Kennystix's podcast
Doing Mercy to the Brothers of Jesus and the Broken Neighbor
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from Desiring God Ministries is available at www.desiringGod.org. Matthew 25, 31-46. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And you will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, "Come you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer Him saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, earth thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 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." 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. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also will answer saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?" 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. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but they're righteous into eternal life." Would you pray with me, please? We collectively, Lord, release prayers now for this service of Word preached to you and asked that you'd come and help me to humble myself under this word, to faithfully speak what it says, plus other texts that we will bring to bear around this issue of urban and mercy ministries. Jesus has sobered us here, heaven and hell, eternal torment and eternal joy hang in the balance this morning. That is huge. And I pray for an appropriate trembling in every heart. Which will I be on His right hand or His left hand? Which word shall I hear come blessed of my Father or depart cursed? Lord, let there be no cavalier attitude before the word of the living Christ. Reigns and has all authority in heaven and on earth and will one day stand forth visibly from heaven with all His angels in the glory of His Father and sit upon His throne and gather the nations. This is big, bigger than anything anybody has ever dealt with. Come, I pray and put urban and mercy ministries in that context through Christ, I pray. Amen. So this is urban and mercy ministries focus beginning today and then on through the week with prayer meetings and Wednesday night events. And what I want to do is take this as an opportunity to clarify for us as a church where urban and mercy ministries fit in the big picture of Bethlehem, in the bigger vision of Bethlehem. Where do they fit? My aim is not to get everybody involved in hands-on urban ministries, but rather that we become a church in which everybody does celebrate and love and support and promote urban ministries. I hope that everybody will have a heart for mercy and that the suffering of the people around us, wherever we live or wherever we see it, will touch compassion and release active engagement in suffering relief. I hope that happens. Geography is not the issue there with mercy ministries. My prayer is that corporately as a church there would be a vigorous commitment to urban ministries with everybody saying a joyful yes. Yes, that's what we do even if our hands are not hands-on there, that when you walk through the main hall on your way to get the book at the end and you see these urban and mercy ministries that will rise up with inside of you, yes, that's the kind of church we ought to be. I'm so glad I'm part of that. I will support that. I will celebrate that. I will promote that. I will fund that. I am glad about that. That's what I hope the attitude towards urban ministries is at Bethlehem, even if you drive 40 miles from here and live as rural as you could possibly live. I hope your heart celebrates the fact that we're here and doing that along with a lot of other things. So know where I'm going in my heart for urban ministries and mercy ministries and I hope you'll join me in going there. So we start with definitions. This is risky because right now we're in the middle as a staff trying to figure out what is urban ministry anyway and how do you call a pastor to do it if you're not sure what it is and we've got a big paper that Kenny wrote on the table last Tuesday and so we'll be working it through. So here I am publicly. I'm going to define it and so that's risky business but let's try. It's a very long complicated. It takes more than one breath to get it out and you will not remember it. But in order to define something like this, you have to include a lot of things to make sure we don't go in a wrong direction and do go in right direction. So here it is. It's got it on a whole page of paper in fact. Urban ministry is the effort in the name of Christ through the strength of Christ for the glory of Christ to awaken in people transforming faith in Christ and the fruit of obedience to Christ by proclaiming Christ in the gospel and showing Christ in acts of practical persevering sacrificial courageous liberating stabilizing burden lifting productivity enhancing family strengthening community building Christ celebrating love in view of or in the face of the peculiar concentration of pain and poverty and sin and brokenness and dysfunction that come together in the urban centers of the world including the twin cities end of definition. At least I hope you heard the accent on the centrality of Christ. I hope you heard the focus on the getting faith in obedience. I hope you heard brokenness and dysfunction and pain some of which is caused by sin and some of which isn't. And I hope that you heard city and love. I'll try to put that in writing somewhere so that we can mull it over together as a church. All right. If that's what urban ministries is, what is mercy ministries? That's a short one. I've got that in two lines. Mercy ministries are practical, Christ dependent, Christ exalting steps to relieve suffering now and forever through Christ, especially among those who have the fewest resources. Sometimes we call them the poorest of the poor. Some live among us, some live in Haiti, some live in Sudan. I'll