The Olivet Prophecy: Matthew 25

We are living in very, very crazy times as we're all very well aware here, and with so many crazy things happening in the world right now, several weeks ago, I did give two sermons. The first one on the Blessings and Cursings chapter, prophesied for Israel.

Then a second one on Jesus Christ, Olivette prophecy, in Matthew 24. But Matthew 24 is actually only half of Jesus Christ's teaching at that time and place there because it continues right into Matthew 25.

We talk a lot in the church about Matthew 24, but not so much about Matthew 25. So today we will be picking up where we left off in that earlier sermon and go through the entire chapter of Matthew 25.

But before we do that, a little bit of background to recap some of the points that I made in those earlier sermons, is that if we are to understand what is foretold to happen in Bible prophecy, we need to first understand why those things will happen. And that is explained in the Blessings and Cursings chapter, Deuteronomy 28, where God foretold the blessings that would come from obeying Him and the curses that would flow from disobeying Him. And that explains the why, the why of many of the things we're seeing taking place in the world, and specifically in our nation right now, our rejection of God. And we're reaping the results of that. And it explains why the modern nations descended from Israel will experience growing troubles and growing problems because of their hostility toward God in nearly every aspect of life. And we're seeing that reaching the boiling point in many cities right now, in Seattle, Portland, New York, and even right here in Colorado in the last week or two. And these illustrate the curses that we bring on ourselves through our disobedience toward God on many levels. And it also illustrates something else very important, and that is that God doesn't necessarily need to do the punishing. That we do a great job of punishing ourselves by the consequences of our actions. Again, we are seeing that in the headlines and on live TV virtually every night. We are seeing the consequences of people who hate God and hate authority and who are rebelling against that, and rebelling against God's laws and God's Word. And that is the results that we see prophesied in Matthew 24. That brings us up to Matthew 25 then, the Olivet Prophecy Part 2, Matthew 25. And what is it about? Well, it is a continuation of the discussion of the end time events before Jesus Christ returned. He gave this prophecy in response to the being asked by the disciples, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of this age of man? And Jesus responds with the Olivet Prophecy to that question there. But now the emphasis shifts from what is going to happen to what those things mean for you and me. To what it means for you and me. What does it mean for God's people? What are we supposed to be doing? How are we supposed to be preparing ourselves for these trends and events? And how can we be spiritually ready? And Matthew 25 goes on to give three parables that explain that. He talks about the things that are to happen at the time of the end. And then he gives his followers, you and me, some very pointed warnings and instructions beginning in verse 1 of Matthew 25. So we'll pick it up there and start going through this chapter. So Matthew 25, in verse 1, he starts with an illustration we're familiar with.

So this would have been a scenario very familiar with his audience of that day. His disciples or young men who would have immediately identified with this as they were contemplating marriage and life together and so on. But let's analyze who is who in this parable. First of all, who is the bridegroom? Well, it's obvious it's talking about Jesus Christ. And who are the ten virgins? Well, that's obviously obvious too. That is us. That is Jesus Christ's followers. His fiancé, his bride-to-be. And what happens when he does not come when they expect?

Well, as it says here, they all slumbered and slept. They all slumbered and slept. And it's pretty sobering. We ought to think about that. They all slumbered and slept. Continuing verse 6, and at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. And I've given a sermon before about marriage and wedding customs and how that applies to us.

So I don't have time to cover all of that material. But in that I described how a wedding would happen suddenly in the culture of that day when the groom and his friends would come for the bride suddenly at night. And how they would call out to give the bride and the bridesmaids some warning that they were coming. And this custom is what is being described here. And Christ again uses this example in this parable because his disciples and followers would know exactly what he's talking about.

It's a common custom of the day. And then verse 7, Then all those virgins arose out of their sleep, again, they all slept, and they trimmed their lamps. They made their lamps ready, in other words. And I have here a reproduction of a first century type lamp that is being talked about here. Made out of clay and baked in a kiln. And it uses olive oil for the fuel. It would be filled, poured with olive oil in there.

