Matthew 25 (Part 2) :31-46 thru Matthew 26 (Part 1):1-16

Chapter 25 we're picking it up in verse 31 which is the final section of this really last statement well no no statement is the right word we call this the Olivet discourse in Matthew chapters 24 and 25 this is Jesus last discourse prior to his arrest his crucifixion his burial and his resurrection other than you know a bunch of prayers a lot of prayers wonderful prayers that are covered in the Gospel of John but as far as a public kind of a of a discourse this is the final one beginning in verse 31 if you look with you there in your Bible it says

I'd like you to stop there if you would please pray with me father God open our hearts to the ministry of your word again as always we are utterly dependent upon your Holy Spirit to speak words of grace insight and understanding so illuminate our hearts Lord God according to your power and speak to us as you would we pray it in Jesus name Amen well it's pretty obvious in this passage that we're dealing with as we finish the the Olivet discourse that we're we're talking about judgment here and for starters as we look into this passage again we know when this judgment is going to take place because Jesus is very specific about the timing of this judgment notice again in your Bible there in verse 31 he says when the Son of Man comes in his glory this is the timing this is when this judgment is going to happen it's gonna happen when Jesus returns to the earth he comes in glory and and and sits on his glorious throne so we know that this is not the rapture of the church this is when he returns to the earth to establish his throne on the earth just as we are going into the Millennial Kingdom and just after the battle that he comes back to fight on behalf of Israel and so forth now when we talk about judgments in the Bible we you know you hear a lot about the judgment seat of Christ actually there are three judgments that are given to us in the Word of God that are connected to the last days and I'd like to show you these on the screen because it helps sometimes as you're taking notes to kind of think these things through there again three final judgments that are listed in the Word of God the first one is what we call the judgment seat of Christ and this is the judgment which is a judgment of rewards based on works to the body of Christ this is the first judgment that takes place at the time of the rapture and it's when the body of Christ or the church the bride of Christ is rewarded according to what we have done for the Lord ok so remember guys and I've said this many times remember as believers you will never ever be judged for your sin why because Jesus was judged for you completely totally and he said it is finished and it was finished and it's over and you know if God brings up one single sin of yours in any sort of a judgment then obviously what Jesus did was not enough but it was enough this is hard for people to wrap their minds around I was talking to a young man who was just last Sunday after second service and we were you know I was I was asking him you know my usual questions you know do you believe that if you died tonight you know that that you believe your sins are all forgiven and he looked at me said yeah I do I believe my sins are forgiven I said okay so that means you believe you're gonna go to heaven he's well I'm not so sure about that and I said now wait a minute here wait just a just a minute what is what is entrance into heaven predicated upon well it's predicated upon forgiveness of sins your sins are forgiven I said why are your sins forgiven because Jesus died for me had all the right answers so Jesus died for you on the cross right yep died for me on the cross your sins are forgiven right right exactly so you going to heaven I'm not sure it's just hard it's just what you know people will just kind of kind of weird out a little bit you know and and and I was like I said we talked about it you know we talked about you know hey if your sins are forgiven you're going to heaven dude that's all there is to it you know I mean that's that's what entrance is predicated upon so whatever judgment comes to you as a believer whose sins are already dealt with at the cross it is a judgment of reward based on how you've used what God gave you to use alright so the second judgment that is given to us related to the last days is the judgment of the nations this is what we're going to talk about today and then finally we have at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ or the end of the Millennial Kingdom what we call the white throne judgment so these are the three things that are given to us in the word this white throne judgment again is the very last one where the wicked dead are finally resurrected for this judgment it talks about it let me show you this in Revelation chapter 20 and and it says

again this is why we call it the great white throne it is you know we'll get into more specifics about this but again it's not a judgment that you will you know experience because again your sins have already been judged in the person of Jesus and so forth so as we get back to what we're dealing with we'll look again at these three judgments and we'll highlight the fact that it is the judgment of the nations that we are looking at here today and the next logical question about this would be who is judged and in verse 32 Jesus spells that out as well look with me in your Bible in verse 32 it says before him will be gathered all the nations now you need to know this in the Greek the word for nations is the same word that we translate Gentiles this could be translated all the Gentiles because nations are always distinguished from the nation of Israel or the people of Israel or the children