Well, about 20 years ago, my wife, Janelle, and me, we were at the beach in California. And we were, you know, the beach, the water was here, and the sand, and then there was some brush and a bike path that people were biking on. running and walking and rollerblading and then just off of that there are some places to park you could pull in and look out over the beach and see the waves coming in watch the people uh... run on the little pathway anyways we decided one day when we were dating we pull up there in the daytime and watch the ocean and talk together. Anyways, we're in the car and we're talking and there was a knock on the window behind me. I had turned this way. I think Janelle was in the driver's seat and I was in the passenger seat. And there was a knock behind me on the window, you know, and I was startled. And it happened to be a homeless man. And he was holding his hands out like this, like he wanted me to give him something. And it just startled me, and I just turned back this way and was talking with Janelle, and I just basically ignored him and didn't want anything to do with it. It startled me. And so eventually he walked away. Wherever he went, he went. And as we kept talking back and forth there, I think there's a sense of a guilt that came over us as we're talking about things. And we decided, we both looked at each other and said, OK, we need to do something about this. We just can't ignore the fact that this guy came up and asked us for something, and we didn't do anything. So what we did was we pulled out of that parking spot. We went to the local Burger King or McDonald's. We got some hamburgers. We figured, okay, we're not going to give him any money per se, but we'll give him some food. And so we went and we went looking for him around that area, looking for this homeless man. And we never could find him. We never found him. We drove several blocks within the area of the beach there in California. We never could find him. And so what we ended up doing is we took those hamburgers that we bought and we went to this local park that was close to the beach. And there was a homeless man, not the homeless man that had knocked on the window. He was laying down sleeping in the park. You know, he was asleep. And so I snuck out of the car with a bag of food, and I ran over, placed it down by the sleeping man, and I just ran back to the car as fast as I could. But we figured we had done our good deed for the day. But anyways, that just kind of serves as an illustration Maybe you've been in situations like that where you've had a homeless person or something accost you or ask you for something and it's just a very uncomfortable situation. And one of the reasons why it's uncomfortable is because there's this teaching out there that says that if you don't give money or food or whatnot, that somehow you are letting Jesus personally down. You are personally letting Jesus down. You know, the text that says, whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done it unto me. And so you feel a sense of guilt because of that. You know, you don't want to let the Lord Jesus down, you know, let him personally down. So there's a sense of guilt because of that. So why don't you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 25, 40, and we'll actually look at that Bible passage and see what it really says. Matthew 25, and actually, it's verse 40 that we're gonna focus on, but to get the context, we'll get 35 through 40. It says in Matthew 25, 35 through 40, it says, For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry? and feed you, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? Verse 40, the king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. So maybe we had missed Jesus that day, and he was not going to let us into heaven because of this. See, that was part of the guilt that was playing on us. And you've heard of that view, haven't you? That all the poor people represent Jesus, and if we don't give to them, we're rejecting Jesus himself. That's pretty serious. Let me just read to you a few lyrics of some Christian music. Today, it's kind of strange. Back in the day, they used to have Christian radio stations. Now, they call them positive and encouraging radio. I think they're Christian radio stations. But anyways, it's a little different for me. I'm used to hearing, you know, Christian radios. Anyways, there's a couple songs that are out there. Let me read you the lyrics that have this view in there. Quote, nowhere to live, nowhere to fall. He used to have money, but he wasted it all. His face is a photograph, burned in my mind, but I pretend not to see him for the 21st time. He sleeps under stars, that's all he can afford. His blankets, an old coat he's had since the war. He stands on the corner of Carter and Vine, but I pretend not to see him for the 21st time. He may be a drifter, he's grown old and gray. What if he's Jesus? And I walk away. I say I'm the body and drink of the wine, but I pretend not to see him for the 21st time. So there's that view in that song there. And here's another song. It says, you're asking, where is he? Where's Jesus? And you don't know where to go now to find him. You saw him this morning. He was the man laying down on the park bench. You gave him a blanket. You had a spare in the trunk for emergencies. And for the least of these, when you love the least of these with just a cup of cool water, then you did it to me. So that's the view that's out there. Let me assure