The Sheep and the Goats: Matthew 25:31-46 (Sermon)
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INTRODUCTION
Thank you, worship team. We come this morning to a classic passage of Scripture often titled The Sheep and The Goats. It depicts Judgment Day. Depending on what God pronounces, it can be a dark or bright moment. I am going to have _ read for us. Would you please stand with me in honor of God’s Word, if you can?
TEXT
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 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. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal 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 welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, 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?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, 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 eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:31–46, ESV)
PRAYER
Thank you. Let’s pray. Dear God, help us to understand your Word. It is truth and light. Open our eyes to see your way, our hearts to love you more, and our wills to be transformed. You are glorious and majestic and worthy of our attention and devotion. In Jesus’s name, we pray, amen. You may be seated.
CONTEXT
Jesus was concluding his Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 25. This is the last sermon from him in Matthew. Before this, the disciples asked him three questions as they walked away from Jerusalem:
When will the end come,
When will he return,
And when will the temple be destroyed?
Jesus first answered their question about the temple: the destruction would be in their generation. With that devastation, they will suffer persecution and natural disasters and hear false teachings. Regarding Jesus’s return, he didn’t know the time nor the angels. After that, the end will come, which would include judgment. Jesus encouraged the disciples to be ready for that time by telling them three parables: one about two servants, one about ten young unmarried women, and another about three servants. In each, the master or groom went away and returned in a day and hour that people didn’t expect. And he rewarded or punished those who were ready or not. Jesus was trying to communicate a point to his disciples to pass to those coming after them: us, the church. He concluded with verses 31 through 46, which we read.
MAIN IDEA
The verses break down with an:
31 Introduction
32–33 Separating the Nations as Sheep and Goats
34–40 Judgment of the Sheep
41–45 Judgment of the Goats
46 Summary
The bottom line is that when Jesus returns, judgment will occur. Some will enjoy eternal life, and others eternal death. The different consequence hinges on how one treats those “brothers” or “least of these.” In a nutshell:
HOW WE CARE FOR THE LEAST MATTERS MOST
Let me say that again:
HOW WE CARE FOR THE LEAST MATTERS MOST
INTRODUCTION
Let’s look at our passage more closely. Turn to Matthew chapter 25, starting at verse 31, if you have a Bible and have not done so already. Verse 31:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matthew 25:31, ESV).
Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man. This title comes from Daniel chapter 7. Daniel wrote hundreds of years before Jesus came to heal and preach about the kingdom of heaven. Daniel was an Israelite advisor who suffered persecution for his faith. God gave him visions of the future. Here is one regarding the Son of Man:
I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13–14, ESV)
Jesus was and is this “son of man,” and God, the Father, is the “Ancient of Days.” Israel was looking for this son who would have everlasting rule, yet, for the most part, they didn’t know they were staring him in the face.
32–33 Separating the Nations as Sheep and Goats
Verses 32 through 33 tell us what happens when the Son of Man returns.
“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left” (Matthew 25:32–33, ESV).
All people will be judged at the end of time. Here are some pictures of sheep and goats from friends in the area.
The farmer knows the difference. Do you? You might. Regarding people, it is tough to tell who is truly a Christian. Jesus cautioned us not to judge. Some judgment and discernment are okay in some places, but we must be careful. Some people are sweet as apple pie, but their motivation stinks. Others have years of brokenness and bad habits. They try to follow Jesus, but it is as rough as running backward on a hot day with a winter coat and boots. They do their best, but they don't look like Mother Teresa. Fortunately, God knows those who are his. He is the judge of all. We are not God.
34–40 Judgment of the Sheep
Look at Matthew chapter 25, verse 34 and following.
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. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:34–40, ESV)
KING
Let me highlight a few things from these verses. First, Jesus is the king. He will judge the living and the dead one day. We want to be the sheep who Follow the promised King into his Kingdom. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. On that day, everyone will bow their knee in reverence to him, whether they want to or not.
BLESSED
Second, Jesus described the sheep as “blessed.” We have seen this blessing before in Matthew. Jesus’s first sermon began with nine “blessings” or “beatitudes.” Here, Jesus gives one more: Blessed are those who care for the least. Their inheritance is the kingdom.
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
Notice also that God planned to bless these sheep before they did anything or even existed. This is like God’s determination to bless the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy. Moses wrote:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:6–8, ESV)
Why do you love your kids? Is it because of looks, performance, or ability? No. They are yours. We love them regardless. How much more does God love his children? God showed his love based on his mercy. Ephesians chapter 2 says:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV).
Friends, we are saved by grace and grace alone. Nothing we do saves us. That is good news because we can never be perfect enough or pristine enough to merit salvation.
WORKS BASED
Yet, Matthew seems to say God saves us based on our kindness to the least of these. However, here is where we need to read Matthew in light of the entire book and the whole teaching of the Bible. Remember, Matthew begins by saying Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Jesus’s first sermon started by describing his followers not as the paragon saints but as those who are poor in spirit, humble, hungry, and thirsty for righteousness.
WORK
Yet, that doesn’t equate to a Christianity that doesn’t care for those hurting around us. If we keep reading Ephesians 2, where Paul says God saves us by grace alone, it says:
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).
God made us for good works. We have a purpose in life: to live out of our faith. We can’t sit back and be do-nothing Christians while the world goes to hell in a handbasket.
Jesus instructed his disciples to pass on to other disciples after he ascended to heaven. He wants Christians to be active lovers of each other and not selfish and self-centered cliques or self-righteous Pharisees. Church is to be more like a hospital emergency room than a country club. So, following Jesus is messy. God has us here for a purpose. We work, and God holds us accountable. While we are responsible for what we say, think, and do, God is sovereign and at work in us when we obey. If we go to James, we see this paradoxical interplay between faith and good works.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:14–18, ESV)
Harvest flows from origins. We demonstrate our faith by what we do.
