Matthew 25:31-46 The Greatest Divide

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsek. I'm the lead pastor here, and as Dave reminded us all, it is Mother's Day, and so what we encourage you to do every

Mother's Day is to reach out to your mom. It's really a beautiful thing that we live in a culture that still recognizes and honors that role in our lives, and as Dave said so eloquently, all of us came from a mom, every single one of us, including our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who had a mom as well, and so at the end of the day, it's a glorious opportunity that we have.

I encourage you, if you're able and if that's an option for you, to be able to reach out to your mom this afternoon, and some of you are like, oh, no, wait, that's today.

It's not too late, and so you can reach out to your mom this afternoon, and I'm sure she would appreciate some kind of communication from you.

I'm really glad to have the chance to gather together this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. Our church, I want to point out that our church is just one little brushstroke in the big picture painting of what

God is doing globally, and it's a privilege that we have to be a part of the whole big painting of what

He's doing, but we happen to be, and I would say this with a bit of bias, we happen to be my favorite brushstroke in the painting, so Recast is my favorite of the churches that He is doing and getting together, and so I'm really grateful for us, and introducing the passage that we're going to be looking at this morning,

I want to start by saying that we believe that the Bible is true, and I don't mean by that that we just believe the parts that we like are true or the parts that encourage us are true or the parts that match the way that we think already are true, but we believe that the difficult parts are true as well, and the interesting thing is,

I have not done this, I have not done, in 12 years of preaching, I've never done a Mother's Day message, and we're not breaking that tradition today, because our conviction is that all of God's word is necessary.

We all need to hear all of the word of God, that includes mothers, that includes fathers, that includes single people, that includes children and teens, and all of us need the word of God, and so I'm going right through the book of Matthew, and this is a tough text we're looking at today.

We believe that all of it's true, and that's the difficult parts, that's the parts that declare a holy standard for our lives, we believe the parts that shine a light into the dark corners of our sinful hearts, we believe the parts that show us

God's wrath toward those who reject Him, and our passage this morning is indeed about judgment.

Now you go, how insensitive, Don, to talk about judgment on Mother's Day. We all need to hear it, we all need to hear it, and so if that makes me insensitive, well, that's it, but it's the word of God, and at the end of the day,

I think it's valuable for even moms to hear this kind of message. Not just how awesome you are as a mom, but what

God is calling us all to together in community in this standard that He has for us. So we're wrapping up the last section of teaching in the book of Matthew for a period of time, not the very end of the book, but the end of where we're gonna be at in the book for a while, and for the past two chapters we've been seeing

Jesus talking about His return. It's been one big chunk of teaching, I've broken it up into multiple sermons.

It was basically a sermon from Jesus on the Mount of Olives that was given all in one setting, all at one context, and so we've kind of taken that off in Matthew 24 and through the end of chapter 25, and He's told us we don't know when

He is returning. He has told us His return is going to be sudden. He's told us His return is going to be conspicuous.

You're not gonna be left going, I wonder if that was Him. You're gonna know it. We should live in a way, He's told us, that is always ready.

He has told us we should be ready for a long wait, and so should be prepared to be faithful to the end, and we should live lives that are productive using the resources and the responsibilities that He's given to us so that we can further

His kingdom by giving Him a return on His investment in us. And now He tells us what

His return will mean for all of humanity. Here, this is how He wraps it up. This is how

He chooses to end His answer to the disciples' question, when will you return and what will be the sign of your return?

He says there's a future day when He will return in judgment. And I'm open to some private discussions about how

I see this judgment fitting into the entire end times, that kind of timeline thing, but we must make sure that our attempts at understanding a timeline of the end, which many of us have done, that that never gets in the way of what

Jesus is emphasizing in these passages for the here and now. For that reason, I'm not gonna work to explain how this passage fits into a future timeline, and Jesus didn't seem to be that concerned about it either when

He delivered it. And at the end of the day, I'd love to sit down in my office or chat with you over a text or email or whatever you'd prefer if you have questions about how the end times rolls out.

