BY AL BUCHANAN
The last three sermons that I have given here have focused on the material that Jesus the Christ gave in what has commonly been called The Olivet Prophecy, that information that He gave that’s contained and recorded in Matthew chapters 24 and 25, and then in Mark 13, and Luke 21. If you remember, the first two sermons were titled Watch And Pray, Parts I and II. And the last sermon that I gave here was titled The Olivet Lessons. Today I asked Mr. Lee to go back into the internet and change the title of that particular sermon to The Olivet Lessons, Part I and today will be Part II. I feel there is a need to spend some additional time, particularly on the last two of those lessons that we barely touched on last time. We spent a little bit of time with lesson five but very, very little bit of time with lesson six. And I want to go back and take some time to cover that material today.
Let’s go to Matthew 24 one more time and look at those first three verses that’s recorded there. Matthew 24 and in verse 1.
Matthew 24:1. Then Jesus
went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him
the buildings of the temple. 2) And
Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon
another, that shall not be thrown down.”
3) Now as He sat on the
So they made their way up onto the
Matthew 24:3. Now as He sat
[It says.] on the
And so the disciples came to Him privately. And, as we pointed out before, what this means to us is that what He gave to them was for them and them alone, not for the general public, but for the disciples. Now, as we pointed out before, in Mark 13 verse 3, we see mentioned, Peter, James, John, and Andrew were there. Those four for certain were there and those were the four who asked the question it says. Whether or not there were more than the four, we’re not told for certain, but there were at least the four.
But He gave this information then to at least the four, but
He did it in a private teaching session.
And that’s what we emphasized last time.
And it’s obviously the case. He
sat with them on the
But it was a private teaching session involving only His disciples. And He taught them lessons. And we pointed out last time, it was commonly called—this whole material came to be commonly known as—the Olivet Prophecy. And certainly, indeed, He includes some very important prophetic statements. And they are very important because they give us information that we’re not given in the same way any place else. And so we have that contained within it and there are prophetic statements. However, when you really look at the total package, the lion’s share of what is given contains instructions for His disciples aside from the prophetic statements.
And it was for the disciples no matter when they would live. It was information and lessons that applied to those four, as well as the rest who were alive at that time, and it applied to those who would come afterwards on down through time all the way till the times in which we live. As we now live at this time when we feel that the end of the age is imminent. Many of us think it’s very, very close. And certainly, without question, it’s closer than it’s ever been before. Nobody can argue against that. We’re closer now than anybody has ever been to the fulfillment of these prophetic statements that He makes. Certainly then, these lessons would apply to us and that we should take heed as to what they are saying.
Now in the last sermon titled The Olivet Lessons, Part I, we considered six lessons. And I pointed out then we probably could have made it several more. If we wanted to dissect this and distill it down, we probably could have come up with numerous lessons. I was just noticing last night I could have easily made it seven, but I made it six. So we considered six lessons. And I want to just briefly mention them today. We’re going to just skim over very quickly the first four and then we’re going to spend more time then on number five and number six. But I just want to mention the four.
The first one we talked about was the deception. And if you remember, we mentioned that it seems clear that He’s talking about three levels of deception. One that was extant, no doubt, right after He made the statement that is that there would be those who would come in His name, claiming that He was the Christ, and would deceive many, He said. So there would be those who claimed to represent Him that would in different ways deceive people. But then later, He talked about many false prophets coming on the scene. And, no doubt, toward the end of that first Church era that happened. And we mentioned that probably this has re-occurred from time to time down through the history of the Church where we would have an influx of false prophets who would bring in deceptive teachings that affected God’s people. We have seen in it our day. So we live now during a time of a second level of deception where false prophets, many of them, are extant today, saying many deceptive things. And it’s impacting the Church directly and indirectly today. Then we’re looking forward to a time during the Great Tribulation when there’s going to be this severe time of deception where false christs and false prophets will come and do many miraculous things, at least apparent miraculous things to deceive many. So that’s yet to come. But we’re living now where we’re being impacted by two levels, the first two that He mentioned.
