Matthew 24 ended with Jesus warning his disciples that they need to be ready for his coming in judgment. In last week’s lessons we saw that Jesus warned that his delay to bring judgment will tempt his servants to no longer stay awake and be ready and will tempt his servants to mistreat one another (cf. Matthew 24:42-51). Matthew 25 will now explain what being ready for Jesus’ coming looks like. This would be very important and appropriate for them to hear now because Jesus is warning that he was going to come in national judgment against Israel. Not one stone of the temple would be left upon another (Matthew 24:2) and Israel was worthy of God’s judgment (Matthew 21-23). But Jesus not only speaking about the judgment of Jerusalem but extends to speak about all of God’s judgments including even the final judgment when Christ returns. Let’s notice how Jesus shows us how to be ready in Matthew 25.
Transitioning to the Future (Matthew 25:1)
To see this transition that Jesus is making, we need to look carefully at the first sentence of Matthew 25. Jesus says, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like….” What I want you to notice is the future tense of this sentence regarding the kingdom of heaven. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells parables and he begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like….” But now in Matthew 25 Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven will be like….” This is the only place in this whole gospel where Jesus tells a parable and speaks about what the kingdom of heaven will be like in the future. So Jesus is speaking about what life in the kingdom will be like after his departure as his servants wait for his return in judgment. I will remind us that we noted in Matthew 24 that we have to be ready for individual judgment because we do not know when our time on this earth will end. We have to be ready for national judgment because we do not know when Christ will put an end to this nation for its wickedness. We also have to be ready for the final judgment that will happen when Christ returns a second time. It is with this lens that we will consider Matthew 25 and the three instructions Jesus gives. We are going to hold these teachings together because they build on each other as they describe what Jesus wants us to do to be ready for his coming.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)
The first parable Jesus tells is found in the first 13 verses of Matthew 25. In this story Jesus says there are these servants who are waiting for the groom to come with the bride at the end of the wedding ceremony for the feasting. In our culture, this would be something like waiting for the reception to begin when the bride and groom arrive. But in this parable Jesus notes that there are five wise virgins and five foolish virgins. What distinguishes the wise from the foolish are the preparations that were made or not made. Five of them were prepared with extra oil ready to keep their lamps burning in case the groom was a long time coming. The other five were unprepared. Verse 5 tells us that the groom was delayed. A long time passed by and they all were drowsy and fell asleep. The foolish ones ran out of oil during this waiting period and missed the arrival of the groom. So the first message is given in verse 13. Keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour of his coming.
I would like to underscore two points from this parable. First, no one knows the day or the hour of his arrival. Please hear that. Anyone who says that they know when Christ is coming is wrong. There is no information given to us to know when Christ will return. There is no code in the Bible to crack to know the answer. There is no prophecy that can be cobbled together to reveal the time of Christ’s coming. Jesus makes this clear about all of his judgments. You do not know when he is coming. Second, therefore, you need to be ready every day for his arrival. Notice the picture in verse 12. If you are not ready when he comes, there will not be time to get ready. You will be excluded from enjoying eternity with the Savior if you are not ready for his arrival.
The Parable of the Money (Matthew 25:14-30)
Jesus tells another parable to build on this teaching of preparation for his coming. Notice again that in verse 14 Jesus speaks about the kingdom of heaven in the future. The kingdom “will be like a man going on a journey.” This is called the parable of the talents. However, it is important to note that a talent was a denomination of money. So when you listen to this parable I do not want you to think about your abilities. Rather, Jesus wants you to think about your money. To help this, I am going to read this parable from the NIV because it changes the word “talent” to “bags of gold” to help us not think about abilities but money.
Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven will be like a man who goes on a journey and entrusts his wealth and property to his servants. The man distributes his wealth according to their abilities (25:15). So to one servant he gave five bags of money. To another servants he gave two bags of money. Finally, he gave another servant one bag of money. Then the man went on his journey. Verses 16-17 reveal that the servants with five bags of money and two bags of money put that money to work and doubled what had been given. However, the servant who was given one bag of money dug a hole in the ground and hid the money.
Notice in verse 19 that we are told that the master did not return for a long time. Jesus continues to underscore that it is going to be a long time before he returns. But after a long time the master returns to settle accounts. Each servant goes before the master and explains what they did with the wealth the master gave them. The servant with five bags of money shows that he has returned with five more bags. Look at his commending in verse 21. The master praises his servant and says that since he has shown himself faithful in these few things, he will be put in charge of many things. Then this servant is told to enter into the master’s joy. The exact same thing happens with the servant who was given two bags of gold. But the one who did not nothing with the money bag he was given comes to the master. He was afraid and did nothing with the money (25:25). He has a negative view of the master, calling him harsh (25:24). The master calls this servant wicked and lazy because he did nothing with what was given to him. He gave no return on what was put into his charge. He is called a worthless servant in verse 30 and is cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. He is cast into eternal punishment.
