The parable of the sheep and the goats is one of the best known of Jesus’s stories. Sadly it is also one of those most often misunderstood. Starting with the fact that the title we generally use actually misses the central point of the story. It isn’t actually about sheep or goats at all. We should not gloss over the fact that this is the parable of the separation of the sheep from the goats. The heart of its message concerns
The certainty of judgment
31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 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. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

People get distracted by the different characteristics of those who are placed to the right or on the left. We can miss the central point that this parable is a solemn warning about the radical division that will come on us all when Jesus returns. All the nations will be gathered, and the Son of Man, Jesus himself, will sit on the judgment seat. The Good Shepherd will then separate those people who will receive a glorious reward from those people who will face eternal punishment.
The Bible teaches us everywhere that this time of judgment will have at least two aspects. It will include the righting of wrongs and the rewarding of faithfulness
Romans 2 6 God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
At the same time judgment will be about confirming relationships. The personal relationship with God which believers have begun in this life will continue into eternity. Those people who do not have a relationship with God will find that situation confirmed. Judgment is certain, and the parable also confirms
The reality of punishment
This is not the only parable Jesus told about the judgment which is to come. Last week we saw that theme at the end of the parable of the three servants and the bags of gold, the parable of the talents, where the worthless servant who hadn’t even tried to do business on behalf of the master was thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The week before we saw that same grisly fate awaiting the wicked servant who was not ready when his master returned.
In Matthew 13 in his explanation of his parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus said this.
Matthew 13 40 ‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Jesus also told a parable about a fishermen’s net. Matthew 13 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here is the unpalatable reality. The return of Jesus will lead to what C.S. Lewis called “the great divorce” and Stephen Travis called “the dark side of hope.” The wonderful promises of eternal rewards are mirrored by warnings of eternal punishments. In the parable of the sheep and the goats we read,
34 ‘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.
If we believe there is some unfathomable reality behind that wonderful promise of a glorious inheritance for one group, there is no reason for us not to accept the tragic reality of the destiny of the other group.
41 ‘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.
This parable is all about separation and there is no escaping the plain meaning of the final declaration.
46 ‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’

We also learn about
The basis of this division between the sheep and the goats

34 ‘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. 35 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, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

On the surface it sounds as though judgment will depend on the good deeds a person may have done through their lives. Even though some may not realise that they were doing good.

37 ‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?”
40 ‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