He talked about, the second lesson that He talked about was the need for us to endure. He talked about many things coming. There would be wars. There would be rumors of wars. There would be different things that would come. And He referred to these as being like birth pangs. And we talked about how that birth pangs come more frequently as they progress and become more intense as they progress. And that’s basically what I think we could learn from that that over the history that would begin with His Words on down until that period of history will be completed when He returns that this process would take place. And that we are seeing now, as we live at a time when we think is very close to the end of this period, we see the effect of this. We are at a time now where troubles and problems that are coming at us both from within and without the Church are this way. We are at a time when they’ve gotten rapid and intense. And so we are to endure all of this all the way to the end. And so that’s another lesson that He taught us.
And then He talked about “when you see” certain things. And He got very specific with those things
that we are to look for. And He said,
“When you see these things, when you see all of these things,” He said,
“you know that it’s near, that the
He also talked about—and we spent a good deal of time on—His instruction concerning “watching and praying.” And watching, as we saw, has to do with staying awake primarily, staying alert, being a doorkeeper, guarding what you’ve been given, and being ready. All of those things are included in the watching part. Being careful not to enter into temptation as He showed Himself when He was watching and praying right at the end before He was taken into custody there and that ordeal began that led up to His crucifixion when He was just enduring that intense temptation to not drink the cup. Remember He said, “You are to watch and you are to pray so that you won’t enter into this temptation and let it take hold and develop within you.” And so He showed us a good example of what watching and praying is all about. The praying part has to do with the personal relationship that He had with His Father and He demonstrated how personal that relationship was at that time right there before His arrest.
I think that this relationship that we are to have with Jesus Christ and with His Father is—it has to be on a different level than what it was for Him. For Him, He had been there with His Father. He had shared with His Father all of eternity. He had been there and planned this great plan and purpose that’s being worked out here on this earth. And He shared with His Father so much up until the time when the day came that He was to become a Son. And He emptied Himself and became a begotten little speck of life within a human mother. And then that birth took place and He became a human being and He lived on this earth as a human being. And He could remember. How much and how detailed that memory was I don’t know that any of us can know, but He certainly remembered enough that He had a level of trust in His Father that I don’t think it’s possible for any of us to have. He had a level of understanding of His Father and what it’s like experiencing that level of existence that none of us can ever remotely come close to in this life.
And so, His relationship with His Father was on a level that
none of us can accomplish, I think, now during this life. And when we get to the lesson six, I’m going
to attempt to show how that that relationship can be developed. And He pointed out ways that we can come to
relate to Him personally, on a very personal basis that we can’t do
directly. And we’ll get to that in
lesson six.
But in the last sermon, lessons one through three were addressed sufficiently I feel. I think we spent enough time on those. Lesson four, having to do with watching and praying, we spent two sermons on that. But lessons five and six, we spent somewhat of time with lesson five. Lesson six we barely got to. So I want to take the remainder of the sermon today, this time to discuss them further.
These lessons, five and six, deal with instructions directed personally to those He calls “His servants.” I’ll say that again. Lessons five and six deal with instructions directed personally to those He calls “His servants.” These lessons are contained in the last seven verses of Matthew 24 and all of Matthew 25. And if you can remember back last time, I kept saying in that sermon that it was Matthew 25 verses 45 through 51. And the reason why I did that? Because that’s what I had in my notes. But the last seven verses of chapter 24 and then all of chapter 25 contained these two lessons.
As we consider these two lessons, we need to realize that He gives them after He gave everything else we’ve looked at. We need to keep that in mind. He’s already given everything else we’ve looked at and then He addresses these two lessons. What He gave before needs to be considered as a backdrop to these lessons. We need to view these two lessons with everything else He said as a backdrop.
Now we feel we’re living near the end of the age. And certainly, as we’ve already said, we’re closer than anybody else has ever been. We are expecting to begin to see the prophetic events that He discussed begin to unfold soon. I think all of us are expecting to see this.
What’s interesting is that this has been the case for virtually all of the disciples down through time. Even Paul, from statements that he made, seems to indicate he thought that the end would occur in his day. And so, they’re written in such a manner in which, no matter when you lived, you could have thought that you were living in the last days. And I’m sure it was done that way for a purpose, because prophecies—if there’s one thing that jumps out to me above everything else—prophecy gives us a sense of urgency. If we’re looking at prophecy and thinking that these things can happen soon, it gives you a sense of urgency, which we all need. We all need to live our lives with a sense of urgency that we need to be tending to the things that these Scriptures tell us that we’re to be tending to because the end is imminent. And we should approach life that way.
