All throughout Matthew’s Gospel, we keep on coming back again and again and again to God’s promise that he is going to redeem humanity and restore the world.
That is the core story that the Bible is telling.
God’s Word tells the story of God’s redemptive work in the fallen and broken world.
It tells the story of God’s work on our behalf to redeem humanity and restore the world.
When we rebelled against him in the Garden of Eden, it broke the world.
It brought sin into the world.
It smashed God’s perfect creation.
So now absolutely everything is broken.
Nothing works the way that it’s supposed to.
This world that was meant to be perfect and flawless and beautiful, this world that was meant to wholly reflect God’s goodness and God’s glory and God’s greatness and God’s holiness, now is filled with grief and crying and pain, suffering, mourning, sickness, injustice, wickedness, loss.
All of these things fill our world and drive our world, not because God made the world to be filled with suffering, but because we made the world to be filled with suffering.
Because we rebelled against the Creator, and that broke the creation.
But God promised, “I am not going to leave you forever broken. I am not going to leave you forever fallen. I am going to come down from heaven. I am going to give myself on your behalf. I am going to make the ultimate sacrifice. I am going to pour myself out. I’m going to give my own life to redeem and restore you, to fix everything you’ve broken, heal everything you’ve made sick, restore everything you’ve distorted. I am going to raise this world out of the pit. I am going to make it good and perfect and beautiful again. I’m going to put right everything humanity put wrong. I am going to restore this world fully and finally and forever. And I’m going to redeem you so that you can be part of it, so that you can enjoy this restored world. I’m going to crush the devil. I’m going to destroy the forces of darkness. I’m going to smash the head of the serpent. But I’m going to redeem you so that you don’t get crushed, destroyed, condemned alongside the serpent and the forces of darkness. I’m going to restore this world, and I’m going to redeem you so that you can be part of this restored world.”
So he comes to Earth in Jesus Christ.
He lives out a perfect human life.
He begins his messianic ministry as our Savior and our King and our God, as our lawgiver, as our teacher, as our prophet.
He is the Anointed One God promised in the beginning.
He sends Jesus into the world, the second person of the Trinity.
So God himself comes into the world.
The God in the garden who walked with Adam and Eve comes down from heaven into our world.
The God who rescued the Israelites from Egypt comes down from heaven into our world.
The God who came and met Abraham in Genesis 12 comes down into our world.
And he teaches us who God really is, what God is really like, what God wants for us, and what God wants from us.
He teaches us the goal, the purpose, the meaning, the point of the law that God gave to us in the Old Testament.
He teaches us how all these things point towards God’s character and God’s desires and God’s will.
And he teaches us how to live as God’s people in the fullness of his glory.
He makes us into his kingdom people.
He gathers us into his covenant.
He makes us part of the covenant that God made with Abraham.
He makes us into his family.
He makes us into his people.
He makes us into his kingdom workers.
That is the term that we’ve been using a lot throughout the Gospel of Matthew, explaining what it’s talking about.
Jesus has gathered us together as his kingdom workers.
Just like he went to Peter and Andrew and he said:
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”
—Matthew 4:19, WEB
He says, “Follow me, and I will make you into my harvesters.”
He says, “Follow me, and I’m going to send you out to every nation to make disciples for me.”
He says, “Come be my disciples, and I am going to join you into my mission to find the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling and introduce them to the God who wants to redeem them and restore them.”
That is Jesus.
That is what he is doing in his earthly ministry.
The Second Coming and the Restoration of All Things
All of this is heading towards the day when he comes back again and fully destroys the devil and the forces of darkness.
He’s going to come back again on the clouds, he says, with armies of angels to crush the devil and the forces of darkness and everyone who has made themselves God’s enemy, everyone who rebels against the Lord.
He will take them away for the final judgment.
They will be condemned for their rebellion, and then he will renew and restore our world.
The heavens and the Earth will be destroyed by fire and reconstituted, raised up, resurrected, renewed.
A new heavens and a new Earth.