But instead, note what Jesus does say here in the text, and I'm gonna give you a little bit of some of the things that He says before we read it together.

He will return in glory. Anybody glad for that? Is that a solace? Is that a comfort?

I hope you take that on as comfort. He will return in glory. He will indeed sit on a glorious throne.

But He also will indeed divide humanity. According to this text, into two groups.

He's gonna divide humanity into two groups. Not three groups, not six groups, but two groups.

And so open your Bibles if you're not already there to Matthew chapter 25, and we're gonna read a little bit of a larger chunk to conclude this series,

Matthew 25, 31 through 46. You'll see that it's all one big section of story that Jesus tells.

And let's read this passage about the greatest divide. The greatest divide ever will be between the sheep and the goats.

We're gonna wrap this message up this week. We're gonna save chapters 26, 27, and 28 of Matthew for another day, and we're gonna go over to 1

Timothy over the summer, and then in the fall, we're gonna take on the

Song of Songs. And so, everybody's like, what? Yep, we're gonna try it. We're gonna give it a shot. So we'll see how that works.

But yeah, follow along, Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 through the end of the chapter.

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 peoples, 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. And 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 as 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.

And 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. I was 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.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You so much for Your Word that guides and directs us into the realities of life, the things that are going on behind the scenes.

There's so much that we take in with our senses, and we've had a week of assessing and analyzing things based on our ability to see them, our ability to hear them, our ability to taste, our ability to touch.

And these five senses that You've given to us are amazing, and at the end of the day, they can also mislead us.

And so, Father, I pray that You would guide us with eyes to see the spiritual realities of what's really going on here, that we have an opportunity to serve

You, having never seen You. We have an opportunity to serve

You and to give You something to drink, to give You something to eat, to visit You, to be hospitable to You.

And I pray that that would become clear through the message that You have for us through this text of Scripture today.

Father, I thank You so much for Your grace and Your mercy to bring these truths to us. I pray that You would allow no distractions to get in the way of Your Word and what it desires to communicate to each person that's here this morning.

I believe that nobody is here on accident. And everybody is here exactly where they need to be right now. And so,

Father, I pray that You would be faithful to bring Your Word by Your powerful Spirit into hearts that need it, for encouragement, for correction, and even maybe for salvation this morning.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, just like every week, I encourage you to get comfortable, as comfortable as possible, in a passage that's talking about judgment, but if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, those are available back there.

Our whole purpose of the next 30 minutes or so is to keep our attention and focus on the

Word of God as much as possible before we come to some singing. And so, as much as possible, just ask

God to speak to you what He desires to communicate to you in your heart this morning. This lesson from Jesus comes in the context of the disciples asking

Him two related questions way back at the beginning of chapter 24, a couple chapters ago, several sermons ago, a couple of months ago, we saw these two questions.

When will you return, His disciples asked Him, and what will be the sign of your returning?

In other words, when is it going to happen, and can you give us a heads up about it? Could you send us a note, send us a message, send us a sign in the clouds, something that tells us when it's going to go down.

And He spent the last two chapters telling them to be less concerned about knowing when. What's the first question that often crops up into our mind when we think about the return of Christ?

When? He says, stop it, cut it out, don't worry about that, live in the now in a way that is always ready for the when.

His concern is focused on how we live while we wait all throughout these two chapters.

His true servants are in with Him for the long haul, He said. His servants will be working for Him when

He returns. His servants will use their resources and abilities and responsibilities to bring increase to the investment that He's made in them, and when

He returns, He will find His people faithfully serving one another. But in this text, we find a pretty serious warning.

And I would suggest to you that this warning is first and foremost to check and make sure that you are indeed all in with Jesus.

That's an intentional purpose of the message this morning. This should be a section of scripture where week after week, you've noticed that there's been a refining of your confidence in the salvation you have received through Jesus Christ.

Multiple opportunities to look and say, is this true of me? Well, the question that's going to be asked this morning is, what's true of you?

