Why Is Jerusalem A City To Watch?

I want to cover, in a sense, one last thing in the kind of the series that we've been going over in the book of Matthew. And I want to ask us a question. Why is it that the city of Jerusalem is such a prominent place that we are to watch, according to Bible prophecy? See, now I mention this because I want to go through what we read in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, what we would call the Olivet prophecy. Again, a very well-known section of the book of Matthew and actually a well-known section in the Gospels because you also see it recorded some in Mark and some in Luke. Very similar, at least somewhat similar.

But why is it that the city of Jerusalem is such a focal point as far as Bible prophecy is concerned? In our Beyond Today magazine this last time, January-February 2018, we had a brief news item that said on Wednesday, December 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump fulfilled a major campaign promise in announcing that the United States was officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that he was ordering plans be made to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. You know, I recall that a couple of months ago now. Whenever that came out, if you weren't following that or didn't have any idea, you might have wondered, uh-oh, you know, some other major thing that is actually stirring up strife in the Middle East. Well, as we go on to say, this announcement was immediately decried by various world leaders, many claiming that this is going to ignite further regional conflict. You know, that though that seems likely to come, no matter what anybody does, there's going to be more international and regional conflict there in the area. And, of course, you know, it remains to be seen if the embassy relocation actually happens in the few years that it would take to prepare and actually achieve that. But just recognizing the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a very point of contention for most countries around the world. And, yeah, as we point out, this is, this has been something the United States has been wanting to do, claiming to do, for the last 20 years. Congress passed a law to do this back in 1995. So 23 years ago now. And it passed overwhelmingly, yet it allowed the president, whoever that president was at the time, a six-month waiver for national security reasons. And that waiver has been used by past presidents, now four or five, every six months for 22 years. You know, they've just been kicking the can down the road, feeling that this would, this would potentially cause a destabilization in the area. And certainly, no matter what you do or don't do, you know, there's still destabilization there in the nation of Israel.

And so it's, it's kind of sad to see this call to relocate was reaffirmed this past year in the Senate by a vote of 90 to 0 in June. So it clearly is something that would appear to make sense as far as the nation of Israel having its capital be considered Jerusalem. But there is a conflict. A conflict with other peoples, with other religions, with other claims to the city. The city of Jerusalem is viewed as a holy place or holy city by Christians and by Jews and by Muslims. You know, the Dome of the Rock is a Muslim shrine that is on the area where the Temple Mount was or where it is, but where, you know, the temple was in the past. And so it's a, it's a greatly divided city and not only right there in the middle of the city but throughout the land. There are terrors going back and forth all the time in many different areas. And so, you know, the Bible repeatedly declares Jerusalem as a focal point for the people of Israel and Judah. In 1 Chronicles 23-25, David said, the Lord God of Israel has given rest to his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever. See, that was one of the statements that clearly the Israelis rely on. They believe that they have that heritage and that that is what they should do. And in Jeremiah 3, talking about the future, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord when Jesus reigns over all nations. But before then, the city will be a center of world conflict, as we see described in Zechariah 12. It's going to be a cup of trembling. It's going to be squabbled over and fought over as it has for millennia, even. Not only the last couple of thousand years, but even going back to the time of David, it was fought over at the times, which would be a thousand years before Christ. And so, why is it that we focus on the city of Jerusalem?

Well, the Bible very clearly points to that not only in Revelation and clearly in Zechariah 14, as where the armies would be gathered and Christ would return and then defy all of the armies of men and establish the kingdom of God where Jerusalem would be a capital. You see that throughout the pages of the Bible. But I want us to look, as I said, to what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and 25.

But first, before that, I want us to look at Luke 21. Mark 13 and Luke 21 are parallel accounts of the Olivet prophecy. And in Luke 21, Jesus told his disciples to watch Israel and the interest other nations show in it as a sign of his coming. Here in Luke 21, this is just pulling one of those verses out of Luke 21. It says, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that the desolation is near. See, that's pretty pointed. That's pretty clear as it is written in Luke. And I want us to take a look at what we find in the book of Matthew. We're told a couple of things in Mark and Luke, but Matthew expands. And I'm going to show you, because this is one of the additional sections of teachings from Jesus that include not only things that are going to lead up to the signs of his coming and the end of the age, but also what should his people be doing? See, we're told in Mark, Mark 13, verse 32 through 36, we're told that we need to be alert. We need to be awake. We need to be alert.