But the fact that we view these prophetic events as being imminent and very close is part of the backdrop that we need to be considering as we look at these last two lessons. The problems both inside and outside of the Church are growing, as we already mentioned, in frequency and intensity. That needs to be considered as we view these last two lessons. The deception is very prevalent. Certainly the first and the second level of deception is very prevalent now. We’re instructed to endure these things all the way to the end. We’re instructed to watch and pray through it all. All of this needs to be considered as a backdrop as we look at these last two lessons.
Now let’s go to Matthew 24, this time verse 45. I’ll try to get it right this time. I apologize for doing that last time. I don’t know what I did. Actually I looked at my notes and I got in my notes Matthew 25. Ha, ha. I told you this little peanut brain is shriveling up some. So that must be what it is. [Laughter.] Okay, Matthew 24 verse 45.
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to
give them food in due season?
Now, as I mentioned before, at first reading if you read this superficially, if you don’t really delve into it and dissect it a bit, you possibly will come away with thinking that this is Jesus Christ addressing the leader of the Church in the last days. And He’s talking to one person who is the leader and He’s giving that leader specific instructions.
I don’t believe that’s the case. I really don’t. When you really look at this—and as we’re going to attempt to break it down a little bit—I think we’ll see a little bit better that that’s not the case. Rather, I think, He is making this lesson very personal in that He’s singling out one of many servants that He is talking about here. And He talks directly to one of us. And so, in other words, what He’s saying here in these verses I feel we need to take very personally as what it’s saying to us personally.
Now what’s interesting here, if you look at this and look it
up, this word “ruler” doesn’t even exist in the original! It’s not there. If you look at the Strong’s number
above this portion of it, you’ll find it only has to do with establishing
something. And it says here that “whom
his master made ruler.” This is
something that the master is assigning or appointing a certain duty and it’s
not to rule. The word “rule” itself
isn’t there. And you can look it up for
yourself. It’s not there. But a duty, a responsibility is being
appointed and assigned here. And when we
get a little further along here, I’m going to quote another version of this
that doesn’t include “ruler” at all.
Now
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give
them food in due season?
Now over in Matthew 25 and verse 14, He gives the Parable of the Talents. And let’s notice this. Let’s read verse 14 there. It says
Matthew 25:14. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man
traveling to a far country, who called
his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
So here is a situation where a master is leaving for a while and he’s delivering his goods it says. Now you read on down and you’ll see down in verse 18 the goods is money. Actually talents is a form of money. And so what this is all about is that he’s leaving his money with his servants, plural.
Now, we’re going to get into this in a moment and we know that He hasn’t left money with us. And so it’s a parable and we have to try to figure out what it is that He’s left with us.
But here it talks about that he’s leaving his goods with his servants, plural. If we go to Mark 13—just hold your place there—over in Mark 13 and in verse, let’s just go to verse 34.
Mark
Once again there’s another example here and it’s somebody, a master, going to a far country.
Mark 13:34b. who left his
house and gave authority to his servants [plural], and to each his work, and
commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
So here’s a case where this individual is going into a far country leaving and he’s leaving his house in the care of his servants. What we just read in Matthew 25 verse 14, he left his money in the care of his servants. In Matthew 24 verse 45, he’s leaving his household, which involves his family into the care of someone. And again, I’m thinking it’s “servants” and he’s singling out one of them here.
Now in each case, the master is gone for a time. And when he’s gone, he entrusts his goods or his house or his household into the care of his servants. So what is this all about? Well, just quickly Acts 3, Acts chapter 3. And we’ll just read a few verses here. This is the best place I know of that gives a real quick synopsis of the work that God is doing here on this earth. Acts 3 and verse 18.
Acts
And so, at this point in time, all of that has occurred. Christ has lived His life. He has become a sacrifice. He has died. He has been resurrected from the dead. He is back at His Father’s throne now when this is occurring.
Acts
Peter is saying here.
Acts
So now we’re in that time frame where certain individuals are being called on to repent and to become included into the number of the firstfruits and this process can be completed so that these “times of refreshing” can come. This Feast of Tabernacles and what it pictures and the Last Great Day that we’re about to keep.
Acts
Notice!