A renewed heavens and a renewed Earth.
A restored heavens and a restored Earth where everything is exactly the way it’s meant to be, exactly according to God’s good and beautiful design.
And everyone who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, everyone who throws themselves on his mercy as their Savior, who submits to him as their King, and who worships him as their God—that is what faith means, that is what it means to have faith and repentance—everyone who is redeemed by the blood of Jesus will live for all of eternity in this redeemed and restored and renewed heavens and Earth.
I know this is a little bit different from some of the stuff we might have grown up hearing in Sunday school, things like that.
That’s because some very unbiblical ideas really started to become popular in the 1800s, and we’re still kind of facing some of the runoff from them today in mainstream preaching and teaching.
But that’s okay.
We’re the generation that’s going to fix that and turn that around and get back on course.
But all of this is headed for that.
And as we enter the final stretch of Matthew, Jesus has begun directly teaching about that glorious day.
He’s teaching about his second coming, the final judgment, and the restoration of all things.
Don’t Obsess Over the End Times. Prepare for Them.
In Matthew 24, he said that day is coming, and there’s some signs that you’re going to see that are going to seem scary at first, but don’t let them scare you.
Let them comfort you.
When you see the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, don’t freak out.
That’s okay.
That just means my second coming is one day closer.
When you see earthquakes, famines, pandemics, diseases, and all that proliferating, don’t freak out.
Just know my coming is one day closer.
When you see persecutions ramp up, when they drag you out of your churches, drag you out of your houses, when they start putting your friends to death, don’t freak out.
It’ll be hard.
It’ll be traumatizing.
It’ll be devastating.
But listen, all it means is we are one day closer to my second coming and the final judgment and the ultimate restoration of all things.
And he says between today and that day, one, do not obsess over the end times.
Don’t try to make a bunch of charts.
Don’t try to map the whole thing out.
Don’t do the Hal Lindsey thing.
Don’t do the Left Behind thing.
Don’t do the John Hagee thing.
Do not do the Jonathan Cahn thing.
Don’t do the, you know, 2025 Israel prophecy news thing.
You know, don’t do any of that stuff.
Don’t obsess over the end times.
Prepare for the end times.
He says, “Don’t go buy a bunch of MREs. Don’t go build a bunker.”
Instead, you prepare for the end times in a couple of ways.
Number one, do not be deceived by false prophets who claim to be the second coming of Jesus or who claim to be God’s new mouthpiece.
Don’t be drawn away by them.
Number two, don’t be drawn away by the world.
Don’t fall away because of the temptations of the world.
Don’t fall away because of all the ways that the world puts pressure on you to stop faithfully following Jesus.
And number three, carry out God’s kingdom work and mission.
Carry out the mission that he has given us.
Go out and be fishers of people.
Go out into the harvest.
Go out and proclaim the good news of the kingdom.
“This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
—Matthew 24:14, WEB
He says, “When I return, let me find you working.”
What does that mean?
Working for your salvation?
No.
Working the work that he’s given you.
Working the mission that he’s given you.
He says, “Don’t be deceived by false prophets. Don’t fall away by temptation or worldliness, and don’t stop doing my kingdom work and mission. Go out between now and my return. Pour yourself into finding the lost, the hurting, the broken, and the struggling and introducing them to me, introducing them to the God who wants to redeem and restore them.”
That is our kingdom mission and calling every single day between now and the return of Jesus.
Matthew 25 is teasing out all of that stuff.
Matthew 25 is diving deeper into all of that stuff.
Matthew 25 is giving us three examples, you could say, three images, three parables meant to help us further understand all of those things.
Two Kinds of Gathering
In chapter 24, Jesus says that in the end, he’s going to do two kinds of gathering.
Number one, he’s going to do some good gathering.
Number two, he’s going to do some bad gathering.
Let’s talk about the good gathering.
In chapter 24, he says that in the end, at his second coming, in the final judgment, in the restoration of all things, Jesus is going to gather his elect.
Don’t freak out about that word.
