The Shepherd King

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² 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. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 

³⁴ 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. ³⁵ 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, 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 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ 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.’

⁴¹ “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. 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 welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ 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?’ ⁴⁵ 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.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46 ESV

Amen! What a word from God! What an incredible picture of the final judgment. Over the last 7 weeks, we’ve been in Matthew 24 and 25 where Jesus shared a prophetic message about the destruction of Jerusalem, the sign of His coming, and the end of the age. Moreover, we heard over and over: stay awake! Do not allow the noise and distractions drown out your faith. Take risks in faith to see how God multiplies. Today, I want to share three truths with you to help us live faithfully, wide awake, in anticipation of Jesus’ return and his final judgment.

Here’s the first truth.

Point 1: Christ will One Day Gloriously Return

Look at verses 31-33 again.

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² 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. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-33 ESV)

Jesus uses his title, “the Son of Man” so people understand that he is the one that will be coming back. Jesus himself. And when he comes back, it will be “in his glory.” I’m talking about the same glory sports teams have when they cruise through their cities after winning a championship. Except the glory of Jesus in his return will be bigger, more glorious! Jesus shares how much more glorious it will be, he says, if you don’t notice his own glory, you’ll notice the angels with him. If that wasn’t glorious enough, then the throne he sits on that puts the Iron Throne to shame will surely alert you. Don’t all act like you didn’t watch Game of Thrones. Basically, when Jesus comes back, it’s going to be obvious! You’ll know exactly when it happens.

The implication of this is simple: ALL will be subject to his rule, that’s verse 32. Sates, nations, ethnicities, and economies, they will all be gathered before Jesus. Just as when he rode the donkey into Jerusalem upending people’s thoughts on what king looks like, Jesus, in his glorious return, will return as a shepherd king: separating people like a shepherd separates the sheep and goats.

This simile is powerful because in the middle east, both sheep and goat are herded together during the day. But at night they have to separated a shepherd. I don’t quite understand why they have to be separated at night because I can’t even keep cactus alive in my house; but the point is the two animals that are co-mingled during the day will be separated when all is said and done.

Go to verse 34. ³⁴ 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.

This is where the sheep and goat simile stops and Jesus straight up says, I’m the king, with the capital K, and addresses people on the right. He says to the people on the right, “you who are blessed by my father.” This means they did not do anything to deserve inheriting the kingdom!

Family, your faith causes you to be blessed and inherit the kingdom. Not anything you did or didn’t do. If it were based on a score card, then I wouldn’t be here. In fact, many of us haven’t done enough right to counter act the wrongs in our lives. But God blesses us through Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus that we are able to inherit the kingdom. Understanding that, let’s keep reading because this is where it gets interesting at the final judgment. Verse 35.

 ³⁵ 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, 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 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ 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.’

⁴¹ “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. 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 welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ 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?’ ⁴⁵ 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 25:35-45 ESV)

This scene we just read is an adjudication. For those of you who don’t spend enough time in court or watching Law & Order, an adjudication is when a judge reviews the evidence and comes to a decision. The King just laid down evidence of what counts as faith. This is the second truth:

Point 2: Faith without Works is Worthless

It’s not really faith if you don’t live it. I’m talking to some people who think it’s faith just because they know the name of Jesus. Guess what, even the demons knew his name. Faith is lived out. It does something! The King says the people on the right did something in faith and the people on the left didn’t.

The six things Jesus mentions here:

• feeding the hungry,
• giving water to the thirsty,
• taking care of the stranger,
• clothing the naked,
• caring for the sick,
• and visiting the imprisoned,

are areas where we can practically minister in faith by meeting physical needs.

What’s more amazing is how the people responded to the evidence. I want to park right here for a second. Here’s my take away from this exchange, I want you to see this because I didn’t get it immediately: Both sides of people ask the same question “when did we see you.…” But they are asked from very different places.

• The people on the right didn’t question whether they exercised faith when ministering to the people in need around them, they questioned when they had ministered to Jesus specifically. Living in faith by meeting needs was normal for them.
• The people on the left, didn’t care about not ministering to the people who needed it. In fact, they were looking for the right opportunities to minister to needs. They were, in fact saying, “if we knew that we would be serving the king, then we would have done something. When  opportunities to minister presented themselves, they weren’t the right opportunity. Faith is not self-serving.

Jesus answers, if you did or didn’t to the least of these, you also did or didn’t do to me. Christ identifies with the person in need, so that when we are serving them, we are serving him. It’s absolutely magnificent how the King is everywhere, watching our faith in action and that is the evidence he uses to examine whether a person has faith or not.

Back when I was a kid my parents had a small business. It was their livelihood until the recession in the early 90s. And when the recession hit, my parents livelihood went belly up because their customers lost their own jobs, the businesses they had contracts with shuttered. And I remember, there were days where there was no dinner. I mean there were days where when the sun went down, so did we because there was no power.

Well, we had this neighbor down the hall. They were facing a similar plight, they were immigrants, but they shared from their nothing. One night, they ran an extension cord from their apartment to our apartment so we heat up a some instant noodles. It was all we had, just enough for my brother and me. Years later, my dad told me that the family down the hall, they were Christians. We didn’t ask them for help, they just saw a need and did something about it.

