Live for the dash. The dash is the part between your birth date and your death date, and people say to make it count. Pastor Jonathan said those two dates matter, but two others matter more. This day and that day. Today, because the present is what you actually have. Then that day, which is judgment day. The Christian lives between the two.
The text he opened is one people call the most terrifying in the Bible, where Jesus says I never knew you. Pastor Jonathan said it is not meant to scare anybody into the kingdom. It is meant to wake us up. Jesus is doing more here than warning. He is revealing something, and He is revealing someone.
Which leaves one question, and he asked the room not to leave without answering it. When you stand before Christ, what are you going to say?
Why Does This Warning Come Now?
Think about where this sits. Jesus went through the villages healing people and preaching the kingdom. Crowds followed Him up a mountain, He sat down, and He began unpacking the greatest wisdom anyone had heard. Salt and light. You have heard it was said, but I say to you, spoken with an authority nobody had used before. Treasures in heaven. Do not be anxious. Judge not. Ask, seek, knock. Then last week, beware of false prophets in sheep’s clothing.
That was about being deceived by someone else. Now He turns to self-deception, which is worse. Pastor Jonathan described people who live a lie long enough that they believe it, lose their identity in it, and lose themselves.
Here is the main idea he gave. You can call Jesus Lord, and even do works in His name, and still not belong to Jesus.
What Is the Difference Between Saying Lord and Meaning It?
Verse 21 says not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
There is a profession happening. The words are right. Jesus says the people saying them do not enter. Acknowledging Jesus as Lord and submitting to Jesus as Lord are two different things, and being associated with church is not the same as belonging to Christ.
So what is the will of the Father? He wants us to see His Son, believe in His Son, and become like Him. His will is also that we hear the words of Jesus and do them, everything He has been unpacking on that mountain, done the Father’s way and not for our glory.
Then there is the standard. We all live by standards, in the military, at church, at home. God’s standard is absolute perfection. Nobody here has gone one day without sin. One man went thirty-three years, never a sinful thought or feeling or action, everything done perfectly for the glory of God. Pastor Jonathan said it plainly. His name is not Jonathan Rivera. His name is Jesus.
What Is Wrong With Their Resume?
Verse 22 gives their defense. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
Notice who they say it to. Not to God in the abstract. To me, says the man sitting on the mountain.
Their resume sounds legitimate. Prophecy that came true, demons cast out, works of power. That would get anybody’s attention. Look at how the sentence ends though. Not with a period but a question mark. They are not sure of themselves. They know something is wrong, and the motive is being exposed.
Ours would read differently. I came Sunday mornings. I helped the community. I taught Bible studies. I gave to the poor. I am a good person. I had a great career in the military, or in corporate. I raised my children right. Everybody is going to have something to say.
What Is Jesus Revealing About Himself?
If all you see here is the warning, you miss the message.
Go back to verse 21. He is Lord, and entrance goes through Him. That is authority. Then He says my Father, which is the first time in Matthew and in this whole sermon that He calls God that. Pastor Jonathan said it is a revelation of deity. The man on the mountain is saying He and the Father are one, and that is bigger than the warning.
He is also revealing Himself as the final judge. In John 5, after Jesus healed a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years, the religious leaders wanted Him dead for breaking the Sabbath and for calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. In that passage Jesus says the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
So the one every person stands before is Jesus.
Why Does He Say I Never Knew You?
Verse 23 is the verdict. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
Two extremes sit side by side. They did works in His name, and the verdict calls them workers of lawlessness. Outwardly everything was there. Something inside was missing, and He knew it.
Look closely at the wording. He does not say I do not know you. He says I never knew you. You and I were never united. We were never in that relationship. You played the part, you deceived other people, and worst of all you deceived yourself.
The warning is that many will be exposed, not a few. Pastor Jonathan asked the room to picture a long line, everybody going up one at a time. I did this and this and that. I never knew you. Next. Nobody goes up there with a group. They said did we not, and there is no we when you stand before the King. It is you and Him, locking eyes with the one who already knows everything about you.
Notice their confidence ended in a question mark. That is not how He wants you standing there.
So What Are You Going to Say?
It is not a password, and it is not a resume. Whatever yours says right now, Pastor Jonathan said throw it in the trash. There is nothing we say. We point to the blood.
Here is the answer he gave for himself, on his knees. Lord, it was you. You left heaven. You lived thirty-three years without sin and obeyed the Father perfectly, all of it on my behalf. You offered your life on the cross for my sins, you were buried, and three days later you rose for my righteousness and my eternal life. I gave you everything I had and it was not enough. My confidence is not in me. It is in you.
Salvation is not earned. It is a gift, and it came in blood. Verse 24 ties it together. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The Father’s will and the Son’s words are not two different assignments. They are the same one.
Where Does Your Confidence Lie?
In yourself and what you have done, or in the one who sat on that mountain and will sit on the throne? If you are not sure what you would say, that is worth settling, and it is worth settling with people who will walk through it with you.
Plan your visit or find a life group and take that next step.