The Sheep and the Goats

To finish my series on Matthew 25 I have to include the Sheep and the Goats. At first I would have called this the parable of the Sheep and Goats, but I don't know if this qualifies as a parable. It does use some symbolism, though. To read about the first parable in this chapter click here. To read about the second parable click here and here, for part two.

I'm trying to keep my tag list as clutter-free as I can and include mostly books of the Bible, to be more of a cross-reference system. But if I were tagging traditionally, I would tag this blog with words like law, grace, wrath, works, punishment, condemnation, justification, sanctification, heaven, and hell. So think of those things as you read through this.  After you read this, I have a few questions for you.  I will publish a Part 2 to this post to address those questions.

Matthew 25:31-46

“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.”

Have you ever wondered about this story in the Bible?  Have you ever felt condemned reading it?  Does it make you squirm?  What does it tell us about law and grace?  What about unconditional love?  What about verses like Romans 8:1, I Thessalonians 1:10, I Thessalonians 5:9, II Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:4-6, or Ephesians 2:8-9?  Does this story illustrate verses like Revelation 22:12?
I would love to hear your thoughts and I will post a follow-up soon.  Thanks!

What is Grace?

I listened to a fabulous message the other day by John Bevere. You can listen to it, too, here.

He included a great analogy that has really stuck with me.

Imagine a tribe that lives in the bush, in Africa. They live far from all amenities. They have to travel far for water. They have to travel really, really far for medical supplies. They have to go out and hunt their food and then carry the heavy load back to the village. They have no connection to the outside world--no radios, no TV, no Internet. They have no A/C in their huts. And on and on and on.

We decide to grace them, to show them favor, to give them a great gift. We buy them a Land Rover. We bring it over and explain many of its benefits. We show them the A/C, heater, DVD player, Satellite Radio--really awesome things, that will benefit their lives. They are in awe and ask how they can pay for this. No, no, no, this is a FREE gift. We are giving it to them and expect no payment.

We leave and then come back to visit in 10 years. We find that the Land Rover is still sitting in the same spot! We find the odometer reads 0 miles! Why haven't they used it? Why haven't they taken advantage of the benefit of using it for transporting water, medical supplies, food, and more? Why haven't they used it to make their lives better?

Because we FAILED to explain to them the PRIMARY function of the Land Rover--transportation! We explained other good benefits, but not the primary benefit. They wrote songs about how great this gift was, they wrote books about it being a free gift that they didn't earn, they preached sermons about how it covered them when they climbed in to get out of the rain. But they WASTED our gift!

Is Jesus going to come back and see that we have wasted His gift of grace? We write songs about how amazing His grace is--and it is. We write books about how it's a free gift that we could never possibly earn--and it is. We preach sermons about how it covers all our sin--and it does. BUT, we are not teaching people the primary purpose and that is...

Empowerment!

Grace empowers us to overcome sin, overcome our weaknesses, overcome the world, overcome the devil, to be all that God has planned for us to be!

There is much more to the message and I encourage you to listen to it. The different references that were used were Eph. 3:9-10 Msg, Rom. 5:18 Msg, Gen. 1:27 Msg, II Cor. 12:9 TEV & NLT, II Pet. 1:2-3, John 1:16, I John 4:17, I John 2:6 NLT, II Cor. 7:1 TEV, Heb. 12:14, Heb. 12:28, II Cor. 6:1 TEV, John 20:21, Acts 4:33, Acts 6:8 NLT, Luke 2:40, John 14:12, Rom. 5:17 TEV, Dan. 6:3 NASB, Dan. 1:20. Look all of these up and see what the Holy Spirit wants to teach you. All unmarked references are NKJV.