In the first parable, Jesus make the point that we need to be always prepared for his coming. What does that preparation look like? We are supposed to consider what we are doing with what God has entrusted to us. We are being asked to look at what we are doing with the wealth and property God has entrusted to us while we are on the earth. We are to consider what we are doing with our time. Are we giving God a return on what he has entrusted to us? Now please think about this: does God want you to double the wealth he has given to you? Does God care about money and property? Obviously this is not the point. The point Jesus is making is this: Are you using what has been given to you to do the Master’s work? So what does this look like? Jesus continues in his third story to explain what it looks like to be doing the Master’s work with the wealth and property we have been given.
Serving Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46)
In verse 31 we see the basis of Christ’s judgment. Christ is on his throne and all the nations will be gathered before him. This shows that we have moved past just talking about the judgment on the temple in Jerusalem. All the nations are gathered before the Son of Man for judgment. A separation is made between the sheep and the goats. The King makes the proclamation those on his right are blessed by his Father and can inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Now look at verses 35-36. The reason they can enter is because when the King was hungry, they gave him something to eat. When the King was thirsty, they gave him something to drink. When the King was a stranger, they took him in. When the King needed clothes, they gave him clothes. When the King was sick, they cared for him. When the King was in prison, they came and visited him. Now the righteous have questions in verses 37-39. When did they ever see the King need any of these things? Carefully look at verse 40. When you did these things to the family of God, you were doing it to Jesus himself.
This is a shocking thought and a key teaching. What we do toward other disciples of Jesus is to actually do so to Jesus. Now there are many places in the New Testament where we do read this idea that our acts of service should be considered as done toward the Lord and merely toward people. But this picture that Jesus tells really confirms this teaching. Let me state this point in another way that Jesus is describing. The reason that these people were counted righteous, blessed by the Father, and given the kingdom as their inheritance is because when they saw someone in Christ’s family in need, they addressed the need. I want us to think about this truth. What we do toward each other matters to God. In fact, it matters so much how we treat one another and serve one another that our eternal outcome depends on it.
The contrast is described in verses 41-45. Here Jesus goes through the exact same situations. The King was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, without clothes, sick, and imprisoned but those on the left did nothing for the King. When did this happen? This happened when they did not care for the family of Christ. Think about how Jesus says this in verse 45. “You did not do it to one of the least of these.” Are there brothers or sisters in the family of Christ that we consider beneath us? Are there brothers or sisters in Christ that we place on a lower level because of whatever personality reasons or some other reason? How we treat every person in God’s family matters to God. So we cannot simply say that we have done good for these few people in God’s family. Jesus is asking us what we are doing for every person in God’s family, even those we would deem to be “the least of these.”
Ready For His Coming
Now I want to pull these three stories together that Jesus has taught. The first parable told us to be ready for his coming. Do not be unprepared even though it will be a long time before he returns. The second parable told us what readiness looks like. We are going to be asked how we used the wealth, property, and time we have been given by the Master. The Lord is going to ask us about the return we made with what we were given. What kind of return is the Master looking for? The third story Jesus tells explains this. We are to use what God has given to us to help those in the family of Christ. When we see a need in our spiritual family, we want to give them what they need. Serving one another is how we make ourselves ready for Christ’s return.
Please listen to what Jesus says will happen when he returns in verse 46. The separation that happens when all are gathered is because there are those who will go away to eternal punishment and those who will go to eternal life. Now I want us to draw some important conclusions from what Jesus says. First, in verse 41 Jesus says that the eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. God did not make eternal punishment for his creation because that was not his goal. Eternal punishment is necessary for the wicked: the devil and his angels. Second, you decide your eternal outcome. Though eternal punishment is reserved for the devil and his angels, we will join the devil and his angels if we refuse to make ourselves ready for Christ’s coming. You decide your eternal outcome. The question should never be: How can God cast people into eternal fire? The question is this: How could you choose to spend eternity in punishment by refusing to make yourself ready for Christ’s return? Third, eternal life and eternal punishment are the same duration. Some like to teach that punishment is temporary. But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus says that our outcome will be eternal punishment or eternal life.
Why would our eternity hang on how we treat one another in the family of Christ? Our connection to one another matters to God. We will end with the admonitions of the apostle John who taught how important this must be for us.
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 CSB)
Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. (1 John 4:10-11 CSB)
If we can’t love each other and serve each other, then we must not even know God or his love toward us. This is why we will not inherit the kingdom but will spend our eternity in punishment. If we know God at all, then we will know that we are to love the family of God.