Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Matthew 24 | Date: September 1, 2019 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Matthew chapter 24. I’ll begin reading with verse 29. In the earlier verses here, Jesus has described what will be the marks of this entire age between his ascension and his return. This age is marked by, he said, would be marked by, on the one hand, great difficulties of various kinds: wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, but also by advance of the gospel, but then again also by oppression, spiritual oppression, opposition as well, betrayal. All of these are the marks of this age.

He gives an outstanding example of the difficulty of this age or the tribulation of these days in verses 15 through 22, where he describes, I believe, what happened in AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem. And that is a sampling of the tribulation of this entire age. And he gives it some extent here, some extent, the description of what this age is like. I would like to have spent our time there first. I can’t do everything, but our intent today is to work through the end of chapter 25. So I have to give you that—verses 1 through 28 of chapter 24—in that nutshell.

Here then he tells us that this age will climax in his return. So I’ll pick it up with verse 29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, again I think referring to this entire age, immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as the branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass until all these things take place.

I take that to mean that all of the signs that Jesus described and through that would characterize this age would give their appearance within that first generation.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, “my master is delayed,” and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, in this very important passage of Scripture, we pray that you will give us understanding and we pray that you would own its message and its caution and its warning to our hearts. Give us from it a sense of the seriousness it is to live in this day before your coming. Help us, Lord, to be the wise servant who serves faithfully in anticipation of your return. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Sudden and Surprising Nature of His Return

Well, in Matthew 24 and 25, we have what is called Jesus’ Olivet Discourse. That is the sermon that he preached on the Mount of Olives. It is the passage where Jesus deals with the subject of eschatology. He lays out for us prophetically in the opening section of the chapter, as I’ve mentioned, what the course of this age will be like. And he tells us that it will be characterized by opposition and difficulty of various kinds. There’ll be false claims of the Messiah. There will be opposition against the people of Christ. More generally, there’ll be wars, international rivalry, there’ll be famine, there’ll be earthquakes. But there will also be gospel advance, and he tells us that in verse 14, that this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the nations and the whole world.

He emphasizes both at the beginning of that section and then toward the end of it that there will be false claims of Messiah—that he is here, that someone is it, or that he has come, “come and see.” Jesus assures us that you don’t need to worry about that. If someone tells you that I have come, don’t worry about it because when I come, you’ll know it. That’s the long and short of it.

And then we come to verses 29 and following that we’ve read, and there Jesus describes the event itself. He has some allusions to the Old Testament of the sign of the coming of the Son of Man: that he comes with an ensign, a banner, military imagery; that he comes with glory over his enemies. Verse 31, he sends his angels, they gather his elect, they bring them to him. This is language that’s picked up by the Apostle Paul later in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. It’s just a grand event when the Lord returns and takes center stage in world history and establishes himself as king.

In verses 36 and following then, Jesus gives a caution with regard to the sudden and surprising nature of his return. That then carries us through the rest of chapter 24 and through chapter 25. He’s giving here a caution with regard to the suddenness of his appearing and the surprising nature of his return. It’ll be like the days of Noah. The days of Noah are often understood in this passage to mean days of wickedness. That might be implied somewhat. I think the point, though, is not that they were days of wickedness, but that, as he describes here, they’re eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage—that is, life is going on as normal. They’re doing what people do, living life as we live life, and carrying on life as though there’s no tomorrow. And in that normal routine of life, suddenly it will be interrupted, and Jesus will return with these drastic consequences that he mentions.

And so he gives illustration. Two men will be in a field working. This is probably picturing a father and a son. They’ll be together. One will be taken, the other left. We find the same with two women grinding at the mill, probably a mother and a daughter, a mother and a daughter-in-law, something like that, grinding the mill, grinding the grain, working it down. One will be taken and the other left.

