“Doing the will of God” – Summary of Sermon on August 13, 2023

This is a summary of the sermon preached on August 13, 2023.

Date: Sunday August 13, 2023
Venue: A Sunday service at Tokyo Multicultural Church
Title: "Doing the will of God"
Scriptures: Matthew 12:46-50 ¹

1 Introduction
2 Being one in the family of God
3 Doing the will of God: behavioral part
4 Doing the will of God: mental part
5 Conclusion
6 Bibliography and Notes

Introduction

At Tokyo Multicultural Church, we’ve been going through what we call “discipleship” since the beginning of this year 2023.

The discipleship is all about who we are and how we are to live as a follower of Christ.

Today’s Scripture teaches us (see Matthew 12:49-50) that as a follower of Christ,

we are one in God’s family

and

we are to do the will of the Father in heaven.

But

exactly what does it mean to be one in God’s family?

what does it mean to do the will of the Father in heaven?

how shall we live as a follower of Christ?

These are the questions that I’d like us to think about today.

Being one in the family of God

About the first question,

what does it mean to be one in God’s family?

Paul says in Ephesians 2:14-19 that

because of what Jesus has done on the cross, we can be one in God’s family, regardless of our nationality, cultural background, and religious experiences if and only if we have faith in Christ.

Furthermore, about being one in Christ, Paul writes in Galatians 3:28-29 (see also Galatians 3:14, 22, 26) that not only our nationality, cultural background, and religious experiences, but also

our differences in gender, social status, and generation don’t matter in God’s family, who receives the same blessings promised to Abraham.

But here you may wonder

Are we one in God’s family if we believe in Christ?

Or do we have to do the will of God to be one in God’s family?

Does believing in Christ have to do with doing the will of God in any way?

These kinds of questions lead to our second question for today, which is

what does it mean to do the will of the Father in heaven?

Doing the will of God: behavioral part

About doing the will of the Father in heaven, Jesus teaches in the famous sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:21) that

those who do the will of His Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But also, surprisingly, in the following verses (Matthew 7:22-23) Jesus continues that

even those who prophesy, drive out demons, or perform many miracles in Jesus’ name may not enter the kingdom of heaven unless they do the will of the Father in heaven.

Then,

exactly what does it mean to do the will of the Father in heaven?

Well, you can find the answer for yourself if you read through the entire sermon on the mount.

But because we don’t have enough time today, I’ll give you my answer:

doing the will of the Father in heaven is doing what God desires us to do at every moment in life.

Now, you may be wondering,

How can anybody enter the kingdom of God by doing the will of God, then? Isn’t it impossible to do what God desires us to do at every moment in life?

Well, you are certainly right if you just consider what I call a “behavioral” part of doing the will of God, which focuses on our behaviors or actions—what to do or not to do.

But, there is what I call a “mental” part of doing the will of God, which is related to our thoughts and attitudes—how to think and what to think.

Doing the will of God: mental part

In fact, the very first words of the sermon on the mount teach us the mental part of doing the will of God. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus says,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Here I think

“the poor in spirit” are those who know that they are lacking something in their spiritual state, so that they depend not on themselves but on God, asking for His abundant mercy.

In other words, the mental part of doing the will of God involves having an attitude of humility, depending not on themselves, but on God, with the recognition that we’d never be able to do what God desires us to do at every moment in life by ourselves (cf. Isaiah 66:2).

Having an attitude of humility would lead us in many cases to repent before God.

This is the reason why doing the will of the Father involves repenting (and believing as well) in Matthew 21:28-32.

Conclusion

To summarize, doing the will of the Father in heaven means that

we are first to recognize our lack, weakness, or imperfection in us, that we are indeed not able to live a life pleasing to God;

we are not able to do what God desires us to do at every moment in life.

So,

we are to humble ourselves and admit our sins.

Then

we are to repent, and put our trust/faith in Christ.

This is what I call the mental part of doing the will of the Father.

