Who are the sheep in Matthew 25?

[gdemoss]

Considering all that is revealed in the text, can you determine who the righteous are?

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

In Jesus Name,

Gary

[other one]

the sheep are the people who follow his second commandment....

[Guest ninhao]

Matthew 24- Jesus speaks of the time of great distress where those in Judea are told to flee into the hills. I assume this refers to the Jewish people in Israel.

Matthew 25:31 - describes the King (Jesus) and 3 other peoples. The King's brothers, which I assume to be the Jews, and the sheep and the goats. Those who aid the Jews in this time of great distress will be considered righteous. Maybe the only people who will aid the Jews will be faithful followers of Jesus. Or perhaps it refers to those Jews who have not accepted Messiah and yet still aid their Messianic countrymen. This in itself may signify saving faith.

Jas 2:24-25 NIV You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (25) In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

This is my guesses.

[gdemoss]

the sheep are the people who follow his second commandment....

Sam, will you please elaborate for clarity.

Gary

[OneLight]

the sheep are the people who follow his second commandment....

Sam, will you please elaborate for clarity.

Gary

I'm not Sam,but if I may ...

The second commandment is 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. When Christ spoke 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.', those are our neighbors.

[gdemoss]

Matthew 24- Jesus speaks of the time of great distress where those in Judea are told to flee into the hills. I assume this refers to the Jewish people in Israel.

Matthew 25:31 - describes the King (Jesus) and 3 other peoples. The King's brothers, which I assume to be the Jews, and the sheep and the goats. Those who aid the Jews in this time of great distress will be considered righteous. Maybe the only people who will aid the Jews will be faithful followers of Jesus. Or perhaps it refers to those Jews who have not accepted Messiah and yet still aid their Messianic countrymen. This in itself may signify saving faith.

Jas 2:24-25 NIV You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. (25) In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

This is my guesses.

Thanks for your reply. There are a few thoughts that arise from your position that I cannot reconcile with the text.

• Who are Jesus brethren? You state Jews which I agree in a certain respect.
  
  • Hbr 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
    
  • Mat 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
    
  • Rom 2:29 But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
    

According to the scriptures, Jesus brethren are not identified by nationality but by works they do. So those spoken of as his brethren here must be defined by the scriptures and cannot simply be his fellow countrymen. The passage states that the 'nations', which translates 'gentiles' in many places will be gathered together before him when he comes. Therefore it is stating that this happens upon his second coming. What is evident by the passage is that these sheep are not his brethren though they be righteous. And they don't appear to understand the gospel either as they do not know that doing something to Jesus brethren is the same as doing something unto him as he is in them.

So I ask again, who are these righteous that are divided 'as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats'?

In Jesus Name,

Gary

[Guest ninhao]

Thanks for your reply. There are a few thoughts that arise from your position that I cannot reconcile with the text.

• Who are Jesus brethren? You state Jews which I agree in a certain respect.
  
  • Hbr 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
    
  • Mat 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
    
  • Rom 2:29 But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
    

According to the scriptures, Jesus brethren are not identified by nationality but by works they do.

So those spoken of as his brethren here must be defined by the scriptures and cannot simply be his fellow countrymen.

Yes. But this does not exclude Jews who act as Rahab did. These are also identified by their works.

The passage states that the 'nations', which translates 'gentiles' in many places will be gathered together before him when he comes. Therefore it is stating that this happens upon his second coming. What is evident by the passage is that these sheep are not his brethren though they be righteous. And they don't appear to understand the gospel either as they do not know that doing something to Jesus brethren is the same as doing something unto him as he is in them.

Yes this true.

So I ask again, who are these righteous that are divided 'as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats'?

In Jesus Name,

Gary

Maybe Mr Gary you have some idea. Is it possible the righteous are people who will be granted access to the Kingdom according to their good works and godly conscience.

[gdemoss]

Maybe Mr Gary you have some idea. Is it possible the righteous are people who will be granted access to the Kingdom according to their good works and godly conscience.

One of the things that I am working to understand is this:

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Paul says this after explaining that the Jews who were blinded by God and made enemies for the gospels sake that salvation might come unto the nations are beloved for the Fathers sake. That they too will be saved though they were not granted understanding of their own messiah.