And so verse 43, it’s going to be like a thief. And he gives this thief imagery. It’s an odd kind or a surprising kind of illustration to compare Jesus to a thief. But it’s the surprising nature of the event that Jesus is emphasizing. If you had known the thief was coming, you’d have stayed up and waited for him and wouldn’t let him in the house. But you were sleeping. And Jesus says, that’s what it’ll be like when I return. There’ll be sleeping. It’ll be a surprising event. You won’t be expecting it.

And so in verse 42, he says, “Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Notice then the theme of readiness, readiness for his return. And then he draws that very conclusion again in verse 44, rather climactically, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” You don’t know the day, you don’t know the hour. You know you’re in for a good discussion when someone begins by saying, “I know Jesus said we can’t know the day or the hour, but…” and Jesus is putting a lie to all of that. You don’t know when it’ll happen. It’ll be surprising. It’ll be sudden. It will be startling. You must be ready. And that’s the conclusion he has drawn at this point in his sermon. You must be ready because that day will be a surprising thing. Precisely because you don’t know when, you must be ready at all times.

Now that is the idea, this idea of readiness. That is the controlling idea now for all of the rest of the sermon. From verse 45 of chapter 24 all the way through the end of chapter 25, Jesus is expanding and expounding and applying on this idea of readiness for his return. You don’t know when it’ll be. It’ll be surprising. It’ll be sudden. And so you must be ready, and ready at all times. And so to expand on that, Jesus gives us four parables.

The Parable of the Faithful and Wicked Servants

First of all, verses 45 to 51, we have the parable of the faithful and wicked servants that we’ve just read. Then in chapter 25, verses 1 to 13, we have the parable of the bridesmaids, the parable of the ten virgins. Then in chapter 25, verses 14 to 30, we have the parable of the talents. We’ll look at all of these. And then finally, chapter 25, verses 31 to 46, we have the parable of the sheep and the goats and the judgment of the nations. And all of that is to expand and expound on and apply this idea of readiness. What is it to be ready for Jesus in his return? And in particular, it looks at it with regard to the judgment that comes at the event of the Lord’s return.

I come to this this morning because where we left off, before I head to my vacation, where we left off was in the Sunday evening session and then once in the morning was looking at this doctrine of divine judgment. We saw that the lost will be judged. We also saw that the righteous will be judged at the coming of Christ. That naturally brings up the question, and many of you asked me about it, the question about why should the righteous be judged if Christ has already taken our judgment? If we know that in Christ already we are saved, why will we have to be judged? And in particular, what is this idea of being judged according to works when we recognize that salvation is by grace? Those are good questions. They’re important questions. And I had thought to go to several different passages to explore those questions, but I’ve decided to handle it mainly with regard to these parables here this morning. Jesus, I think, gives us what we need to understand the answer to those questions.

So first of all, the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servants. Again, verses 45 through 51:

Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, “my master is delayed,” and begins to beat his fellow servants and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him in with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Now the servants in view here very obviously are some high-level kind of servants. They’re managers. They’re foremen. They’re men of responsibility under the owner of the place, and he gives them responsibility. Throughout all of these parables, there’s the emphasis on Jesus’ delay in his return. That’s an important note in shaping eschatology generally, but Jesus stresses that matter, that his return will be delayed; it’s put off for a while, long enough for there to be an abuse of the privilege and an abuse of the time.

And so he sets, he pictures it here, as these managers are set over with responsibility, set over his affairs. And those are, in particular in view here, are in managerial kinds of positions over others. And the one is serving the interests of the master faithfully. The other is abusing his position. He beats the others under him, takes advantage of them, and he goes out and carouses.

Now, very often in Jesus’ parables, generally, he will select one instance or one illustration of what faithful living looks like. And here then is this illustration, and that is someone has responsibility over others, some position of influence, and he is able to use that influence for good or for ill. And the parable then is rather straightforward. We have in view, obviously, professing believers. He speaks of them as fellow servants and all of that. These are professing believers, at least, and we have two contrasting servants, and we have two contrasting scenarios, and two contrasting outcomes in the parable.

