I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 25 as we continue working through the Gospel of Matthew. And chapters 24 and 25 are really showing us this theme of readiness for the return of Christ. And today we are considering the parable that follows his teachings on this, in Matthew chapter 25, verses 1 through 13. Let's give our attention this morning to the holy Word of the Lord.
"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry: here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out But the wise answered, saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, lord open to us But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour
May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word.
Well, I went to my study during that last song. You'll notice the uh title this morning is "Perhaps Today." And along the way, a dear saint uh had this made for me that I have in my study, and it says "Perhaps Today" from Revelation 22 20 And this was the very sign that Charles Spurgeon had not the very one, be very valuable, but it might go on eBay if that were the case but this is the very thing that Charles Spurgeon had in his study every day to remind him: perhaps today, perhaps today is the end, perhaps today He'll come. And that is what I want to emphasize this morning as we consider this great text. That that is the whole point of jesus he wants us to live with that kind of readiness. Really, you have the whole sermon with that That kind of readiness is what He is after.
And we come to this text obviously this morning with sort of heavy hearts, with the announcements that were made, the difficulty of death among us. And of course, that all applies, doesn't it? If He doesn't come today in physical return, He could come tonight for you in death. And Jesus told a parable about that: that a man built bigger barns and bigger buildings and thought, "Well, you know, life's just going to always go on as it has always gone on. And he says, I'm going going to store up. I'm going to have, I'm going to get to a place in life where everything's so stored up and I'm happy, and I never have to worry about a thing. I have so much money. And He said, "You fool. Tonight you die. Then whose will all that become? Not yours."
Well, I thought about doing something different this morning, maybe a psalm, last minute. But then I thought, this is probably, as difficult as it is, one of the most important texts for us to consider at a moment like this, isn't it?
My goal here is not to scare people to death. That's not the goal. That is not Jesus' goal. It is to lead us in triumph in Christ. It is to lead us in hope. It is to lead us in certainty. It is to have the goal of reminding us here that life is very short, and none of us are guaranteed the long life that we have we think we're going to get And that we are called to be a ready people a ready a prepared people and that's the whole heart of Jesus's teaching on this: ready for the second coming, ready for his return, ready for the end of all things as we as we know it. And what we've all been believing and what we've all looked for is the hope of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting in a new heavens and new earth where there will be no more of this. But it's hard. We still hold on, and our Lord wants to help us today and remind us that life does not go on forever. And we get these surprising moments in life like this, and you can't figure it, by the way. You can't figure it. You can't think, "Well, you know, if I do this and I i just live really well and and do none of the bad stuff, I'll live the long life that is not guaranteed. You can't figure it. You can't figure that someone like a Ben Sasse, at 53 years old, has tumors all up and down his spine, when some people have lived terrible lives and done the worst things to their bodies. No, this is the Lord. It's appointed for your death. It's already mapped. It's already marked.
Well, I want to look at this parable this morning with these thoughts. Probably has been one of the most allegorized parables ever in all of Scripture. Maybe the most allegorized text in all of the Bible. I'm pretty certain of that. It's easy to do that with this, and easy to miss the most basic point of this in all the allegories.
What we have here, and what we're looking at here, is a fascinating parable that Jesus tells. Who are the ten virgins, and what do they represent? And endless ink and pens have been spilled writing down all the different thoughts on this. That really what we have here is not so much the they say, the world And the church, But it's the church itself. and that really in the church there are some ready and some not. half are wise And half are foolish. And this oil in the lamp, they say, we'll say, is something like the really is taken to be the Holy Spirit and some people take the Holy Spirit in their lives with them and some don't. That was sort of the common Puritan approach to this text. It was often to write and preach very long sermons on the drowsiness of saints: that really, you're all very drowsy. And there's some wise here who will make it out, but some will be shut out of the kingdom because they're so drowsy.
I confess the first time that I preached this sermon after seminary, I fell into that allegorical trap in many ways of how the text was taken. And I think you can miss the most basic point Jesus is driving home when we take this too far.
What are we looking at this morning? It's something very simple. It's something very simple.
I'm going to speak a little more personally on this this morning, because I have stories about this text. I have real stories with this text. I avoid this text. And you're going to find out why. I see some of my old parishioners here from Linden. They're going to remember this. They're going to remember. You happen to be here on the time I'm going to address this. But I want to speak very personally about this.
There is a great concern of Christ in this text, which has the intention of preparing us so that we're not left outside on the last day. That's the intention. It's preparation. But I have a thought about preparation. And in light of what's happened in the last day and two, and then with John Boer and with Andy, it dawned on me something powerful about preparation that we don't think about. And that's what I want to try to hit on here in a moment.
The way that Jesus describes this parable is something I think is easy to miss and a lot of treatments of it. That many teachings leave the impression that the shock we find in the foolish virgins on the last day who do not make it into the kingdom means that that many are going to be very surprised on the last day that they're not getting in now that may be but the way that Jesus tells this story, the intention by which he tells it, and the way that he describes it, is that what's evidenced by these foolish virgins is their whole lives. They never entered it. Their whole lives they never prepared. They never entered the kingdom at any point. And this is a really important point of Jesus, isn't it? For the Pharisees, who would not come, who would not come to Him for eternal life.
And Jesus wants to press people with this great question: In a flock, indeed, in the world, indeed, there are many people. Think of how many people in the world think that when they die, they're just another star in heaven. Jesus says, "Not true." He wants people to think about what it means to be ready.
