Are you a Sheep or a Goat? (Matthew 25:31-46)

 The black sheep of the family, we all know what that means it’s the member of the family that just sort of wanders away or at least doesn’t conform to the rest of the family group. But what about a goat, do you know if you are a sheep or a goat, because that’s the spiritual division that God in Jesus appears to make in this passage. It seems to me that spiritually speaking there are some who will be designated goats in God’s family. Those that just seemed to wander away, or worse. If your heart is in tune with the heart of the father of Jesus the shepherd of the sheep, I should say you certainly don’t want to be a goat, so let me. ask a very simple question this morning.

How can we avoid becoming identified as a goat  rather than a  sheep. I guess one of the answers to that is don’t wander away from the Lord. So, will staying close to the Lord automatically make you a white sheep or do you have to do something else as well. The answer to that is in this latter part of the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew chapter 25. So, listen with me as I begin to read from Matthew chapter 25 where I’m going to begin reading with verse 31.

The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations

31 “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. 32 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. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 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: 35 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; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “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: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 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.’ 44 “Then they also will 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?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  (Matthew 25: 31-46)

Now if you’ve been tracking me as we’ve been going through the Gospel of Matthew, incident by incident, episode by episode, you know by now that Matthew chapters 24 and 25 is called the Olivet discourse, because Jesus spoke at length about certain things just before he died, while he was on the Mount of Olives. Today we are looking and the closing section of this great discourse/sermon. I would say that this is one of the major discourses Jesus gave in all of his life. I would have to put the top one as the Sermon on the Mount and maybe what’s coming in the upper room as also foundationally important, but  in my estimation this section of teaching probably belongs in the top 3 of all Jesus’s discourses along with the other two I have just mentioned. The upper room discourse is only recorded in it entirely in the Gospel of John, but I would say this is definitely one of his Jesus’ major teaching messages. It is without doubt an extremely important discourse in the overall life of our Lord. But even beyond that it is probably the most important discourses in all of the Bible when it comes to the subject of prophecy.

There are a couple of issues critical to our understanding of these two chapters so I would like to go back, and review dealt with what is called “The Son of Man” and “The tribulation”, and the events that immediately follow that. It talks about the “Son of Man”,  appearing, coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Jesus also saying there wis a coming tribulation, that’s stated as simply and as plainly as it can be stated and then telling us immediately after the tribulation of those days, you will see the sign of the Son of Man appear in heaven coming on clouds of earth with power and great glory. I’m not going to go into the details again but just simply say that in the overall outline of the Olivet discourse Jesus pauses here and he begins to give warnings, warning people to be prepared that when he comes we all need to be prepared. He gives us three parables to illustrate for us the essence of what being prepared looks like. Warning us, these times are coming, and you need to be ready when it comes, and when he comes. 

This is very important for the understanding of the all of this discourse, so listen carefully to how he begins this next section by saying, “Then the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will when they see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”. Following this he then gives us  warning after warning, and then we drop down to chapter 25 and pick up at verse 31, and again it says, when the son of man comes in his glory.  Then he stops and he pauses, and I would say he preaches and then he picks that theme back up in chapter 25 verse 31 and says now let me go on to tell you a little more about what’s going to happen after the Son of Man comes.

It seems to me that what he says in this last portion of the Olivet discourse, that which we are looking at today which is recorded in what I read to you beginning at verse 31 and going to the end of the chapter in verse 46 is really talking about a judgment. That passage, todays passage can be divided into three parts.

First of all, he talks about the son who is the judge.

Secondly, he talks about the sheep.

And thirdly he talks about the goats.

It is my contention that if you listen carefully to what he says you can learn how to be a sheep a white sheep, and not a goat. 

We will begin  with what he says about the judgement, which takes us back to verse 31 where it said, “When the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him then he will sit on his throne”.  Now we got to pause right away for just a second and explain that it says that, “when the Lord comes back, he’s going to sit on a throne”.