Acts
So these parables that we’re reading about here have to do with Jesus Christ coming to this earth, delivering certain things to those who become His servants, going away for a time, and He’s going to come back then and give account or has His servants to give account for what they’ve done with what He has delivered to them. So this is what this is all about.
Now here in Matthew 24 verses 45 through 51, I think He is singling out and addressing one of these servants directly. So, each one of us is to be a servant. I don’t think we can argue that point. Each one of us is to be a servant. Now this word “servant” in the Greek is doulos right here. We find different Greek words rendered “servant,” but in this case it’s doulos. And it means a servant, an attendant, a slave, a bondman, one who is in servitude to another.
And let’s just turn—hold your place in Matthew—to Luke 22. And I want to look at a couple of verses or a couple of sections of Scripture where Christ discusses this thing of being a servant. In Luke 22 verse 24
Luke 22:24. [But] there was
also [rivalry] among them,
That is among the disciples.
Luke 22:24b. as to which of
them should be considered the greatest.
This was on Passover. Now this was two days later than He gave all of these lessons. Remember He gave all the lessons two days before the Passover on which He would die. This He is saying on Passover evening.
Luke 24:25. And He said to
them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who
exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ 26) “But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him
be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.
Or one who becomes a servant.
Luke 24:27. “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or
he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table?
Yet I am among you as the One who serves.
And so He came setting the example of what a servant should be.
And in Matthew 20 then—continue to hold your place in Matthew 24—in Matthew 20 and verse 25, He said this earlier.
Matthew 20:25. But Jesus
called them to Himself and said, “You
know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great
exercise authority over them. 26) “Yet
it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you,
let him be your servant.
This is a different Greek word. It’s not the same one. It’s not doulos. It’s diakonos in the Greek. It means a minister, an attendant, a waiter, a teacher or a pastor, someone who tends to the needs of others.
Verse 27.
Matthew 20:27. “And whoever
desires to be first among you, let him be your doulos—
In this case, it’s called a “slave.” This is the same word, a servant.
Matthew 20:28. “Just as the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a
ransom for many.”
And then, you remember—I won’t go there—the instruction that He gave on Passover evening concerning the washing of the feet and how that He literally that evening took the role of a servant. He took His garments off, laid them aside, and took a towel and He girded Himself, and He began to wash their feet as a servant would do. And when He completed it, He said that “You are to wash one another’s feet as I have done for you.” So He was demonstrating His willingness to serve them and He’s saying, “You’re to do as I have done.”
Now, back here in Matthew 24 and verse 45, it says
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant,
“Faithful” simply means one who is true, one who is just, one who is trustworthy, one who is observant of and steadfast to one’s trust, one’s word, or one’s promise. So a wife and a husband are to be faithful to each other. Their word should be good. When one says to another certain things, you should be able to trust those words. All of us have been betrothed to Jesus the Christ to become His Wife. We are to be faithful to Him in all things through all of what is a backdrop here. Through all of this we are to be faithful to Him.
Now we could go through this Parable of the Talents. And I’m not going to take the time to do it, but there it talks about how He delivered this money. And He gave five to one. He gave different amounts to different ones according to their ability. And we understand that He’s not giving us money. He didn’t allocate so much money to give each one of us and He’s waiting to see what we do with it. Now in the parable here, He comes back later and He sees what they did with the money that He gave to them. Some had doubled their money. Most of them had doubled their money except for the one that dug a hole and buried it in it. And He told him, “Look, the least you could have done was to take that money and give it to the bankers and I would have had interest on my money.” So, in other words, what He gives is to grow. It is to increase, whatever it is that He gives to us.
Well, what did He give to us? We read in John 17 there how He in His prayer to His Father He said, “I have completed the work You gave Me to do.” And the specific work that He talked about was that “I delivered the words to those that You have given Me out of the world. The words that You gave Me, I gave to them.” And so, He delivered to those who were chosen by the Father to become part of His Bride, He delivered certain things to them.
Now we read in Jude verses 3 and 4 how Jude instructs us to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. And so, the faith—whatever that consists of—was delivered to the saints. And that’s what He did. When He came to this earth, He delivered the faith to the saints.
Now in this Parable of the Talents, it says different
amounts were given depending on their ability.
