At Calvary, we’re learning to…
“Live The Cross-Shaped Life” – Cruciformity is learning to embody the self-sacrificial love of King Jesus, which God always deserves and honors.
God doesn’t always make things easy for His people, but He always makes it worth it. The living, breathing proof of this is Jesus. Everything about Jesus is humble self-sacrifice from birth to death, but God brought Him back to life and crowned Him King of kings. That’s cruciformity, and we’re learning His cross-shaped story as we preach through the Gospel according to Matthew.
We’re also learning cruciformity in the beatitudes, the cross-shaped attitudes of God’s kingdom people. We’ve been memorizing these beatitudes this year:
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10 NIV)
What does cruciformity look like practically? Today’s Scripture–Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25:31-46–gives us a great picture of “a day in the cross-shaped life of a disciple of Jesus.” This passage concludes Matthew 24-25, where Jesus has been teaching all of His disciples about His return. His main point throughout is to focus less on the timing and details of His return and more on how we should live in preparation for it. His parable about the ten bridesmaids waiting for the groom teaches us to be ready for Jesus’ return. His parable about the servants investing the bags of gold, which we looked at last week, taught us to get to work until Jesus returns. The final teaching here focuses not at all on the timing of His return but on the judgment at His return.
1) King Jesus will judge all people at His return. (25:31-33)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”
This teaching expands on 24:29-31 in the previous chapter: “All the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and glory.” The Second Coming. When Jesus returns, He will judge. Jesus will not judge like judges in our government, whose decisions can be argued against and appealed. Jesus was appointed Judge by God the Father because He lived a righteous life and died a sacrificial death, which pleased God and saved sinners. Therefore Jesus is judge, jury, and executioner. He is the Final Word.
Who will King Jesus judge? “All the nations.” Not just the Jews and not just the Gentiles, but all people. Jesus will judge at His second coming all who were the objects of the Great Commission, which concludes the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew 28: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” It also means that me and you will be there. Everyone in this room who will be there. Everyone you know and everyone you love will be there. Everyone who has ever lived will be there.
And the crucified and risen King Jesus will judge all of us, separating us as a shepherd separates sheep and goats. Sheep flocks and goat herds would often intermix, but would need to be separated from time to time. They each needed somewhat different kinds of care, and sheep were probably more valuable, because sheep offered wool in addition to milk and meat. It’s pretty easy to tell sheep and goats apart. On what grounds will Jesus judge and separate the people and what will the verdict and consequences be…?
2) Judgment on the Blessed (25:34-40)
Jesus will turn first to give His verdict on those to His right–the sheep.
a) King Jesus will accept those who helped Him. (25:34-36)
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Jesus calls those on His right “blessed by my Father.” In fact, they are to receive an inheritance, which means they are considered children adopted into God’s family! So they inherit the kingdom that Jesus Himself rules! Wow!!! Why is that? On what grounds?
Jesus enters into evidence all sorts of loving actions to prove that those on His right truly are blessed by the Father. Interestingly, Jesus notes that the Blessed fed Him, hydrated Him, hosted Him, clothed Him, nursed Him back to health, and visited Him in prison. What? When have any of us served Jesus like this? Jesus will answer that question in a moment.
But first, we need to discuss a really important questions. If this was the only passage you ever read about how to enter God’s kingdom, you might think that the only thing Jesus expects is works of compassion. But is Jesus teaching salvation by works of compassion? No! He is teaching that those who will be saved display works of compassion as evidence that they are already righteous. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will teach that admission in the kingdom heaven depends, for example, on…
- possessing a righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees and scribes (5:20)
- doing the will of the Father (7:21-23)
- acknowledging Jesus before others, even when persecuted (10:32-33)
- embracing the lowly position of a little child (18:3-4)
As you can see, there is more to inheriting eternal life than simply being a compassionate person.
Elsewhere Scripture teaches that that we are saved not by works but by grace through faith in Jesus and that saving faith in Jesus inevitably produces good works from changed hearts. A great example of this infinitely important line of thought is in the New Testament book of Romans, which we plan to preach through after Easter, but let me summarize some key points. While no one is as bad as we can possibly be, no one good enough for God. God is so holy, so right, so just, so good, so deserving, and we constantly fall short. No one can be saved by their works (Romans 1-3), but we can be saved by grace through faith in Jesus (Romans 3-5). We must trust the crucified and risen Christ, who makes us right with God. Those who have this faith in Jesus are continually transformed and begin to freely obey God more and more throughout their lives (Romans 6-8). The New Testament book of Galatians also deals with these ideas. Here’s a couple snippets:
…know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6b)
True, saving faith in Jesus always works itself out in obedience to God and love for other people. If you love in a Christlike way, you must have faith in Christ. And if you have faith in Christ, you must belong to and will be saved by Christ. Though Jesus doesn’t go into all these details here in Matthew 25, this is the full testimony of Scripture. He is merely pointing out the external evidence of a person’s saving faith.
Acts of compassion need to be emphasized here as hallmarks of adoption into God’s family because others relished and relied on other things for their own kind of salvation: religious rituals, pick-and-choose morality, worldly living, nationalistic tendencies, etc. We have people living by those same standards today. But the hallmarks Jesus emphasizes here are works of compassion done for Him, which brings us to the second part of the judgment on the blessed.
b) Helping Jesus’ followers is helping Him. (25:37-40)
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’”
They are surprised by Jesus’ evidence! They don’t remember seeing Jesus in need and helping Him. In other words, the blessed aren’t trying to win Jesus’ acceptance by acts of love…they didn’t even realize what they were doing. They were doing so instinctually, because Jesus had taught them.