Now we know that Jesus is sitting on the throne, right now, sitting at the right hand of the father. So, what does it mean when it says he will be sitting on the throne when he comes back here on earth. As a king as a matter of fact the word “king” is  used here in this passage and it’s the only time in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus refers to himself as King, and it’s here 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”. He’s going to sit on the throne as king that means there is a Kingdom now, and there will be a kingdom when he returns. Therefore, based on the Olivet discourse so far it is crystal clear there is going to be a tribulation, there’s going to be the second coming and then there’s going to be Jesus sitting on a thrown as king, which means there’s going to be a Kingdom. It’s clear by the use of the word king in this passage and the other references to sitting on the throne of glory in other passages that we’re talking about a Kingdom. So, at some point in the future there is going to be a great tribulation, but there’s also going to be a second coming of Christ and there is going to be a Kingdom established and it looks like it’s going to be here on earth. By the way later on we will find out that it will be declared to last in this first part, for 1000 years. But before that Kingdom gets started there’s going to be a judgment and that’s what he’s talking about here.

The opening verses tell us, “That the son of man will come in the glory and all of his holy angels with him then he will sit on the throne of his glory and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats and he will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left”. Even before the before the Kingdom starts there’s this judgment and dividing of people, and he will separate the sheep from the goats. 

In summary, he is standing on the Mount of Olives saying, by the way I’m coming back and when I come back, I’m going to separate the sheep from the goats. Imagine a mere mortal saying such a thing, that’s an incredible statement to make. Jesus us sitting here on the Mount of Olives, looking  across the valley of jihad, which by the way, is where the Jews believed  the scene of the final judgment would take place and Jesus calmly declared himself to be the judge of the world. This man Jesus must either be a madman or God himself, he has just calmly said I am coming back, and it is I who is going to judge the world. This is another indication that Jesus Christ himself said he was no mere mortal he is God in the flesh. Theologically this is called the incarnation, God in flesh, God became a man and walked the earth.

The next question is what type of judgment is this, because if you read this passage it sounds like this is a general judgment and that at that time he’s going to separate the sheep from the goats, and to some that sounds like a pretty general judgement. This becomes a theological issue, there are people who say there’s just one general judgment. The problem with that is that there are other passages that seem to indicate that there’s more than one judgement. There is a simple explanation to all this, without going into a lot of detail this is the  judgment that takes place at the beginning of the 1000 year reign, the Millennium, but if you go to revelation chapter 21 you discover at the end of the Millennium there’s another judgment called the great white throne judgment, where Satan and the Antichrist are judged and cast into the bottomless pit along with all those whose names at are not written in the lambs book of life.

There is clearly two main judgments, and there are in fact other judgements, so my point is that this is not one single general judgment being taught here. If we look carefully at this opening verse it talks about nations being gathered together before him. Some call this, the judgment of the nations, but as you read the passage it's obvious he's not talking about judging a whole nation he's talking about judging individuals from within and throughout all the nations of the world. This is the judgment of the gentiles (all the non-Jewish nations)  So I would say that this is a judgment on individual gentiles who went through the tribulation and through it apparently some will become Christians, some of them, but probably not many . The figure of 144,000 is mentions in the book of Revelation, probably to give signal to the limited amount who will accept Christ during this period. I’m not sure I can press this too dogmatically but clearly these are people who will go through the tribulation and because of it will turn to the Lord. 

Let’s look at the sheep and the goats and try to figure out who they represent. For all the world sounds like you get to heaven by doing a bunch of good things and you miss out if you don’t. This sound like a tough selection process with a is a very limited list,  is this what it is going to be like gaining access to heaven. Is this is what you have to do to get to heaven? The answer is, No!

This passage doesn’t say that this is and therefore you’ve made it. Look again at verse 34 “Then the king will say to those on the right hand come you bless of my father inherit the Kingdom”,. In other words he’s not saying congratulations your works got you saved he’s saying congratulations your works got you blessed. You don’t have to look any further than the Sermon on the Mount to know that blessing of the Kingdom is being rewarded in the Kingdom and as we clearly know from all kinds of passages in the New Testament. We are rewarded based on our works but saved by our faith.

In my estimation there’s a difference in the New Testament between entering the Kingdom and inheriting the blessing of Kingdom. So he’s not talking about entering the Kingdom he’s talking about inheriting the Kingdom and the inheritance has to do with receiving the rewards of the inheritance of being a faithful child of God. But not everybody gets the same inheritance, that’s the nature of an inheritance. You get your inheritance based on your relationship and your conduct, and your character. I must emphasise this is not teaching salvation by works it’s teaching rewards for a Godly life doing Godly works. 

