Matthew 27:45-66 - They think its all over

27:45-50

Darkness covered the land, we can perhaps see this as the wrath of God being turned on Jesus, God turning His back on Jesus. Jesus then quotes from Psalm 22:1. While this first verse is obviously important, we should also read the rest of that Psalm to get a fuller picture of what is happening. The “forsaking” was not the end. His words may have been somewhat indistinct for someone thought He was calling for Elijah. He was offered some wine vinegar, maybe out of compassion. Then Jesus gave up His spirit after a loud cry, which John tells us was “It is finished!”. In the words of that excellent song, “the wrath of God was satisfied”.

27:51-53

The temple curtain was torn in two, signifying the ending of the separation between man and God. Jesus had paid the full price for our sins. There was also an earthquake, and then we get one of the most enigmatic sections in the Bible, “and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people”. And I haven’t got a clue what to make of it!

27:54

We have here the witness of the centurion, and those with him, It is worth noting that it says “saw the earthquake and all that had happened”. This implies that the strange events of 51-53 were not a “narrative device”, but something that actually happened. So seeking to write it off because we find it so odd and difficult to explain is not a viable option. The centurion and those with him declared that Jesus was the Son of God. It was not just the centurion himself, but his fellow soldiers as well. Those who partook directly in the crucifixion were the first to recognise who Jesus is. And of course, they were gentiles. The gospel is for the guilty, regardless of race or gender or nationality. And we are all guilty. See also that “they were terrified”. Fear is part of a proper reaction to Jesus. It is not just “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”.

27:55,56

Most of the men come out badly in the Easter events. Judas and Peter, and the rest of the disciples, the religious leader, Pilate, the soldiers (prior to the previous verse). The women come out rather better. Here they are mentioned as watching from a distance. They are marked out as having cared for Jesus’ needs. 

27:57,58

Is 53:9 says that the suffering servant “was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death”. This seems inherently contradictory, yet it is what happened. He was on the cross between two criminals, now Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, gives Him his tomb. Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus. He had to approach Pilate, that would possibly have been a risky thing to do. So we see that while many of the disciples were not rich, some were. The gospel is for all and we need to utterly reject any teaching that rejects parts of society. All have sinned, and all are called to repent and believe, and all who so will be saved. 

27:59-61

Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in the tomb. This tomb had been cut out of the rock. A big stone was placed in front of the tomb. So the body was secure. And the two Mary’s were sitting watching. This counters two of the theories that deny the resurrection. One is that Jesus had not died on the cross, but had merely passed out and was later revived “in the cool of the tomb”. First the idea that Jesus had not died is itself ludicrous, the Romans knew how to kill people! But even if it was true that He had not died, how could He have escaped from the tomb, especially in the terrible physical state He would have been in? Another theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb on Easter Sunday. We see from here that they knew exactly where the tomb was, they had seen Jesus being placed in it!

27:62-66

“The day after Preparation Day” is the Sabbath. This further shows up the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, remember how many of their clashes with Jesus revolved around the Sabbath and not doing “work” on that day! Yet here they are going to the Roman rulers. They are fearful that Jesus’ words about rising from the dead might actually come true. It seems they were more aware of these words than the disciples were! They did not actually expect Him to rise, but thought the disciples might try to steal the body. So they requested that a guard be placed on the tomb. So Pilate ordered that the tomb be made as secure as possible. This counters yet another “theory” about the resurrection, namely that the disciples stole the body. This theory is pathetic. First, the guards on the tomb mentioned here made it impossible. If they had stolen the body it would surely have turned up eventually. Finally, how would a dead body utterly transform the disciples, and lead to a movement that impacted the Roman Empire and has gone on to impact the whole world?

Matthew 27:25-44 - Mocked aand crucified

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

27:27-31

If we look at the Easter accounts we see that everyone is implicated. The religious leaders and Roman authorities in the form of Pilate are the most obvious culprits, but the crowds, the ordinary Roman soldiers and the disciples themselves appear in a poor light. In this section it is the Roman soldiers who mock and abuse Jesus. He is stripped and dressed in a scarlet robe. A crown of thorns is put upon His head, all part of the mocking Him as the “king of the Jews”. He was spat upon and repeatedly struck. The robe was taken off Him and He was dressed in His own clothes again.

27:32-37

The victim had to carry the cross beam themselves, this is the source of Jesus’ phrase about carrying our cross. Jesus had been so beaten up that Simon of Cyrene had to carry the cross for Him. Jesus finally arrived at Golgotha. He was offered some wine vinegar to drink, but refused to do so. He was nailed up to the cross, and the soldiers then cast lots for His clothes. Note that Jesus would almost certainly have been naked on the cross. The whole crucifixion system was designed to utterly humiliate the one being crucified. The soldiers sat down and watched Jesus die.  A sign had been placed above Him saying, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”.