And then a wick made out of plant fiber or flax or something like that. So I'm going to use my first century lighter here to light this, to illustrate what this is like. And actually the wick, called a wick because it wicks the oil up, and the oil is what is burning. The wick itself burns very slowly, but the oil does burn. So this is what is being talked about in this parable here. Of their trimming their lamps, of filling them with oil, making sure they have a wick there, and making it ready. So this is, for all of us guys who like to collect flashlights, this is a first century flashlight.

The hills and the trails of Judea at that time are quite rocky and narrow, and you wouldn't go out at night without your flashlight here. This is what they used. The Gospels talk a lot about light, and Christ being the light of the world and so on. This is the kind of common light they would have used in their houses. They might have had six or eight or a dozen of these in little niches in the walls of the houses to provide light.

Or on a stand in the room. Christ talks about you don't tie a light under a basket, but you put it on a stand so that it provides light to the whole room. So this is what is being talked about here, this light.

So this is, and again everybody is familiar with these. They use these every day and they find these by the hundreds in the land of Israel. This is just a modern reproduction of a type that was common at that time in the first century. Verse 8, And the foolish virgin said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

And without oil, what good did a lamp do? It doesn't give any light. It's utterly useless. It doesn't do anything if it doesn't have oil to supply and fuel the wick to provide light. It doesn't do any good whatsoever here. And what is the oil symbolic of? We know from other passages that the oil is symbolic of God's Holy Spirit. It's important to realize, does the lamp produce its own oil? No, it doesn't. The oil has to come from an outside source. It has to come from God.

We can't produce God's Spirit on our own. We have to receive that as a gift from God. And we have to have His Spirit working within us, and changing and transforming us to be able to give off the light. Otherwise, we're like a lamp without any oil. And it doesn't do any good without any oil there to provide any light.

So we need that Spirit working within us to produce the light that should be shining in our lives. And spiritually speaking, the point of this parable is that we need to keep our lamps ready at all times, and not to be caught like the five foolish virgins at the groom's return, and to realize we don't have any oil. We've allowed it through neglect to run out. And we end up in like the five foolish virgins. So continuing, verse 8 again, And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you. But go rather to those who sell, and buy more oil for yourselves. And while the five foolish virgins went out to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you.

I do not know you. And there's an incredible amount of sadness in that phrase there. Because these are people who were a part of his church. Part of the bride of Jesus Christ. And they end up shut out of the wedding feast. Because they were unprepared. They weren't utilizing God's Spirit. They did not have God's Spirit active in their lives, transforming them.

And it's a sad story. And a sad and sobering lesson here. And what is the lesson for us? Well, he tells us after that. Verse 13, Watch therefore. Watch, and this word watch means to be alert, to be on the lookout, to be on guard. Not just for what's happening externally, but for our own personal individual spiritual state. Be alert would be a better way to translate it into English today. Be alert as to our spiritual state.

Not just the state externally of what's going on in the world, but to our spiritual state as well. Are we alert to our spiritual state? And what it is like. So watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. And we don't know exactly when Jesus Christ the bridegroom is coming. He says we can recognize the signs of the times, but we do not know the exact time of his coming for sure. He says no one knows that day or the hour.

So he tells us to be ready all the time. And he uses the same analogy of a groom and his friend suddenly coming to the bride and the bridesmaids and taking them off to the wedding feast. This is what he says his return will be like when the groom comes suddenly, expecting his bride to be ready and prepared. Now in this parable, the church is not just the bride alone, but all 10 of the bridesmaids. And as we see here, only half of them are properly prepared. And there's a sobering lesson from that too, because the obvious implication here is that only half of the church will be prepared at Christ's return. And the other half are unprepared and are shut out at Christ's return.

And again, that's very sobering to contemplate, which half will I be in? Which half will you be in? Well, the answer is really up to us, up to each of us individually, because either we will be spiritually prepared at that time or we won't. It's going to be one or the other. God can't do that for us. Jesus Christ, as the head of the church, can't do that for us. The church, United Church of God, any Church of God group organization cannot do that for us. Your family can't do that for us.

Your spouse, your husband, or your wife can't do that for you. You alone can determine whether you will be prepared or not. The choice is up to you, up to me, up to each of us individually. I personally think that the primary reason for the breakup of our former affiliation 25 years ago now was for this very reason here, that God allowed something astounding to take place.