His disciples don’t seem to really get this, and they begin to quiz him and they reiterate everything he said to them. The Lord then gives them an explanation by saying, to them, “In as much as you did it to one of the least of people you did it for me”. This is a very famous passage, and this gets quoted all the time, even by people who don’t believe the Bible. In fact, it sometimes gets misquoted  by some who try to say you got to work your way to heaven. It  gets quoted by people who just want to motivate you to give to charity, sometimes their charity, or the poor, but this is talking about much more than just giving to charity of the poor.

That may be one application of this teaching, but strictly speaking the interpretation of this verse needs to keep within the context of this passage which is talking about the tribulation and beyond. People, Saints are being rewarded because they persevered through the tribulation, and during the tribulation they had ministered to their brothers and sisters as a result of which some  came to know the Lord, and because of that and for that they will be rewarded greatly in the kingdom to come. Jesus is saying that the believing gentiles who ministered to others during the tribulation will be rewarded, and that is Jesus’ main point. This truth permeates the scripture from beginning to end, in that God blesses those who bless others. That’s taught repeatedly in the scriptures, so there is an application here that if we show mercy, we will receive a reward when we stand, not at this judgment, but at the judgment seat of Christ we are going to be rewarded. That’s the spiritual truth that transcends whatever details we want to see in the complicated end times issues and interpretations here. The fact is that when you serve others the Lord regards it as serving him, provided of course you do it in his name .

In verse 41, he says to those on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I need to make a couple of observations here, clearly these are not saved right, clearly the point is they are being cast into what is called hell, here called the everlasting fire. In verse  34, the king will say to those on his right hand, come you blessed of my father and here at the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This tells us that the Kingdom was in the mind of God from the very, very beginning, but the fire, is not said to have been prepared from the foundation of the world and secondly it was not prepared for people, it was prepared for the devil and the fallen angels. Hell was not created for people, hell was created for the devil and his demons. So, some of these people are going to join the devil there. What was their sin? For one thing it was a sin not of  commission, but a sin of omission, this is not about something people did, it was about the things they failed to do.

Let me let me remind you of a verse in John 7: 16, Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is going to come he’s going to convict the world of sin because they did not believe in me”. That’s essential, this hen is a shorthand way of saying they never really believed, because if they did, they would have done these things. They did not believe nor did they show mercy so Jesus is saying, in essence if you take all of his teaching into consideration clearly they didn’t really believe in me, and they didn’t show mercy to other people so no wonder they didn’t recognize me at the end. They didn’t trust me, and they didn’t know my word enough to know that I regard serving others as serving me, when it’s done in my name. These people didn’t recognize who Jesus or trust him enough to serve others sin his name.

Here is the judgment and it’s harsh, t starts in verse 46 and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but righteous the righteous will go into everlasting life. It’s obvious these, goat people, weren’t righteous, because we know from the book of Romans and other passages that the way you get to be righteous is by trusting in Jesus Christ, and then you are declared righteous, but they didn’t do that and because of that they experience the punishment is they’re going to be in the everlasting fire.

I’m here to tell you in the most sober and serious terms, this passage teaches there’s a heaven and the is a place of eternal separation and anguish, but the good news is you can escape the one and gain the other by simply trusting in Jesus. As matter-of-fact John 5:24 says, ”If you trust in Jesus Christ you have passed from death unto life from light to darkness and it promises there is no judgment of eternal separation from God for those who trusted in his son”. However, having said all that, I think it’s the most important part of this whole story for us today, and is there’s no question about this, and that is that this passage teaches us that when you serve other people especially in the name of the Lord, he regards it as being done unto him and he rewards us.

If there’s anything we should get out of this passage it is that God rewards those who show kindness toward his children, we just need to be more kind to each other. If nothing else in your Christian life you can start from there. You can start today, and it will profit you as well as other people. God’s judgment does not depend on the knowledge we have amassed or the fame that we have acquired or the money we have made, but on the love, we have shown to others, and the  help that we have given others in his name. And the important thing is these are the things is that anybody can do that. There are no financial or intellectual or physical barriers towards showing love and doing good in God’s name. Let me close by suggesting something else, this starts with your tongue, and we can begin that process today.