say that one again since it's short. Mercy ministries are practical, Christ dependent, Christ exalting steps to relieve suffering now and forever. You do understand the implication of that, don't you? That's the opposite of hell. I'll say forever. I want to keep people out of hell mainly if I by grace can. But that does not mean we do not want to relieve suffering now. Do wonder others as you would have them do unto you. You've got a toothache, you go to the dentist. Please fix this now through Christ, especially among those who have the fewest resources. It's not mainly the people in this room. Mercy, of course, if you're thinking carefully, you would say, well, don't you think all ministry is mercy ministries? Yes, I do because none of us deserves anything but trouble. Therefore, anything good done to us is merciful. Yes, I buy that definition of mercy. That's not the way we're using the term mercy ministries. If you hold a Bible study for well-to-do businessmen on the 36th floor of the IDS tower, you are doing something merciful, glorious, beautiful, and necessary. It is not what we're calling mercy ministries. We're not calling that mercy ministries. We're trying to get a definition here, a term that will help us understand there is a need in the world where people have almost nothing to have no resources without help. They cannot rise above the pain, the dysfunction, the misery that they are in, and we're calling that mercy ministries to go there and help them to reach out. And it doesn't have anything to do with geography necessarily. And I'll come back to that later with people in your suburban life who should be the object of your mercy ministries. So now we've got these two definitions and you will see right off the bat that they overlap. They're not identical. There are urban ministries that are not mercy ministries, and there are mercy ministries that are not urban ministries, and yet the overlap is big and we're putting the most together in one week of focus. Now here's the way I would like to ask the question, okay, how do those two things, mercy ministries and urban ministries fit in the big picture of Bethlehem, all that we're called to be and all that we're called to do, all that we're called to believe, how do these two things fit? Where do they belong? And I'm going to take this approach. I'm going to, first of all, look at church documents that have emerged in the last 12 months or so that define Bethlehem and where we're going as a church. And then I'm going to go to the Bible and put the foundation underneath those documents, first the documents. About a year ago, we handed out an eight-page document called "Treasuring Christ Together." And last fall, we lifted up this vision of "Treasuring Christ Together." This is the big picture vision of Bethlehem right now with church planting, multiple campus. It said, this is a year ago now, a lot changed in the 12 months, but start there. It is a multiplying movement of congregations, campuses and churches defined and united in their common mission and biblical life and doctrine. The mission is we exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God and all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. That has not changed. That is rock solid. My guess is I won't be able to improve on that as my own life mission until I'm done at Bethlehem and in heaven. I believe and live for that. I think that's what our church is about, to spread a passion for the supremacy of God and all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. The Bible doctrine and life is now summed up in the document called "The Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith." It's about 12 pages long, not counting the texts. Now I say that, I quote that little document there, to say Bethlehem is a very truth-driven church. When we say we exist to spread a passion, we really mean spread truth about Jesus which awakens passion. You can't make passion happen in anybody, but you can tell them things that if the Holy Spirit were pleased, it would awaken passion for this Christ. If they just knew Him in His fullness, if the whole counsel of God could grip a person's heart, they'd become a passionate person. And so we got these layers. This truth-driven doctrinal emphasis, which is really important to us, we really believe specific things about God. We believe specific things about the Holy Spirit, about Jesus Christ, about redemptive history, about the cross, about the Holy Spirit's work in life, about the way to live the Christian life. There are contours in the Bible that say this is true and that's not. And we've gathered what we believe are really important essentials, put them in that document and say that's the kind of church we'll plant, that's the kind of church we'll be, that's what the elders will believe, and that's what we will teach from this pulpit and from the Sunday school classes. We are going to be a truth-driven church for the sake of passion for the supremacy of God. Now that's laid down and that's firm. Then, last spring, March, another document emerged. It emerged because we were just about to buy another campus, which we have now bought. It's in Moundsview at the corner of 35W and Highway 10. And by next March, April, May, we'll be in there with our second campus. Right now, it's meeting at Northwestern College. When that was about to happen, a document was handed out to you called the next step, the North Campus Vision and Expansion Funding Plan. March 23 this year. In that document was this sentence. This mission to spread a passion for the supremacy of God happens by words of truth and deeds of mercy as we make ourselves the servants of other people's joy. In other words, that document brought to the fore that part of this big vision of spreading a passion has a truth