The Last Days According to Jesus
Sheep on the Right, Goats on the Left
Matthew 25:31-46
There are several places in Scripture where we are told about judgment so it comes as no surprise when Jesus talks about the last days that He would talk about judgment. Listen to what He says.
Text
Here we find a judgment of nations which takes place when Jesus returns to the earth to set up his kingdom.
Now this is not the judgment seat of Christ that Paul described in his first letter to the Corinthians. That judgment is exclusively for Christians and takes place immediately after the rapture of the church as they are rewarded for their service to the Lord.
And it’s not the Great White Throne Judgment that is recorded at the end of the Revelation. That is a judgment exclusively for those who have rejected Christ. And John records that one by one they stand before God in order to have the sentence of eternal death carried out as they are cast into the Lake of Fire.
This judgment seems to include both the righteous and the unrighteous and apparently it occurs after the return of the Lord to the earth at the end of the Tribulation.
And this judgment is exclusively for those who have been on the earth during the Tribulation.
This is a judgment of, on the one hand, those who have refused the mark of the beast and trusted God and on the other hand, those who have rejected Christ and followed the anti-Christ.
And as we’ll see, although it is often referred to as the Judgment of the Nations, consistent with every other judgment, it is actually a judgment of individuals and their response to Christ. There are three reasons why this judgment must take place:
1) Evil must be exposed and finally punished.
2) Righteousness must be revealed and finally rewarded.
3) Jesus must be vindicated in the place where he was rejected.
The first two principles hardly need any explanation.
We live in a society where, more and more, evil is not hidden. It is bragged about and praised and flaunted and paraded up and down the streets. Evildoers are rewarded and promoted.
And if you are distressed by that, as am I, just be patient. God promises that one of these days, that’s all going to be made right. I can assure you, upon the authority of the Word of God, the blatant sin of our world is not going unnoticed. And I promise you, the evildoers of our day do not get the last word when it comes to what is right and wrong. There will be a day of judgment and people will get what they deserve.
And on the other side of that, those who serve the Lord who are often forgotten or marginalized or ridiculed, those who have served others with hearts of compassion, those who’ve quietly prayed in the shadows and stayed up late to prepare a Sunday School lesson and loved people in the name of Jesus will be remembered by the Lord and rewarded for their efforts. Nothing will be overlooked, not even the offering of a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.
But it is the third principle that deserves our closest attention. And unfortunately it is often overlooked or minimized and that is unfortunate, because it is the supreme reason there must be a judgment of the nations and that is Jesus must be vindicated.
More important than the righting of wrongs and recognition of the faithful and more important than the judgment of evil is the coming day when Jesus will return to the earth as exalted Son of God.
What a mighty thought that is. He who was despised and rejected of men must one day reign on the earth. God is not going to allow the bloody cross to be the world’s final memory of his Son. To the world that crucified him, he will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No wonder the tribes of the earth will look on him and mourn. In that day, they will realize how wrong they were.
He came once as a Lamb; he returns as a Lion.
He came once as a Savior; he comes again as Judge of all the Earth.
The rejected Savior, once crucified and left for dead, will return to judge the nations.
Those that have laughed at His authority and rejected His invitation and ridiculed His return will one day be left to deal with the truth of His victorious and triumphant return to this earth as He executes judgment on the nations.
And I want to remind you that day is sooner than we think and getting closer all the time.
Notice first of all in this text
1. The Seated Judge
Verse 31
As we think about these words, it helps to remember the context. Jesus spoke this promise to his disciples on hours before His crucifixion. Soon his dead body would be placed in the Garden Tomb.
To those who listened to Him speak and then watched what happened in the ensuing hours and days, nothing seemed more preposterous than the notion of Christ coming again “in glory” to sit on a “glorious throne.” What glory could there be in worshiping a dead man?
But Jesus knew all about what was fixing to happen over the next three days and nights. He knew with perfect foreknowledge all that the Father had ordained to come His way.
