'When Jesus Thirsts' 

Look Up:     Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon preached by Dr. Wayne Poplin, Senior Pastor of
Carmel Baptist Church, Matthews, NC (Copyright 2008)   

INTRODUCTION:  Many of you have a thirty year mortgage on your house.  Maybe some have a fifteen year mortgage.  Some of you had one of the other and then moved and now you have started all over again.  Then there is the car payment, perhaps the education debt, a business debt, etc.  Won’t it be a great day when you get out from under those obligations?  But let me put you on notice.  It is wonderful and freeing to get out from under these debts and obligations.  But there is one debt or obligation that you will never get out from under.  The Bible says that you are obligated to pay the debts that you have, but there is one debt that will never be paid off.    

            Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another [Romans 13:8].

            That debt is never paid in full in this life.  There is always another payment coupon in the payment book.  We will never be able to say, “I have loved enough.”  And Heaven and Hell hang on the paying of that debt!

That ought to get our attention.  Let me tell you what that means.

            Read Matthew 25:31-46—our last thirst passage.

            “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory.  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 put 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; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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 invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’

            “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 invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit You?’

            “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.’

            “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….’” [Matthew 25:31-41]

Hear again two statements:  “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

“Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Summary statement:  “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” [25:46].

            Sounds like a heaven and hell matter to me, doesn’t you? 

            If this is a matter of heaven and hell, I had better understand this passage.  It sounds like the ones who go to heaven have given water to the thirsty Jesus and didn’t know it.  And the ones who go away into eternal punishment have not given water to a thirsty Jesus. 

Here is the scene.  It is in the future.  The Lord has returned with all of His angels and He takes His throne in heavenly glory.  Then Jesus, Who is Lord of all, is going to separate every one of us into one of two categories—sheep or goats.  It sounds like those who cleaned out their attic and called the Salvation Army truck or AmVet truck to pick up that stuff or donated food or dropped money in the Salvation Army Kettle, or took some clothes to a clothes closet or looked after a sick person, or were apart of Idol Gives Back, or the Big Give, etc., are the sheep and they are going into the Kingdom.  And those who did not do those sorts of things are the goats and they are going into eternal punishment. 

            How would you like to wait until this day and stand before the King, with knees shaking, wondering if you have given out enough food, drink, clothes, and helped enough sick people, etc., to get into heaven? 

            Well, that is not what is being said here.  The ones who are going into the Kingdom are:

(1)   the righteous—Matthew 25:37.  The righteous are those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and have been declared righteous by a Holy God, because Christ has covered that person’s sins. 

(2)   the inheritors—Matthew 25:34.  Those who inherit the kingdom do so not because they deserve it or have earned it, but because of their relationship with the one who had the inheritance to give.

It is by grace that we have been saved.  We don’t go to heaven because we do a bunch of good things.  But here is a hammer blow that falls on the one saved by grace.  This passage tells what God’s people look like and what God’s people do.  Is it true about us?

Are we sheeplike?  This passage is describing faith that is shown to be real.

            Listen to these verses in the Book of James.

            What good is it, my brothers, if a man 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 says to him, “Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

            But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

            Show me you faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do [James 2:14 -18]. 

            I have lived through denomination strife.  I have witnessed a battle between theological liberals and conservatives.  I have seen the conservatives ride off in one direction with the Bible seeking to share the Gospel with the world.  And I have seen the liberals ride off in the other direction with a desire to help meet the physical needs of the world.  Where in Scripture are these two ever separated?  The Lord who gave the Great Commission is the Lord who gave the great commandments.  God’s people do both of these things. 

            Listen to the second greatest commandment—which follows the greatest—upon which the law and prophets hang.

            “Love your neighbor as yourself” [Luke 10:27 ].

            When I was growing up, I thought my family had 4 or 5 neighbors.  There were the Lewis’ next door on one side.  The Stacey’s on the other.  The Coe’s across the road.  The Williams’ and then the Perry’s two houses down.  The other people who lived in the houses nearby were not really neighbors.  I didn’t ever know those people well.  God has since redefined neighbor for me.  He biggied it. [Wendy’s, Chic-fil-a, Macs].  That is taking something [fry or drink] and enlarging it.  He biggied it to the point that my neighbor has no boundaries.  And I am to love that neighbor As myself. 

            “As” I love myself.  How do I love myself?  Loving myself is certainly the easiest of my love assignments.  It is what we naturally do.  It doesn’t have to be bad.  I want to be fed, have drink, have safety, be well, have clothes, have purpose, be loved, have my pain diminished and my happiness increased, etc.  So, I am to love my neighbor that way.  Want and seek for him what I want and seek for myself.  And if you want your self-seeking to be right, make God the focus of it.  Then seek that for your neighbor as energetically, as creatively, and as perseveringly as you do for yourself.  Are we sheeplike?   

            Jesus also said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” [Luke 6:31 ].  Some think this is a nice saying by Jesus that makes Him a good ethical teacher.  No, this verse depends on what went before in the text—our relationship with God Who loves us, changes us, answers our prayers, and gives us good things.   Are we sheeplike?  If you want to practice what Jesus said in this verse, then think of trading places with another person and treat them the way you then would want to be treated.  Trade places with a struggling person, a poor person, a single parent, a person with AIDS, of a different color—and treat them as you want to be treated.  Are we sheeplike? 

            We don’t do the things in Matthew 25 because we are trying to get into heaven.  We do them because we are already going there.  I don’t do them to earn Jesus’ favor.  I already have it—“least” proves that I am not trying to impress Him.  I do it because I am like Him and I love Him.   When you love Jesus you love who He loves.  When people don’t love who I love and those important to me, then it impacts our relationship.  I love my wife, my children, my grandson, this church.  If you don’t love what and who I love, it impacts our relationship.  That is the way it is with Jesus.  He loves the poor and the rich, the attractive and the unattractive, the smart and the not so smart, the well and the sick, the gay and the straight, etc.  And our salvation evidences itself in day-to-to day kindness that helps meet needs.  He didn’t ask us to free them from jail—to raise them off the sick bed.  He just said that if we are His people we will be meeting basic needs as we see them. 

            Would anyone who knows us and reads Matthew 25:31ff confuse us with a goat or see us as a sheep?  If we show no sheep traits, we better check out whose we are. 

            When we dismiss, we ought to turn a flock of sheep loose on a world—close and distant.

Thank you for your mission involvement [including $256,000 to the CP, $258,519 to March to Missions, [$843,266 to missions and outreach].  Thanks you for your Katrina work [including $120,596 given].  Joy Prom.  Matthews Matters. 

Let’s go be sheep.