27:38

Crucifixion itself was not unusual, on that day there were two rebels who were crucified with Jesus. Easter tends to make much of the extreme suffering involved in crucifixion, and we certainly must not be unaware of that aspect, and it is important. However, there was nothing particularly unique about the physical suffering. So what was unique? What made it different? What made it different was who Jesus is. He is the Son of God, God incarnate. He did live a life of perfect, love, trust and obedience to the Father. He did take our sins upon Himself, He was made sin, and so He suffered the wrath of God, the righteous punishment, in our place. He paid the price for our sins.

27:39-44

“Those who passed by ...” There was nothing in Jesus nailed to a cross that was attractive (Is 52:14; 53:2). The passers-by, the ordinary people, mocked Him, denying that He could be the Son of God. The religious leaders mocked Him, and the rebels mocked Him. Everyone mocked Him. While in the act of rescuing mankind, mankind was in the act of insulting the One who could save them.

Matthew 27:11-26 - Before Pilate

27:11

Jesus is now before Pilate. The chief priests were not in control of events, both because of the legal situation, and their own fears, but they had a definite agenda, to kill Jesus. Now we come to Pilate. He was another man who was not in control of events, he was also motivated by fear, and he did not want to be faced with the issue of Jesus. Pilate had no agenda except his own survival. He asked Jesus “Are you the King of the Jews?” He asked this to see if Jesus was leading a rebellion. Jesus did not answer him directly, merely saying “You have said so”.

27:12-14

The religious leaders were there, and after Jesus’ response, they made their accusations against Jesus. Much to Pilates’s surprise, Jesus did not give any answer to their accusations. Jesus is treating the religious leaders with the contempt that they deserved, He also knew where things were heading, and why they were heading there. It was the plan of salvation that was being fulfilled.

27:15

Pilate tries to wriggle out of the situation, using political means. This would not work as now was crunch time, one had to make a decision, but Pilate seeks to avoid making a decision and in the end has the decision made for him. It was the custom at the time to release one prisoner a year. This might seem a rather strange custom, but it was done as a sop to the governed people. So some political prisoner would be released. Pilate maybe knew that Jesus was popular among the common people, so hoped they would choose Jesus, and that would be the problem solved.

27:16-18

Pilate had another prisoner, Jesus Barabbas. He was a “well-known” person, presumably in prison for crimes against the Roman rulers. So Pilate offered the people a choice, Brabbas or Jesus. He knew full well that the religious leaders had offered up Jesus to him not out of any concern for the well being of the Roman regime, but “out of envy”. 

27:19

Pilate’s wife warns her husband to having nothing to do with Jesus. She recognises that Jesus was innocent and had a dream about Him. People took dreams very seriously in those days. We should also bear in mind that there are several instances in the Bible where God speaks to people through a dream. So why did this happen and why are we told about it? Maybe it is to show that although the things that happened were decreed by God, man still has responsibility. One could say that Pilate was unfortunate to be in the position, but he knew Jesus was innocent, and he was warned to have nothing to do with it. He should have told the religious leaders to get lost, but he did not do so.

27:20-22

Left to their own devices, the crowds may well have chosen Jesus. But the religious leaders persuaded the crowds to go for Barabbas, though it is not clear who they did this. Anyway, the result was that they shouted for Barabbas to be released. More than that, they shouted for Jesus to be crucified.

27:23

It is clear from all the gospel accounts that Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and the whole charade was a setup by the Jewish religious leaders to get rid of Jesus. Pilate confronted the crowd with the reality of their actions, “What crime has He committed?”. But the crowd were not for looking at reality. Sin does that to us, it blinds and distorts our thinking. 

27:24

Pilate so he was getting nowhere and infamously washed his hands of the matter.  He was half right in what he said, “It is your responsibility”. The people had to accept responsibility for what they were doing, they were manipulating events in order to have Jesus killed. However, he was wrong when he said “I am innocent of this man’s blood”. He was not innocent. Pilate had the authority to release Jesus, he was the one who ultimately signed the death sentence. There are times when people object to saying the Jews killed Jesus, and terrible things have been done in history using this as a justification for the terrible actions. The Jews were guilty, but so were the Gentiles. We are all guilty. Romans 3:23 sums up the situation, “All have sinned ..” Anytime in history when one group decides that all their problems are the result of someone else's sins is a recipe for disaster. 

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

Matthew 27:1`-10 - Judas hangs himself

27:1-10

The chief priests and religious leaders seemed to be getting their way and made their plans to complete the task (as they saw it). Only the Roman occupier could have Jesus executed, so they handed Jesus over to Pilate the governor. 

Judas now started to realise the consequences of his actions, and how he  was being used. He tried to get some self respect back by returning the money he had been paid. The religious leaders weren’t interested. We need to beware when we sin, for there will be one to help us afterwards, only Jesus if we come to God in repentance. Judas went and hung himself. Superficially there seems to be a contradiction between Matthew's and Luke’s account in Acts, The simplest explanation is that after hanging himself the rope broke and Judas fell to the ground.

The chief priests demonstrate their hypocrisy be being fastidious about using the money that Judas had returned. Matthew saw this as fulfilment of scripture (Jer 19:1-13).

Matthew 26:65-75 - Trial and Denial

26:65-68

The high priest knew full well that Jesus was claiming equality with God. There really are only two choices. Either Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore we have to worship Him. Or He is not and is either utterly deluded or utterly evil.  The religious leaders chose the latter response and announced that Jesus is worthy of death. They then mocked, insulted and abused Jesus.  Oh, how foolish they are going to look on the last day. We need to remember that it is the Son of God in whom we believe and trust, the One who will return as Lord of all. We should remind ourselves of this, especially when tempted to give up. Doing so will help us to think clearly, and to avoid making stupid decisions.

26:69-75

The chapter finished with Peter denying Jesus, the very thing he so vehemently denied he would ever do. The denial is made worse by the fact that he denied Jesus before a servant girl, though she may well have spoken to a soldier or someone if Peter had admitted knowing Jesus. It is significant that in 1 Peter 1:13 Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action, or to have sober minds. We can so easily be caught off guard. We will react with our flesh, whose first response will be to avoid danger, so we will lie or deny Jesus. Living by the Spirit is not some mystical way of living, it involves resolving in our minds to put Christ first. In fact, in 1 Peter 3:15 Peter tells us to do that very thing. Peter had clearly learnt from his failure. At the end of it Peter calls down curses upon himself and wept bitterly. Finally he remembered what Jesus had said he would do. 

Jesus knew what Peter would do, but knowing this He did not reject Peter. When He told Peter what he would do, Jesus said that He had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail (Lk 22:31,32), and that after he had turned back he was to strengthen his brothers. In John 22:17 when Jesus restores Peter He tells him to “feed my sheep”. Likewise, God knew that all of us would fail Him. Like Peter we must not lose our faith, and we must turn back to Jesus.

Matthew 26:57-61 - On Trial

26:57,58

These events must have occurred at some unearthly hour. The religious leaders were ready at this hour for the “trial”. Peter was following from a distance. There was part of Peter that wanted to be with Jesus, to be identified with Him. But, as we know, there was another part that was motivated by fear, and it is that part that ultimately determined his actions.

26:59-61

Matthew does not mince his words, saying that the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence in order to condemn Jesus to death. When we think the death of an innocent person is the answer to a problem we are in serious trouble. Today we can see this scenario when we think abortion is the answer to a problem, or the death of an elderly person is the answer. Many false witnesses came forward, but they could not find a coherent case (Mark 14:56). Finally they found two who said Jesus was able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. These words resembled what Jesus said, except that He did not say He would destroy the temple. The importance of their being two witnesses was that this complied with the Law.

Matthew 26:47-56 - Jesus Arrested

26:47-49

Judas now arrived, this was no surprise to Jesus as v46 shows. He came with an armed crowd from the religious leaders.  Judas gave Jesus the infamous “Judas kiss”. All this was done for political purposes. The religious leaders wanted it to seem that it was Jesus’ own people who had given up on Him. As we know, all this was achieving the purposes of God. Periodically we hear of “well known” Christians giving up on their faith for some reason or other. In these situations we should feel sorrow for that person, but we should never despair, for God is always in control, men never are.

26:50-52

The word “friend” here is used as a mild rebuke, or an ironic sense. Jesus was then arrested by the religious leaders “soldiers” and Jesus is now in the hands of men. From John 18:10 we know that it was Peter who cut off the ear off the high priest’s servant. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away. “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”. This would be drastically true for the religious leaders, if they lived another thirty five years or so, for the Roman armies would crush the city. Armed strength does not achieve the purposes of the kingdom of God.

26:53-56

Moreover, Jesus could have called upon His Father, and myriads of angels would have been at His disposal. He could have crushed any army if He chose to do so. But this was not God’s plan. God’s plan was now fully in operation and death, sin and the devil would be defeated. This would all happen according to the Scriptures.

Matthew is recording Jesus’ words here to make it clear that this is no earthly rebellion. The battle is not against flesh and blood, and the only life that would be lost in this battle would be that of Jesus. The hypocrisy and weakness of the religious leaders is exposed, and we see that Jesus is the only one who is really in control.

Matthew 26:32-46 - Gethsemane

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so. 

26:34,35

Jesus knew Peter better than Peter himself did, like wise Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves, he knows the depths of our sinfulness, and our weaknesses. Yet he still loves us , as He still loved Peter. However, Peter still insisted that He would stick by Jesus, no matter what.

26:36-46

We now come to Gethsemane, where the weakness of Peter’s commitment becomes even clearer, for He cannot even stay awake to pray with Jesus. We see here the depths of what Jesus was feeling. He knew what He was about to go through, yet remained committed to doing the Father’s will. Jesus was resolute.

