Habakkuk's Watchtower: November 2017

“By Your Fruit”

[Matthew 25:31-46]

November 26, 2017, Second Reformed Church

Today is Christ the King Sunday, and we will be considering how the kingship of Jesus – how the sovereign reign and rule of Jesus – helps us to understand the place of works in the Christian life.

To get the context of our text, Jesus and the disciples have just left the Temple – in Matthew 24 – and the disciples say how impressed they are with the work Herod has done to expand and finish the Temple. Jesus then turns to them and tells them that the day is coming when not one stone of the Temple will stand upon another.

The disciples respond with two questions: When will the Temple be destroyed? And – what are the signs of Your Second Coming? Jesus gives His answer to those questions over the rest of chapter 24 and through chapter 25, ending with this portrait of the Judgment.

We have seen in our study of I & II Thessalonians on Thursday nights that Jesus will return will the souls of all those believe who have died – and who have been rejoicing in Paradise with Him. He will unite them with their resurrected and glorified bodies. Then we who are still alive will be glorified and meet Jesus in the air, and then we will return to the earth with Jesus for the Judgment, the restoration of the Creation, and the full coming of the Kingdom to earth.

As so we turn to our text:

First, Jesus will return as King and Judge.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”

Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, which is an Old Testament reference to the Messiah – the Savior – and it was Jesus’ favorite title – He referred to Himself as the Son of Man more than any other title.

In I Thessalonians, we find that Jesus returns with the souls of all those who ever believed and died – those who have been with Him in Paradise. And we see here, that all of the holy angels will come with Him at that time as well.

Since Jesus ascended to the Father, He has been seated at the Father’s Right Hand, sovereignly ruling from His throne. But on that day, the throne will be on earth – Jesus will sit on His glorious throne and every human who has ever lived – both those who lived and died and those who are still alive – will come before the throne of Jesus for judgment. And Jesus will separation the nations – all of humanity – into two groups – the sheep and the goats.

Why might Jesus have told the disciples this? What purpose does it serve – besides to give them a vision of the future?

At that time, Israel was under Roman rule – and though the Romans didn’t care what god you worshipped – whoever or whatever you did worship must be worshipped alongside of the Roman gods – and there must be a certain peace amongst the people groups. But Christians would not bow to any other god, and they told the Jews that they were worshipping the wrong god, so the Jews and the Romans turned against them, and the great tribulation – persecution – began.

Jesus tells the disciples about His return and judgment of the nations to encourage them and comfort them as they go through the tribulation – as we now go through the tribulation. One day, everything will be made right – all sin and evil will be condemned in the judgment. Stay strong and faithful in Christ.

What Jesus promises in this text would also have been familiar to them, because it is the same as a prophecy the Lord God spoke by the prophet, Ezekiel:

“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

“As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

“Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken” (Ezekiel 34:11-24, ESV).

So, when Jesus returns, He will be known as the King of Creation, and He will judge the human race – dividing us into one of two groups.

Second, Jesus welcomes the sheep.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

After dividing all of humanity into two groups, Jesus welcomes those on His right – the sheep – into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus calls them those who “are blessed by my Father.” What does that mean?

Remember as we went through the Gospel of John, we saw that God gave a people to His Son, Jesus, to save. All those that the Father chose to be a people for His Son are the blessed of the Father. God the Father blesses us who believe because He chose us to believe in His Son savingly.

Jesus also says that the Kingdom was prepared for them “from the foundation of the world.” That means that all those who believed were predestined to believe and inherit the kingdom. God’s choice is unalterable. Those God chose will believe and will receive the Kingdom.

This is an assurance – a comfort – a security for us as we stand in awe of our salvation and endure tribulation. Our salvation – as we have seen over the past number of weeks is through Christ Alone, through grace alone, through faith alone, according to the Scripture alone, and to the glory of God alone. God has saved His people by Himself and for Himself – we are safe and assuredly His.

“For” – “because” – “the reason you can be assured that this is true is” – “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

“Wait a minute. Is Jesus saying that God chose us to be His people and predestined us at the foundation of the world based on the good works we would do?”

No. We would have to throw out the Reformation and all those “sola” sermons I preached – not to mention the Word of God itself if our text meant that. No. Jesus is saying the same thing James says:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17, ESV).

The evidence that we have a living faith – that God chose us and predestined us and saved us all by Himself and that we have received that salvation – is that we respond to the gift of salvation in thanks by doing good works – works which help – minister – to our brothers and sisters – and – at the same time – are received by God as though they are done directly to and for Him – as Jesus explains, if you do it “to one of the least of these my brothers.”

The Reformation theologians put it this way: We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.

The good works of feeding a brother or a sister, giving him a drink, welcoming, giving of clothing, and visiting do not and cannot save us, but Jesus, our King, will use our good works as evidence to support the fact that we have been born again – born twice – born anew.

If there are no good works to evidence that God the Holy Spirit has changed you, then you might very well still be on the road to Hell. Good works play no role in our salvation; they are a response to our salvation and give evidence that we are saved.

Finally, Jesus dispenses the goats.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, 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?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, 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 eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Those that Jesus calls goats in our text are those who never receive Him as Savior. These are the people who say they didn’t need religion – they didn’t need Jesus – they were good enough – they built bigger and bigger barns and kept everything they received for themselves (as we saw last week). There is no evidence that they believed, because they did not believe – so they did not do truly good works – works that were pleasing in the sight of God.

Understand, you don’t have to be a “bad” person to be one of the goats – you just don’t believe, and you don’t do the good works that evidence your faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so, these people, whose lack of good works evidence that they have not believed – they have not been saved by Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, according to the Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone – are cursed – not blessed.

In the beginning, God created – among other things – a place of eternal fire – eternal torment – for the devil and his angels. This is also the home of those who never believe, and therefore, never evidence their belief through good works.

Jesus is going to return to earth, and when He does, it will not be as a little baby or as the Suffering Servant. He will come as the King and Judge of Creation. Jesus will raise the dead and separate all of humanity into two groups: the sheep and the goats.

The sheep are those that the Father loves and gave to Jesus to be His people. The sheep are those that Jesus loves and died for that we would be saved and then respond in love and thanks by obeying God and doing good for our brother or sister.

The goats are those who never believe in Jesus, but remain in their sin and make their home at the end of the age in eternal suffering with the devil and his angels.

As we endure through this tribulation until Jesus returns, let us be comforted and assured in the knowledge that Jesus is the Sovereign King over all of Creation – everything is going according to His plan, and He will judge – He will bring justice – in the end.

So let us remember that we are saved by faith alone, but it is not a faith that is alone. Our works contribute nothing to our salvation, but our good works will evidence that Jesus did save us as we stand before Him on the Day of Judgment.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, some have thought that since salvation is completely a gift from our Sovereign God, it does not matter what we do with the rest of our lives. Help us to keep the image of the Judgement before us, striving to do everything that You have commanded, because we love Your Son, Jesus. And may the good works we do in thanks to You and in love for our brothers and sisters lead many to You through the workings of God, the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.