And when I say all, I mean all. He knew the traitor’s kiss, the trumped-up charges, the six trials, the mocking, the humiliation, the scourging, the spitting, the crown of thorns, the pain, the degradation, the awful weight of the sin of the world.
It was all seen by Jesus with perfect clarity. He knew that not many days later, he would depart this world and would be gone for a long, long time. He understood that the disciples would struggle with his suffering and death, then rejoice over his resurrection. He could see their confusion about His ascension just when it seemed like things were falling into place for His earthly rule.
He knew about Peter’s decision to return to the fishing industry and bewildered disciples walking on the Emmaus road.
He could see how they would come to understand the presence of the Holy Spirit and how they would learn to live without him being there physically. He understood that long days would turn to years and decades and that the the apostles themselves would die.
But the Christian movement would roll on. The generations would turn to centuries. Empires would rise and fall, kings would come and go, armies would go to war, and the long march of history would continue.
And slowly the followers of Jesus would spread across the globe, bringing the light of the gospel into the darkness of sin. Jesus even knew about the 21st century. He saw our day clearly because he saw every day clearly.
And He knew there would come a day, one day off out there in the future in human time-keeping when it would all come to a sharp focus as He returned to this earth and would be seated on the Throne.
Consider this. When he came the first time, there was very little glory to be seen. No doubt, there were angels singing, but only the shepherds heard them. And only the shepherds and the Magi marked his birth. He arrived on planet earth unwanted, unnoticed, unexpected, mostly unheralded, born to a virgin girl in a tiny village in a backwater province of the Roman Empire.
No one in Rome or Athens knew or cared that the Savior of the world had been born. In fact, if you were to use one word to describe His first coming, it would be the world HUMILITY. He came as a gentle lamb, meek and mild, offered for the sin of the world. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Even his own people, the Jews, barely recognized him. And many of them wanted to kill him. Quite an inauspicious beginning for the Savior from heaven. But that is how the Father chose to send his Son. Quietly, without fanfare, born into a stable, on a bleak midwinter’s night.
But these few sentences from Jesus, spoken in the heavy shadow of the cross, carry great weight. They tell us that over his Second Coming we should write the word GLORY. First came humility, then comes glory.
Paul said to the Philippians, “He humbled Himself. He took the form of a servant. He went to the cross.” And because of that God has exalted Him, and not just exalted Him, but highly exalted Him and not just highly exalted Him, but given Him a name that is above every name and at that name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and they will do to bring glory to God.”
I am here to announce to you that when he finally returns to the earth, every eye will see him. No one will miss that day and no one will doubt that it is Jesus who has returned. You won’t have to turn to Fox News to get a “Fair and Balanced” interpretation of the Second Coming. The King himself will appear on all channels simultaneously!
And lest we miss the point, it is Jesus himself who will be seated on the throne, and it is Jesus and Jesus alone on the throne. In these pluralistic days when we are being counseled to declare that Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the same God, I challenge you to ponder the politically incorrect teaching of our text.
It is Jesus who sits on the throne.
Not Buddha. . .Not Mohammed. . . .Not Moses.
Not Confucius. . . And not a committee of famous religious leaders.
It is Jesus and Jesus alone. To him every knee will one day bow—willingly or unwillingly. And every tongue will confess—willingly or unwillingly—that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
There is only one God who has revealed himself as the eternally true God. He exists from all eternity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the blessed Trinity. He alone is the true God and there is no other God besides him. To worship any other God is blasphemy and idolatry.
And that God, our God, has come to earth in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin so long ago at Bethlehem, born to be the Savior of the world. And there is no other Savior for mankind. His name is the only name by which we may be saved. He alone is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
To speak of God apart from Jesus Christ is to deny the entire New Testament. We date not do that, not in the name of peace or toleration or better understanding or even to prevent terrorism.
No building or group of buildings or human government or national pride is worth giving up the glorious truth that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate. Let the nations rage if they will. Let the people devise their plans against the Lord and his Anointed One. The Lord in heaven will have the last word.