and mercy component in it. Yes. First John 3, 18, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth, deed and truth. So we brought that forward in that document and say, as we spread in the city and in the suburbs, this passion for the supremacy of God, we do it with deeds of mercy as well as words of truth. And that was made really clear. Then the most amazing thing happened. Namely, in the month of April, God birthed the idea that perhaps we should really put teeth in this commitment to deeds of mercy and call it something like a global deaconate. Not a familiar word to Baptists, deaconate from deacon, mercy ministries. And so in a series of meetings, this church acted and voted on April 28 for a new definition of "treasuring Christ together," the big vision. And I'll read you the document that this church voted on something like 315 to 36. I know most of those 36 people who voted against it and love the socks off of them. And a lot of them had their good reasons for doing it. And I'm just thrilled that we're all on board together moving in this direction now. "Treasuring Christ together" is a vision for new campuses, new churches, and a global deaconate as a means of spreading a passion for the supremacy of God and all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. Now what in the world is that global deaconate? I'll read you the paragraph from the document. "While Bethlehem has an aggressive commitment to unreached peoples and a wider missionary movement, we have not made global ministries of mercy a tangible, measurable priority in our giving with some wonderful exceptions," it says. We believe it would be a biblical and beautiful thing to do. It would adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, Titus 2, 10. One very appealing way to do it would be to make a percentage of our TCT, "Treasuring Christ Together," giving go for major efforts among the poorest of the poor and those who are suffering. And that happened. You voted on that, and the number chosen was 10% of everything given to the big vision. It's going to take nine million dollars in the end to do this vision of "Treasuring Christ Together," campus number two, and 10% to go towards church planting. So here are the facts. Between April 28 when you voted on that, and today you've given something like a million and a half dollars towards TCT. So now if you do the math, there sits in the bank today, $150,000 of cash ready to go to do mercy ministries anywhere in the world, and $150,000 ready to plant churches, including an urban church that we've already voted on. In two weeks the elders will have a meeting in which they will receive a three-page document from Eric Hyatt, the Associate for Missions, documenting how what the process should look like for releasing that money. That's a big deal. We want total integrity here. You have given that money with a big trust. Don't waste our money. At least that's the way I would feel when I give my money. So that three-page document is a process the elders will look at, probably approve, and send to you, and you will approve the process by which that money is released. That will happen I presume in the next month. So know that it's ready to move, and had that process been in place, I do not doubt we would have a team in Haiti yesterday. We'll come back to some specifics later. What about urban ministry? I've been talking about mercy ministries and the putting in place of the global deaconess as part of the big vision of treasure in Christ together, all that to say where it fits in the big vision. In that document that we all approve, it said this. One of the most effective ways to address the crisis of urban poverty and suffering is by planting indigenous churches. Churches can provide a more holistic context for relational ministry than some programs can. Therefore, we see urban church planting as one important way of helping the poor and needy near at home. And then we voted just a few weeks ago to devote all the money necessary for a couple of year commitment to make one happen through Dwayne Gibbs, one of our elders in St. Paul. But when I said, when it said one important way, that implies there are other important ways to do urban ministries. And that's what this week is about. That's what those booths are about. And if you're thinking with me, you're probably saying to yourself, hmm, okay, if planting urban churches is one of the keys, we're here. We're here. This urban church, loose definition of urban, this urban church was planted 133 years ago here. And critical moments in the life of this church wondered, could we stay? When that freeway was being built out there, 1967, a lot of people said, it's over. It is over. Nobody can get to us. They can see us. They just can't get here. Right? You ever been in that situation? Ah, there it is. Well, I wonder how you get there. And this church held firm did not move long before I came. Those crucial decisions were made. We're here to stay in the city, which means position or presence or proximity implies accountability. I get that from the parable of the good Samaritan. Everybody in Judea or Palestine was not responsible for this poor fellow who'd been beat up on the side of the road. Three people were responsible for him. A priest, a Levite and a Samaritan because presence implies accountability. You walk by somebody, you're more responsible than if you live 40 miles away. You can't be responsible for everybody in the universe, but you can take some compassionate responsibility for somebody right there. So I just say that to say, I'm not looking away and trying to pass the buck and say, well, let's just plant a church and maybe the job will get done. We're it. So mercy ministries and urban ministries under the big banner of multi-campusing church planting, global