Twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. In some way, this is the end of Jesus' public teaching here. The final verses of Matthew, Chapter 25, because in Matthew 26, it goes in to, remember, this is the last week of Jesus' life here, and it goes into last supper preparations. And so we're making a transition here in Matthew, Chapter 25, in verses 31 through 46. So let's read this together. Well known collection of verses, but I would say often misunderstood collection of verses as well. Matthew 25, 31 through 46, the word of God. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy 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 them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. And then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Then he will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink I was a stranger and you did not take me in naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and You did not visit me Then they will also answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? And he will answer them saying, assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. It's the Word of God and we pray that He would bless it to our hearts. Amen. Power corrupts, the saying goes, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Except that's not really how the saying goes. The real quotation is power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's a saying by Lord Acton. It's interesting, it actually made a big point of this. One of my teachers in college was a professor of comparative government, and he made it an absolute point to make sure that if we knew nothing else, we knew that the real quotation of this oftentimes misquoted quote is, power tends to corrupt. Why do we often think of it as power corrupts? Well, because that's how it's been handed to us. That is, we might say, the interpretive tradition handed to us. That's the way we understand things, because that's the way everyone around us says that quote. Oftentimes when we're reading Bible passages, the same thing happens. We read a passage, and we think we know what it means or what it's saying, not because we've read it carefully, but because that's what everyone around us is saying about it. This passage here in Matthew chapter 25 is a good example. This passage has been used by many enemies of the Christian faith, many enemies of the Protestant Reformation tradition, as saying that it's teaching something that is against what we normally teach. They say it's teaching salvation by works. And so I think there is a tendency within our way of thinking of avoiding this passage saying, well, you have to look at other scripture. We have to look at the whole counsel of God and not actually looking at this passage to see what it's saying. But I think that's a misinterpreted view of Matthew chapter 25. It is clearly not teaching salvation by works. This passage is also used Maybe you remember the Matthew 25 network. Does anyone remember that? It was a Christian group that publicly supported left-wing politics, basically, and its way of proving it was Matthew 25, looking at Matthew 25 and saying, this idea is more found in the left. And so this passage is oftentimes seen as a great triumph of the liberal social agenda, going to the least of these. Once again, though, I think this is a misinterpretation of this passage. So my purpose this afternoon is to first clear up these two misinterpretations, okay? Talking about the passage teaching, allegedly teaching salvation by works and teaching a politically liberal social agenda. And then, look to what the passage actually is teaching us. Because it does have something very important to teach us, and we need to hear it. And thirdly, we will look at lessons we need to learn. So more of an application in the third part. Lessons we need to learn from this parable. Beginning with the first part, and that's this. What it doesn't teach. What this passage does not teach. Clearing up two misunderstandings of the passage. First, it does not teach salvation by works. A quick reading of this text might cause you to think that it does. Look at verse 35. First of all, in verse 34, the king says to those on his right hand. Actually, this is my left hand, but for you, it's the right. That's a good way of covering up my error. The king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom. And what's the reason why? What's given here in verse 35? For, because I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was stranger and you took me in, et cetera, et cetera. It would seem here that the grounds for which these sheep are entering into eternal life are what they did. they did all these things to the least of these. So it looks like. At first, this is teaching a salvation by works, which contradicts the rest of Scripture, and people use this as a way of attacking the Scriptures and saying that it's contradictory. Jesus and Paul are teaching two different things here, that sort of thing. However, we need to read this passage closely in the key to understanding this This passage here and saying that it's not teaching it is found in verse 34 Then the king will say to those on his right hand come you blessed of my father Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world notice that word inherit Does anyone earn an inheritance? Perhaps it's possible But most of the time, inheritance is given to you by right, right? You are the son of a multi-billionaire, and you receive upon his death all of this money, all of this wealth, the estate, the stocks, everything. Not because you've earned it, not because you went out and worked hard for it, but simply because of your connection to a family member. That is the normal way inheritance works, and it's also the way inheritance works within Scripture. We receive all the blessings of God not because we earn them or work for them, but because of our connection with Christ, and therefore our connection with the Father. He is our Father, so therefore we receive an inheritance. Inherit, Jesus says, the kingdom prepared for you. It's not a matter of working for it, it's a matter of inheriting. Therefore, what is after for in verse 