The Least of These
Matthew 25:31-46
The Least of These
Matthew 25:31-46
Main Idea: True disciples of Jesus are so transformed by the gospel that the King’s interests joyfully become their own.
I. The Sheep
The ‘sheep’ are sorted from the ‘goats’ at the coming judgment, evaluated by their care & concern for the “least of these.” The sheep provided the basic necessities for human life to those in need: food, water, clothing, shelter, and companionship.
Jesus indicates that the ‘least of these’ are ‘my brothers,’ having in mind needy Christians. If we can’t begin with caring for the ‘least of these’ within the church, we will be unable to move outward to those in need in the world. Galatians 6:10: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
On the surface, the sheep and the goats seem to contradict the message of salvation by grace. A few important observations from the passage that push against this:
The surprise of the sheep (25:37-39) reveals their actions were evidence of their citizenship in God’s kingdom, not the cause. Their tangible care was the fruit of salvation, not the root (cf. James 2:14-17).
The sheep are rewarded their ‘inheritance’ from the Father (25:34), which is not earned but received.
“A man does not fear to lose that which he wins by descent from his parent. If heaven had been the subject of earning, we might have feared that our merits had not really deserved it… but we do know whose sons we are; we know whose love it is that makes glad our spirits, and when we “inherit” the kingdom we shall enter it not as strangers or as foreigners, but as sons coming to their birthright.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
The Kingdom is prepared “from the foundation of the world” (25:34)
II. The Goats
On the other hand, the “goats” failed to act when they had an opportunity to do so, and are equally as surprised as the “sheep” at the judgment from the King. Their lack of concern for the least of these shows their misunderstanding of the gospel of the Kingdom.
In Jesus’ final teaching in Matt. 25, a common theme develops in his parables:
The foolish bridesmaids failed to prepare for the groom (25:1-13)
The wicked servant failed to increase the talent entrusted to him (25:14-30)
The goats failed to act when they saw those in need (25:41-43)
Each group is guilty of sins of omission (cf. James 4:17). Indifference to the needs of fellow brothers, sisters, and neighbors (cf. Parable of the Good Samaritan) is ultimately an indifference toward the interests of Jesus himself.
“Hell is real and eternal because God’s holiness is real and eternal… the frightening thing is that, to enter hell, all one has to do is nothing… all you have to do to go to hell is not rock the boat. Accept the status quo. Hell is quite easy to enter. Because outside of Christ we stand condemned already (Jn. 3:18), we need simply do nothing.” ~ Jared Wilson
III. The King
Though Jesus is “hidden” right now to most, a promised day is coming where all will recognize his universal kingship as he sits on his “glorious throne” to judge the nations.
To be transformed by the gospel we must first look at the King. This passage shows us that Jesus identifies profoundly with his people (cf. Matt. 12:46-50, Acts 9:4). For the King to identify with the “least of these” in his Kingdom is an incredible picture of his character and nature.
In order to be transformed in this way, we must recognize ourselves in the least of these. When we are swept up in the reality that Jesus has met us at our worst and in our place of need with his grace, the interests of our King will joyfully become our own. Have you recognized yourself in this place of need?
Lent Prayer & Worship Gathering | Ash Wednesday
Matthew 4:1-11
The Temptation of Christ
Matthew 4:1-11
Main Idea: Jesus overcomes the temptations common to us all by trusting his Father & listening to his voice.
I. The Challenge of Identity: Provide For Yourself (4:1-4)
The first temptation from Satan is less about bread and more about trust. He frames the temptation by attacking Jesus’ identity: “If you are the Son of God…” Satan’s temptation to doubt the goodness of God is as old as the Garden of Eden with Eve. He is tempting Jesus to view his circumstances as a definitive statement of who he is before his Father.
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3; the Israelites failed in their wilderness test by storing up more manna than the Lord commanded, believing that their effort was more sure than God’s promises. Jesus refuses the route of self-provision and trusts his Father’s word is for the best despite his circumstances.
II. The Craving of Validation: Prove Yourself (4:5-7)
Satan now throws Scripture back at Jesus by quoting Psalm 91:11-12, tempting Jesus to prove himself in spectacular fashion for all to see. He is tempting Jesus to prove all who doubt him wrong and to show himself to be the Son of God using the most significant place in Judaism, the temple.
