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Christ the King — or Reign of Christ — Sunday is on November 26, 2023.
Readings for Year A can be found here.
The readings will be familiar to churchgoers and other students of the Bible. The first reading from Ezekiel 34 concerns God’s promise to the people of Israel that David will be their shepherd. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is the earthly son of David, so that promise extends eternally through Him. Psalm 95 extols God as Creator and acknowledges that ‘we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand’. The Epistle, taken from Ephesians 1 reminds us that Christ reigns in glory forever and ever.
The Gospel reading is as follows (emphases mine):
Matthew 25:31-46
25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
25:33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
25:34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
25:35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
25:38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
25:39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
25:42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
25:43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
25:44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
25:45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
This reading, about our Lord’s Second Coming in glory and judgement, concludes His Olivet Discourse, which began in Matthew 24.
Unfortunately, Matthew 24 is excluded from the Lectionary, but you can read about it in the link below:
Matthew 24:1-36 – false Messiahs, war, natural disaster, end of the world, Second Coming
Jesus tells us to expect war and natural disasters, which must occur before the end of the world. However, He tells us not to be troubled by them. He also warns us against false Christs, by whom many will be deceived. Also see Mark 13.
Over the past two Sundays, we had parables about sins of omission in Matthew 25 — the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Parable of the Talents — which prevent people from entering the kingdom of heaven.
Today’s Gospel reading is, Matthew Henry says:
… a description of the process of the last judgment in the great day. There are some passages in it that are parabolical; as the separating between the sheep and the goats, and the dialogues between the judge and the persons judged: but there is no thread of similitude carried through the discourse, and therefore it is rather to be called a draught or delineation of the final judgment, than a parable; it is, as it were, the explanation of the former parables.
Over the past few centuries, some theologians have written about hell. Some say it is only a temporary place and that everyone there will eventually go to heaven. Others say that hell does not exist at all.
Interestingly, Jesus spoke more about hell than the writers of the Epistles. If we cannot believe Jesus, who can we believe? These theologians? I doubt it.
Children and adults new to the faith might well ask why God created hell. God created hell for Satan and his angels but also for those who persist in sin.
God hates sin.
Detractors from the Bible often complain that ‘it’s so bloody’. Yes, it is. That is how much God hates sin. He demanded blood sacrifices from His chosen people in the Old Testament and the supreme, all-sufficient blood sacrifice took place when His Son, our Lord, died on the cross.
Hebrews 9 and 10 explains more — and these two passages should answer everyone’s questions about God’s hatred of sin:
Hebrews 9:16-23 – blood, sacrifice
The author establishes that death and blood sacrifice was always essential in the covenants God made with man. Although they continued, there was no need for further ritual sacrifices once Jesus died on the Cross. His death brought us directly into the presence of God through belief in Him. His death absolved us of our sins, something which the old sacrifices could not.
Hebrews 10:1-3 – Christ’s blood sacrifice one and sufficient, Jesus, God, sin, forgiveness
Jesus’s death on the Cross was the one, sufficient oblation — work/sacrifice — for our sins. No Old Testament — Old Covenant — blood sacrifice could compare to His, because only His death took away the debt of our sins. The Old Testament animal blood sacrifices were merely a represenation of the promise to come with regard to salvation.
At the Second Coming, for those who are alive then, and at our deaths, which is the more likely event, divine judgement takes place.
John MacArthur explains:
Judgment is inevitable for sin. There is no question about that.
In fact in Romans 1 we have a very familiar statement in verse 18 which sums it up, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Not some, but all. The wrath of God is revealed against all of it. In Romans 2:9 it says, “tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.” No one escapes judgment on sin.