The parable teaches us that when we care for other people we are expressing our love for Christ himself. Somebody once asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta how she could work with the untouchables and the sick and the dying? Her answer was that she sees Jesus in each one of the people she helps. So as she serves and cares for those who are dying she is serving and caring for Christ Himself. In some real sense, Jesus is living in other people. When we love them we are loving him. And the words to those on Jesus’s left tell us plainly that failing to love other people is a failure to love Jesus.
But some people misunderstand the parable on this point. It does NOT teach that the outcome of the final judgment will be based on whether we have or have not helped our neighbours. It could not mean that. The reality is that however many of our neighbours we have helped, we have not helped them all. There will have been some occasions when we could have fed the hungry and thirsty and we did not. There will have been strangers we did not invite in and those ill or in prison which we did not look after. If judgment was only about doing good deeds or not doing good deeds every one of us belongs both on the right side and on the left side. Every one of us would receive a reward for what we did right but also receive condemnation for the good deeds we failed to do. So where would the dividing line be? Is it about doing good more often than we fail to do good? Would one act of amazing love outweigh the rest of life failing to do any good at all?
This parable needs to be considered alongside all the rest of Jesus’s teaching. Like the parable of the prodigal son, who doesn’t do anything right but is still forgiven and welcomed home solely on the basis of his father’s amazing unconditional love. Like Jesus’s wonderful acceptance of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” Like the parable of the lost sheep. “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” In so many places Jesus teaches us that forgiveness and God’s gift of eternal life cannot be earned or deserved. They come from God’s grace, received through the channels of faith and repentance.
We need to consider the parable of the sheep and the goats alongside everything else we read throughout the New Testament about how we come to experience salvation.
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.
We are saved by God’s gift of his Son Jesus, as we put our trust in Jesus for eternal life. It is faith, not good works that matters.
When the jailer at Philippi asked, ‘… what must I do to be saved?’ Paul and Silas replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.’ (Acts 16:30-31) Paul explained salvation in Romans 10:9 like this. If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. … 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
We receive God’s free gift of eternal life by putting our trust in Jesus. Nobody is saved by doing good works. It is God’s grace that saves us, God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. It is Jesus’s death on the cross which provides a way for us to be forgiven and we receive those blessings by faith, by putting our trust in Christ. In the face of the other teaching of Jesus, and of the witness of the whole of the New Testament, some people still persist in misinterpreting the parable of the sheep and the goats. Bu it does NOT teach us that we can be saved by doing good deeds. Feeding the hungry and thirsty, welcoming strangers, and taking care of the sick and those in prison will not earn a place in heaven for anybody.
On the other hand, some people make the opposite mistake in interpreting this parable. Because of everything I have just said about us being saved by faith alone, some people think that we can then safely ignore the parable of the sheep and the goats. Some people wrongly conclude that doing good deeds doesn’t matter at all, and they forget about this parable. Those people are equally wrong.
The truth is that we are indeed saved by faith alone. But the great Reformation teacher John Calvin made this important point. “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” In other words, the good deeds which Jesus talks about in this parable are part of the evidence that a person does actually have the faith which is bringing them salvation. We love because God first loved us. If a person has received God’s gift of eternal life, they will want to express their gratitude by loving other people too.
The Letter of James chapter 2 explains the point like this.
James 2 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
If we have faith in Jesus we will express that faith in our actions. Paul explains how this works in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
So Ephesians 2 is absolutely clear that we are not saved by doing good works. But then the passage goes straight on to say.
Ephesians 2 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God saves us by his grace so that we can do the good works he has planned for us to do. Feeding the hungry and thirsty, welcoming strangers, taking care of the sick and those who are in prison. Showing God’s love to other people is not an optional extra for Christians. It is the way that we show to the world that God has saved us and that we are truly grateful for his amazing grace. If a person is not loving other people in the practical ways which this parable talks about, then they need to think very carefully about their position.
The parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats is a solemn warning about the day of judgment and in that also about the reality of the consequences for those who have not put their trust in Christ as their saviour. It does not say that we are saved by good works. but it does teach us that acts of love and charity will be the characteristic of those who are being saved. “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.” And the parable asks each of us this vital question. On the day of judgment, when Jesus separates all the peoples of every nation, which side will you be on?

This week two entrepreneurs will go face to face in the final episode of what is astonishingly the 16th UK series of the reality television show, The Apprentice. They have been competing to become Lord Alan Sugar’s new business partner with an investment of a quarter of a million pounds in their own businesses. Months ago, 16 hopefuls originally entered the process and now after a series of gruelling challenges 14 have been fired. Only two remain – I won’t spoil things by telling you who. Which one has the best hope of turning a profit? If you have ever watched The Apprentice, keep it in mind as we think about the story Jesus told about a man who entrusted three of his servants with bags of gold and set them the challenge of making the best profit. Jesus is in Jerusalem in the final week of his life, telling a series of parables about how to live as his disciples and how we can prepare for the end of the age when he will return in glory.
Matthew 25 14 ‘Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
The race is on! While the master is away, who will make the most profit ready for his return? Notice that from the start that the three servants were given different amounts of capital to work with, “each according to their ability.” Life is like that. We don’t all start off with the same. Some people have advantages, others face challenges. The man entrusted the slave who he felt had the most potential with greater responsibility. These were big advances. It would take a day labourer half a lifetime to earn just one bag of gold. One slave was given twice that much and the third with five times as much, to see how much profit each could make while their master was out of town.
16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
The first two servants were successful. They doubled their master’s money. The third was not successful. He just buried the money to make sure it wouldn’t be stolen. So time passed by.
19 ‘After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
The day of reckoning came. The master returned. Which of the apprentices would be successful? Which would be fired?
20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.”
21 ‘His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

The servant had turned a tidy profit of 100 per cent by skillful and shrewd business. He doesn’t just get hired. He gets a promotion. Before he was put in charge of five bags of gold and that only counted as “a few things”. So being put “in charge of many things” is much greater still. But that is only part of his reward. The servant had proved to be good and trustworthy. So he also receives this wonderful invitation. Come and share your master’s happiness!

