Matthew 25:31-46


31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are 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 something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 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, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This passage continues to look forward to the second coming of Christ.  People often live as if they are only accountable to themselves.  It seems we live under the assumption that we are responsible for only our own lives.  The truth is that we are all responsible to the Lord and will give an account to Him.  He is the standard of truth to which we will all be held accountable.  We are not free to determine the standards by which our lives will be measured.  Jesus is that standard and we must all be prepared to stand before Him.  He is the Person to which each of us must answer.  Pleasing ourselves will never prepare us for that day of judgment.  We are called to live lives pleasing to Him.

THERE WILL BE A TIME OF RECKONING: His first coming was a coming in humility.  His second coming will be a coming in glory.  The angels will surround Him and there will be a judgment of all of mankind.  There will be a separation between those who will be welcomed into heaven and those who will be excluded.  The image used in this teaching is that of sheep and goats.  These are animals of similar size but of very different natures.  God is the Shepherd and knows those that are His.  Men will stand before God and be judged by Him.  Men often live as if they are only responsible to themselves.  They think they are the only ones that they need to please.  This is a tragic mistake.  We were made by God and for God so will one day give an account to God.

THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL BE RECOGNIZED: Those who are recognized by the Shepherd as His sheep are those who have served the Lord Jesus.  They are recognized as those who have fed, given drink, clothed and visited the Lord in prison.  Strangely, the ones who performed these acts are at a loss as to when they performed these acts of service.  Jesus reveals to them that when they did these acts of service to the poor and needy, they were doing it to Him.  The Lord calls us to serve Him by serving others.  We cannot see the Lord, and will usually be unable to recognize the Lord when opportunities arise.  What is important, is that we readily do for others what we believe Christ would have us do.  If this were the only passage in Scripture, it would be easy for us to conclude that salvation is based on good works like feeding the poor.  We know from other passages that this is not the case.  However, this passage clearly wants to teach us that those who truly have trusted the Lord in faith will naturally do what the Lord has called them to do.

THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL BE REJECTED: The most terrifying experience any human will ever face will be to stand before God, having rejected Christ.  Those who do not respond to the invitation to worship God and trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation will be forever condemned before God.  They are condemned because they did not provide food, drink, shelter or visitation to the Lord when they say Him without those needs.  They too did not recognize that they had seen the Lord in this condition.  However, Jesus informs them that when they refused to provide those items to others, they were actually refusing Christ.  Jesus loves people and gave Himself to rescue mankind from sin.  He calls us to come into a relationship with Him.  The way we demonstrate that we are in this relationship with Him is by doing the things He would do and loving those He loves.  When our hearts grow cold to the needs of the humanity that surrounds us; we demonstrate that we are not truly in a relationship with Him.

APPLICATION: When you see someone who is hungry or thirsty give them something to eat or drink.  Visit those who are imprisoned in order to be able to share the love of Christ.  Recognize that we are representatives of Christ and we will give an account as to how we serve others.  Know that any time we serve or fail to serve; we are doing so to Jesus.

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