Matthew 26:27-33 - Denial predicted

26:27-30 

The sacrifices were a central part of the old covenant. Leviticus is particularly important in showing how they represented the taking away of our sins. The wine represents the blood of Jesus shed for them all, and all who believe. The blood represents death. The old testament sacrifices were ineffective in themselves, but pointed ahead to the blood of Jesus. The new covenant is founded on the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice is for the forgiveness of sins (and as Hebrews makes clear, renders all other sacrifices irrelevant and superseded). “I will not drink ...” This looks forward to the heavenly banquet. At Passover the meal was concluded by the singing of Ps 115-118. This is the hymn that the disciples sang.

26:31

The “bad news” continued, with Jesus telling them that they would all fall away. We have just had Jesus talking about Judas betraying Him. Later He will tell Peter that he will deny Him. Here we have Jesus saying they will all fall away. Peter may have been the most obvious “denier”, but the rest were little better. We are faced here with the complete failure of humanity. Of course, Pilate and the religious leaders are the most overt failures, but even His disciples, His followers, were failures. We are saved purely by the grace of God. And they would fall away “on account of me”, they would fail to remain loyal to Jesus. This was a fulfilment of Zech 13:7.

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so. 

Matthew 26:20-26 - Last supper

26:20-25

Judas had set out to betray Jesus, but Jesus already knew that this would happen, and that events were now in train. The disciples, although understanding little, knew that something was up, that events were reaching a pivotal point. They all said “surely not I”, but the announcement increased the solemnity of the occasion. Dipping your bread into a bowl of sauce was a custom then, and till is in some middle eastern countries. For two people to dip into the same bowl was a sign of friendship and trust. So this emphasised the gravity of the betrayal. “The Son of Man will go as it is written”. All the events were happening exactly as ordained by God. “But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man”. But the one who betrayed Jesus was utterly responsible for his actions. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility go together and are entirely compatible. We may not be able to understand how, but God has no problem with this!

From time to time there are various attempts to “rehabilitate” Judas. Such attempts are utterly futile and foolish. Much the same could be said about the people who make these attempts.

Like the rest of the disciples, Judas said “surely not I”, while knowing full that it was he. Sin distorts our thinking. 

26:26

We now get to the heart of the last supper.  At Passover the father of the house would take the bread and give thanks for it, remembering the escape from Egypt and recalling the bread of affliction that the people ate as they left Egypt (Deut 16:3). So they recalled the momentous events of the escape from Egypt, but they did not imagine the unleavened bread they ate to be the same as that eaten by their ancestors. So any notions of the bread being the actual body if Jesus are just so much nonsense. The Israelites had been held in Egypt as slaves, the far greater slavery is the slavery to sin. The escape from this slavery is not easy, it involves dangerous journies. In that journey we are to feed off the death of Jesus. He has paid the price for our sins, that is our constant source of sustenance.

Matthew 26:14-19 - Betrayal

26:14-16

Judas now begins his infamous betrayal of Jesus. One does wonder why the chief priests needed someone to “deliver him” into their hands. As Jesus would say later, He was in the temple every day, they could have arrested Him then if they wanted. The reason is fear and politics. The chief priest knew that Jesus was popular with the crowds, and it would be very useful for them if they could say one of the disciples had betrayed Him. Judas was in some ways a “useful idiot”. Thirty pieces of silver was about 120 days wages for a labourer. The betrayal has now been set in motion.

26:17-19

The Passover was not actually a single day, rather the festival went on for a week. This helps explain some of the supposed discrepancies in the accounts, along with the fact that the Jews counted evening as the start of the day. Anyway, the disciples were going to have the Passover meal with Jesus.  Jesus tells the what to do, and all the preparations had been made. The “appointed time was near” for the true and great Passover.

Matthew 26 - The climax is near

26:1-5

Jesus knew what was going to happen and He is increasingly open with His disciple about what was about to happen. The religious leaders wanted to avoid this happening during the Passover festival, because they feared a riot happening. They wanted to be in control of events, but had no control at all.

26:6-9

Note that we are only two days away from the climax of Easter, but Jesus is still teaching. Simon was a well-known victim of leprosy who had been healed by Jesus. A woman came in with an alabaster jar of perfume. She poured this on the head of Jesus as He was reclining at the table. The disciples were indignant about this. It was just the Pharisees or priests who lacked understanding, His disciples did too, and we need to be aware that our understanding is often flawed. The disciples thought this was a waste of the use of the perfume.

26:10,11

The disciples were indignant, but Jesus was indignant with the disciples. “She has done a beautiful thing to me”. The woman had more spiritual understanding than the disciples, she may not have fully understood what she was doing, but she was motivated by the Holy Spirit. The disciples were motivated by the flesh. The word beautiful here has both an aesthetic and ethical meaning. 

“The poor you will always have with you will not always have me”. The first part comes from Deut 15:11. Jesus would soon be gone from this earth, they could help the poor at anytime. 

26:12,13

Jesus now turns to the positive and immediate meaning of the woman's actions. She was preparing Jesus’ body for burial. The disciples were indignant, but what the woman did is now spoken of in glowing terms throughout the world and time.  It is good to study the Bible in a theological sense, seeking to get a deep understanding. But a deep understanding does not come just by the intellect, it comes by the heart and spirit as well.

Matthew 25:31-46 - Sheep and goats

25:31-43

It is a fundamental theological fact that Jesus will return in glory and as judge. There will be a day of judgement, and all the nations will be before Him. There is no one who will escape the judgement. We are answerable to Christ. And there will be a separation, we will be split into sheep and goats as a shepherd would separate out a flock. Sheep were considered to be more valuable than goats.

At the judgement the king commends those on His right, the sheep, saying their inheritance is ready for them. We should also note that it was prepared “since the creation of the world”. God’s plan was made long, long ago, and has not changed. What are they commended for? Feeding the hungry, helping the stranger, clothing the naked, tending the sick and visiting those in prison. It might seem that they are earning salvation, but this is not the case. This is what those who are blessed by God do. It is also what we are to do in preparation for the return of the King.

The “righteous”. Jesus is emphasising the characteristics God wants to find in His faithful people. The righteous did not realise what they were doing. They certainly did not see it as a way of earning salvation! They just got on with being what they were meant to be. They were living kingdom life. They did not feed the hungry thinking “this will put me right with God”. Rather they just fed them because they were hungry. The King then tells them that whatever they did for these people, they did for the King.

Those on the left are now given the opposite verdict, and for the opposite reasons. They are to depart from Christ. We should note that it is Christ, the Son of Man, who is sitting in judgement here. It is the Son of Man who condemns them to the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. Severe judgement comes from Jesus.  Why? For they did not not feed or help him.

25:44-46

Like the righteous, they ask when did we not feed you? Whenever they did not help “the least of these”. We were all created by God, we belong to Him. In Christ there is an amazing identification with humanity by God. So when either individually or as a society we do things that harm humanity, we harm God. 

So the goats will go to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. It is perhaps worth noting that there is a correspondence between eternal life and eternal punishment here which perhaps is relevant to the eternal punishment-conditional immortality debate. Now one does have to be careful with taking too much out of a parable. However, one thing that we can definitely say is that if a proponent of conditional immortality/annihilation seeks to lessen the prospect of “hell” then they are being unbiblical and are going against the clear teaching of Jesus.

Matthew 25: 14-30 - Parable of the talents

25:14

We now come to the parable of the bags of gold and this is all part of the same block of teaching. We have just been told to keep watch. What does this mean? The final two parables show quite clearly that this does not mean watching out for signs in the sky or in political/military changes. It means living our lives faithfully doing God’s work. In the parable we have a man entrusting management of his wealth to his servants. Back in Genesis God entrusted humanity with care of the earth. We were to be fruitful and multiply, and to have dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26-28).

25:15-30

So in this well known parable the master gives five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another, and one bag of gold to a third, “each according to his ability”. The first two put their money to work and double their money. The third person, who had only one bag, dug a hole in the ground and buried it. When the master returned he met with each of the servants. The first two got very good reports, and were told “ you have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things”. The third person received a very bad report. He is severely rebuked for not doing anything with the money and he is thrown out into the darkness, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.

So we know this parable very well, but let’s look at the lessons we can learn. First, remember that this part of the teaching on the last days or second coming of Christ. The overriding lesson is that we are to make use of the resources that God gives us to do His work. God expects a return! In terms of the second coming, the third man could be likened to those who waste all their time speculating about when or how He will return. 

Jesus often added we surprise twists to His parables. Here it is the man with only one bag of gold who gets it in the neck. We can always find excuses for not doing much, we only have one talent or whatever. This is no excuse. We were created to be fruitful, and were saved to be fruitful.

Sometimes people have very silly ideas of “heaven”. One thing that will not be happening is that we will not be sitting around all day doing nothing. We will be put in charge of many things. 

Finally, life here and now matters. We are to get on with serving God today. As an aside, perhaps those isiots who are against our drilling for oild and gas, should note thta it was the man who put wealth in the ground who was rebuked! Just a thought.

Matthew 25:1-13 - Ten virgins

25:1

In this chapter there are three of the most well known parables of Jesus. We should remember that all this teaching is occurring in the days between Palm Sunday and Easter. It is amazing that Jesus gave so much deep teaching in this most critical of weeks. “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like...”. When we think of the end times we tend to focus on the teaching of chapter 24, but what Jesus says in this chapter is part of the “end times” teaching, and at the end of chapter 24 He has said how good it will be for the servant whose master returns to find him serving faithfully. So these three parables show us something of what serving faithfully means.

25:2

So in this parable we have ten virgins. The virgins would be something like bridesmaids at a wedding. Now note that all of them were waiting for the bridegroom. Five were wise and five were foolish. Outwardly they were all the same, all waiting for the groom, but inwardly there was a great difference between them. All these three parables contain a severe warning, and the one here is that following the outward form of being a Christian is not enough, or can be misleading. Christianity is a matter of the heart, a matter of our deepest being.