Everything seemed to be going great. Everything. We were bigger than we ever were, more successful than we'd ever been, producing more magazines, more radio programs, more TV programs, more booklets than we ever had been. But God had to see where each of us individually stood. And he found out. And what did he find out? Found out that the vast majority of those who we all thought were part of the church really weren't.

It's not to say they didn't like the church, but they loved the act of going to church services. They loved the activities, loved the sports, loved the dances, loved the teams, loved going to the feast, loved their friends in the church, loved their family in the church.

But did they love God's truth? No, they didn't. No, they didn't. And we saw the answer to that. And it was very painful.

Could such a thing happen again? Well, I not only think it could happen again, I think something like that, some other sort of trial that will test where we are and what we're made of, will happen again.

We talked in the sermon on Matthew 24 about some of the prophecies about the church, about the persecutions that are going to come, about spouses, husbands turning against wives, and wives against husbands, and parents against their children, and children against their parents, and the love of many growing old, and that kind of thing.

So I think God is going to allow that, is going to allow families to be divided, and church members turning against one another and things like that to see again what we're made of.

Because God is not going to allow anyone into His kingdom, He's not going to give us eternal life and the kind of power that comes with that if He doesn't know exactly where we stand and exactly what we're made of and whether we deeply love Him and His truth and His word and His law above everything else.

And that, I think, is really the point of all three of the parables in this chapter. Are we all in with God's way of life, or are we not?

And He's going to find out one way or the other before He gives us eternal life.

There are all kinds of other lessons we could draw from this parable, but we don't have time for it. But I would encourage you to give a lot of thought to this parable and all these parables because this is a strong warning. Again, the implications of the prophecies of Matthew 24 for God's people shortly before Jesus gave, shortly before His death.

And now He gives another parable to illustrate what we'd better be doing while we wait for Jesus Christ's return. The first parable tells us that we'd better be filled with God's Spirit and earnestly expecting and preparing for His return. And now He gives us some more specifics about what we should be doing.

So next verse, Matthew 25 and verse 14, He starts another parable.

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 again, who is who? Well, who's the man traveling to a far country, going away on a long journey, a long trip? That's Jesus Christ.

And who are the servants to whom He delivers His goods? Again, that's us, the members of the church, the servants of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Obvious from the context of Matthew 24 and what we've read so far in Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins which symbolize the church, the members who are wise and the members who are foolish. So again, it's talking about us, God's servants, and that He starts the lesson, verse 15. And to one of the servants He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to their ability, to his own or her own ability. And immediately He went on a journey. Now, what is the talent that is mentioned here?

We assume it's a coin by the way it's being talked about here, but it's actually a weight, a weight of approximately a hundred pounds there. So we're not told what it's a hundred pounds of. Is it a hundred pounds of? Coins in that day were made of copper or bronze or iron or silver or gold. So we're not told what it's a hundred pounds of. And that's part of the point of the parable there. The value of the talent would vary greatly depending on what kind of metal.

Obviously gold is a lot more valuable than copper. So we're not told what it's a hundred pounds of, just that it is a talent. It's from this parable that we get our English word, talent, meaning an ability that we have, that we were born with, or that we have worked to develop and prepare and utilize there. We use the word talent to refer to a special ability that someone has. And that meaning is drawn from this parable. Here are the parable of the talents. In the original parable it is talking about money.

But the point of the parable is that it's talking about whatever it is that God has given us and what he expects us to do with that which he has given to us. So continuing verse 16, If there was a temple nearby, temples kind of served as banks, in that they were a protected place where you could put your money in valuables and they'd be supposedly protected by the God or goddess of the temple.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But the other alternative was to dig a hole in the ground and hide it there. And hope you remembered where you dug the hole and hid it there. So that's what is going on. They didn't have a bank, so he went and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's talent there. So a couple of points to draw out from this. First of all, these three individuals differ according to their ability.

