Who 'dis?
Notes
Transcript
This past Wednesday the youth group had our end of year party. Super fun, 16 kids, 5 adults, go carts and
But it was almost a disaster.
I had been working with Alena over there getting special pricing, reserving, final counts… and I hadn’t heard from her in the last couple days leading up to it. I gave her final numbers… no response. I got nervous, started calling.
Showing up at Boondocks, no reservations, they didn’t know who I was. Alena had a family emergency and was out.
I tried. I said “do you know who I am!!!?” They didn’t care.
Fortunately they looked at all our emails, scrambled and got everything together and we had an awesome time.
But they just as easily could have said: we don’t know who you are… go away.
Like when I show up at the airport and left my wallet at home. Nope. Not getting on that plane!
“Do you know who I am?!!!”
No, sir, that’s the problem.
And so we come to one of the most terrifying verses in the whole Bible.
Top 10 Most Terrifying Verses in the Bible
Top 10 Most Terrifying Verses in the Bible
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
So Jesus says this, not so that you can recognize others as Christians or not-Christians. That’s what the last passage was about, recognizing “wolves in sheep’s clothing” so they don’t devour you. So they don’t lead you astray. They don’t speak for God, they are false prophets, they are anti-Christs. Beware!
But here, he doesn’t say “identify these people and call them out.”
It is a statement of fact. There will be these people.
In fact… how common is this scenario?
“… On that day, many will say to me.”
Many!
There is some profound revelation here. At least in the Gospel of Matthew, I don’t think Jesus has revealed this before. When it comes to deciding who gets in to heaven and who doesn’t, who can we appeal to?
Jesus. He decides.
We have said before, if the King says you’re in the Kingdom… you’re in! That was implicit before. Jesus just lays it out. He’s the gate. He is the Way.
Dude being barred from the “kingdom of heaven” on that day… Bouncer says he can’t get in. He turns and looks at who?
Jesus. For all appeals, see Jesus. You want entry into the Kingdom, into life eternal, into “heaven?” See Jesus.
And these folks know that. They aren’t ignorant in that, they turn to Jesus and say:
Don’t you know who I am!???
Don’t you know who I am!???
Why do they think Jesus will know who they are?
There is irony in calling Jesus “Lord” while seeking to argue with him. Listen here, “boss,” let me tell you how it is!
That… isn’t how this works.
We prophesied in your name
We prophesied in your name
What does it take to prophesy in the name of Jesus?
Not much. Watch me: “Jesus says, love your neighbor!”
I said what Jesus said. That’s prophesy. Now we really mean more specialized messages, sometimes regarding future events, but most prophesy is actually about God speaking to the people about what is going on in the present. Judgment and Promise. This is what God says.
And there is no end of folks lining up to say “this is what Jesus is all about.” “This is what Jesus really meant.” “This is what Jesus would do.”
In the name of Jesus, leveraging the power, the authority, the character of Jesus, do this. It’s a POWERFUL and IMPRESSIVE lever to use.
Nearly every President of the United States at least has claimed the name of Jesus. Two had no formal association, Jefferson and Lincoln, but they both had plenty to say about Jesus and what he really did or said.
It is WAY above my pay grade to decide who Jesus knows and doesn’t know… but claiming the name of Jesus and speaking in His name… that is not guarantee.
And “many” who do so will be surprised.
Cast out demons in your name
Cast out demons in your name
Exercising spiritual power and authority in the name of Jesus. That’s GOT to be proof. People who saw the disciples casting out demons in the name of Jesus wanted that power. Simon the Sorceror, he basically saw it as performing magic and wanted to buy the secret power. Even today people are fascinated by the spiritual, and demonstrable spiritual power is impressive, especially in a culture that values the occult.
Our own society is heading more that way in post-post-modernism. Vague spiritual dabbling and energies is SO HOT right now.
Why would demons listen to someone “casting them out” in Jesus’ name?
I take “demons” as described in the Bible to be spiritual beings who are opposed to God and intent on the temptation and destruction of God’s people. Why? We have guesses, but don’t know. They seem to be fallen angels in rebellion against God. We’ll talk more about demons later in Matthew.
