The Last Day

The Last Day

The 26^th Sunday after Trinity – 11/16/2025

Matthew 25:31-46

Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer

That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our lesson from the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew in the twenty-fifth chapter with special emphasis on verses thirty-one and thirty-two which read as follows:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 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.”[1]

Thus far the Scriptures.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When our Lord teaches about the Last Day, He does not speak to terrify His people but to prepare them and to comfort them. Despite what is often portrayed in popular culture, the Last Day, Judgement Day, Armageddon, this day is not a cause for alarm or terror. No, for us Christians it is to be a day of great joy. Here in Matthew twenty-five, Jesus gives us a picture of that Day. For those who have rejected Christ it comes as a threat, but for us Christians it comes as a promise fulfilled and a joy anticipated. “The Son of Man will come in His glory.” The One who died for you, rose for you, forgave you, and baptized you will return for you. Today our Lord teaches us what His return will be like, what His judgment will reveal, and why you Christian saints can face that Day with confidence and joy.

Jesus Will Return Openly and Plainly

Jesus begins by saying, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.” There is nothing secretive about this. This is no invisible return. This is no hidden event that people will miss if they are not paying attention. The Scriptures know nothing of a secret rapture. Jesus Himself tells us plainly that everyone will see Him, that all the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him, that every knee will bow, and that every tongue will confess that He is Lord. His return will be as public as His crucifixion and as undeniable as His resurrection. Even more, in fact. In that moment, all creation will finally see what the Church already confesses by faith: Christ is the true King and Judge of all creation.

Jesus is not coming in secret to spirit away His people. He will not trick or confuse anyone when He returns. There is no way we will miss His arrival or get “left behind.”

But this day is not known to us. Jesus says that no one except the Father knows that day or the time. That is to say, no human being is given this knowledge, it is reserved for God alone. Further, there is no promise that people will be taken from this world to avoid suffering at the end. Instead, Jesus warns us of hardships and bids us to take up our crosses and follow Him.

Jesus Will Judge All People

The Lord Jesus goes on to say that “[I] will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Every person who has ever lived will stand before Christ on that Day. No one is exempt, and no one can hide. The great and the small, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, every human being will stand before the throne of the King. And Jesus tells us that He will judge us human beings according to our works. Those who have done well will enter His blessed, everlasting Kingdom. Those who have not will receive eternal punishment in hell.

This sometimes troubles Christians, especially us Lutherans, but it is simply Jesus’s teaching. He lists acts of mercy such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger as those good works that please Him. In other words, these works matter. They are not optional for Christians. And our Lord Jesus will reveal what we have done, both good and bad, on the Last Day.

But He does not teach that we earn salvation by them. Far from it. Scripture is clear: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.”[2] Yet the same holy Bible teaches that saving faith is never alone. Faith is living, faith produces fruit. And on the Last Day Jesus will show the truth of a person’s faith by showing the fruit of their life.

Your works do not cause your salvation, but they do proceed from it. They testify to the hope that fills you, that is, your trust in Christ.

Good Works Are Done in the Spirit and From Faith

Then comes one of the most beautiful surprises in all of Scripture: the sheep do not realize they have done these good works. They ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked?” This surprises them because they were not keeping a checklist, they were not doing acts of mercy to earn anything. They simply lived in the faith God had given them, and the Holy Spirit worked through them.

The goats are not surprised about their works. If the saints of God were doing these sorts of things to get into heaven, to impress God, to prove their holiness, or to become righteous, they would have kept meticulous notes. Think about how self-justification works among us. When we are confronted with sin and the harm we have caused and we try to self-justify, we end up pointing, very deliberately and meticulously to how it was good and should be understood as such. For example, a child caught stealing cookies may argue that he was hungry, that he did not know he should not have one, that he really deserved it because he did the dishes, and so on and so forth. Notice that the saints here do none of this, proving that these works are not their cause of salvation or the basis of their standing before God in paradise.