you that that is a misunderstood passage. Let me assure you that the poor homeless that are walking around maybe in downtown Indianapolis, they're not Jesus, personally. You know, Jesus is, he's on his throne now. His reign has been inaugurated. And so that's a misunderstood passage. That's not what this passage is saying. It isn't saying that, you know, your salvation is in jeopardy if you don't serve at a soup kitchen every Saturday. It's not saying that Jesus is mad at you because you don't give money to the homeless person. So then what does it mean? What do these verses mean? We've got to ask ourselves this question. We can't just suffice ourselves to say, well, that's not what it means. We've got to prove what does it mean. So let's find out what it does mean. And last week we looked at the principle of context. to figure out what our passage meant. And we'll do that tonight, we'll look at the context. But we're also gonna look at another principle that's key in interpreting scripture, is looking at key words, key phrases. You'll notice in this passage, there's a lot of directional phrases. There's a sitting, there's a right and a left. and there's these and those. And so there's keywords that we're going to look at to find the meaning of this passage. But first, let's look at the context a little bit before we look at those keywords. Anybody can tell me what the purpose of the book of Matthew is? Anybody know the purpose of the book of Matthew? Mr. Wilson? Okay, so show the Jews who the Messiah is, and within Jesus being the Messiah, what else does that entail? What's part of His being Messiah? You're there, that's right. I'm looking for a specific aspect of His Messiahship. What's that? The Davidic line, right. It's to show Jesus as the King. to show Jesus as the Son of David. I mean, let me read, you don't have to turn there, but let me read to you Matthew 1.1. It says, Matthew 1.1, a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. And we all know that the Son of David is a, it's a kingly title. It's a title of kingship. So the son of David was to sit on the throne as promised by the Old Testament. So that's really the purpose of the whole book of Matthew is to show Jesus Christ as the king. So that's Matthew 1, 1. And then the rest of the book, like I said, shows him as king. And so we find ourselves in chapter 25, And chapter 25 happens to be part of the longest answer that Jesus ever gave to a question. Chapter 24 and chapter 25 comprise what we call the Olivet Discourse. And it's all in answer to a question. So you're probably at Matthew 25, maybe slip back a page to Matthew 24, look at that. And let's see, what was the question that Jesus was answering in 24 and 25? And it's right there, right at the beginning of chapter 24. The question is found in 24, 1 through 3. It says, Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him. to call his attention to its buildings. So the disciples are saying, look at these buildings. You know, the temple is in this magnificent. And Jesus says, do you see all these things? He asked. I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down. So the disciples are saying, look at all this beautiful, you know, these beautiful edifices. And Jesus is saying, oh, that's all going to be torn down. You know, it looks good now, but it's going. And then it goes on, it says, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and they said, tell us, tell us, they said, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age? So Jesus says, it's all going to come down. And this peaks in their mind, okay, when is this going to happen? And so Jesus goes into this long answer of chapter 24 and 25 to tell them about this, about the end times, about the sign of the end of the age. So Jesus begins to tell them when he will come back and he will set up his kingdom on earth. Now, did you know that? Did you know that? Rest in your mind right now. Did you know that Jesus is actually going to come to earth again and he is going to reign on this earth for a thousand year period? It will be a millennial kingdom that he will actually reign in the throne of David for a thousand years over this earth. That's pretty, that's amazing. That's an amazing thought. So, but before this, many things have to happen. And that's exactly what Jesus is talking about in chapter 24 and 25. He's telling them the things that have to happen before this. Now, obviously we know from other parts of scripture that before Jesus comes back and sets up his millennial kingdom, that the rapture is going to take place. So that's kind of the next thing on God's eschatological calendar, or his end times calendar, that the rapture of the church. Believers are going to be raptured up. But after that, the items in Matthew 24 and 25, what Jesus is talking about is going to happen. So we've got Jesus talking about the end times and his coming. but he doesn't necessarily mention in this passage the rapture of the church. So in our minds right now, as we're thinking through church history, the next thing that's going to happen on God's calendar is the rapture of the church, and then there'll be the tribulation period, which he talks a lot about in Matthew 24 and 25. But he just doesn't happen to mention the rapture in this passage. It's mentioned in other places in Scripture. So Jesus is warning them to be ready for his coming. So just like we should be ready for the rapture of the church, those alive at that time, those Christians alive