Jesus Christ is Lord and he is God. We will not be moved from this basic truth. And we will not deny our faith in these troubled times. Today he stands at the door and knocks, waiting patiently to enter as Savior to any heart that will take him in.
But another day is coming, a day of thunder and fire and angels and trumpets. A day of glory. A day of solemn judgment.
The throne will be set up, the King will take his place, and the Judgment of the Nations will begin.
2. The Gathered Subjects
Verses 32-33
Now even though I am a farm boy,, I have very little experience with sheep and goats. Horses and cows, I’ve been around. My greatest experience is with chickens. I was a big egg man back in the day.
But I don’t know much about sheep and goats. But the people who do know about sheep and goats generally say that sheep are weak and vulnerable creatures that are easily led and quick to get lost, which is why they desperately need a shepherd.
And they tend to say that goats are smarter, more stubborn, more independent, and often are natural leaders. And more than one could stand give testimony to the orneriness and meanness of goats.
Now historians tell us that in the first century, sheep and goats would normally be kept together in the same herd so that it was often difficult to tell them apart. But when the time came, the shepherd would quickly herd the goats in one direction, the sheep in another. That’s the background for these verses.
Now try to picture the scene in your mind’s eye. In the center is a royal throne with Jesus Himself seated in royal attire. He holds the scepter of righteousness in his right hand. Flanking him on either side as far as the eye can see are tens of thousands of bright shining creatures. They are the angels of God.
Gathered in front of the throne are millions and millions and millions of people, nervously milling about, waiting, talking, whispering, wondering, arguing about what will happen next.
Who are these people? They are the “nations” of the earth. The word “nations” refers to ethnic groups, not to political entities. Don’t think of it as Costa Rica, Bolivia, Thailand, and Kenya. Think of it as a vast assembly of people from every corner of the globe.
And when the judgment begins, there is no way to distinguish people in the crowd. They all look the same. But then the king speaks up. “Sheep to the right, goats to the left.” Note that the text says it is the king who separates the people.
The purpose of this judgment is not to determine who is a sheep and who is a goat. That has already been determined long beforehand. This judgment is a public separation of the two groups of people. In the beginning they are all together. When the judgment is over, the two groups are forever separated.
This is true to life as we know it today. In the present age the saved and the lost mingle together in the world. We live together, work together, and we play together. We live on the same streets, go to the same restaurants, watch the same television programs, sing the same songs, work in the same offices, and attend the same schools.
Most of the time, it’s difficult to tell for sure who is in which group. You can’t go to a football game, a NASCAR race, or for that matter any church in America, look up in the stands, and simply by observing, know for certain who is saved and who is lost. We all look pretty much the same, especially from a distance.
But the Lord knows His own because he saves them one by one. He knows them and loves them and calls them by name. He puts his mark on them so that they will never be lost in the crowd. And in the last day, he will call his own from the mass of people in the world and his sheep will be separated from the devil’s goats forever.
And watch what happens as
3. The Evidence Introduced
Verses 34-45 (don’t read)
Now we come to the unexpected part of the story. When the king introduces the evidence upon which he makes his judgment, he doesn’t say a thing about faith, salvation, grace, the new birth, accepting Christ, trusting Jesus, being born again, having eternal life, or any of the usual spiritual disciplines, such as Bible reading, prayer, praise, worship, meditation, evangelism, Bible memory, church attendance, or participation in baptism or the Lord’s Supper.
There is nothing about Sunday School, tithing, small group ministry, which Christian college you attended, what seminary is your favorite, or even more prosaic subjects, such as being a Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Church of Christ. It’s as if those things don’t matter at all. That is to say, all of the things we normally associate with going to heaven are not even mentioned. None of them.
