The Small Things Matter on the Big Day
September 1419. September 12th, 1988. January 1st, 2000. May 21st, 2011. December 21st, 2012. Do you know what all those dates have in common? Those were the times Jesus was supposed to come back. Supposed to, according to some, but apparently Jesus didn’t get that text. Back in 1419, rumors about Jesus’ return swept through central Europe. Christians, sometimes numbering 40,000, crowded on hilltops, waiting for the sky to rip open and for Jesus to end it all. In 1988, Edgar Whisenant sold 4.5 million copies of his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988. The rapture is a false belief that Christians will one day disappear from the earth. So in 1988, TBN, a major Christian network, interrupted its regularly scheduled programming to give instructions on what to do if your church-going wife suddenly wasn’t with you on the couch! 11 years later, the Y2K bug bit. People wondered if the end of the millennium might trigger the end of the world. This year, the billboards came. I was driving in Detroit when a billboard demanded my attention: “Judgment Day,” it shouted. “May 21st, 2011: The Bible Guarantees It!” Oh. I must have missed that part. Apparently, the billboard guy did too because May 21st came, but the end of the world didn’t. Another billboard soon sprung up. “That was awkward…” it mocked. But that’s okay because 2012 is coming. Did you hear the world is going to end? On December 21st, 2012, the ancient Mayan calendar reaches the end of a b’ak’tun, a major cycle of time. No doubt people will gather on hilltops, buy billboard space, and stock up on canned goods.
The end is near. That message might seem a bit crazy to you, especially because of the crazy people who make crazy predictions. But before you dismiss it all as religious nonsense, you should hear out Jesus. Because Jesus had something to say about the end of the world. He never sent a save the date card telling us the day, but he did talk a lot about the day itself. In fact, do you know the very last thing Jesus said in the entire Bible? He promised, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Soon like maybe before Christmas. Or maybe before final exams (but you still need to study…sorry). Or maybe before you retire. Jesus hasn’t told us the when.
But he has said something about the what. That’s why the biggest question God wants to ask you is “So what?” What are you going to do because Jesus is coming soon? What has to, needs to, should change today because that Day is coming some day? Those are the questions wise people ask so they don’t waste their life on stuff now that won’t matter then. In his classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey lists habit #2 as this: Begin with the end in mind. Do stuff today that one day, when your end comes, you’ll say, “I’m glad I did that. That was a wise use of my time.” Today, Jesus wants you to be effective by applying that principle to your day-to-day life. Think about that as we read Jesus’ teaching about that Day when he comes back.
Matthew 25:31—“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.” Stop there and picture it. One day, the sky will burst open and Jesus will come down. His beaming face will make the sun look like a 40W bulb. And “all the angels will [be] with him.” Imagine Jesus on the 50 yard line and Camp Randall is packed with angels, crammed wing-to-wing in the stands. Except there are millions of angels, so picture a thousand Camp Randalls of angels in the sky. Rhythm and Booms will be a sparkler in comparison.
Verse 32—“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.” Those who are alive will stand before King Jesus. The dead will be raised and stand before King Jesus. Americans and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The dumb and the smart, the short and the tall, the Lutherans and the Catholics and the atheists and agnostics. Everyone. And Jesus will judge. I won’t judge you. Your parents won’t judge you. You won’t even judge you. Jesus will judge you.
And here’s what he’ll say: Verse 34—“34Then 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.’” Imagine that. Jesus, the King of Kings, bursts into our world. You stand before him, overwhelmed. He meets your eye and says, “Come. Yes, you. Come to paradise. No shame. No guilt. No stress. No worries. No sin. It’s yours now.” How would you feel on that Day?
Well, have you ever won anything before? Have you ever played McDonald’s Monopoly? I know it’s kind of rigged—you collect 73 Park Places and there’s only one Boardwalk on the planet and it’s in the backroom of a storage unit in Botswana. But still—have you ever won? After 13 Diet Cokes and 16 large fries, you peel back the piece and it says, “Winner! Free value meal!” And you say, “Yes! Oh, yes! Honey, come here! God does answer prayer!” You walk in all amped up. And you pick the most expensive value meal on the board. Collecting the prize feels good.
Now imagine the Last Day. Jesus says, “Come…take…the kingdom.” Not a sandwich. A kingdom. This new heaven and new earth where sin isn’t allowed. Where I.V.’s and Aspirin aren’t needed. Where you never feel alone, misunderstood, or ashamed. “I won this for you,” Jesus will say. “I lived and died and rose and ascended for you so you could peel back this prize and enjoy it forever.
So who gets that prize? Jesus tells us, “35For 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 explains, “You people can come with me because I had nothing to eat and you brought the Son of God a meal. I had nothing to drink and you gave the Son of God your water. I was the loner and you offered the Son of God a seat. I got cancer and you came to see the Son of God in the hospital. I was in my cell and you comforted the Son of God during visitation.
