Doing God’s Will Is Feeding The Lord Jesus - Part 1 (Matthew 25:31-46) - A Sermon By Elise Beatrice

TRANSCRIPT

Doing God’s Will Is Feeding The Lord Jesus (Part 1)

A Sermon By Elise Beatrice - Thursday, 22 May 2025

Holy Father God Almighty, God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob,

take over, please, and let Your Holy Spirit guide us in the Name of Your Son, Jesus.

Let’s read Matthew 25:31-46.

Matthew 25:31–46

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit upon His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in His presence, and He will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at His right hand and the goats at His left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.’ 37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ 41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed Me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give Me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite Me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give Me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit Me.’

44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’

45 “And He will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help Me.’ 46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

This is a very powerful passage. And it is very important that we understand the Scriptures. Just because we give food to everybody does not mean that we’re feeding Christ. However, when we especially give food to that one, the least of His brothers and sisters, then we are indeed feeding Christ. The Bible says, in 1 John 3:10, “It is evident who the children of God are and who are the children of the devil.” Suppose somebody is the child of the devil, whom the Lord refers to when He says that He will separate the sheep from the goats, place the sheep at His right hand and the goats, who are the devil’s children, at His left, suppose we feed the goats, are we feeding Christ? Not really. The children of the devil are not Christ’s children. They are not the Lord Jesus’s brothers and sisters.

1 John 3:10

And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me!’

So the question everyone must ask is? Whom does HE refer to as His sisters and His brothers and His mothers? And the answer is clear, looking into the Scriptures, when He says in Matthew 12:50, “My brothers and my sisters and my mothers are those who do the will of my Father.”

Matthew 12:50

So, this is whom the Lord refers to as His brothers and sisters and mothers. It does not mean brothers by blood like our brothers and sisters through human relations and birth. But those who do the will of Father God are God’s children.

The Lord wanted us to understand that even His own mother, who gave birth to Him since He was God in the Flesh, will not be saved unless also she did the will of His Father in Heaven.

Christ is my Father, He is my all, He is my God, but He still will refer to us as His brothers and His sisters and His mothers when we do the will of His Father. I can’t bring myself to refer to Christ as my Brother. He is just so gracious and generous, just like He will share His glory with us because He is so good that He does all those beautiful things, the same way that He is the Master, but He wants to dine with us as friends. He is beyond our comprehension; He is above all. He is unique. He is special; He is different; no one compares to Him. So yes, we should not then abuse His trust and take His grace and beauty for granted.

We are humans, and we care if we still have God’s image in us. That part of us, which is God’s image in us, is what cares. It is the ability to love in us, the ability to care for people, and to feel for people, and the ability to love others. Yes, everything that is good; God is not against it. But we cannot rely on that to think that we are right with God because we’re feeding people, even if we are not listening to God ourselves. So, it is very important that we understand the Scriptures, what it means, and the words of Christ. So you could be feeding all people all over the earth, but you are not on good terms with Christ, and He will still say to you, ‘Depart from Me; you belong with the goats.’ So, whatever we do, we should not first forget to do the will of His Father; that’s what He commanded us to do: the will of His Father. And when we do the will of His Father, we are indeed His sheep; we are His flock; we are His brothers and sisters and mothers, as He says.

‘Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones...’

Cursed by who? They are not cursed by God. They have welcomed the curse in their lives, which is the darkness, and that’s why they have become the goats. The goats are cursed because the devil is their father. And the devil is the father of lies; he is the murderer, he is the gangster, he is the hater, the devil is everything evil. And when people have embraced his deeds of darkness, they have embraced the curse. For Father God Almighty said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I present before you life and death, blessings and curses; choose life so that you may live.”

Deuteronomy 30:19

God presents before us Himself, His Son Jesus, as Life, eternal Life, and He also presents satan as death, the evil one who strikes people with spiritual death. God presents to us Himself and everything that comes from Him as blessings. However, He presents satan and his deeds of darkness to us all as curses. If you choose curses instead, you will not be blessed. God is BLESSING and gives us only blessings. But everything else that is not from God is a curse. Darkness is a curse, sin is a curse, and it is not God causing people to become evil. If we touch the darkness, we curse ourselves automatically because that is just the nature of it. If you touch the curse, you’re cursed. If you touch satan and take things from him, his darkness consumes you.