See, that's what the way Mark follows it up. He says some of the same things about what would lead up to Christ's coming, and so the people of God need to be alert.

He goes on to say, well, we need also to be doing what the servants of God were given to do. We need to be alert. We need to be doing the work, and we understand that work to be proclaiming the kingdom of God, proclaiming the coming kingdom that Christ will establish here on earth. Now, in Luke 21, in verse 34 through 36, Luke says in those verses to watch, a little different wording, but watch and pray. Watch and pray.

Not only be alert and do the work, but watch and pray that you may be accounted worthy to escape the things that are to come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. Those are, in essence, kind of the summarized versions of what we see in Mark and Luke. But I will show you as we go through Matthew 24 and 25 that Matthew expands on that quite a bit. That's not all we're supposed to do. We're supposed to do other things, and we're supposed to be motivated by the words of Jesus. So let's look at Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew chapter 24, of course, is, as you read through the entirety of the chapter, it's Jesus answering some pointed questions from his disciples. And it's very close to the time when he'll later be taken and crucified, betrayed, and then turned over to the Romans ultimately, where he'll be crucified. But in chapter 24, Jesus said in verse 1, as he came out of the temple and was going away, the disciples came and pointed to the buildings of the temple. They were looking at them, and I think Mark says, you know, they were, look how large these are. Look how pretty they are. Look, look how, you know, this is just a grand place.

And I'm sure at that time it was. I'm sure it had been even more so earlier, whenever Solomon's Temple, again a thousand years earlier, had been there. But the temple they were looking at in the days of Jesus was Herod's Temple. It was his reconstruction of the temple, mostly kind of designed to try to honor himself.

But, you know, still the massive foundational stones were there. Those stones are still here today. Those are, you know, pretty much just in the Temple Mount and around the Wailing Wall, areas that you can see if you travel to the city of Jerusalem. But they were pointing these out, and he said, did you see all of these?

Truly I tell you, not one stone is going to be left upon another, and all is going to be thrown down. See, Jesus predicted the overthrow of Jerusalem. He predicted the temple being ransacked. He predicted the devastation that would come not right then, but in 70 AD by the Roman armies that would have a siege on Jerusalem and then destroy the city and destroy and ransack the temple.

See now, which of the Apostles were alive at that time? Well, I don't know. I'm not sure when all of them died. I know we find reference to what would appear to be Paul and Peter dying, I think, sometime in the 60s, later in the 60s. So that would have been before he get to 70. And I don't know what the others, the others were probably in other parts of the world, but certainly the Apostle John was still alive.

He was going to live up closer to 90, 95, 100, when he would not only write many of his writings, the Gospels, or the Gospel of John and the Epistles, but then also the Book of Revelation, which he would apparently write, you know, close to the end of his life. He would be given that vision, and so he was an older man, and he certainly was aware of what happened to the city.

And yet here in verse 3, while they were sitting on the Mount of Olives, and I am sure that's why they call it the Olivette Prophecy, that's where they were, Jesus was often there. It appeared that he often even stayed somewhere there on the Mount of Olives. I'm not sure exactly how that was, but it says in verse 3, the disciples came to him privately, and they said, tell us, when will that be?

When is the temple or these buildings, one of these buildings going to be torn down? Or when, that doesn't seem very likely, you know, in their lifetime, for the most part, that wasn't going to happen, but it would happen. It did happen in 70 AD. He said, tell us, when will that be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And so they actually asked a couple of different questions there.

Well, when is this destruction coming that's going to ransack the temple? But what are the signs that lead up to your coming and the end of the age? And so Jesus begins to answer these questions.