We all deep down have a craving to be proven right and to validate ourselves before others. But we often result in devilish tactics rather than seeking validation from our Heavenly Father, the only opinion that ultimately matters.
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, knowing that following Satan’s offer would be a manipulation of God for a self-directed vindication. He was already validated by his Father and he was carrying out his mission, even if most people assumed he was wrong. His validation would come at the resurrection three days after his crucifixion.
III. The Contest of Futures: Promote Yourself (4:8-11)
Satan now shows Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” and offers them to him in exchange for his worship. Satan is tempting Jesus to take hold of his inheritance immediately in this moment by offering him the crown without the cross. The temptation is to get the right thing the wrong way, by promoting and exalting himself rather than submitting to his Father’s plan.
Everytime we grasp for power and control to ensure that everything is going to work out in the end, we are following the pattern of the Enemy who pridefully desired the place of God & fell from heaven like lighting (Isa. 14:13-14, Lk. 10:18).
“Satan showed here explicitly what he’d been trying to do all along. Satan was not just trying to tempt Jesus; he was attempting to adopt Jesus. Satan, in all three temptations, is assuming the role of a father – first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn’t just want to be Jesus’ lord; he wanted to be his father.” ~ Russell Moore
What is the hope for a tempted people like us? This passage forces us to consider whose voice we are listening to. We only have two options:
The voice from hell who (often subtly) tells us to provide for ourselves, prove ourselves, and promote ourselves.
The voice from heaven that ensures us we are beloved sons and daughters, that we have a Father whose grip on us is tight, and who has promised us a future inheritance in Christ. The way out of temptation is the way of Christ & tuning our ears to hear the voice of our Father.
The Resurrection
Matthew 28:1-10 | The resurrection of Christ is an invitation to courageous hope in place of fear.
The Resurrection
Matthew 28:1-10
Main Idea: The resurrection of Christ is an invitation to courageous hope in place of fear.
I. The Eyewitnesses (28:1-4)
The disciples are noticeably absent from the tomb on Sunday morning; even though Jesus had directly told them three times that he would be raised, they did not have the ability to comprehend and they are hiding in fear.
Those who were at the tomb include:
Mary Magdalene & the “other” Mary, who are coming to visit the tomb & anoint Jesus’ body for burial (cf. Mk. 16:1)
An angel, accompanied by an earthquake, rolls back the stone; the symbol of death is now merely a seat for the warrior-messenger of God.
Roman guards placed there by Pilate (27:55-56); though they were supposed to be guarding a dead man’s tomb, they themselves “become like dead men”
Acts 2:24: God raised [Jesus] up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
No one was expecting the resurrection of Jesus, but in the midst of what was likely a quiet, ordinary Sunday morning outside of Jerusalem, everything was being changed.
II. The Empty Tomb (28:5-7)
The angel encourages the women (“Do not be afraid”), reflecting the gracious and sympathetic heart of God toward sufferers & sinners. The empty tomb is an invitation to a new life and a new hope instead of fear.
3 realities of the empty tomb:
1. He is risen “as he said” (28:6a)
The resurrection is the validation & authentication of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
John 10:17–18: For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
2 Corinthians 1:20: For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
“The truest fact of the universe is an empty tomb. The Resurrection is the only evidence that love triumphs over death, weakness prevails over strength, and beauty outlives ashes. If Jesus is risen in actual history, with all the palpability of flesh, fingers, bone, and blood, there is hope that our mourning will be comforted, and that death will not have the final word.” ~ Tish Harrison Warren
2. We are invited to “come and see” (28:6b)
“The reason the stone was rolled away on Jesus's tomb was not so that Jesus could get out, but so that we could get in.” ~ Tim Keller
3. We are commissioned & compelled to “go and tell” (28:7)
Even though women were not considered valid eyewitnesses in a courtroom during this time period, they are the first to receive the commissioning to bear witness to the greatest news the world has ever heard.
III. The Experience of Easter (28:8-10)
As the women depart from the tomb they are full of “fear” mixed with “great joy” (lit. ‘mega’ joy). Suddenly, Jesus meets them on their way and these women become the first people to encounter the risen Christ. They grab hold of his feet, which were pierced for their and for our forgiveness, in worship.