I know maybe you have, like, a Calvinist uncle or something who throws the word “elect” around.
Just don’t worry about it.
It literally just means his people.
He’s going to gather his people from the four winds.
The verse says:
“He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
—Matthew 24:31, WEB
When it says “sky,” it doesn’t mean we’re literally going to be in the sky.
It’s not that we’re going to be floating up and taken away somewhere.
He’s gathering his people together.
That’s literally just an ancient term, “from the four winds, from every end of the sky.”
That means all over the world.
He’s going to gather his people all over the world.
And he is going to lift them up alongside him.
He’s going to gather his people from all over the world, from every tribe and tongue and nation, like Revelation 7:9 says.
And he will exalt his people alongside him.
He will raise up his people alongside him.
We are going to be with our King as he does his kingly work in restoring the world, as he does his kingly work of carrying out the final judgment.
He says that we are going to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
We’re going to be with Jesus as he carries out his judgment.
Now, there’s a ton more to be said about that in future chapters.
But he’s going to gather his people.
This is a good gathering.
He’s gathering his people for reward, for exaltation, for glory, for redemption and restoration.
But there’s also a bad gathering.
He says in chapter 24:
“Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left.”
—Matthew 24:40–41, WEB
This is the bad gathering.
That person who’s taken, that’s not talking about him taking Christians.
That’s not talking about, like, the rapture or something.
He’s talking about taking the wicked for judgment.
In the flood, the wicked were taken by the flood.
God’s people were left in the ark.
In Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked were taken by the fire and the brimstone, but God’s people, Lot and his daughters, were left because of the warning of the angel.
In a little while, the Bible says that the wicked will be no more.
God’s people will be left.
This is not the rapture.
This is not God taking us away in the Magic School Bus.
This is God taking the wicked away for judgment.
This is the final judgment.
Jesus is going to gather his people from all over the Earth, from the four winds, from every end of the sky, for reward, for blessing, for exaltation, for glory.
We are going to reap the rewards of the goodness of Jesus.
And he is going to gather up the wicked, and they are going to reap the condemnation that comes from their sin and rebellion.
And he says between today and that day, you have work to do.
One, don’t be deceived by false prophets.
Two, don’t fall away because of the temptations of the world.
Don’t fall away in worldliness.
And three, carry out my kingdom work, my kingdom mission.
And he gives us three parables that sort of image what that looks like.
The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids
There are ten bridesmaids, and five of the bridesmaids brought plenty of oil for their lamps, but five of the bridesmaids ran out of oil for their lamps.
They need those lamps for the wedding ceremony.
They have to have them.
It’s a whole thing.
Long story.
Ancient Near East, weird cultural stuff.
But they need those little lamps for the wedding ceremony.
They cannot be part of the wedding ceremony without those lamps.
So five of them brought plenty of oil.
The other five barely brought enough oil.
Well, the groom is supposed to come.
This is part of these ancient Near Eastern wedding ceremonies.
He’s supposed to come gather all the bridesmaids and take them to the wedding ceremony.
Problem is, the groom gets delayed.
The groom doesn’t come as quickly as they think that he’s going to.
So what happens?
Five of the bridesmaids are fine.
They’ve got plenty of oil.
The other five were not prepared.
They run out of oil.
They no longer have the lamplight they need for the ceremony.
They can no longer be part of the ceremony.
So the groom gathers the five bridesmaids who were prepared for his coming, and he takes them to the wedding ceremony.
And then the other five bridesmaids are locked out.
What’s the point?
The point is this: every single one of us is like one of these two bridesmaids.
We are either like the bridesmaids who prepare for the coming of the groom, or we are like the bridesmaids who don’t.
So those who didn’t bring enough oil, what do they represent?
There’s a handful of possible answers to this.
Some people say that those who didn’t bring enough oil, they’re a representation of people who didn’t place their faith in Jesus.
That’s entirely possible.
That is one way that you can interpret that.
But I think, let’s look at the context here.
What has Jesus been talking about leading up to this?