Some have more ability and are given more talents. And some have less. And some aren't given as much, again, based on their ability. Some are given a very little, like the one receiving the one talent here. But these three people do differ in an important way. They differ in the choices they make with what God has given them. They have the freedom to make the choices. The master gives them a considerable sum of money and expects them to go out and multiply that and generate a return on the master's investment.

And I've given a series of sermons on slavery in the first century. And this was actually fairly common in the Roman world, that a Roman slave holder would offer his slaves an opportunity, a business opportunity, to earn money to eventually purchase their freedom. And many slaves became very successful businessmen. Some became the equivalent of millionaires. Some became senators in the Roman Senate because of this system here. But that's not the point of the parable. Just to illustrate, this is very real. We know this happened from Roman documents of that time. So the servants are given their master's investment and expected to generate a return, a profit for their master. They're given gifts, or talents as we would call it today.

And with these gifts or talents come responsibilities. So this is an important lesson here, that God gives us talents and abilities and gifts, many of which are natural. They come natural to us. They're called gifts in the Bible. Spiritual gifts because we didn't do anything to create them ourselves. We might have come out of the womb with great artistic ability, or singing ability, or musical ability, or art ability, or whatever it may be. And God gave us those gifts.

That's why they're called gifts there. But along with that comes responsibility. And that's the point of this parable, or a point of this parable. So these servants are given something. And it's not so much they're given gifts, it's they're given their master's property. They're given their master's property because it's really not theirs. It belongs to the master. It belongs to the master and they are stewards of it. And we are stewards of what we've been given.

And are responsible for that. And held accountable for that. So again, who are these people? Well, they represent each of us. It's talking about the members of the church. We are given abilities, given knowledge, given opportunities and so on. But we differ in the choices that we make with what we're given.

And that is a key part of the parable too. Continuing, verse 19, After a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And this ought to get our attention because here we see people like you, like me, people who have been given responsibilities and gifts.

And now key to the story flow of the parable, but it's thrown in here. And why does he do that? Why does he say that some people will hate him and have an attitude of we will not have this man to reign over us?

Now, I used to always assume that in context this is talking about the Jews or the Israelites of the first century who rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah. And I still think that's true, but I've also studied the Gospels enough to know that a lot of times when Jesus says something that there may be several possible interpretations, that that's deliberate.

That there are several different lessons we can draw from that. I think that is deliberate. That's the kind of teacher he was.

And I say that because of, again, the context. He's not talking about the Jews or the Israelites. He's talking about his servants. He's talking about members of the church.

And some of them have an attitude, I will not have this man reign over us or over me.

And I think we've all seen, if you've been in the church any period of time, you've all seen people who simply don't want anybody to tell them what to do.

They won't take correction. In some cases, they won't even take serious instruction in the Bible.

And if they hear something they don't like, they simply pack up their marbles and go somewhere else.

And I find it very interesting that here, in this parable that is talking clearly about church members, and about our need to carry out in our lives the work that Christ expects us to do, and the need to be personally responsible and mature and fill with God's Holy Spirit, as in the parable of the ten virgins, and of carrying out the responsibilities and work that Christ expects us to do, as brought out in the parable of the talents here, that Jesus inserts this aside here that there are going to be people who have an attitude of, and nobody's going to tell me what to do.

And it's because of this that I think Jesus is giving a warning here to members of his church about this kind of attitude.

And don't get me wrong, this is not to say the church is always right, that every decision of the church has been perfect or even wise. It hasn't. I've been on the receiving end of some of those decisions here, and clearly there have been a lot of bad decisions over the years, and there will continue to be bad decisions over the course of the years. I will make bad decisions.

We will all make bad decisions because we're all human.

But I do think the Scriptures make it clear that this is no reason or no excuse to adopt an attitude that there's no need for authority or responsibility within the church, or that we each can become our own authority. To me, it's obvious that the Scriptures tell us otherwise, and that's why I think this warning is just inserted in here, just as kind of a side note.

So continuing with the main point of the parable in verse 15, we come again to the point where the servants are called to give an account for what they have done with what they've been given.

Verse 15, and so it was that when the master returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money to, to be called to him that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

Then came the first, saying, Master, your mina has earned ten minas, so he produced tenfold what he had been given.