of Israel okay you've got the children of Israel and you've got the nations it's pretty much Jew and Gentile you've got the Jews and then you've got everybody else and so he says here that when Jesus returns Jesus is speaking here he says when he comes back in and he will sit on his glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the Gentile nations all right so what we're talking about here is we're talking presumably after the Battle of Armageddon I'm assuming that's the first thing on Jesus's agenda because you know when he returns Israel will be in extremely dire straits all of the nations were told are going to gather against Israel in order to annihilate her and it will look at first as if they are succeeding and it'll be a very very dark time the Bible refers to this period as the time of Jacob's trouble and it will appear very much like Israel is about to be finally annihilated and Jesus will return he will come in glory he will battle against those nations he will defeat them on behalf of Israel Israel will turn to the Lord in a collective national conversion or turning they will mourn for him the Bible says realizing it is the one that came the first time and they didn't receive him but in fact rejected him but they will then nationally return to the Lord they will open their hearts to the Lord and after this time of the of this Battle of Armageddon Jesus will sit on his glorious throne and he will judge the nations meaning those Gentile nations that survived the time of the Great Tribulation they will be judged and will notice here in verse 32 that this judgment begins with a separation Where it says we're in the middle of verse 32 and it says and he will separate people From one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats And he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left And then we you know what happens after that he begins to speak to those who are on his right Telling them come you are but who are blessed by my father Inherit the kingdom and so forth and then he begins to speak of all these things that they did All these things that and they will answer and say When did we do those things to you because he will say you did them you did these easy He will say I was sick and you came in to visit me. I was in prison. I was thirsty I was hungry. I was naked and they will say really Lord. When did we see you that way? And he'll say when you did it for These my brethren. Who's he talking to or about? Israel you see this judgment this judgment of the nations which takes place after the time the period of the War of Armageddon is a judgment of the Gentile nations predicated upon how they treated Israel during the time of the Great Tribulation Particularly because you see the time of the Great Tribulation particularly the last Half of the Great Tribulation is going to be a very very dire time for Israel when the Antichrist turns against them and for anyone to stand up in any level of support or aid For the people of Israel the Jews individually that person is going to take their lives in their own hands they are going to risk everything and By doing that they I believe they're going to show that during the tribulation period they have been converted to Christ You see people are going to come to Jesus during the time of the Great Tribulation People are it's going to be huge And and I believe that that that even though the works don't save us these people will prove by their their solidarity with Israel their support and help for the people of Israel during that time of the tribulation that they have in fact been born again during the tribulation and And and that sort of thing in fact I got to tell you in all honesty the longer I've walked with the Lord the longer. I've been a Christian the more I realize that that loving God and having an attitude of support and solidarity for Israel is a synonymous thing as a kind of a simultaneous work of the Spirit I I would be Shocked to find someone who said that they loved God with all their heart and hated Israel and And and I see that from the scriptures the more I look into the scriptures I've taught through the Word of God You know several times and the more I look through the Word of God I see that God has a purpose and a plan for Israel that God is far from finished with Israel and And and that he never will be in fact I want to show you a wonderful prophecy from the book of Isaiah chapter 49 Love this God says

he's talking to his people Israel there And he's talking about one of the first of all he uses as a comparison one of the strongest connections emotional connections that exists on earth and that is the connection between a mother and child and Even though that connection can be tainted and can be corrupted, and we've seen it and heard about it on nightly news It frankly goes against nature. It is again one of the most natural sorts of You know things Powerful things that God has factored into the heart of a woman and that is her absolute total devotion love and attention to a child And he he basically uses that by comparison and says you know can a woman forget the nursing child You know but and then he goes on to say well even though the potential exists humanly speaking I will never forget you again speaking to Israel. You know I That's just The tip of the iceberg in terms of what we see in the Word of God related to how God speaks to and about his people Israel and The more you read through and study through the Word of God the more that just becomes so profound Our understanding of the heart that God has for Israel. It's a profound thing and it's funny too as a believer I have absolutely No jealousy for Israel, you know I mean none just zero I you know and here's the other interesting thing Israel the