Matthew 25:41-46

We are our neighbors keeper!

Matthew 25:41–46 (NKJV)

⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Romans 2:7 (NKJV)

⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;

Job 22:7 (NKJV)

⁷ You have not given the weary water to drink,

And you have withheld bread from the hungry.

John 14:1-4

The loss of my only son 13 years later is still a raw wound covered only by the blood of  JESUS. I would never have gotten through his passing if I did not have the peace of knowing that to be absent from this world is to be present in GODS’. To know that HE gave the life of his only begotten SON to die in my place is a gift i could never deserve and could never repay. it is only in His mercy and grace that we have hope.

We live because He died.

Jesus is referring to the heavenly abode, where God the Father sits enthroned. Jesus had already declared God’s symbolic earthly dwelling, the temple, to be insignificant in comparison to God’s work through His new temple, Jesus. This and Jesus’ condemnation of the conduct of the earthly keepers of His “Father’s house” establish Jesus as a better, heavenly alternative. Faithlife Study Bible.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus is the way to the Father. He is also the truth and the life. As truth, He is the revelation of God. As life, He is the communication of God to us. The NKJ Study Bible.

John 14:1–4 (NKJV)

14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Matthew 25:34 (NKJV)

³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Isaiah 63:15 (NKJV)

¹⁵ Look down from heaven,

And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious.

Where are Your zeal and Your strength,

The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?

Are they restrained?

Abide in Me...

Without Christ…we can do nothing!

The fruit of the Holy Spirit only matures and ripens with Christ within. It is for our use and for the good of His Body, the Church. What is the greatest of the gifts? Love.

People cannot access God without Him, and consequently they cannot bear fruit. All life-giving things require access to the source of life, Jesus. The dead branches are people who are useless to God’s work—people like Judas, who chose to reject Jesus when faced with the truth. 

Jesus wants the opposite of destruction for His disciples: He wants them to make God’s greatness known. The way His disciples prove to be His is by loving others as He loved them and by believing and proclaiming God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus’ death and resurrection.The Spirit will be their guide in this process. Faithlife Study Bible.

For the branch to produce more fruit, it must abide, which means to dwell, to stay, to settle in, to sink deeper. The way to abide in Christ is to obey. The believer who lovingly obeys the Word of God produces much fruit. Apart from Christ, a believer cannot accomplish anything of permanent spiritual value. The NKJ Study Bible

John 15:4–10 (NKJV)

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Acts 13:36-39

JESUS has conquered sin and death. We live in Him and we are under the protection and guidance of the HOLY SPIRIT. He who started a good thing in you will bring it to completion… He will guide you safely home.

He has risen!!!

Justification is a legal term meaning “declared innocent” It is a legal declaration that a person is acquitted and absolved. It is by justification that a person is righteous and acceptable to God. The death of Christ was the payment of our sin debt, so that we might be forgiven.  The NKJ Study Bible.

Paul is arguing that justification is based on the work of Christ. Human effort—even when directed at keeping the Law of Moses (as primarily seen in the laws of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy)—could never attain God’s standard.Faithful Study BibleJeremiah 31:34 (NKJV)

Acts 13:36–39 (NKJV)

³⁶ “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; ³⁷ but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. ³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; ³⁹ and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Jeremiah 31:34 (NKJV)

³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

John 3:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Luke 12:1-3

Be aware of the hypocrisy of leaders. Everything that they say in private eventually is leaked to the public. 

Jesus seems to be referring to the Pharisees’ hidden sins, which will be exposed at the final judgment.

we need to be as wise as a serpent but as gentle as a lamb basing our wisdom on the Word of God. If we ask for wisdom in our current situations He is faithful to provide it. as representatives of Christ we need to be transparent in all we do…the good, the bad and the downright ugly in our lives to the glory of how god can take the uglies and turn them for our good and the good of his body, the church.

It’s as easy as 1.2.3.

Leaven: The Greek word used here refers to fermented dough that was mixed in with new dough and used as a rising agent. The small amount used in baking would permeate the entire batch of new dough. Leaven serves as an apt metaphor to describe the widespread effects of the Pharisees’ hypocritical teachings and actions. Faithlife Study Bible

Practicing hypocrisy is senseless because eventually all deeds—both good and evil—will be exposed.

Luke 12: 1,2,3 (NKJV)

12 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

Matthew 10:26 (NKJV)

²⁶ Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

Zephaniah 1:2-6

1. Seek the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. 2.Listen closely to the small still voice of the Holy Spirit. 3. Trust the Triune Godhead…not man to accomplish what you cannot. 4. Staying in Christ you will find peace.

God wins and evil bites the dust!

 Jerusalem

Means “city of peace”; located 14 miles west of the Dead Sea and 33 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea. The city is situated on a rocky plateau 2,550 feet above sea level. Its central position in Israel made it the ideal location for the capital. The Israelites had conquered the city of Jerusalem in the time of the judges (ca. 1210–1051 bc), but they did not occupy it during that time (Judg 1:8). Jerusalem was made the political capital of the nation after King David (1011–971 bc) conquered it and built a palace there (2 Sam 5:6–12). In 960 bc, when Solomon built the temple, Jerusalem became the religious capital of the nation as well. From this point forward, the city of Jerusalem occupied a place of prominence in the political and religious life of Israel. Faithlife Study Bible

Jesus seized on Zephaniah’s picture of the day of the Lord. On one occasion He referred to Zephaniah 1:3, when He spoke of His second coming and gathering “out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 13:41). On another occasion, Jesus no doubt envisioned Zephaniah’s description of “a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm” (Zeph. 1:15, 16).

The message of God’s impending judgment on the nation of Judah and its capital city Jerusalem must have been startling to those who believed that God would never destroy the site of His holy temple. Baal worship and its evils had led to the destruction of Israel and its capital Samaria in 722 b.c. Likewise, Baal worship and its associations would lead to the destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 b.c. Milcom is a reference to an Ammonite deity whose worship included acts of infant sacrifice. The people had experienced God and then turned away from Him. The NKJ Study Bible.

Zephaniah 1:2–6 (NKJV)

² “I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³ “I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,”

Says the Lord.

⁴ “I will stretch out My hand against Judah,

And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place,

The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—

⁵ Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops;

Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord,

But who also swear by Milcom;

⁶ Those who have turned back from following the Lord,

And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”

Matthew 13:41 (NKJV)

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,

The Ascension of Jesus the Christ

The Ascension gives authority to JESUS who conquered sin and death and now resides at the right hand of the FATHER. 

That same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us to be with them for eternity.

The final sign that Jesus was the Son of God is that He was received up into heaven to be seated at the right hand (the position of authority and power) of God. The NKJV Study Bible 

The disciples’ doubt, fear, and sadness is replaced with joy after seeing the risen Jesus. Faithlife Study Bible 

Mark 16:19–20 (NKJV)

¹⁹ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Luke 24:50–53 (NKJV)

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

Acts 1:3 (NKJV)

³ to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Psalm 110:1 (NKJV)

¹ The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand,

Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”