And this, then, teaches us something essential about Christian good works. First, good works are done from faith. A living tree does not strain to produce fruit; it simply does so because it is a living fruit tree. So also your works of mercy and love flow from the forgiven life that Christ has given you. Second, good works are the product of God at work in you. St. Paul says, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”[3] Even your desire to love your neighbor is God’s gift. Even your compassion is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. The good you do is Christ working through you, through your hands, your voice, your life. Notice that you are still the one doing these things, and yet, if we could step back and see the larger picture, we would notice the foundational work of God in our Christian living. But, in this sense and only this sense, we cooperate with God in our good works, that is, we are the instruments that God does them through us. We are not mindless robots; we are human beings. God both does these works in and through us as well as provides us the minds and desires to do them as well. Third, Christ receives these works as done to Him. When you help your neighbor, Jesus says, “You have done it to Me.” He is so united to His people, so joined to His Church, that whatever you do for your neighbor, He counts as done for Him.

Judgment Day Is a Day of Joy for Christians

For the unbeliever, Judgment Day is a day of dread. But for the Christian it is a day of joy, vindication, and fulfillment. The unbeliever, like the Christian, will have His works laid bare. But works done without the foundation of faith are not pleasing to the Lord. This is one of the more difficult truths of the Scriptures to digest. God loves certain works, good works, not because of how much they impact others or how much they change a life, but because they come from faith. An unbelieving mindset wants us to see the value in the quality of the works themselves. God wants us to see the value in the faith that lies under them.

And since the unbelieving do not have faith, these works will be the source of terror as they are not enough to earn entrance to paradise. There is only One Person who has done work sufficient for this, and since He is also God, this work is great enough to provide passage to heaven for all who believe.

Consequently, the faithful have no fear of the Judgement of God. We are judged righteous not by what we do or think or desire, instead, we are judged as if we were Christ Himself. This is why we do not fear sin or death. This is why we do not flinch when our errors are called out. Because our deepest confidence does not come from us and our lives, but from Christ and His perfect life, sinless death, and triumphant resurrection. Your sins will not be laid bare or exposed, they have been covered up and forgiven in Christ. To you dear Christian saints, you believers in Christ, our Lord directs these words: “Come, you blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Listen to those words carefully. Jesus says that He will tell you on the Last Day to come into His Kingdom. He will not say, “depart.” He says that His people are blessed, not cursed. He says that you will inherit His Kingdom, the very place earned for you by His death, and that this is not a matter of you having to earn it. This blessed realm of God’s own rest and holiness is prepared for you, not by you. And lest you think there was ever a time where God did not know you, love you, or seek your salvation, He tells us that this has been ready since before the beginning of this world.

Christ is not  in the business of handing out wages to the faithful. He desires His people to receive an inheritance, a gift prepared long before they were even born and ensured by His death. Your salvation does not begin with your works. It begins with the Father’s eternal love, the Son’s saving death and resurrection, and the Spirit’s gift of faith through the Gospel. Judgment Day is not the day God finally decides how He feels about you. It is the day He openly and publicly announces what He has already declared to you in your Baptism: You are forgiven. You are His. You belong to the Lamb who has taken away your sin.

The One who sits on the throne is the same One who hung on the cross. The Judge is your Redeemer. The King is your Shepherd. For the Christian, the Last Day is not a threat, it is the day everything Christ promised, that we have now in faith, finally becomes plain and visible. The Last Day is not a new verdict, rather, it is the unveiling of the verdict God already spoke over you at the font.

Conclusion

So how do we live as we wait for that Day? Live in certain hope because Jesus will return openly and gloriously. Live in sobriety, knowing our works and preparation matter and that they testify to your faith. Live in faith, trusting that every good work is God’s work in you so that you when you stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ you will see that the work of God in you will have been brought to saving conclusion. And live in joy, because the Last Day is the full receiving of your inheritance, not a day that brings fear.

Dear Christians, holy and blessed saints of the Lord, your Judge is also your Savior. Your King is your Shepherd. And the day of His appearing will be the day of your final delivery of His deliverance.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Matthew 25:31-32 English Standard Version. All further citations of Holy Scripture are from the ESV.

[2] Ephesians 2:8-9

[3] Philippians 2:13