Deo Gloria
Sermon for November 8, 2020
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Matthew 25:31-46
Theme: Be Ready for the Son of Man to Come Again!
- He will come in all his glory.
- He will come to judge all people.
They said it could never happen. Because of the special way in which she had been constructed, they said she could never sink. On April 14, 1912, after sideswiping an iceberg, the Titanic sank and over 1,500 people perished. They said that man would never fly. They said that if man had been meant to fly, he would have been made with wings. In December of 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C., the Wright brothers became the first to fly. They said that we would never put a man on the moon, that space travel was for storybooks and cartoons characters, but not for real people. Then on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on the moon.
Some say that Jesus will never come back, that this world of ours has been here several billion years already and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be here several billion years from now. They say that all this talk about the world coming to an end and Judgment Day is nonsense, but such people are badly mistaken. I’m here to tell you this morning that our Savior Jesus will return. As surely as I’m standing here in front of you, the Son of Man will come again. Notice what our Savior says in the very first verse of our text. He says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory….” He doesn’t say “If the Son of Man comes….” He doesn’t say, “The Son of Man might come someday.” He says “when.” “When the Son of Man comes in his glory….” In other words it’s only a matter of time, so we better be ready. You and I had better be prepared to meet our Lord, because the Son of Man will come again.
The first time that Jesus came, he came very humbly. There was very little fanfare—no ticker tape parade, no police escort, no celebration like the one held after the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. He came as a tiny baby, born to a peasant couple in a stable in the quiet, little village of Bethlehem. Very few people even noticed—a few shepherds, a few wise men, a few of the village folk, but that was about it. When Jesus came the first time, he didn’t even look like the Son of God. He looked like an ordinary human being—no royal robes, no kingly crown, no entourage of servants and attendants. In fact, more often than not he was the servant, the one who washed other people’s feet. But such will not be case the next time Jesus comes.
When the Son of Man comes again, he will come in all his glory. Listen again to what Jesus says in v. 31: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.” When Jesus comes again, there will be no mistaking who he is. The angels won’t have to tell us. The shepherds won’t have to tell us. It will be obvious to everyone. His coming will be announced by a loud trumpet blast. He will be accompanied by an escort of angels. His divine glory and almighty power will be openly displayed. And there, before the eyes of all people, he will sit on his throne, the throne of God himself. And all will bow before him.
The apostle John gives us a little taste of what it will be like in the book of Revelation. There in ch. 1, John saw a vision of the Son of Man in all his glory. He writes:
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And … I saw … someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (vv. 12-18)
That’s the kind of sight you and I will behold when the Son of Man comes again, when he comes in all his glory.
He also will come to judge all people—not some people, not just those who still happen to be alive at the time he returns. He will judge all people. “All nations,” Jesus said in v. 32. “All nations will be gathered before him.” Jesus said it this way in John, ch. 5: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned”(vv. 28+29). All people, every single person who has ever lived, from Adam and Eve to you and me to those who have yet to be born—all people will have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. No one will be left out. No one will be overlooked. No one is going to say, “Hey, where’s Jim? Don’t tell me he weaseled his way out of this one too!” Don’t worry. Jim won’t weasel his way out. No one will. Everyone will have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And notice what happens next. The Lord of heaven divides the people who have been gathered before him. He separates them, putting the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Just as it isn’t difficult for a shepherd to tell the difference between a sheep and a goat, it won’t be hard for Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to tell the difference between those who are his sheep and those who aren’t. He can see into people’s hearts. He can tell whether or not they have faith. And besides, as the Good Shepherd, Jesus knows his sheep, knows them all by name.
Notice something else as well. The people don’t get to choose. On Judgment Day people are not going to be able to pick which side they want to be on. The King does the choosing. The Son of Man does the dividing. He will put his people on the right and everyone else on the left.
Having separated the people into two different groups, the King of heaven proceeds with pronouncing judgment. He begins with 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”(vv. 34-36).
“Now wait a second. I thought we were saved by faith not by what we do?” We are. The Bible clearly teaches that. A good example is Ephesians 2:8+9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Likewise, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
“Well, that’s what I thought; but then why on Judgment Day is Jesus going to point to the things that we did?” As evidence. Like any good judge, Jesus, the righteous Judge, will point to the evidence in rendering his verdict. As you know, faith is invisible. Yes, Jesus can see faith, because he is God; but you and I can’t. So on Judgment Day, rather than point to something invisible, the Judge will point to what is visible, the evidence of faith, the fruit of faith. Faith bears fruit, right? If there is no fruit, then there is no faith. If a person has faith, he or she will bear fruit. So Jesus points to the fruit as evidence that his people really did have faith. “These people had faith,” he says, “and it showed. It showed in the way they were willing to help my people. When my people were in need, when they needed food or clothes, these people provided it for them. When my people were sick or in prison, these people went out of their way to look after them and visit them. Yes, these people had faith, and it showed in the simple acts of charity that they performed for fellow believers.”
Notice, on the other hand, what the King of heaven does not mention concerning those on his right. He doesn’t mention any of their sins, none of the lies they told, none of the gossip they repeated, none of the smart remarks they made behind their parents’ backs, none of the nasty things they did to their brother or sister, not even the times they failed to show love and kindness to others in need.
There is, of course, a good reason for that. He doesn’t remember such things. You heard me right. He doesn’t remember. Through his suffering and death on the cross Jesus has cancelled all our sins. He has blotted them out, erased them all from the record books. As far as he is concerned, they never even happened. Let me remind you of the promise our Lord makes in Jeremiah, ch. 31:
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. … I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”(vv. 33+34)
What a gracious Judge our Savior is! You and I have nothing to fear on Judgment Day, the day the Son of Man returns. We don’t have worry that he going to call us on the carpet for every sin we ever committed and demand an explanation. He has forgiven all our sins, washed them away in his own blood. No, as children of God, we can actually look forward to Judgment Day, because we know what the Judge is going to say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
All right, but what about those on the left? What will the King of heaven say to them? Our Savior tells us, beginning in v. 41:
“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 invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me”(vv. 41-43).
Again, the Judge points to the evidence, or in this case, the lack of evidence, the lack of fruit of faith. “These people didn’t have faith and it also showed. When my people needed help, they were not willing to help them. When my people needed food and clothes, these people ignored them. When my people were sick or in prison, these people did nothing to help them, which tells me something: If they wouldn’t do it for them, they wouldn’t do it for me either. So, there’s no doubt about it. These people did not believe in me. They did not trust in me for forgiveness for their sins and salvation for their souls. So, they will get what they have coming: punishment, punishment for all their sins.”
And that will be it. There will be no appeal. There will be no stay of execution while the case is reviewed by the Supreme Court. Those on his left will begin serving their sentence immediately–not a life sentence, not two life sentences, an eternal life sentence. They will spend the rest of eternity with the devil and his evil angels in the fire of hell. God forbid that we should be among them! God forbid that we should be so foolish as to ignore his words of warning and lose our faith and be sentenced to eternal death!
Do we really need any more encouragement? Do we really need anything else to motivate us or inspire us to take our faith seriously, to be careful to feed and nourish our faith, to do everything we possibly can to strengthen our faith so we never, ever lose it? As Peter says in his second epistle, “Brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”(1:10+11).
Make no mistake about it, friends: the Son of Man will return. Some people may scoff at that idea. Some people may think it’s just a bunch of nonsense, but the Son of Man will come again. He will come in all his glory. And he will come to judge all people. Amen.