Welcome to 2021 on the Redeemer blog! To start off this year we’ve got a few new themed blogs for you, which we’ll be publishing once a month. Today sees the start of our first new blog - Sharing Your Faith! In his monthly posts, Ryan Bentley will be stirring us to share our faith with others, by looking at passages of scripture and giving practical tips. We hope you enjoy his first blog below!
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46
So, are you a sheep, or are you a goat?
When we come to dichotomous scriptures like this one we like to think of ourselves as the sheep. Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd and his sheep hear his voice. Often times we try and figure out how we can meet the standard of sheep.
What do I need to do? How do I need to do it? How often do I need to do it? Who do I need to do it to or with?
The more I look at this section of scripture the more fascinated I am by it, but this week I want to leave you with this. The sheep didn’t know they were sheep, and the goats didn’t know they were goats until they were parted by the Shepherd.
Just sit in that. I’m serious, put your phone down, push yourself away from the keyboard and sit in that.
They had NO clue.
How does this make you feel?
Anxious? Sad? Maybe it makes you feel excited?
However we feel, and whatever category we might put ourselves in, I believe we can learn from this passage! The way I want us to learn from it today is by looking at the responses of the sheep and the goats to their categorisation!
Do you see a difference?
It took me a while and I’ve been reading the bible for 17 years. I never noticed it until someone pointed it out to me.
The sheep (the righteous ones) didn’t know when they took care of the king, and they listed all of their deeds out one by one. Recounting all of them. The goats? They lumped it all together. They branded everything as “helping” or “ministry”. I think there is a heart posture here that goes all the way back to Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Abel’s sacrifice was from the heart. Whereas Cain’s sacrifice was based on performance. I think the same can be extrapolated here from the sheep and the goats. One is looking at the intimate details whereas the other is defining their performance with broad strokes looking for the common denominator.
Next month we’ll talk about this passage again and focus on another piece of the puzzle but for this week I want you to meditate and think on these things…
The sheep and goat didn’t know what they were until they were separated by the Shepherd
When they were separated, they reflected on the Shepherd’s words on two separate levels
I believe God is calling you and me to look at our service to others with a heart posture of love, over a posture of performance. We need not be concerned about which camp we’re in, or who we belong to. We simply know, listen, obey and move.
Let’s uncomplicate love and service together. Let’s simply focus on the one in front of us.
Ryan Bentley
Ryan moved from Birmingham in 2020 to be part of Redeemer along with his wife Sarah (our families worker) and his two kids, Rhys and Torah! He serves the church full time and his aim is to equip each of us to share the gospel with those around us on a daily basis. You can join his Faith Sharing meetup HERE or find more of his wisdom on Instagram.
