The Least of These & The Lord of All

Secular -

A doctor, an engineer, and a preacher were out playing a round of golf one morning. They got stuck behind a group of golfers who were playing agonizingly slow, missing simple shots, and taking forever on every hole.

Frustrated, the preacher spotted the club manager and asked, "What is going on with that group ahead of us? They are holding up the entire course!"

The manager sighed and said, "Oh, yes. That is a group of retired local firefighters. They actually lost their eyesight saving our clubhouse from a massive fire last year. We let them play here for free anytime they want."

The doctor immediately felt terrible. He said, "Wow. I’m going to contact my ophthalmologist partner and see if there’s any medical procedure we can do for free to help them."

The engineer said, "And I’m going to design a special set of audio-guided golf balls to help them track their shots better!"

The preacher looked at them both, paused for a moment, and said, "Why can't they just play at night?"

Historical/Cultural Context -

This Gospel is written by Matthew, also known as Levi who was a former tax collector. It was most likely written between AD 50-60. Matthew left everything behind to follow Jesus. Matthew wrote primarily to Jewish believers—people who knew the Old Testament well. Matthew had one goal: to prove that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the King of Kings, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Connecting the Old Testament prophecies to the life of Christ, proving that every word God spoke was coming true in Jesus. The key themes of the Gospel include Jesus as King, The Kingdom of Heaven, Fulfillment of Prophecy and discipleship.

Biblical Text -

Matthew 25:31–46 NKJV

“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. 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. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 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: 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; 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? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 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.’ “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: 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 take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ “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?’ 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.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - True saving faith is naturally expressed through supernatural, selfless compassion for the broken.

Life Point- It’s All About His Grace

Exegetical -

Matthew 25:31–36 BSB

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. 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. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. 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 something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

Homiletical -

Jesus continues with what will happen in the future.

First thing to note is He calls himself the Son of man. Which is a Messianic title, which to the Jewish mind would have signaled that He is calling himself the Messiah.

That right there would have caused great controversy in and of itself.

The next thing to note is how He will come. He will not come back alone but with all the angels with Him and He will sit on His throne.

In the west we have this image in our heads of angels being small little babies with wings. This is not the case. Biblical angels always took the form of men and are fierce warriors.

When He comes back, He will gather all the people before Him and He will separate them into two categories. The haves and the have nots. That is the saved and the unsaved. That is the sheep and the goats.

Notice something about the next part in our verse here. He tells them to Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then He tells them why. Because He was hungry and they gave Him something to eat and drink. He was a stranger and they took Him in. He was naked and they clothed Him, sick and He got looked after, in prison and they visited.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NKJV

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

So is Jesus advocating a works based salvation?

The answer is of course no, He isn’t. He is, however, describing the characteristics of those that have been changed by the Holy Spirit due to their salvation. These extreme caring acts show the extent to which the love of God will move a believer to bless others. When you meet a need in love you will find in that the door to share the Gospel with them will be opened.

This is where we sometimes lack folks. There are people that you know about in your sphere of influence that you are moved by God’s kind of compassion but you either don’t know how to go about helping them or you are scared to help. Remember the wedding feast where the king had the servants bring in the people from the Highways and byways?

We need to learn to reach out in love so that there may be a door for the Gospel to be opened.

Life Point - Driven By His Fruit

Exegetical -

Matthew 25:37–40 BSB

Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

Homiletical -

Notice something here, the righteous answer Him and they ask a question. When did we see you in all of these situations?

They are kind of befuddled.

You see they didn’t do all these things for recognition. They didn’t do them for power. They didn’t do them to be looked at. They did them because they were moved by God’s love in their hearts and were moved with compassion. Just like when Jesus did His works, it says He was moved with compassion.

Romans 5:1–5 BSB

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

You see I am of the opinion that only Christians can do true selfless acts. Now they don’t do it all the time, but I am of this opinion because when we submit to the Lord and the fruit of the Spirit is growing in our lives, we find we are moved by that pure genuine fruit.

What fruit am I talking about?

Galatians 5:22–26 BSB

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.

Notice it says there is but one fruit; and this fruit is not something we have to work up or work on, as it were.

One Fruit and what does it look like?

One side looks like love, another side like joy, another like peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

If this fruit is being grown in our inside man, our hearts, our lives then we will automatically fulfill the call of God on the believer. We will automatically do all those acts of kindness Jesus is talking about. We will automatically fulfill the law of Christ.

What else does it say? It says that if we belong to Christ we begin and continue to crucify the flesh with its evil passions and desires.

He since we live by the Spirit of God. That is where we find our life. Then we should also walk, act and do good works, out of what the Spirit of God is bringing to pass in us. Let us walk in step with Him.

You see if the fruit is active and growing and alive then there is no room for the works of the flesh such as being conceited or provoking and envying each other.

Our job is to crucify the flesh daily; to make sure we are inviting God the Holy Spirit to have His way in us.

Romans 6:6 BSB

We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

Ephesians 4:22 BSB

to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

Colossians 3:5 BSB

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Life Point - The Shuddering Truth

Exegetical -

Matthew 25:41–46 BSB

Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ And they too will reply, ‘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 the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Homiletical -

Now Jesus is talking to the Goats. The unsaved, but the ones that thought they were His. Just like the 5 foolish virgins we discussed last time. “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the DEVIL and his angels.”

Hell was not originally a place for humans. It was prepared for the Devil and His demons.

Isaiah tells us of this fact as well

Isaiah 5:14 BSB

Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

Also notice he tells them the same things but in reverse. He was hungry, sick, naked, destitute and they did nothing for Him.

They ask the same questions. When did we see this? He gives the same answer, but in reverse, “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”

If you find yourself saying you have faith but you have no works that are happening out of a changed heart and life, then you don’t really have faith.

James says it best:

James 2:14–20 BSB

What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless?

This is called having a mental ascent of Jesus, but not having a changed heart. Just believing that there is one God, Father, son & Holy Spirit gets you halfway there. The other part is coming to the end of yourself and giving your heart and life to Jesus Christ so that fruit on the inside can be grown in you.

Illustration -

Some of you have heard this story and some haven’t but I was serving at a church and a homeless man who was trying to walk all the way to Jacksonville showed up an so I called the deacons and the treasurer to see if we could provide him a meal and a hotel room for the night. I sensed the power of God on this and you know what their answer was? “Well that’s a good thing you want to do to help this man pastor, but he isn’t a tithing member of the church. Just pray for him and send him on his way.”

Well, that’s exactly what i didn’t do. I took money I didn’t have and Amanda made him some dinner and we payed for the room.

Folks I highly doubt that those people were sheep, if they were sheep they were sure acting like goats.

I have been here 5 years and have never seen that kind of fleshly behavior out of anyone here, praise God!

Life Principle– True saving faith is naturally expressed through supernatural, selfless compassion for the broken.

Call to Action – altar call….

Examine Your Faith: Do you have a genuine, heart-changed relationship with Jesus Christ, or just a mental agreement with religion? Is the fruit of the Spirit visibly changing how you view the hurting people around you?

Repent of Indifference: Confess the times fear, pride, or convenience kept you from being the hands and feet of Jesus to those in your sphere of influence.

Surrender to the Spirit: Come to the altar of your heart to lay down the old self, crucify the flesh, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with a fresh, supernatural compassion that opens doors for the Gospel.