25:3-5

At the end of chapter 24 we have been warned that Christ will return suddenly, at a time we do not expect. Here we are told to be ready for the long haul. The foolish versions had taken a lamp but no oil, it was like taking a torch with no spare batteries. The wise virgins had lamps and “spare batteries”, i.e. extra oil. So outwardly there would be no immediately obvious difference between the wise and foolish virgins. The groom was a long time in coming and they all fell asleep.

25:6-9

Though he was a long time in coming, he did eventually arrive, at midnight. Likewise, it has been two thousand years since Christ ascended, but one day He will return. All the virgins awoke and got their lamps ready, but the foolish virgins had a problem, they had no oil. So they asked the wise virgins for some of theirs. The wise virgins refused for there was not enough to share. Now we might think this was rather selfish of the wise virgins, but there are some things that we can only do for ourselves, and we cannot borrow from others. Too often when we talk about Jesus and Christianity it is all “too nice”, but if we look at the gospels (and the whole of the Bible) we see that there are many places where Jesus makes it clear that decisions and actions have consequences.

25:10-13

Realising they needed oil, the foolish virgins went off to try and get some (though how successful they would be at midnight is doubtful). However, the bridegroom arrived while they were away. The wise virgins went into the wedding banquet with the groom and the door was shut. When the foolish virgins got back they asked to be let in, but He replied “Truly, I tell you, I don’t know you”. We should take on board the severity and harshness of these words. If your picture of Jesus does not allow Him to say such things then your picture is a false picture. 

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”. We are to be ready at all times. If we look back at the teaching in chapters 24 and 25 then we are to be ready for the long haul, and ready for Jesus coming back at any moment.

Matt 24:45-50 - Get on with the job

24:45,46

So what are we to do instead of musing about when Jesus will return? We are to get on with the tasks assigned to us. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” Notice “faithful and wise”. If we do what Jesus tells us we are being faithful to Him and we are acting wisely. There are no kudos in knowing the date or hour (which we cannot do anyway). It does not please Jesus, and it does not help us live our lives. Jesus has “put us in charge of the servants”. We all have responsibilities of various kinds. We need to get on with doing them! We are to love those around us, we are to preach and teach the gospel. We are to do the work of the kingdom. If we are serving God, then whenever He returns we will be ready. It will be good for us when He returns. The best preparation for tomorrow is to trust and serve Christ today.

24:47-50

The price of not following Jesus’ advice is really high. Jesus is not mincing His words here. The person who says “He is not coming back for a long time”. Such a person has forgotten that God sees all that we do anyway. Note that while utterly disobedient he is still referred to as a servant. We have a God given duty to be servants of the Lord. While obsessing about the day and hour is futile, so thinking that Jesus is never going to come back is a wrong attitude to have. Conversely, the good servant who does about his daily task of serving the Lord will be greatly rewarded.

Matthew 21:37-44 - As in the days of Noah

24:37-41

Earlier Jesus spoke about wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes and famines, and said that this does not signify the end, but they are the beginning of birth pangs (Matt 24:6-8). Now He tells us that people will be going about their normal daily lives just before Jesus returns. Note that this is the complete opposite of the approach taken by the prediction merchants. They look at the frequency of earthquakes or other events and claim that this means the return is soon. Jesus takes the opposite approach. In the days of Noah it was not as though people did not have the chance to learn, but they chose to ignore the message of Noah. 

24:42-44

“Therefore keep watch”. This does not mean keeping watch to see if we can work out when Jesus will return. The whole point is that we do not and cannot know when He will return. Moreover, we do not need to know when He will return. In fact we have the explicit statement that Jesus will return when we do not expect Him. So to spend our time trying to work out when He will return is the most idiotic, disobedient , utterly stupid thing to do.

Knowing the Father

Knowing the Father, a sermon preached at Gate Church International 

Matthew 24:26-36 - The return

24:26-29

When times are troubling we can become vulnerable, willing to believe anything that seems to offer hope. This is why the Nazis gained power in Germany. So we need to be very wary of people who say the Messiah is here, we are not to believe them. When the Son of Man returns there will be no doubt about it, no special knowledge or insight needed for it will be like lightning flashing from east to west. The carcass of v28 is the whole world system, there will be “vultures” who seek to take advantage of its demise. The end of the world will be marked by cosmic events.

This quote comes from Isaiah 13:10 and 34:4, but similar figurative language can be found elsewhere in the prophets. It is important to realise that the language is figurative. Now it might be that cosmic events do occur, but the focus is on God’s judgement upon the earth. It is the judgement, and the return of Christ that are the key messages of what Jesus is saying. Things will change!

24:30-33

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. The people of the earth will mourn, for the foolishness of their ways will be evident, those who trust in the Lord will be saved. Soon Jesus will tell us that no one knows the day or the hour, but this does not mean we are not to be unaware of the signs or what is going on. “When you see all these things ...” I think we should take this as applying to all that has gone before in this chapter. So when various things happen to a fig tree it indicates that summer is near, when the things talked about here it indicates that the return of Christ is near, “right at the door”. So what are we to make of this? There was a temporal application. The fall of Jerusalem also coincided with a time of turmoil in the Roman Empire, there was one year when there were four emperors. The realisation of what is going on does not mean we will know the date! It is a matter of understanding where the world is going, and how we should act and respond in that world.