In verse 4, he says, beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying I'm Christ, and will lead away many. He said, there will be false prophets. And so he starts giving highlights of things that are to happen, and we see these recorded later in the book of Revelation, starting in chapter 6, you see the seals starting to open, and there are false prophets. And then there will be, as we see here in verse 7, nations will rise against nation, kingdom, and rise against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. See, these are the things that we see in the initial seals of Revelation.

False prophets, wars, and rumors of wars, famine, pestilence. Here it mentions earthquakes. Certainly we are aware of the potential of earthquakes more today than perhaps ever before. You know, they surely have happened before, but we we know about them, we can record them, we kind of know in many places where they might happen around the globe, because there are some likely, likely, places, especially along the Pacific Rim. And it's a fascinating thing to see these predictions. He said, though, in verse 8, all of this, when you see false prophets, when you see wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, when you see all of this, this is just the beginning of sorrow.

And he goes ahead to say, they will hand you over in verse 9 to be tortured and put to death, and you will be hated of all nations because of my name. And so he didn't want them to misunderstand the commitment that they had made. He wanted them to realize that, you know, as you chose to follow me, as I asked you to, and as you agreed to do, you understood that that was not going to be a problem for existence. And that's certainly not a problem for existence for the people of God today.

He says, whenever that happens, you will be hated of all nations because of my name. He says in verse 10, many will fall away. Some will betray one another, some will hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead away many. And because of the increase of lawlessness, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold. See here he's describing a continuing, growing, lawlessness in the world, but also affecting the people of God, affecting the church. And so we want to be on guard against that.

You know, that's not a category that any of us want to fall into, falling away, hating or betraying one another, but Jesus is the one who's predicting that. That will happen because the difficulty of the times will bring that about. But he says the one who endures unto the end, that one will be saved. And so obviously, you know, we realize when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ that that's not going to be the easiest path, but it is.

It is a narrow and a straight path that leads to eternal life. But he says don't think that there won't be some difficulty and trouble there. Matthew also points out in a little more clear manner than Mark and Luke what we see in verse 14 about the mission of the church, the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. See, that's our mission. That's the mission of the Church of God. That is the focus of our message.

You know, our message is teaching the Bible, and that's certainly what we do here every Sabbath. We try to go over, you know, I'm not going to be reading out of too many other books. You know, this is going to be the main book that we come to church to learn about or to study, and yet primarily the message is about the coming kingdom. The message is about the kingdom that Jesus said, I am the king of, and I am going to return and bring that kingdom to the earth. I'm going to establish a kingdom and a government of my rule that I am preparing.

The Father and the Son are preparing for that kingdom, and they are preparing us for roles of service in that kingdom if we are following their words. So it gives us the mission of the Church, and then it says in verse 15, so when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place, as was spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, let the reader understand, then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Here he says, why watch Jerusalem? Why watch the city that, you know, is to be a stumbling block for many?

Why watch the conflict? Why why? Sometimes it can become rather confusing. Who's fighting whom? Although, essentially, the Jewish state of Israel and the people of Israel and the Arabic nations, many different ones around them, it's kind of them against us. And, you know, whether we fully can understand the variations or not, you know, it's a conflict between religious differences and between desires to possess that land, which the Bible clearly predicts.

But here he talks about an abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place, standing or established in an area that would be considered a Holy Place, like the Temple, the Temple Mount, the area that is currently under great dispute about who controls it. You know, the Israeli people have essentially maintained a presence in the middle part of Jerusalem there, and around the Temple, even though there is some restriction at times from people coming and going, at least they have allowed access for, again, hopefully peaceful purposes.

But the prophecy talks about something that happens in Judea. Those in Judea, and I'm not going to focus on verse 15, I'm just going to read that, and we can go back and study that at a later time. What does that seem to indicate? You know, there was an activity that took place in the past, and is recorded in the book of Daniel, that appears to be a type of what this abomination would be, and yet, exactly what this is going to be, we can see the elements that would lead up to it, and yet we haven't seen that quite yet.

But you also always see the conflict. You always see the battle and the struggle and the argument over who's in charge and who gets to be in charge of the area.