people of Israel today who by the way are largely atheist Know that the greatest arm of support comes from evangelical Christians Did you know that did you know that that Israel recognizes? evangelical Christianity as their biggest supporter Now I don't think that's because we've hammered it into people's minds It's because you you know you get saved and the Spirit you know comes to reside inside of you, and then and and you did and you see in the Word of God just God's love and attention and plan For the people of Israel, it's just amazing you know over the years people have asked many times why we have a menorah on our on our back table and We have it there because it's a symbol of our Solidarity and support for Israel and and you know the the symbols that we have we have the cross Which is obviously the centerpiece of what we preach and teach the Word of God the basis on which of the authority of of all that we do and say and and we have this piece of solidarity that expresses our heart and love and and Appreciation for for the the the people of Israel and so forth it says it says basically that we believe what the Bible says In terms of what you know About Israel it says that we believe that God isn't finished with Israel, and it says we reject any teaching in Christendom that suggests that the church has Replaced Israel in prophecy or promise we do not accept that teaching. It's called replacement theology and it's horrible and It it completely obliterates Israel and puts the church in its place, and it eventually Eventuates into into legalism because eventually you have to begin to embrace many of the things God said in the Old Testament for the church based on the law And it just gets to be a mess after a period of time anyway anyway The one one more thing that I want to focus on from these particular verses before we move on Is in look with me in verse 34. I want you to notice here What he says to each of these people groups first of all verse 34 Then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom look at this look at this word prepared Right for you from the foundation of the world. This is the blessing that is given to the sheep on his right He says come you who are blessed of my father To the kingdom preparing now which says kingdom he's talking about the Millennial Kingdom he's inviting them they are they have this invitation to come into the Millennial Kingdom and experience this incredible 1,000 year period of Peace now remember some people are going to live and die During the Millennial Kingdom and these are the people who are going to do that now we by this time will already have received our Resurrection bodies because when when he comes for the church Paul says we will be Changed in the twinkling of an eye, so we will have already received our bodies, but there will be people Mortals still living upon the earth during the tribulation they will be judged those who are invited to come into the tribulation period Will or excuse me the Millennial Kingdom? Will will not have been transformed in that same sense Anyway, so you know people will live and die during that time But I want you to notice that he says the kingdom has been prepared for you Been prepared for you from the foundation of the earth now Skip down to verse 41 when we look at the other group of people and the Lord says then he will say to those on His left depart from me you cursed Into the eternal fire look at this prepared for the devil and his angels That interesting what was hell prepared for man never Never God never prepared hell for mankind it was prepared for the devil and his angels man chooses to go there by rejecting the offer of salvation Through Jesus Christ people say to me all the time People say to me all the time. I don't how couldn't possibly believe it a God who prepares a place like hell for his children Well, he didn't He prepared it for the rebellion of the heavenlies the rebellion of all rebellions where Lucifer took Some of the angelic host and convinced them to follow him in a rebellion where he would actually usurp the throne of God and the place Of hell was prepared for them. It was never prepared for mankind So why do they go because they choose to? They choose to go they reject the the The plan of salvation that God has clearly made available to all people. They choose. Nobody gets sent to hell as far as human beings are concerned. They choose to go there. And that's an important thing that you and I need to understand. Now we find that as this discourse comes to an end and we move into the following chapters, we won't get very far here this morning, but at this point things will really begin to go rapidly in terms of advancing the timeline, you know, of the arrest and so forth of Jesus. Chapter 26 begins by saying that when Jesus had finished all these things, he said to his disciples, he said, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. And then the chief priests and the elders of the people, just in keeping with what Jesus just got done saying, gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth, it says in the ESV. In other words, that just means slyly, on the down low, as people say today. Because why? They didn't want to do it during the feast. They said in verse 5, lest there be an uproar among the people. Jesus was fairly popular among the common people. And they recognized that if they came out in some form of, you know, opposition to Jesus during the time of the Passover, when people's hearts are obviously turned to God, because of the whole Passover celebration and so forth, that this could cause a riot among the people. They were very afraid of Rome, because Rome did not take kindly to any kind of riotous activity. And so they wanted to avoid it like the