Do you love one another? Do you love the people of God with impartiality?

Do you love the people of God with impartiality? That's the question, that's the test that's being given to us this morning. And what's at stake is pretty stern, it's pretty severe, it's a significant warning here in the text.

You heard me read it, by the end, it's pretty dire. But he once again in verse 31 affirms that he will indeed return, kind of thinking of the flows, he is going to return and all of his angels will come with him.

And on that day, he will sit on his glorious throne and the nations will all be brought before him.

The word glory occurs twice in this one verse starting off our text showing that his return will be characterized by dazzling brilliance.

He will come in his own glory. Do you realize that Jesus Christ has his own inherent glory?

All of our glories are borrowed, but his glory is inherent as God in flesh.

He will come in his own glory and he will sit on a glorious throne. He is not mere royalty, but he is dazzling royalty.

He is divine royalty. And the purpose for which all will be gathered before him is shown in the text to be separation.

It is to be division. The good shepherd will begin to divide humanity into two groups.

When he comes back, that's what he's coming back to do. In other passages, he speaks of this event as a harvest.

So he talks about this event a lot and he uses different metaphors. So he talks in terms of a harvest where there's a whole field and the whole field is harvested, but there's weeds in with the wheat and he harvests them and in the end, what does he do with the weeds?

He separates them out. What does he do with the wheat? He separates it out. In another parable, probably one that you maybe don't know, it's a really small short parable that only occurs in one of the gospels, he likens his kingdom to a dragnet.

A net being pulled, trolling behind a boat that just kind of as the boat goes along, it collects all kinds of sea creatures, all kinds of stuff from the lake.

And then what does the fisherman do at the end? He pulls that thing up to shore, sits on the beach and separates the edible from the inedible, the good from the bad.

So he spoke about this event in many ways, in many parables and in many contexts, but this passage is not a parable.

You'll hear people talk about the parable of the sheep and the goats. This is not a parable at all. It uses a metaphor, but it's not a parable.

It's a true accounting of what's going to happen. The metaphor occurs in verses 32 and 33, but he states the reference of the metaphor right up front to be clear what he's talking about.

The king will not separate sheep and goats. No, no, no. What is he separating? It says in the text, the king will separate people, people, in the same way that a shepherd would separate sheep and goats.

You're going to go, is that routine? Is that a normal practice for shepherds? What context does that happen?

But yes, it was actually extremely routine, extremely daily, mundane kind of shepherd 101 is you keep the goats, you separate them at the end of the day.

You see, during the day, the sheep and the goats would frolic together and mingle as the shepherd led them both.

But as evening would fall, the goats would be separated every evening from the sheep because the goats are much more sensitive to cold weather.

They would be housed or kept in a different pen, in a different location, often under cover to avoid frost.

The sheep were hardy and could handle it. The goats could not. This common practice is likely what

Jesus is using for his metaphor for separation. Those who have, think about this metaphor, just listen to it with ears to hear.

Those who have mingled together all day will be separated as the day comes to an end.

Do you see what he's getting at here? Those who have been combined and unable to tell the difference and just playing together on the, you know, up on the hillsides and grazing together and drinking together and doing all this stuff together, at the end of the day, will be separated.

And the sheep will be placed on the right hand of favor, but the goats will be placed on the left hand.

Notice that in verse 34, the Son of Man, he's called the Son of Man in verse 31 and his title has changed.

He's given himself a new title here. He's clarifying who is this Son of Man who's coming to do this separating.

In verse 34, he's now identified. What's he called in verse 34? The King.

The Son of Man who comes in verse 31 proves himself as he sits on that glorious throne.

He is the King. And the King will say something ever so important to the sheep on his right hand.

Verse 34 is kind of a crux of this passage. It's a center point where he declares this to the sheep who are on his right.

He separated them out now and this is his declaration. Come, come you who are blessed by my

Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

You want to hear that? I want to hear that. Come you who are blessed by my

Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Well, let me make three important observations about this one verse because it's that important in this text and it's important before we go on to see the things that the sheep did for the shepherd because they did indeed serve the shepherd.