But he says, whenever you see that, those in Judea need to flee the mountains, flee away. Pray in verse 20 that your flight is not in winter on the Sabbath. And so he says it's going to be a difficult time, for at that time there will be a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, or never shall be. You know, an unprecedented tribulation that will come upon the earth. And again, the book of Revelation elaborates more so on this.

Jesus kind of basically outlines it here, and yet Matthew does a good job. He expands on what Mark and Luke say. They say similar things, but Matthew expands. He goes on to say, watch out for deception. In verse 29, he says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heaven will be shaken, so heavenly signs will occur when the sign, in verse 30, of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. You know, I'm looking forward to that day. I pray for that day to come. I want the kingdom of God to established, as I believe all of you do too, as well.

Let's see, he says the earth will be mourning and actually gathered to battle against Christ as he returns. The sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will send out his angels with a loud trump and call. They will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. See, that's a collection that we see described in Thessalonians about a resurrection occurring. The dead in Christ rising first. Those who are alive and remain are caught up together and who are changed with Christ, and then where he is, then they would be, and he's going to Jerusalem because that's where it says he will return to this earth. So, you know, these are signs. Signs, and actually then he gives an illustration here. Matthew does in verse 32 about the fig tree. You know what's going to happen by whenever, you know, the leaves start coming on the tree and they start getting big and then fruit starts appearing. You know, you know, the time and the season that you're in. And so, in verse 36, he begins a discussion that is kind of like what we've already heard. Verse 36, about the day in the hour when Christ will return. Nobody knows even the angels of heaven, not the Son but the Father only. For as the days of Noah were so over the coming of the Son of Man, for as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them away so two will be the coming of the Son of Man. See here, what is he saying? Well, he's saying for those who are not watching, for those who are not praying, for those who are not alert and who are not doing the work of God as their focus, the coming of Christ is going to come upon them unaware. But brethren, we don't have to be that way. This was told to the disciples privately. Jesus told them he wanted them to know not that they were going to be there. They would die long since, 1900 years ago or 2000 years ago. And yet, for those of us who are doing the work of God today, you know, we shouldn't allow that to come upon us unaware. It says in verse 42, keep awake.

Therefore, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming. See, we want to be alert and awake. And then he goes on in verse 45 to say again what we've already mentioned. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give the other servants their allowance of food at the proper time? Who is a faithful and wise servant who's been given the responsibility of nurturing and caring for the others as we await the coming of the Lord? He says in verse 46, blessed is that servant whom his master will find at work when he arrives. And so he tells us we want to be actively involved in the work. We want to be actively doing what God has told us to do. We don't want to be, as it says in verse 48, a wicked servant who says, ah, he's not coming back.

It's just going to continue like it always has. It's just going to be continued chaos, and that's really what we see around the world with people living more and more lawlessly. See, whenever law and order breaks down, whenever that becomes less of a concern, and that's actually being the case, becoming the case more and more, even here in this country that was based 200 years ago on some understanding of certain biblical principles, whenever that breaks down, whenever that is undermined, well then, you know, this is what we can expect. But he says, don't be like the wicked servant who says, my master is delayed, and he begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, and the master will return at that time and then cast him aside. See, we want to be actively doing the job that we've been called to do.

But I want us to realize that as Matthew compiles this teaching of Jesus, he not only gives what we've already read in Mark and Luke, kind of, as far as his summary, but he goes on through the entirety of chapter 25 and says, connects these with what the people of God have to know right at the end of the age. And what we see in chapter 25 is two parables, parables that we're familiar with and that we often teach, but we need to see they're all together. And two parables and then an explanation about how judgment from God will be enacted.

And so you've got three different sections here of chapter 25 that we don't find in Luke or Mark, but you do find them here in Jesus' teaching and in Matthew's compilation of the Olivet prophecy. Verse 25, in the kingdom of heaven, excuse me, chapter 25, verse 1, the kingdom of heaven will be like this.

Ten virgins took their lamps, went to meet the bridegroom. Five were foolish.