22 ‘The man with two bags of gold also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two bags of gold: see, I have gained two more.”
23 ‘His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

Although he had not been given as much capital, this second servant had been equally successful in business. He also made 100 percent profit and he is rewarded with the same promotion, from overseeing a few things to being put in charge of many things. And the same wonderful reward. Come and share your master’s happiness! We’ll return to this glorious reward in a few minutes after we have thought about the third candidate. Sadly he had been a miserable failure.

24 ‘Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

The third servant had made no profit. The issue was not that he had been unsuccessful. He hadn’t even tried. He was afraid of failure. He wasn’t prepared to risk losing what had been entrusted to him. So he just hid what he had been given. He hadn’t tried.

26 ‘His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 ‘ “So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.

The third servant gets fired. And there is an unexpected bonus for the servant who had originally been given the five bags of gold. Now he will have eleven bags of gold to work with, not for himself to enjoy of course but to use in business. Even more opportunity to make a profit for his master.

But what happened to the third servant? In the Apprentice the unsuccessful candidates just get fired. The servant who was too scared even to attempt to do business on his master’s behalf faced a gruesome end.

30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Jesus finished this parable on a solemn and sobering note of judgment to make the point that discipleship is a very serious matter. How we act in this life has eternal consequences. So what did the two successful servants do right and what did the third do wrong?
The first two men were commended for being “good and faithful servants.” J.B. Phillips translates this as, “you’re a sound, reliable servant. You’ve been trustworthy”. They had been bold and enterprising. Jesus is looking for disciples who are good, sound, reliable, trustworthy, who do their job well until he returns in glory. On the other hand, the third servant didn’t do anything at all. It wasn’t that he had tried in business but had failed. He hadn’t even made any attempt to do business using his master’s investment. He wasn’t prepared to take any risks. One of the points this parable illustrates is that following Jesus will inevitably involve taking risks. If we are following Jesus, sitting back and doing nothing is not an acceptable choice.
Jesus said this,
Matthew 16 24 … ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Again Jesus said in Matthew 10 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Following Jesus will always involve taking risks sometimes. Sitting back and not doing anything is not an option. This is true for individual Christians and also for churches.
David Prior wrote this. “It will be tempting, because we live in such a results-dominated society, to see failure as reprehensible and therefore to be avoided. One way to avoid failure is to call it a mistake—and then to try to eliminate any mistakes, to make sure we get things right and that we succeed. Many local churches base their activities on such priorities and virtually reject anything that is at all risky, because “we cannot afford to make mistakes.”
Following Jesus is inherently risky, for Christians and for churches. The third servant simply didn’t even try. The feeble excuse that the servant made might lead us to think that he was scared of failing and disappointing his master. Perhaps so. But another explanation is possible which in my view is more likely. I think that the third servant was actually more afraid of people knowing who his master really was. He was scared of being publicly associated with the master who had entrusted him with that bag of gold. That would correspond to disciples who are too afraid to let other people know that they are followers of Jesus. But you can’t be a secret disciple. Either the secret will kill the discipleship or the discipleship will kill the secret. Whatever his motives, the third servant was condemned because he didn’t even try to do business on his master’s behalf.
So what is this parable really talking about? The 2011 New International Version talks about “bags of gold” and the Good News translation is thousands of gold coins. The parable is about money and investment and business. How will the servants use the material wealth which the master has entrusted to them?
God has entrusted each of us with treasures, money and homes and possessions. Some have more, some have less. What matters is how we use all the treasures God has given to us, both those which we give to the church and those which we keep for ourselves to use. Are we using all these things for his glory and his kingdom? Or do we keep all our treasures to ourselves?
This primary meaning of the parable is about money. But this has been blurred for us because the Greek word for bags of gold here is talanton which the Authorised Version, the King James Version of 1611 and many English versions since have rendered as “talent”. This confuses us with the English meaning of the word talent as a particular aptitude, ability or skill. People immediately think that the parable is about how we use our natural talents, abilities and skills, in serving Jesus and the Kingdom of God. That is a perfectly acceptable second meaning to the parable although it is not the first. The original Greek never carried this implication. But it is true that God does also care about how we use the gifts and skills and abilities he has given to each of us. Are we continually using our talents for his glory in his service? Have we devoted our natural abilities and our training and our experience and our spiritual gifts to God and his kingdom. Or do we keep them to ourselves and only use them for our own benefit?
God has given us all treasures and talents and he has also given us time. Do we use the precious time we have for God and for his glory? Are we redeeming the time, making time to serve God in the church and in the world as well as making time to spend with God Himself?
And God has also entrusted Christians with his truth, the saving good news of Jesus Christ. Are we sharing the gospel any time, any place, with everybody we possibly can, boldly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord of all? Or are we just sitting on God’s truth, burying it to keep it safe, too afraid to let it be known that are followers of Jesus?
Treasures, talents, time and truth. Dick France taught me everything I know about Matthew’s Gospel and in his commentary Dick writes that in this parable the talents “represent not the natural gifts and aptitudes which everyone has, but the specific privileges and opportunities of the kingdom of heaven and the responsibilities they entail. The parable teaches that each disciple has God-given gifts and opportunities to be of service to their Lord, and that these are not the same for everyone, but it is left to the reader to discern just what those gifts and opportunities are.” Are we making the very best of the opportunities we have to use our treasures, our talents, our time and God’s truth for his glory?
This brings us back to the exciting topic of the rewards the master had waiting for the two reliable and trustworthy servants.
21 “His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Well done, good and faithful servant! We are called to serve God faithfully week in, week out. In our worship. In our service in the church and in the community. In our witness to the watching world. It is entirely possible to get worn out and weary and discouraged. Hear God’s message for Christians who have been serving Him faithfully through the years obediently and sacrificially. It is simply this. “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness”
We should persevere. Listen to this encouragement from the apostle Paul Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The parable of the bags of gold is all about the challenges and the costs of following Christ. We can be encouraged that Jesus talks about the rewards of following him on the many occasions. Remember Jesus’s words to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
The reward Christians look forward to is simply this – the approval of our Lord our God and Father. `Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness”
Our reward will be to be with God in eternity, to see God face to face and know Him even as we are known. GOD HIMSELF is our very great reward. Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Treasures, talents, time, and truth. This parable shows us that there is a fundamental division between good and bad disciples, between the saved and the lost. Are we good and faithful, trustworthy and reliable servants of God in all these areas of life? Jesus is coming back soon. We were talking last week about the need for us all to be ready for his return. When he does, will we get promoted or will we get fired? When we are each ultimately called to account there will be glorious rewards for disciples who have proved themselves to be good and faithful servants. Not so for those who refuse even to try.