You say, what about Christians? Well, Christians have the marvelous privilege of having their judgment placed upon the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Their sin is judged. Your sin is judged even if you’re a believer. By God’s marvelous grace and your act of faith in Jesus Christ, you become one of those whose sin is judged in Christ. For those who wonder why Jesus died on a cross, that’s it. He died there bearing the sins of the world. He carried guilt and sin which was not His own but had to be paid for, and therefore when a person puts his faith in Christ by God’s design, his debt is thereby paid in that very act of Christ. On the other hand, for the world of people who do not receive Jesus Christ, who do not accept His lordship and His atonement for their sin, they themselves will bear the punishment for their own sin. So the world wide, people make a choice. They make a choice between receiving Christ as the one who paid the penalty or paying the penalty themselves. That is the simple decision that faces every soul.
And the warnings of Scripture come again and again and again and again to those who do not come to God, who do not come for forgiveness, who do not trust in the work of Christ. The warning is over and over given to them that they will die in their own sin, having to pay the penalty for it. God has warned not only in word but He has warned in very vivid judgment.
Henry points out that even the pagans of the ancient world believed in a penalty after death for a life poorly lived:
Even the heathen had some notion of these different states of good and bad in the other world. Cicero in his Tusculan Questions, lib. 1, brings in Socrates thus speaking, Duæ sunt viæ, duplicesque cursus è corpore exeuntium: nam qui se vitiis humanis contaminarunt, et libidinibus se tradiderunt, iis devium quoddam iter est, seclusum à consilio deorum; qui autem se integros castosque servarunt, quibusque fuerit minima cum corporibus contagio, suntque in corporibus humanis vitam imitati deorum, iis ad illos a quibus sunt profecti facile patet reditus—Two paths open before those who depart out of the body. Such as have contaminated themselves with human vices, and yielded to their lusts, occupy a path that conducts them far from the assembly and council of the gods; but the upright and chaste, such as have been least defiled by the flesh, and have imitated, while in the body, the gods, these find it easy to return to the sublime beings from whom they came.
About death, MacArthur says:
… the death of anyone is the final moment for them. That is the equivalent of the second coming. When a man or a woman dies, immediately the decision of their eternity is sealed and disposition is made. It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. So judgment as seen here at the second coming of Christ will be just for those people who are still alive when He returns. Those who have already died have already faced the inevitability of irreversible judgment. Whenever a person dies, their eternity is fixed either in heaven or in hell. Those who are still alive, who have survived all the rest of the events of the tribulation at the coming of Christ must then be judged – some to be taken into the kingdom, some to be shut out. And that is the judgment that we see here, the final judgment. And all people at all times need to be ready should that hour come in their generation.
Jesus, referring to Himself as the Son of Man, said that when He comes in His glory, with all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory (verse 31).
Henry says that it will be like nothing mankind can imagine:
3. Christ’s appearing to judge the world will be splendid and glorious. Agrippa and Bernice came to the judgment-seat with great pomp (Acts 25 23); but that was (as the original word is) great fancy. Christ will come to the judgment-seat in real glory: the Sun of righteousness shall then shine in his meridian lustre, and the Prince of the kings of the earth shall show the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honours of his excellent majesty; and all the world shall see what the saints only do now believe—that he is the brightness of his Father’s glory. He shall come not only in the glory of his Father, but in his own glory, as mediator: his first coming was under a black cloud of obscurity; his second will be in a bright cloud of glory. The assurance Christ gave his disciples of his future glory, might help to take off the offence of the cross, and his approaching disgrace and suffering.
4. When Christ comes in his glory to judge the world, he will bring all his holy angels with him. This glorious person will have a glorious retinue, his holy myriads, who will be not only his attendants, but ministers of his justice; they shall come with him both for state and service. They must come to call the court (1 Thess 4 16), to gather the elect (ch. 24 31), to bundle the tares (ch. 13 40), to be witnesses of the saints’ glory (Luke 12 8), and of sinners’ misery, Rev 14 10.
5. He will then sit upon the throne of his glory. He is now set down with the Father upon his throne; and it is a throne of grace, to which we may come boldly; it is a throne of government, the throne of his father David; he is a priest upon that throne: but then he will sit upon the throne of glory, the throne of judgment. See Dan 7 9, 10. Solomon’s throne, though there was not its like in any kingdom, was but a dunghill to it. Christ, in the days of his flesh, was arraigned as a prisoner at the bar; but at his second coming, he will sit as a judge upon the bench.