Five were wise. This is still together with the instruction on being alert, on doing the work, on praying. Here he gives a parable about ten virgins looking forward to meeting the bridegroom, and yet half of them were not doing the right thing in order to be ready for Christ's return. Verse 3, when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps, and as the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. See, in this parable, you know, it's about being ready.

It's about, and it uses a symbol of oil, in this case, for the burning of the lamp, and oil is used in other parts of the Bible as a symbol of the Spirit of God being actively moving and working and changing us as we grow. But unfortunately, in this directive of Jesus, in this parable, half of the people were not prepared. In verse 5, as the bridegroom was delayed, all of them slept, but at midnight, there came a shout, look, here's the bridegroom, come and meet him.

And then all the bridesmaids or virgins got up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. And the wise said, well, no, we can't do that. There's not enough for you and for us.

You better go to the dealers and buy some yourself. And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in to meet him. Went into the wedding banquet and the door was shut. And later the others came, Lord, Lord, open to us truly. He says, I don't know you. And so, in conclusion, the answer, keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. See, what was Matthew adding? That Jesus obviously taught about preparation for the coming of Christ and for the wedding banquet that is to occur at that time. Well, he says, you have to be ready. You, each of us individually, have to be ready. We can't really be ready for each other. We can certainly encourage and desire to help one another, but see, even husband and wife. We can't do for somebody else. And right here, you know, all of us want to fit the category of the wise. So, that must mean somebody else is going to be foolish. You know, if we all want to be the wise, if we all want to be allowing the Spirit of God to be stirred up in us, actively changing our thinking, changing our heart, and converting. It talks about a renewing of our mind. It talks about the purifying and refining of a heart. See, if we're actively involved in that and asking God for His Spirit, not only the fact that He says He will give us His Spirit, which is an incredible commodity that I think in some ways people may underestimate. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit that is incredibly powerful and it is based on the love of God and it gives us a sound mind. And yet, see, Jesus gave this parable right here at this time in this way saying, you know, you need to be ready. You personally have to be ready because you can't do for someone else. So He gave this parable and then He continued, for it is as if a man, in verse 14, going on a journey, summoned His servants and entrusted His property to them. And to one He gave five talents to another two, to another one, to each, according to His ability. So here He goes into another parable. And yet a parable that those who have ears to hear and eyes to see will understand, well, this applies to me. You know, do I have one talent?

Do I have two talents? Do I have five talents? You have other examples, 10 and five, you know, in other examples. But just looking at this parable, it says that He gave us talents according to our ability. And He went away, and one who had received the five went off, and once and traded for them, made five more talents.

And the same, the one who had two did the same, but the one who had one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. And after a long time, the master of the servants came and settled accounts, and the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents, saying, Master, you handed me five.

I've given you ten. I've returned to you ten. And He said to him, well done, you good and faithful, you trustworthy servant, you've been trustworthy in a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your Lord, of your Master.

See, now, again, that's the category we want to be in. We want to be accepted by God, but here He gives this entire parable, and of course, we see a repeat there with the one who got two talents. He came up with four. So that was good growth. The one that won, though, hit it. He was afraid. He didn't want to do anything. He makes a bunch of excuses. He doesn't want to grow.

What's this parable about? Well, it's about being a productive servant of God.

With whatever talent, whatever gift, whatever ability, whatever capacity God has given us, we don't all have five talents. I don't know if any of us have five talents. Maybe we have two.

Maybe we have one. But depending on what God sees my ability or your ability to be productive as a servant of God, He expects you to use that to produce. That's why this parable is here in this place. See, there's more to it than just watching and praying or being alert and trying to figure out what's going on in the world. He says you need to draw close to God. You need to allow, like with the virgins, you need to allow the Spirit of God to be guiding and directing. See, in the book of John chapter 16, mostly, you see the Holy Spirit reminds us, it teaches us, it guides us, and in the book of Romans chapter 8 it says it leads us. It says those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. So there are several different descriptors of what the Holy Spirit is able to do. And yet, He tells us, you know, we don't want to be without oil, we want to be filled with oil, and He goes ahead to say, I want you to be productive. I want you to use whatever talents that I have made available to you. And I think He also is pointing out here that we don't want to compare ourselves with one another. We don't, that's not productive.