And the master said to him, Well done, good servant, because you are faithful, and very little have authority over ten cities.

So now we see a specific reward that is mentioned in here, ten cities that this servant rules over.

If we, as God's servants, cannot learn in this life to properly wield and submit to authority, and God's law and God's word, is he going to give us authority over others?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious. I don't think so. So let's keep this reward in mind as we go through the rest of this parable.

Verse 18, And the second servant came, saying, Master, your mina has earned five minas.

And likewise the master said to him, You also be over five cities.

Now we might ask ourselves, how does this parable differ from the other?

Well, this time the reward is proportional, proportional based on what the servants do with what they've been given.

So not only do we have the fact that from the first parable that entrance into the kingdom of God has a great deal to do with what we do with what we've been given, now we see that our reward is proportional based on what we do with what we've been given.

In the first example, the first servant takes what he's been given and multiplies it ten times.

And his reward is big. He gets to rule over ten cities based on his performance.

And the second multiplies what he's been given five times.

And he is given authority and rule over five cities based on his performance.

So what's the lesson here for us? Well, Jesus does tell us very plainly. It makes a difference what we do with what we've been given us.

Not merely that he's going to judge us based on the basis of what we do with what we have, but that we will be rewarded based on what we do with what we have.

You know, maybe we have kind of gotten the view, and I think a lot of people have, I know I have at times, that when we all come up in the resurrection in Christ's return, that we're all going to be equal forever.

But that's not what this parable tells us. That's not what it tells us. It's not what Jesus is here.

Here he describes people being brought up before God, and we are rewarded based on our performance.

We're all given the same thing. We're all given the same knowledge. We're all given God's Spirit. We're all given God's truth.

We're all given, in a sense, the same reward, which is eternal life, in God's kingdom. But plainly from this parable, the rewards that are given are proportional based on what we do with what we've been given.

And again, how much is this a part of our everyday thinking in terms of our relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ?

How does this awareness affect our everyday decision-making? Our priorities, how we spend our time, how we interact with others in the church, and in the world for that matter.

How does it affect our decisions and how we treat one another? And our priorities and how we spend our time and so on. And these are the things Jesus Christ is talking about here.

It all begins to weigh together into what Christ terms our reward in the kingdom at His return.

And He tells us I don't have the Scripture here, but over near the end of the book of Revelation, He says, Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give each according to His work.

My reward is with me to give to each according to His work.

So it's very clear those rewards are proportional.

And based on our performance, what we do with what we've been given, there's just no way to get around it.

Based on what we read in these two parables here.

Continuing in the parable, verse 20, Then another, again, parable of the miners, then another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.

For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow. So, very similar reaction to the first parable of the talents that we read about there.

The servant takes what his master has given him, and he hides it away in a handkerchief and sticks it in his back pocket, and doesn't produce a thing with it.

And what is the master's reaction?

The master says to him, Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.

You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?

So here we see the same principle repeated in the first parable, that at the very minimum we have to do something with what we've been given. We have to do something.

Things can't be any worse if we take a chance and if we take none at all.

And don't do anything with what we've been given, so we might as well get involved, stick our neck out there, lay it on the line, try to accomplish something.

Because in both these parables the master says, At least try to get me some interest, just the minimal amount.

Do something with what I've given you. Don't just stick it in your pocket, wrapped in your handkerchief, or bury it in the field. Do something, do anything to generate some return on all the wonderful things I've given you.

I've given you my truth, I've given you my spirit, I've given you my essence to help change you and convert you. Do something with it.

That's the point of what he's saying here.

Verse 24, And the master said to those who stood by, Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas. Same thing.

But the other said to him, Master, he already has ten minas. So again, they're thinking like I talked about earlier.

He's already got ten, why does he need another? Just leave it with a poor guy who's only got one.

But that's not what God does. Again, we forget whose money, whose investment it is. It's God's.

And he says, For I say to you that to everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him.

Again, same general lesson and conclusion from the first parable. So there are two major lessons that flow from these parables here. One is that we need to be sure to get our act together.