MacArthur explains why Jesus referred to Himself as Son of Man:
Reason number one was that it confirmed His humiliation. It affirmed that it was an incarnation, that God had come all the way to being man. It was an affirmation of incarnation, of submissiveness, of the servant heart, the servant spirit, of coming not to be ministered unto but to minister and give His life. He became one of us. And Son of Man emphasized His condescension, His humiliation, His identification, His understanding, His sympathy with men. He became what we are. That was one reason He used it.
The second reason that I believe this was a good choice and common to our Lord’s use was that it tended to be less offensive then if He were to call Himself Son of God all the time. If He were to call Himself Son of God constantly, He would have created more hostility than He did, at least initially. Calling Himself Son of God continually in front of the Jewish leaders would have fomented problems beyond the problems He had. And of course, as you well know, after three years of ministry they finally took His life with great hostility. It’s very likely that had He continually called Himself Son of God, the whole plan could have been brought to a halt a lot earlier and things that God had intended to accomplish would not have been accomplished. And of course that kind of conjecture is only conjecture since He didn’t call Himself Son of God but may explain to us some reason why He didn’t.
Thirdly, if He had called Himself continually Son of God, not only would His rejectors have been more angry, but His friends might have been more pushy. Had He called Himself Son of God or had He even called Himself King, had He called Himself all the time Messiah, there would have been even a greater pressure put upon Him by the people to take over the kingdom, to take over and rule, to dominate, to overthrow the Romans. So I believe Son of Man was the lowest title, the lowest profile that Jesus could take. It is a denial of any significant title. It is simply saying, “I’m one of you. I’m a son of man.” That’s all. It is true He was also Son of God; it is true He was also King of Kings; but had He paraded those things outwardly, it would have changed the whole series of events. And so He communicates Himself as Son of Man to emphasize His humiliation and identification, to deflect hostility and to deflect those who would force Him to become a King, as obviously many wished to do and even tried to do in Galilee.
There’s another reason. I think He chose to use Son of Man because it provides such a profound contrast to the titles that He will have when He comes in His glory. And it helps us to understand the distinction between the first and second coming of Christ. It provides a marvelous contrast, which contrast is pointed up to us here in Matthew chapter 25. Notice verse 31, He calls Himself Son of Man; then in verse 34, “Then shall the King;” in … verse 40 … “And the King shall answer.” It isn’t long now in this particular message before He turns from Son of Man to King. But He starts out with Son of Man so that they might know who the King is. Right? If He just said, “When the King shall come,” somebody might say, “Well, it’s other than Him.” So He says, “When the Son of Man comes, then will the King say” – and He affirms that He is both Son of Man and King. Son of Man, humble, condescending, humiliated; King, glorious, sovereign, reigning, judging, establishing His kingdom. And so here He turns a corner. Beloved, this is very, very significant. He does not call Himself King up to this point. He tells a parable about a King’s son. He tells a parable about a King who is God the Father. But now He calls Himself King. It’s time to talk about His return. It’s time to talk about His reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It’s time to look beyond humiliation and beyond condescension and see the one who will come in blazing glory. So the emphasis is on the kingship.
And may I remind you, too, that He’s talking, as 24:3 tells us, privately to His disciples – privately to His disciples. He maintained the privacy of His message about Kingship. Even when Pilate later on said to Him, “Are You a king? Are You a king?” He was reluctant to respond and simply said, “You said it. You said it.” Now that is not to say that the people didn’t get the message, because when He was crucified they put a sign over Him that said what? “Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews.” They knew He claimed that. But He did not antagonize them and He did not strike a constant chord in the hearts of the political zealots by referring to Himself as king. He downplayed it and called Himself Son of Man. That is not to say He was not King but that He was judicious in calling Himself by that title.
All the nations will be gathered before Him and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (verse 32).
He will put the sheep at His right hand and the goats at the left (verse 33).
MacArthur explains at length that Matthew wanted his Gospel to convey that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of Kings. The mention of sheep and goats is part of this:
Now let me just mention that this particular judgment of the sheep and goats, though it’s given a tremendous amount of space in Matthew, appears in no other gospel. Mark, Luke, and John don’t deal with it. It isn’t because it’s not significant, it is highly significant. And the repetition of a given passage in the gospels doesn’t necessarily comment on its importance. It does tell us, however, something about the purpose of the author. Mark’s purpose was not to present Christ as King. Luke’s purpose was not particularly to emphasize Christ’s Kingship either and neither was John’s. The gospel which is intended to present Christ as King is Matthew. And that is why the great emphasis of the second coming comes in the gospel of Matthew because Matthew is wanting to present to us the triumph of the regal King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why Matthew is the one chosen to give this passage.
Let me just remind you of Matthew’s emphasis. Matthew has focused primarily on Jesus as the King – King of Israel, King of glory, the one with the right to rule, the majestic one, the regal one. That has been his emphasis. And it falls into three basic categories. First of all, Matthew treats the King revealed – the King revealed. In other words, as the person of Christ unfolds in Matthew, He unfolds as a regal person. Whereas Mark treats Him as human; Mark emphasizes His humanity; and Luke talks about His servanthood; and John emphasizes His deity. Matthew’s emphasis is on His royal character, His Kingship.
MacArthur adds that sheep and goats have different temperaments, which is why shepherds separate them:
… the subjects of judgment, verse 32, all the peoples, all the ethnē, all the ethnic groups, everybody all around the world that’s still alive.
And now we want to look … at the process of judgment, how does this judgment occur? Well, notice verse 32 says all the nations are gathered, all the peoples are gathered, everybody from everywhere all over the earth that’s still alive is brought into Jerusalem and He separates one from another. He separates them into two groups, analogous to a shepherd dividing his sheep from his goats. Shepherds do that in that land. If you ever go there, even to this very day – I was there a few months ago and saw it again – you see mixed herds of sheep and goats all over the hillsides. Shepherds divide them. They divide them very often for feeding and they divide them very often for resting. They move them together and then separate them. And that is necessary because sheep and goats do not feed well together and they do not rest well together. And the reason being the sheep are basically docile, gentle, easily led and easily scared. The goats are unruly, rambunctious and almost fearless, and they create all kinds of problems for the sheep. And so a separation needs to be made.
And in the same way that a shepherd would sort his sheep from his goats, so the Lord Jesus Christ, in His coming, will separate believers from unbelievers.
At this point, anyone whose souls are at rest with God — the sheep — will receive a glorified body:
Believers, to be taken into His kingdom to join the glorified saints out of the Old Testament, tribulation, and the church who are going to be there in glorified form with new bodies fit for earth and heaven. He’s going to take those who are living, who are represented here as sheep into His kingdom as well. The goats are put out of His kingdom.
Henry says:
II. The appearing of all the children of men before him (v. 32); Before him shall be gathered all nations. Note, The judgment of the great day will be a general judgment. All must be summoned before Christ’s tribunal; all of every age of the world, from the beginning to the end of time; all of every place on earth, even from the remotest corners of the world, most obscure, and distant from each other; all nations, all those nations of men that are made of one blood, to dwell on all the face of the earth.