We have the faithful and wise servant who serves his master’s interests while the master is away. The master comes back, calls him into account, sees that he has been serving his interests, and he rewards him according: “I’ll put you over all of my possessions,” which in the flow of the passage obviously means he will have a share in the ruling in Christ’s kingdom. And then on the other hand, there’s this wicked servant who abuses his position. He mistreats others. He carouses. He is not serving the master’s interests. And the master returns at a time when he’s not expecting it, and he calls him into account. And then, of course, the outcome is a sad one for him because he has not been faithful and he is cast into hell where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The point? Pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Pretty obvious. Two men, two scenarios, two kinds of service—service so-called—and two outcomes determined by their behavior. One had served the master’s interest, the other had not.

The Parable of the Bridesmaids

Moving on then in Jesus’ sermon, we come to chapter 25, verses 1 to 13. And here we have the parable of the bridesmaids, as I’m calling them. I think what we have here with the ten virgins in this parable is the rough equivalent in the ancient world of today’s bridesmaids. Verses 1 to 13:

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, there’s that note again, as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. And at midnight there was a cry, “here’s the bridegroom, come out to meet him.” Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish virgins said to the wise, “give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered saying, “since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.” And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, “Lord, Lord, open for us.” But he answered, “truly I say to you, I do not know you.”

And here Jesus draws the conclusion: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Now this story is told against the backdrop of some what would be familiar customs to them in that world. The bride and the groom usually would have come from the same town. There wasn’t great traveling in those days; if not from the same town, at least from a town nearby. And for the wedding ceremony, it followed this procession that he describes here, this ritual: that the groom would walk from his house, in the same town or nearby at the least, would walk from his house to the house of the bride. And there would be some festivities there for probably the day and maybe well into the evening. And then at that evening there would be a procession back to the groom’s house where they would stay. And all would follow them back in the train back to the groom’s house for the festivities. And the festivities then would last several days, perhaps even a week.

And all the guests would join in this grand procession back to the groom’s house. It would occur in the evenings and so they would need their lamps or their torches. Same word that’s used here can be translated either way. But the torches or the lamps would need oil for the flame to keep burning. And so you have oil doused in the rags on the torch or you have a little bowl at the top of the stick for a lamp, whatever, and you have the oil that then keeps the fire going to give light along the path. Anyone who doesn’t have one of those lamps or torches probably was not invited. He’s not welcome. He’s not one of the guests.

And the virgins here are probably, as I say, the ancient equivalent to today’s bridesmaids. They help the bride with the preparations and so on. Verse five emphasizes again that there is a time of delay from the bridegroom’s coming. That’s an important detail in the story. The foolish virgins either did not bring any oil or at least not enough of the oil. And so there’s not enough prepared for the delay, and when the bridegroom finally shows up, and it seems a little late, and it’s nighttime, they don’t have what is needed to follow in the procession home.

Well, the bridegroom finally comes, Jesus tells us. The wise virgins, they prepare their lamps. They’re ready to join the procession as the bridegroom shows up, and they can follow in the procession back home. The foolish virgins did not have enough oil. They weren’t prepared. They can’t join, and they can’t join into the wedding festivities. Those who are prepared go with him in the procession. Those who are not ready cannot. And that’s the simple parable.

Now there’s been a lot among the interpreters, a lot of conjecture about many of the details of the parable. As a general rule, keep in mind when you interpret parables that the more you chase details of the parable, the further you’re probably getting from the point of the parable—that a lot of the details are there to give the flavor of it, but it’s not intended usually to have great symbolism with all of the details. There’s a point to be made and that’s it.

