Chapter 25
Verses 1-13 Read the Bible verses.
Jesus told a story saying the Kingdom of Heaven was like:
Ten virgins (women not yet married) took lamps and went out to wait for the bridegroom to come.
In a Jewish wedding, after the woman said she would marry the man, the man went away to prepare a place for them to live. Then he came back to get the bride.
The virgins (girlfriends of the bride) would have waited with the bride for several days before the wedding.
The bride was expecting the groom soon, so the 10 virgins went out to welcome the groom.
Five of the virgins took extra oil. They knew about when the bridegroom would come, but they did not know exactly, and they wanted to have enough oil if he took longer than they thought.
Five of the virgins had only the oil in their lamps. They had no extra.
While they waited, they all fell asleep. At midnight, they heard the call “The bridegroom comes!”
The virgins all got up and lit their lamps. It seems their lamps had burned out while they were waiting.
The five wise virgins filled their lamps with the extra oil they brought and their lamps were going fine. The five who did not bring extra oil could not get their lamps to keep burning because the lamps were out of oil.
The five foolish virgins wanted the other five to share their oil. But the five wise virgins said, “If we give you oil, we will not have enough for ourselves. Go into the city and buy oil for yourselves.”
So the five foolish virgins went into the city to buy oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. The five wise virgins went with him to get the bride and they went into the building for the wedding.
Later the five foolish virgins come to the building but the door was shut. They called for the door to be opened. But the answer came,
“I don’t know you.”
Jesus then said, “Watch, for you don’t know the day or the hour the Son of Man will come.”
The virgins of this story are the believers. They all are waiting for Jesus, the “bridegroom“, to come back for his “bride“, the church of believers.
They have a general idea when he is expected to come. They do not know the exact day or hour.
The virgins are the believers.
Some believers have studied the Bible and know the verses and have learned how Satan tries to trick us. They are prepared for the wait. Even if Jesus takes longer than they expected, they are prepared in their spirits to wait and not become discouraged or to be tempted by Satan to give up.
Some believers have not learned the Bible or prayed, they have not learned how Satan can trick them. When they go through life, they go off on another path and are not looking for the “Bridegroom Jesus”. They are busy doing their own things.
Then Jesus comes and is gone and takes the ones who are ready, but the others, though they were Christians at one time, were no longer looking for Jesus. They had turned away from looking and being ready for him.
They missed Jesus went he came in the clouds. They have been left behind.
In Matthew 24: 40, 41, Jesus talked about being left behind.
Jesus “coming like a thief in the night”–suddenly, when you don’t expect him–is called the “rapture”.
Paul talks about it in Thessalonians. It was in Chp. 24 that we talked about that.
At a certain time, known only to the Father, Jesus will come to “catch away” the believers “bride” to heaven. This will happen before the great tribulation happens.
Jesus said many times, “Watch!” “Be ready, because you do not know
when the Son of Man comes.”
Verses 14-30 Read the Bible verses.
Jesus told a story saying the Kingdom of Heaven was like:
A man traveled to a far country. He called his servants and gave them money so they could use it to make more money.
To one servant he gave 5 bags of gold, to the second servant, he gave 2 bags of gold, and to the third servant, he gave 1 bag of gold.
The man who had 5 bags used the money to make more money and he made 5 more bags of gold, so now he has 10 bags.
The second servant did the same with his 2 bags and he now has 4 bags.
The third servant was afraid, so he just put his gold in the ground and hid it.
When the man came back, he asked for the servants to show him how well they did. So each one brought their gold.
To the first servant the man said, “Good job! You are a faithful servant. Now that you have been faithful in a little, I will let you be a ruler over much.”
He said the same thing to the second servant.
To the third servant, he was very angry. He said, “You could have put the money in bank and gotten interest!” “You did not even do that much!”
So the man threw the third servant into a place of darkness where there is pain and crying.
The man took the third servant’s bag of gold and gave it to the first servant because he could be trusted to use the money wisely.
The man said, “To the one who has much–more will be given because he knows how to use it. To the one who had little–what he had was taken away because he did not know how to use what he had.”
Jesus was telling the disciples that God gives to each person ability and skill to do something. Some people have much ability and some people have a little ability.
The man who had 5 bags of gold and the man who had 2 bags of gold both made twice as much as they had to start with. They both had been equal in being able to double their money.
The man who had 1 bag of gold could have double his money if he had tried. He could have put the money in the bank and even made a little more. But he did nothing.
Jesus is saying that we need to work for the Lord and use our abilities and skills to spread the gospel (news about Jesus).
It is not how much ability you have–what is important is that you use what you have to make more believers or stronger believers.
To say “I’m afraid” and do nothing is not going to be pleasing to Jesus. He will not look on that kind of thinking with a smile.
No matter what level of ability and skill we have, we have something that we can use for God.
People who have much ability can become preachers, teachers, or missionaries. Other people can witness to others at work and tell them about Jesus. They can teach Sunday School. They can go to nursing homes, visit sick people in the hospitals and pray with them and encourage them. They can send note cards to encourage people. They can pray for people and have a list of people and things they pray for everyday. They can smile and be encouraging and cheerful.
There are many ways to serve God. There is no one who can say “I can not do anything.”
Verses 31-46 Read the Bible verses.
When Christ comes with all his holy angels, then he shall sit upon the throne and all the nations will be gathered before him.
He will separate the nations like a farmer separates sheep and goats.
The “sheep” nations will be on his right hand, and the “goat” nations will be on his left.
The King will say to the “sheep” nations, “Come into the kingdom prepared for you. When I was in need you helped me.”
The “sheep” nations will ask, “When did we do these things for you?”
The King will say, “When you helped my brothers in need, it was the same as helping me.”
To the “goat” nations he will say, “Leave me and go into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
When you saw my brothers in need, you did not help.
In verse 41 Jesus said that the place of everlasting fire was for the devil and his angels.
Thousands of years before, in heaven, Lucifer was a very high angel.
He led the worship to God. One day, Lucifer decided that he would be equal with God and worship should come to him.
The angels in heaven are spirits that can take on any body shape they need for whatever they are doing. They also have a will to decide what they will do.
Lucifer was able to decide if he wanted to worship God or not.
Lucifer thought he could be as high as God.
Lucifer was able to get thousands of angels to go along with his idea and they were willing to believe that Lucifer should be equal to God.
Lucifer was not equal with God no matter what he thought. God made Lucifer leave heaven, and the angels that followed him.
God also made a place of punishment for Lucifer that he will be in someday to stay forever, along with the angels that went with him.
Lucifer is now called Satan or the devil. The angels that followed him are called demons. They are all fallen angels and still have the understanding and knowledge of an angel. Their power is limited by God, but they are much more powerful than men.
As believers, we are told not to fear them because God has much more power and God will protect us if we ask him to.
Satan knows that he has only so much time and then he will be put in hell forever. He tries to get as many people away from God as he can so he can hurt God.
Jesus said in this story that the “goat” nations would be sent to a place that was for Satan.
When people will not follow God’s way and turn away from God, they are doing what Satan did. And that means they are choosing the same “end” that Satan will have.
God does not want people to end up in hell. God has sent Jesus to die on the cross, and sent preachers, and had the Bible written –all to tell people that God wants them to worship him and go to heaven. He warns them about hell.
People have a will to choose which way they will go.