Whose Will Is It, Anyway?

                    Matthew 7: 21-29

            Remember tent revivals? They’re not as popular now as they once were, but they still exist. When I was young, I remember them coming to town. As a boy, I sometimes got it confused with the circus. After all, both came in tents and both could be exciting. One night, there would be an open field on the edge of town. The next night, there would be a tent there with lots of folding chairs. Flyers would appear on telephone poles. A tent revival had a sort of circus atmosphere about it. It was unusual and it was portable. There were often testimonies of miracles happening. Sometimes someone would apparently be healed right then and there.    

As television gradually entered the dens of virtually every American home, the tent revival became less popular. Televangelists took the place of tent preachers. Successful televangelists have started all sorts of organizations from resorts to universities. Many of these ministries have done a lot of good for a lot of people. I used to have my doubts about all the healings that take place, but as I have matured, I realize that even a fraud can get a lot of mileage off a believer. It happened in Jesus’ day too.

Selling Jesus can be a very lucrative endeavor. Some of our celebrity evangelists are worth tens of millions of dollars. Some live in million dollar homes and drive very expensive cars. The gospel has taken on many shades of color, and often the dominant color seems to be green. It’s hard to know who is working for God and who is just working the crowd.

Jesus warned of such people in his Sermon on the Mount. In the 7^th chapter of Matthew, Jesus warns us not only of false prophets, but also of false followers. Remember how Jesus started out his sermon? Near its beginning in Chapter 5, Jesus warns that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Calling out “Lord, Lord;” that is, calling out in Jesus’ name as though we know him, is not a ticket to the dance. Jesus cautions us as followers the same way he cautions those would-be prophets. He first tells us that prophets will be recognized by their fruits. So it is with followers, for Jesus tells us that saying the words does not get us to heaven. It is, rather, the doing of God’s will that grants us entry.

How can that be, you ask. Doesn’t Paul tell us that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved? Yet, Jesus seems here to be saying that it is our works by which God evaluates us. Are these two views at odds? Of course not. Paul says that by grace we are saved through faith. What is it that people of faith do? They act out their faith. How do they do that? They are obedient to the will of God the Father as they discern it. And we are right back to what Jesus said. We return God’s love and grace as our faithful act of love by being obedient to his will. That’s not works. That’s love proved by faith and acted out by works.  Put very simply, Jesus is saying that your heavenly Father will know by what you do, not what you say you will do. All the apparent reverence in the world will not get you there. You have to act on it. It’s your heart that will get you to heaven, not your mouth.

Jesus talks about the end times, the day when he shall return, He talks about judging, about who will enter the kingdom and who will be left behind. And here he redefines, or at least makes abundantly clear, the definition of righteousness. He tells us what it isn’t. It isn’t prophesy. It isn’t casting out demons or any other mighty works or deeds, even if done in Jesus’ name. Mighty works are not proof of God. Mighty works can come from God, but they can also come from man or Satan. Mighty works can be real or contrived, genuine and illusion. Mighty works can drum up a lot of business.

But righteousness isn’t necessarily about mighty works. Righteousness is all about attitude. If your heart is right, then you are righteous. Then you might very well do some mighty work, but if you do, you will not be looking for credit. You will be thanking God. The thing is, if your heart is right, you will be doing God’s will, and doing God’s will can be as small as a widow’s mite laid in an offering plate to as big as an ark built to carry all the animals of the earth. Obedience looks the same on a world leader as it does on a first grader.

Note that in verse 21, Jesus uses the term “my Father.” This is the first time in Matthew’s gospel that this term is so used, and it is important because it signals Jesus’ acknowledgment of his identity. His authority is not that of a prophet, through who God speaks, but of God himself. Jesus does not need to quote scripture, although he does fairly often. Jesus is the living Word and carries within him the authority of God himself. The crowds realize this, and more and more people begin to follow Jesus as his fame spreads throughout the region.

In verse 24, Jesus uses his first parable in Matthew’s gospel. We are all familiar with the parallel stories of the houses built on sand and rock. The rock represents wisdom and is compared to the person who shows obedience to God. It should also be noted that in this parable, Jesus promises no favoritism, no exemption from hardship for those who are obedient. We who follow God are not without our troubles. Indeed, we are promised a gracious allotment of trials. The difference is not what we face, but how we deal with it. Houses built upon sand will wash away. If we only pretend to have faith, then when the real storms of life come along, and come they will, those who have not prepared, not obeyed, will find their structures so flimsily constructed that they cannot weather that which befalls them.

Mary Poppins sang to her charges that a spoonful of sugar would make the medicine go down. That’s good advice for children, but of little value to the Christian existence. A spoonful of Christianity won’t get it done. Taking Jesus in small doses is sort of like taking a needle in the arm without the plunger. We get the pain, but not the medicine. That just makes us join the ranks of the foolish builder.

Being obedient to God is not in our natures. For that, we will need God’s help. It is much more natural to go it alone. Even when we are doing God’s business, we would rather build our churches and run our meetings with elbow grease and Yankee knowhow and a polite thank you to God for giving us the expertise. That’s getting perilously close to the sand, don’t you think?

Jesus showed us the way. We need not only to lead through God, but also to follow through God. Our failure to do so will find us unrecognized and unacknowledged on judgment day by the very person whose name we invoked to do all those deeds. If we did these things for ourselves or for earthly recognition, then Jesus warns us that such selfish behavior will render his judgment that we were not his followers at all, and he will turn his back on us.

Make no mistake about the meaning of this passage. It is strong and it is clear. It doesn’t matter your station in life, whether you lead or follow. What matters is whether you submit, really submit, to the exclusive lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. Why do you do what you do? Do you do it for you? Or do you do it for Him? Only one way will open the door of God’s kingdom.

Let us pray

3/9/14