Sermon Tone Analysis

Bible Verse

Common English Bible (CEB)

Judgment of the nations

31 “Now when the Human One comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his majestic throne.

32 All the nations will be gathered in front of him.

He will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

33 He will put the sheep on his right side.

But the goats he will put on his left.

34 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father.

Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began.

35 I was hungry and you gave me food to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

36 I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear.

I was sick and you took care of me.

I was in prison and you visited me.’

37 “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?

38 When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear?

39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

40 “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me, you who will receive terrible things.

Go into the unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

42 I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat.

I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink.

43 I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me.

I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear.

I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or

naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’

45 Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’

46 And they will go away into eternal punishment.

But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.”

Illustration

Several months ago we talked about “duos” and how important they were.

Today’s text talks about the importance of being on the “right hand side” of God, especially at the time of judgment.

It reminds me of how important it was to be the “right hand” man/woman of some of the important people we previously discussed.

Robin was Batman’s “right hand man” and surely fared better than being off by himself.

The same could be said about Barney Rubble (w/out Fred?)

Sonny without Cher

Patrick without Spongebob

Luke without Yoda

There are many examples of those that benefit greatly from being on the right hand side of the main hero.

In scripture it is mentioned several times about Jesus being the one who is sitting at the right hand of God...

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The pharse Right Hand is mentioned over 150 times in the Bible and is typically used when talking about authority, strength and blessings.

So it’s safe to say that being at the right hand is going to bring forth some benefits, right?

So immediately we see that this separation has serious implications.

1 Jesus explains the 2 sides.

Goats/Sheeps

Goats and Sheeps.

Some scholars say this is the LEAST popular parable that Jesus taught.

Funny how it’s the LEAST when it itself deals with how we treat the LEAST.

Since this is dealing with the final judgment, a topic most of us don’t want to think about, I can see why it might not be the most popular parable.

But during the final judgement Jesus says we are going to be separated into these two categories.

Sheeps and Goats.

Now, in order to understand this text, we need to understand that typically out in the country; sheep and goats would mingle together during the day; but when the day was over; they would then be separated by their Shepherd.

Goats weren’t as fluffy and warm as the sheep were; so they would need to huddle together to stay warm.

So here we have Christ represented as the Good Shepherd, who has now come for final judgement to make this separation once and for all.

Heaven and Hell

The Good and the Bad

The Right and the Wrong

The Yes and the No

The Pepsi and the Coke... ok, bad analogy.

But you get the point, Christ will come and separate us once and for all.

Something that has been proclaimed and promised by Christ.

Something that folks have been trying to figure out and determine and calculate themselves over the years.

Why? I’m still not sure why people try to figure it out.

For even Jesus himself said in the previous chapter that even he doesn’t know when...

“But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son.

Only the Father knows.”

Typically we look at this part of scripture and automatically look at it from the eyes of the righteous, from being a Christian and assuming that we are the good little sheep who have done good all along and are ready for our ticket to Heaven.

But today we’re going to focus a little bit on what it might look like to be a goat.

2 The "Other" Viewpoint

Consider the Goats.

I’ve always looked at this scripture from the perspective of a believer.

But I think God has opened my eyes up a little more, thanks to my current Missional Formation class in Seminary, to look at the text from a different viewpoint.

I’ve been challenged a lot to look at text from the mindset of different cultures and upbringings.

So when studying today’s text, I couldn’t help but want to look at it from the viewpoint of the goats.

Why were these that were sent to the left,

My first thought was, what must these Goats be thinking the entire time they’re hearing God talk to the sheep?

Can you imagine what it must’ve felt like, to have to go last?

To set there and hear the sheep get their reward in Heaven?

Class Project?

Who wants to go first?

Who wants to go last?

Usually good to go in the middle; but there were only two groups, one had to be 1st, one last.

First of all...

When the sheep are being told that when God was hungry they had given them food, and when He was thirsty they had given him a drink, etc... the Sheep looked on in uncertainty and questioned him saying “When did you see us doing this?”

But think about the Goats and what must’ve been going on in their heads, they were probably sweating it pretty badly.

If those who are followers of God weren’t even aware of God being the least; than how in the world were the Goats supposed to know?

Second, lets look at how and why the sheep were doing these good things to begin with.

We’ve been studying the book of James downstairs with the Uth this past month and we’ve made it through the first three chapters so far.

In James Chapter 2 it teaches us that a LIVING faith (as opposed to a DEAD faith) is accompanied by works, not because of works that we do, but because of the FAITH that we are LIVING out; we will begin to produce great works.

Sure there are people out there that do a lot of great things, a lot of great works, feed the needy, help the homeless, etc... but they do it out of a DEAD faith.

They aren’t motivated and filled with the love of Christ, so they’re works are dead because the living Christ is not in them.

Could it be that their motive was done as a reflection of their love for God and their neighbor and not motivated by trying to earn salvation by their works?

Could it be that such good works that they did do are nothing more than evidence of their living faith?

Or third, would it have made any difference had either the sheep or the goats had known that God was working undercover?

How authentic would that be?

Only showing compassion and love for a stranger IF you knew it was really God or Jesus that you were helping?