Matthew 24:14

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Most Bible scholars believe that Jesus will not return until the Gospel is preached to all of the language and people groups that are in the world. Many have heard, but many more have not. There are wonderful missionaries who are involved in translating God’s word into other languages. It is hard work, but it is God’s work too! They must first befriend the tribe and begin to learn their language. Then they must make an alphabet and a grammar book of the language. Next they must translate the Bible into the language and then teach the tribe to read and write so that they can read their new Bible – in their own tongue. It takes many years before they can preach to the tribe for the first time! These Bible translators are helping God to reach every tribe and nation of the world! What a wonderful task!

Matthew 24:1,2

Matthew 24:1,2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. While the disciples were in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast, they did some sight-seeing. They visited the beautiful, white limestone Temple. It was sparkling in the sunlight and dazzling to their eyes, But Jesus gave them a sad revelation: in just a few years, the beautiful Temple would be destroyed. Not a single stone would be left upon another! And in 70 A.D. just 35 years after Jesus death, this prophecy came to pass. The emperor Titus marched his Roman army into Jerusalem to put down the Jewish rebellion. Things got out of hand and the Temple was burned. When the fire cooled, the Roman soldiers pulled down the giant building blocks looking for all of the gold that melted and ran down into the cracks between the stones. When the soldiers left, not a single stone was left upon another. Today, only the western foundation stones remain, known as the Jewish Wailing Wall. Jesus was right. He knew the future. And He knows our future as well. He is awesome!

Matthew 23:37

Matthew 23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Jesus came to earth and was born into a Jewish family. He was a Jew. So Jesus had a special place in His heart for Jerusalem, the Jewish capital. Just like a mother hen gathers her little chicks together when danger comes, Jesus would have gathered the Jews together and saved all of them. But they rejected Him and His spiritual kingdom. How sad! Jesus loved them and was willing to die for them, but they would have nothing of Him! They rejected Jesus and even had Him executed! Can you believe it?! So how about us? Do we respect and obey Jesus as we should? I hope so!

Matthew 23:27,28

Matthew 23:27,28 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Jesus said in our verses from yesterday, that the inside is more important than the outside. Today Jesus used an example of a dead body and the tomb where it is laid out. The graveyard is neat and clean with grass well mowed, but down inside of that tomb is a stinking dead body. The body is decayed and . . . well you get the picture. I won’t be gross. No one likes to think about the inside of a tomb. And Jesus said that that was how it was with the Pharisees. They looked good enough on the outside, but they were all dead and decaying on the inside. They were the opposite of our cup from yesterday. They were nasty on the inside. So, what about your heart? Are you right with God on the inside? Or are you just a fake on the outside? Hummmm?

Matthew 23:25,26

Matthew 23:25,26 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. I have been taking Jami Peterson to dialysis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the past two months. I pick her up at 5 AM and i don’t like to be late. So i leave the house a little early and drive to the BP gas station near her house and wait until exactly one minute till five and leave. Well, five o’clock is early, so I go inside and buy a cup of coffee. I soon found that their coffee was $1.49, but refills were 99¢. So I started keeping my Styrofoam coffee cup from day to day. If I keep the lid on it, it stays pretty clean until the next time. But if I forget to put the plastic lid on the cup, it rolls around in my truck and gets really gross. Just like our verses for today, I don’t worry about the outside of my cup – after all, I drink out of the inside. But if the inside is nasty, well, I just have to throw the cup away and buy a new one. The inside of my coffee cup is way more important than the outside. I think that God agrees, the inside of our hearts is way more important than the outside. What do you think?

Matthew 23:23

Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. What an interesting word picture that Jesus wrote for us. Can’t you just see this picky Pharisee looking over his little spice garden on the window sill. Tiny sprouts of spices are growing in the window box that their wife uses to make the food taste better. This picky Pharisee is counting each little blade of herbs. He says, “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.” and as he says ten, he pulls number ten out. This Pharisee is going to give number ten as his tithe at the Temple! Can you believe how careful he is about giving one tenth to the Lord. But this is why Christ called the Pharisee a hypocrite: the Pharisee was careful to give tithes of his herb garden, but the more important things of God’s law las left undone. The Pharisees were critical of Jesus the Messiah from God! They missed the whole thing about God’s Son coming to earth. They ignored Jesus Christ and counted little sprouts of spices to pay tithes on! What a great lesson for us. And are3n’t we like the Pharisees? Sometimes we go to church, which is good, but we don’t get along with our brother or sister. We fuss and fight with the person that we should love the most! We are careful to give ten cents of every dollar that we make, but we don’t respect our mother or dad. Wow! That makes me think. I need to call my mother and remind her that I love her. Thank you, God for reminding me too! And what about you?! Take time today to tell your mother and father and sister and brother that you love them. Always remember the important things.