Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

2^nd Last Sunday of the Church Year/Trinity 26

November 14, 2004

Matthew 25:31-46

TITLE: “Hope for the Last Day”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read, Christ’s judgment over the sheep and the goats.

What is so interesting and at the same time so difficult about this text is the question of perspective. Jesus is giving us a glimpse of the Last Day, that great day where everything is laid out, and there is no doubt about faith and unbelief, truth or the lie, God or Satan. Everything will be laid bare. Every work will be examined, every sin known and either forgiven or retained based on faith in the blood of the Lamb.

There will be a different perspective on that day, a perspective which is hard for us to see today. You see, dear friends, good works flow from faith. Faith in the Son of God is the only place good works come from. They don’t come from our pious desires. They don’t come from our willpower. They don’t come from begging or cajoling. Good works certainly don’t come from guilt or browbeating. Good works flow from faith. So on the Last Day, when everything is laid bare, the Son of God looks at your works, because your works are a sign of faith. They flow from faith, but they don’t cause it.

On the Last, great day that will be clear. But today, as we are still in the midst of earthly life, that is not clear. Today what may appear like a good work may not be, and things which are overlooked as unimportant may flow from deep faith. You can’t trust good works to be a sign of anything when it comes to salvation and eternal life. If that were so, then the people who would be saved would be the Mormons and the Muslims. Now there are a couple religions that have good works down to a science! Every work in its place, every obligation clearly laid out and put into the tapestry. But there is no Jesus in those false religions. And if there is no Jesus, there is no forgiveness, no life, no salvation, and definitely no good works.

We do, however, fall into this trap quite often. How often have we judged the works of others to determine how good of a Christian they are? We use the measuring stick of the Last Day to determine what is going on today. Or to put it another way, we use the measuring stick of the world to try and measure heaven. For you see, here on earth you are measured by your works. You are paid what you are worth, at least that’s the theory. Love is demonstrated not finally by gushing emotions, but by actual sacrifice. Love is measured by works. So if you love your wife, and yet make no sacrifices for her of time, of money, or actual work, then that calls into question what love really means for you.

This is how the world measures things, and this is how things will be measured on the Last Day. Right about now if you are listening you should be starting to get nervous. I mean, how is it that I will be measured by my works on the Last Day? What hope is there for a goat like me, to use the analogy from our text?

Look to Jesus. The author of the book of Hebrews puts it this way after rehearsing the faith of all the saints of old:

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Your hope for the Last Day lies in Jesus Christ, who went to the tomb for you. Jesus, the One who gave up his very life for you, breathes new hope into you this day by His Word of forgiveness and life. Jesus good works are actually your good works, because of your Baptism into Him. So when you stand before the Judgment seat of God, you need not be afraid. Why? Because His good works are yours. Jesus will look at you and say, come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So where do you look until that day? Where are the good works to be found? Here is the key to Christian spirituality as we look for that Last Great day to come again. Don’t look for them. It’s not your job. Evaluating and measuring and looking for good works is the work of the devil in this day. Why? Because he knows that when you look and evaluate and measure your good works or the works of others, you are not looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

It is precisely for this reason that when we talk about the Church, and where to find the Church of Christ, we don’t talk about good works at all. This is why we speak about the Church in this way in the Augsburg Confession:

Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered (Triglotta, AC VII).

If you look for the Church, you look for the marks, that is, the Gospel and Sacraments. That is where we find Jesus, and that is where our eyes are rightly fixed so that we may have hope for the future.

Don’t be afraid, dear Christians. Christ has won it all for your. His Spirit will draw you home to be with Him on that Last Day. And what a great and glorious Last Day it will be! The inheritance is yours. He has made you into a sheep, a lamb in His pasture. Perhaps our hymnwriter expressed it best: