Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We are at a place in the year where we are thinking about things of ultimate importance.

These are the days of awe, the days of introspection.

I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on my life, reflecting on how God feels about my life.

I have been spending a lot of time since Erev Rosh HaShannah asking myself the question, “Who do I need to give myself permission to love.”

I have a short list and a long list.

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about how much I love the family here at Beth Messiah.

Lauren and I are so blessed to serve here.

So man of you here went out of your way to bless me when you found out it was my birthday.

When you found out that some anonymous person had written a hate letter, so many of you called me, prayed with me, hugged on us.

I am so amazed of how well Beth Messiah has welcomed in so many new people.

I understand that Erev Rosh HaShannah we had over 80 new visitors on campus and over 2,000 people watched us online.

I heard from some of the new visitors that they said, “They felt the love of God and the love of family in this place.”

I think you are some of the most amazing people on planet earth Beth Messiah.

I don’t deserve the honor of being your rabbi and in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I have received a portion with the great” (Isa 53:14).

Would you grab your copy of the Scriptures.

Say it with me today

Ha-Foke-Bah

I want to talk to you today about some reflections I have been having on a passage of Scripture that is one of the most misunderstood passages of Scriptures and misapplied passage of Scriptures ever it is from Matthew 25:31-46

Let me tell you the history of this section of Scripture.

Not the history you get if you read some scholarly commentary on this passage or read the latest Jonathan Cahn book, I want to talk to you about my personal history with this text.

The first time I remember hearing about the sheep and the goats was one time when I was a teenager.

I had been out all night with a good buddy getting high and drinking.

He was a good catholic and since we had been up all night drinking and partying he felt it necessary to go to mass.

Now, of course, I had very little religion and very little judaism so I did not know what mass was.

He told me that mass was where we could tell a priest and God that we had been drinking and getting high and then our record would be clear with God and man and we could keep on partying.

Well that sounded like a good deal to me.

Pour out my sin bucket and get to fill it back up.

We went to the mass, remember we had been up all night with no sleep.

Pretty high, pretty drunk.

The Priest started talking about the sheep and the goats.

I did not know how to study the Bible so I took the story pretty literally.

And I thought to myself, “Why would God be concerning himself with sheeps and goats.”

It sounded like a county fair up in heaven.

I had been to a few counties fairs in my day and I just could not imagine why God would be concerning himself with a bunch of stinky goats and smelly sheep.

Then somewhere in the message the priest mentioned something about God counting the very hairs on your head.

I thought if God is interested in such trivial matters as my hair, well sheep and goats makes lots of sense.

That was my first time to interact with this story.

I was so high and drunk after I ate the cracker and stole a couple of extras, they were mighty small hors d’oeuverves, I can’t say I thought about it too much.

About eight years later, the Lord had rescued me from a life of partying, drinking and abuse.

I started to read my Bible and somebody told me to read the Gospel of Matthew.

I think they were trying to scare me away.

After all, Matthew’s Gospel is the most challenging Gospel and I was rough around the collar.

So I read Matthew’s Gospel and when I got to this passage I said to myself, “Aha, I remember this one.

This is not about animals at the county fair, this is about people.”

I realized, the good people are sheep and the bad people are goats.

But, why are the good people the sheep and the bad people the goats.

For years I wondered about this when my wife and I moved to Chicago, I met a fellow student who was from sheep ranching family in Western Washington.

He was Mennonite, loved the Lord.

I asked him about sheep and right away he said, “They are the stupidest creatures that God ever did make.”

I said to him, “What about goats?”

He was not as quick with that one but he said, “They are stubborn animals.

They have no discernment.

They will eat anything.

They will attack friend and foe alike.”

Anyhow, the sheep are the good guys and the goats are the bad guys.

When I first came to the Lord and I would read my Bible I was always trying to imagine what passages like this would look like.

When I thought about where could there be a place where there could be a lot of people gathered and some separated here and some over there, all I could think of was the Astrodome.

I had been to the games there when Mike Scott was pitching and Nolan Ryan.

I can remember the large crowds there was the home team we would be the sheep and the away team and their fans the goats.

I could imagine that out one the field were great giant angels playing their horns, their shofars.

There would be this blast and an announcement over the PA, “If you are sheep over to the right side of the stadium and if you are goats over to the left side of the stadium.”

When I thought about this I thought, “Well I had just met the Lord and of course I would be one of the sheep and I would go over to the right with all the other sheep.

With all the other sheep that I had met when I met Messiah.”

I was worried about all my old friends who did not know Messiah.

I was worried about my old gang Casey, Larry, Rod, Eddie and Little Mike they had never met Yeshua, they did not even know about mass where you could at least empty out your sin bucket and then fill it back up again.

I figured they would be really surprised if they were there.

I thought one of the angels would have to explain everything to them.

He would say, “Okay, you goats come with me over to the left.”

I could hear little Mike saying, “Yo, dog, where do you get off calling me a goat.”

And the angel would say, “Well, it is not personal it just has to do with the way you treated the King?”

I could hear little Mike saying, “I never met know King unless it was in a Poker game.”

The angel would say, “Well he was thirsty and you did not even offer him a Pepsi or anything.

He was hungry and you would not even offer him some of your fries.

He was shivering cold one night and you would not loan him your extra jacket.

He was homeless for a week or two and you would not take him in.

He was in jail and you never visited him.

He was sick almost dead and you did not even care.”

I could imagine my old gang saying, “We never saw that dude, never saw a sick King, a starving King.”

And the angel would say, “Well it is not exactly him, it is the people that He loves.

It is his brothers.”

I could imagine little Mike saying, “Take a guy in, you kidding me, in this neighborhood you take a guy in he will have 9 millimeter pointed at your head and rob you blind.”

I could think of my friend Eddie saying, “My pops is up in max security for murder.

I go visit him, does that count?”

I just knew that was going to be a tough assignment for that angel.

Years later, I came back to this text and realized something so obvious.

I could not believe that I could miss it.

The sheep are just as confused as the goats.

The sheep ask the exact same questions.

They had the same questions as the goats.

I thought about this.

One thing we know this passage is not teaching is that if

you go feed somebody on Thanksgiving your automatically going to heaven.

or if you put some money into a jar at the grocery store for someone’s medical need that you got your ticket for eternal life.

If you have ever read the Gospel of Matthew which is the Gospel of God you realize you do not get into heaven that easy.

So I have wondered a lot about this passage and realized it might not be as easy as I once thought.

In this parable in Matthew 25:34 there is a line that at first glance does not appear to carry much weight it says Matthew 25:34

It is that phrase, “Blessed by my Father.”

It is not a throw away line.

It carries a lot of weight.