I spotted an article in the Christian press the other day. “Pastor thinks that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a sign that Jesus is coming back soon.” The world is certainly becoming more and more troubled. Covid19 has caused two years of suffering and death and the pandemic is not ended yet. Then the effects of the lockdowns on economies, the backlog of necessary medical treatments for other diseases and the effects of long Covid will affect all our lives for years to come even, if the world is spared the rise of another dangerous variant. The United Kingdom is facing inflation at the highest level for many years. And now we have the invasion of Ukraine. Nations around the world are waging an economic war on Russia with sanctions which will impact every country as well as our own lives in terms of rising costs of energy, food and raw materials. President Putin of Russia has even implied that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons. The risk of nuclear war could be greater now than it has been since the 1960s. No wonder some people are saying that we are in the Last Days and the end of the world is near. But when is Jesus going to return? We turn this morning to what Jesus foretold in Matthew chapter 24.
Matthew 24:1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 ‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked. ‘Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’
Matthew 24 begins with Jesus warning his disciples about the destruction of the Temple. This prophecy was fulfilled 37 years later when Romans soldiers led by the future emperor Titus laid siege to Jerusalem in the first Jewish-Roman war. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed the temple and laid waste to the whole city of Jerusalem. Jesus’s disciples understandably wanted to know more about the events which were to come.
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’
If we want to understand Matthew chapter 24 correctly we need to note that the disciples asked two separate questions here and Jesus gave them two separate answers.
‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen?’ That was a question about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’s answer to that first question is recorded from verse 4 to verse 35, which we did not read. Then the disciples asked, ‘what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ Jesus answered that second question about his return from verse 36 to verse 51. That passage was our reading this morning and we will return to it in a few minutes. But first question first.
Some preachers are pointing to familiar passages in Matthew 24 as proof that Jesus is coming soon.
Matthew 24 6 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth-pains.
Jesus goes on to warn of other terrible events. Times of fierce persecution for Christians, in which some will abandon their faith. False prophets will deceive many people.
21 For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equalled again.
Many Christians compare these prophecies with the terrible events unfolding in different parts of the world today and conclude that Jesus is coming soon. This morning I want to absolutely agree with the idea that we are in the Last Days. And I want us all to be very conscious that Jesus is indeed returning soon, maybe even today! But then I want respectfully to disagree with people who are saying that Jesus’s prophecies in the first half of Matthew 24 are being fulfilled today. We are indeed seeing wars and rumours of wars, and nations rising up against nations. We are seeing false prophets and false Messiahs deceiving people. There are famines and earthquakes and we are in times of great distress. These kinds of things have always been happening since Jesus was crucified and will do until the glorious day when Jesus returns. But all of these prophesies come in the first part of Matthew 24 where Jesus is talking about events which will happen BEFORE the destruction of the temple. Although such things will keep on happening throughout the Last Days, when we look at the context it is clear that they are part of Jesus’s answer to the first question, when will the destruction of the Temple happen? Jesus does NOT say that these will be signs that he is about to return. The reason I am confident that this is the case comes in verse 34.
Jesus says, 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Jesus is saying that all of the predictions he has made up to then which we find in chapter 35 up to verse 34 will be fulfilled within that generation, that is within the lifetimes of people alive then and even of some of the people listening to him. Everything Jesus says up to verse 34 are the signs leading up to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
Which leads us on to Matthew 24 verse 35 and the answer to the second question the disciples asked, ‘what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ To that question about him returning, Jesus says this.
36 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
This verse clearly marks the change to the second answer. “But about THAT day”, the day of Jesus coming and of the end of the age. Jesus is very clear – no one knows.