III. The distinction that will then be made between the precious and the vile; He shall separate them one from another, as the tares and wheat are separated at the harvest, the good fish and the bad at the shore, the corn and chaff in the floor. Wicked and godly here dwell together in the same kingdoms, cities, churches, families, and are not certainly distinguishable one from another; such are the infirmities of saints, such the hypocrisies of sinners, and one event to both: but in that day they will be separated, and parted for ever; Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, Mal 3 18. They cannot separate themselves one from another in this world (1 Cor 5 10), nor can any one else separate them (ch. 13 29); but the Lord knows them that are his, and he can separate them. This separation will be so exact, that the most inconsiderable saints shall not be lost in the crowd of sinners, nor the most plausible sinner hid in the crowd of saints (Ps 1 5), but every one shall go to his own place. This is compared to a shepherd’s dividing between the sheep and the goats; it is taken from Ezek 34 17, Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle. Note, 1. Jesus Christ is the great Shepherd; he now feeds his flock like a shepherd, and will shortly distinguish between those that are his, and those that are not, as Laban divided his sheep from Jacob’s, and set three days’ journey between them, Gen 30 35, 36. 2. The godly are like sheep—innocent, mild, patient, useful: the wicked are like goats, a baser kind of animal, unsavoury and unruly. The sheep and goats are here feeding all day in the same pasture, but will be coted at night in different folds. Being thus divided, he will set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left, v. 33. Christ puts honour upon the godly, as we show respect to those we set on our right hand; but the wicked shall rise to everlasting shame, Dan 12 2.
Henry tells us what this verse does not say:
It is not said that he shall put the rich on his right hand, and the poor on his left; the learned and noble on his right hand, and unlearned and despised on his left; but the godly on his right hand, and the wicked on his left. All other divisions and subdivisions will then be abolished; but the great distinction of men into saints and sinners, sanctified and unsanctified, will remain for ever, and men’s eternal state will be determined by it.
MacArthur discusses placement at the right hand:
Now notice verse 33 and see this analogy taken a step further. “He shall set the sheep on His right hand, the goats on His left.” Now this tells us something right away. The right hand is the hand of blessing. The right hand is the hand of honor. The right hand is the hand – are you ready? – of inheritance – of inheritance. That is the preferred hand. The sheep here are preferred in the analogy. As I said, they are submissive; they are gentle; they are docile. The goats are unruly and rough and rugged and so forth and they represent those who are the non‑blessed. To show you the importance of this, when Jacob, for example – there could be many illustrations of it in the Old Testament – but when Jacob set out to bless his grandsons – his son Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And when Jacob set out to pronounce the blessing on those sons, he was very cautious on which son he placed his right hand because that very simple act of placing his right hand on that young man indicated that he was the heir, that he was the child of inheritance, that he was the line, if you will, of blessing. And so you remember that he crossed his hands in order to be sure that he got his right hand on Ephraim because the setting of the right hand symbolized blessing and inheritance. And that’s what you have here. The sheep, the docile, easily led, responsive, needing to be cared for sheep represent the saints. And they are put on the right hand, the place of blessing.
Then the King — Jesus Christ — will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (verse 34).
God and His Son know who the redeemed are. God’s words in Jeremiah 1:5 speak not only of the prophet but of all who are predestined for salvation:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
It is important to remember that, by the time of the Second Coming, many Jews will have accepted Jesus as Messiah.
MacArthur says:
… Revelation 7 says a hundred and forty-four thousand Jews will preach the gospel all over. During the tribulation, Revelation 11 says two witnesses will proclaim the message. And then it tells us there will be an angel who will preach the everlasting gospel all over the globe, so they’ll hear it from men and angels as well. During that period, people will respond to the gospel, an innumerable number of Gentiles will be saved, it says in Revelation 7. All Israel will be saved, it says in Romans 11.
So during that period there will be saved Jews and saved Gentiles. Those people will be persecuted by the Antichrist. Many of them will survive his persecution. So they will be alive at the end. There will also be the ungodly. The ungodly will be devastated by the judgments of God during that period. Some of them will survive. So at the end of the tribulation time you have saved and unsaved people, from all over the globe, who have survived the judgment of God and the holocaust of Antichrist. They have lived through the plagues. They have lived through the disasters, the diseases, the wars, the wrath of Christ and the wrath of Antichrist. They have lived through the judgment on the armies at Armageddon, and there are still multitudes, multitudes left. But all of those who are left, who haven’t faced God in death to be judged, will now face Him in His second coming. All the people. The word ethnē means peoples.
I will stop there and resume tomorrow.
Churchmouse Campanologist 