All of what we are experiencing is for the purpose of the revelation of the person of God unto his creation. God being perfect judge through Christ is the one who decides what measure of revelation each individual who has lived gets. Everyone is responsible for how they receive the truth they have been given and will be held accountable on judgment day. To whom much is given much is expected.

That said, Jesus' blood purchased all of mankind and he now holds the right to give eternal life to whomever he wills and condemn whomever he wills. While we are all busy trying to figure out how that standard applies to each individual or group of peoples, Paul has expressly stated that Gods ways are past finding out.

I do believe that it is possible that these 'sheep' are people who were not given revelation that Jesus is the Son of God by God the Father which is necessary according to what Jesus told Peter in order for one to know in their heart that it is the truth. That they were not given this revelation so that they might fulfill the purpose that God has for them in his overall plan of salvation and revelation of himself unto his creation.

What I do know is that they are not his brethren and they have no idea that they have been doing the things they do unto him but he declares them righteous by their works. I consider the following:

Pro 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

According to Philippians 2, man is simply a servant. He has the choice of serving God or sin. Serving any number of other 'gods' is serving sin in the end. As man we receive choices/orders via our hearts as the heart devises the mans way. The choices come in and we decide what we will obey or follow. Having chosen our way through our hearts, which can be pure or defiled, God then decides whether or not that which we have chosen will come to pass or not.

There is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to Gods overall plan. Much that he has not shared with us and that Satan does not know. It is what Satan doesn't know that destroys him in the end. He had no idea that killing Christ was going to cause him to lose his status by the exaltation of Christ over all or he would not have done so.

While I do not know for sure who these righteous sheep are, I do have some suspicion of what God is up to as I read the prophets with understanding of what is about to befall the church in the near future. But I am along side Paul understanding that Gods ways are past finding out.

Gary

[Guest ninhao]

That said, Jesus' blood purchased all of mankind and he now holds the right to give eternal life to whomever he wills and condemn whomever he wills. While we are all busy trying to figure out how that standard applies to each individual or group of peoples, Paul has expressly stated that Gods ways are past finding out.

Maybe this allows some room in God's Kingdom for ~ 50,000 ( circa 10,000 for yec ) years of Australian aborigines.

[Guest yod]

The answer is in Joel 3

Yeshua is referring to this prophecy and making the claim of being the Messiah who judges the "goyim" (nations, gentiles, or heathen depending on how it is used in context)

sheep - those who love Israel, the Jewish people

goats - those who hate Israel, the Jewish people

He is clearly saying that He will ultimately judge the nations by how we treated the Sons of Jacob. The least of them are His brethren in a very literal way. We can say that we are also in a spiritual way and it would be correct. That doesn't change that these are His family too. He, Himself, said that "salvation is from the Jews" because this is their purpose to the world. Every person who has heard the gospel should be grateful for the price they, His brethren, have paid for being witnesses of God's faithfulness to His Word....and fear the Cross. He promises he'll also remove any grafted-in olive branches who are arrogant towards those fallen natural branches in Romans 11. This is serious stuff!

In fact, the scriptures are overwhelmingly clear that judging the nations and ruling Israel is the very reason and realm of the Messiah at His Coming, and that is why jewish theology could mostly explain away a lowly rabbi/teacher in the Village of Nahum who was performing miracles and teaching the intent of Torah as someone with authority. There appears to be a brief contradiction of only a couple of verses where a Messiah would die for sins of others and be resurrected in Isaiah 53.

The jewish theologians have come up with a clever solution: There are 2 Messiahs!

1. Messiah, son of Joseph - suffering servant for sins of others

2. Messiah, Son of David - conquoring redeemer of Israel

They don't understand that it's One Messiah with multiple advents/purposes. He will come again as the scriptures have said; but this time to judge the nations as Messiah, the conquoring King.

Isaiah 63 is just one of many passages that speak about Him judging the Nations while Psalm 149 and Daniel 7 say the saints will come in the air with Him, with 2-edged swords but He alone will fight in the Day of Battle and destroy the enemies of Israel.

This is the "rapture" everyone is waiting for. Then all Israel will be saved and the Law will go forth from Zion. We'll have a thousand years of righteous reign on Earth before the Bride, New Jerusalem, descends from heaven.

That's the fingernail version.

Kapish? LOL

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