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Ah, so the blessed were helping Jesus when they helped Jesus’ brothers and sisters in need! Who are Jesus’ brothers and sisters? Jesus answered that question directly earlier in this Gospel:
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:48-50)
Jesus’ brothers and sisters are His followers, and He identifies Himself with His followers, even the neediest ones. He takes personally how His followers are treated and plans to use that treatment as evidence when He judges all people.
If you are a follower of Jesus, you are under divine protection! No one will get away with anything they have done to you because you follow Jesus, unless they repent and beg for Jesus’ mercy, in which case Jesus Himself will gladly forgive their sin too!
But the larger point is this: how are we each treating God’s people? The blessed instinctively show tangible love because that’s who Jesus is teaching them to be! Is that you??? I hope you are worshiping and learning from Jesus enough to see evidence of this in your life so that you can share the sure and certain hope of Jesus with all of His other followers. Because here’s the other side of that judgment:
3) Judgment on the Cursed (25:41-45)
a) King Jesus will condemn those who ignored Him. (25:41-43)
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’”
Jesus calls this side cursed and sends them to hell along with the devil and his followers. Why? Because there are no works of compassion toward Christ to prove saving faith. In other words, the cursed are condemned because of sins of omission. Sins of commission are doing wrong things…like committing murder or sexual sin. But sins of omission are failing to do good things…like failing to feed a hungry Jesus!
Of course, this side is just as surprised as the first…
b) Ignoring Jesus’ followers is ignoring Him. (25:44-45)
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
The cursed are surprised that they failed to help a needy Jesus. But they learn that Jesus identifies Himself with His followers, even the neediest among them. When they ignored Jesus’ people in need, they ignored Jesus! Jesus takes how we treat one another that personally!
If you think you’re a Christian but your needy brothers and sisters in Christ, think again! This is according to Jesus! Maybe you avoid the certain sins that you think are a big deal. Maybe you even go to church, read your Bible, and pray but it’s not transforming you to love others. It’s important to avoid all sin, gather with the church, read your Bible, and pray, but if there is no evidence of cross-shaped love in your life, you should have no assurance of salvation, according to Jesus. Wake up from your self-deception and know how much Christ has loved you! Humble yourself, receive His forgiveness, and spread that love around starting with your brothers and sisters in Christ!
4) King Jesus’ judgments will last forever. (25:46)
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The stakes of this judgment cannot be higher. The worst a human court can do is sentence us to prison for life. Jesus can sentence us punishment or to life forever. Which side will you be on?!?! Jesus’ right or left? The blessed or the cursed?
I want to close by connecting this to our church vision tagline: A church for the community. There are so many needs in the world. There are so many needs in our immediate community! I wish I could meet all the needs; we wish we could meet all the needs. And we will where we can. While we can’t meet every need in the community or world, we can strive to meet every need in our church. Ironically, if we ignore one another’s needs while trying to meet the “community’s,” we ignore Jesus Himself.
One of the most important things we can do to reach the world, to make disciples of all nations is to show cross-shaped love to one another–fellow church members!
A church for the community…“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
However Jesus loved us, we should love one another. How did He love us? By going to the cross! And when we show that kind of love to one another, we bear witness to the world about who Jesus is! That’s so counterintuitive, but this is God’s plan right now until the end of the age and Christ returns. He wants to unify a diverse group of people around King Jesus so that they might, through love, put Him on display to the rest of the world until Jesus returns.
I like to think of Christ’s love as filling up His church and then overflowing to the rest of the world. When people see or experience this love for themselves, that is A PERFECT MOMENT to share the good news of the crucified and risen Jesus! It begins with loving one another in Jesus’ name and overflows in service and witness to our community and world.
- It begins with Megan Bradley and Abby Farber mobilizing the church to feed our own and overflows in food distribution to the community.
- It begins with Chris & Jennifer Lamkin hosting a stranger and his two kids in their home and overflows in an annual gift of $5,000 to two orphanages among the hill tribes of Thailand.
- It begins with Ruth Rose, Carrie Albright, and others diligently visiting the sick and elderly and overflows in a hospital ministry and outreach in Muslim North Africa.
- It begins with Todd Brown discipling men at the correctional facility and overflows with prayer for the persecuted church around the world.
There are of course many other ways to tangibly love people, but here’s the bottom line. Those who help instinctively, simply because their beloved Jesus said so, help Jesus Himself until His glorious return.
Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion
- List everything Jesus says about the people He puts on His right. Now list everything Jesus says about the people He puts on His left. If Jesus returned to judge the world right now, would He put you on His right or left, based on how you’re living your life? Why?
- What kinds of beliefs and attitudes lead to a compassionate life? How can you pursue and strengthen those beliefs and attitudes?
- What disciple in need can you help for Jesus’ sake this week?
- Read John 13:34-35. How can love among Christians display Jesus to unbelievers around us? What are some good ways to serve our neighbors without detracting from our need to learn from Jesus and love each other as brothers and sisters?
Calvary | Muskegon 