be redeemed.

    He poured out his life for us knowing that should fill our hearts with gratitude and awe. But secondly the Lord’s Supper should whet our appetite for eternity. It should result in both gratitude and with a longing for our heavenly home as it points us forward to that marriage Supper of the Lamb that messianic banquet that we will celebrate with our Savior when he returns in glory. May we take these truths to heart and may the Lord bless us as we embrace these truths by faith. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father we thank you that Christ our Passover is indeed sacrificed for us and we pray that as we remember and fellowship with him today in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper that your spirit would impact our hearts that you would apply these truths to our hearts and lives and we would ask Lord that you would cement and deepen our union and communion with Christ and our union and communion with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

    We ask these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen. As we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together let’s rise and we’ll sing number 202 here oh my Lord I see the face to face 202.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.