God created everyone to come to heaven with Him. In fact, He created Adam and Eve good until disobedience brought sin into the world. That was the beginning of our downfall. But there is hope, and it is Christ, through whom we can be redeemed from that sin if we turn from them and repent. So,

“Away with you, you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed Me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give Me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite Me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give Me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit Me.’”

Christ is in every single one who does the will of His Father, for His Spirit is in us. And when we are His servants, especially because we are there preaching the Gospel, we have lots of persecution; we have lots of attacks from many, ‘lots of injustice, lots of trials, and all this because we are faithful to the Lord.’

Those who truly love Christ don’t preach the Gospel for money, and sometimes, they don’t even have people encouraging them. I have been serving the Lord for years and have never taken any money from anyone. So, I could be hungry, so if somebody gives me food, they would be feeding Christ.

In 1 Samuel 21:6, when King David was running away from King Saul, and He entered the temple, and that priest gave Him bread he was not even allowed to give him, and no one was allowed to eat that consecrated bread but priests. When that priest gave that bread in that situation to King David, He was feeding God.

1 Samuel 21:6

‘When You feed one of those brothers and my sisters and my mothers, it is Me you’re feeding.’ So when you are seeing a child of God hungry, and you don’t feed them, you are refusing to feed Christ. When you are seeing a servant of the Lord preaching the Gospel. When you see them thirsty and you refuse to give them water, that is Christ you are starving with thirst.

‘I was a stranger,’ so yes, because when we’re preaching the Gospel, sometimes, going from place to place, we may not have a place to stay. So, if you open your door to that one who is preaching the Gospel, who is serving the Lord, those who do the will of His Father, it is to Christ you’re opening your door.

‘I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit Me.’ Yes, because there is a lot of injustice. They even falsely accuse lots of the servants of the Lord, and they put them in prison without them doing anything wrong. And while they’re in prison, many may not visit them because they believe they have done something wrong while, indeed, they are innocent. But God can see that they are innocent and that they are abandoned because no one cares for them because of the lie that has been labelled upon them. There are many innocent people who are serving the Lord in prison. I myself am not in prison, but I have been falsely accused of things which I did not do. And that’s what the Lord Jesus said, ‘If you’re devoted to Me, the world will hate you.’

So we can go around and feed whoever we like. We could have people who are not Christians, but we still feed them when they’re hungry. But Christ will not say that you fed Him, referring to those people who hated Him. Because if that was the case, He would not then separate those people from the sheep and refer to them as the goats. But those are the ones who are obstructing the Gospel and persecuting the Christians who do the will of His Father. And the Lord will answer them, “I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these of my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help Me.”

So whether you’re a believer or not a believer, you must watch out for this because there are many believers today who are indeed the obstacles to the Gospel. They are the ones allowing themselves to be used by satan, which doesn’t suit their ears. You’d see a servant of the Lord remaining truthful to the teachings of Christ, but satan would use some of the believers to obstruct the Gospel according to Jesus Christ. Because they spend their time listening to a lot of false teaching, the Gospel now becomes to them something new, something they’ve never heard of, and they’re the ones now obstructing the Gosepf from being preached.

So when the Lord said, “I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these of my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help Me.”

So, suppose you’re there surrounded by false teachers and prophets and lukewarm Christians, and you are helping all those people and devoting your life to serving them while they are promoting their false teaching and distorting the words of God. In that case, you’re still not doing the will of the Father. You are indeed obstructing the will of the Father by promoting any false teacher, whether they are worldly, not believers, or among the believers. You are indeed there as the devil’s bait.

So, it is very easy to be deceived; it is very easy to be tricked by the devil. He is very cunning; he is a being with many evil schemes. He pulls them, and sometimes, you might not even see it coming. He is very quick at deceiving, and if you’re not listening to the Lord, and if you are not really in the Lord and living for the Lord and doing His Father’s will, you are exposed; you become the devil’s prey.

So watch out for that. I’m speaking like this for your own sake. The children of God do not obstruct His beautiful Gospel of Salvation.