If we're always arguing about whether or not I've got two pounds or one or three or five, that's not productive. But we all want to use whatever gift we have. It doesn't do any good.

He doesn't really say anything about the one who had two talents, about him getting bogged down and concerned about the fact that I don't have five. It says he did what he could with what he had to work with. And see, every one of us have two knees. Every one of us can pray to God. Every one of us can humble ourselves before God. Every one of us can yearn for the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our mind and our thinking. Give us understanding as we study the Word of God. See, this is exactly what Jesus is saying. And then He goes ahead in the last section here, starting in verse 31, pointing out how it is that He's going to judge mankind. How it is He's going to judge mankind and what criteria He's going to use and what category should we fit in.

He ends up with categories of sheep and the goats, those on the right and the left.

He points out what those who are acceptable are doing. Here in verse 31, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, when He sits on His throne of glory, all the nations be gathered. So, ultimately, everyone. This is not talking of one specific time, but ultimately everyone, because we see different resurrections. We see different periods of judgment.

But He says, this is how I'm going to judge. This is one important thing you have to know if you're going to be a part of my kingdom. And He says He's going to separate people, one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He'll put the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. And then the King will say to those on the right, come, you that are blessed to my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. See, that's the category you'd want to be in, in this description. And in a sense, He went ahead to tell them, this is what you did.

Verse 35, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took me in. I was in prison and you visited me. And then almost amazingly, here in verse 37, these humble servants of God almost seemed nonplussed. Well, we were just doing what we thought we needed to do, what we should do in serving other people. They go ahead and say in verse 37, the righteous whites were Lord. When is it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you drink, or a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? When was it that you were sick or in prison and we visited you and the king will say, verily I tell you, just as you did it unto one of least of these, my brethren, then you have done it unto me. See, what is he pointing out about the way, the criteria for judgment that he expects in a converted heart? Well, concern for other people, love for other people, a desire to serve others as if we were serving Jesus Christ. And of course, he goes ahead, he goes ahead and in a sense covers the reverse of that. Verse 41, he will say to those on the left hand, you that are a curse depart from me in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

So those who won't embrace what Jesus demands will be cast aside if they don't choose to honor what he says to do. Because he goes ahead to say, for I was hungry and you didn't give me any food and I was thirsty and you didn't give me anything to drink. I was a stranger. You didn't welcome me naked. You didn't give me clothing. And they can protest in verse 44, well, Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or stranger, naked or sicker in prison, didn't take care of you? Well, it says, truly, I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these other people, you did not do it to me. See, what type of concern, compassion, what type of service toward others? See, it's very clear that Jesus is the perfect example. The epitome of what it is to serve other people, be willing to lay down his life for the sins of all of humanity, but beyond that, be willing to wash the feet of the disciples, even wash the feet of the traitor who was going to betray him just in moments after that. What is it that Jesus was willing to do to serve others?

And he said, I want you to do that to one another. I want you to love one another, serve one another, wash one another's feet, have that attitude of humility and desire to help and go out of the way. Be in convenience to serve others, knowing or even realizing, well, you know, this is what I should do as a servant of God. If Christ were here, I'd surely do that, but, you know, what about other people? Well, he said, that's a criterion that I'm going to use as I judge the nations, not only those of us now who know this, but those who will be taught that throughout the millennium and who'll be taught that in the white throne judgment beyond that. Ultimately, everyone is going to rise and gain a knowledge of what we know today. And yet, Matthew 25 is an incredible chapter of additional things that Matthew adds to what Jesus said as to how to prepare, how to be getting ready for the coming of the Lord. Watching the signs, seeing what's happening, seeing what's happening in Jerusalem, you know, seemingly you've got kind of ebb and flow, you've got up and down, it gets better than it gets worse, and then there's a war, you know, there was war not too long ago, there was war back in 67. I was there in Jerusalem in 69, and a long time ago now. I didn't understand the, you know, maybe the intent of the war, didn't comprehend who was even fighting very much.