plague, and so they thought, you know, we're just going to do this kind of on the sly here. But it goes on to tell us here, in verse 6, that during these final days before the arrest of our Lord, Jesus was spending his evenings and so forth, nearby in Bethany, which was about two miles away from Jerusalem, I believe on the east slopes of the Mount of Olives, if I'm not mistaken. But we're told in verse 6 that now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him. And Matthew just simply says, a woman. But we know from John's account of this story that this was in fact Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and also the sister of Martha. So we know who this was from other accounts. And it says that she came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, we're told in the other accounts that she also anointed his feet as he reclined at the table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. Doesn't that sound incredibly spiritual? Now, again, from John's gospel account, we know that this attempt at righteous indignation was actually spearheaded by none other than Judas Iscariot, who would betray him. And he obviously drew some of the other disciples in to his spiritual-sounding complaint about this thing. But notice how Jesus responds, verse 10. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. And what Jesus kind of means by that is, you know, there's always an opportunity to reach out to the poor, always. So don't make, like, your big spiritual hoo-hahs here, like, you know, you guys are the coolest people on planet Earth, and, well, we would have given it to the poor. Yeah, let's, you know, there's always people to give to. And you can do it any time, you know. And he says, but you're not always going to have me. This is, in other words, this is an appropriate thing. And then look what Jesus goes on to say. He connects this thing. Verse 12. He says, in pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. He connects her act of devotion with, in fact, a Jewish burial rite that would anoint the body. Now, that was always done after death. But he is now using this to speak of his coming death. And then he makes this wonderful statement in verse 13, saying, truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. And by reading this passage today, we are once again fulfilling this prophecy that Jesus gave. And the Holy Spirit moved upon the writers to jot this down so that every time it's read, every time it's declared, she is being remembered. I mean, we remember. We know what Mary did, don't we? And here we are, 2,000 years later, and we're still talking about it. There are a couple of points that we need to bring out here from this passage. And one is that Matthew, you'll notice, describes the ointment himself as very expensive. Did you catch that? And then when he's telling us what the disciples said in their complaint of its usage, he says that it could have been sold for a large sum. So Matthew tells us it was expensive, doesn't tell us just exactly how expensive. Once again, we don't just have to rely on Matthew's account, we have others. From one of the others, in fact, Mark's account, we're told that the disciples valued this ointment at 300, in fact, over 300 denarii, which doesn't mean a thing to you or I, but it is equal to a year's wages. Now you and I have to think about that in terms of a year's wages today. It's one thing to think of how much, I mean, there were poor people back in those days, particularly in the area of Bethany, there probably wasn't any mansions in that little town, so these people were poor. But you know, the point is, a year's wages wherever you live is a year's wages to you. It means the same regardless of the amount that is actually being specified here. So a year's wages. Think about pouring out a year's wages because of love. Just think about that for you, whatever that amount may be for you. Some people struggle to give anything to the Lord. This woman, and I want to bring this out because this is important, this woman was willing to give everything, contrasted here with Judas. See, in this final section, or at least the final section we're going to look at today, we have this, Matthew is painting a contrasting picture of personalities for you and I, and they are Mary and Judas. And he wants us to see the contrast of their hearts in this passage. And again, we know that it was Judas because John revealed that he was the instigator of this. We know that some other disciples got sucked into it because that's what happens when people start spouting off in spiritual terms and sounding very spiritual and so forth. But let me remind you about what John said about the person of Judas. I want to put this up on the screen for you. Here's what John said. He didn't mince words. He said, Judas said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. There you go. John just kind of tells it like it is. He says, yeah, this big highfalutin spiritual talk had absolutely nothing to do with concern for the poor. This guy cared nothing for the poor, but he liked to make people think that he did by sounding spiritual, all that money that could have been sold and the money given to help the poor. And you know, fundamentally, there's a truthfulness to the statement to the point where people are like, well, yeah, yeah. I mean, forgetting the event that's going on right now, and they're completely oblivious to it. Jesus, of course, is very clued into what's going on specifically in the time frame of what's happening here. But the guys are clueless, and they're just thinking, well, we could sell this stuff. And John tells us all along, they didn't even care. Judas didn't even care. So we know what his heart was like. We know what Judas's heart