“These men he calls ‘brothers’ were at that very moment sniveling cowards at best and insurrectionists at worst. They were hiding in a room somewhere, listening for the sound of soldiers’ feet. They had walked away from Christ & him crucified. They were ashamed of the gospel. But he wasn’t ashamed of them.” ~ Russell Moore
The invitation to meet the risen Christ is extended to each of us today; because the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive, he beckons us right now to come to him in faith & repentance. As we come to him, we are invited to a life of courageous hope and faith in place of our fears.
1 Peter 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
The Crucifixion
Matthew 27:32-56 | Jesus victoriously endured the shame, mockery, & condemnation of crucifixion to accomplish salvation for us.
The Crucifixion
Matthew 27:32-56
Main Idea: Jesus victoriously endured the shame, mockery, & condemnation of crucifixion to accomplish salvation for us.
I. The Contempt of the Cross (27:32-44)
The mockery and contempt of Jesus are hauntingly ironic:
The man mocked as king is the King of all kings (27:37)
The one scorned by the religious leaders as a false Messiah is the ultimate temple of God (27:39-40)
The one who refuses to ‘save himself’ will be the Savior of many (27:41-44)
The jeering & mockery of the bystanders echo the temptations of Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4. They are participating in an ancient conspiracy with demonic origins even though they do not realize what is happening.
“Jesus could not save himself, not because of any physical constraint, but because of a moral imperative. He came to do his Father’s will, and he would not be deflected from it... It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and, within that framework, it was his love for sinners like me. He really could not save himself.” ~ D.A. Carson
II. The Cry of the Cross (27:45-50)
A supernatural darkness of divine judgment covered the land from 12pm-3pm, when the sun should be at its brightest; Jesus’ death is ultimately a sin-bearing death on behalf of a guilty humanity.
“Part of the whole point of the cross is that there the weight of the world’s evil really did converge upon Jesus, blotting out the sunlight of God’s love as surely as the light of day was blotted out for three hours… Jesus is ‘giving his life as a ransom for many’ (20:28), and the sin of the ‘many’, which he is bearing, has for the first and only time in his experience caused a cloud to come between him and the father he loved and obeyed, the one who had been delighted in him.” ~ N.T. Wright
Though the physical pain of crucifixion was immense, the gospel writers emphasize the existential & spiritual pain of Jesus on the cross. His cry from Psalm 22 is from a place of forsakenness as he “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).
“[Jesus] is not on the cross by mistake… The crucifixion was not just an unfortunate thing that happened to Jesus on his way to the resurrection. It is not a momentary blip on the arc of his ascent to the Father. It is precisely on the cross that the work of Jesus is carried through to its completion.” ~ Fleming Rutledge
III. The Completion of the Cross (27:51-56)
Immediately after Jesus “yielded up his spirit” in death, three things occur:
1. The temple curtain is torn in two (27:51a)
Hebrews 10:19–22a: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…”
2. Death starts to work backwards (27:51b-53)
3. A Roman centurion confesses & cries out in faith (27:54)
Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The Church & Her Mission
Matthew 28:16-20 | Mission for the church is everything that the church is sent into the world to do. Embraces the double vocation of service, “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”.
“First thing, all mission that we have as individuals or the church must flow from God himself. It is God himself that has a plan and purpose for the world. So our mission must flow from His mission.”~ John Stott
Main Idea: Mission for the church is everything that the church is sent into the world to do. Embraces the double vocation of service, “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”
The gospel is the good news that Jesus has come to save sinners and to usher in the Kingdom of God. Until Jesus returns, the local church is to be an outpost and an embassy of this Kingdom, which has already arrived with the coming of Christ and will one day be fully realized at his return. We exist to declare the King and to display the Kingdom to a world that is in desperate need of this good news.
"..the scattered people of God from all ages and places will finally be gathered. Our real spiritual connection will be made completely visible, and we will live together in the same time and space. On that day, the local church will cease to exist. In it’s place will be a single congregation of all the redeemed. And we will worship. The praise that we sing so feebly now in our own congregations will become the thunderous shot of all God’s people." ~Megan Hill
The Long-Expected True Israel
Matthew 2:13-23 | The hostility of Jesus’ childhood proves he is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan and our only hope.