And yet, today, you've got a lot of conflict. It's actually expanded in 20 years, last 20 years, it's expanded to where, you know, you've got a lot of the struggles over the Golan Heights or over the Gaza Strip or other dividing lines north and south of the city, and then even through the old city, you know, there are many different sectors. And, you know, you can watch that, and you can be aware of it, and you can know, and whenever some of these, you know, the Holy Place being desecrated in some way, that's what it says is going to happen. That seems like a very important thing that is yet to occur, clearly. And yet, he tells us what he wants us to do.

And Matthew ties these teachings together and summarizes them in chapter 26 by saying, when Jesus had ended or finished saying all of these things, he began to talk to the disciples about the coming Passover. It's almost here. It's almost here. Only a couple of days.

Only, you know, the end of my existence here in a human form is about to conclude.

But that phrase, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that's the way that Matthew ties together numerous sections, like the Sermon on the Mount, like chapter 10, like the chapter 13, and 18, that we went over last time. And even chapter 23, which is an indictment, we go over it. I'm not going over it with us today because we often go over it at the Days of Unleavened Bread. It's a pretty common thing that we would teach at that time because it's dealing with hypocrisy and coming to understand our own selfishness and our own sinfulness that perhaps we identify or understand to a degree, but we need to understand that more fully. We need to comprehend that. He said the Pharisees just reaped with hypocrisy. They wanted to put on a good show, but it really wasn't from the heart. Their heart was corrupt. And he said this is an example of the way mankind is, and of course it began in the Garden of Eden with the lie that you shall not die. That's what Satan perpetrated on mankind. And the fact is, you know, we will die. If we sin, then we will die.

And yet, of course, through Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven. We can be redeemed. We can be forgiven, washed clean, and granted the gift of the Holy Spirit that he symbolizes here in chapter 25 was the oil in the brag maid's lamps. We want that Holy Spirit to be burning brightly within us. So, as we conclude this today, I hope you can see that Matthew expands on what he says Jesus said that those who are preparing for the coming of man should be doing. Not only should we be awake, not only should we be alert, not only should we be getting ready, not only should we be doing the work that God has commissioned us to do, actually, without doing that, then we're just spinning our wheels. If we don't do the work of God, then we're not accomplishing anything. We want to publish the Beyond Today magazine. We want to publish or put onto the internet and into the television programs information about the Kingdom of God. Now, I know we have articles and we have programs about a lot of different biblical topics, and yet ultimately the mission is about the Kingdom and Government of God, about Christ's return.

So we want to be doing the work of God. We certainly want to allow the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives. That's what he pointed out with the parable of the Ten Virgins. And be productive and use the gifts that God has given us, the parable of the talents. He says, realize that I've gifted you in a way that will allow you to achieve the development and growth that I want in my children. Be actively learning to do that. Be actively growing in how that can be done.

And finally, serve others. Serve one another as if you were serving me. Serve others out of humility.

Serve others out of a desire to love and care for them. Even those, as Jesus did, who became his enemies. See, he had that capacity, and of course he wants us to grow in that nature, that divine nature as well. So Matthew is an incredible book regarding the teachings of Jesus.

You actually see in many of the other chapters that we haven't covered in the last month or so, you see a lot of the chronological information about Jesus, about his birth, about his growth and development, and many of the kind of intervening chapters like chapter 8 and 9 and 11 and 12.

You know, they all talk about Jesus' activity. Not so much what he was teaching, because we've covered some of what he's teaching, but his activity, his interaction with people, his healing people, his riding in the boat and stopping the storm, or him feeding the thousands as he did several times. You see the activities in some of the other chapters, but in these ones that we've covered, you see the teaching of Jesus that we want to be living by. So let's not only be about the work that our Father has given us to do, but let's be growing in the divine nature that he has given us, and be alert to what's going on, not only in the world around us, but particularly there in the city of Jerusalem, because it is a special place to go.