The King, The Sheep And The Goats

The King, The Sheep and The Goats

Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …

John 14:23-24

“Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.

“He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.”

And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …

John 3:16-18

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Please open your Bibles to: Matthew 25:31-46

During the three years of Jesus’ ministry His main activities were as a Rabbi or teacher and as a prophet.

As a Rabbi He showed us the way of salvation. He showed us how our relationship with God and with other humans is supposed to be.

As a prophet He gave us some insight into the coming Kingdom when He returns.

As a teacher He often used parables.

A parable is

… a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle …

… A simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson …

In Matthew 24 Jesus is asked about future events that will take place.

In Matthew 25 He explains with two parables.

One is about a groom and 10 virgins who are invited to a wedding banquet. These virgins are to wait for the groom’s return. He does not tell them when He is returning. But, when He does return some are ready and some are not.

The second parable is about a Master who leaves three of His servants in charge of some of His possessions for them to oversee. Two of the servants are faithful and the third is unfaithful.

In both of these parables there are those who are faithful and ready for the return of the master and there are those who are unfaithful. In both of these parables there are those who are prepared and those who are unprepared.

In the parable of the groom and the virgins, the return of the groom is a pivotal event followed by judgment. If a virgin is ready when the groom returns she is rewarded. If a virgin is not ready she is rejected and unable to change her status after that point.

In the parable of the Master and the servants, the return of the Master is a pivotal event followed by judgment. If a servant has been faithful to his Master he is rewarded, however, if the servant has been unfaithful to his Master he is punished and unable change his status after that point.

Jesus then uses these two parables to jump off into a prophecy about the judgment that will take place when He returns.

With that in mind let’s read from God’s Word: Matthew 25:31-46

May God bless the reading of His Word! (Prayer for help)

This passage is NOT a parable. The only sense in which it could possibly be considered a parable is in the sense that those who are eternally lost are referred to as goats and those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus are referred to as sheep.

It is important to Jesus that we do not mistake this for a story from which we are to draw some spiritual principle. This is THE Judgment!

Just listen to Jesus in verse 31

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.”

Just this verse is amazing!

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory …”

The disciples have seen a tiny glimpse of Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man!

When Jesus is saying this He is in His lowly human form and the prophet Isaiah says it was not a glorious presence but a simple, humble form.

Isaiah 53:2b says,

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”

And yet they knew His great power, His great Holiness.

And, even with what they HAD seen it would be nothing compared to when He comes in His glory!!!

“… and all the angels with Him …”

I don’t think we can wrap our heads around this one!

The apostle John says in the Revelation of Jesus Christ 5:11