And so sometimes, the people will ask, where’s the bridesmaids here? Who are they? Because the bride is the wife of the King who comes, and that’s the church. And so who are the bridesmaids who are attending the church? Lots of speculation on who that might be. I think the point here is that he’s got nothing to do with it. He’s just speaking of readiness. And the point of the bridesmaid then is referring to the people of Christ themselves. The bride, in fact, is not mentioned anywhere in the story. Same with the oil and the lamps. Many have conjectured, is that the Holy Spirit? And can you not share the Holy Spirit with others? And things like that. And you have, why are there 10? Is there some symbolism to the 10 virgins? Why is it 10 and not 12 or something like that? And then is there some symbolism to the sleep?

I think a lot of that is to miss the point of the parable. I think there is some sense to the idea with the sleep involved. It just adds to the sense of delay that’s prominent in the parable itself. The point that the parable is emphasizing, the whole thrust of the parable, is simply to stress this idea of preparedness—the preparedness of the bridesmaids in light of the groom’s delay. And so, verse 13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Yes, our Lord is coming. Yes, there will be a time of delay. But you must be ready, because it may be soon. That’s what Jesus taught in verses 22 and following. It may be soon, it may be delayed, yes, but it still could be at any time. There’s a sense of imminency to it. Yes, our Lord’s return is delayed, but you must be ready at all times. You do not want to be caught unprepared when the Lord returns. Don’t think that you can just hold off to the last minute and, “oh, he’s coming now, I’ll get ready.” You can’t do that, Jesus says.

Now in all of this, the idea of judgment is not made explicit, but it is implicit in all of this. There are two outcomes. You have the one, the wise bridesmaids who are ready, and they are allowed into the kingdom, into the marriage, the wedding festivities. And you have the foolish women who are not ready, and they are not allowed into the wedding festivities. That is to say they’re not allowed into the eternal kingdom.

Now the question then here in this parable is how can you be ready? How do you survive judgment? How can you be ready? And the answer very obviously is you surrender to the King’s rule today. Don’t be among those fools who put it off till tomorrow. It’ll catch you by surprise. You won’t be ready. Don’t wait until he returns to see your need of him. It will then be too late.

So in this first parable, chapter 24, we’re told you must serve the master’s interests faithfully. In the second parable, we’re told that we must be ready for his return even though it is delayed. You must serve the master’s interest in his absence and be ready always while his coming is delayed.

The Parable of the Talents

All right, and then we come to the parable of the talents, chapter 25, verses 14 through 30:

For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.

And now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing the five talents more, saying, “Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have made five talents more.” His master said to him, “well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, “Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here I have made two talents more.” His master said to him, “well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” But his master answered him, “you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have increased my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten. For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast that worthless servant into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Again, the idea of Jesus’ delay in returning provides the backdrop to this parable. And again, the focus is serving the Master’s interests during his absence while he is away. But here it adds another dimension to it. It is not just serving the Master’s interests, but here Jesus insists that you don’t just, you must not just serve the Master’s interests generally, but you must in fact improve his holdings, improve his assets, be faithful with what he has given to improve his interests.

Now again in this parable we have some upper level kinds of slaves that are in view; they’re servants, but they’re obviously people with some responsibility. It’s a considerable responsibility. They’re managing the master’s estate while he is away. And they are to take his money. They’re to use it for his interest and to improve his assets. And so you get the idea here of they’re starting up new business or advancing their business in some way. They’re buying, selling, they’re trading. They’re using his assets to improve his holdings in some way. So obviously this master here in view is a wealthy man of some kind, and he leaves them to, as delegates somewhat, delegating authority to them to direct his affairs.

Now it says he gives the one five talents, he gives the one two talents, and he gives another just one talent. A talent is a measure of money in those days. It’s a weight of gold and so on. It could be silver talents. A talent was comprised of 6,000 denarii, which doesn’t mean a whole lot to us either. But to get an idea of how much money this is, we compare it to the buying power of a denarius. A denarius in that day, one denarius, was the average pay of one day’s work for the average common laborer.