Here you see that this mental part of doing the will of God is exactly the way how we get saved.

We get saved by recognizing our sins, repenting, and believing in Christ as our Lord and Savior.

And

when we get saved by doing all the mental part of doing the will of the Father in heaven, we become children of God, being one in God’s family.

Yet, doing the will of the Father doesn’t end there.

After we get saved by faith in Christ, becoming one in God’s family,

we are expected to do what God desires us to do at every moment of life—the behavioral part of doing the will of the Father in heaven.

Yet, even after we get saved, the mental part of doing the will of God still plays an important role because we would never be able to fully accomplish the behavioral part of doing the will of God;

even after salvation, we would never be able to do what God desires us to do at every moment in life.

We still sin after salvation.

And when we sin, what is important for us to do is to

admit our wrong doing in humility, and repent before God, which is nothing but the mental part of doing the will of God.

Now, based on what we have learned today,

how shall we live?

Well, first of all, if you do not believe in Christ yet, I sincerely hope and pray that

you may see God in person, experiencing His love and grace for yourself.

As we all know, this world is filled with competitions.

At school or at work, or even at home we would usually have to compete against others to get what we want.

Moreover, we are always compared with others.

People evaluate us according to what we do or what we do not do compared with others.

And we would usually

receive what others think we deserve for what we have done.

If you do something in favor of somebody, then the person may give you something you want in return.

But, if you do something against somebody, then you would probably receive something undesirable from that person.

In many cases,

we reap what we sow.

And this kind of causality dictates our world.

And we are so used to it.

Yet,

God’s love and grace overrules such causality.

We don’t have to compete against others for affection of God.

He loves us just the way we are. His love never changes no matter what we do or what we do not do.

In other words, we don’t have to or cannot earn God’s love by our work.

But rather

He gives us what we do not deserve.

This is what grace is all about: we receive what we do not deserve from God.

So, even if you are not able to do what God desires us to do at every moment in life, He still loves you, and embraces you if you repent and come back to Him.

God loves you no matter what you do or you don’t do.

His love is unconditional in this sense.

And

this conditional love of God was made explicit at the crucifixion of Jesus (Romans 5:8).

Jesus Christ took all our sins on Himself, and died on the cross on our behalf, so that if we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we may not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

And Jesus died on the cross to save us from condemnation not because we have done something in favor of God.

Rather,

while we were still sinners, doing something against God, Christ died for us.

Jesus died on the cross to save us no matter what we do or what we do not do.

Hence,

once you realize that you are not able to do what God desires you to do at every moment in life, repent and try to depend not on yourself but on God, putting whole trust in Him alone.

Then, He will embrace you just the way you are, and you may become His child, being one in His family.

Even if you have already experienced such unconditional love of God for yourself, and have put your faith in Christ, it is always good to

remember how much God loves you by looking up to the cross of Jesus.

He’ll never leave you or forsake you even if you fail to live a life pleasing to God.

You’ll never be cut off from God’s family even though you are not fully able to do what God desires you to do at every moment in life.

You may get angry with or speak ill of somebody.

You may look at somebody lustfully.

Or you may not be able to love your enemies, and to be perfect like God the Father.

Yet,

if you humble yourself before God, and come to Him with a broken heart, asking for forgiveness, then He will forgive you your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

And

as you depend more on the Holy Spirit, letting him take more control of your life, He may enable you to do more of what God desires you to do in life.

Here are what it means for Christians to do the will of the Father in heaven:

recognize your weaknesses/sins in humility;
repent your sins;
re-dedicate yourself to a life pleasing to God, depending more on the Spirit; and
repeat the cycle, going back to 1).

Yet, in doing so,

remember always God’s unconditional love and grace shown at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Bibliography and Notes

Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009.
France, R. T. The Gospel of Matthew. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007.
Osborne, Grant R. Matthew. The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2010.
Wilkins, Michael J. Matthew. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2004.

Unless otherwise noted, all the Scripture verses will be quoted from NIV.