No one knows. Not the angels. Not even the Son of God, Jesus himself. Nobody knows. And nobody ever will know in advance. This is why I have laboured the point about the two questions. Because as far as when Jesus is coming back, no one knows and nobody can know. Some people look for signs, wars and rumours of wars, nations against nations, earthquakes and famine, false prophets and days of unequalled distress. But Jesus said all of these were events leading up to the destruction of the temple – they had already been fulfilled by 70 AD. As far as when Jesus is coming back, nobody knows when. Except that it will be unexpected.
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
God’s judgment in the flood took the whole world, apart from Noah and his family, completely by surprise. Life was going on completely normally. Nobody was expecting that day and the return of Jesus will be the same. This goes against any idea that Christians can in any way work out when Jesus is going to return and be especially prepared for it. No one knows!
Next Jesus uses two images which have caused considerable confusion and even division in the church through the ages.
40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
These two verses (together with one more verse in 1 Thessalonians 4) have led some Christians to believe in an event they have called the Rapture. This is the idea that one day God will suddenly remove all the Christians from the world leaving everybody else behind. Those “left behind” will either face God’s immediate judgment, or they will then carry on living a life in a world without God and without a Christian witness, some would say for another thousand years. If you want to look it up, these ideas belongs to an interpretation of future events labelled “Premillennial Dispensationalism.” This view has become popular since the 1990s due to the “Left Behind” series of 16 bestsellers by Tim LaHaye and four films. Can I stress I am NOT recommending those books and films – they are pure fiction.
I don’t believe that the idea of ‘the Rapture’ is a correct or even a possible interpretation of those verses. The ideas of the Rapture and of Premillennial Dispensationalism only appeared around 200 years ago in the teaching of J.N. Darby and the Exclusive Brethren. Looking at Matthew 24, it is completely ambiguous whether the man in the field and the women in the mill who are taken away are Christians being saved. They could equally be people being taken away to face judgment. The better interpretation is that these are not prophecies of a specific event of ‘the rapture’ at all. Instead, Jesus is just using vivid pictures to make the point that his return will be sudden and completely unexpected. And Jesus goes on to another picture.
42 ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
Jesus will return “like a thief in the night.” This saying was so striking that it became central in the expectations of the Early Church about the return of Christ.
Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Peter in 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
The Book of Revelation 16:15 “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
Revelation 3:3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
When will Jesus return? You will not know! No one knows and nobody can know.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 24 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
We cannot work out when Jesus is about to return so that we can be especially ready for him. All Christians need to be in a permanent and perpetual state of readiness, because Jesus will return at the hour we are not expecting him, perhaps at the hour we are least expecting him. The chapter ends with another parable which is a solemn warning for us all.
Matthew 24 45 ‘Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, “My master is staying away a long time,” 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
We must all be in a state of constant readiness for Jesus to return, diligently carrying out the tasks he has given us to do, worship and prayer and service and witness. We must be faithful and wise servants.
Jesus is coming back. We will never know when. But tThe day of his return is sooner now than ever before. Billy Graham said this about the Return of Jesus. “Our world is filled with fear, hate, lust, greed, war and utter despair. Surely the Second Coming of Christ is the only hope of replacing these depressing features with trust, love, universal peace and prosperity. FOR THAT DAY the world wittingly or inadvertently waits.”
So here is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Jesus is coming back. And the bad news is that Jesus is coming back. The day of the Lord will be good news for some and bad news for others. It will all depend on whether we are ready. No one knows the day or the hour. Jesus was saying, “The son of man will come like a thief in the night at the hour you least expect Him. Don’t let my return sneak up on you!” This is the one absolutely certain future event. Jesus is going to return like a thief in the night! Are you ready for Jesus to come back today?
Hands up if you think Jesus will be coming back today? The Son of man will come like a thief in the night, at the hour you least expect him!