That’s shocking, and a little bit unsettling. And unnerving! IN fact, if we take Jesus’ words at face value, they tend to upset the theological apple cart, so to speak. But if the things we’ve counted on aren’t even mentioned, what does matter when it comes to entering the kingdom versus going to hell forever? The answer may surprise you:
Matthew 25:34-40
Now as I see it, there are several problems here.
First, as already noted, he doesn’t say a word about faith or salvation or grace or any of the things we know are truly essential for entering the kingdom of God. They just aren’t there.
So either they don’t matter, or we have to find them somewhere other than in these verses.
Second, it’s possible that Jesus is teaching us that salvation is not by grace or faith, but strictly by our human works.
Third, if that’s the case, is Jesus teaching us that heaven is open to anyone who does these things, regardless of their religious commitment?
If that’s the case, then the liberals are right when they suggest that you don’t even need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven. Some go so far as to say that by doing good, you prove you are right with God, even though you’ve never even heard of Jesus.
Or they might say that such a person would have believed in Jesus if he had heard of him so that person gets into heaven anyway.
Fourth, who are the “least of these my brothers?”
Fifth, why does he so closely identify himself with the “least of these?”
Let’s start with the last two questions first. The phrase “my brothers” has been variously interpreted. Some people understand it as a reference to all the poor and needy and hurting people of the world. Anytime you help anyone in any sort of need, they say, you are doing it to Jesus himself.
No doubt there is an element of truth in that statement since we know that God has a special concern for the poor, the hurting, the lonely, and all the suffering people of the world.
He sees them, he knows them, and he deeply cares about them. But it is doubtful that this is the primary meaning of Jesus’ words.
In Matthew 12:46-50, when he heard that his mother and his brothers were waiting to speak to him, he offered this startling reply, “‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:48-50 ESV).
The reply is startling because it shows that Jesus’ true family consists of those who follow him in faith. Applied to Matthew 25:31-46, it means that the “least of these” refers to Christian brothers and sisters who are sick, needy, hungry, hurting, and in jail. There were many Christians in the first century who fit that description; there are multiplied millions of Christians who fit that description today.
If that is correct, Jesus is saying, “When you do good to my people, you are doing good to me.” Most of us can understand that. We’ve all had someone show kindnesses to our extended family, and it’s a blessing when it happens and it affects us, even though we were not the personal beneficiary of the kindness.
And the flip side is also true. If you mess with my family, you’re also messing with me. Hurt them and you’ve hurt me as well.
And that’s what Jesus means when he explains his rejection of the goats in verses 41-45.
But that still leaves a few loose ends hanging out there. Does this passage teach salvation by works, as some have suggested? And is Jesus teaching us that anyone will go to heaven as long as they feed the hungry, care for the sick, and visit the prisoners?
The answer is found in verse 34 where Jesus describes the sheep as “you who are blessed by my Father.”
In Matthew’s gospel, the concept of being “blessed” goes back to the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). In that passage Jesus promised that those who are “poor in spirit” would inherit the kingdom of heaven. That refers to people who see their own sinfulness, and despairing of their own condition, throw themselves on the mercy of God, crying out for forgiveness and salvation.
They mourn over their sins, they are counted among the meek, they hunger for God’s righteousness, and having found God’s mercy, they show it to others. Having experienced God in a personal way, they become peacemakers on the earth, enduring the suffering that comes to those who follow the way of the Lord.
In short, the “blessed of my Father” refers to the truly born again whose lives have been changed by God through faith in Jesus Christ. They—and they alone—inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world. If understood correctly, the entire Pauline doctrine of justification by faith alone is found in verse 34.
So why does Jesus put the stress on the hungry, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned? Because caring for those in need is the logical outworking of the Christian faith. This sort of compassion flows out of a believer’s heart as naturally as wool comes from the back of a sheep. The sheep care for the “least of these” because to them it’s a matter of family honor. The goats end up in hell, not just because they didn’t care for the king’s needy brothers, but because their unconcern showed that they didn’t really love the king either.
