Advent: Week 1: Thursday: Year – B

First Reading: Isaiah 26: 1-6: Let the upright nation come in, she, the faithful one.

Gospel: Matthew: 7: 21, 24-27: The person who does the will of my Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Warning about False Pretences:

Who shall Enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Will everyone who professes Christ enter the kingdom of heaven? The Lord says, “No.” The false professor is a person who uses the Christian vocabularies, recites creeds and prayers, attends services, and participates in functions. Yet he or she does not know nor accept the Lord’s Word and obey the Word of God. Therefore Jesus says he/she shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven.

1.     The Law of Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven:

a.     A person must do more than profess to enter heaven. There are two kinds of people.

First, there are those who profess and do very little else.

Second, there are those who profess and do a tremendous work for their religion, society and family.

Does a person is rejected who calls “Lord, Lord”?

There are three primary reasons:

i.                   Profession alone fails to do more than profess. Profession alone is the big “I.”

ii.                 Profession alone does not do God’s Will. (2Tim 3: 5).

iii.              Profession alone acknowledges and honours self, not Christ.

2.     A person must do God’s Will in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Heaven should be final goal of everyone. The person who does God’s Will is the person who truly believes, obeys and loves God’s Son. (Jn 14: 21; 15: 14).

The person, who confesses, obeys and honours God shall enter heaven eternally. There is only one foundation for every life, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3: 11). So every person as a wise person has a life, family and society to build upon Christ with listening and obedience to the Word of God. Foolish fails it.

Thought: Christ is claiming that he himself is to be the future judge of the world (Jn 5: 22, 27).

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