That's what grabs our attention in this text. They're feeding him, they're clothing him, they're welcoming him, they're doing, doing, doing.

How many of you just have a nice American mind that gravitates towards the doing of things?

Anybody? Seven of us. The rest of you are like, no, I don't really do much at all.

I think our hearts, I think generally speaking, we're wired to pay attention to the doing of things more than we are to the blessing that's in this passage.

So we miss this at first reading and we go, oh, we got to do a bunch. There's a bunch of stuff to do in this and we better get busy doing it and that's where our hearts and our minds gravitate, but we need to take a pause at verse 34 and see what he's saying first before we get to the doing.

That's the trick about scripture is how often we skip over the first half of the epistles, the first half of the letters where Paul is expressing the gospel in clear terms, oh,

I know that, and then we get to the doing. We take it all out of context and take the latter half of every one of his letters where he basically tells us to do stuff.

You've got to be resting someplace first before you understand, you've got to have strength given to you by God, you've got to have a firm foundation, you have to have a place from which to launch out into the world and that is a firm foundation of salvation through Jesus Christ and it's here in the text, you just don't see it at first.

So three observations about this verse before we get into the doing. First note that the son of man, who's also called the king, mentions his father in verse 34 and this is just a side note, but it's valuable.

The father has granted judgment to the son. Jesus is not merely the savior but he is also the judge and he is also the son of the father in heaven.

He is the second person. We see the trinity present, the Holy Spirit isn't mentioned here but we see at least the divinity of the son here in the text, the right given by the father to be the judge of all.

The second thing that's worth noting, probably has more practical implications for us, that being blessed by the father is the first and most fundamental thing stated about the sheep.

What is the first thing we know about the sheep other than that they're separated to the right hand of the judge?

What we find out is that they're blessed by the father.

Jesus in judgment doesn't begin with their works or their deeds but the blessing to them begins with God himself blessing them.

This is not a veiled reference, it's not a veiled reference to grace at all but rather it is the very definition of grace.

Before any mention of works, before any mention of feeding the poor, before any mention of the good done to society or to the church or to the least of these my brothers, before any of that is mentioned in this judgment, these sheep are called what?

Blessed by my father. They're already in a position of blessing.

Faith in Jesus for salvation is obviously not explicitly stated here but as your pastor and as a student of the word,

I know of no other way of coming into the blessing of the father except through faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the clear testimony of the New Testament. Without faith, it is impossible to please

God and Jesus declared that he is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the father except through him.

You guys have it. The consistent message in the New Testament is that being blessed by the father requires faith in the son.

And this text takes that for granted in the phrase, you who are blessed by my father.

Are you guys getting it? Are you getting it? The sheep are identified as the saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

The third significant observation about verse 34 is that the sheep are invited into a kingdom prepared for you specifically from the foundation of the world.

The word elect is used in scripture as a term to describe those who are saved. The word elect meaning chosen, those who are chosen by God and there's a kingdom that has been prepared for the specific sheep.

He's speaking to a specific group of people saying, I've prepared something from you from before the foundation of the world for you.

This has been prepared for you sheep specifically. Now this gets kind of mind bending and it really ought to.

But here is the significance that we should take away from this this morning. It has always been the plan.

It has always been the plan of God from the beginning to demonstrate his kindness by saving a people through a grand display of his love and kindness.

It's always been the plan of God. This has been the great purpose of creation. This has been the great purpose of all of history.

We are living an elaborate artistic display of God's character in real time.

His art, his art is not two dimensional like our paintings or our drawings. His art is not even merely three dimensional like our sculptures, but his art encompasses the movement of history, the motion of electrons around atoms, the countless swirl of unique snowflakes in a

February blizzard, and even the darkness of night with pain and betrayal.

All of it, all of it being used by God. All of it bringing us an ever expanding attempt at displaying him to a created world.