4. The Verdict Pronounced
Verse 46
The end of the story is short, simple, and impossible to misunderstand. The goats go to hell; the sheep go to heaven. The final separation is complete and irreversible. This verse answers every liberal doctrine out there.
Universalism is the belief that in the end everyone, everywhere will be saved. It is the hope of the Christ-rejecter that he can somehow live without God and end up in heaven anyway. And it is the fond dream of those whose loved ones cared nothing for Jesus and died without ever trusting him as Savior.
But those hopes and dreams are smashed on the rocks of biblical truth. Not everyone will go to heaven. Some people will end up in hell forever.
Annihilationism, as its name suggests, is the belief that the unsaved do not suffer eternal punishment but are simply destroyed by God.
But this verse uses precisely the same Greek word for “eternal” in both halves of the verse. The punishment is as “eternal” for the goats as life is for the sheep. Both last forever.
The great British writer J. C. Ryle sums up the evangelistic message this way: “Let us ask ourselves on which side of Christ we are likely to be at the last day. Shall we be on the right hand or shall we be on the left hand? Happy is he who never rests until he can give a satisfactory answer to that question.”
Where will you be at the last day? On the right or on the left? Are you a sheep or a goat? Every other issue in this life pales in comparison with this great question.
One final detail and I am done. Did you notice how both the sheep and goats are surprised at the judgment? Remember, this is a judgment of sheep and goats, not of sheep and wolves.
Sheep and wolves are easy to tell apart, but sheep and goats can be easily confused, especially when they mingle in an enormous crowd.
It’s almost as if no one knows who belongs where until the king utters his judgment. Certainly the goats are surprised to end up in hell. And everyone is surprised when Jesus declares that what you did or didn’t do for his “brothers,” it was as if you did or didn’t do it to him personally.
What’s going on here? This week I read about St. Benedict’s first rule for his followers: Hospitality. They must always show kindness to strangers because in so doing they are showing kindness to Christ himself. That’s why even to this day people around the world go to Benedictine monasteries for personal retreats. They know they will always be welcomed.
The story is told about an old Benedictine monk who was about to lock the monastery door at the end of a very exhausting weekend. There had been so many guests and some of them had proved quite difficult to handle. He was secretly glad to see them all go so he could have a bit of rest. Just as he was closing the door, a new group of pilgrims walked up the path and asked for admittance. Under his breath, he said to himself, “Lord Jesus Christ, is it you again?”
And then I imagine myself standing in that great crowd on the judgment day. Eventually, my name is called out: “Terry Tolbert.” With some reluctance, and with butterflies in my stomach, I step forward. “So you were a pastor?” “Yes, Lord.”
“ I guess you preached a lot of sermons.” Every Sunday for 30 years. Never missed a Sunday!’
I’m not impressed!
A lot of people sure bragged on you didn’t they? Do you remember that? Do you remember that day when a man called from North Carolina to brag on one of your sermons and told you what a great sermon it was?
Well, yes Lord, I remember.
“Frankly, it wasn’t much of a sermon from my point of view, not compared with a lot of sermons I’ve heard, and I’ve heard them all, you know.
Plus part of it was just plain wrong.” I couldn’t think of anything to say at that point.
“Let me ask you one more question. Do you remember that Sunday morning when you were tired and ready to go eat and on your way out of the sanctuary a little girl came up to greet you? And even though you were ready to get out of there, you bent down to say hello and she hugged your neck and you hugged her back. Do you remember that?”
“Not really Lord. That happened a lot with the kids at church.”
Yea, but what you didn’t realize is that was me.”
“That was you?” “Yes, that was me.”