He’s been talking about the kingdom work, the kingdom mission that he’s given us.
He’s been talking about our calling to go proclaim the Gospel to all nations as a testimony, bringing the end into the present.
So with that context in mind, it’s entirely possible that, one, this is a reference to people who’ve placed their faith in Jesus, who’ve thrown themselves on his mercy as Savior, submitted to him as King, worshiped him as God.
Or these unprepared bridesmaids could be people who fall away from following Jesus and spend their lives on worldly pursuits instead of obeying him, listening to him, learning from him, and carrying out his kingdom work as disciples, as fishermen, as harvesters, as kingdom workers.
These are like the people where the seed from the parable of the soil goes into the rocky ground.
The cares of this life just choke out their faith.
So this could be people who literally just haven’t placed their faith in Jesus, or this could be people who’ve allowed, just like Jesus warned in chapter 24, people who fall away because they’ve been enticed by the world.
They’ve been drawn away by the temptations of the world.
They’ve been drawn into a life of worldliness instead of a life of following Jesus.
These are Christians with no fruit.
These are people who claim to be believers but have experienced absolutely no change, no repentance, no obedience, no mission-drivenness.
So we can interpret this in both of those two ways.
There’s not a slam dunk either way.
So if you go to a church service and your preacher preaches it in either of these ways, he’s doing a legitimate interpretation.
The Parable of the Talents
There’s a landowner.
There’s a master who goes away for a long time, and he has three servants.
And he gives one of his servants five talents.
He gives one of his servants two talents.
And he gives another one one talent.
He knows that this guy’s a very competent servant.
This guy’s a decent servant.
This guy over here, he’s not so great.
He’s not so hot.
He doesn’t have quite the same level of ability as this guy over here.
So his expectations are not the same for all of them.
He doesn’t expect the same thing out of all three of his servants.
He knows this guy has a much higher level of skill.
I expect much more from him.
This guy has a lower level of skill.
I expect much less.
He’s actually an understanding master.
We see that right there from the beginning, and that’s important.
He’s an understanding master.
He’s not a demanding master.
He’s not an exacting master.
He’s not a rule master.
This is a master who treats each of his servants with dignity according to their abilities.
So one of the servants takes his five talents, and he goes and he puts it to work, and he turns it into ten.
He doubles his master’s investment.
The other one, he takes his two talents, and he goes and he puts it to work, and he grows the investment as well.
But then there’s the third servant.
Now, he doesn’t have the same abilities, the same intelligence as the other guys.
That’s fine, right?
But he doesn’t even try to put the gift his master has given him to work.
He doesn’t even try to put his investment to work.
He just buries it out of fear.
Not just out of fear, out of disdain.
When the master comes back, he says:
“Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter. I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth.”
—Matthew 25:24–25, WEB
Now, we actually know from this story that Jesus is telling them that is not true.
We literally already know this is an understanding master.
And by the way, look at the end of the story.
The guy who took his investment and doubled it, he literally gives him the investment.
He says, “Here, take this. You’re rich now. You get to have this. You didn’t know from the beginning, but I was going to give this to you.”
He does the same thing to the guy with two talents who doubles his investment.
He literally gives him the investment.
He gives him the money.
He doesn’t take his money back.
He gives it to him as a gift, as a reward for his faithfulness.
This is not a hard master.
This is a good master, an understanding master, a generous master.
And yet this third servant, he resents him.
He hates him.
He doesn’t care that this master is understanding and generous and good.
He just resents the master to begin with.
So he just buries his talent.
He refuses.
He flat-out refuses to do the one thing that he was called to when his master left.
What Does the Wicked Servant Represent?
Once again, this could be multiple things.
Some people read this and they interpret it to mean that the wicked servant is representative of people who, you know, they receive the general revelation, right?
We can look around at the world, and we can see that there is some kind of God.
We can see something, right?
And if we seek out that God, then the Lord will open the doors for us and reveal him to us, right?
If we seek the Lord, he will answer.