35 must be interpreted in light of that. In other words, all of these things, these good works, these really good works that we really need to do, but all of them are set within the context of showing yourself to be true sons of God. Because it's the true sons of God who receive the inheritance. In other words, we don't have to go out and earn our salvation that's given to us freely. However, those who have been brought into the kingdom, those who have received the adoption of God, those who have the rights of eternal life will live as their father calls them to live. And if they do not, then they show themselves to be not getting their inheritance, not true sons of God. So the term, the word inherit here, I think, goes heavily against the Salvation by Works interpretation of this passage. Also, you read also in verse 34, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This is not something that God looked and said, okay, this one's doing well, okay, he's going to receive an inheritance. This is something that God had planned from the beginning. Obviously, it's all of grace, and this passage does, importantly, teach the necessity of good works. But that's something we all can agree on, and we all believe that. It does not, however, teach salvation by works. So we have to clear up that misunderstanding first, because it's easy to read that passage and skip over verse 34 and think to ourselves, well, that Jesus and Paul are contradicting themselves, or that we really are, in the end, saved by works. It's making a very profound point, but it's not salvation by works. Secondly, this passage does not teach what I'm calling here politically liberal social agendas. It's been used this way. People on the left spectrum have used Matthew 25 as sort of a battering ram to the Bible bashers on the Bible thumpers on the right to say, look, we have the Bible, too, and we can use it, too, in that way. First of all, I think it has to be said that in our political culture, on the right, as well as on the left, but I think it's more on the right, there is a sort of smug, Pelagian attitude which pervades our political culture. That is, pull yourself up by your own moral bootstraps, or in this case, your own go out and do the job yourself. And if people are poor, well, that's their own fault. That sort of attitude is condemned by this parable, but that's not simply the political, but it's nothing to do with politics. That is a heart attitude. However, when this parable, I keep calling it a parable, it isn't really a parable, it's just that sheep and goats are used metaphorically, and all the commentators call it a parable, so if I call it that, you can forgive me. This teaching here does not teach a liberal social agenda. It's often put this way. If you do not vote left, then you're going to break this parable. You're going to be one of those goats, as it were. But that is just not simply what the parable is teaching. The parable says nothing about who you vote for. It says everything about what you do. It doesn't say, you voted for someone who said they would do these certain things. It says, you did these things. You helped the needy. You clothed those who needed clothes, the naked. You gave to the poor. You did it. Not you voted for someone who promised they would do it, but didn't do it anyway. It is not about that. It's about our collective responsibility as a church and our individual responsibility to care for the needy. Now, there are passages which talk about, you know, the church's responsibility to call into account and be the conscience of the state. But I do not think that this passage is necessarily talking about that. It's talking about people and the response to the disciples of Christ, their individual and collective response. to Christ and his messengers. Secondly, the passage is patently addressed to Christians. That is, the brothers of Jesus are in view here and not everyone in general. Verse 40. And the king will answer to them. Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren. It's how you treat Christians among you who are lowly, weak, poor, and not the world in general. That's the focus here. Now, the Bible does teach to love your neighbor as yourself. And as Jesus defines neighbor, it's everyone who comes into your activity, anyone who's there next to you. So the Bible does teach us to do good to all. But that's not this passage here. This passage has to do with how we treat the lowly among us brethren. It cannot be used to bolster a politically liberal social agenda. Interestingly, what's assumed in using this verse in that way? It's assumed that the government is the one who ultimately gets things done. So the way we get things done is by voting for someone who will get things done, even if it's a good thing. Now, of course, that's debatable. We're not going to talk about politics here. But the underlying assumption is it's the government who's the only one equipped to help the poor. and the needy. The government has a responsibility and we should give the government its responsibilities. But this passage is not addressed merely to the government. It's addressed to anyone who comes into contact with the poor and the weak among Christ's brethren. So it cannot be used in those two ways. That passage has been misinterpreted, I think, in many, and it has done much harm in its misinterpretation in teaching both salvation by works and a sort of politically liberal social agenda. It does not teach those two things. However, it does have something very important for us to learn. And so for the second part here, we're going to talk about what it does teach us. In verses 31 through 40, we hear of the sheep. and their entrance into eternal life. In verses 31 through 33, it's sort of the introduction. Let me read that to you again to refresh your memory. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, and he will sit on the throne of his glory, all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. The setting here is clearly the final judgment. All the nations are surrounded. That means all the peoples, all the nations. Christ is the king overall, and so everyone is before him here. That's the setting of the parable. I keep calling it a parable, but it is a parable for our purposes here. All the nations are here and Jesus Christ is sitting on the seat of judgment. This shows his authority. We've been looking at the gospel of Matthew and one thing that Matthew made clear over and over and over again that Jesus Christ is the son of David, the promised coming king. And by virtue of his sitting on the right hand of God, he has authority over all nations. This is why the gospel ends with Jesus sending out the disciples. He says, all authority has been given to me. Therefore, baptize all nations. OK, so Jesus has this authority over the nations, and it's proven here. All of the nations are coming and paying homage to him. He is the true king, and he is the one who has authority to judge over them. He is also seen here as the shepherd. As a shepherd separates sheep from goats, so Jesus is separating the righteous from the wicked. And this is important, too, because in the Old Testament, the metaphor of a shepherd was applied to God himself. Think of Psalm 78. Think of Psalm 80. Hear, O hear, Israel's shepherd. Think of Ezekiel chapter 34, where it compares, actually it's contrasting Israel's kings as being bad shepherds with God, who is the true shepherd. So here, Jesus himself is in the position of Almighty God. He is the shepherd. Moreover, the metaphor of a shepherd is applied to Israel's king. Like I said in Ezekiel 34, it's done so in a negative way. But here, Jesus has shown himself to be the true king as well. He's Israel's God, and he's also Israel's Messiah, the true king. Christ has this supreme authority to sit at God's right hand and to make judgment and to judge the earth. This is how the passage begins. Secondly, what type of judgment does Jesus make? Verses 34 through 40 talks about his judgment of the righteous. And he says to the righteous, come inherit the blessedness which was prepared from the beginning. And they ask why? And Jesus lists all the things that they did. They gave him food. They gave him drink. They took him in. They clothed him. They helped him when he was sick. They visited him. And when he was in prison, they came to him. And these sheep are surprised. The obvious implication here is that this has happened once Jesus has gone to the right hand of God. And these sheep have never met him in person. They're saying, when did we ever do this to you? We didn't even know you. And Jesus says to them, whatever you did to the least of these, my brethren, you did unto me. And they come in and they inherit eternal life. Now, who are the least of these here? I think in its original context, the least of these probably refers to the Christian preachers who live the life, a very destitute life. They're the ones bringing the gospel. These are Christ's representatives. These are Christ's apostles, and the first ones were apostles, but then the disciples, the one bringing the message of Christ to the nations. And Jesus is saying, how you treat these people, It's as if you were treating me this way. But I think we can apply it more broadly. It isn't simply the ones who are going out and preaching the gospel. It's all of those brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, who are weak and lowly and despised by the world. The least of these. And this would include a good, fair amount of Christians, because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, God did not choose the wise of this world. He chose the fools of this world to shame the wise. So a good amount of Christians were the ones who were despised by society, the ones who weren't seen to have all kinds of gifts, the ones who were considered nothing. And how we treat them is a good indication of what we think about Christ. Why? Why would Jesus say, whatever you did to the least of these brethren, you did unto me? Because Jesus came not as the high and mighty king who sat. On the throne in Jerusalem, he came as the poor child in the manger, and these are the ones with whom he identified. With the poor and the weak doesn't mean there weren't rich Christians or some, not many, but there were some. And it's not a sin to be a rich Christian, but nonetheless, The main people with whom he identified were these people, the ones who needed food and drink and were naked and sick. And Jesus says, whatever you do to them, you do unto me. But then he turns to the goats. I think that the separation of sheep and goats here is something that we need to. It's a metaphor Jesus is using that would be readily understood in his day. But in our day I mean none of us except I think Jonathan had sheep growing up but that might not be true there might be more but I think. We don't know the ins and outs of what to do with sheep. I'm told that sheep have such a thick coat of wool around them that they're so scared of water, because if they fall in the water, they'll sink right to the ground. So this is why they're so scared of water. But that coat also keeps them warm on cold days. So oftentimes at night, when the sun has gone down, A shepherd will separate sheep and goats because the sheep can handle the cold, whereas the goats need a warmer place. Well, here we see Jesus separating sheep and goats. The sheep are in one spot and the goats are in the other. And the goats here are said to inherit, if that's the correct word, to receive as a just payment eternal punishment in verses 41 through 46. And then he will say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in naked, and you did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. And they will answer, and they answer, when? I'm not going to read it all again, but they ask basically the question, when did this happen? When did we not do these things? And then he said, assuredly, I say to you, as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And they will go to everlasting punishment. Sometimes people look at this and they realize that the Greek word for everlasting can also mean age. And they say, oh, this is just a temporary punishment. It's not the point. The translation gets it correct here. Everlasting punishment. Those who ignore the needy among Christ's brethren, display, they show, it demonstrates that they do not understand the gospel itself. The gospel in one sense is very easy to understand. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. He is the King. He is the Lord. He is the Savior. Believe in Him. He reigns over all. However, believing in Christ implies that we understand our own sinful condition and that we understand that we are, like he was, poor and needy, no matter how much money we had or have. And if we treat those around us, the poor and the needy, with a smug attitude, Even if in our heads we know that we must take care of them and we say that we do, we show that we do not understand the grace of God shown in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus says, out with you, you didn't get it. And it's sinful and it shows an absolute misunderstanding of the gospel itself. Difficult words for us to hear especially as we all believe in Christ At least that we all you know are claiming to be believers in Christ. These words are difficult to hear Here in the last section here I want to get some applications here more pointed applications for us as we try to seek to apply this parable in our lives in general It's important this parable teaches here that Christ and his church are connected inextricably Many today say, I think it was Gandhi once famously said that I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Right. And that's what that's many a Facebook status these days. But. Jesus says here. How you treat Christians, particularly the lowliest, the weakest among you, is how you treat Christ. You can't have one without the other. You can't have Christ and not be part of his church and not treat others, Christians, in a way that would be how you would treat Christ himself. Christ and his church are inextricably linked. Christ is the head and we are the body. They come together with a package. And I think it's very important for us to hear this, because many people want to today say that Christ is my savior, but I have nothing to do with Christians or the church. Here, Jesus says, whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you do unto me. Secondly, Christ identifies not with the high and mighty, but with the least of his followers. It may be beneficial for us these days to rub shoulders with those who are of consequence. It may get us a job promotion. It may get us what we want because people in high places oftentimes can get things done very quickly. There's nothing wrong with that when things need to be done. And I mean, there's nothing wrong with a promotion. However, that's not how we will be judged. We will be judged by God, not how we treated those who are in a high position. But how we treated those who cannot give us anything in return. God came to us in the gospel of Christ when we were weak and we were helpless. And he expected nothing in return from us. We don't earn anything. And so it is for the Christian. How we treat those who cannot help us in any way is a good barometer or a good litmus test. for how well we understand the gospel of Christ. And it is the standard by which we will be judged, as this parable says. Thirdly, God takes good works, particularly acts of mercy, very seriously. It was very important, I think, at the beginning of the sermon to say that Jesus here is not teaching salvation by works. But I think sometimes we get the idea and say, we don't need to worry about that. And now we can kind of live our lives like it doesn't matter. But it does matter because the gospel isn't merely our forgiveness. The gospel is a change in Lord, a regime change. We are now slaves, willing slaves of God, and therefore we are called to do what he wants us to do. And therefore we must do it. It's not a simple suggestion, it is a command. And so these good works, while they do not save us, they are necessary for our salvation. Do you see the distinction I'm making? It's very important that we walk this fine line. On the one hand, there are those who say good works save you, and that is wrong. We rightly say that that is not correct. But on the other hand, I think we can fall into what's called in theological circles antinomianism against the law. Really, we don't really need to worry about God and his law, especially as it pertains to helping those who are in need. And so we need to remember the gospel, not just with our heads. Not simply with our hearts, but also with our hands as well. To go out and do these things that Christ calls us to do. Part of this is giving to the church. Giving to the church because the church has people set aside, particularly deacons, it's called a mercy fund, to help those who are in need among the brethren. And so when you give to the church, it's not simply you give to the church's bank account and never see it again. It's the church's duty and they carry it out here to help those who are in need. Another way of doing it is by helping people in the congregation who you know cannot repay you. Having people over for dinner when you know that they're not going to invite you back. Jesus talks about this. He says, don't invite the high and mighty when you have your dinners, invite the lowly, invite the poor, the weak, because you know that they won't be able to pay you back. But my father in heaven will reward you at the time of judgment. These are just a few practical ways, but these are very important for us because we show ourselves to be sheep, children of God, and therefore inheritors of God's blessedness. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come to a challenging passage and we know that it's a difficult one in many ways, but we pray that as we seek to understand it, that we would be able to be very clear in what it teaches and what it does not teach, but also have it deeply influence our lives to have it be so part of us that we would live it as well as just simply know it. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits enthroned over all. And we thank you for the mercy that he has shown us. And so we pray that we would show mercy to others, especially those who cannot pay it back. And in this way, we show that we understand the gospel of grace. In this we pray in Jesus name. Amen.