And redemption and rescue was there from the very beginning and it will indeed be realized in the end.

Are you glad? Redemption and rescue has been in the plan from the beginning.

The ones who are saved by the gracious blessing of the father in verse 34 have been faithful to honor and serve their king.

By the time that this judgment happens, they were saved by the blessing of God, by faith in his son, and then they go out and they have proved themselves to indeed be his children by their actions and the things that they've done.

These deeds are not the basis of their salvation, but rather the outworking of it. And so hear me carefully church, this is a word for you, church.

It serves as a reminder of what his salvation means for us. If we are saved by him, we will indeed love him.

Even to the extent that we get a little bit of a surprise here in the text, we love him even to the extent that we might find that we have accidentally served him.

Even accidentally served him. Look at verses 35 through 40, that's the next big chunk here.

The sheep are now called, by the way in the middle of this is kind of cool, in verse 37, the sheep are now called the righteous.

They're called the righteous. That's a cool title. And it says they fed Jesus when he was hungry.

They gave him a drink when he was thirsty. They welcomed him. They welcomed him when he was a stranger.

They clothed him when he was naked. They visited him when he was sick.

Of course, not with COVID, but I mean, that's a different story altogether. I mean, who would ever visit somebody who's sick, right?

Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. They came to him while he was in prison.

And they're shocked. They're shocked. Do you see it in the text? They're stunned.

They're on their heels. It isn't so much that they can't remember going and visiting people at the hospital. It's not so much that they don't remember the time that they spent in the jail visiting those who obviously were at the end of themselves and rock bottom.

It's not that there's any confusion about when did we feed the hungry. Well, I remember going and feeding the hungry.

Of course, we did that all the time, but we did all that. But certainly we would have remembered

Jesus coming through the line at the soup kitchen. Certainly I would have remembered that face.

Surely they would have remembered seeing him as they were passing out water bottles. They're stumped.

When did we serve you? When did we clothe you?

When did we buy winter jackets for you? When did we do this? We need an answer because we just don't remember.

Note that the fact that they cannot remember serving Jesus specifically serves to show that these actions were not for merit.

They don't even make the connection. They have been blessed by their Father through grace.

They have had changed hearts. They served others faithfully by nature.

Not out of fear, not out of some obligation or some duty to earn something. They have done so out of a changed heart.

They are new creations, and you know what they want to do? They want to serve. They just want to serve others.

They just want to help. They just want to use what God has given to them to bless others. Not out of obligation and not at all in hope that they would earn their way into heaven.

That's already a foregone conclusion to them. They have stability. As a matter of fact, the purpose and the reason that they serve is because they know that they've got a firm foundation.

They know that they're in with Christ. They've got nothing to lose. But the focal point of the judgment comes in verse 40, whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

It's important to see the two things that Jesus is saying here. First is that Jesus is speaking quite specifically about serving fellow believers.

We miss that in the text, don't we? This judgment is fundamentally about the relationship.

This is kind of, to have to take it on, you have to see it in the text. He says, to the least of these, my brothers,

I didn't read a commentary or hear anybody on the text that did not agree with this statement. Scholars and people who study the language and understand the language much better than I do, that it was originally revealed in, all unanimously agree that this is a passage talking about how we treat the lowly among us, believers.

We know that we're supposed to love each other, right? How many of you knew that? Go ahead, I'm serious, raise your hand if you know that you're supposed to love one another.

You already have some notion of that. You also would know, probably many of you would be familiar with the phrase,

God is love from first John. And further in John, that the world should know that we are

Christians by our love. It's in the context of loving one another.

And anyone who says that they love God, says John in his letter, first letter, anyone who says that they love

God but hates his brother in the faith is a liar and the truth is not in him.

He does not love God if he does not love his brother and sister in Christ. But did you realize that the way you treat your brothers and sisters is so fundamental to the heart of Jesus, that it's literally the category by which he judges?

