SHEEP?

SHEEP?

Matthew 25:31-46 NET.

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like 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, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited 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 naked and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ ⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been 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 receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

We have been looking at the parables our Lord gave to illustrate his teachings about the last things. Three parables appear in Matthew 25: the ten virgins in verses 1-13, the Talents in verses 14-30, and the sheep and goats in today’s text. The overall theme of the chapter is authenticity. Each parable describes two groups. The ten virgins are separated into two groups. One group was wise because they waited for the party with extra oil for their lamps. The other group did not. The Talents were divided among three slaves. Two of the slaves invested what they had been given. One slave did not. He was a group of one. The parable part of today’s text also highlights two groups, identified as sheep and goats.

I thought it convenient to feature an animal on each slide presentation for these three weeks. An owl represented the wise virgins. A dog represented the faithful stewards. It wasn’t too hard to figure out which animal to use to represent the sheep.

This passage describes the coming judgment. The sheep and goats parable is mostly not a parable. It is actually a description of a conversation that Jesus says will happen on Judgment Day. It has one sentence in it which is parabolic. The rest is instruction about the coming judgment day.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus is going to return.

He is not going to come as a baby in a manger but as the glorious Lord of the universe, with his angels to accomplish his will. You will remember that the disciples had asked Jesus what the sign of his coming would be. They knew that he was going to return in triumph as the king of kings and Lord of Lords. They didn’t know when to expect that event. Jesus taught them always to expect that event and live accordingly.

When Jesus does return, the first thing on his “to-do” list is to raise the dead. He said, “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out — the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation” (John 5:28-29).

Then, we who are in Christ will join those who have just been raised. Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). That reunion is described as a marriage celebration both by Jesus and by John in the book of Revelation. We don’t go to be with the Lord when we die, but we will go to be with the Lord and each other when he returns.

The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus “will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). We talk about being saved now, but our present salvation is only partial. Complete salvation comes when Christ brings it. We are presently saved from the penalty of sin. When Jesus returns, we will be saved forever from the presence of sin.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus will gather all the nations to himself.

This gathering of the nations is the reversal of the scattering to the nations at the tower of Babel. God divided humanity at Babel in judgment. He will bring us all back together again at Christ’s return for individual judgment.

He had commissioned his followers to go into all these nations and preach the gospel to them, to make disciples of them. God the Father had sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. Jesus has sent us to reach this world for him. Judgment Day is when we find out how well we accomplished his Great Commission.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus will judge individuals.

He will sit on his glorious throne to judge. He will separate the sheep from the goats. Actually, the text says, “he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”  That is individual judgment. Jesus is not going to judge us based on which nation we live in. It will not matter which flag we are under when Jesus gathers the nations. Nationality, ethnic identity, gender, social status – none of those things will matter on Judgment Day. Only our identity in Christ will matter.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus will not judge us based on what we profess.

In today’s passage, Jesus speaks to two groups, and both groups call him Lord. The righteous call him Lord in verse 37, and the accursed call him Lord in verse 44. Both groups claim to be faithful Christians.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus will judge us based on how we proved our profession.

Profession is a good thing. You cannot enter the kingdom without confession that Jesus is Lord. But our Lord wants us to back up our confession with a life of obedience. That is why Jesus asked, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus taught that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven — only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Specifically, Jesus says in today’s text that true Christians will prove their profession by feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty something to drink, inviting strangers in, providing clothing, and visiting the sick and those in prison. All of these activities are examples of what it means to love one’s neighbor as he loves himself. But Jesus says that when we do these things for others, we are actually ministering to him.

• On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn the pretenders.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn those who merely professed a relationship with him but did not prove that relationship by what they did. Again, I am not preaching salvation by works here. And neither is Jesus. No one is saved except by God’s grace on the basis of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. We cannot do what God has already done. We cannot save ourselves no matter how many good works we do. But God’s grace always changes people. The theologians call that change conversion. In conversion, we change from one person to another. We change inside. That inside change is reflected by what we will do from then on. An outer transformation manifests our inner conversion. It is a new birth – a regeneration. One day, our Lord is going to make a new universe, but right now, he is making new people who will populate that new universe.

How do you know if someone is not genuinely regenerated? You look at what they do not do. They do not feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, invite strangers in, provide clothing, or visit the sick and those in prison. They may profess a relationship with Christ, but they do not demonstrate a Christlike attitude toward others.

Jesus did not teach this lesson to unbelievers. He taught it to the same audience that he had been speaking to in Matthew 24: the disciples who wanted to know about his second coming. He had taught them that they should stay alert and ready for his arrival. This parable is one of the answers to the question, “What does ready look like?” A Christian who is prepared for Christ to come again is not going to be a goat – a pretender. They will prove their identity in Christ by showing God’s love to others.

Because I am talking about Jesus’ condemnation of the pretenders here, I must address the question of hell. In today’s text, Jesus calls hell “the eternal fire” (in verse 41) and “eternal punishment” in verse 46. From reading phrases like that, many interpret hell as a process that will never end. They say that Jesus is going to throw people into hell, and they will keep burning and suffering forever.

If that is what Jesus said, then he contradicted something he had previously taught about hell. You remember that Jesus said that hell would destroy soul and body (Matthew 10:28). Someone who is destroyed soul and body cannot keep suffering forever. So, what is Jesus saying the fate of the pretenders will be? What is the eternal fire and the eternal punishment?

Our English word eternal has a particular meaning. It means something that endures perpetually or continues without intermission. But the word that Jesus used – and the word Matthew used in today’s text was more versatile. That word was αἰώνιος. It could mean perpetual, but it could also mean permanent.

If we were to have a fire in this building, and some of us were destroyed in that fire, it would be a tragedy. But it would not be a permanent fire. We know that Jesus is going to raise all the dead when he returns, even those who die in fires. But hell will be the permanent fire. There will be no resurrection from that destruction. It is permanent destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

It is also a permanent punishment. Criminals today are punished for their crimes, but when their penalty is paid, they cease to be punished. They get out of prison. All of their punishment is temporary. Even those who die in prison are not continually punished by the state after they die. They are released to be buried. Their punishment is temporary. But hell will be a permanent punishment. It will destroy the sinner’s body and soul. It will eradicate them.

In the New Testament, the word αἰώνιος is usually not used in comparison with something else, so we cannot tell what its specific meaning is. However, there are a few exceptions when it is used in comparison, so by looking at those texts we can tell what the word entails.

In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul compares our momentary, light suffering with an “αἰώνιος weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” Our present suffering is temporary, but our future destiny will be permanent.

In the next verse, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul says, “What can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is αἰώνιος.” It is clear that Paul is talking about something permanent, not a perpetual process.

In 2 Corinthians 5:1, Paul compares our present temporary bodies with the αἰώνιος bodies we will have after the resurrection. These present bodies wear out, but our permanent bodies will not.

In Philemon, verse 15, Paul tells Philemon that his slave Onesimus was perhaps separated from him for a while so that he would later be restored to him αἰώνιος – permanently.

These four examples show that when the New Testament uses the word αἰώνιος it refers to something permanent. Jesus’ point in using the word in today’s text is to warn that hell will destroy permanently, which agrees precisely with what he said in Matthew 10:28. There is no contradiction.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn the pretenders. They will be destroyed forever in hell. Only those with a real relationship with Christ will survive Judgment Day. We know that we are real sheep when we love the least of these, just like Jesus did.

LORD, thank you for your promise to come again. Thank you for the warning you gave in today’s text. Help is to get real and stay real. Help us to prove our authenticity by loving others – as you commanded.