The Long-Expected True Israel
Matthew 2:13-23
“We ought to be reminded that Jesus is not born into a gauzy, snowy winter wonderland of sweetly singing angels and cute reindeer nuzzling one another at the side of his manger. He is born into a war zone.” ~ Russell Moore
Main Idea: The hostility of Jesus’ childhood proves he is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan and our only hope.
I. The Hostility of Christmas
There is hostility in this scene at 3 levels:
1. Jesus’ coming evokes hostility from the world
“If you read the Bible, you’ll see that nobody who ever met Jesus Christ ever had a moderate reaction to him. There are only three reactions to Jesus: they either hated him and wanted to kill him, they were afraid of him and wanted to run away, or they were absolutely smitten with him and they tried to give their whole lives to him.” ~ John Stott
Psalm 2:1-2: Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed
2. Jesus’ coming evokes hostility from the Evil One (Cf. Revelation 12:4-5, 17)
“What’s noteworthy about [Herod] is that [he] takes the rage he had against Jesus in particular and directs it toward babies in general. When it’s Jesus versus the self, babies are caught in the crossfire. And it’s always that way… the demonic powers hate babies because they hate Jesus. When they destroy the “least of these” they’re destroying a picture of Jesus himself, of the child delivered by the woman who crushes their head.” ~ Russell Moore
John 8:44: (the Devil) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...
3. Jesus’ coming evokes hostility within us
Luke 2:34–35: And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
II. The Hope of Christmas
Matthew is drawing attention to the divine orchestration of God in dealing with Israel that finds its ‘crescendo’ & ‘fulfillment’ in Jesus Christ.
Before the Prince of Peace had learned to walk and talk, he was a homeless refugee with a price on his head. At the same time, in this passage and several others, Matthew insists that we see in Jesus, even when things are at their darkest, the fulfilment of Scripture.” ~ N.T. Wright
1. Jesus is the Greater Exodus (2:15; Hos. 11:1), who comes to rescue his people from their bondage to sin & Satan.
2. Jesus is the Greater Return from Exile (2:17-18; Jer. 31:15), who will bring hope & a new covenant (cf. Jer. 31:31-34) out of pain & mourning.
3. Jesus is the Greater & True Israel (2:23), who leads not only a return from Egypt and from Exile, but a return out of the grave & a promised return from Heaven.
John 1:46: “Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
The Long-Expected Desire of Nations
Matthew 2:1-12 | The coming of Jesus reveals the desires of our heart and invites us to worship the true King.
Main Idea: The coming of Jesus reveals the desires of our heart and invites us to worship the true King.
This passage reveals 4 responses to the birth of the true “King of the Jews”:
I. Threatened By the King (2:1-3a)
The ‘wise men’ (Magi) were Gentile, pagan astronomers who followed a star to the place where they assumed the new “King of the Jews” would be born: Jerusalem
Herod (“The Great”) was a violent, paranoid, and oppressive ruler over Judea. He is “troubled” (lit. ‘disturbed’) by the news of a new King, since the birth of Jesus was a political threat to his power.
“If you want to be king, and someone else comes along saying he is the king, then one of you has to give in. Only one person can sit on an absolute throne… Jesus is calling for an allegiance to him so supreme that it makes all other commitments look weak by comparison. It is a claim of absolutely authority, a summons to unconditional loyalty, and it inevitably triggers deep resistance within the human heart.” ~ Tim Keller
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you… Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.” ~ Andrew Murray
II. Anxious About the King (2:3b)
“All Jerusalem with [Herod]” were also “troubled” by the news of the newborn King. They are likely troubled for 2 reasons:
If Herod is troubled, all of Jerusalem will be troubled with him
The announcement of the true King of the Jews will result in a “shaking” of the status quo
Haggai 2:7: And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures (‘desires’ in KJV) of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.
III. Apathetic Toward the King (2:4-6)
Though the Scribes & Chief Priests (who were polarized politically & theologically) pinpoint the exact prophecy from Micah 5:2 about the Christ being born in Bethlehem, they are spiritually indifferent to this news. They do not go and investigate this claim & their hearts remain unaffected.
