Has anyone read the book of Matthews, what did Jesus mean when he said this.....????

Question

21 "Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

Answer 1

He meant that most of the people who are certain that they are 'saved', are not. He really expects more than lip service.

Answer 2

Jesus does not want a bunch of people going around being "religious". What He wants is people to put their complete trust in him and accept him as saviour and redemption for their sins. Jesus is the rock, the one and only true foundation that doesn't waver or collapse when the winds of religion and the waves of popular opinion rage. Anyone can put on a false cloak of religiousness and anyone can say all the right words. But to believe Jesus and to pay attention to and do God's will -- not just anyone can do that. It takes a major committment, built upon salvation and relationship through Jesus, the rock, to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Answer 3

we know from Jesus' other parables that when the Lord talks about the stability of a house, it is dependent on the man's devotion to build his life on the Word of God.
I believe that Christians can be 'spiritual' and totally miss the value of getting to know God and the truth through the Word. Remember that He is the Word of God made flesh, we can know Him by knowing what His Word says; perhaps it's like the open bible speaking in this case: You were so spiritual, but you never took time to know Me, therefore I do not know you. We know that God knows everything, but do we know God? That's the way I take this verse. I'm an ex-pentecostal, if that means anything to you.

Answer 4

pretty straight forward..
Many people that are preaching today and casting out demons, have not been sent by God to do it. Miracles do not mean that a person is sent by God.
Some of these folks are on their own and when the end comes Jesus will tell them that he never knew them..

The following scriptures show that we need to be in obedience to Christ (the rock) and any ministry that we do needs to be built on him and his teachings.

When you get to the parable of the wheat and tares you find that the tares (devils servants) will be in the church and the angels will seperate them in the end. We are instructed to leave them alone until the end..

Answer 5

Ok!
Basically
Verses 21-23 is speaking of a lukewarm(not sure in God) or non christian who tries to save himself. Him declaring " I never knew you" talks about how one would have not had a relationship with God.

Verse 24-27 is of the Strong(faithful) Christian and a Lukewarm(Christian). The foundation allegory which a house is built on is the strength of your faith. So when the flood "or outer influence" comes, the stronger christian will keep is faith, while the lukewarm will not.

Answer 6

In this passage i believe he is tryin to say that the gate to salvation is a narrow and difficult path but at the end it leads to eternal life with the Lord and this only comes by accepting and recieving Jesus as your Lord and Savior and by going about his word and ackowledging the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as the trinity (God). And the wide gate and the broad path is the path the rest of the people take because they know bout him but do not recieve him and they think they will be saved from hell by knowing about him but not haveing a fellowship, communication with him and he says that the path leads to destruction(hell).

Answer 7

The message is about faith and obedience as opposed to works. For example, a person may have the outward appearance of religiosity and may argue at the Judgment - Look what I, I, I, I, did for you Lord, I sang in the choir and contributed to every jumble sale but God might say, "that is all very well but I did not ask you to sing in the choir and run the jumble sale I, the Lord called you to go door to evangelising for me but in your lack of faith, pride, cowardice, disobedience etc, you ignored MY Will and put yourself above me.

Therefore, God requires total submission from each and everyone of us. Even if we are doing what appear to be good works in the church they are meaningless and not pleasing to God even though we may be fooling others and trying to fool ourselves.

What does the Lord require of us? Micah 6:8

Answer 8

Just like what I have been writing eversince. It is not a passport to heaven just by knowing Jesus. One has to do the righteous works still.He will deny you if you become wicked. Actually, you have more chance of getting there by doing what is right even if you do not know him.
So, for the religious who keep on saying "take Jesus and you are saved" read that well.

Answer 9

Well, I'm really not Jesus so I can't tell you want he ws thinking exactly, but this is my take: there are some people who go to mass and talk about Jesus all the time, but they aren't kind ppl, and they don't go out of thier way to help others. There are others who do not even know the name of Jesus, but may be the kindest most loving people. The truly loving are the ones that Jesus wants not the false preachers. very nice piece of the Bible, one of my favorites .

Answer 10

21 - 23 simply means to believe with your heart. really truly believe. That works and doing things simply in Jesus' name will not get you to heaven.

I struggled with this verse alot about a year ago. Don't try to read to much into like I did.

24 - 25 Is talking about your foundation in Christ and listening to Him. Listen to Him and do as he says and your house is on Rock, or you wont sway from Him. Unlike the house built on sand where it is easier to be pushed around by Satan.

Answer 11

This was said mostly to get the attention of the religious leaders of that time and it still hits home to religious people now. I have been raised in church and have seen a lot of people who say they are Christians in order to advance themselves with the people even just within our church. If there's no true heart relationship with Christ you aren't His child. Everyone around you may believe you're right with God but that doesn't matter - the only thing that matters is your connection to God. Is He your Saviour?