Last Sunday in the Church Year
November 23, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
“The Truth about Sheep and Goats” (Matthew 25:31-46)
Did you know you are mentioned in today’s Gospel reading? Yes, you are!
Listen: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,
then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the
nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the
goats on the left.”
Dear friends, you and I will be there when this happens, either among the sheep
or the goats, so it’s important that we listen today and learn “The Truth about
Sheep and Goats.”
First of all, the truth is, there will be this separation of the sheep and the
goats. There will be a judgment day. A lot of people don’t want to hear that.
They don’t want to consider the prospect of a final day of reckoning that will
include them. But their denial will not change the facts. And the fact is,
Judgment Day is coming. Jesus is coming again--the Son of Man will come in his
glory--and he will sit on his throne as the royal Judge of all. We confess
that in our creeds, don’t we? All three ecumenical creeds--the Apostles’, the
Nicene, and the Athanasian--all state that Christ will come “to judge the
living and the dead.” And in this judgment of all people, there will be a
separation: “He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left.”
Notice that there is no middle ground--there is the right, and there is the
left, and that’s it. There are sheep and there are goats, but there are no
hybrids--no
“shoats,” no “geep,” just sheep and goats. No goats in sheep’s clothing,
either. All the masks come off, the truth comes out, no more pretending and
play-acting. Sheep are revealed as sheep, goats are revealed as goats. That’s
not always so immediately apparent in this life. But it will be then.
And it will make a difference whether you are a sheep or a goat. Their
destinations are different. To the goats, those on his left, the King will
say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels.” And “these will go away into eternal punishment.” So if you
want to deny the existence of hell, then you are arguing with Jesus, because he
taught it. The reality of hell is as well taught in the Scriptures as the
reality of heaven. If you’re going to deny the one, then you might as well
deny them both. But that won’t change what is going to happen. All people are
going either to one or to the other.
The goats go away to eternal punishment, eternal fire. But the sheep, the
righteous ones on the King’s right, will come into eternal life; they will
inherit a kingdom. This is the blessed reality of heaven, being at home with
the Lord forever. Much better to go to graze with the sheep than to go to
blazes with the goats! Your final destination is going to last a long time.
But know for a fact that it will be one or the other. There will be a judgment
day, with an eternal separation.
Secondly, the truth about sheep and goats is that this judgment will be on the
basis of works. Yes, you heard me right, on the basis of . . . works. The
King will judge us according to our works. He will say, “I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,” etc. And then, on the
other hand, “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave
me no drink,” and so on. So it will be good works, either done or not done,
that will be the standard for judgment.
Did you know that this is the consistent teaching of Scripture--judgment
according to works? For example, earlier in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “The
Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and
then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” St. Paul
teaches likewise; in 2 Corinthians, he writes, “We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he
has done in the body, whether good or evil.” In the last chapter of
Revelation, we read, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me,
to repay everyone for what he has done.” And so the church teaches and
confesses this doctrine of judgment according to works. The Athanasian Creed,
after the familiar line about Christ coming again to judge the living and the
dead, goes on to say, “At His coming all people will rise again with their
bodies and give an account concerning
their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life,
and those who have done evil into eternal fire.”
This then is our church’s teaching--judgment according to works. Good works
done will be cited as evidence when the righteous are rewarded. Good works not
done likewise will be cited as evidence when those on the left are told to
depart. So the truth about sheep and goats is first, that there will be a
judgment, a separation, and second, that this judgment will be according to
works.
Thirdly, the truth is, it is only faith in Christ that can produce the good
works that righteous sheep do. Notice what the King says when he commends
their good deeds, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me drink,” and so on. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Everything is centered on the
person of the King. If the work is done in connection with Christ, then it is
regarded as a good work. If there is no connection with Christ, then there are
no good works. You must be linked to Christ and his goodness--that divine,
righteous goodness by which bad people are accounted as good--in order for
there to be any good works to speak of. Faith in Christ is the key as to
whether your works are judged to be good or not.
So in the final analysis, it is faith that saves, faith in Christ. Faith
alone, apart from works. Our works do not, in the slightest degree, merit our
salvation. It is a free gift, pure grace. Only Jesus Christ and his work can
earn our salvation for us. Jesus died on the cross to wipe the slate clean for
us. His precious blood washes away our unfavorable record of sins. Those sins
are not brought forward when the books are opened. His righteousness is
bestowed upon us as a gift. His perfect holiness purifies our imperfect works,
and they are then regarded as good works for his sake. Christ remembers only
the good that we have done and sees in our poor little deeds of mercy, which we
ourselves would never dare to plead, our Yes to him.
So how do we understand this relationship of faith and works when it comes to
the judgment? Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. It
is always accompanied by works. Saving faith will produce good works. So the
works are the evidence, the proof, that a living faith was indeed present in
the believer. Faith works. Like a good tree, it will bear good fruit.
When the Lutheran reformers came forward with their Augsburg Confession, which
taught justification by grace through faith, their opponents brought against
them all the Scripture passages, like our text today, that speak of a judgment
according to works. How did the Lutherans respond? In the Apology of the
Augsburg Confession, we read:
“In these and all similar passages where works are praised in the Scriptures,
it is necessary to understand not only outward works, but also the faith of the
heart. . . . When eternal life is granted to works, it is granted to those who
have been justified. Only justified people, who are led by the Spirit of
Christ, can do good works. Without faith and Christ as Mediator, good works do
not please God. . . . ‘You gave me food’ is cited as the fruit and evidence of
the righteousness of the heart and of faith. . . . In this way Scripture lumps
together the righteousness of the heart and its fruit.”
So do not look to your works to save you. Notice that the righteous, the
sheep, are kind of surprised when their good works are mentioned: “Lord, when
did we see you,” etc. You see, they weren’t busy keeping score and tabulating
their brownie points as they went through life. Instead, their good works are
cited to show that they did indeed have a living faith that was connected to
Christ. And so faith in Christ will produce good works toward the neighbor.
The righteous do not look to their own works. They look to the finished work
of Christ, who alone can produce works that are accounted as good before God.
The key thing is to be connected to Christ. And that comes through the gospel,
the good news of sins forgiven by the cleansing blood of Christ, shed on the
cross. That’s the only way your bad record--all the bad things you did, all
the good things you failed to do--the only way your bad record can be erased
and then replaced with works that are considered good for the sake of God’s
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the good news I bring to you today: God has forgiven you for the sake
of Jesus! Jesus is your righteousness! Jesus is your life! Your eternal
life. Life that overcomes the grave, even as he rose from the dead on the
third day. Life that will stand in the judgment, for--here’s the good
news--your Judge is also your Savior!
All of this is a gift, dependent on the goodness of the Giver: “Come, you who
are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.” See, it is all God’s doing. He is the one who
blesses you, who puts you in line for an inheritance, who has prepared his
heavenly kingdom for you before you could do anything about it. So this text
of ours today, which on the surface might seem like we have to pile up our
works in order to merit salvation, is instead the most comforting passage of
salvation by grace.
The clouds of judgment gather. The day is surely drawing near. Judgment Day
is coming, and you will appear before the throne of the King to receive what is
coming to you. By God’s grace only your works done from faith in Christ will
be mentioned, the evidence of a genuine and living faith. By God’s grace you
will receive the reward of the righteous--eternal life in his kingdom. Dear
Christian, God in his grace has made you one of his sheep. Now follow your
Good Shepherd, do the good works God has prepared for you to do, and receive
the eternal kingdom God has prepared for you as well.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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