Huh? 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? 38When 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?’” “Jesus, when did we see you? I sometimes forget to preheat the oven, but if you showed up with the face and the fireworks and the f angels, I would remember that.”
40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” And while those on his right tried to figure out what he meant, Jesus turned to those on his left.
“Go to hell.” 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.’” “You people are cursed,” Jesus explains. “Because I was starving and you wouldn’t give the Son of God a slice. My mouth was a desert and you wouldn’t give the Son of God a drop. I ate lunch by myself and you wouldn’t give the Son of God a seat. I went through chemo and you let the Son of God suffer alone. I was doing time and you couldn’t take time to visit the Son of God.”
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, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” For the former, the end of the world is the beginning of torment. This life was the closest they got to heaven. For the righteous, the end of the world is the beginning of life as God intended. This life was the closest they got to hell.
The End. Do you like that story? Does it all make sense? Well…if that story doesn’t bother you just a little bit, you probably haven’t been at our church very long. Because there’s this one thing we pound into your head with every BIC class, every blog, every sermon, every service. We constantly teach—Good works can’t save you. You can feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and spend every minute volunteering, but that can’t save you. Trying your hardest, being a good person, being better than the next guy won’t get you to the kingdom of God. That’s what we teach.
So…what’s up with this? Isn’t Jesus saying, “If you feed, clothe, visit, and help people, you win the prize”? If we’re going to “begin with the end in mind”, isn’t Jesus teaching us to begin doing good works so that we’re saved in the end? No, he’s not. Let me explain. This is a classic example of a principle you have to know to understand the Bible. Here’s the principle: Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Let God explain himself. Check out the context of the chapter, the book, the Bible and make sure God agrees with your interpretation of God’s Word. Quick example: 1 Corinthians 7 says this about the end times: “The time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none.” (Don’t smile at that, husbands!) Well…if that’s what the Bible says… “Honey, I didn’t make the bed for you because I’m trying to be Scriptural…and this is my new girlfriend, Stacey.” No. If you just woke up, that’s not what the Bible says! Because the rest of Scripture helps us interpret that difficult Scripture. That verse is really saying, “Don’t get so caught up in this world—in marriage, in kids, in work—that you forget about Jesus. The time is short.” Let Scripture interpret Scripture so it all agrees.
Here’s why you need to know that. Because if this was all the Bible said about Judgment Day, Jesus would look you in the eye and say, “Go to hell.” Right? Have you walked right past the guy who just needed a cheeseburger? You walked past Christ. Ever let the new kid sit all by himself or let months pass without inviting the new neighbor for dinner? You excluded Christ. Ever visited anyone in prison? You let Christ rot in a cell. If this was all Jesus taught, we’d all be cursed.
But thankfully, this isn’t the only thing Jesus says about Judgment Day. He also said this, “God so loved the world, he gave his only Son…whoever believes in [Jesus] will not be condemned.” And he said this, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” And he said this, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And he said this, “As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your sins from you.” That means Jesus took the times we let him starve and shiver and sit in his cell and he erased them. The reason someone, anyone, can rejoice on the Last Day is because they believe in Jesus, the one who threw sin so far away that there won’t be a hint of it around to condemn us. All that will be left are the good things we did to thank God for the best thing he did for us.
So what? That was our question, wasn’t it? If that is what will happen at the end, if Christians will only have good works left, what should you and I begin to do today? How about this? Do little things for little people because they will be a big deal on the big day. I’ll say that again. Do little things for little people because they will be a big deal on the big day.
I still remember the day I met Paul Schupmann. I was 18 and just arrived for my freshman year of college. God blessed me with a lot of friends in high school, but none of them went to college with me. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t know my roommate or my classmates or my teammates. That made the picnic for incoming freshmen a little awkward. Have you ever walked into a crowded room alone and tried to find a place to sit? I felt like that. Acting like I was looking for a friend, but I had no friends to find. But that’s when Paul stepped in. “Hey,” he called out. “Do you want to sit with us?” Um, yeah. Paul shook my hand and introduced me to Jon, who would later stand up in my wedding, and Phil, who would stand up, too. I sighed in relief as I ate my lunch. I remember that day. And so does Jesus. I’m not sure if Paul even remembers, but Jesus hasn’t forgotten. On that Day when the angels crowd the sky, Jesus will say to Paul, “I had nowhere to sit, but you said I could sit with you.”
If we being with the end in mind, one day Jesus will say to us, “The night you stayed up with your sniffling son…You stayed up with me. The day you visited your cousin in jail…You visited me. The night you pulled over and changed her tire…you pulled over for me. The lunch hour you slid over so he could join you…You slid over for me. The card you wrote to your lonely grandma…You wrote that card to me. The smile you gave to the mentally challenged woman…You smiled at me. Whatever you did—no matter how little the act or how little the person—you did it for me. You proved your faith. Now come and inherit the kingdom.” Amen.
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