HOW WE CARE FOR THE LEAST MATTERS MOST
WHO
Let’s note who the least are:
Hungry
Thirsty
Strangers
Naked
Sick
Those in prison
Jesus said that expressing love to those brothers in such conditions was like doing a good deed to him. This list is not exhaustive.
Who were the “brothers” that Jesus talked about? Only men? No, no one thinks that. When the Bible uses the masculine pronoun or even the term “brothers” it often includes sisters. Who then were these brothers and sisters? Here are three more possibilities:
Some think it is all needy people. But why call them family?
Some think it is the apostles or messengers communicating the gospel. This would be a comfort to the disciples and fit with what Jesus said earlier about welcoming his messengers in chapter 10. But does this really fit what Jesus is trying to say here? Does it flow with the three other parables where we see the good contrasted with the bad and judgment? I am not convinced.
John Calvin writes, “Only the faithful are expressly commended to our pity here.” Commentator Leon Morris agrees. A counter to this would be that this limits our benevolence only to believers. No, it doesn’t. Jesus called us to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, our neighbors in our community, and even our enemies. We can’t use this targeted demonstration of faith as a reason to neglect Christian charity and goodwill to all. The bottom line is:
HOW WE CARE FOR THE LEAST MATTERS MOST
God is our judge. Heaven and Hell are at stake.
GOATS
Not everyone is so kind to these brothers and sisters. Let’s look at the goats. (And not those who are the greatest of all time.)
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal 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 welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, 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?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25:41–45, ESV)
CONSEQUENCES
The king cursed the goats. It echoes the seven woes Jesus just shared concerning the Pharisees and contrasts his blessing of the sheep and the Sermon on the Mount.
ETERNAL FIRE
A lot could be said about the eternal fire. Some would downplay the eternality while neglecting the reciprocal immortality for the reward. They see the fire as consumptive, seeing the conscious everlasting torment as not what is meant here. Growing up, one of my mentors argued for annihilationism. Was he right? That would contradict the majority of Christians throughout history. However, we don’t believe something simply because of tradition. How do we know what is true? We have to go back to the Bible. Reason, experience, and the wisdom of our predecessors have value, but they do not supplant or take the place of the Bible. The Bible is our bedrock. Let’s look closer to what the Bible says about this subject. In chapter 13, Jesus said this:
He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:37–43, ESV)
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:47–50, ESV)
So, we have two groups divided in this chapter. One is called bad, evil, law-breakers, and another is called righteous, good. In such examples, we see two different consequences. Yet, it doesn’t definitively answer the immortality of both a living and dying state. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist said,
I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11–12, ESV)
Unquenchable means it won’t be put out. Some might argue that John the Baptist said it but not Jesus. John was wrong. However, Jesus said the same thing in Mark chapter 9. Others might argue that this hellfire won’t stop, but people’s conscious suffering will. What does the fire do once everyone is gone?
VARIOUS LEVELS
Jesus taught that God will judge according to what people have done. Some will rely on Jesus’s work, and others will cling to their own. And for those who trust in their effort, their punishment varies. As in Tyre and Sidon, Jesus said in Matthew 11. Let’s look at Chapter 11:
Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.” (Matthew 11:20–22, ESV)
How could Jesus say it would be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon? God seems to judge people based on their different responses. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all judgment. The reciprocal seems true, as the Bible talks about storing up treasure in heaven and sitting at Jesus’s left and right in his kingdom.
OTHER SCRIPTURE
If we want to understand a topic, we can look to other Scriptures that clarify the unclear. God gave John, the apostle, a vision of the future judgment. He wrote:
Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
(Revelation 14:6–11, ESV)
This is heavy, sad, and scary. What are we to do? I am only scratching the surface of what the Bible says about judgment. Justice will be served. We want justice for others. Heaven and Hell are real. If we have a hard time with what the Bible says, maybe we need to ask, “Why is that?” What is going on inside us? We know God is good and loving. Why do we struggle with him executing justice the way he seems to speak in the Bible? We ultimately don’t know many things in this life and the future. God has only revealed so much. We need to trust him and obey his Word. We must follow him into his kingdom, not run away from it. What does he want from us? He wants us to love him and each other.
LACK OF COMPASSION
All that said, we demonstrate our trust by action. How we live proves our trust. Like the other parables, those who are cut up, sent out, and barred from the kingdom of heaven are those who are abusing God’s people, selfish, lazy, and wicked. Which side do you want to be on? Are you a sheep or a goat?
GOSPEL
Here are three applications:
First, remember why Jesus came. Matthew 1:21. He came to save his people from their sins. There is no way to satisfy God’s wrath against sin without a sacrifice. Jesus was the Paschal lamb who gave up his body and blood for our disobedience. We each need to bank on his good work. And with that dependence comes discipleship. We demonstrate our spiritual transformation through our actions.
Second, seek to love people on the margins. We are made in God’s image. John 13 tells us,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35, ESV)
Finally, embrace the last verse of Jesus’s final message in Matthew, verse 46:
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46, ESV).
Knowing this, let’s repent and spread the good news about Jesus saving us from Hell. God is perfect, holy, good, and just. We can’t brush over the hard things he said. Friends, people are not going to go to heaven. That is a fact. Remember, seek, and embrace. Assess your spiritual trajectory. Today is the day to make adjustments. God invites us to turn to him before it is too late. Today is the day to pray for our lost friends.
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