24:34,35

“This generation ...” causes great problems to some. I think we should take it in two ways. One is that the immediate generation would indeed see the events that happened in AD 66-70. The second is that the whole of mankind will see the events spoken of, the “wars and rumours of wars”, the persecutions, and the return of Christ. In Isaiah we have specific prophecies about Cyrus, the defeat of Babylon and the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Those things happened and were real, but we also know that the words of Isaiah are looking forward to a much greater fulfilment, the fulfilment in Christ. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. We can and we must put our trust in God’s word.

24:36

This is the very clear teaching of Jesus that no, except the Father, knows the day or hour. There are two great mistakes we can make about the end-time stuff in the Bible. One is to dive into all sorts of speculations. Speculations about when, speculations about who is the antiChrist. This is almost uniformly unfruitful and a distraction. The other error is to ignore it, and the idiots who indulge in the former error are part of the reason many ignore the end time teaching. God has chosen to include endtime teaching in His word, and this must have been a very wise decision. So what are we to do with it? There are two very important lessons. One is that there is an end, this world will not carry on as it is forever, Jesus will return. If you like, we know the final result! The second is that it prepares us and teaches us how to act. If we look at this chapter there are instructions on how to live, particularly under persecution. The lessons about the end times are not just for the end times.

Matthew 24:17-25 - Time to flee

24:17-21

At this time there was to be no hesitation in fleeing, no time to put things in order.

There was only one imperative, and that was “get out!”.

They are also told to pray to God that this does not happen on a Sabbath,

when it would be far harder to get out.

Note that even with events that are decreed by God that we should still pray.

In verse 21 Jesus says the events would be absolutely terrible,

far worse than anything that had ever happened before, or would happen again.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, described the events in similar terms.

So how are we to interpret this?

Are we to take this as an absolutely literal description,

or as a graphic description meant to impress the horror of the events,

but not meant to be taken absolutely literally?

Utterly terrible events did happen in AD 70.

Does that mean these events are the complete fulfilment of the words of Jesus?

I.e. supporting a preterist view point? The problem with this is that it is hard to say that these events have never been equalled again in history. What about the holocaust?

24:22-25

These would be bad, but they could have been much worse.

Jesus says they were cut short for the sake of the elect.

This seems to have two important implications.

One is that there is an “elect”, a people elected by God for salvation.

The second is that the elect will be around at the time of tribulation.

People will be so desperate that they will long for some sort of Messiah,

so they will be ready to grasp at any straw.

It is at times of desperation that dictators tend to arise in nations,

for people long for order to be restored and think “things cannot be any worse than they are now”.

We need to watch out for false messiahs and not be taken in.

Some of these false prophets and messiahs will perform “great signs and wonders”.

We must not be deceived, the truth of God’s word is what matters.

Then again we have mention of the elect, and Jesus tells us that He has pointed these things out ahead of time.

Note that while we are the “elect” this does not mean that we do not have any responsibility.

We do have responsibility, and part of that is to be on our guard.

Sermon on Ecclesiastes

A sermon on Ecclesiastes, preached at Gate Church International 

Matthew 24:13-16 - Better news

24:13

We do then get some better news! “Whoever stands firm to the end will be saved”. What are we to do in such times? We are to stick to Christ and the gospel. There will be many forces seeking to make us abandon the faith, or at least to compromise it. We must not do so, for if we do we will be lost. Instead we must stand firm. Note that the lesson is not “pray that these things don’t happen”, instead it is stand firm in the midst of such circumstances.

24:14

And then we are told that the gospel will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to the whole world. “Then the end will come”. The Bible teaching on the end times is not given to tickle our ears, or to induce idle speculation. Rather, it is given to instruct and strengthen us, and the two key lessons so far are about standing firm and continuing to proclaim the gospel. The enemy will try to stop this happening, but will not succeed. The lessons of Matthew 24 and Revelation are for the church in all ages.

24:15,16

“The abomination that causes desolation” comes from Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. The first “fulfilment “ of this was when Antiochus of Epiphanes put up an altar to Zeus in the temple. The Romans desecrated the temple in AD 70. Jesus is alluding to this latter incident and follows it with a very practical instruction, “run for the hills!”. There was a cultural instinct to believe that Jerusalem was the safest place they could be, that God would defend the temple. This had proved to be misplaced in the time of the Babylonian conquest, and would prove equally misplaced in AD 66-70. 

A sermon on Psalm 93

A sermon on Psalm 93, Spiritual Arythmia

Matthew 24:9-12 -Persecution

24:9

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me”. These are very serious and sober words. We need to do two things with them. The first is that they are part of the truth, not the whole truth. The church is not perpetually persecuted. In Acts 9:31 speaks of the church enjoying a time of peace. In history there are times when the church is not actively persecuted. In the West the church has enjoyed favour for a long time, but this period has now come to an end. So we need a balanced view. The second thing is that it is part of the truth and one we must not ignore. There are many parts of the world today where they know the full reality of this. Also, it is not our job to be loved by the nations. We are to speak and live the truth of God’s word. Sometimes this will be welcomed, sometimes it will not. Whatever the case, we continue to speak the truth, we must not go along with the lies of the world. Sadly, many seem to think that going along with the lies of the world is a good idea.