at that time of the tribulation should be ready for Jesus' second coming. So the principles are gonna be the same here. And isn't that a principle of scripture that's taught everywhere that Christians, you should be ready. You know, I think we just sang about it, right? Jesus could come in the morning. Jesus could come at noon. Jesus could come in the evening. So it's a principle of Scripture that you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we want to be ready at all times. We don't want to be caught doing something that would be displeasing to the Lord. So, be ready for the Lord to come. You don't want to be embarrassed by what you're doing. You don't want to be caught up in sin. You want to have your short accounts with God ready, and you want to be ready for His coming. So, but the Lord will come again, and He will set up this kingdom. And what He's going to do is He's going to separate believers Let's actually, that would be right for you. This is my right hand. He puts the sheep on the right, but for you, it would be over here. He separates the sheep and the goats. Okay, that's Matthew chapter 25, verse 31. Let's look at that. We're getting closer to our verse. Matthew 25, 31 through 33. So when Jesus comes in his kingdom, he's going to separate the sheep and the goats. And it says, when the son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes in his glory and all the heavenly angels with him, this is at his second coming, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Now this is where we need to employ our, we've gone through the context, and you may have some questions about that at the end, because I know eschatology gets kind of detailed and confusing, and you can ask those questions at the end. But at this point, he is separating the sheep and the goats at his second coming. And notice the directional words. Let's look at some key words. Okay, look down there. It says, sit on the throne. So the Lord Jesus is going to come and he's going to sit on his throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him. So we've got these directional words. We've got Jesus sitting. We've got the nations gathered. And He will separate. So there's some more directional words. Separate the people from one another. And He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on his left. And obviously we know that the sheep are believers, are Christians, and the goats are unbelievers. So then Jesus tells them why they are sheep and why they are goats. He tells the sheep, or the Christians, that they evidenced their faith. by loving others, by loving their brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what he's saying, that it's not that they earned their salvation by doing these good deeds, it was that their salvation was manifest or evidenced. And how was it evidenced? It was evidenced by loving other Christians. That's a very common way that we believers express our faith in Christ, is that we love one another. Correct? That's one of the ways that you know you're a Christian, is that you love other Christians. So, listen to what he says. He says, verse 34, Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed of my father, take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry? And when did we feed you, or when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King, Jesus, will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, Those are some key words there. The least of these brothers of mine, keep those in your brain as key words, you did for me. So basically what this passage is teaching is teaching us four facts. about Christians entering the Millennial Kingdom. So if you're a note taker, these are the four points. Four facts about Christians entering the Millennial Kingdom. That's what this passage is all about. Those four facts about Christians entering the Millennial Kingdom. Let's take a look at fact number one. Fact number one is they were blessed by God for this. They were blessed by God for this. So how did God bless them? How did God bless them? First and foremost, with what? What does God first and foremost bless Christians with? Starts with an S. Salvation, right? Yeah, salvation. God blesses with salvation. He gives us that faith in Christ. that saves. So that's the first fact. The second fact that we can see in this passage is found in 34b. The first one was found in 34a. It says, Come you who are blessed by my Father. Correct? The second one is that their occupation of heaven was predestined. It was set out beforehand. And obviously this teaches, as in other places in Scripture, the doctrine of election. But that subject is a whole other sermon. But just to show you that that's one fact that is taught by this passage. Now the real meat of it is our fact number three about Christians entering the Millennial Kingdom. Fact number three is, their faith in Christ was evidenced by the fact that they loved the church. And this is found in 35 through 40. Their faith in Christ was evidenced by the fact that they loved the church. And let's look at some more key words in this passage. Look at the least of these. Look down at that, the words, the least of these. What comes after that? Anyone? The least of these brothers of mine. Least of these brothers of mine. That's very key in interpreting this passage. So what does scripture say? Who are Jesus' brothers? Anybody know that verse that Jesus said? He said, my mothers and brothers are, what? Anybody know that verse? It's in Luke 8.21. Jesus said this, listen to this. He replied, he said, my mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice. So, the least of these brothers of mine, they're not just anybody, right? Not just somebody that you don't really know down in the park or downtown, walking around downtown. These are, it's the church. The least of these brothers of mine, they're the church we're just talking about. And that's a principle, remember last week we talked about the least of these? When Jesus came and he set in their midst a little child, and he was talking about this child, that unless you become like this child, unless you become like one of the least of these, you'll not enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, that's a reference that's brought through Matthew all the time, all the time, all the way through. And the least of these is a reference to believers. And especially when it has the tag phrase, the least of these brothers, of mine." So we're talking here about the church. The least of these brothers of mine are Christians. And what Jesus is commending here is He's commending their treatment of other Christians. So I think that's getting us a little more clear and showing that the modern interpretation of those songs that I read the lyrics may not be understanding this passage clearly or the guilt that Janelle and I felt because we felt like we were letting Jesus down may not be a justified guilt. So now let's answer this question. Is Jesus saying then that your entrance into the kingdom is based on works, on what you did to other believers. Is he saying that here? No, no. After all, Jesus said they were welcomed because they were kind to other believers, so that may lead some to think that it's works. Oh, this is a works thing. You know, you've got to do X, Y, Z works to other people in the church, and then you'll earn your interest into heaven. No, that's not the case. We all know that entrances to God's kingdom is by God's grace alone. It's a gift. but that these works are evidence of faith. See, our works are an evidence that something has gone on in the inside, that God has given us a new heart, that trust in Christ, a new heart that is forgiven and is following the Lord. And so it's just evidence. So he's not saying they earned it by doing these things to each other, but that their fact that they're Christians is evidence by the fact that they love each other. Listen to this, it's kind of like, and it's all over scripture, this principle. Listen to 1 John 4. It says, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. And here we go, I believe this is verse eight. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Verse 21, going down deeper into the passage, it says, and he has given us this command, whoever loves God must also love his brother. So it isn't by loving Christians that you get into the kingdom. It's showing that you're in the kingdom when you evidence, when you love others, that evidence is your fact that you're in the kingdom. So why does it talk about food, clothing, and shelter? You ever thought about that in this passage? You know, nowadays, we certainly have believers that need food, clothing, and shelter, right? And certainly we would want to evidence our faith in Christ by loving other believers who have that need. But this is really specific. See, these are tribulation saints that it's talking about. The reason why he says such basic things as feeding and clothing, stuff like that. See, in the tribulation, it's going to be hard for Christians. Now, thank the Lord, the church is going to be raptured, but there are those in the tribulation that are going to believe, and it's going to be hard for them. They are going to be persecuted. Possibly food may be withheld from them because of their belief in Christ. So other Christians are going to have to come along and evidence their faith in Christ by loving those Christians who are suffering, who may not be given food because of their faith in Christ. There may be shelter issues in the in the tribulation that those who love the Lord Jesus may be withheld shelter because of their faith in christ and other christians are gonna have to come along side and they're gonna have to put him up for the night for weeks and so on and so forth so that's why jesus is saying this is in the tribulation it's gonna be hard for christians and they're gonna have to band together if they're gonna make it so that's why he's picking those basic uh... needs because this is the setting is in the tribulation those tribulation christians now obviously the principle is expanded to us because we do want to love other believers with their physical needs. If they have physical needs, we want to meet those. We want to make sure they're taken care of. But that's specifically why Jesus is talking about those basic needs. This can be hard in the tribulation for them. Very, very hard. And this echoes a principle of Scripture that calls for a family priority. Remember in Galatians? Anybody remember in Galatians? Toward the end, what verse? That talks about family priority, the family of God taking care of each other. Anybody know that verse off the top of their head? Galatians 6.10, let me read it to you. It says, Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers. So it's good to be nice to others, but it's a principle of scripture to show your faith in Christ by loving the family of God. All right, so that's point number three, and that was the bulk of our