Matthew 15:7–9: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
‘This people honors me with their lips,
But their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” ~ C.S. Lewis
IV. Worshipping the King (2:7-12)
The only group to respond appropriately to the news of the birth of Jesus are the Gentile, pagan Magi. This is foreshadowing and fulfilling the work of the Messiah who will reign not only over Israel but over every tribe, tongue, nation, and people (cf. Micah 5:2-5).
Isaiah 60:1-3: Arise, shine, for your light has come,
And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
And thick darkness the peoples;
But the LORD will arise upon you,
And his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.
The worship of the wise men invites us to worship in 3 ways:
1. We worship joyfully (2:10)
2. We worship humbly (2:11a)
“Christ is always born in Bethlehem among the little ones. Big hearts never get Christ inside of them; Christ lives not in great hearts, but in little ones. Mighty and proud spirits never have Jesus Christ, for he comes in at low doors, but he will not come in at high ones. He who has a broken heart, and a low spirit, shall have the Savior, but none else.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
3. We worship generously (2:11b; cf. Isa. 60:6)
The Long-Expected Savior
Matthew 1:18-25 | The incarnation of Jesus is a disruptive reality to save us from sin and free us from fear.
The Long-Expected Savior
Matthew 1:18-25
“In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. It can well be called the ‘Time Between,’ because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable in Bethlehem, and his second coming, in glory, to judge the living and the dead… Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of the now and the not-yet that our faith requires… The disappointment, brokenness, and pain that characterizes life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life.” ~ Fleming Rutledge
Main Idea: The incarnation of Jesus is a disruptive reality to save us from sin and free us from fear.
I. Christmas is the Fulfillment of God’s Plan (1:18, 22-23)
Christmas is more about a coming than just a birth. The birth of Jesus was the incarnation of God himself, fulfilling God’s plan and promise. Matthew identifies Isaiah’s interaction with King Ahaz and the promise of Immanuel (Isa. 7:14) as being fulfilled in the greatest sense in the birth of Jesus.
“[Matthew] saw in Isaiah’s prophecy of the Immanuel sign-child a picture of our ultimate salvation. We face a coalition of hostile powers far worse than Syria and Ephraim of old. We face the alliance of sin and death, they never go away, and we are no match for them. But at this ultimate level the baby Jesus fulfills the truest meaning of Immanuel, “God with us.” Political crises come and go, but God goes with us into battle against the enemies that can oppress us forever. ~ Ray Ortlund
“The incarnation is the universe-sundering, history-altering, life-transforming, paradigm-shattering event of history.” ~ Tim Keller
II. Christmas is the Assurance of God’s Presence (1:19-20, 24-25)
The story of Christmas is not a sentimental, clean, or tidy account of a birth of the Savior. Christmas was disruptive in every sense for Joseph & Mary, and it is still meant to be disruptive in our lives today. This disruption is God’s grace to awaken us to the gospel.
Three implications of “Immanuel” for our lives:
We do not have to fear (1:20)
We can embrace the cost of following Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23; John 8:41).
We can relinquish control (cf. Matt. 28:16-20)
III. Christmas is the Promise of God’s Pardon (1:21)
The name ‘Jesus’ is the Hellenized version of the Hebrew “Joshua” which means ‘the Lord saves.’ Jesus came for a greater mission than no one else could take on: he came to save a lost humanity from our greatest enemy & tireless foe: our own sin.
“The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary… the Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.” ~ J.I. Packer.
The Long-Expected Messiah
Matthew 1:1-17 | The story of Advent begins with a genealogy to show that this is good news and not good advice.
The Long-Expected Messiah
Matthew 1:1-17
Main Idea:
The story of Advent begins with a genealogy to show that this is good news and not good advice.
Understanding the Setting
Understanding the Characters
The Continuing Story
I. Understanding the Setting
Meta-Narrative of Scripture:
God the Father is redeeming a people through God the Son, uniting them together by God the Holy Spirit, for His glory and our good.
