Matthew 24–25

The Temple Will Be Destroyed

24As Jesus left the Temple and was walking away, his followers came up to show him the Temple’s buildings. ²Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground.”

³Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his followers came to be alone with him. They said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that it is time for you to come again and for this age to end?”

⁴Jesus answered, “Be careful that no one fools you. ⁵Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will fool many people. ⁶You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, but don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. ⁷Nations will fight against other nations; kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. ⁸These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.

⁹“Then people will arrest you, hand you over to be hurt, and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me. ¹⁰At that time, many will lose their faith, and they will turn against each other and hate each other. ¹¹Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe lies. ¹²There will be more and more evil in the world, so most people will stop showing their love for each other. ¹³But those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved. ¹⁴The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.

¹⁵“Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘a blasphemous object that brings destruction.’ ⁿ You will see this standing in the holy place.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) ¹⁶“At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. ¹⁷If people are on the roofs ⁿ of their houses, they must not go down to get anything out of their houses. ¹⁸If people are in the fields, they must not go back to get their coats. ¹⁹At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! ²⁰Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away, ²¹because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning of the world until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again. ²²God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen. ²³At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them. ²⁴False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great wonders and miracles. They will try to fool even the people God has chosen, if that is possible. ²⁵Now I have warned you about this before it happens.

²⁶“If people tell you, ‘The Christ is in the desert,’ don’t go there. If they say, ‘The Christ is in the inner room,’ don’t believe it. ²⁷When the Son of Man comes, he will be seen by everyone, like lightning flashing from the east to the west. ²⁸Wherever the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹“Soon after the trouble of those days,

‘the sun will grow dark,

and the moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from the sky.

And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

³⁰“At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky with great power and glory. ³¹He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from every part of the world.

³²“Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. ³³In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. ³⁴I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living. ³⁵Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed.

When Will Jesus Come Again?

³⁶“No one knows when that day or time will be, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. ⁿ Only the Father knows. ³⁷When the Son of Man comes, it will be like what happened during Noah’s time. ³⁸In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving their children to be married, until the day Noah entered the boat. ³⁹They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other will be left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding grain with a mill. ⁿ One will be taken, and the other will be left.

⁴²“So always be ready, because you don’t know the day your Lord will come. ⁴³Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time of night a thief was coming, the owner would watch and not let the thief break in. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time you don’t expect him.

⁴⁵“Who is the wise and loyal servant that the master trusts to give the other servants their food at the right time? ⁴⁶When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed. ⁴⁷I tell you the truth, the master will choose that servant to take care of everything he owns. ⁴⁸But suppose that evil servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ ⁴⁹and he begins to beat the other servants and eat and get drunk with others like him? ⁵⁰The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. ⁵¹Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the hypocrites, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.

A Story About Ten Bridesmaids

25“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to wait for the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³The five foolish bridesmaids took their lamps, but they did not take more oil for the lamps to burn. ⁴The wise bridesmaids took their lamps and more oil in jars. ⁵Because the bridegroom was late, they became sleepy and went to sleep.

⁶“At midnight someone cried out, ‘The bridegroom is coming! Come and meet him!’ ⁷Then all the bridesmaids woke up and got their lamps ready. ⁸But the foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’ ⁹The wise bridesmaids answered, ‘No, the oil we have might not be enough for all of us. Go to the people who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰“So while the five foolish bridesmaids went to buy oil, the bridegroom came. The bridesmaids who were ready went in with the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Then the door was closed and locked.

¹¹“Later the others came back and said, ‘Sir, sir, open the door to let us in.’ ¹²But the bridegroom answered, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t want to know you.’

¹³“So always be ready, because you don’t know the day or the hour the Son of Man will come.

A Story About Three Servants

¹⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was going to another place for a visit. Before he left, he called for his servants and told them to take care of his things while he was gone. ¹⁵He gave one servant five bags of gold, another servant two bags of gold, and a third servant one bag of gold, to each one as much as he could handle. Then he left. ¹⁶The servant who got five bags went quickly to invest the money and earned five more bags. ¹⁷In the same way, the servant who had two bags invested them and earned two more. ¹⁸But the servant who got one bag went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

¹⁹“After a long time the master came home and asked the servants what they did with his money. ²⁰The servant who was given five bags of gold brought five more bags to the master and said, ‘Master, you trusted me to care for five bags of gold, so I used your five bags to earn five more.’ ²¹The master answered, ‘You did well. You are a good and loyal servant. Because you were loyal with small things, I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my joy with me.’

²²“Then the servant who had been given two bags of gold came to the master and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of gold to care for, so I used your two bags to earn two more.’ ²³The master answered, ‘You did well. You are a good and loyal servant. Because you were loyal with small things, I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my joy with me.’

²⁴“Then the servant who had been given one bag of gold came to the master and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man. You harvest things you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not sow any seed. ²⁵So I was afraid and went and hid your money in the ground. Here is your bag of gold.’ ²⁶The master answered, ‘You are a wicked and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest things I did not plant and that I gather crops where I did not sow any seed. ²⁷So you should have put my gold in the bank. Then, when I came home, I would have received my gold back with interest.’

²⁸“So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the bag of gold from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags of gold. ²⁹Those who have much will get more, and they will have much more than they need. But those who do not have much will have everything taken away from them.’ ³⁰Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside, into the darkness where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’

The King Will Judge All People

³¹“The Son of Man will come again in his great glory, with all his angels. He will be King and sit on his great throne. ³²All the nations of the world will be gathered…