24:10-12

A clear message from throughout the New Testament is that there will be false prophets and false teachers, and they can have devastating results. Here we read that in the time of persecution many will turn away from the faith. They will harm not only themselves, but others, for they will betray and hate each other. This is not a comfortable picture. False prophets will deceive many. 

“Because of the increase in wickedness the love of most will grow cold”. The picture does not get any easier. In times of great evil there can be some who respond with great virtue, but this is not the dominant effect. In general it brings out the worst in people. In Nazi Germany ordinary people went along with the worst aspects of the regime, the same happens in communist countries. This is a harsh reality of life. 

Matthew 24:4-8 - Do not be deceived

24:4

“Watch out that no one deceives you”. These are words which every Christian should take note of, and remember they were first given to the apostles. There is no topic other than the return of Christ about which so much rubbish has been written and spoken over the years. There are various people or groups that have “predicted” the date, always to look utter fools at the end of it. One of the most serious false teachings is pre-tribulation rapture nonsense which has an enormous grip, especially in America. There are many otherwise good Bible teachers who hold to this view, and it’s popularity was fostered by Hal Linday’s book, the Late, Great Planet Earth, and the Left Behind series. You will have gathered that I do not hold to this view! Indeed, I think the tide is turning against it. Whether or not that is the case, there is no Biblical support for it, and it only arose in the 1800’s. Anyway, let’s get to the positive reason for my rejection of pre-trib rapture. Every New Testament writer, and Jesus Himself, warns us that we need to be prepared for persecution. In my opinion pre-trib rapture is utterly defeatist. There comes a time when Satan will throw everything he has at God’s people, but there will be some, maybe many, who refuse to bow the knee, refuse to deny Christ. By the grace of God may we be among that number.

I may well have offended some of you here, if that is the case, I still love you!

24:5

“For many will come in my name...” At the time there were various individuals or groups that claimed to be messianic, some of these sought to lead rebellions against the Roman occupation. “And will deceive many”. Some imposters are clearly complete idiots and fool no one but the most gullible, but there will also be others who are much more plausible and will “deceive many”. So we need to be careful, and should ensure that it is the whole word of God that guides us.

24:6-8

Many generations have been convinced, or had a strong suspicion, that Jesus may return in their lifetime. In one sense this is good as we should always be ready. However, we need to be careful not to be misled by events. Very serious things may be happening (as they are at present in the world), including wars, famines, earthquakes etc. But these things are always happening. It is not to say that they are not serious, of course they are, especially for those directly affected, but we need to keep a calm head. These things are the beginnings of birth pangs. Obviously, this has been a very long labour! They indicate that the world is in a bad way, but the end is still to come.

Matthew 24:1-3 The Olivet Discourse

24:1,2

Jesus now gives a clear warning that the present order is coming to an end, which it did in AD70.

This is the Olivet discourse. Similar accounts can be found in Mark 13 and Luke 21. It all starts after Jesus departed from the temple and the disciples came to show Him the buildings of the temple. Most Jews lived outside of Jerusalem, so seeing the temple itself would be quite an occasion for them. There were a small minority of Jews who held the temple and its leadership in disdain, believing that God would send a new temple. Given the things that Jesus had been saying and doing it is understandable if some thought His views were similar. However, most Jews held the temple in great honour and believed it was invincible. There was a similar view at the time of Jeremiah and the Babylonian conquest. Clearly, they had not learnt anything from that time. Righteousness was God’s prime concern, and He was quite prepared to destroy the temple. And Jesus tells them that the temple would be destroyed, as happened in AD 66-70. The events if AD 66-70 are very important in understanding this chapter, and Revelation. However, I do not go along with the preterist line of seeing a complete fulfillment in the events of AD 66-70. AD 66-70 makes sense of a lot of it, but not all of it, and to say that it does is simply nuts. Moreover, a common pattern with prophecy is that there is a partial fulfilment in immediate events, but the prophecy points forward to a much greater fulfilment, Isaiah perhaps being the prime example of this.

24:3

The disciples were intrigued, and probably deeply concerned, by this and wanted to know more. So Jesus taught them while sitting on the Mount of Olives (hence the name “Olivet discourse” for this passage). The disciples question shows that they associated this with the coming of Jesus and the end of the age, so it seems that they expected some sort of second coming. In the ensuing discourse Jesus does not give separate answers to the questions. We like to look at these things in clear linear fashion, A happens, then B, then C etc. However, the Bible is often more concerned with the nature of the events, rather than their chronology, and their implications for how we should act. Seeking to impose a strict chronological structure on events may well be a serious mistake, and lead to us missing the point.