For our sermons during Lent we are going to look at events in the last week of Jesus’s life as they are recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew 21 Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and he has declared himself to be the Messiah in three symbolic actions. He has entered the city riding on a donkey, as the prophet Zechariah had foretold. Jesus has driven the merchants and the money changers out of the Temple, fulfilling a number of Old Testament prophecies concerning the restoration of the Temple. And he has told the parable of the Tenants in the vineyard, portraying himself as the son of the vineyard owner, the Son of God. Jesus has told the parable of the Wedding Banquet, which tells how those who were invited to God’s banquet all made feeble invitations to avoid attending, and how anybody who wished was welcomed instead.
So we come to Matthew chapter 23 which is devoted to Jesus’s condemnation of the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. Over the years I have said surprisingly little about Jesus’s opponents, when you think that the Pharisees are mentioned nearly a hundred times in the Gospels. It can be tempting to think that these passages are not relevant for us, since the Jewish sect of the Pharisees died out in the centuries after Jesus. But Jesus’s warnings about the errors of the Pharisees are still important today. The Pharisees were the leaders of the Jewish religion in Jesus’s time. They were the most knowledgeable and most devoted of Jews. But Jesus reserved his harshest words and greatest criticisms for the Pharisees. They serve as a warning for every generation of the dangers of what can happen when religion becomes more important than faith and outward appearance become more important than our personal relationship with God. Matthew 23 still has important things to say to Christian leaders and to every individual Christian.
Jesus was teaching in the Temple Courts and he starts by warning his disciples against following the bad example of the Pharisees.
Matthew 23:3 …. But do not do what they do, for they do not practise what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Sometimes even today church leaders can make this mistake. They can demand much more of their congregations than they do themselves. Every one of us must always make sure we practise what we preach. And the next sin of the Pharisees is also a trap for some church leaders, as well as for many long-established Christians.
5 ‘Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the market-places and to be called “Rabbi” by others.

