Come, Let Us Hear His Great Invitation, Again :: Matthew 25:31-46
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!
And he is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is our confession. The Son of Man, our Shepherd and King, is coming again. It is pure doctrine. As Jesus says in our Gospel reading for this second to last Sunday of the church year: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and with him all angels, then he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him; and he will separate them from another just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (vv 31-32).
This is the Word for our meditation this second to last Sunday of the church year.
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Please now turn to page 322 in our (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing this faithful doctrine. As the Head of the Family should teach it in a simple way to his household ...
What is the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed? And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
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It’s amazing how many people say they believe in heaven but don’t believe what we just confessed. They don’t believe in final judgment. They don’t believe in eternal punishment for the unrighteous. They don’t believe in hell. Too many people say they believe in Jesus but that he would never separate the sheep from the goats. They say they have only a “god” of “love.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, on the last day, our Lord will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. And thanks be to God, he will do it righteously. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, He will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will separate us ... one from another, like a shepherd. He will stand the sheep off to his right, and the goats off to his left (v 33). The shepherd knows his own, and his own will hear his voice and come to him (Jn 10:27). 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 cosmos. 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 assembled with me, naked and you clothed me; I was ill, and you visited me; I was imprisoned, and you came toward me (vv 34-36).
Maybe you don’t remember when any of this happened, when you fed and watered and clothed Jesus ... when you assembled with Jesus ... when you cared for Jesus ... when you visited Jesus and welcomed Jesus ... but you ... you who have faith in Jesus do exactly that because Jesus lives in you and you in him (Gal 2:20). The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14).
Our God became one with Man and has fulfilled every demand he ever placed upon us. He obeyed the Law in its fullest sense. He saw us hungry and fed the masses (Mt 14:13-21). He saw us thirsty, and he gave us a drink from the well of living water (Jn 4:14). He called those of us who are sinners to abide in him (Jn 15:4). He found us in the shame of our sin, and he clothed us in the life of Christ (Gal 3:27). He healed our blind, lame, and sick. He raises our dead. He gives eternal life to all who trust in him.
Everything that God requires of us ... loving God and each other and doing justice ... the Son of Man did for us. Jesus was born without sin and lived without sin. Then he became sin, taking our sin onto his body so that God could pour out all of his wrath upon the body of sin. Your sin died with Jesus. Your sin was buried with Jesus. Your sin has been washed away by Jesus.
Our God is indeed just and righteous. He did right, punishing our sin just as he promised. And because he is a God who does justice, he then raised Jesus from the dead ... the firstfruits of the resurrection. And so he has been appointed as the one to separate the righteous from the unrighteous.
Then the righteous ones ... the sheep on his right ... will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsting and give you [something] to drink? And when did we see you as a stranger and assemble with you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you ill, or in prison and come toward you? (vv 37-39).
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This is the question the rational mind in us always asks. Though you do not see him, you love him and ... believe in him, and you are filled with the glorious and inexpressible joy as you await the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul (1 Pt 1:8-9). In accord with this faith you do the good works of God. You who believe in Jesus, who have faith in Jesus, who died in your baptism and were raised into the newness of life ... you are the sheep doing the work of righteousness. As Paul tells us, God saved you by grace ... that is, the forgiveness won on the cross ... through faith. And this faith is living and active. It does the work of God. We are, as Paul teaches, God’s work, having been created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). God lives and moves and has his being in us (Acts 17:28). The good work we do, he does in us.
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And the work the goats think is righteous is really nothing but filth (Is 64:6). Then [the King] will say to those on his left, Go your own way from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave to me [nothing] to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not water me; I was a stranger, and you did not assemble with me, naked and you did not clothe me, ill and in prison, and you did not visit me (vv 41-43).
Don’t misunderstand this word of judgment. Those who ignore God’s Word, who do their own thing, who do what they think is best for themselves ... they are the goats, those who refuse the forgiveness of God, who don’t care about their sin, who don’t trust the Word of Christ, who spurn his invitations. They have been doing things their own way all of their lives, as Jesus explained in his Sermon on the Mount ... for the gate to hell is wide, and that path is easy (Mt 7:13). So they will say to the Lord ... 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 (v 44)?
The goats are not cursed because God wanted to curse them. They are cursed because no matter what they did, they did it without faith in Christ ... they did it for themselves. They did it in accord with the ministry of themselves, the pursuit of their own happiness. Their deeds were not covered by the blood and righteousness of Christ. But ...
RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE DO RIGHTEOUS THINGS BECAUSE CHRIST IS RIGHTEOUS, AND HE COMES TO THEM, AND LIVES AND MOVES AND HAS HIS BEING IN THEM.
This is where our word has been taking us. Amen, I say to you, as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, neither did you do it to me. And [the unrighteous] will go their own way into eternal punishment, but the righteous [will enter] into eternal life (vv 45-46).
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Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you hear nothing else, hear this last word of your Lord ... eternal life awaits you who have faith in Jesus. He is inviting you who are righteous to receive your inheritance because you have been called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified ... not by yourselves ... not for yourselves ... but by the Holy Spirit ... for his glory and your good. Eternal life awaits you who trust in the blood of Jesus. You are declared righteous on account of him alive, his body and blood given for you.
As we receive his forgiveness ... by his means ... our hearts are changed. The acts of righteousness that we Christians show one another, we show him, the One who died for us and united himself with us. There is nothing that can separate us from this love of God in Christ.
So come, you who have been blessed by the Father.
Hear his invitation and come.
The Kingdom of the Heavens is waiting for you ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.