Matthew 25:31-46 • Is the judgment in Matthew 25 the final judgment for every person who ever lived — or is something else entirely happening here?

⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • April 12, 2026.

📚 Part of our ongoing series on the Judgments of God — understanding what they are and what they are not.

Most Bible readers have been handed one drawer and told to put everything in it — one resurrection, one judgment, one end. But when you read Matthew 25 in its context, something becomes unmistakably clear: nations are being judged, not individual souls from every age. The throne of Christ's glory is not a courtroom for the church. It is the establishment of a literal kingdom on a literal earth.

This expository sermon works through Matthew 25:31-46 in its proper context as the climax of the Olivet Discourse — a thoroughly Jewish passage addressed to Jewish disciples about the end of the tribulation, the second coming of Christ to the Mount of Olives, and the establishment of his millennial throne on Mount Zion. Cross-references from Psalm 2, Isaiah 24, Micah 4, Revelation 14, 2 Samuel 5, Zechariah 14, and Hebrews 12 build a complete picture of what the Bible actually teaches.

This sermon through Matthew 25:31-46 covers:

• Why the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24–25) is Jewish in nature from start to finish

• The three questions the disciples asked Jesus on the Mount of Olives

• Why Matthew 25:31 is the second coming — not a third coming, not the rapture

• The difference between Christ as head of the church (now) and Christ as king of the earth (future)

• Why nobody is leaving earth at this judgment — they're inheriting a kingdom on it

• The prophetic trail from Psalm 2 to Micah 4 to Revelation 14 on Mount Zion

• Why nations as corporate entities — not individuals from all ages — are the subject of this judgment

• Who "Christ's brethren" are in the context of Matthew 24–25

• How the nations are judged: their treatment of the Jewish remnant during the tribulation

• Why applying these verses to soup kitchens and charity may miss the theological point entirely

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