So we have one day’s wage, one denarius. For those of you who like the math, I can see Isaac doing the calculations already. One day’s wage, a denarius. 6,000 denarii make up one talent. And here this man is given five talents. Well, if one day’s wage in a six-day week is a denarius—six days in the week, six denarii for the week. How much is 6,000 denarii times five? Well, we’re talking about something like 20 years’ wage in a talent, and here it’s five talents, so it’s something like 100 years’ wage, something like that. Put that in today’s dollars if you want. Let’s do round figures. A common laborer receives, what, $50,000? Let’s just use that. 20 years worth, we’ve got something around $20 million, something like that. Oh, well. Ask Isaac. He’ll tell you that. We have something like 100 years pay here that he’s talking about, obviously a very, very wealthy landowner, and he has put these men in charge over his estate.

Well, the man with five—let’s just say $5 million—he takes the money and he immediately puts it to work for his master. He invests, starts up new businesses, builds the businesses, trades, and instead now of $5 million, he has $10 million. The same also with the servant with two talents. He now has four. But then we have this slouch that’s described. He’s given one talent and all he did was save it. He buried it, did nothing to improve his master’s assets at all.

And then the master comes and calls him into account and he makes this useless excuse: “Oh, I was afraid of you and how you’d handle it. And I knew you were a fierce man, so I buried it. Here it is. You got what was yours.” And Jesus calling them all into account. To the first two, he commends them, blesses them, gives them a place of authority in his kingdom. They share in his rule.

But this slouch of a servant who just saved it, Jesus calls him into account. And here is a man who has said, “this was not my money, it’s his, I don’t care. I’ll just bury it, give it back to him when he comes.” And he didn’t have the time to serve his master’s interests. He took no effort to improve his master’s holdings. And now he is judged accordingly. And Jesus says, “he is cast into outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

What’s the point? The point again is very obvious. And that is that when Jesus returns, we will be assessed. We will be judged. We will be assessed with regard to how we served his interests and we’ll be assessed with regard to how or not we improved his holdings. There’s a sobering thought here that Jesus gives particularly in this one. The freeness of grace was never intended to promote sloth and slothfulness in service.

So the Lord Jesus gives us what he gives us. So many abilities. So many talents in our sense of the word. So much money. He gives each of us so much influence—in our family, in our community, in our workplace, in our church, whatever. He gives us so much influence. He gives us abilities. He gives us skills. He gives us positions. And then Jesus returns and says, “what have you done with that to serve my interests? How have you used what I have given you to promote and to improve my holdings?” It’s a sobering thought. The mark of a mere professing believer, according to this passage, the mark of a mere professing believer is he’s not serving the master’s interests, and he’s not improving the master’s holdings. The mark of Jesus’ people is that they are faithful in serving him until he returns, and that’s how they are ready for him when he comes.

The Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats

Well, we have one more parable that we’ll look at quickly, verses 31 through 46. This is the judgment of the sheep and the goats. And here we have another instance or another illustration of what faithfulness looks like.

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. Then the King will say to those on his right, “come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.”

And the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick and in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?” And then he will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of these, one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Now Jesus begins this with the statement, “when the Son of Man comes in his glory, takes his glorious throne,” there’s a reference back explicitly to verse 29 where he’s describing his coming, his return in glory. And when he comes, he says, he’ll take his throne and he’ll separate the sheep from the goats. Now that’s a familiar scene in that world again. People would have a small flock of sheep and goats, and they would graze together. But in the evenings, they would come, bring them back, and corral them and separate them because goats tend to huddle up together and to sleep together to keep warm. The sheep don’t do that, so they’re separated as they’re brought back together in the evenings.

But here it’s pictured as, presented as illustrative of when Jesus returns as King, he’ll take his throne and he’ll separate people as sheep and goats. The sheep is the normal metaphor for the people of Christ, and so the goats are the wicked and the unbelieving.