Well, I think we all understand that those of us that have had this
faith delivered to us which involves knowledge about who and what God is, what
They’re doing, and all that’s required of us.
And all that’s contained really within what the words told us that
Christ said and all of it that’s in this Book really, the faith is
contained. And so, some of us are able
to understand it, perhaps on a level that another would not quite be able to
understand it on. So there’s different
levels of comprehension and absorption of how valuable this is and what we
should do with it. I think that’s
perhaps what this parable is telling us.
I don’t know.
Some of us, however, just to a lack of diligence and a lack of just pondering and thinking about the value of it have not taken it as seriously as what we should. And in some cases, there is growth. In some cases, there is not as much growth. In some cases, no growth at all. And from the many parables that He gave, there is to be growth. It is to increase. What He gave to us is to have results in our lives. There should be results in our lives as a result of what He gave to us and we should grow toward the time when He returns. So that’s what this is all about. And He’s giving this to “servants.”
Now here’s something interesting. Back in Matthew 25—here I go again—Matthew 24 verse 45.
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant,
This is interesting. Now this word “wise,” wouldn’t you think this word has to do with godly wisdom? It doesn’t. It’s not. That word is sophia in the Greek. In other words, if you go to James 1, it says
James 1:5. If any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
That wisdom is godly wisdom, only comes from God, and that kind of wisdom of discernment comes from God.
This isn’t that wisdom. This is phroninos in the Greek and you can look this up and verify this for yourself. It means prudent, sensible, using practical wisdom in relationship with others. If I were using my words for this, I would say, “Who then is faithful and one who has common sense as a servant?”
So this is not talking about somebody who has great godly
wisdom, but rather somebody who just has some common sense to deal with the
situation.
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his
household, [Notice!] to give them food in due season?
Now this word “household” means those of his family. This is directly connected with lesson six and when we get to that one, we’re going to come back and talk about it.
Verse 46.
Matthew 24:46. “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he
comes, will find so doing.
So when the Master returns, He is to find His servants serving. Whoever we are, where we are, He is to find us serving. And we’re going to talk about in lesson six a specific kind of service He’s talking about.
Verse 47.
Matthew 24:47. “Assuredly, I
say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
Now if this were talking about a leader of the Church in the end of the age, you know He’s not going to make that one person ruler over all His good. We already know that. Jesus Christ is going to be ruler over all His goods. We’re going to be part of that husband-wife relationship as one of the servants if we are so blessed. But there’s not going to be one living at the end of the age that’s going to be head over everything. That’s not what it’s talking about.
Matthew 24:47. “Assuredly, I
say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
And we’re going to see in a moment that He is coming back to give rewards to His servants, rewards to all of His servants.
Verse 48.
Matthew 24:48. “But if that
evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49) “And begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
So this is something that we must not let happen to us. We talked about this last time. It’s so easy to get in one or two categories here. Either we get so involved with the end time events and so involved with trying to figure out when and how and so forth that it becomes a distraction for us—and it can do that—or we can get in the other ditch where we come to the conclusion that since we’ve been waiting all this time and He hasn’t come, He’s not going to come to in our lifetime. And so, we let down. The sense of urgency wanes. And we do not continue doing those things that we need to be doing.
Now, as I said before, many of us have been waiting a long time. Peggy and I are almost forty years now. There are others here in this room it’s been longer than that. I know some listening in it’s been waiting a lot longer than that. And I don’t know how much longer we’re going to have to wait.
But one thing we need to realize, we need to think about this. Who is it that we worship? Who is it that we worship? And who is it that’s going to return? And who is it that has it within His control to determine when He’s going to return? Do we trust those Beings? I mean, do we trust Them? Do we trust Them to the point to where we know that this plan is right on schedule and that Jesus Christ is going to return at the optimum moment? Do we believe that? Do we trust these Beings to that extent? We should! If we recognize who it is we worship, we will trust Them. And we will know that if it’s not today, it’s going to be sometime and it’s going to be at the right time.
And we continue in faith to continue doing what it is They’ve instructed us to do. We’re to exercise common sense to come to a proper balance. We’re to be faithful in doing what He said all the way to the end and use common sense to approach it with balance.
Verse 49 where it says that if you develop this attitude, “that the master is delaying his coming,” it’s easy then for the next to follow that you “begin to beat your fellow servants, to eat and drink with the drunkards.”
