There was once a town drunk who gave his heart to Jesus Christ. He immediately stopped drinking and began to look for a church and had purposed in his heart that he would attend the first church he found.
Determined to turn his life around he found a church and went in. He was met at the door by a couple of ushers and they told the man, “Please go home and clean up, take a bath, cut your hair, shave your beard and then you can come back to church.”
The man left and did what they asked and came back to the same church the next week.
Once again, he was met at the door by the ushers. The former drunks said, “I have done what you asked, I am clean, my hair cut and combed, I am clean shaven and I am ready to come to church.
The ushers said to the man, “That is good but your clothes are dirty and torn up. Go get a suit so that you will look nice for church.”
A little sad, the man decided to do what they asked, after all this was the church he felt he was supposed to attend.
So he went out and bought a nice suit, determined that this time they would let him in so he could worship God.
The next Sunday the former drunk returned to that same church but this time the man was met by the two ushers and the senior pastor. Together, the three of them explained to the man that he could not come into the church because of his past. How would it look if the town drunk came to their church?
The man walked out of the church totally dejected because he desired to worship God in a house of worship with the men and women of God. He sat down on the steps in front of the church and put his head in his hands and began to cry.
As he sat there, he felt the hand of someone touch his shoulder. Before he could look up he heard a voice say, “Don’t worry my friend, I have been trying to get into that church for years and they won’t let me in either.”
The former drunk looked up and saw a man dressed in a white rob with nail pierced hands. Jesus wanted in that church too.
Last week I spoke about the parable of the talents that is found in Matthew 25. I challenged you to use those things which God has given you for His glory.
Tonight I am going to follow up that message with a message that Jesus spoke right after He gave the parable of the talents. Jesus spoke to His disciples about sheep and goats.
Which are you?
Pray
Father,
Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.
Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.
Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.
And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.
AMEN
I’m not a farmer, but my dad did haul livestock when I was a kid. So when it comes to the differences between sheep and goats, I am no expert.
According to the 4 H one difference is that sheep say baa and goats says maa. But that is not important for this message.
Sheep are gentle, quiet, and innocent animals. They are affectionate and non-aggressive. Sheep rarely give the shepherd (their leader) any problems.
Goats on the other hand are not, they cause a lot of problems.
Sheep like to graze goats like to browse.
Sheep also enjoy still waters. They do not like to drink from agitated waters. This means that they are not quick to be where there is strife, arguing, dissension or turmoil.
According to online information one of the telling differences between sheep and goats is the fact that there are many more wild goats than there are sheep. Sheep are more domesticated.
This is an important difference because it shows that sheep have a greater symbolic relationship with mankind.
Goats are smarter than sheep but this has a downside. Goats tend to depend on themselves instead of depending upon a shepherd.
The symbolism is that sheep need a shepherd.
Sheep are commonly used throughout the Bible to refer to God’s people and there is a lot symbolic meaning given towards the comparisons.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Psalm 95:6-7
The Scriptures do not give a lot of indications as the tendencies of the goat. We can see that they were useful and that they were allowed as sacrifices as long as they had no spots or blemishes.
They were considered clean and could be eaten, their skin was used to make clothing and their milk was good to drink.
But if you were to look at the reputation of the goat you would not find a good one. Even the metaphors for goats are negative. “You old goat!” refers to an old fool. “You get my goat!” refers to one person irritating another.
Sheep are gentle, quiet and easily led. Goats are pushy, self-sufficient, and headstrong.
Goats are quarrelsome and have short tempers. They rear and butt in order to establish their dominance. Sheep are passive.
In our main Scripture today, Jesus used sheep and goats to illustrate what things will be like when He comes again. All the people will be divided into 2 groups. One group will be on the Lord’s right hand and one group will be on His left.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:31-34 & 41
Yes, there are some similarities between sheep and goat but the differences are so great that Jesus said the goats would not inherit the kingdom of God.
The sheep were considered children of God and the goats were not, even though they could be together in the same herd, Jesus said that when He returns He is going to separate them.
The question is; which side are you going to be on, the right or the left? And that is not speaking politically, it is speaking eternally. Will you be called a sheep or a goat? Jesus is describing a future event in which people are being divided for what they are.
Jesus is not making them into sheep and goats. He is dividing them as He sees them. We make ourselves into sheep and goats.