Now, what is fascinating about this parable, what’s most striking, what’s very prominent, and what has to be kept in mind to understand what’s going on here, is this idea that we see here that those being judged don’t understand the basis on which they are being judged. What are we to make of that? Here judgment comes as a treatment of our Lord’s brothers, those who belong to Christ. And those who are his, they’re often oppressed in the world. And the judgment here in this scene is pictured as: here’s a mark of faithfulness. How did you treat these people?

Now we might expect that the lost were surprised. Maybe not surprised that they’re lost, but surprised at the standard of judgment. “When did we mistreat you? When did we see you sick, imprisoned, naked, needing clothing, needing drink or food, needing some kind of help, and when did we see you like that and not help you?” And Jesus says, “as much as you did not do it for one of these, my brothers,” His people, “you did not do it to me.” Strong overtones of what we will find more explicitly in the Apostle Paul of union with Christ—that we are his and he is ours and we’re joined together by faith as one. Jesus refers to this himself on the road to Damascus with Paul: “Why do you persecute me?” And that’s the idea here, that the people of Christ are held as his, and he holds them very dearly. And inasmuch as you did not help them when they were in need, you did not help me. And your offense against them was an offense against me. That’s when you saw me and did not help.

And then on the other hand, we have the righteous, who are also surprised. And they’re surprised here, not that they are saved. They’re surprised at the standard of judgment. And again, it’s the same thing. “When did we see you naked and needing clothing and imprisoned and sick and we didn’t help and we helped you? When did we see you thirsty and we gave you to drink? I don’t remember any of this.” And Jesus answers the same: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of these, my brothers, you did it to me.”

Now, what’s that meant to illustrate? I think two factors are very important here that are tied together. Number one, it is pretty obvious here just on the face of it that these people, these righteous who helped the people of God and so helped Jesus, these people who helped them were not considering their works to be meritorious. When they were helping the people of Christ, they were not saying, “I’m earning my salvation here.” And in fact, when Jesus comes and separates them and puts them on the right, they’re not saying, “oh yeah, I figured that because I’ve been helping the people of Christ.” They did not consider their works to be meritorious. They’re surprised at this.

Rather than—and this is the second point related to it—their good works, in this case described as the helping of the people of Christ, their good works were just natural. They were instinctive. They were reflective of who they are. They saw God’s people in need, so they helped them. They do that because that’s who they are. They’re the kinds of people who have something in their heart for the people of Christ, and they see a need, they help. This is not far at all from what we find expounded later more specifically in John’s first epistle, that there’s tests of salvation, tests of the reality of eternal life—that you already have it. One is the faith test, both believing and trusting in Christ and also the objective faith and what you believe. There’s a doctrinal test. There’s also the test of a changed life that you pursue righteousness, but there’s also that love test. That there’s a love for the people of God. How can you say you love God when you don’t love his people? That’s what John asks.

Well, that’s what’s going on here. These are people whose hearts have been changed, and they love the people of Christ precisely because they love Christ. And when they see the people of Christ in need, they instinctively want to help. Not as some realistic kind of an approach to God; no pretension about it. It’s just what they do because that’s who they are.

And so again, the point: be ready. How can we be ready? Well, in this illustration, you’re ready by helping the people of Christ. Because in doing that, you’re serving the Lord Jesus himself. Well, the point in all of this, we see it back again in chapter 24, verse 44, “Therefore you must be ready.” Our Lord delays in his return for reasons known only to God. No one knows when he will come, but he will return. And when he returns, he will call us all into account. And the question in all of these illustrations is: will you be ready when he does come? And when he comes to separate the one from the other, the wicked servant from the faithful servants, the goats from the sheep, when he comes to make these determinations in judgment, where will you be in it all?

Now, there are other motives, of course, in serving Jesus. And in fact, they’re alluded to in this very parable. They served Christ’s interests because of a changed heart. They served the interest of Christ because they love Christ. Paul will speak of it in terms of serving Christ because of this overwhelming sense of his saving love for us. There are lots of motives for serving Jesus, but this is one. We serve with an eye to that day when he returns and will judge us accordingly. And this makes life a very serious business.