I ask an individual to do a small task or not a small
task. Actually it’s more of a task than
a small task. If you remember the
sermons that I gave on Opening The Door,
I asked a gentleman to write those up into a concise, condensed form. And I just got those in my hands last
night. And if you remember, Opening The Door had to do with the
conditions in
And it’s interesting.
I asked this gentleman—by the way, I’m not going to tell you who it
is. He wouldn’t want me to. He actually was a pastor in the
But here it’s so easy. When we get in this frame of mind “our Master delays His coming,” if pride comes in the picture and we elevate ourselves in our own minds, this can happen that “he began to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards.”
This word “beat” literally means to strike with a hand, fist, or some instrument. But figuratively, it means to offend, to wound the conscience, to wound someone spiritually.
We see there in what Christ had to say in Matthew 24, say verses 10 through 12 where it says, “And then many will be offended.” That means to be led astray into sin, fall away from the truth. “Many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” We’re in a time when a lot of that is going on. “Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” I think a lot of what we see in the way of betraying and so forth is the result of the false prophets, the effect they’ve had. But we’ve seen that and many people are being harmed and hurt today by individuals—I feel—who fall into this category of saying that “My Master delays His coming,” and have gotten into a real state of pride. It’s not only those who perhaps have come to that attitude of “My Master delays His coming,” but we’ve all, Brethren, all of us, all of us have been affected by pride. Every one of us! And it’s hurting us all very much.
Now between the lessons, it’s interesting here. Let me take very, very briefly with this because I want to get to lesson six. We find verses 1 through 13 of chapter 25 having to do with the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins. Now what’s interesting about this—and let me just throw this out there for you and you can digest this on your own and look at this—this word “wise” is the same one that we just looked at. It’s not godly wisdom here. The five wise virgins are those who have common sense. I thought that was interesting. We’ll spend some time some other time on this. I intended to go through this a little more than what I am, but I think that we’ve read too much into this parable. I think we’ve tried to read too much into it. I think there’s very simple lessons to be learned, simple points to be made here. And the simple point is that some were prepared for a wait longer than they expected. Some were prepared to wait longer than they expected. Some had extra oil. Some didn’t. That’s the primary point that’s being made by the lamps and the oil. Some are prepared to wait whatever time needed. Others assumed that the time would be this much and the oil in their lamps was sufficient, only to find out it was longer than they expected.
When Peggy and I came into the Church, it was pretty well thought that it’s all going to wrap up in 1975. We were going to the place of safety in 1972. We came in 1969. So we didn’t have long to wait! It was right around the corner. Well, almost forty years later, we’re still waiting.
So if you have enough oil to last two years, when you really needed it for forty plus years, see what I’m talking about.
But He said here in verse 10.
Matthew 25:10. “And while
they went to buy,
And you know the story.
Matthew 25:10b. the
bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the
wedding; and the door was shut. 11)
“Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12) “But he answered and said [to them],
‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
So there’s two points I think need to be taken from this, or three maybe. One, we need to be ready which involves having enough resolve to wait as long as it takes to wait. Another point is that during this process, we are to come to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. One in which He will know us. In this case, He doesn’t know these individuals. Not only that they’re not ready. It’s not only that they didn’t have enough oil. He doesn’t know them. He doesn’t know who they are.
Now let’s—again I was intending to spend more time there, but I don’t have the time—so let’s move on to the last lesson. As I mentioned there in the instruction regarding watching and praying that praying could be a very short and concise way of saying, “You need to have a right relationship with Jesus Christ and with His Father.” So praying has everything to do with that, a constant communication with these Individuals.
Now here we just saw where five of these virgins that’s being talked about here, He doesn’t know them. When it comes time to go to the wedding, He doesn’t know them.
In Matthew 7 verses 21 to 23, He said there that “Many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not done this in Your name? Have we not done that in Your name?’” You know come the end of the age. And He’ll say, “I don’t know you; depart from Me, you who have engaged in lawlessness.”
The big one, the big command that He gave to us was that we were to love one another as He has loved us. That’s the big commandment that He gave you and me before He died. Could it be that this “lawlessness” involved breaking that law, resulting in Him not knowing who they were?
Back here in Matthew 24 verse 45. I want to go back to that. I said I’ll come back to it.