was like. See, that's the difficult thing when people start spouting spiritual talk. You and I don't see into hearts like God can. I wish we could. Well, kind of. If you could see into my heart, you'd probably never speak to me again. And vice versa. So thank you, Lord, that we can't see into hearts. But by the same token, it creates this kind of blindness which can cause us to get sucked into somebody's spiritual language. But eventually, you're going to know somebody according to their fruit. That's another principle of the Word of God. You will know them ultimately by their fruit. Jesus never said you'll know them by their words. Because talk is cheap, right? Anybody can talk a good fight. You will know them by their fruit. We see Judas's heart exposed after Jesus rebukes these guys. For what they say? What's the next thing we read after you know this thing verse 14? Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests When does this take place? Right after Jesus rebuked him and said hey guys lay off Mary What she has done here is a beautiful thing hands-off Why are you making trouble for her? This was a good thing that she did Now we assume that the other disciples probably received the rebuke because only it says Judas Immediately after that it says Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot went To the chief priests and what happens here. He exposes his heart He exposes the fact that he does care nothing for the poor. It was just a spiritual Sounding argument, but it had no substance and Reality and it says he goes to them in verse 15, and he says what will you give me? If I deliver him over to you, he knew that they were looking for a way to arrest Jesus apart from the crowds apart from any kind of a public demonstration And it says they paid him 30 pieces of silver And verse 16 tells us that that from that moment He was looking for an opportunity To betray him or turn them over to him. So Matthew takes these two people Mary and Judas and he puts them for you and I side by side To show you know how they reacted to Jesus And it is interesting, isn't it that we remember both of these people We remember Mary as we said before we talked about her Mary The sister of Lazarus. We know exactly who she is. We remember her. She was she was a nobody She just loved the Lord Other than that, she was really I mean, she didn't say anything profound, you know, she just sat at his feet, you know soaked up his presence Took this wonderful Very fragrant ointment and anointed him at this time What what she knew about his coming death? We don't we don't really know how clued-in she was but her love was clued-in, you know And we remember her Mary but we also remember Judas But we remember them for very different things Mary loved Jesus Judas was a thief and That's how we remember them but what's interesting here is that the pivot point of how we remember these two people is Wealth and money. Did you notice that? It's wealth it comes down to money That's the pivot point Because with Judas wealth was something he desired he wanted for himself He was a thief and Ultimately, he betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver but wealth for Mary Did not even come close to her devotion for the Lord and when she held in her keeping anointment that was worth a Year's wages and I did some real quick googling about You know median income for the United States of America, you know, and and frankly a median income Goes anywhere from thirty thousand dollars a year to just under seventy thousand dollars a year as of about 2011 Okay at median income So if we figure that we're pretty middle class around here, that's probably close to you know, what we're dealing with You know, we're pretty medium people You know, we're average Can you imagine Can you imagine feeling that way about money that that much money was something that was just like Lord for you anything But understand people this is why we remember these two individuals mostly it pivots over the issue of how they responded to the issue of money I Find that very interesting So and you know Every time I read through the Bible Particularly the Old Testament and it have you ever read through like the book of Kings? I'm sure you have and it talks about the Kings and sometimes it's very short I mean because the Kings reign was very short, but it'll give just a little quick synopsis of their lives What they did and what they didn't do and It will say something like King so-and-so reigned from and usually it talks about it in terms of a king from the other kingdom So they could gauge it he reigned from the beginning of the seventh year of the reign of so-and-so to the end of the reign of so-and-so and He Followed the Lord But not completely You ever read that those words haunt me sometimes When I read that in the Old Testament, he followed the Lord, but He didn't destroy all the high places Some of those fun places to worship Other gods, he just kind of left him alone. He didn't really worry about him His heart, you know wasn't fully given to the Lord. I Thought you know this whole thing about remembering Mary and remembering Judas and what their pivot point was Kind of made me think about how the Lord sees my life how he looks at my life and if there was and your life and if there was a a Paragraph or even a couple of sentences written about our life. What would it say? What would it what would the Lord say about our life well guess what there is a book There's a book And God's keeping track. I don't say that to scare you. I just say it because it's a reality there's a book and he's got a really good memory and Those books will be opened one day so I Just you know, my heart just wants it to be a good thing, you know, and I think yours does too You