The question that arises is what criteria did Jesus use to make His decisions about who were sheep and who were goats?
It seems that a closer reading of the Parable is in order so that we can see the criteria that Jesus used.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit 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 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire 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, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:34-46
The criterion that Jesus used was the response of the people to the cries of the human need that surrounded them.
Now we are getting into a delicate area.
By no means was Jesus saying or am I saying that the acts of kindness done by the sheep merit salvation.
Salvation comes from the atonement of Jesus Christ. It comes from His sacrifice for your sins and my sins.
Salvation is free and it comes when we accept Jesus as our Savior and accept His forgiveness of sin.
Once we accept Jesus as our Savior we have to realize that we must respond to the cry of the people around us and we must respond to the cry in Godly love.
Why do we need to do this? Because this is the same way God responded to us when we cried out for help and our response to the needs of others is a reflection of His dwelling in our lives.
God first loved us! 1 John 4:19
The point that Jesus is making is very clear. Each of us live
our lives every day in a certain style.
One style reflects the love that He has for us and we have for Him. This is done as we live according to His standards and as we love others.
The other style is the ones who hoards God’s love and fail to share that love with others.
When we become God’s sheep we need to allow His love to flow from us.
The sheep in the parable did not know they had done anything for God. His love flowed out from them and they didn’t even realize that it was happening.
In the book “The Divine Trap” by Richard Hoefler the author stresses that “Jesus is pointing out in this parable of judgment that the final test is not doing good deeds, but being a good person. Being a sheep not a goat. That is, being the type of person for who service to those in need is a natural expression of his or her lifestyle.” He says, “Spontaneous service becomes a holy habit.”
Spontaneous means that we are acting by an internal impulse. We are acting without fore thought. We are acting without thing what it will gain us or what it will cost us. We are doing it because it is our lifestyle.
Now people can have all kinds of different lifestyles and they can act spontaneously out of those lifestyles. It is their way of life.
This can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing.
There is an old Cherokee legend that I read the other day that illustrates what I mean.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, immorality, and ego."
He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
We have that struggle going on in us every day. The Apostle Paul stated what we all feel in Romans 7:15-20, 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
We need to decide which one we are going to feed.
Are we going to be a sheep or a goat?
We need to instill into our lives a spontaneous service and a holy habit.
Spontaneous service and holy habits are our response to the love of Christ.
Spontaneous service and holy habits are the lifestyles of one of God’s sheep.
Spontaneous service and holy habits is a true sign of a true believer.
I want to be a sheep! I don’t want to be a goat! Why? Because a goat ain't got no hope!
The goats are the ones who are not helping those in need.
The goats are the ones who continue to live in their sin.
The goats are the ones who are gossiping, back biting, and causing problems.
The goats are the ones who cannot turn away from sexual immorality.
The goats are the ones who are bitter and want to blame God for their problems.
I understand more than anyone that there are going to be times that we are tempted to sin and there are going to be times when we fail because I am not perfect, sometimes I stumble and fall.
But I am like the Apostle Paul I hate the sinful nature and desire for it to be out of my life.
The goats have no desire to change.
The goats are the ones who do not make any attempt to stop the temptation in its tracks. They are the ones who are not engaging in the church, the ones who are not studying the Word of God, who are not worshipping God, and who are not putting the things of God into practice in their personal life.
They are the ones who continue to feed the bad wolf.
This where it gets personal for each of us.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Not everyone who professes to be born again is genuinely saved. A genuinely saved person is the person who “does the will of My father.”
The Greek present tense of this Scripture means that we are to live in obedience to the will of God as the normal course of our lives. Spontaneous service becoming a holy habit.
Yes, we may fail from time to time but the general course of our life needs to have a consistency to obey the will of God.
That is the true sign of God’s sheep.
A sheep or a goat, which are you?
When that day comes and Jesus is separating the sheep from the goat, which side of Jesus will you be on? The right side or the left?
Make a decision to be a sheep, give your heart to Jesus and do the will of God. Cry for the people who are lost and do something about it. Help those who are in need. Pray for each other, love one another.
Don’t be bitter and don’t bicker and complain. Do your best to live for God in righteousness and when you do fail, be quick to seek forgiveness and work hard on not failing again.
Make a decision to be a sheep that will be placed at the right hand of mercy and grace and hear the words of God, when He says to you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