II. Understanding the Characters
As Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, he uses two characters from Israel’s history that are well known: Abraham and David
Matthew 1:1
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Three groups of people:
The Known
The Familiar
The Obscure
The Known (vv. 2-6a):
The Obscure (vv. 12-16)
2 Chronicles 36:22-23
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
23 "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
“So the return from exile under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah didn’t solve the people’s problems. The decree from Cyrus is incomplete because the authors of the [Old Testament] were still waiting for a real return from exile and the coming of the Messianic kingdom of God. God’s people need a deliverer from a deeper kind of exile than simply being ruled by Babylon. In Chronicles, the literal exile has become an image of Israel’s ongoing “spiritual” exile, their slavery to evil and sin and their inability to obey the [Law]. This is all representative of the human condition: home and yet not home until the kingdom of God comes. The Chronicler, and the people, are anxiously awaiting this day.” -The Bible Project
III. The Continuing Story
If there’s room for people like this in Jesus’ family, there’s room for you and me.
Justice & The Weightier Matters
Micah 6:6-8 & Matthew 23:23-26 | Christians are called to do justice as a reflection of God’s character & an expression of his grace.
Justice & The Weightier Matters
Micah 6:6-8 & Matthew 23:23-26
Main Idea: Christians are called to do justice as a reflection of God’s character & an expression of his grace.
I. Justice & God’s Character
“Justice” is central to God’s self-disclosure of himself in his Word to his people. A few examples:
Ps. 89:14: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.”
Deut. 32:4: “The Rock, his work is perfect, For all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and upright is he.”
Ps. 146:7-9: [He] executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
He upholds the widow and the fatherless,
But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Deut. 10:17-18: For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
“More than half of the books in the Old Testament speak of justice as an attribute of God & a responsibility of His people. We can’t know God without understanding His heart for justice… He is a just God. He is the source of all true justice… seeing God in this way helps define & root justice in the Lord. To ignore justice is to ignore God. Justice isn’t God (we don’t worship justice), but His justice is one of his key attributes.” ~ Eric Mason
II. Justice & God’s People
The people of Israel were to showcase this attribute of God by having a society that embraced a “holistic” justice. This included:
Punitive Justice: Punishing wrongdoers & protecting victims of wrongdoing (ex: Lev. 24:19-20)
Structural Justice: Treating others fairly in the context of right relationships; not showing partiality, creating just societal structures (ex: Lev. 19:15-18; 24:22)
Restorative Justice: Speaking up & advocating for the vulnerable, oppressed, overlooked (ex: Prov. 31:8-9)
“The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.” ~ Bruce Waltke
Generous Justice: Practices such as “gleaning” (Lev. 19:9-10), Sabbath years (Deut. 15:1-18), & the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:8ff)
“If you are trying to lie a life in accordance with the Bible, the concept and call to justice are inescapable. We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God. Doing justice includes not only the righting of wrongs, but generosity and social concern, especially toward the poor & vulnerable. This kind of life reflects the character of God. It consists of a broad range of activities, from simple fair and honest dealings with people in daily life, to regular, radically generous giving of your time & resources, to activism that seeks to end particular forms of injustice, violence, and oppression.” ~ Tim Keller
This vision and expectation of “justice” from God helps us to appreciate why Jesus is so confrontational with the Pharisees in Matthew 23. They were “hypocrites” (actors with a mask) because they gave the impression they were righteous while neglecting the “weightier” matters of the law.
III. Justice & God’s Son
Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he has anointed me
To proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Any conversation about justice & mercy in the Bible has to find its center at the cross. At the cross, every form of biblical “justice” meets the mercy of God toward the undeserving.
“By becoming one of the poor who was deprived of his rights, by dying as one of those robbed of justice, God’s Son submitted to the utmost extremity of humiliation, entering into total solidarity with those who are without help… even more astonishingly, however, he underwent helplessness & humiliation not only for the victimized but also for the perpetrators… Who would have thought that the same God who passed judgment, calling down woe upon the religious establishment, would come under his own judgment and woe?... Perfect justice is wrought in the self-offering of the Son, who alone of all human beings was perfectly righteous.” ~ Fleming Rutledge
There is an intrinsic link between our “justification” at the cross of Christ & our call to “do justice.” When we begin to grasp the depth of God’s mercy toward us in Jesus Christ, we will keep him at the center of justice. Because we are changed we will want to do justice as we follow King Jesus.