Again, the money that Jesus has given you. What have you done with it to serve his interests? The influence that Jesus has given you in your family, in your neighborhood, your community, your church, your workplace. The influence that Jesus has given you. How have you used it to serve his interests and to improve his holdings? The standing you have among your family, your community, the talents, the skill, the learning, all that he’s given to you, have you used it to serve his interests? That’s the point here. And when he comes, he’ll make those determinations accordingly. Those who are his are marked by faithfulness. They serve his interests in order to improve his holdings.

Now that—and I’ll have to go through this very quickly then—serves, I think, to answer the question that we began with. What is all this about judgment, given that salvation is by grace? Well, keep in mind the three major truths that are emphasized in these parables and are highlighted. Number one, when the Lord Jesus comes, he will call everyone into account. Number two, the basis of the judgment will be whether or not we served his interests and served the interests of the kingdom. And then number three, the contrasting eternal destinies will be assigned accordingly.

Again, what then about the gospel of grace? We have to hold in mind all of these teachings together. Number one, the Bible is crystal clear that justification is by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, who has done all the work that saves. That is the ground of our salvation. We say that over and over and over and over again here. I think you know that well. Sola Fide, faith alone is salvation.

But we also at the same time have to hold in mind what Jesus teaches here. And that is that good works are necessary to eternal life. That’s the point. And there are plenty of passages through the Scriptures that emphasize that. And we’ll be judged accordingly that good works are necessary to eternal life. How then do we put all of that together? And I think the only way to put it together is to say what we have hinted at here in this last parable, and that is that their works were not meritorious. They’re in fact surprised at the basis of judgment, but their works were done from a redeemed heart and served then not as the ground of their judgment, but as evidence that they are Christ’s. And in an evidential way, then, they serve to prove that their profession of faith is real.

So yes, good works are necessary to eternal life. He tells us that here very plainly. But those good works are not the ultimate ground of our acceptance, but rather they’re proof of the genuineness of our faith. I think it’s the only way to harmonize those twin teachings in the Scripture. Justification by faith alone. Works are necessary to eternal life, but those good works are evidence of eternal life.

But once we have said that, we’ve guarded and we’ve preserved our doctrine of grace alone and faith alone, but once we’ve said that, still, it is a very sobering thing to recognize that this judgment is, in that sense, according to works. It makes life a very serious business. And it forces us to examine how we live, forces us to examine our ambitions, our energies, how we use our assets, our money, our influence, our standing, our learning, our position. When the Lord Jesus comes, he is going to ask, “what do you have to show for what I’ve entrusted you with?”

And what you don’t want, what you don’t want is to stand there and make silly, useless excuses. In which case, our Lord will say, “take this wicked servant and throw him into outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What we want is to hear the Lord Jesus say to us, “I’ve given you this ability. I’ve given you this talent. I’ve given you this money. I’ve given you this learning. I’ve given you this influence. And I see that you’ve used it for my interests. I see that you’ve helped the people of Christ and that you had a heart for them. And in doing that, you did it for me. Enter into the joy of your master.”

Again, this is not our only motive in serving Christ, but this is one. As the Apostle Paul will tell us himself, we make it our aim to please Christ. Why? We make it our aim to please Christ, he says, because we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and receive for the works that are done in the body, whether good or evil. And the whole force of this then is to say, as he set it up in verse 44 of chapter 24, “be ready, be ready, be ready” for our Lord’s sudden, surprising, unexpected return. How can you be ready? You’re ready by serving him, serving his interests for his glory. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we need these reminders. We need these cautions. Your word is plain on these matters. We pray that we will take them seriously. Help us never to use grace as an excuse for slothfulness. May we remember always that we are here to serve our master who has saved us himself and who has saved us for his service. We pray in his name. Amen.