Intro.:
1. Illust. Just after World War II as all the American servicemen were coming home, a sailor called his parents from San Diego. He said he was bringing a buddy home w/ him. "You see Mom," he said, "my friend is in pretty bad shape. He was severely wounded. He only has one arm, one leg, and one eye. So I thought he could come live with us." After a few moments of silence the mother said, "Of course, let him come & stay a little while with us." But from the hesitancy in her voice the sailor realized they would not want to be burdened with a handicapped person for long. Two days later the parents received a telegram that their son had jumped from a hotel window. When they received the body it had one arm, one leg, and one eye.
2. On the Day of Judgment there will be a group of people echoing what those parents must surely have said--"IF ONLY WE HAD KNOWN!"
a. "If only we had known that helping others was helping Jesus."
b. "If only we had known that serving others was serving Christ."
c. "How differently we would have lived our lives!"
3. In the latter part of Matt. 24 Jesus begins to speak concerning the Day of Judgment. In Matt. 25 he relates 2 parables which teach:
a. Need to be ready because Jesus' return unexpected (10 Virgins).
b. Need to be found busy when Jesus returns (The Talents).
c. But in Matt. 25:31 . . .
1) Jesus puts aside the parables & begins to speak plainly.
2) What we need to be found busy doing when Jesus returns.
I. THERE WILL BE A JUDGMENT DAY (31-33).
A. The Judgment will occur when Jesus returns (31).
1. We do not know when that will be ("As a theif").
2. Therefore we must always be prepared.
B. The Judgment will involve everyone who has ever lived (32a--"nations")
1. "For we must ALL appear before the j. s. of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:10).
2. "Judged EVERY MAN according to their works" (Rev. 20:13).
C. The Judgment will involve a separation (32b-33).
1. There can be no separation now (cf. Matt. 13--The Tares).
2. The separation, when it comes, will be an easy one.
a. As easy as separating sheep from goats.
b. Any shepherd can do this all day long w/o making a mistake!
II. THERE WILL BE A REWARD FOR THE RIGHTEOUS (34-40).
A. The reason for their reward . . . THEY GAVE.
1. Boiled down, the essence of Christianity is GIVING (Acts 20:35).
2. World defines a Christian in the very terms used in this passage!
a. A Christian is someone who feeds the hungry.
b. A Christian is someone who clothes the naked.
c. A Christian is someone who visits sick & in prison.
3. Who does the world think is more of a Christian--Mother Teresa or Jimmy Swaggert?
B. THEY GAVE WITHOUT THOUGHT OF REWARD.
1. This is the very type of giving that Jesus commanded (Matt. 6:1-4).
2. Their good behavior had become "second nature."
C. THEY GAVE WHAT WAS NEEDED.
1. Notice the material & non-material in vv. 35-36.
2. How quick we are to pull out our wallets when the needs of someone may be non-material in nature!
D. THEY GAVE IN SIMPLE THINGS.
1. What they gave did not involve very much.
a. A meal; a place to stay; some clothes; some time.
b. Even a cup of cold water is not w/o reward (Matt. 10:42).
2. Even the poorest among us have the simple things to give!
3. When we consider needs of world we often become discouraged.
a. Incredible needs in Africa, Asia, etc.
b. Can't begin to make a dent--end up doing nothing.
4. It is at this point that we need to take a look at Jesus' ministry.
a. Jesus could have healed every sick person in the world--didn't.
b. Jesus could have fed every hungry person in the world--didn't.
c. Dealt w/ people individually--as he came in contact w/ them.
d. Surely he expects no more from us!
E. THEY GAVE TO JESUS CHRIST.
1. This is the most remarkable thing in the whole passage!
a. Somehow Saul in persecuting Christians was persecuting Christ.
b. Somehow when I help those in need I am helping Christ!
2. Illust. This is the basis for Mother Teresa's work among the "poorest of the poor" and the "lowest of the low." She is able to see each individual as the image of God & ministers to them!
III. THERE WILL BE A PUNISHMENT FOR THE WICKED (41-46).
A. The reason for their punishment . . . THEY NEGLECTED THEIR DUTY.
1. No terrible sins are charged to these folk!
a. Not murderers, adulterers, liars, cheats, etc.
b. Know from elsewhere that these will not inherit eternal life.
2. But that's not the point of this passage!
a. These folks are probably good moral people--they just failed to see the fellow human beings as people created in God's image!
b. "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent; that's the essence of inhumanity to man" (George Bernard Shaw).
B. What is so indicting is that the wicked are probably people who are not too different from you & me.
1. The ONLY difference given is what they did & didn't ... DO!
a. Each of us are surrounded by those in need.
b. Each of us have the simple things to give.
c. Each of us have the same Lord who commands self-sacrifice.
2. The lesson the damned failed to learn is one we must never forget:
a. Responding to those in need is in fact responding to Jesus Christ.
b. Failing to respond to those in need is failing to respond to Jesus Christ.
HOW THE GREAT GUEST CAME
By Edwin Markham
Before the cathedral in grandeur rose
At Ingelburg where the Danube goes;
Before its forest of silver spire
Went airily up to the clouds and fires;
Before the oak had ready a beam,
While yet the arch was stone and dream--
There where the altar was later laid,
Conrad the cobbler, plied his trade.
It happened one day at the year's white end--
Two neighbors called in on their old-time friend;
And they found the shop, so meager and mean,
Made gay with a hundred boughs of green.
Conrad was stitching with face ashine,
But suddenly stopped as he twitched a twine:
"Old friends, good news! At dawn today,
As the cocks were scaring the night away,
The Lord appeared in a dream to me,
And said, `I am coming your Guest to be!'
So I've been busy with feet astir,
Strewing the floor with branches of fir.
The wall is washed and the shelf is shined,
And over the rafter the holly twined.
He comes today, and the table is spread
With milk and honey and wheaten bread."
His friends went home; and his face grew still
As he watched for the shadow across the sill.
He lived all the moments o'er and o'er,
When the Lord should enter the lowly door--
The knock, the call, the latch pulled up,
The lighted face, the offered cup.
He would wash the feet where the spikes had been,
He would kiss the hands where the nails went in,
And then at the last would sit with Him
And break the bread as the day grew dim.
While the cobbler mused there passed his pane
A beggar drenched by the driving rain.
He called him in from the stony street
And gave him shoes for his bruised feet.
The beggar went and there came a crone,
Her face with wrinkles of sorrow sown.
A bundle of faggots bowed her back,
And she was spent with the wrench and rack.
He gave her his loaf and steadied her load
As she took her way on the weary road.
Then to his door came a little child,
Lost and afraid in the world so wild,
In the big, dark world. Catching it up,
He gave it the milk in the waiting cup,
And led it home to its mother's arms,
Out of the reach of the world's alarms.
The day went down in the crimson west
And with it the hope of the blessed Guest,
And Conrad sighed as the world turned gray:
"Why is it, Lord, that your feet delay?
Did you forget that this was the day?"
Then soft in the silence a Voice he heard:
"Lift up your heart, for I have kept my word.
Three times I came to your friendly door;
Three times my shadow was on your floor.
I was the beggar with the bruised feet;
I was the woman you gave to eat;
I was the child on the homeless street!"