Here the very hallmark of salvation is a love for the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Does this passage,

I hope it snaps into focus, the danger of a current trend in our culture, certainly accelerated by COVID, but an acceleration of what

I would call churchless Christians. Do you see the danger in that?

It's dangerous to conceive of such a thing, to imagine such a thing.

A churchless Christian, how do you love your brothers and sister? How do you love his church without being a part of his church?

Let me state this as bluntly as possible to avoid confusion. If you have been saved, you will love his people.

If you have been saved, you will love his people. If you have no love for his people, this is an assessment time church, this is an assessment of your own heart.

If you have no love for his people and you're sitting here going, yep, that's gone, that was gone a couple weeks into this whole thing.

If you have no love for his people, then there's only one answer. It is seek his salvation by coming to the cross and asking him to save you, and he will give you a new heart that loves to serve his people, and especially those who are down and out.

It's clear that Jesus wants us to love his people, but I think some of you, I can see the questions in your mind right now.

Some of you, the look on your face is almost barking the question, what about people outside of the church?

Okay, so this is, we're supposed to love the people of God, we're supposed to love the least of these, our brothers, but what about those out in the world?

What about them, Don? What about those, Jesus? We are to indeed love all people, and Jesus even told his followers to love their enemies.

But I want to clarify something. I love how Paul walks lockstep with Jesus in such a way on this subject of the primacy of loving the church that it's like they were definitely talking the same thing.

In Galatians 6 .10, Paul writes this, the Apostle Paul, so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone.

Good so far? Good so far? Love everyone. Okay, do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Do good to everybody, but especially those who are of the household of faith.

Do you see it in Jesus? Whatever you have done to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you've done it unto me.

Do good to all, and especially the household of faith. But this leads to the second observation from verse 40.

Why is love for his people so important to Jesus? Why does it matter so much to him? Well, we see in this verse how closely

Jesus identifies with his followers. He calls us the body of which he is the head.

He is so vitally connected to his people that what is done to them is done to him. To such a degree, and it's for this reason that Jesus confronts

Saul. Remember Saul who eventually, he changed his name to Paul, but Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest himself some

Christians. And what did Jesus say when he met Saul on that road? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church?

Why are you persecuting my ... Is that what he said? Oh. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

What kind of affinity does Jesus have with his people? Like that.

How close is he to you if you're his? What is done to you is done to him.

I'm going to think that's pretty astonishing. I got a little bit of chills running up my spine right now because that's a big deal.

That's how close he is to his people. Whatever is done to you is done to him.

Well, Saul answers, and by the way, who are you? Like, who are you,

Lord? I don't remember persecuting you. You're bright and shiny. I think I'd remember that. Who are you?

Just like these sheep. Don't remember feeding him. Don't remember giving him a glass of water or showing hospitality and welcoming him into their home when he had no other place to stay.

This identification should go to another point in our minds, not clear from the text, not explicitly stated, but indeed a really good inference from this text, and that is simply this.

Jesus is a zealous defender of his people. He's a zealous defender of his people.

We see in a previous parable where he cut to pieces an earlier servant who began to beat and abuse his other servants.

Pretty grotesque reminder that Jesus is a fierce defender of his family. How many of you are glad you have a fierce defender?

You have a real -life avenger. Doesn't wear a cape or spandex,

I don't think, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't. But he's a real avenger of his people, and he addresses the goats, and he addresses them in the opposite language of the sheep.

In the sheep, verses 34 and 41, you can look at them. They're kind of parallel. It's kind of amazing how he does this.

He says one thing to the sheep that's good, and he says something to the goats that's really bad.

He says, the sheep, blessed by my Father, the goats, cursed, cursed in their faithlessness.

And he says to the sheep, come into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

But he sends out the goats from his presence, from the presence of the king, into eternal fire prepared, not for them, prepared for the punishment of Satan and his demons.

Who are these goats? Certainly not the greatest of all time, right? Not that kind of goat.

They refused to serve him. They had no love, no love in their hearts for him or for his people.