deaconate, all for the sake of spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. That's from the documents. Now let's go to the Bible. I have two points to make from the Bible and I think those documents are based on the Bible and are saturated with the Bible, but let's go to the text and some other texts. I have two points to make from the Bible this morning with regard to urban and mercy ministries. One is that we Christians should be drawn to show mercy to some people because they are Christians. And two, we should be drawn to show mercy to other people because they are not Christians. We'll put it another way. We are drawn to show mercy to Christians because we see Christ in them and large affections emerge as in a family when we see a Christian suffering. And second, we are drawn to show mercy to unbelievers because we want to see Christ in them. We help suffering believers because they bear the name of Jesus and we help suffering unbelievers because we want them to bear the name of Jesus. Those are my two points. Galatians 16 put it like this, so as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith, everyone. And that especially is just so obvious, right? I mean, if you're a big, hearted, loving person for your neighborhood, it doesn't mean you don't have a special effective for your kids. Your husband, wife, dad, there isn't especially about the church. With brothers and sisters, we have a common Lord. There's an a sweet, deep, powerful thing that happens between believers. That's what the body of Christ is. Yes, especially, but not, not to the exclusion of growing the body, folding more people into the body. There's a longing that when we look upon each other than others would enjoy this. So here we are now at Matthew 25. This is a very, very, very sobering text. Matthew 25, look at the sobering, verse 46 first. These will all go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. So I'm going to ask now, what's the difference between these two groups? And don't, don't run to Romans, don't run to Galatians, don't run to just stay right here. What did Jesus say the difference was? What did Jesus make the pathway to heaven and the pathway to hell? He describes two paths here. You can go to heaven or you can go to hell. What marks those paths according to Jesus in this parable? Or it's not quite a parable. It's kind of, he's talking about something that's really going to happen and he's using parabolic language, sheep and goats. Well, it's pretty plain. What he says is the pathway that leads to heaven and hell and what the difference is. And the answer is, I'll just put it in a sentence and then read it to you. The difference is how you treated Christians with mercy. How you treated Christians with mercy. Let's read verse 35 following. I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger. That's refugees. And you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Don't miss prison ministries in the growing passion. Be a coin in the house founder. I am calling for a family to give themselves to plant a coin in the house in Minneapolis. Read the brochure. Go to the website. Verse 40 explains how in the world this can be that we were visiting Jesus in prison. The king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers. My brothers, you did it to me. Jesus never calls his enemies or unbelievers, his brothers. Never. It's real clear what brothers means here. It's Christians, disciples of Jesus. Listen to Matthew 1249, stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother." This parable is about how Christians have treated suffering Christians, whether they've shown them mercy or not or been neglectful of them or not even been awakened by the fact that they are believers. This exact teaching is found in Matthew 1042. Listen to it. Matthew 10, verse 42, "Whoever gives one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water, because he is a disciple." There it is, crystal clear. Truly, I say to you, he will not lose his reward. He will hear the master say, "Blessed are you of my father, Andrian." Now, let's let James, the Lord's brother, tell us how this pathway that leads to heaven, namely the pathway of mercy to believers when they're in prison or naked or hungry or refugees, let's let that pathway be brought into relationship to salvation by faith by James. Here's what he said. James 2.15, "If a brother or a sister." Got it now? We're talking brother or sister. Same issue, same situation. "If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed, be filled.'" Without giving them, the things needed for the body. What good is that? So, also, faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. Which is why, according to Matthew 7 at the last day, Jesus will say to professing Christians, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." Faith, coming out of your mouth and doing the religious thing on Sunday is useless, non-saving, dead faith. If you can look upon a suffering believer and feel no family, Christ-exalting affection for pain relief. It's dead. You're not a believer. That's why heaven and hell can be the outcome of this parable because that kind of mercy towards believers says something about the authenticity of your relation to Jesus and his people. So, where does that leave unbelievers in our affections? Where does that... Okay, all right, you've just taken away from me my favorite parable for doing urban ministries to unbelievers. What am I going to base it on to which I want to say give a life, you know? Read the Bible. You don't have to have every parable to make every point. I will even go so far as to say Jesus, Jesus, the very Jesus who said this, said a stronger thing about loving the unbeliever than he said about the believer. And what could be stronger than to say you're going to go to hell if you don't do it? Well, listen, I'm going to read Luke 6, 27. You can go there and follow along if you want, but here it is. Luke 6, 27, I could do the same thing for Matthew 5. There's just one phrase in Luke 6, 27 that's not in Matthew that I want and so I'm going there instead. It's not a contradiction at all. It's just a bigger teaching. Luke 6, 27, love your enemies. Now, enemies are enemies, right? They don't like us. They don't like our faith. They think we're just nutty. Some of my real enemies, they want to kill us. We know about that today. We know why five churches were blown up in Baghdad or around the Iraq. These are real enemies. And in this culture, they're kinder, but they're still not at all approving of what we believe. Love your enemies. Do good. That's the phrase I was after. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. And as you, I'm down to verse 31 now, and as you wish that others would do to you, so do to them. That's everybody verse 32. If you love those who love you, we're back at Matthew 25. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And then if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. Verse 35, "But love your enemies. Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great in you." Now, don't weasel here, okay? Don't say, "Oh, this is about rewards." I thought it was about salvation. It is about salvation because the reward is Christ and being the Son of the Most High. Your reward will be great. It will be heaven. It will be blessed. It will be entering into the joy of your master because you will be sons. That's the way you show that you're a son. You will be sons of the Most High, for he's kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful as your father is merciful. And I would add to everybody, which means that this text is saying about the other text. If you only feed Christians and have no heart from believers, that's a joke. You see that in this text? This text is more radical because it is saying, okay, we all, we get this family thing. We get this family thing, this us and them. And we do our kind good. And they can go to hell. If that's what is in your heart as you do good to your kind, your hell bound. Believe all of Jesus. Embrace all of Jesus. So I'm concluding now. If Bethlehem is a true church, if we are true disciples of Jesus, then we will be drawn to show mercy to believers because they're believers. And we see Christ in them and we love Christ. And that's the pathway that leads to heaven. And second, if we're a true church and true disciples and followers of Jesus, we will reach out in mercy, in the city and in the suburbs to people without Christ. And we will love them and get our hands around them and be merciful to them precisely because they don't love us. And they're not Christians. And we long for them to see Christ in us and be persuaded that He's infinitely worthy. So doing good to them will make us like our Heavenly Father. Two things make you like your Heavenly Father. One, He really loves His family, sent Christ to die for them. And He loves His enemies, witnessed the sun rose on Minneapolis and all those marathon runners this morning. Many of them who don't believe in Jesus and their hearts keep right on beating. Why? Mercy, that's why. Pure, unadulterated, God-sent mercy on the way to St. Paul keeps unbelieving hearts beating. Another chance to see glory in this sky, the glory of God, just another chance and another chance and another chance and another chance for people to see God. I admit, I'm closing with this admission, I admit, it is hard to know what is doing good in the city and in mercy. It's hard to know what we should do for Haiti. It's hard to know what we should do for Sudan. You got any ideas? It's hard to know what we should do in the Gaza Strip. And I would add this, it's hard to know what to do for your beloved child or spouse of 52 years who's now in hospice care and will die very soon. It's hard to know how often do I visit should I spend the night there? Jesus never said mercy would be easy, did He? In fact, He said the opposite. He said the way is hard that leads to life and few there be that find it. Never said it would be easy to love people, to figure out what mercy looks like. He just said love your neighbor as you love yourself, figure it out. And then He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us figure it out. And so He died. We're back to the table. He died and He rose again to make mercy possible to us and through us. So Bethlehem, as you go get that book and try to learn how to be joyful in God, look at all those ministries. And if you don't see one there that touches your heart for unusual affection and support, create one. Let's pray. Lord, we go now in the strength that you supply, desperately needy to be the kind of people that Jesus calls us to be and has died to make us and has given us the Holy Spirit so that we're not reliant upon ourselves to love believers and unbelievers with mercy in the city and in the suburbs. Oh God, come and help us. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission. We invite you to visit Desiring God Online at www.desiringGod.org. There you'll find hundreds of sermons, articles, radio broadcasts and much more all available to you at no charge. Our online store carries all of Pastor John's books, audio and video resources. You can also stay up to date on what's new at Desiring God. Again, our website is www.desiringGod.org or call us toll-free at 1-888-346-4700. Our mailing address is Desiring God, 2601 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55-406. Desiring God exists to help you make God your treasure, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
John Piper | If we are true Christians we will want to show mercy to suffering people.