Family, we want to be a people who live out our faith. The simplest way we act on faith is by seeing the needs of the people around us and then responding to that need. We don’t do it when the opportunity is right, no, we do it period, as part of our everyday, regular lives. That’s the difference between the people on the right and the people on the left.

Here’s the big idea today:

Big Idea: Our Actions Reveal Our Identity

What is our faith worth if we are not trying to love somebody the way Jesus loves us? Atheists, agnostics, and non-Christians in general, who question our faith because people who claim to be faithful don’t actually live it regularly. It’s so sad to me that our witness is hampered because we act like everybody else instead of people who are blessed and heirs to the kingdom of God.

Here’s an argument I hear grumbling in the back of your minds: how can we demonstrate faith if there are no opportunities to do so? We live in 21^st century, suburban America. There is no way we can regularly encounter needs. Okay, so let me help you think creatively about this. Let’s look at opportunities to demonstrate faith in three categories: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

• If it’s a physical need, then meet those needs. You have a job, you have money, you have time. Unless you have no job and no money, then don’t worry, God has commissioned somebody to provide, just say something. If you have no time, then sleep less, you’re not the only busy person in the world.
• If it is an emotional need, and I know I stink at this, but go and meet that emotional need. Stop, listen, and advise. Hug. And if you get a high five from me, then know that your emotional need has been met as far as I can possibly give. I gave my wife a high-five when she told me she was pregnant with our first born, so that’s your bar, just do better than that emotionally. But really, what would it look like if we actually were there for somebody going through the emotions of life?
• If it’s a spiritual need, then you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you, pray for that person, share the reason for your hope in Jesus Christ, fill that spiritual need. You may not find the first two prevalent, but there are plenty of people who are dying spiritually. Our King Jesus is capable  of giving new life. Let’s not forget that.

This is only possible if only we would leave the safe confines of our comfortable lives and take a look around at the people you’re involved with. This is exactly what our King did. Jesus, though he was God, took the form of a human and to walk this earth like us. He understood the sins that consume us, and he decided to do about it by getting on a cross. It wasn’t just sympathy he felt. It was empathy. That’s the difference between the people on the right and left. The blessed heirs of God’s kingdom apply their faith out of empathy and don’t see people as sympathy cases and Jesus sees it. Our actions reveal our identity.

Here’s the third truth from this passage that impacts how we live today.

Point 3: Your Faith Determines Your Destination

Verse 46. “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46 ESV).

This was the last teaching Jesus gave to his disciples before making his final move to take our place on the cross on calvary. It’s no wonder they persistently acted in faith until the end of their lives —they knew their destination! Any delays in Jesus’ return was for the benefit of those who needed to place their faith in Jesus. Their mentality was live out their faith by ministering the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people around them until Jesus’ return or their death. That’s how tomorrow shapes our lives today.

Many of you know how I came to receive Jesus as my savior. I was born into a Christian family. In fact, I’ve heard the gospel so many times growing up that the words of the gospel didn’t mean anything because it was just another thing my parents said that went in one ear and out the other. I didn’t give my life to Jesus as a kid. I was a skeptic, agnostic, liar, faker, a worthless human being in the making. I didn’t care for Jesus. I was my own God. I was my own ruler of my own destiny.

I was in high school doing what I shouldn’t have been doing, when a friend of mine, who was also doing what he shouldn’t have been doing saw my spiritual needs. I was spiritually bankrupt. He convinced me to ditch school with him one day so he could take me to Christian club to share the gospel with me. He hadn’t given his life to Jesus much longer than he realized he needed live in faith. He did everything he could do to get me to a place where I could hear the gospel for the very first time. That’s where my journey of faith began.

Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he humbled himself, taking on the form of a human. He then lived as we live, and was sinless. He bore the punishment of our sins, our disobedience to God, and sacrificed himself on the cross for us. But his story didn’t end there. He died and was buried and on the third day, he was resurrected from death and people witnessed his resurrection. He is alive! That is our hope! Our king is not in a dead man who claimed to be the son of God, but the risen son of God, who loved us when we were at our worst.

Listen, I know some of you are here right now because somebody forced, nagged or bribed you to come to church. And none of that matters except what you do with this invitation. Will you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior of your life?

When we place our faith in him by admitting that we don’t have enough works and we need him to take our place, we too can be blessed and inherit the kingdom of God. Allow that to be your eternal destination. It’s not anything we did, but everything Jesus did for us.

Maybe you’ve already done that. You placed your trust in Jesus as your savior. So what’s next for you?  What are you going to do as a result of your faith? Will you act on your faith today?

Let us pray.

Father, help us recognize your glorious return. Do not allow us to be so numb that we don’t recognize you, our lord, our savior. I ask that those of us who have never received you, can receive you, just give them the courage to say, “Jesus, be the Lord of my life.” Help those of us who have placed our trust in you to stop squandering the opportunities we have to implement our faith.

God, I want to ask for forgiveness. I wasted so many opportunities to minister to people. We all have wasted so many opportunities to minister to the very least of these that you identify with. Forgive us. Let us, as your blessed children seize every opportunity now and in the future. We want to use our faith. We don’t want our faith to be empty motions. Help our faith be used for your glory.

Allow our actions reflect the faith we have in you. Just as you boldly spoke to teach us and boldly took our place on calvary, providing us with mercy, help us be bold. Thank you Jesus, come into our hearts as the true author and finisher of our faith. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.