Discussion Questions:

1. Justice and the "Reckoning"
The sermon describes our deep longing for justice while also acknowledging our discomfort with being judged ourselves.

• Where do you feel that tension most strongly in your own life—wanting justice for the world, but mercy for yourself?
• How does Jesus’ role as both Savior and Judge reshape that tension?

2. Good Deeds as Evidence, Not Earning
The sheep are surprised by their own actions, and the goats are equally surprised by their failures.

• What does this passage—and the sermon—suggest about the relationship between faith and good works?
• How can we tell the difference between serving others to “prove ourselves” and serving as a natural overflow of a transformed heart?

3. “The Least of These” Today
Jesus identifies himself with the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned.

• Who might “the least of these” be in our community or daily routines right now?
• What keeps us from seeing—or responding to—them as encounters with Christ himself?

4. Living Between the Two Advents
The sermon emphasizes that we live in the space between Christ’s first Advent (grace and rescue) and his second Advent (reckoning and justice).

• How should living in this “in-between time” shape the way we view repentance, mercy, and everyday acts of compassion?
• What might change in how we live if we truly believed both Advents are equally real?