This six week study walks a small group through the full Expanded teaching, one section at a time. Each week pairs a piece of the teaching with verses to read together and questions to discuss as a group.
Week One: A Real and Final Separation
Jesus pictures judgment day as a shepherd separating sheep from goats - indistinguishable at a glance in the pasture, but plainly separated at the end of the day by a standard only the Shepherd applies.
Read together: Matthew 25:31-33.
Talk about: Why do you think Jesus chose this particular picture - sheep and goats grazing together - to describe judgment?
Week Two: Sheep Know the Shepherd's Voice
What separates sheep from goats is recognition, not appearance. Sheep know and follow the Shepherd's voice out of relationship and trust built over time.
Read together: John 10:1-15,27-28.
Talk about: What does it look like practically to "know the Shepherd's voice"? How do you tell it apart from other confident voices?
Week Three: What the Sheep Did, Almost Without Noticing
The sheep are commended for a lifetime pattern of ordinary faithfulness, done so naturally they're surprised to be commended for it - not for one dramatic act.
Read together: Matthew 25:34-40.
Talk about: What ordinary act of faithfulness has someone done for you that you've never forgotten? What's one you could do this week without expecting recognition?
Week Four: Good Policies, Bad Policies, and the Nation That Chooses
This separation isn't only personal. A nation, like a person, is led by voices - some true, some false - and the direction it follows is never morally neutral.
Read together: Proverbs 14:34 and Matthew 7:24-27.
Talk about: What does it look like for a nation to build on rock rather than sand? Where do you see that choice playing out today?
Week Five: Lies That Seek to Bring a Nation Down
A lie aimed at a nation rarely announces itself. It arrives dressed as compassion, progress, or safety - which is exactly why familiarity with the Shepherd's true voice matters so much.
Read together: Matthew 7:15-20.
Talk about: What's a modern example of a message dressed up as something good that, on closer look, leads people away from truth?
Week Six: Standing on the Promises
A nation, like a sheep, gets to choose whose voice it follows. Scripture's invitation is the same one given to Israel: choose life.
Read together: Jeremiah 29:11 and Deuteronomy 30:15,19.
Talk about: Looking back over the six weeks, what's one way you want to be more intentional about following the Shepherd's voice rather than a louder one?
If your group wants to go deeper into any of these six weeks, the full Teaching and Expanded versions of "Sheep from the Goats" walk through this same material with more depth and fuller explanation.
For Further Study
- Matthew 25:31-46 — The sheep and the goats
- John 10:1-18,27-28 — My sheep listen to my voice; the Good Shepherd
- Proverbs 14:34 — Righteousness exalts a nation
- Matthew 7:15-27 — False prophets, and the house built on rock
- Jeremiah 29:11 — Plans to prosper you, and give you hope and a future
- Deuteronomy 30:15,19 — Life and death, choose life