What a revelation the judgment day will be for all of us. The things we thought were so important, so crucial, so vital, the things we included on our personal resume’, the degrees we earned, the money we made, the deals we closed, the classes we taught, the friends we cultivated in high places, the buildings we built, the organizations we managed, the budgets we balanced, the books we wrote, the songs we sang, the records we made, the trips we took, the portfolios we built, the fortunes we amassed, the positions we finally attained so that the people of the world and even our Christian friends would know that we didn’t just sit on the couch watching TV every night, all that stuff that we take such pride in, the things that in themselves are not evil or wrong or bad, but the “stuff” of life in this world, all of it, every single last bit of it, every part of it, considered singularly and then combined together to give us our reputation, our standing,
our place in the world, even our place in the Christian world, our name in the lights, our claim to fame, our reason for existence, our bragging rights, if you will, the proof that we were here and made a name for ourselves in the short 50 or 60 or 70 or even 80 or 90 years that we have on planet earth, think of it!, all of it added together means nothing, zip, zero, nada, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Consider this: What matters to Jesus are the things we can’t even remember.
A cup of cold water.
A bag of chips for a friend.
A quick phone call.
A friendly hello.
A pat on the back.
A prayer over the phone.
A few minutes of conversation between classes.
A word of encouragement.
A visit with a sick friend.
A trip to the county jail.
This is a shocking truth. But in a way it is a comfort. You see, all those things I mentioned a moment ago are not unimportant. It’s not that they don’t matter.
They do matter and we have to do them because life rolls on and we either get involved or we stay on the sidelines and complain. Someone has to balance the budget. Books must be written, companies managed, trips taken, connections made, speeches given, and in the end, someone’s name is going to be in lights, and it might as well be Billy Graham’s instead of Hugh Hefner’s.
But those things, which are good and honorable in themselves, are not the bottom line of life. We are called to be faithful in doing whatever God gives us to do. And as we are faithful day by day, there will be a thousand chances, some big, some small, some momentary and almost microscopic, for us to do good and show kindness to others around us.
Some of those moments we will forget. I suppose that over a lifetime, we’ll forget nearly all of them. Sometimes it will be a chance to help the hurting or to answer a question or to lift someone’s spirits or to pull out our wallet and make a contribution. And sometimes the need will be great and our response will truly cost us greatly in terms of time and money and effort and sacrifice. But whether big or small, massive or minute, the Lord Jesus sees it all and remembers it all and one day he will reward us for all of it.
So the message isn’t really, Go out and do good. Though doing good is a good thing to do. And it’s not about feeding the hungry per se, though the hungry must be fed. And prisoners desperately need to be visited and remembered and prayed for. No one can do all of it. And no one does all of it all the time.
But these words of Jesus offer a liberating perspective because it is easy to feel overwhelmed or perhaps resentful at the intrusion of others into our well-planned agendas. And sometimes, consciously or not, we can give off an air of condescension, of pride and superiority, of smugness because “We’ve found the truth and you haven’t, you poor, benighted pagans.” And don’t think those “poor, benighted pagans” can’t sense it. They’re not stupid. They know when Christians talk down to them. The words of Jesus help us see things in a new light.
We know that when we go “in his name,” he goes with us.
We know that we are going “with him” and “for him.”
But now we know that we are also going “to him.”
He’s on the receiving end of the mercy transaction.
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He is there in the face of a Muslim cashier.
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He stands with the homeless down on Main street.
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He is there with the single mother struggling with three young children.
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He has a cell inside every prison in America.
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He’s the One lying in the bed at the hospital.
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He hears the cries of abused children.
There is a sense in which the Lord Jesus can be found wherever there is human pain and suffering. If there is a broken heart, you can find him there. If there is sadness or guilt, Jesus will be there somewhere. That’s why he was called “a man of sorrows.” And we must remember, when we help his people, we are helping him. When we dry a tear or offer a word of hope, we are serving him.
When we go the extra mile even though we are already dead tired and a bit frustrated because we don’t have the time or energy and we’re already behind schedule, but we do it anyway, He sees and knows what we have done, and he marks it down as if we had done it to him personally.
And one day, long after we’ve forgotten the frustrations of this life, he will remember it. And we will be rewarded. It all comes down to this: Jesus forgets what we remember. And he remembers what we forget. You might even say that the whole gospel is in those two sentences.
Let’s pray.
