- Chapter 23 is filled with several scathing rebukes that Jesus gives to the Pharisees and scribes - the religious leaders of the day. We would do well to heed these rebukes for ourselves. Notice how Jesus "ain't scared" of anybody. He is free to encourage or rebuke whomever He needs to.
- Matthew 24 & 25 gives Jesus' teachings on the end times. Some pretty interesting stuff here. We can definitely see many of these things happening in our world, today. Jesus lets us in on this to keep us from being afraid when these things start happening. For centuries, teachers and scholars have wrestled with the order and timing of the unfolding of these things. The truth is nobody knows the "when or the how" of this. While all of us are very curios to know, I am deeply concerned about ministers who teach with charts, graphs and pictures giving time tables, scenarios, opinions and their interpretations. I usually stay away from teachers who seem to have all the answers for the end times. These things are not given to us so that we can have a sequential run-down of the events that will take place. These things are told to us so that we can anchor our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how Jesus follows up these "end-time events" with these teachings in Matthew 24:36- Matthew 25: be ready, the faithful & evil servant, the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of the talents and the teaching on the judgment. I think it would be much more beneficial to us if we would concern ourselves with these teachings about the end-times and our role in all of this. We will trust God to do His part and God expects us to do our part. We will continue to wrestle with the details and the intrigue of the end-times. But let us major on the work we are called to do until Jesus comes to get His Bride. Secure, hopeful, waiting, looking, expecting, following, working!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Matthew 23-25
Nearly all of the words in these 3 chapters are written in red. These are the very words of God.
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As many times as I have read and studied Matthew 25, today I got new revelation into it's meaning, which seemed to sum up our walk with Jesus into several parts. The first one is, "watch and be ready" represented by the 10 virgins. The second one is "while you are watching for His return, go out and tell others about Jesus, and help make disciples of them" as represented by the 3 servants. The third one is "serve others in such a way that you are doing it without thinking"; the fourth one is "the followers of Jesus will receive their reward when he returns, and those who did not believe on him will receive their due also", both represented by the sheep and goats. It is wonderful how God always has fresh manna for us when we allow him to give it. He gives it when we stay in His word.
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