04 - The Parable Of The Sheep And Goats By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

We now come to the final parable of Jesus given in response to His disciple's three questions--"When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming? And of the end of the age?"

Jesus provided for them (and for us) an incredible, long running prophetic discourse concerning things both near and far. The first half of His response in Matthew 24 concerned the coming fall of Jerusalem, which took place in 70 AD.

The second half of Matthew 24 all the way through the end of Matthew 25 deals with the signs of His return to earth and of the end of the age. He wraps up His predictions with four parables, all dealing with His eventual return and the need to be ready for it. Each of the parables delineates some form of responsibility to the believer.

Taken in order, the Parable of the Householder is about communal responsibility--how the church treats their own. The second Parable of the Ten Virgins deals with personal responsibility--how the individual believer keeps his own lamp burning. The third parable of the Talents deals with kingdom responsibility--how well the believer distributes the riches of the gospel to a lost and dying world.

Now the last parable is of the Sheep and the Goats. This parable focuses on the last question the disciples asked Jesus, "What will be the sign of the end of the age?" In this last parable we have the end of all things as we have known them. The King has returned. Let's read this incredible parable:

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

44 “Then they also will answer Him, 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?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Alright, first we have here the long anticipated return of Jesus. The scene before us is taking place on earth, not heaven. Jesus has come to earth a second time, not as a lamb to be slaughtered but as a King to reign.

All of the nations of the world are gathered before Him. We see that there are no other political rulers, no presidents, no dictators, no kings. The one and only ruler is the Lord Himself. There are no dissenting voices, no resistance to His presence, no competition for His position. The verse in Revelation has now come true,

"The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).

Jesus has returned to establish the Kingdom long predicted by the Prophets such as Isaiah who wrote, "Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" (Isaiah 9:7).

The next thing we see is Jesus dividing the nations into two categories He calls Sheep and Goats. The sheep are placed at His right hand and the goats at His left. Now, it helps to remember at this point the original Great Commission of Jesus. He told His disciples, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).

So the Lord commanded that His ministers take the gospel and penetrate every nation with not only the message of salvation, but also with discipling the converts in the ways of Christ. Jesus foresaw all the nations of the world as being presented with the gospel, with having to make a choice of whether or not to obey the gospel.

At the end of time when He returns, all of these same nations of the world are brought before Him to be sifted and judged. During this epochal event, all national boundaries are obliterated. The nations are not treated on the basis of race, or of political position, of size, or achievement, or of wealth. There are only those in the sheep category, and those in the goat category. The time of reckoning has come!

Now, Jesus turns first to those on His right--the sheep. He says to them, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But on what basis are they allowed in? What is the criterion that gives them entrance?

Jesus says, "35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

The sheep are shocked! They respond by asking,

37 “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?"

Look at the answer of the King: "And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Now the million dollar question is, Who are the "brethren" Jesus mentions? "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

For a long time I thought this was talking about the Jewish people. John says, "He came to His own (the Jew) and His own received Him not" (John 1:11). So it was very easy to assume that this was the answer. But after closer study I have to tell you this doesn't hold water. The better answer is found in Matthew 12:46-50 "While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”

48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

So clearly Jesus' "brethren" are those who do the will of God, which would entail their having come to Jesus for salvation and become His children by the new birth. Jesus is talking about Christians when He refers to "My brethren."

Now remember what Jesus said concerning His brethren, the Christians. "The way you treated them is the way you treated Me. What you did or didn't do to them, you did or didn't do to Me! "I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was sick, I was imprisoned, and you helped Me." The astonished sheep say, "When did we ever see you in any of these conditions?" He answers, "When the very least of these my brethren were in any of these conditions and you helped them, YOU DID IT TO ME."

I think of the day Saul before he was Paul was breathing out threats against the church on his way to Damascus. Jesus appeared to him and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4) Saul had been persecuting Christians, but Jesus said in doing so he was persecuting Him.

So let's boil this down to its conclusion. The label of sheep or goat was placed on the nations based on what they had done with Jesus, Who was represented by His people. To receive His ambassadors is to receive Him. To persecute, harass, and abuse His ambassadors reflects directly on whether or not you've received Him.

In Luke's gospel Jesus says, "Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me" (10:16).

In John's gospel He said, "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me" (John 15:20-21).

So in His closing parable in answer to the question about the sign of the end of the age, Jesus makes it plain that the goats are those who heard the gospel preached by the messengers of Jesus and rejected it, while abusing the messengers at the same time.

The sheep are those who heard the gospel and were saved. The fruit that resulted from their salvation was the good works that followed their faith.

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