What Jesus Did

Then one of the twelve followers went to talk to the leading priests. This was the follower named Judas Iscariot. Judas said, "I will give you Jesus. What will you pay me for doing this?" The priests gave Judas 30 silver coins. After that time Judas waited for the best time to give Jesus to the priests.

—Matthew 26:14-16

Key Thought
It appears that Judas would be remembered too! Wherever the Gospel is told, Judas is also remembered.
Judas is not just famous; he is infamous! How many...

 

But Jesus knew what happened. Jesus said, "Why are you troubling this woman? She did a very good thing for me. You will always have poor people with you. But you will not always have me. This woman poured perfume on my body. She did this to prepare me for burial after I die. I tell you the truth. The Good News will be told to people in all the world. And in every place where the Good News is told, the story of what this woman did will also be told. And people will remember her."

—Matthew...

 

Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the house of Simon the leper. While Jesus was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume. The woman poured this perfume on Jesus' head while Jesus was eating. The followers saw the woman do this and became upset at the woman. The followers asked, "Why waste that perfume? That perfume could be sold for much money and the money could be given to poor people."

—Matthew 26:6-9

Key Thought
Extravagance! We hate...

 

After Jesus finished saying all these things, he said to his followers, "You know that the day after tomorrow is Passover. On that day the Son of Man will be given {to his enemies} to be killed on a cross." Then the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders had a meeting at the palace where the high priest lived. The high priest's name was Caiaphas. In the meeting, they tried to find a way to arrest Jesus without the people seeing it. They planned to arrest Jesus and kill him. The men in...

 

"Then the king will say to those bad people on his left, 'Go away from me. God has already decided that you will be punished. Go into the fire that burns forever. That fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. You must go away, because I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was alone and away from home, and you did not invite me into your home. I was without clothes, and you gave me nothing to wear. I was sick and in prison, and...

 

"The Son of Man will put the sheep (good people) on his right and the goats (bad people) on his left. "Then the king will say to those good people on his right, 'Come. My Father has given you great blessings. Come and get the kingdom God promised you. That kingdom has been prepared for you since the world was made. You can have this kingdom, because I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was alone and away from home, and you invited me...

 

"The Son of Man will come again. He will come with great glory. All his angels will come with him. He will be king and sit on his great throne. All the people of the world will be gathered before the Son of Man. Then the Son of Man will separate all people into two groups. This is like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

—Matthew 25:31-32

Key Thought
This passage envisions the day when Jesus' disciples have taken the Gospel to all the nations (Matt. 28:18-20; Matt. 24:14)...

 

"{So the master told his other servants,} 'Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant that has ten bags of money. Every person that uses what he has will get more. That person will have much more than he needs. But the person that does not use what he has will have everything taken away from him.' Then the master said, 'Throw that useless servant outside, into the darkness! In that place people will cry and grind their teeth {with pain}.'"

—Matthew 25:28-30...

 

"Then the servant that got one bag of money came to the master. The servant said, 'Master, I knew that you were a very hard man. You harvest things you did not plant. You gather crops where you did not put any seed. So I was afraid. I went and hid your money in the ground. Here is the one bag of money you gave me.' "The master answered, 'You are a bad and lazy servant! You say you knew that I harvest things I did not plant, and that I gather crops where I did not put any seed. So you should...

 

"{The kingdom of heaven is} like a man leaving home to travel to another place for a visit. Before the man left, he talked with his servants. The man told his servants to take care of the things he owned while he was gone. He decided how much each servant would be able to care for. The man gave one servant five bags of money. He gave another servant two bags of money. And he gave a third servant one bag of money. Then that man left. The servant that got five bags of money went quickly to...