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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning talks about the King returning with glory to bring his sheep home in the parable and the gospel reading. You may be seated. Today, as in the last two Sundays… We have been reading and hearing from our Lord in his holy word about his final coming when he comes to judge, as you and I grew up with, the quick and the dead, but he comes to judge the living and the dead. And he comes in glory, as our text says, his glorious second coming, this judgment day. The text says he comes in glory and with all of the angels, not just a few. But with all the heavenly host, an amazing scene indeed to imagine. There comes the king in his glory, sitting on his glorious throne. All of the angels gathered around him. And every time he moves his hand, your eyes cannot stop but seeing the pierced hands for you. And now that he has everybody in humanity gathered, from Adam… And even all those from the beginning to the very end of time, all of that mass of humanity gathered before him. And before a word is said, before anything is mentioned, because the end has come, it’s not as if it’s going to come, it has come in the text. Before anything is said, the sheep, even the lost and strayed ones, are gathered from the mass and separated on the right side of the king. And all of the goats separated from the mass and placed on the king’s left side. Because all throughout humanity, since Adam and Eve to the very end, the sheep and the goats have always been intermingled. Just like the parable of the weeds and the wheat. And at judgment day, they are separated finally, apart from one another. But this is done before anything is said. Note that well. The sheep aren’t going to change into goats and all of a sudden there’s going to be a surprise. And the goats aren’t going to sometimes change and become sheep. They are sheep and they are goats before Christ comes. At his coming, they are publicly separated one from the other. Then the shepherd of the sheep, the son of David, proclaims to the sheep on his right with an invitatory statement, “‘Come, you who are blessed of my Father.'” Not you who will become blessed, but you who have been blessed from the time you were baptized and made my sheep. You who are blessed come into the kingdom prepared for you. And then the mystery of all mysteries, from the foundation of the world was this kingdom made for you, his sheep, for no one else but for you. And all of this happens to those sheep Because of why? All of this happens to the sheep because of their faith. It is their belief in the sacrifice of the great Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world that these sheep are considered by their king to be righteous, as the text says. For you are not righteous by anything else, but your belief and trust in that Lamb of God shed and bled for you. The Father’s just judgment has been rendered. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who does not believe shall be condemned. His just judgment has been rendered. And any works that these sheep might have accomplished, and they did, It is their faith that worked the work, not they themselves. It is their faith that accomplished those deeds, not they themselves. It is their faith that made those insignificant seeming deeds to be considered by the king as acceptable to the father and no other reason. Now note this well. You and I who may have confusion about what judgment day is going to be, it is not going to be a video replay of your life if you note not one single sin of these sheep are mentioned. Not one single sin of these sheep are examined. Not one single sin of these sheep are probed into. For they have all been covered and paid for by the Lamb. The lamb did not cover only the sins of the believers. He covered the sins of all unbelievers as well. For his blood covered all. It is that faith in that sacrifice that made them righteous. And notice the sheep. …are clueless as to what they have done because their life isn’t about keeping a track or a record of what they’ve done or have failed to do. That is Satan’s great deception to you. Their life is spent focused and trusting in what the Lamb has done for them, not what they do for the Lamb. They trust in the deed done for them, not in their deeds. And their focus is away from their deeds and onto the deed of the Lamb. Now notice the difference when the goats are discussed. There is not a declaration of invitatory. There is a condemnatory statement made. They are not blessed. They are cursed. And they stand to inherit eternal fire. Which, by the way, the eternal fire was never prepared for humanity. No one was prepared for that. That fire was prepared for one and one and only. Satan and all of his angels. For Christ died for all, so that they all might have the kingdom prepared for them. These, though, these, though, are given that because they reject and spurn and refuse the grace and merit of the Lamb. Their unbelief is what damns them. Now note the difference. Where none of the sheep’s sins are mentioned to them, all of the goat’s sins are brought out. You did not, you did not, you did not, over and over again. Every one of them are mentioned, every one of them are examined, and every one of them are probed into. And every one of them are justly judged by them because they were all about keeping track of their deeds. Yes. In fact, so adept were they at keeping track that they argued with the judge as if you don’t understand because we’re arguing with you. When did we not do these things to you? How horribly sad. How horribly reprehensible. And yet, those sins are not what damns them. Those sins are not what damns them. Do you know what damns them? Their unbelief in the Lamb of God shed, crucified, and bled for them. That’s what damns them. So persistent are they in their unbelief that they argue with the one who bled for them. So persistent are they in their unbelief that as they’re being damned, they’re still arguing with him and refusing him. refusing to be embraced by that blood. Dear brothers and sisters, Judgment Day is not something for you to fear, but for you to rejoice in. All of the things that cause you sorrow, shame, guilt, anger, bitterness, disappointment, unfulfilled expectations, all of those things that bring you sorrow and grief, all of those things, We’ll be free from finally all of the aches and pains of your body, all of the diseases that have wracked you or your loved ones, all of the things for which you as you grow older curse and swear and wish you could have again as new will be given to you new again. That is what we sing about in that hymn of the day. But until then we have to wait. But in our waiting, Don’t think that you’re waiting with half fulfillment. You, you have eternal life now. We wait for that separation of our faith from our flesh on Judgment Day, but we have eternal life now, which is why you are being invited to come to the supper of the Lamb and His kingdom, which has no end, that you may get into the habit of life. Eating and drinking with one another. Because you know what? We are spending eternity with one another. And that’s a good thing. Paul makes this very clear in the gospel reading. Or in the epistle reading, excuse me. Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order. Christ the first fruits. Then at his coming, we who belong to Christ, then comes the end of this world and the beginning of your eternity forever. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting, amen.