But if their goal is the destruction of God’s people, pretending to be driven out to inflate the ego and deceive folks about whether they are saved… that seems to be a pretty good trick.
Similarly:
Did mighty works in your name
Did mighty works in your name
“mighty” here is “dunamis” from which we get “dynamo” or “dynamic.” This is the big stuff, the impressive stuff, the flashy POWERFUL stuff.
Not humble service of love in obedience to God’s word. This is the Billionaire donating a Million dollars and everyone being amazed at what a philanthropist they are. This is presenting the giant check, this is spectacle for the sake of spectacle…
They heart is first revealed in what they emphasize: “didn’t I do great, mighty works in your name?”
Write a check and say “It’s for Jesus...” the mightiness of it, the spectacle of it means nothing to Jesus.
It isn’t about what you say “in his name.” It isn’t about the spiritual power you exercise “in his name.” It isn’t about the great impressive deeds “in his name.”
Then… what is it about?
What does he say to them?
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
I. Never. Knew. You.
I. Never. Knew. You.
That’s definitive. The four words you never want to hear.
Not even “now you’re just somebody that I used to know.” This is “I never knew you.”
This is the absolute and only determinate. We try to break this down in smaller pieces, we try to understand how to “be known” and how to be “good disciples”, more about that… but at the end of the day it is all about this.
Jesus looks at you, and says “You are one of mine.”
If the King says you’re in, you’re in.
Extreme models of Arminianism stressing the importance of our choice and decision and response can miss this. The real decider is Jesus saying “This one is mine.”
But it isn’t random. It isn’t arbitrary. And this should not be a text of fear for us.
Jesus says this so that we should not be caught by surprised on the Day of Judgment.” Many will be. But if you are listening now, if your ears are open now, YOU won’t be.
He said two keys already, and he’s going to stress this even more in the next passage.
First, back in verse 21
Matt 7:21
Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
And then again in 7:23
Matthew 7:23 (ESV)
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Lawlessness referring again to not doing the will of the Father.
That is then expanded in the following verses, sneak peek:
Matt 7:24
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Knowing Jesus is NOT a simple mental acknowledgement that Jesus existed, or understanding that there is power associated with his name. It is not a weekend hobby. It does not mean regular attendance at church. It is not studying your Bible.
All of those things can and will be important… but only as they lead into this:
Know Jesus, Love Jesus, Follow Jesus.
All of life, for all of life.
Doing absolutely everything He commands us to do.
Example, loving the “least of these.”
37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 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.’
The flip side echoes our verse today:
41 “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.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
And they say “when???”
45 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.’
46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Would say that’s important? I’d say that’s important!!!
And if you’re keeping track. Last week Jesus dropped a word that talked about anhiliationism… this time he said what? Eternal punishment. Scripture in conversation with Scripture.
You don’t want to be there!
When Jesus says “love God, love others, this is all the law and the prophets” it isn’t a cute bumper sticker suggestion. It is righteousness, and he is ABSOLUTELY serious about it.
This thread is crazy consistent in Jesus’ followers. The people who were there listening on that day summed it up like this.
His brother, James.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Who are they deceiving? Themselves. Not Jesus! Never him. God’s not confused! But apparently people can be. We can be.
He goes on to say “faith without works is dead.” Your faith in Jesus, your “following” Jesus will always make it’s way into how you speak, how you love, how you leap to anger, how you treat another human in need. Always, always, says brother James. Don’t deceive yourselves!
John, who names himself the “one whom Jesus loved” said it this way:
How do we know if we know Him?
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
I don’t know where to stop, John goes on, this is the WHOLE book of 1 John, really.
Does John know about the cross? Yes! He literally just said “He is the propitiation for our sins.” The atonement, the payment, the penalty, the ransom… what was needed, Jesus did it!
Jesus died on the cross for you sin and mine. Absolute and complete. IT IS FINISHED, tetelestai, he put away sin and death and you are free forever from guilt and shame.
It is done. You cannot add to the Righteousness of Jesus. You cannot and will not earn salvation. Ever.
If you ever find yourself tiptoeing away from those statements, drop everything and go back to the simple gospel.
You are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, by Christ alone. Only and ever in him and by him. All that matters is that He calls you his.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The thief on the cross says “remember me in your Kingdom” and he says “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
This is NOT AT ALL in opposition to what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount, what John unpacks later in his letter.
The thief died that day, so we never got to see how he then lived. But Jesus knew perfectly the direction of his heart. We need to see fruit over time, Jesus can examine the DNA of the tree, he knows our heart perfectly. He knows the direction of our heart before we take a step.
But when we take that step, it WILL look more and more like Jesus, like righteousness, like good fruit.
But it WILL look like Jesus. It will like the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience… It will look like the Course of Righteousness laid out for us by the Law rightly interpreted through the Great Commandments of Love. It will look like the pictures of righteousness given by Jesus through the Sermon on the Mount.
And if it doesn’t… you know something’s wrong. Something’s off.
If you call Jesus “Lord”… and don’t do what he says… that isn’t what “Lord” means. Lord, means “Master,”… it means He is the boss of you.
When I talk, especially with littles about what baptism means, this is the heart of it. What does it mean that Jesus is Savior? That he died on the cross for your sin and death and the Father raised him from the dead that we could live forever with him. And baptism symbolizes that.
What does it mean that He is Lord? That he is the boss. When he says it, we do it.
Friends, this is discipleship. He says it. We do it.
He says and shows how to do it. We listen and do it that way.
We have words for this. He goes, we follow. He commands, we obey.
Yes, it is about loving Jesus. To know Him is to love Him, if you don’t love Him, you clearly don’t really know Him. You are considering some made up version of Him. To know Him is to love Him.
And to love him is to OBEY Him. If Jesus has a “love language” it is obedience.
John’s all about love, he builds to this in his letter:
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
With the absolute emphasis of his commands in the previous verses being the Great commandments to love God and love one another. Righteous life and righteous love spilling out in every aspect of our life.
This is discipleship.
There is no category Jesus leaves for people who are “Christian.”
This is not about deciding whether anyone else gets in. Jesus decides. He says “many” will be surprised.
I’m a terrible person, right now I frankly don’t care about the “many.” Like maybe in some distant sad way.
I care about you.
I don’t want you to be surprised.
You aren’t “Christian” because you made it to church today. Not even when it’s on the Sabbath. The Sabbath, Rest given and modeled by Jesus, it’s beautiful, but it is a blessing given for man… it isn’t salvation and it isn’t the sum of righteousness.
You aren’t a disciple of Jesus just because I dipped you in water, or anyone else dipped you in water.
You aren’t a disciple of Jesus because you know to say “Jesus” when you’re scared or worried… or even if you say “Yeshua” because that’s his real name in Hebrew.
None of the spiritual disciplines make you a “real” Christian.
All of Life, for All of Life
All of Life, for All of Life
It is this: when you call Jesus “Savior”… you mean it. He died and rose again for your sins.
And, when you call Jesus “Lord”… you mean it. And you are going to do what he says.
That means paying attention to what he said, the Word of God, and listening to what He says, the Word of God. For He is… the Word of God (and that’s our whole camp theme). Word!
Not perfectly, Jesus has already paid for all your imperfection, all your mistakes, all your stops and starts.
If your prayer is “Jesus, I’m in but I’ve got some questions...” He’s in for that too.
He appears to have endless patience with stumbles and falls and mistakes. He appears to have no room for people pretending, deceiving, or faking. He knows the heart.
But if you think you’ve got it all sorted out on the “Jesus front” and then you can go live your life however you want without submitting to His will and Lordship in your life.
YOU. ARE. CONFUSED! You are going to show up at Boondocks with no reservation. You are at the airport with no ID and no passport.
Repent, and come to Jesus. He’s calling you. If you’re feeling conviction, that’s the Holy Spirit working on you, to submit your life to Jesus. Savior. And Lord.