And what we see around us today taking place in the world, as we talked about in these first two sermons of this series, should reinforce that. We need to be sure that we are walking the walk, and not just talking the talk. We need to be sure that we are getting our priorities in line with God's priorities.

We need to be sure that our lives, our choices, our priorities reflect God's priorities.

And doing what is important to him. We need to be doing good works. We need to be accomplishing and growing, and being the kind of profitable servants that he wants us to be.

We need to understand that our lives are not about us, but they are all about God.

And if we are to be a part of God's family, what do we have to do?

Well, we are training for that now, as brought out in all three of these parables here that we've talked about.

We have to be growing. We have to be contributing. We have to be an active, willing, building part of the body, working with one another to make it all work.

And now we come to the final parable here. This one won't take much time. Matthew 25 and verse 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.

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.

And He will set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on the left.

Again, He's talking about His people. It's the point of it, the judgment, the time of judgment that's coming.

And now Jesus starts to explain what makes a person a sheep and what makes a goat in His kingdom.

And sheep, incidentally, are highly regarded in the Bible. We see that again and again. We are called God's sheep.

Again and again. Pastors are called pastors. What's a pastor? The Greek word is somebody who takes care of sheep.

We are His sheep. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Not Matthew 23, Psalm 23.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.

It's all a parable of God's love for us, His toll from the perspective of His sheep.

And sheep are highly regarded throughout the Bible. And they were because that was part of their culture. Everybody knew what sheep were like.

And so sheep are very highly regarded. Are goats highly regarded in the Bible?

Well, not so much. And here's why.

I'll show you one picture that illustrates the difference between sheep and goats.

There's a sermon in this picture. There are several sermons in this picture. Maybe I'll give one of these days here because I've seen both sheep and goats in the Middle East, in the Land of Israel.

If you go there, you'll see them and you'll know what I'm talking about here.

Sheep are generally easy to manage. They're generally cooperative.

But goats, by their very manner, their very nature, are like this.

You can see sheep and goats on a hillside, and the sheep are all going in a straight line across the hillside, following the path.

Where are the goats?

Goats are here and there and all over and climbing the trees and falling off the rocks and all of that. They're just unmanageable and unteachable and untrainable.

And in Bible times, everybody knew that. And that's why Jesus gives this illustration about sheep and goats, because everybody knew the difference between sheep and goats.

Their natures are so different. They actually look a lot alike, but their nature is very different.

And everybody hearing this parable could easily understand what he meant.

And it's illustrated in this photograph here.

Verse 34, Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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.

I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.

And he's talking here about the parables we've read earlier, about the kind of fruit and results that should be shown in our lives as a result of what we've done.

God has invested in us, in his knowledge, and in his truth, and in the opportunities, and in his Holy Spirit that he's given us.

This is what it ought to be producing.

Verse 37, Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you drink?

Where did we see you a stranger and take you in? Or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, and as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will say to those on the left hand, the goat side, Depart from me, you cursed, and to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in.

Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?

And he will answer them, saying, Assuredly I say to you, and as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

And that is the end of Matthew 25 and the Olivet Prophecy.

And what is to happen and the implications of that for us?

How we are to be preparing and what we are to be doing in these times.

And this is what happens with the sheep and the goats. The parable, like I said, doesn't need much explaining. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Jesus spells it out quite clearly here, and this is what he expects of us to do with what we've been given.

He expects us to be loving and caring and giving of our time and our energy and our resources, and helping and building the body of believers that is his spiritual body.

And not just them, but all that we come into contact with. He wants us to be a loving and caring people, who love and care and are genuine concerned to be demonstrated in our lives.

He wants us to give a quick recap. He wants us, as shown in the parable of the ten virgins, to be filled with God's Holy Spirit, like the oil and the lamp, without which does no good for anyone.

He wants us to be eagerly and expectantly preparing for Jesus Christ's return, for our marriage to the groom.

And he wants us, as shown in the parable of the talents and of the pounds or the minas, to be eagerly using and developing and building on the gifts and the talents and the abilities that he has given us so that we are truly profitable servants, increasing in our usefulness to him.

And finally, he wants us to be a loving and caring people, growing together as the body of Christ.

He wants us to be sheep and not goats.