Final Judgment: It's a Lifestyle.

What did Jesus mean when he said we needed to visit the sick? In Matthew 25 when speaking on the last judgment, Jesus said that His people were the ones who visited the sick, clothed those in need of clothes, visited those in prison. 

What does Jesus say about those he calls to eternal life? What does Jesus say his followers will do? What will they be about? In this particular section of Matthew, Jesus is seperating the goats from the sheep. He is separating the true followers of Christ from the rest--including those that may profess to be Christians, but are not following Jesus. This is the final judgment. THIS IS IT!

Let me go ahead and explain just a bit about what that means. What does it mean Jesus separates the true Christians from the rest? How can I be sure of my salvation?

As Christians, we are told to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12) We should constantly be checking and ensuring where we are in our walk with the Lord. We should constantly be growing in our faith. We can only be growing in our faith if we are praying (and listening to God's voice). We need to be reading His Word (the Bible) on a daily basis! We need to be A. Growing in our knowledge of the Lord. (Reading God's Word, Fellowshiping with other believers who are walking the Christian walk) B. Bearing fruit. In John 15, we are told that we are to be bearing fruit. Jesus is our vine. He is our power source. We need to be growing in different areas of our lives. We need to seeking to live a more obedient life to Christ. We need to be pursuing a relationship with Him. Some of fruits are things like: patience, self-control, gentleness, love, and faithfulness. There are others as well.

Most important is the Holy Spirit. We should know that the Holy Spirit is living and working inside of us. We will feel convicted when we are committing sins. Also the more we grow in the Lord, our faith in Him is going to come out through our actions. We are not saved by doing good works, but our faith will come out as we continue to grow in our Lord Jesus!

James 2:17-19 says:

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Maybe, you are reading this and are not feeling confident in your salvation. Stop all the distractions right now, and pray. Read and pray. This is a good website to go to if you are still feeling unsure and stuck with questions.

1. First, we must admit to God that we are sinners. We must realize that our sins have definite consequences. My sins have consequences. Your sins have consequences. Each one of us will have to answer for all that we have said and done. Our sins will result in a physical and spiritual death without Christ. We need to recognize this! Our sins have separated us from God, and stopped us from receiving the blessings that He has given us. One of those blessings is Heaven.
2. Second, we must believe that God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus paid the price, so that we would not have to be separated from God.
3. Third, we must confess Christ as our Lord! Jesus died on the cross for our sins! We should honor him with our lives, and choose to have a daily relationship with Jesus!

These are the steps of becoming a Christian. As we learn and grow in Christ, we will live differently. We will seek to live obediently. Philippians 2:12 can also be said this way: "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear."

Are we seeking to obey God with deep reverence and Godly fear?

Today's scripture is on the Final Judgement. We will either have inheritance of God's Kingdom from the obedience of following Jesus, or reap the punishment from not following God. God sent his son to pay for our sins. It is about seeking justice. God is all about justice. Does that mean we will always be obedient? We all fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. God seeks our heart. God knows our hearts. He knows our motives. God is not going to let us slide by if He has called us to do more. God is not like a human who will not know if we are giving our all or not. God is our Creator! He knows us better than we know ourselves, as Psalms 139 teaches us.

Matthew 25:31-40 says: 

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 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. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 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.35 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, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’40 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.’

What is happening?

Jesus is on the throne.

There are angels with Him.

All the nations will be there! Meaning, the entire world will be there!

Followers of Jesus on the right; Everyone else on the left.

Jesus, the King, will tell his followers to "COME!"

They have inherited the Kingdom!

It is not just going to church.

It is more than that!

It is a lifestyle of literally "denying ourselves and taking up our cross to follow Jesus". (Luke 9:23)

It is feeding the hungry.

It is giving a drink to the thirsty.

It is clothing the poor.

It is visiting the sick.

It is visiting those in prison.

It is welcoming a stranger.

In Jesus' exact words, whatever we do to the least of these--we are doing to Jesus Christ the King of the world!

What happens if we don't? What if we choose to (A) Not follow Jesus (B) Not give Him our life. Ultimately, they both have the same consequence.

Let's look further in the passage.

Here is Matthew 25:41-46: 

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 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?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

We will be told to depart from Jesus!

Put in eternal fire with the devil and his angels.

The punishment is an eternal one.

While the righteous inherit eternal life because of Jesus' sacrifice, those who choose not to follow Jesus with their lives will face eternal punishment. I know why I follow Jesus. I follow Jesus, because He is my friend, my companion, my husband. Jesus gives me strength to carry on through the days! According to Jesus, it is about more than going to church on Sunday mornings. It is about more than giving our tithes. Jesus wants our lives! 

What does Jesus say?

It is feeding the hungry.

It is giving a drink to the thirsty.

It is clothing the poor.

It is visiting the sick.

It is visiting those in prison.

It is welcoming a stranger.

It is a lifestyle!

Following Jesus COSTS.

Many people have given up their lives and died to follow Jesus!

We must count the COST that comes with following Jesus Christ.

It is about living beyond ourselves. It is about more than our feelings or our "wants". It is about choosing to recklessly abandoning our self-contained world, and FOLLOW the One who gave us life! God gave us life, and a way out of the mess we created with our sin! Jesus is the Word. Jesus is God in flesh. He became our sin offering. He paid the price we could NOT pay!

Choosing to follow Jesus means choosing to not follow the world. It means to give up your self interest for your desires to pursue God's desires. This is the easiest way to describe these verses. I know I fail at fulfilling Jesus' commands for my own life, but I am praying that God will continue to refine me and grow me in Him. I want to be more like Jesus and less like Stacey. I want to imitate more of Jesus, and become less like this world.

This world is all about "me, me, and me", while we should not be so self-center--it seems to be the worldly characteristics rubbing off on us. This world teaches us to worry, agonize over money, and do only what we want to do. This is not God's ways, no it is the world's ways.

In God's kingdom, things are much different. We are told to LOVE others. Jesus has shortened the ten commandments and given us two. We are to LOVE God and LOVE our neighbor. God does wants ALL of us! If you had someone who was your passion and desire, would you settle for less? What if they would only give you a hour once a year? Would you settle for this? Or, would you want more? We were SEPARATED from God, because of our sins! And, God gave us sooo much more! But, what did it cost? It cost Him his only son! His sinless son!

So yeah, God wants all your heart, mind, body, and soul! Does He not deserve it? The One who has GIVEN you life. Not only has He given you life, He has rebirthed you and given you aspiritual life!

We are told to give away everything to follow Jesus. Jesus knows the cost. God knows the cost. We too need to realize the cost, and then recklessly abandon ourselves, religion, and society. We need to just fall deeper in LOVE with Jesus, because it is a L-O-V-E relationship!

In visiting the sick, it is not so much the action--it is the heart behind the action. Are you doing it because it is required of you? Or, are you doing it because of your love for God and a compassion to be there and encourage others? Are you giving clothes to others, because you feel it is required of you? Or, are you doing it out of a love for others? Each of these things should be done out of LOVE for God. A kind of love that Jesus has CLEARLY demonstrated for us!

God wants our very best. He wants us to work as though we are serving Him, not our bosses, our teachers, our family members.. Same with how we can love others. Are we doing it with the same kind of motivation as though we were serving Christ?

It is about feeding the hungry.

It is about giving a drink to the thirsty.

It is about clothing the poor.

It is about visiting the sick.

It is about visiting those in prison.

It is about welcoming a stranger.

Jesus was about ALL of these things as He wanted the earth, and lived among us.

We are called to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1). How can we do better at living this kind of life with the right motivations this week? How can we love others with humility?