Doing everything for show. Some Christian leaders are obsessed with fancy titles. Bishop. Doctor. Apostle. We should beware of any Christian preacher or teacher or evangelist who is more concerned for their own reputation than they are for the glory of God.

8 ‘But you are not to be called “Rabbi”, for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth “father”, for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
I am troubled in this age of celebrity by preachers who expect people to look up to them. We are all brothers and sisters. True disciples will not exalt themselves but humble themselves. If you want to stand out, step down.
Matthew chapter 23 continues with seven declarations of “woe” to the Pharisees. Each of these in their own way are warnings to us as well, in case we ever fall into the same sins.
13 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
The Pharisees were roadblocks to God’s kingdom. Their greatest sin was hypocrisy. Pretending to be something they were not. An admirer once bumped into the famous actor Robert Redford. “Are you the real Robert Redford?” she asked. His reply was refreshingly honest. “Only when I am alone!” The challenge for all of us is to be the same person in public as we are in private when the temptation is always there to pretend be somebody different. As Mark Twain once said, “We’re all like the moon, we have a dark side we don’t want anyone to see.” We should be WYSIWYG Christians – what you see is what you get. We must beware of the sin of hypocrisy.
The Pharisees were the gatekeepers of the Jewish faith. They set the standards for the people. They decided who was acceptable to God and who was not. But the truth was that not one of the Pharisees ever lived up to what they were demanding of everybody else. As Christians we must make sure that we don’t expect from others more than God in his grace expects of us. Especially towards people who are not yet Christians. God welcomes everybody with his unconditional love and mercy, and we should always do the same.

15 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

The Pharisees expected their followers to live to the same exacting standards as they claimed to. They did not realise that none of them could ever reach perfection however hard they tried. Everybody needs God’s grace. But by their mistaken teaching the Pharisees were leading everybody else astray.

16 ‘Woe to you, blind guides! You say, “If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.” 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, “If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.” 19 You blind men!

Blind guides! The Pharisees were obsessed with getting the exact wording of their oaths correct. They were blind to the importance of honesty and integrity. We must always be on our guard against legalism which emphasizes superficial details and ignores underlying attitudes and values. Blind guides. The church today has more blind guides than ever before. Anybody can start their own church, collect followers, get rich and lead others astray. Now with YouTube and social media like Facebook and Instagram people can gain an audience of thousands without even leaving their living room, making their followers in Jesus’s words, twice as fit for hell as they are themselves. You will hear me saying this plenty of times. You cannot trust everything you read or hear on the internet. Slick presentation is no guarantee of truth. Facebook is not infallible. Beware of today’s blind guides!

23 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Straining the gnat and swallowing a camel! We tell elephant jokes – Jesus told camel jokes. Here the hypocrisy was obsessing over the small details of how much spice to offer as a tithe. Will you note that Jesus is not saying that the details of our offerings are not important. But that other things in the Law of Moses, like justice, mercy and faithfulness are much, much more important.

Again, when it comes to welcoming new Christians, and people who are not yet believers, we must avoid having our own checklists of things we think they should do and things we think they shouldn’t do. The Pharisees believed that their Jewish religion was all wrapped up in obeying rules and regulations. But they were wrong. And the Christian life is not like that at all. What matters is acting justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God. (Micah 6:8). Being a Christian is not about following rules and regulations. Being a Christian is about experiencing a personal relationship with God.

25 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Again Jesus is challenging the Pharisees over their concern for outward appearances. Doing the right thing does matter but the inward attitude of the heart is even more important. Jesus uses another simile to press home the point.

27 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside but dead on the inside. As the Message puts it, “People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.” Groucho Marx once said, “The two most important words in the world are honesty and sincerity. If you can fake these you’ve got it made.” Beware the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

29 ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

In earlier times it was the religious elites who had silenced God’s prophets by murdering them. Within days, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law would plot together to murder Jesus. They would have done this anyway because of his implicit claims to be the Messiah. But his teaching here sealed his destiny. Before the week was over, Jesus would be crucified.
To their faces, Jesus called the Pharisees snakes and vipers, hypocrites blind guides and whitewashed tombs. Scripture records the failings of the Pharisees as a warning to us all to make sure that we do not follow their bad examples. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches!