Accountable to God Reading Matthew 25:31-46
Intro.
When I heard the sentence given to the two Pakistani men for their crimes of ‘grooming’ and abusing young girls I felt anger that it was so little, but then it is frequently the case that punishment does not fit the crime. I cannot speak for you but it angers me.
But then I remember that there is a final court before which all of us, men and women must stand to be judged when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory. 32 And all nations shall be gathered before Him. And He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. 33 And indeed He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats off the left. V31-33 - An eternal accountability that none of will miss – it is the picture of a courtroom.
The Courtroom
We have here a Courtroom scene – prior to this Jesus has been speaking about his return: in this portion He brings his teaching on that return to a climax.
He describes the scene of his return as judge of the world, and it’s a spectacular scene. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 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.(Matt.25:31-32)
This is the heavenly courtroom. There is a throne upon the throne the judge.
What will be taking place in this courtroom? The final judgement. The final, irreversible division of people into the righteous and the wicked.
This judgement is...
· Universal: all the nations will be gathered before him. (Matt.25:32)
· Individual: Each of us will be judged on our own merits. (Matt.25:32)
· Black and white: no shades of grey, sheep or goat, righteous or wicked.
o Eternal: The sheep are called to eternal life in God's kingdom, prepared for them since the creation of the world. Those at Jesus left hand—the rejected ones, the goats—are thrown out to eternal punishment, an eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Here is the climax of creation, the final end of God's plan that began at the dawn of time. It is a picture that ought to grip our minds and hearts - the final judgement is coming, and it is real!
So, the scene is set. Then we have -
The Case
What is the legal case to be answered? What is the deciding factor that determines whether people will be welcomed into eternal life with God, or condemned to eternal punishment apart from Him?
At first glance the answer looks very clear - those who are kind to the poor God rewards, and those who neglect the poor whom God punishes. The righteous fed the hungry, clothed the naked, housed the homeless, cared for the sick and visited the prisoners. The wicked failed to do these things. The good people go to heaven; the bad people go to hell. seems straightforward.
But pause and think a bit deeper and you begin to see some problems with this interpretation. It leaves us with all sorts of questions like,
· How many good deeds do I need to do to be good enough for God?
· I'm usually kind to people, but I was in a rotten mood last Wednesday. Does that make me a goat?
· Is it sufficient for me just to do enough good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds?
· Just how many clothes do I have to give to Oxfam to make up for lying to my neighbour last week?
· What about the man who beats his wife, but is unfailingly kind to the poor?
Remember, there are no shades of grey, only black and white, sheep or goat. Where is the dividing line? Do you see the problem? Could anyone we know be sure of being a sheep and not a goat if it depended on our good deeds? If good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, then what's going to happen to me?
Jesus couldn’t possibly have meant this. This is not a Christian doctrine. It's a Muslim doctrine! It's a folk-religion belief! But it isn't a Christian belief.
Trying to be good doesn’t earn us a place in heaven. The Bible is consistent on this matter throughout. Even under the Old Covenant things didn't work that way. People just could not be good, so God gave them a system of sacrifices to atone for their sin.
And, now under the New Covenant we know that we are made right with God through Jesus' sacrifice. That's why, right after this passage in Matt.26:2 Jesus says The Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.
If we just need to be good to get to heaven – then Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross. This cannot be what Jesus meant.
The Apostle Paul gives us the key to interpreting this passage when he says in Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them. (Gal.3:10)
According to Paul, anyone who relies on trying to be good—that is, keeping the law—to please God is doomed to failure. There is no way we can do everything necessary to be presentable before a Holy and Perfect God.
Going this way leaves us cursed, just as Adam and Eve were cursed when they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. The smallest sin makes us unfit for the Kingdom of God. If this is how it is, then we're all doomed. Every minute of every day I am failing the good deeds test.
But we know that there is just one person who managed to do this. Jesus uniquely lived a life of sacrificial giving and loving that characterises godliness. He was literally perfection personified.
Jesus died on the cross, under God's judgement instead of us. Paul continues like this in Gal.3:13- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree"). Jesus merited / earned God's blessing, the very thing we are powerless to do, yet he chose to die under God's curse. As a result Jesus can take God's curse away from anyone who puts his or her faith in him. As Paul finishes by saying, God redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Paul is using the language of God's curse and God's blessing. By nature we are under God's curse, but if we put our faith in Jesus we can receive God's blessing instead, because Jesus died to take that curse from us.
So, what's that got to do with the text before us? Please turn back to Matt.25:34; 41. We find that Jesus is talking about the very same thing! He says to the sheep Come, you who are blessed by my Father; he says to the goats Depart from me, you who are cursed.
What makes the sheep sheep is that they are under God's blessing; they are people who have escaped from God's curse by putting their faith in Jesus.
What makes the goats goats is that they are still under God's curse; they are people who have not put their faith in Jesus, the only way in which we may be rescued.
It is not the quality of our lives that determines if we are fit to be with God, but whether we have put our faith in Jesus to forgive our sins.
Let me apply this - are you under God's curse or his blessing? Unless you have made Jesus you Lord, so that he can take God's curse from you, then you are still under that curse. There is no other way to be free of it. In particular, doing good deeds can never earn us that blessing. Genetic engineering notwithstanding, only God can change you from goat to sheep.
The Evidence
There is evidence in the life of the disciple of Jesus. The sheep and the goats, the righteous and the wicked, differ in their attitude towards the poor, the disadvantaged, the underclass of society.
If we have given our lives to Jesus, and therefore received God's blessing, we will start to be transformed into good people. We do good things because God is transforming us inwardly by His Spirit. Like derelict houses: when God moves into us he begins to transform us into beautiful homes.
How can we tell if God is doing this transforming work in us? Well, we just need to look at how we live our lives. In the case of the blessed, the sheep, they fed the hungry, watered the thirsty, housed the stranger, clothed the naked, looked after the sick and visited the prisoners. The cursed, the goats, did none of these things.
Let's be clear that it is not these deeds that save the sheep, the righteous, it is God's blessing that does that, as we saw. But these deeds are the evidence that they are saved, that God is at work in them.
Again, this is the consistent message of the Bible. It is how the gospel works. Here are some examples from around the New Testament of this principle at work: our deeds reveal the states of our hearts.
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. (Matt:12:33). The fruit that we produce in our lives show the state of our heart.
My brothers, what profit is it if a man says he has faith and does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it? 17 Even so, if it does not have works, faith is dead, being by itself..(James 2:14-17)
Our attitude to humblest people in society betrays our spiritual state. The evidence of our sheepness or goatness is shown by what we do. Martin Luther: "We are saved by faith alone, but a faith which saves is never alone" . It is always accompanied by good deeds.
Our deeds are the evidence that we have a saving faith in Jesus. They show that we are citizens of heaven, but they do not make us citizens of heaven. Only God's blessing on us through faith in Jesus can do that.
I find myself humbled each time I read this passage – here is the King of Heaven on His throne, majesty and glory are His, and He thinks of the poor, the outcast, The king of glory who became a man for you and me.
Again let me apply this - Jesus was concerned for the poor, what about us. are we? After all these are the evidence on which the truth of our faith will be judged. What would be the verdict on your life, on my life. Would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?
The wrong reaction to this would be to frantically start doing stuff: to be on the soup run every night; to give all our money away. We must remember that it is not our deeds that put us right with God. The right response is to open our hearts to God and to let Him transform us, as we receive his blessing.
So the evidence is presented – evidence that each of us supply ourselves and on that evidence a verdict is reached
The Verdict
Jesus says of the wicked Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matt.25:46)
Notice that these words about eternal punishment, and about the division of the people are the words of Jesus himself. Those who delude themselves by thinking that Jesus will never send anyone to Hell are shown here the fallacy of their reasoning - Jesus, judge of the universe.
Conclusion
Now is the day of salvation - By the time you are in the courtroom it will be too late, and the consequences will be eternal.
If your heart is longing to be blessed by God, remember that there is no way you can earn that blessing. Don't keep striving, don't keep saying "Look I'm trying hard God!" No, the only way to escape the curse upon you and receive God's blessing is to come to Jesus; to say sorry for your sins and to make him Lord of your life.
It's not yet too late to move from curse to blessing, from sheep to goat. Please come and talk or pray with someone later on in the service. God is longing to bless you!