“Whose Work?

”
March 06, 2011

Isaiah 49:8-16a Matthew 6:24-34 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Recently, you may have heard about a computer named Watson. Watson is a computer, designed by 25 IBM
scientists over the last four years that is designed to excel at answering questions in the style of the television
quiz show, “Jeopardy!” Recently Watson went head to head with two of the Jeopardy show’s top champions,
Ken Jennings (who won more consecutive games of Jeopardy than anyone, ever) and Brad Rutter (who won
more money on Jeopardy than anyone, ever) and although Jennings beat Watson during one practice round,
Watson ultimately won over both human contestants in the final broadcast. When we see the advances that
are being made in computers, especially in cases like this, we often wonder what it’s all for. Watson has
2,880 microprocessor cores and 15 terabytes of memory (which is 15 million millions) and undoubtedly took
a whole lot of IBM’s money as well as four years of time for 25 engineers. With that kind of investment, one
would have to believe that Watson must have some purpose besides just playing the occasional game of
Jeopardy against humans. Indeed, IBM hopes that the technology that they are building with Watson will one
day allow them to build machines that will be able to assist with medical diagnosis, answer computer
technical support questions, and do business analysis. But what if it didn’t? What would we think of Watson,
and IBM, if all that time and money and investment had been spent for no other reason than for Watson to sit
on a shelf in a museum somewhere to demonstrate one more way that computers are better than humans?
Wouldn’t most everyone feel that the entire effort had been a waste? This morning we discover a similar
question in scripture as we look at how faith and action are meant to work together. (Deuteronomy 11:18-28)
18
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on
your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk
along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and
on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to
give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
22
If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to
walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before
you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will
be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the
Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you,
will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
26
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the
LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God
and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

God says that if Israel observes all the commands that he is giving them to follow, then he will do good stuff
for them. Additionally, God also says that he will bless Israel if they obey and curse them if they disobey and
worship other gods. God’s clear thinking here is just what we expected when we saw the computer named
Watson; God took the time and effort to record his teaching and his commandments so that they might be
used for something and not so they could sit in a library or in a museum somewhere. What God expects is
that when he gives his people scriptures that record his teachings and his commandments, they will read them
and learn them and do something with them other than to place them on a shelf. God intends for his words to
change hearts and to change lives, both for his followers and for the people who come into contact with them.

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Likewise, unless we might begin to think that this is an Old Testament idea, in Matthew we find Jesus
proclaiming a message that is very similar (Matthew 7:21-29).
21
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will
tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that
house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of
mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught
as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Jesus said that there would be people who can prophesy and drive out demons and perform miracles but who
still do not know him. Jesus teaches us that just because people do good stuff, does not mean that this good
stuff is the same as God’s stuff. At the same time, we are expected to take the words of God and to put them
into practice, to use them. Jesus knows that there will be people who will hear the words of God and who will
put those words up on a shelf and go on about their lives exactly the same as they were before. Jesus calls
these people “fools.”

Ordinarily we talk a lot about being a person of faith and in having a heart that is right with God. So far we
have seen an emphasis on doing instead of an emphasis on being, an emphasis on works instead of faith. In
this parable, Jesus seems to mix the two together saying that people can do things and still not know God and
at the same time he says that those who hear God’s words but do not do what is taught, are fools. This might
well leave us a little confused and so I want to take the time to look at one more scripture, this time from
Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Here, Paul may help us to clarify this separation between faith and
works… (Romans 1:16-17)
16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who
believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a
righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

3:22b--31
21
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a
sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate
his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he
did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who
have faith in Jesus.
27
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because
of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the
law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there

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is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Paul says that the law has been made known through the Old Testament scriptures but God’s righteousness
has been given to all who believe through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us that our nationality and race
don’t matter, and it doesn’t matter if we were born Jewish or not because all of us sin and fall short of God’s
standard. Instead, we are redeemed by the grace that came through the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul concludes this
passage by saying we cannot brag about all the good stuff we do because all of our works will not give us
what Christ has already given. Instead, we are justified, declared to be righteous, because of our faith in what
Jesus has done for us, and not because of any stuff that we have done. Having said that, however, Paul
declares that our faith in Jesus Christ does not remove our need to obey the law and to do the things that God
has commanded us to do, instead, he says that because of our faith, we uphold God’s law.

If we rush through this, we might still be confused and think that Paul is also trying to have it both ways but
instead he is trying to demonstrate how we need to prioritize two very important pieces of our understanding,
faith and works. We can do all kinds of good things but good works that are not motivated by a heart that is
in love with God will count for nothing. In Matthew, we heard Jesus say that there will be people who can
prophesy and cast out demons and even perform miracles in the name of Jesus, but Jesus says that they did not
ever belong to him. How it that possible? It is possible because their hearts were not in love with God. Their
first motivation was not to do the will of God but to look good for themselves. What Jesus is saying that that
it not only matters that we do good works, but it matters for whom we are doing them. When Christians do
good works they need to ask themselves whose work they are doing. When we are motivated by what is good
for us, or by what makes us look good, then the good stuff that we do doesn’t count for anything. Instead we
should be doing the things that are inspired and motivated by God, things that are good for God and for his
kingdom regardless of whether or not they are good for us.

Faith and works are inseparable companions but faith must always come first. Paul is very clear is telling us
that it is our faith in Jesus Christ that brings us into the kingdom of God and not any good stuff that we can
do but at the same time, Jesus makes it plain that doing good stuff is not only good, but expected. Once we
come to faith in Christ, doing good works should be as natural as a tree growing leaves in the spring.

For IBM to spend so much time and effort to build the Watson computer for no purpose would have been a
waste. Likewise, it is a waste to do good works for the wrong reasons.

Good works that count will always be motivated by a heart that is in love with God, and so the question of the
day is this, “Whose works am I doing?”

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