I thank you all for your interest in my teaching. I
gave this message Wednesday night to the youth group
at my church, which is a group of 30 middle and high
school kids. So, this might be sophmoric for you all,
but here it is. :-)
"Separating your Spirituality from Ordinary Life."
To the seven Churches on Judgement Day:
Rev. 2:2- "I know thy works"
2:9- "I know thy works"
2:13- "I know thy works"
2:19- "I know thy works"
Etc. A pattern is developing here, namely, that on
Judgement day, Jesus will give attention to our works.
Another account of Judgement Day, in the Gospel:
Mat. 7:21-23-
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name
have cast out devils? and in thy name done many
wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
My first reaction to this passage, is to wonder at
Jesus' choice of words here. "Ye that work iniquity?!"
Jesus could have just left it at "I never knew you"
and sent them to Hell. They worked miracles and cast
out devils. I would not consider that working
iniquity. There is something here, then, that I am not
seeing. I am not seeing the whole picture as Jesus is
attempting to show it.
Mat. 25:31-46
This is where Jesus separates the sheep from the
goats, and welcomes the sheep into everlasting life.
The righteous respond by saying they did not remember
ever feeding Him or clothing Him.
So now, we have a situation where the righteous are
people who visit the sick or feed the hungry? These
are not super spiritual things.
One more passage:
Luk 3:7 Then said he (John the Baptist) to the
multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come?
After rebuking them, they were pricked in their
hearts, and said, "What shall we do then?"
His response was a list of practical, ordinary things.
He did not tell them to go and offer a sacrifice, or
to pray an hour a day, he told them to be generous
with their clothes and food, to be content with their
wages, to not falsely accuse anyone. He is telling
them that this baptism should wash their entire life,
their business life, their personal life, it should
affect how they act even when they're not being
religious-minded.
And considering the two greatest commandments, on
which Jesus said hang all the law and the prophets, we
see that loving God with our heart, soul, and might
means loving our pesky siblings or refusing to help
someone cheat on a quiz.
When Jesus said he saw our works in Revelations 2 and
3, he was saying, "I saw how your treated your
sister," and "I saw you would not be content or
thankful for anything you had." Those people who said
they cast out devils and worked miracles in His name
clearly did not understand what it meant to love God
and how to apply that love to their lives. Responding
to an alter call means nothing if it doesn't change
how you treat your co-workers at that part-time job.
We are to be a people set apart:
2 Cor. 6:14-17
-But we can't stick out like a sore thumb in a Church.
He must mean, then, that we must act differently from
the rest of the world. We must learn to handle road
rage differently from the way unbelievers handle road
rage.
Jesus is in the business of turning ordinary, wordly
things into spiritual things. "Peter, does that mean
you don't fish anymore?" Well, no, I do fish. But it's
different now. I'm a fisher of men now.
Jesus doesn't mean for you to stop leading an
ordinary, real life. He just means for you to glorify
Him in it. This is what it means to be a true
Christian. Choosing to merge your spiritual habits
with your ordinary life is what the sheep did in Mat.
25. The goats chose otherwise.
Well, hope that wasn't too long or young for you. I
spoke on this for an hour, so I said a lot more, but I
don't want to lay it on too thick, as if I were
preaching at you all. :-)
One other thing I included in my message that I would
like your opinion on:
I've notived in John 20, John writes how he outran
Peter to the tomb. I can't find the significance in
this, except to say that John likes the fact that when
he and Peter raced, John won. Also, in John 21, when
Peter is told that he will die a martyr's death, Peter
asks, "Lord, what shall this man do?" as if to say,
"What about teacher's pet over there?" I believe Peter
and John loved each other, but I believe they both
wanted to be Jesus' favorite, that we see into their
personalities in these two passages.
My point on this in the lesson was to say that Jesus'
disciples were also ordinary people. They were
extraordinary men of God, but they are real people, as
real as you or I, who learned to love and serve God in
their daily walk. I used these passages to say that we
see into their personalities a little bit here.
But what does Truth Talk think? My research on this
passage was disapointing- no one else could really
explain the account of the race.
Blessings!
____________________________________________________
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