So, when we’re doing good things and do the will of the Father, we are feeding Christ.

The Lord Jesus loves everyone, and He proved that love for everyone by dying on the Cross for everyone. Although He loves everyone, not everyone will come to Heaven, and it will not be the Lord’s fault. By dying on the Cross for all humans, Christ left the door open for whomever wants to come in. He is the Door of Heaven, and whoever wants to knock on Him, He will open Himself to them. He also stands at your own door and knocks, and if you let Him in, He comes in and dines with you as friends. Isn’t that amazing? But sadly, many don’t open the door to Him when He knocks, and they don’t even come and knock on Him: The Door of Heaven. So, many will go to hell because they have chosen darkness over the Light, evil over good, demonic things over godly things, and satan over the Lord Jesus.

God is LOVE; the Lord Jesus is LOVE. And just because He loves everyone, it does not mean He will take everyone to Heaven. He is not the One deciding who to take to Heaven. Father God does not decide who comes to Heaven either. But everyone decides whether they come to Heaven or go to hell. So, we are in the battle between good and evil, and God has made it clear what ‘good’ is and what ‘evil’ is.

Although Christ loves everyone, many choose not to accept that love, but the truth remains what it is, and no human can change it. The truth must go on. Heaven remains Heaven, and God is still God who is above all things and beings. And the condition to enter Heaven is that everyone must turn from their own ways and seek the Saviour, Christ, who takes everyone to Heaven.

Yes, of course, Christ loves everybody, but will He take you to heaven even when you reject everything that belongs to Him, the truth He speaks about, His Heaven and His ways? No. He won’t force you into His Heaven; that is the decision you will have to make. So, let us stick to the words of the Lord and speak the truth.

The Lord Jesus is distinguishing here between the sheep and the goats.

So, suppose you happen to hang around those whom the Lord refers to as goats. Suppose you visit them in prison, clothe them when they need clothes, feed them when they are hungry, and give them your home when they need a place to stay, but they don’t know God and are not interested in knowing Him; they are full of unrepented sins, love evil, practice sins of any kind, hate the Lord Jesus, oppose God, they want nothing to do with God, and that is their stand. In that case, do you think the Lord Jesus will say to you, “When I was hungry, you fed Me, with no clothes, and you clothed Me, homeless, and you gave Me a place to stay, in prison, and you visited Me because when you did it to one of the least of these goats, you were doing it to Me?” Will the Lord Jesus say that to you? No. That will be going against His own teachings.

The Scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians 6:15-16 not to associate with the goats, the devil’s children,”

2 Corinthians 6:15–16

“15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.”

But He will say instead, ‘When you did all those good things to one of those sheep, the least of those of my brothers and sisters, you did it to Me.’

The Lord was not even referring here to His brothers and sisters, the Jews. There are many Jews who are not the Lord’s sheep but goats, for they have rejected Him as the Son of God and their Lord and Saviour even today.

The Lord also commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves, love even our enemies, and pray for those who hurt us. Still, Matthew 25 applies specifically to the Lord’s brothers and sisters and mothers who are believers all over the world, do the will of His Father, are persecuted, imprisoned, and weak and needy. These are the sheep, and the Lord shares with us how He feels; those treating them well are treating Him well, and those who mistreat them are mistreating Him.

Matthew 25:31-46 is like Matthew 10:40 and verse 42.

Matthew 25:31–46 Matthew 10:40

The Lord Jesus said,

40 “Anyone who receives you receives Me, and anyone who receives Me receives the Father who sent Me...

42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

So, I pray you’ll listen to this, and I pray it will help you.

Also, listen to part 2 of this sermon for more on Matthew 25.

May the Lord Jesus’s peace be with you.

Lord Jesus, thank You so much for this teaching.

We love You, and we thank You for Your mercy.

Thank You for Your words and the Holy Bible, Lord Jesus.

Thank You for that Day You will Come Again and separate the righteous from the goats. I know it will be great news for all the righteous, but it will be terrible, shocking news for all the goats.

I just pray that many will wake up now and see that this is the truth.

So, thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your grace and Your mercy and for every single soul that You save.

We love You, God, Forever, and thank You for loving us forever.

In Your Holy Name, Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.