Do Something

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because though it was a very large mammal, its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.”

The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”

The little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”


The Bible is clear that God can do and does miraculous things, like rescuing Jonah from the belly of a whale. The Bible is also clear that someday the world as we know it will come to a conclusion at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. At that time all people will be judged.


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.” Matthew 25.31-32

Who gets in one group and who goes in another is a matter of some interest to even marginally religious people. (Hint: you want to be a sheep) I had a discussion the other day in which someone was critical of Christians who say other people are going to go to hell. But almost every religion has a hell - Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism have a place of paradise and a place of punishment. These other religions just don’t advertise hell that much. You can see why.

But what does the Bible teach about this Last Judgment and those who go to Heaven?

Like the little school girl, we must believe that God can do the great things we read about in the Bible. But even belief in miracles is insufficient grounds for entry to Heaven.

Clearly, you must believe in God and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews it says that it is impossible to please God without faith. But for too many people “faith in God” has been a weak and tepid thing. Faith has meant a nominal belief that neither changes the believer or their world around them. That “faith” is dead.

Knowing a lot about the faith and the Bible, by itself, doesn’t make you Heaven ready either? Lots of churches equate Bible smarts with faithfulness. But smart people mess up too.

John Ortberg tells the story of three men in a plane: a pilot, a Boy Scout, and the world’s smartest man. The engine fails, the plane is going down, and there are only two parachutes. The smart man grabs one. “I’m sorry about this,” he says, “but I’m the smartest man in the world; I have a responsibility to the planet,” and he jumps out of the plane. The pilot turns to the Boy Scout and speaks of how he has lived a long, full life and how the Boy Scout has his whole life ahead of him. He tells the Boy Scout to take the last parachute and live. “Relax, Captain,” the Boy Scout says. “The world’s smartest man just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”


I remember what Keith Green, the late Christian songwriter use to say about being a Christian: “Going to church don’t make you Christian anymore than going to McDonald’s makes a hamburger,” Green used to say. “A Christian is somebody who is bananas for Jesus.”

That’s not bad. We all ought to be bananas for Jesus. But I have been around enough believers to know that ‘bananas for Jesus” can devolve into looking like you love Jesus or being especially emotional for Jesus. The piety may be there but something’s missing.
Personal piety, by itself, will not get you to Heaven.

In fact the kind of belief that translates into a relationship with Jesus Christ is built on faith in his saving grace, which has a profound effect on your whole life. It is the faith that works itself out in obedience to the Word of God.

When Jesus divides the people he does so on what basis? According to what they did and didn’t do. The unrighteous knew as well as the righteous to call him Lord. It wasn’t a matter of talking the talk. It wasn’t only a matter of personal piety. The difference between the sheep and the goats is what they did with their beliefs. The sheep did much. The goats did little to nothing for others. They did only for themselves.

A faithful Christian feeds on the word of God like sheep feed in green pastures. The faithful Christian allows the Word of God to be applied to them.

Roy Clement in his outstanding commentary on Ezekiel notes that the prophet was speaking to a religious people who had gotten quite good at listening but not really listening. They came to hear preaching with blocks and walls up. They filtered everything they heard so if they didn’t like something, they concluded, “this doesn’t apply to me.” They heard the Word of God without practically responding to it.

These days we judge preachers and teachers of the word on whether they draw a crowd. If they draw a big crowd they are successful. But sometimes success comes at the price of never challenging people with the truth. It is easer to just tell people what they want to hear. Ezekiel said that this is like building a shaky wall and putting whitewash on it. The people doubted whether God would ever really do what He said he was going to do.

But God didn’t doubt it.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled.” Ezekiel 12.28

Clement says, “If we do not apply God’s word to our lives, the day will come when it will be applied to us whether we like it or not.”

A great irony is that everyone will someday know God. The question is will we know him by experiencing his mercy or will we know him by experiencing his judgment?

Are we allowing the Word of God to be applied in our lives? We know the answer to this. It is found in the fruit of our lives, in what we are actually doing. Are we doing more for others or more for ourselves? Are we doing for “the least of these”?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that means, welcoming new people into our lives, caring for the sick, visiting people in prison, feeding and clothing the poor and those in need. True piety for God, true faith in Jesus, is displayed in works of justice. I can talk all day long about God, but if there is no doing for God, then I am just noise. Great men and women of the faith have always known this – from Paul to St. Francis to John Wesley – piety and social justice are inseparable.

Later on in the book of Ezekiel we hear God’s plans to care for the sheep who are poor and weak, who have been neglected by the fat and strong. The hungry he will feed with good things. For the fat and strong, he will feed them with justice.

Jesus account of the Last Day makes it clear that the ones who knew him were those who did what he commanded to be done. Remember, you can’t really love God if you don’t love your brother too.

This requires great commitment, in fact, a greater commitment than any other you will ever make. Living for heaven is incompatible with hedging your bets, playing it safe, remaining neutral. You’ve got to commit. You have to make choices. You have to act.
For God’s sake, do something!

This life is your one shot! You must give yourself completely and totally to this pursuit. You don’t have the luxury of holding something back for the second hundred years. Your life is the ballot you cast – for God or against him. Vote early. Vote often.