And these are equally surprised that they've missed opportunities to minister to Jesus. They did not serve the lowly among his brothers, and they have not loved him.

They have not loved him. They have not trusted him. They have worked for themselves. The goats lacked love.

And I want to point out that they may have actually served his people. These are people who may have volunteered.

These are people who may have done stuff. But they did so, at least implied in what Jesus has to say to them, they did so with partiality.

Jesus makes a point to speak of the service of the least of these. And the implication is that the goats may have been happy to serve, as long as you're wealthy.

They may have been happy to serve the famous. They may have been happy to serve the powerful.

Why would they gladly serve the wealthy, the famous, and the powerful? Why would they do that? Any ideas?

Because there's a chance of return on that, isn't there? I scratch your back, you scratch mine. So that's the expectation of the goats.

Who did they serve in the end? Themselves. They served themselves.

Their service has always had a self -serving foundation. So the greatest separation is finalized in verse 46, and it is stark, it is uncomfortable, and it is true.

The people on his left will be sent away into eternal punishment, and the righteous will be ushered into eternal life.

For the believer listening to this message, which I think comprises most of us in the room, you should have beating in your chest right now a double dose of fuel for your mission.

You have the deep thanks and gratitude of salvation given to you by Jesus that has changed your heart towards service.

You have the nitrous injected into your engine, and you're revved up and ready to serve as people without prejudice.

You are ready, and your heart even now is saying, let's go! Let's do this! Let's get out there and get loving one another.

But you also have been infused with what I would say is probably a pretty dark sorrow for the state of the lost as you read this text.

I hope you are. And just as much as the fuel of gratitude for your own salvation pushes you out into loving service within the church, the reality of the fate of those who reject the

King pushes you outward toward the purpose of proclaiming the King to anyone who will listen.

Anybody who will listen to your voice, you're ready to share it with them. You see, you have a two -pronged purpose, church, to serve

Jesus by serving His body, and to serve Jesus by proclaiming His salvation to the world out there.

You have beating in your chest a heart for His people, and you also have beating in your chest a heart for more to become

His sheep. So let's come to communion this morning with a sober reminder of the deep blessings of our

Father in sending His Son to save us from our sins. He has brought us into the blessings of the

Father by dying on the cross to cover what we could not make right, our sin against a holy and righteous

God. And if that's true of you, and you've asked Jesus Christ to rescue you from your sins, and you've asked

Him to be your King, then I encourage you to go to one of the tables in the back and take the cracker to remember His body that was broken in our place, and take the juice to remember

His blood that was shed for us. And then let's go out from here with a deep gratitude that fuels our love for people.

And let's also go with a deep sorrow that leads us to a bold proclamation of the gospel to those who do not yet love

Him. Let's pray. Father, our understanding of final judgment can be a scary thing.

We read this and we say, wait, can this be real? Is this accurate? This right hand and this left hand business, this division among humanity can strike us as harsh, but it's so clear from Scripture.

Not just this passage, but so many that speak of this final judgment. So Father, I pray that you would motivate your people, that this would not just be one more message about, oh yeah, that's bad for them and good for us.

But at the end of the day, it would be fuel. That you would ignite our hearts in love for you and love for your people in such a way that is bold with our testimony and is eager to serve anyone, anyone regardless of position and status without partiality.

Father, I pray that the byproduct of this message proclaimed today would be a transformation in the way that we think about our lives, the way that we sow our days, the way that we spend them because of you.

And I pray that if there's anyone here who does not know you, whose destiny would be as one of those goats,

Father, I pray that today might be a day of salvation. They can jump from one side of the flock to the other in simple terms of putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.

So Father, if there's anybody in that camp who says at the end of the day, yes, I have lived for myself, I pray that today might be a day of transformation by prayer that they might ask

Jesus Christ to save them, to rescue them, and to give them a new heart to serve others. Father, give us faithfulness to the task that you have before us.

And as we come to communion, thank you for the sacrifice that has purchased us by the broken body and the blood of your son.