interpretation of the verse. Now, point number four is the goats were condemned because they didn't have faith in Christ as evidenced by not loving Christians. So they weren't goats because they didn't love others, they were goats because they didn't have faith in Christ, which was manifest by them not loving others. You see how that makes sense? How this is evidential, how there's evidence. They were goats, they didn't have faith in Christ, and the evidence of that was them not loving Christians. they didn't take care of Christians. They didn't respond to the body of Christ, which God loves. So that's point number four. So the four points, we had the four facts about entering the Millennial Kingdom. Let me go over them for you. The goats were condemned because they didn't have faith in Christ. That was the last one. The Christians did come into the kingdom because they did manifest their faith in Christ by loving others. Point two was that they were predestined for this. And point one was they were blessed by God for this. So those are four of those. Now, let's draw some application from this. Let's draw some application from this. Does this mean it is bad to give money or food to homeless people? No, of course not. It's a wonderful thing to give and to be charitable. You know, I know there's different views out there that say, oh, you should never give money to somebody. You should always, you know, direct them to food if they need that. But you know what? I know, you know, there's other people that say, hey, I just, I give of people who ask of me. I'll give them money. Maybe they spend it the right way, maybe they're not. I'm just giving to give. Well, that may be the case. And that's good. That's fine. It's very good to be charitable. But you just can't use that passage, Matthew 25, 35 through 40, and beat others over the head and say that they're letting Jesus down because they're not giving. You can't use that. So you have to use that Scripture in context. Now, what about those who quote this verse out of context? Ooh, what should we do with them? Well, we just line them up and throw stones at them. That's all right. No, of course not. If somebody takes this verse out of context, you just teach them, you just love. You should explain to them, hey, you know what? If you look at the verse, that's not really what it says. It says, the least of my brethren. Jesus is talking about Christians evidencing their faith by loving other Christians. It's not talking about some homeless man down in the park in Indianapolis. It's talking about evidencing your faith in Christ by loving other believers. So you just teach. You're just patient. You love. How about another question? Does this passage teach salvation by works? No, we've been through that. It's not the fact that you love other believers and you earn your way into heaven. No, it's that you believe in Christ and that just shows that you are a believer, that you love Christ so much that you love the people that He loves. And it's just evidence of your salvation. And that's all. Number five, what else does this passage teach? Well, it teaches that we should really focus our efforts on evangelism, right? Because we don't want there to be people to be goats. Ultimately, we want them to be sheep. So that we should really focus our attention on preaching the gospel and making more sheep and turning them from goats into sheep. So that's really what this passage teaches. So, would my wife and I have felt guilty if we had known that back in the day, if we would have known the correct interpretation of this passage? Maybe, maybe we wouldn't have felt as guilty. Maybe, but at least we wouldn't have felt like we were letting Jesus down personally. That's a lot to put on somebody, isn't it? To tell them if they don't give their money to a homeless person that they're letting Jesus down personally. That's a lot of guilt to give somebody. Well, I'm sure you can rest assured that Jesus is on His throne and He's ready to come and judge the sheep and the goats. And you don't have to worry, He's in control. He's not down wandering down somewhere, downtown Indianapolis, just waiting for you to come and rescue Him. Jesus is on His throne and He wants you to show the evidence of your faith by loving other believers. Well, let's pray and then I'll take some questions on this. Father, thank You for this passage. We can see Lord, really what it means, the least of these brothers of mine, Lord, that you want Christians to show the evidence of their faith in you by loving each other. And we thank you for that, Father. Thank you for this understanding. Lord, we pray for its proper use, proper taking in context of this verse. Lord, I pray that this time even would spur your people on just to study the end times. Lord, there's some difficult things in Scripture. But Lord, they're there for our good. Lord, to think about the rapture, to be ready for that. Lord, to think about what it's going to be like for Christians in the tribulation. And when you come and you set up your kingdom, and you separate the sheeps and the goats, Lord, it's good things to think about. So I pray that this message would be useful and profitable, Holy Spirit, that you would use it. and our lives to the edification of your church. Lord, thank you that your word is so clear, and we praise you for being a great God. I thank you for your people who have gathered here tonight, and we just want to praise you and thank you. In Christ's name, amen.