Some people interpret this in such a way that the wicked servant is someone who’s got the same general revelation as everyone else, and yet, rather than responding to that by seeking out the Lord, he just ignores it.
He’s not interested in finding the Lord, so he just buries it.
And so when Jesus comes back, the people who sought the Lord and found him and learned the truth about him and became fruitful, he rewards them.
But the people who didn’t even seek him, he punishes.
Some people interpret it in that way, and that is, I think, a perfectly valid way of interpreting this.
But once again, I think in context Jesus is talking about our work between now and his return.
So I think a more likely way to interpret this is that this wicked servant is someone who, once again, allegedly is a believer, who claims to be a believer, who, you know, maybe walked down the aisle or something like that.
You know, obviously they didn’t do walking down the aisle back then, but you know what I mean.
Someone who claims in some way to believe in God, claims in some way to believe in Jesus, but refuses to follow him, refuses to be his disciple, refuses to join into the kingdom work that he has given us as his people, as his fishers of people, as his harvesters, as his kingdom workers who are sent out to the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling, who are sent out to the poor and the powerless, one, to introduce them to the God who wants to redeem them and restore them, and two, to carry out God’s good kingdom work of alleviating their struggle, pulling them out of the cycle of poverty.
But there’s this kingdom work we’ve been given, and yet he wants no part of it.
Specifically, he wants no part of it because he seems to resent the Lord.
He seems to have no love for his master.
And I think some people claim to be Christians but have no love for the Lord.
Some folks are Christians because their family are Christians.
They’re Christians because their culture is Christian.
They’re Christians because, you know, traditionally they’ve been in a Christian place or whatever, but have no love for the Lord.
No interest in who he is, what he is like, what he wants for us, what he wants from us.
We have no value on him or his work or his mission.
So they just bury what he’s given them.
They just bury it in the ground.
I think that’s what’s happening here.
This is a wicked servant who buries his talent when his master’s away because so many of us refuse or neglect to join the work God has given us, to live a life of obedience, to continue following him, knowing him, growing with him, because we do not love the Lord or value his mission.
And so when he returns, people like that, he will not find them working.
The Sheep and the Goats
This is the most famous and the most controversial of the parables Jesus tells here.
There are sheep and there are goats.
And these sheep have spent their lives feeding the hungry, giving them something to eat, giving something to drink to the thirsty, taking in strangers, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, visiting the imprisoned.
But the goats, they’ve spent their lives callously ignoring the suffering in the world, callously ignoring the least of these, and refusing to do God’s kingdom work of serving the poor and the powerless.
The goats are callously unwilling to do this very specific part of God’s kingdom work.
They’re callously unwilling to pour themselves out for people in need.
They claim to be believers, but they don’t actually submit to the rule and reign and mission of Jesus.
Now, the point of this passage is not that you can’t go to heaven if you don’t help the poor enough.
That’s not what this is saying.
You know, a lot of, especially kind of left-wing churches and things like that, they’ll really hit this hard.
But I don’t think that’s quite the point here.
This is an example of what Jesus is talking about.
This refusal to serve the poor and the powerless is a symptom of a bigger issue.
This refusal of these goats to serve the poor and the powerless is a symptom of the fact that, just like the wicked servant, just like the five bridesmaids who didn’t bring enough oil, they do not love the Lord.
They do not have a heart for the Lord, and so they have no value on his mission.
Like, they don’t value his kingdom work and his kingdom mission.
They don’t have any desire or passion to see his redemptive work in the world accomplished.
They don’t care about God’s desire to restore and redeem the world and us.
And as a result, when the Lord returns, he does not find them working on his behalf, on his mission.
Instead, it’s like this.
Back in chapter 24, Jesus says:
“But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, and will cut him in pieces and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.”
