Caring for Others

1. Read: Matthew 25:35, 36 “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

2. About the Text:

1) Jesus is speaking concerning the great judgment that will come upon all mankind.

2) The sheep cared for others, yet when they were told they did this, they did not realize it.

3) Jesus gives for us in these verses, the basic principles of caring for one another.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Our caring God cares for all men in doing his part in providing for man’s nourishment. Acts 14:17

2. Story of Elijah during famine. (1 Kings 17)

i. God took care of him by the brook Cherith. Fed with Ravens.

ii. When the brook ran dry, God supported him and a widow with meal and oil.

3. He expects us to do our part – Gen.3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread….”

4. He also expects us to provide for others. Luke 14:12-14 “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

1. Our caring God is a God of shelter.

i. “For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy” (Ps.61:3).

ii. God gave shelter to Noah and his family in Genesis 6.

2. Jesus speaks of the “stranger” in this passage.

i. The word “stranger” has a different meaning today.

ii. It was custom for travelers to ask for lodging when none could be found.

iii. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb.13:2).

3. We should be ready to provide shelter for the stranger and those in need.

i. Parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:34, 35 says that he put him in an inn.

ii. Notice the example of Lydia. Acts 16:15 “And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.”

1. From the time of the garden of Eden, all have needed clothing.

2. Our caring God provided the first clothes for mankind. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen.3:21).

3. God provided for the children of Israel during the time of wandering by extending the life of their clothes. Deuteronomy 29:5 “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.”

4. After the Geresene demoniac had been cast out, he was found clothed. Mark 5:15; Luke 8:35. Where did he get his clothing?

5. Ephesians 4:28 “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

6. In Job 31:19 he states that he never failed to act when he saw the poor in need of clothes.

1. Healing the sick was part of Jesus ministry.

i. Matthew 4:24 “And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”

ii. “And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2).

2. Elders have a special role in visiting the sick today.

i. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:14, 15).

ii. Anointing with oil was a custom of the day.

iii. God works through providential means today.

3. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).

1. Prison then was not what it is today.

i. Insane asylums were not known and they usually cast these into prison with the rest.

ii. MANY that were unjustly imprisoned (See Acts 5:18 and Acts 16:23, 24).

1) John the baptizer was unjustly cast into prison (Matt.4:12).

2) There were also political and religious prisoners.

2. Prison is a place of isolation and loneliness.

3. There are also spiritual prisons – that of our own minds.

4. “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and … keep thy precepts” (Ps.119:63).

5. “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men” (1 Thess.5:14).

6. “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Tim.4:9-13).

1. Let us give diligence to care for others.

i. Sustenance

ii. Shelter

iii. Clothing

iv. Comfort

v. Companionship

3. Invitation