Matthew 25:31-46--The Final Judgment

Matthew 25:31-46 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.25.31-Matt.25.46
The Final Judgment
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.”

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This passage is how Jesus ends the Olivet Discourse.  He points back once again to Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Son of Man that many would recognize.  he will come in all of His glory with his angels and will sit on His throne and judge all the nations and separate "the sheep" (the real believers) from "the goats" (those who pretended and looked to be sheep until you got up close to them).

To those that are the sheep that belong to The Good Shepherd, the King will say, "Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."  Interesting.....we hear a lot of other things that God has ordained from the foundation of the world (before time began), but did you know that God prepared Heaven for His elect before the foundation of the world?

Then Jesus outlines was in which this group demonstrated that their faith was genuine, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you game 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."  There are all things that we as the Church can and still should be doing in these difficult times.  It is not only our duty but our privilege to love and care for one another as members of the body of Christ.

​The "sheep" are confused 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?’  A good question since a good number of them were not alive when Jesus walked the earth in flesh and blood.  Jesus replies, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."  This ties many of the other teachings together because now we can understand why the servant mistreating the other servant(s) was thrown into hell, because how we treat other believers counts as how we treat Christ Himself.  It also returns us to the teaching that Jesus has been trying to get across to the disciples since He's set His eyes on the cross and His return to Jerusalem.  Those that want to be greatest in the kingdom of God, but be a servant to all, and also we return to the idea that we will be recognized as children of God for not only how we love God and His commandments and our obedience to them, but how we love others--"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Notice that the identity of these true believers had so changed that they had just done what comes naturally to them.  They didn't have any special reason to do the things that the King mentioned, it's just who they were and what they did.  That's just who we are and what we do.  A butterfly acts like a butterfly because it's a butterfly.

​Then King Jesus has a similar, but different conversation with "the goats."  Notice this time though that Jesus does not say that they punishment that they were about to enter was prepared for them--hell and the lake of fire were prepared for the devil and his angels.  Men choose to go there when like the devil we choose to rebel against God and desire the authority and the worship that only He deserves.  I believe the King will be saddened to have to throw those out of His kingdom who have rejected Him and His authority.  There will be no illegal immigration into heaven--everyone who enters must be a citizen of the kingdom, and there is only one Way that our citizenship changes from the kingdom of darkness that is of this world to the kingdom of light which is of heaven.

The King lays out the evidence of why these people are not His people and are clearly citizens of a different kind of kingdom.  He lists the same things but this time says they did not feed Him, give Him drink, welcome Him, clothe Him, visit Him, or come see Him.  They too are surprised that they slighted the King in these ways and they too get a similar answer that whatever was done to the least of the King's servants was done unto Him.  Remember, we are all ambassadors of the King, so we officially represent the kingdom and whatever attacks come upon us are direct attacks against the King and the kingdom.  We are also children of God by adoption and family takes it very seriously when someone mistreats one of their own.  Our "big brother" Jesus and God the Father have our back (and every other part of us).

"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  It is important to say here that "the righteous" are not justified and declared righteous by their works that we see here--justified before men perhaps, but not before God.  The works here are simply evidence of the metamorphosis (being "born again") that has happened.  It is the righteous of Christ alone that will be recognized and we will be clothed in, just like in the parable of the wedding feast--those who were not in the proper wedding garments provided by the King would be cast out.  We cannot come to Christ dressed in any other form of righteousness other that that which He provides and clothes us with.

"When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne."
(The Solid Rock, Edward Mote, ca.1834)