—Matthew 24:48–51, WEB
The goats, the wicked servant, and the bridesmaids who don’t bring enough oil, they are all examples of this, of people who perhaps claim to be believers, but who see that Jesus hasn’t returned yet and they say, “You know what? I’m going to spend my life living it however I want. I’m going to spend my life doing whatever I want. I’m going to spend my life chasing worldly pursuits. I’m going to spend my life chasing my plans and goals and dreams and desires, seeking out my own power, my own prestige, my own status. I’m going to seek my glory instead of the Lord’s glory, my purpose instead of the Lord’s purpose, my mission instead of the Lord’s mission.”
That’s what Jesus is talking about here.
And so the bridesmaids, the wicked servant, the goats, these are all people who claim to follow the Lord, who claim to be God’s people, who claim to be the Lord’s servants, but refuse to obey him and do his work.
So, to point out the obvious, continuing on this broader theme, as Jesus has been dressing down the Pharisees and Sadducees, the most obvious example of these bridesmaids, this wicked servant, and these goats is the entrenched religious leaders in Israel that Jesus was going head-to-head against day in and day out.
But that same thing can be true for so many of us.
These Parables Are Meant to Sober Us, Not Scare Us
These are not meant to scare you.
The point of these stories is meant to sober us and wake us up, but they are not meant to scare us.
Here’s the thing.
People who are like the five foolish bridesmaids don’t care if they’re like the five foolish bridesmaids.
People who are like this wicked servant don’t care if they’re like the wicked servant.
People who are like the goats in Matthew 25 don’t care if they’re like the goats.
If you are worried that you might be a goat, you’re probably not a goat.
If you’re worried you might be like that wicked servant, you are not like that wicked servant.
If you’re worried you’re like the five foolish bridesmaids, you are not like the five foolish bridesmaids.
These are not people who just don’t understand.
These are not people who just make some mistakes.
These are not people who just don’t get enough done, who just don’t do enough for the Lord.
These are people who do not care.
These are people with hardened hearts.
These are people with seared souls.
These are people who do not love the Lord, do not submit to the Lord, do not value his values, his goals, his missions.
You may not fully understand all these things.
You may not fully grasp God’s will and God’s purpose and God’s desire and God’s mission.
But that is not the same thing as not caring.
That is not the same thing as being hard-hearted.
Lacking some understanding has nothing to do with your spiritual state.
It just means that you are still a work in progress, like I am still a work in progress, like everyone you’ve ever met is still a work in progress.
The absolute best followers of Jesus you know are still works in progress, being transformed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
And so are you.
And so you shouldn’t be reading these passages and saying, “Oh no, I think I’m a goat.”
No, you’re not.
If you care about whether you’re a sheep or a goat, you’re not a goat.
If you want to follow Jesus faithfully and you are trying, you are not a goat, because that desire in itself is fruit.
Your efforts in themselves are fruit.
Your continued journey to grow in understanding is fruit.
Maybe your fruit is growing slower than that person over there, but God is not comparing you to each other.
God is understanding.
He is like the understanding master in the parable of the talents.
If your fruit just grows more slowly than that person over there, all that means is that that person’s got five talents, you’ve got two, and God understands that.
God is gauging us in an understanding way.
He’s not beating us with a measuring stick.
When He Returns, Let Him Find Us Working
The point here in all of this is very simple.
When he returns, he should find us working.
Not because we want to impress him.
Not because we’re scared that he’ll punish us if he doesn’t.
He should find us working because we are passionate about his mission.
We are passionate about his kingdom work because we love the Lord, and that’s caused us to love what he loves.
That’s caused us to value what he values.
That’s caused us to pursue what he pursues.
And so, as his kingdom workers, we should be like the five wise bridesmaids who prepared for the coming of the groom by bringing extra oil, like the wise servants who prepared for the coming of their master by putting the gifts he’s given them to work.
We should be like the sheep who see the hungry and we feed them.
We see the thirsty, we give them something to drink.
We see the strangers and we take them in.
We see the naked and we clothe them.
We see the sick and we take care of them.
We see the wrongly imprisoned and we visit them.
We should be like these images that he’s given us, because what all these things add up to is we throw ourselves into his kingdom work every single day between now and his return.
“This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
—Matthew 24:14, WEB
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