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to
give them food in due season?
The Revised Standard Version renders it this way, and again, they exclude the word “rule.”
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has sat over his household, to
give them food at the proper time?
Who is it that Christ has assigned the responsibility to to give those of His Family food at the proper time? Now Jesus the Christ has, if this applies to each of the servants, if He’s singling out one of many servants and personalizing this, then Jesus Christ has made each one of us a servant to those of His household, of His Family.
Now with that thought in mind, let’s go to Matthew 25 verse 31. Matthew 25 verse 31.
Matthew 25:31. “When the Son
of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit
on the throne of His glory.
So this is describing the return of the Master from the parables that we looked at. This is the Master now returning.
Matthew 25:32. “All the
nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divides his
sheep from the goats. 33) “And He will
set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34) “Then the King will say to those on His
right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
How would you like to be included in that group? I hope we all would be.
Matthew 25:34b. ‘Come, you
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world:
And so He is returning to give the rewards to those servants whom He has delivered His goods, His house, or His household into the care of. And we’ve seen that that has to do with the Faith that He delivered to us. And what have we done with that? Those here on the right hand are the ones who would be blessed by the Father and who will receive as an inheritance this incredible Kingdom that’s been prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Then verse 35.
Matthew 25:35. ‘For I was
hungry and you gave Me food;
Matthew 25:35. ‘For I
was hungry and you gave Me food;
Remember “Who is a faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord has sat, or the Master has sat over His household to give them food in due season or at the proper time?”
Matthew 25:35. ‘For I was
hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a
stranger and you took Me in; 38) ‘I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick
and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37) “Then the righteous will answer Him,
saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You
drink? 38) ‘When did we see You a
stranger and take You in, or naked
and clothe You? 39) ‘Or when did we see You sick, or in
prison, and come to You?’ 40) “And the
King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did
it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.’
The Revised Standard Version renders this verse
Matthew 25:40b. ‘Truly I
tell you, just as you did it to one
of the least of these who are members of My family, you did it to Me.
When it refers to His Brethren, these are His household, His Family, that we have been assigned a responsibility to be servants to.
The Amplified Bible renders it this way—and again this is not a direct translation. It means just what it says, an “Amplified Bible.” And it says this
Matthew 25:40b. ‘Truly I
tell you, in as far as you did it to
one of the least in the estimation of men of these My brethren, you did it to Me.
And, as we pointed out before, I don’t think Christ considers some of us less than others. That, as we heard in the sermonette, He considers all of us a treasure to Him. We all make up a treasure that’s invaluable to Him, far greater than anything we can denominate in monies. He doesn’t consider us less, but unfortunately many of us consider others less. And to those who we might think of that way, do we do those things that He’s talking about here for them?
Now with the current conditions as a backdrop, with the false prophets doing their work, with some hating others, with some betraying others, and all that we’ve got that’s going on, with that as a backdrop, in the scattered condition of the Church today, we’re scattered into so many different organizations, different groups, different fellowships. There are many alone who are not part of any one of these groups or fellowships. Those Brethren making up those whom Jesus considers His Brethren, they’re scattered throughout these groups and organizations. How do we view one another? How is it we look at one another? Are we doing this? Are we giving food at the proper time to those who are considered by Him to be His Brethren?
It is very clear that Jesus’ relationship with those He considers to be His Brethren is very, very special. So special He considers us as an extension of Himself. As we hurt, He hurts. I’m sure right now He’s feeling the pain that James Smyda is feeling in a way that we can’t. I know many of us feel the pain to some degree. I saw tears flowing when I was making the announcement. I know that it impacted many of you. Can you imagine the way Jesus Christ is hurting for James right now? As we have our needs tended to, He has His needs tended to.
In 1 Corinthians 12, I want to spend a little bit of time there. I don’t have the time to spend as much as I intended to, but in 1 Corinthians 12, we see it talked about there about the “one body.” And there in verse 12, it says
1 Corinthians 12:12. For as
the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being
many, are one body, so also is
Christ. 13) For by one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and
have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
There’s one bond that should bind us together. All of us who comprise the firstfruits right now in the Church, the true Church of God, the spiritual organism of the Church of God that Jesus Christ is coming back to marry, the one thing that ought to be the bond that bonds us together is that Spirit. Organizations don’t bond us together. Human leaders don’t bond us together. They tend to separate us. The Spirit of God should bond us together into one, into one as far as our attitude is toward each other.
