TPC Connections

Sermon Notes

Last Days Parables of Jesus
Pt. 4
“The Sheep and Goats–Be Ready in How You Treat His Children”

Matthew 25:31-46 “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.”________________
Now, a little recap since it’s been a while since our last message in this series on the Last Days Parables of Jesus.

Following the longest prophecy of our Lord’s earthly ministry found in Matt 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, Jesus launches into 4 parables regarding BEING READY for His return.

They are:

The Parable of the evil servant–Be ready in your faithfulness
The Parable of the 10 bridesmaids–Be ready in your salvation
The Parable of the talents–Be ready in your accountability,
and this time,
The Parable of the sheep and goats–Be Ready with how you treat his children
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Now, this parable of the sheep and goats is often taught to mean that as Christians, we are to be involved in doing good deeds for the people of the world.

And that’s true–we should be involved in showing acts of kindness and mercy to, for instance,

–The homeless (which we have done in just the past few weeks), or
–The sick and hungry, or
–Any other number of ways there are to show Christian kindness to the people of the world.

And so many have taken this parable as a call to sort of a “good deeds” commission on how we’re to treat the people of the world.
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But there is a key word found in the phrase “my brethren” that shifts the focus of this parable in a big way.

“My brethren” Inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these “my brethren…”

My brethren is from the Greek word adelphoi, which Jesus only uses to refer to those who are his own.

In other words, all his born again children–Jew or Gentile!

The parable is telling us that:

How you treat his children is how you treat him!
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Remember how when Paul, when he was still Saul, was on his way to Damascus to further wreak havoc on the young, fledgling church of the Lord Jesus?

In his own words he later confessed,

“I persecuted this way (Christianity) to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women…”–Acts 22:4

But while on the road to Damascus a bright light shone around him and a voice from heaven said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”–Acts 9:4

It was the voice of Jesus!

Notice that he says, “In persecuting them you’re persecuting me!”

So this tells us straight up–in the Lord’s eyes, how you treat his children (adelphoi) is how you treat him!
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Now, the broader picture of this parable is that its about the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth.

When he comes back to the earth he will judge all the nations of the world.

It says, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with him, he will sit on the throne of His glory. And all the nations will be gathered before Him.”–25:31-32

It is at this time that “He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”–25:32-33

After separating them, the Lord will then speak to them the words we read, “I was hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, etc.”

First, to the SHEEP he says, “You clothed me, fed me, gave me a drink, visited me, came to me…and inasmuch as you did to these my brethren (adelphoi) you did it to me.”
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He then turns to the GOATS with the same words but a different outcome.

“You did NOT feed me, give me a drink, visit me, come to me, clothe me…”

And then he says, “Inasmuch 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 everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”–25:45-46
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So this parable is not only predicting the Lord’s return, but that when he returns he’s going to vindicate his own children and bring final justice for their mistreatment by the world.

The NT provides several examples of this:

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul mentions the Jews that had endlessly persecuted him and the other apostles.

Look at what he says,

–They have “persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.”–1 Thes 2:16

Then in 2 Thes 1:6-7 Paul tells the church concerning their persecutors:

–“It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble (afflict, oppress) you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God (including those who trouble, afflict, and oppress you)…”

Then in the book of Revelation we see a vast throng of souls of martyrs gathered under the altar in heaven, and they are saying:

–“…how long will it be before you judge the people of the earth for what they’ve done to us? When will you avenge our blood against those living on the earth?”–Rev 6:10

So here again we see that there will be a reckoning for those that have persecuted and hurt the Lord’s true church!

And this is the message of the Lord’s 4th parable on being ready–Watch out how you treat the Lord’s blood bought church!
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I want to leave you with a couple of thoughts:

ONE, how the world treats the Lord’s church simply reveals they aren’t saved.

Yes, they will answer to God for how they treated His people, but they will ultimately be sent into the “everlasting punishment” Jesus mentions for rejecting Christ as Savior.

So the SHEEP were saved while the GOATS were not!
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Secondly,

While we as the blood bought church will never face everlasting destruction, we are called upon by the Lord Jesus to treat one another with love, knowing that His children–flaws and all–are precious to Him!

We’re called to:

“…put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience [which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper]; 13 bearing graciously with one another, and willingly forgiving each other if one has a cause for complaint against another; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so should you forgive.”–Col 3:12-13

And I close with the one commandment Jesus gave to his followers:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”–John 13:34-35
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Be Ready in your:

FAITHFULNESS
ACCOUNTABILITY
SALVATION, and
HOW YOU TREAT THE BRETHREN