I don’t know about you but as the list of names were read today from Matthew, I was a little bored. I noticed some of you were too. It reminds me of attending
several middle school, high school and college graduations this past June. Hearing the list of names being read off was boring because I didn’t know them. But the most exciting part was cheering for the friends I knew as they walked across the stage to get their diploma. To many of us, today’s Matthew reading may have sounded like someone reading a phone book. But God sees it differently.
To God, this list of names is His family album. What He’s doing in the first chapter of Matthew is opening up His family album to us and proudly showing who’s in His family. Who He calls His beloved sons and daughters. Each person on the list is very precious to God,. just as each of us here are precious to God.
But the strange thing about His family album is they include people that you wouldn’t expect to be in there. Rahab was a prostitute. David an adulterer and murderer.
If we were to examine each of these people’s lives carefully, we would see their flaws and sins and conclude they are far from perfect. So how did they get into God’s family album?
That’s the question I want to address today, “How does one get into God’s family?”
On my airplane ride to Michigan, I was sitting next to Tony. After chatting for a while, the conversation went something like this…
Tony: “So what do you do?”
Me: “I am a youth minister. Do you have any religious background?”
Tony: “Yes, I’ve been a life long Methodist.”
Me: “Can I ask you a question?”
Tony: “Go, right ahead.”
Me:“ Do you know where you’re going to go after you die?”
Tony: “I am going to heaven.”
Me: “How do you know?”
Tony: “I’ve done lot of good things in my life.”
Me: “Well I believe heaven is a perfect place designed for perfect people.
If imperfect people went to heaven then it would be just like earth.
So, that leaves me with a problem because I am not perfect. Are you perfect?”
Tony: “No.”
Me: “So, we’re both in trouble. Like everyone else, I like to see myself as good and like to think my good works will get me to heaven. But you know, I deserve to be in jail right now.”
Tony: “How come?”
Me: “Well, for 17 years I’ve been driving. Every time I drive I must at least break 5 traffic laws. I often speed, run through red lights, don’t stop completely at stop signs. If the police videotaped every time I drove in 17 years of driving, they would convict me of thousands of traffic violations, costing me millions of dollars and since I couldn’t pay for them all, I would be in jail right now. The only reason I’m not in jail right now is because I haven’t been caught all those times. I believe if perfect justice was carried out on each of us, we would all be in jail.
So you see, when we break man’s laws, there are consequences.
When we break God’s laws, there are also consequences. God tells us not to lie, not to steal, to always honor our parents, and always put Him first.
No one has lived up to God’s standards. No one is perfect. People who are in prison did some good things in their lives but they have to violate only one law to go to jail. Violating only one of God’s commandments disqualifies us from heaven and qualifies us to eternal prison.
The Bible states that everyone will be judged by God according to how they lived. (Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”) On that Judgment day, I will stand before God and see my entire life pass before me. .I don’t know about you, but I would like to edit out a lot of things I did in my life. And then God asks me, ‘Do you plead innocent or guilty?’ I will look down and say, ‘I plead guilty as charged.’
And God is very fair and just. God says, “The consequence of your sin is death- eternal separation from me and into eternal prison. (Romans 6:23)
But fortunately, that’s not the end of the story.
For God is not only a fair judge but also a forgiving Father.
So God says, ‘I love you too much to be separated from you. So what I am going to do is give the best defense attorney I have.’
God opens a door and out comes His perfect Son.
His name is Jesus.
After reviewing my records, Jesus says, ‘Your Honor, He is guilty as charged.
He deserves the prison term and the death chair.
But Your Honor,
I want to take His place.’
So Jesus makes an exchange. He takes my criminal record and puts it on himself and puts His perfect record upon me. He becomes a guilty convict to make me innocent. He goes to the electric chair (the cross) and dies for me. As he dies, my criminal record dies with him. And so when Father God looks at me, He’ll see me as having a clean and perfect record. Not because of what I have done but what Jesus has done for me on the cross.
I’ve asked people how they know they’ll go to heaven. And I’ve heard…
“Well, I go to church.”
“Because I am a pretty good person. I am not that bad as others. I am not a murderer.”
“ I do good works. I give to charity.”
But there’s nothing we do that will earn us way to heaven but everything that God has done through His Son. God’s word states, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12)
Only through the work of Jesus being crucified on the cross. Jesus did two things for us on the cross—extend God’s mercy and grace.
Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve. That is to be punished for our sins and to go to hell. But He closed that door because he paid our jail bond with His very own life.
The second thing Jesus provided was grace. Giving us what we do not deserve. He opened a door for us to go to heaven. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death but gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So after explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ to Tony, he looked convicted.
I asked him if he wanted to be forgiven of his sins and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
He nodded and he repeated this prayer after me…
“Dear Jesus,
Thank you for loving me. But I know that I hurt you and I hurt others. And You say my sin leads to death and hell. But You love me too much for me to die and go to hell that’s why You died for me and on the cross, You shed Your blood to wash all my sins away. I believe with all my heart that You are my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart right now and fill me with Your love, wash me with Your blood and baptize me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to You. Use me for Your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.”
As I looked into Tony’s eyes, they looked different. I asked him, “Where is Jesus?”
He pointed to his heart.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, Tony entered into God’s family album on that day.
Friends, I have three questions for you today.
First question: Are you yourself in God’s family album? Are you going to heaven? God wants you to. How do we know?
John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world(everyone in it, every single person here)
that He gave up (Just like Abraham gave up his precious son Isaac)
His only begotten Son (This was the most painful experience for God the Father and God the Son. When Jesus was on the cross and took the sins of the world upon Himself, God the Father in His holiness had to separate from Him. That’s why Jesus cries out from the cross “My God, My God why have you forsaken me!”(Matthew 27:46))
so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
God doesn’t want any one of us to perish. He wants all of us to have everlasting life through Jesus. Some of us may be coming to church out of habit and thinking because our parents are Christian I am a Christian. God has no grandchildren. Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is a decision each person has to make. No one can decide this for you. Salvation is free but not automatic.
How can you enter into God’s family album? There are three things we must do.
1) Admit that we’re sinners. People in the world generally like to think that they are good in and of themselves. But the word of God says in Romans 3:10 "There is no one righteous, not even one;”
2) Confess that Jesus is our only Savior. Jesus says in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is very exclusive here because there is no other religious figures who died for the sins of the world.
3) Allow Jesus to be the Lord of our lives. Surrender every area of our lives to the Lord Jesus.
Jesus does not want to be just the resident but the president of our lives. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” To follow Jesus we must stop leading our lives and let Him lead and take the steering wheel of our lives.
If you want to enter into God’s family album, the Kingdom of God, God is more than willing to meet you where you are. The first step is to ask and accept God’s salvation through Jesus.
Would you say this simple prayer to God?
“ Dear Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner but I believe that you died on the cross to forgive me for all my sins. I believe with all my heart that you are my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart right now and fill me with your love, wash me with your blood and baptize me with the Holy Spirit. I give my life to you. Use my life for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.”
Second question: Do you know who you are?, For those of you who are already in God’s family, Remember who you are. You are sons and daughters of the most high God! The world likes to tell you that you are your bank account, your house, your car, your looks, your grades, your degrees etc. But remember who you are called to be…children of God reflecting His love to others. Jesus says in John 15:12, “ My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Let me remind you how God has loved us from I Corinthians 13: 4-8: “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.” These are the ways God loves us and He calls us to love one another. The way the world will be won to Christ is through love. Isn’t Jesus’ love for you on the cross is what won you over to Him? Christ’s love expressed through our lives will attract others to Him.
The last question: Are there any people you know who are not in God’s family album? Everyday people are going to jail and are being freed from jail. Everyday people are going to hell and going to heaven. Will you be God’s messenger that will tell them that they can be forgiven through Jesus and they don’t have to face eternity with the consequences for all their sins?
I want to end with this story,
There was a teenage boy who got into a fight with another teen. He was so angry that he pulled out a gun and shot and killed the other teen. The victims blood splattered over his clothes. He ran for home. The police were called and drove to the teen’s house. Meanwhile, as soon as he got home, the teen took of his blood splattered clothes. He had an older brother who knew all that had happened and didn’t want to have his younger brother punished and imprisoned. So he took off his own clean clothes and wore his brother’s blood stained clothes. When the police got to their home, they took the older brother away to prison rather than his younger brother.
We too have an older brother who also took the punishment that we deserved upon himself. His name is Jesus. We know that, but many people don’t.
Would you show people, how much God loves them.
How much does God really love us?
This much? (holding hands few inches apart)
This much? (holding hands a foot apart)
This much? (holding hands about three feet apart)
No,
God loves us THIS MUCH! (holding arms stretched out like on a cross)
Amen.