We can’t snap our fingers and solve the problem that’s extant. It’s part of the backdrop that we’re dealing with. We can’t solve it ourselves individually. It’s there. We’ve got to deal with it. But how are we dealing with it? And what is our attitude toward others within the spiritual organism?
You can go down through and it talks about the different parts of the body and so forth and how that God has placed them as He has seen fit. Down in verse 25 notice what we read. It talks about
1 Corinthians 12:25. That
there should be no schism [or division] in the body,
And certainly we have that now.
1 Corinthians 12:25b. but that the members should have the same
care for one another.
We should have the same care one for the other!
1 Corinthians 12:26. And if
one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
No matter where the member is! No matter if the member is a part of another
fellowship or not. This is to be taking
place as it is with Christ. When we
hurt, He hurts. It ought to be that way
between members of the
Verse 27.
1 Corinthians 12:27. Now you
are the body of Christ, and members individually.
While in the flesh, Jesus the Christ demonstrated a very special love for those He called His Brethren. John 13 verse 1 starts off with the words that “He loved His own to the end.” A better way of rendering that would be ‘He loved them to the fullest extent.” He was willing to drink that cup for them. There’s never been a greater example of love than His. Never has there been! Nobody has ever done it.
John 15 verses 13 and 14, let me just quote this.
John 15:13. “Greater love
has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14) “You are My friends if you do whatever I
command you.
In Romans 5 verses 6 and 8, it talks about how that for someone, for a good person some would dare to die and so forth. You know. I can’t quote it word for word. But it says, “He died for us while we were still sinners.” Before we would have ever considered Him our friend, He died for us. He expressed that love.
In John 15 verse 12, He referred to that great commandment that He gave and
John 15:12. “This is My
commandment [He said], that you love one another as I have loved you.
We are to love one another as Jesus Christ loved us. None of us want to hear the words that Christ said in Matthew 25 verse 12 where He says, when they wanted to come into the wedding, “I don’t know who you are.” We don’t want that happening. Perhaps to a great extent, Jesus Christ comes to know us in the demonstration of our love for His Brethren. Perhaps that is the greatest way today that He gets to know how much we care, how much we love Him. And it’s demonstrated by how much we care and how much we love those whom He loves, those who are part of His Family, those who He considers His Brethren. How much do we demonstrate our love for His Brethren? How much do we? Apparently it directly reflects on how much we love Him.
We live at a very exciting time in the history of God’s Church. I would imagine that most of us would conclude, knowing all that we know, that we probably would rather be alive today than at any other time in the history of the Church. We probably would conclude that if we had our choice. If we could go back and live in another time, we would probably would opt out and say, “No, I’ll continue to live today.”
We live at a time when the return of Christ is imminent in our view, at least most of our views. We think it’s imminent. We think that those things that He told us to that we would see we’re about to see. And they’re going to come soon. His return is closer than, as I already said, anytime in the history of the Church.
We also live, however, at a very challenging time, a time that makes it difficult to keep that commandment that He gave us in its fullest. It’s difficult. It’s not easy in our separated disconnected condition. There are people listening right now—I’m quite confident—who have never laid eyes on one another. There are individuals who are listening that none of you have ever met, perhaps. There are individuals scattered around the world that some of us will never cross paths with in this life. And so, we can’t express that love for them that Christ is instructing us to do.
But in our relationship that we would have with Jesus Christ, we talked about Him standing at the door knocking. He doesn’t do that literally. He’s not there literally at our door. We can’t set down with Him one on one. We can’t have a meal with Him one on one.
But how can we have a relationship with Him? Who is it that we have a relationship with that reflects our desire for a relationship with Him? We can look around the room. We see Him. If what He says is true, we see Him. I want you to think about somebody that you know of that you know personally that’s not in our fellowship. Think about that person. That person when you look at also is Christ. His Spirit is in that person as well.
Brethren, we need to take these lessons very, very seriously. I think without question they’re intended for us personally as we live today. We need to heed what our Master, what our Husband-to-be, what our Head of the Church is teaching us today.
Transcribed by kb