KISS THE SON

Psalm 2:12

Matthew 25:31-46

Psalm 2:12 TNIV - Kiss his son, or he will be angry and you and your ways will be destroyed, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Matthew 25:31-46 TNIV - ³¹ "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴ "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' ³⁷ "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' ⁴⁰ "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' ⁴¹ "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' ⁴⁴ "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' ⁴⁵ "He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' ⁴⁶ "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

INTRO:  Remember last Sunday, I preached from the subject, “Be Prepared.”  My text for that sermons was also from Matthew 25.  In was verses 1-13.  That sermon we dealt with the 5 foolish virgins and the 5 mistakes they made.  The point of that sermon was that Jesus is coming again, and we must be prepared.

If you look at both Matthew 24 and 25, these chapters in context primarily deal with the second coming of Jesus Christ.  In between the parable of the 10 virgins and this passage on the sheep and goats we see another parable, one that is known as the parable of the talents.  And in the context, this passage is often incorrectly interpreted.  It is also concerning the coming of the Lord as well.

Here this passage I just read in about meeting the particular needs of a set of people contextually should be interpreted dealing with the second coming.  How do I know this:  well, look at the beginning verses of this passage.

Verses 31-36 TNIV -  ³¹ "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴ "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Now you will also notice that my first Scripture text this morning has to do with kissing the Son, hence the title of my sermon.  The context of that passage is that this is a Messianic Psalm, or a Psalm that is concerning Jesus Christ.  Notice it says basically that we are to kiss the Son, or he will be angry with us.  This word “kiss,” denotes intimacy and a deep, close, relationship.  You see, those who have this relationship also take refuge in the Son.  They don’t have to worry about his anger, or His wrath.  That is why a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is so important.  You see, God has poured out His wrath on us.  But for those who kiss the Son, the wrath of God for us was poured out upon the Son, Him taking our place.

Let’s look more into this subject this morning.

1.  The first thing I want you to see is that the Christian faith is an active faith.

A.     Works and deeds do not save.

1.      We are saved by grace, through faith alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9 TNIV - ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

B.     While this is very true, those who are the saved will do works and deeds.

James 2:14-26 TNIV - ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. ²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. ²⁴ You see that people are justified by what they do and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James 2:14-24 MESSAGE - ^{14 -17}Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? ¹⁸I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. ^{19 -20}Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?  ^{21 -24}Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

C.     Notice here that in the midst of this famous passage in verses 15-17 it talks about meeting needs.

1.      According to James, this is one of the deeds that those of the faith do.

D.     James also declares that those of the faith will do 3 things.

James 1:26-27 TNIV - ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

1.      Watch what they say.

2.      Look after orphans and widows (or meet the needs of the distressed).

3.      Keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

2.  What does it mean to, “Kiss His Son?”

Psalm 2:12 TNIV - Kiss his son, or he will be angry and you and your ways will be destroyed,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

A.     I read a story about Saint Francis of Assisi the other day.  As he was riding his horse across a plain, he saw a leper standing by the roadside, asking for alms.  Dismounting, he not only gave to him, but kissed him on the cheek.  As he was riding away, he looked back, and saw Christ Himself standing where the beggar had been, and he knew that he had been permitted to kiss the Lord.

B.     Basically, I believe to kiss the Son is to meet the needs of those who Jesus identifies with.

3.  Who does Jesus identify with?

Matthew 25:44-45 TNIV - ⁴⁴ "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' ⁴⁵ "He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

MESSAGE - ⁴⁴"Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?' ⁴⁵"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'

A.     The hungry.

1.      Yes of course those who are hungry physically.

2.      But also those who are hungering spiritually.  There is a world of lost people out there hungering for answers in religion, pills, the bottom of a bottle, sex, fame, and the list could go on and on.

3.      The hunger cannot be filled by those things, but only by one person – Jesus Christ.

4.      As Christians, we have the answer.  We can feed those who are hungering physically and spiritually.

B.     Those who are thirsty.

1.      Yes, we should provide physical water to those who are physically thirsty.

2.      But there are those out there that are thirsting for contentment, peace, and safety.

3.      Only Jesus Christ can satisfy those thirsts.

4.      In His name, let’s give physical water to the physically thirsty as well as the water of life to those who are spiritually thirsty.

C.     The stranger.

1.      In Greek this literally means, “Those without a home.”

2.      Yes we should provide and do what we can to meet the needs of the homeless

3.      But understand this as well – there are people living in nice houses that are homeless.  They need the home of Christ – the Church.

4.      Invite people who do not have a spiritual home to church, let them know they are welcomed, no strings attached.

D.     Those needing clothing.

1.      We must provide clothing to those who physically need it.

2.      But we also must provide spiritually clothing – the armor of God.

3.      This is done by teaching the Word to those without this type of clothing.  Not only in what we say, but do as well.

E.      The sick.

1.      We must pray and care for the sick.

2.      But there are people out in the world, they may have a healthy life, but they are inwardly sin-sick – we must pray  and reach out to them.

3.      People like the drug-addict, the alcoholic, the homo-sexual, etc…

F.      Those in prison.

1.      We must visit, and care for those in prison.

2.      But there are people outside our church doors, though they are seemingly free, they are bound by sin.  We must proclaim freedom to them.

4.  Why does Jesus identify with them?

A.     Because they are the ones that Jesus died for.

Matthew 9:9-13 TNIV - ⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. ¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

B.     Here we see Jesus going to the ones who needed Him the most – the sinners.

C.     What great love Jesus had for them.  He willingly risk to reputation to reach out to them.

D.     When we start reaching out to those that Jesus identifies with, we too will risk our reputation.  People will start talking, start gossiping, start accusing.

1.      But when we just get a hold of Christ love for the lost, we will take that risk to see the lost come to Christ.

CONCL:  Church, the point of this sermon is the same as last week:  Jesus is coming again!  We must work while it is still day.  We must reach out to the hurting, the lost, the confused, the broken with the love of Jesus Christ.  You may say, “Pastor, I don’t know what to say.”  Just tell them your story, how Jesus touched and saved you and how I can do the same for them.  Let’s be sheep that loves those that Jesus identifies with and not goats – people who just go through some sort of religious exercise, but do not really have a heart for Christ.  To have a heart of Christ is to have a heart for the lost.