"Blessed is that servant when his master comes who will so find him doing." You see? It has the goal of this readiness so that the day does not overtake us as a thief. It has that goal. So that's a good goal. That's a good intention of our Lord. That's what He's after for all of you. And I'm hoping it inspires us to think about putting off those things in life that are weights, that are sins that easily ensnare, that harm preparedness, and that which inspires us to put on that which inspires us to be a ready people.
But I'm going to come back to that readiness concept. We just went through Matthew chapter 24, and after Christ has answered the questions of his disciples concerning what they can expect in this age and what the destruction of the temple would be like, he turned to what I think is the real concern of all of his teachings on what you might call end times as we sort of coin it, or the second coming, or eschatology. We may face confusions about things in this age, but what is Jesus most concerned about? What is Jesus most interested in for you? And and really, I think you can summarize the whole thing in verse 42: the main concern of Jesus, the heart of Jesus's concern is, "Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." That's the center. That's that's the whole driving point of his teaching on this. Everything is building to that and from that in chapters 24 and 25: readiness for the coming day of the Lord.
And leading that, Jesus said the problem is that so many in this life don't even think about this. His coming will be like, remember what he said last time, the days of Noah. "They ate, they drank, they were married, they were giving in marriage, all the way until the day that Noah entered the ark." The point of that is to say, not that those things are bad, but the point of that is to say that that's what they lived for. That's what they thought life was, and they never gave a thought in the world to there's an end of this and there's a judgment. And that makes sense, that there's a judgment, can you? Live in this world and see all that we have seen and all the evil and all the sickness and the twistedness, even of our own hearts, and say there's no accountability on any of that? That there's going to be no answer that people have to give? We all know that would be the most unjust thing ever. A judgment is coming.
And no one talks about it, and no one thinks about it. So the great intention of Jesus is for people to think about this great question of readiness and to be on alert.
Now, Jesus began, from verse 42, that crucial verse, and asked the question: "Who is the faithful and sensible servant, the wise servant? Blessed is the one when he comes, he finds doing." And then he tells the story of this really foolish man, this foolish man who said, "You know what? My master's delayed. He's not coming." And he lived life for the present. He lived life for the present, believing that this day would never come. And foolish he was, because he went out and beat his servants. It shows his character. And he got drunk with the drunkards. And he lived thinking that nothing would ever change. He was faithless. And Jesus says, that is the kind of person who, when the Lord comes, when the master of the house comes, somebody like that is the one to face the judgment. He never lived believing that there's any accountability to his life, that there's anyone he has to answer to but himself. And he did whatever he wanted to do, and he lived life to the fullest, and he was successful. And Jesus says, that's foolish.
Now, the kingdom of heaven then that leads us to this powerful parable. "The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom." And what we have described is the second coming of Christ in the common parlance and language of the arrival of a bridegroom at a typical Jewish wedding. Maybe these were the bridesmaids. Jesus is not specific here on any of the details. It's enough that we understand the imagery. That's all he's doing. And what's being emphasized and the importance is notice how he captures it with the coming of the bridegroom, the bridegroom's coming, the bridegroom is coming. Who? It's Him. And when he comes, he's going to enter in the hall, and the door will be shut, and there will be a great feast.
And the first emphasis, then, is the announcement of his arrival, and then his arrival itself that is here captured. So you have this glorious announcement of his coming, his arrival, and then the arrival itself that the parable is really trying to capture for us.
But the shocking statement to lead off here is: five were wise and five were foolish. "When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil. They took no flasks of oil with their lamps, but the wise did exactly that. They they brought oil with their lamps." And the emphasis here is: if you're going to go out into the night and you're going to come to the bridegroom's chamber, you're going to go, you're going to need a lamp. But listen, you can't take a lamp in the dark and light the wick without any oil. So you got to prepare. Since it's a journey, you've got to walk, it's going to take time to get there, it's going to be arduous, but you've got to take oil in your land
What is Christ concerned about here? Is this point: the coming has been announced all throughout history, hasn't it? All throughout history He's coming. "Behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of saints, Enoch, to execute justice and judgment." All throughout history, this has been announced. And in the course of your lives, in the preaching of the gospel, this is what we have said: "The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming." Our very prayer is, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come soon. Come quickly."
What have we experienced as a church? That He can come at any moment for our lives. Here's the driving point: there are many in this life who are not ready for this at all. And they have made absolutely no preparation and no thought about it. It's not there. The emphasis here, if you notice Jesus, is the entire absence of preparation. It's just not there. There's no thought to it. Entire absence. One pastor said, "It's senseless neglect. It's total thoughtlessness. They don't believe that they could be the ones for whom he comes."
Well, there are those who are ready, and then there are those who are not. That's how Jesus captures this.
I go to the gym all the time, and I talk with all kinds of various peoples, and I hear I have many friends over there and we have great discussions. I hear all this human ambition at the gym: what we're going to do today and making a lot of money and the drive and success of life. And embedded in all the conversations, which you realize you really could you get to even this discussion? "Do you think there's a judgment to come? Are you ready for it?" They'd look at you cross-eyed. "Who is this weirdo?"
Psalm 49 i think Pastor Contraris preached this a few weeks ago their inner thought is their houses are forever they're dwelling places to all generations. And if not, even if they will agree that at some point they're gonna die, there's no concern about what happens after they die. And maybe the fault of that is the church that we've all just wanted to be entertained to death so there's no sense anymore that there is a judgment because we just won't give the message. Shame on us.
So if you press people, there's no commitment to worship. There's no commitment to any church. There's no desire for fellowship. Think of what we saw in these saints that just died. You saw readiness, no? It's not a question. You saw readiness. There are fixtures in the Lord's house.
That's what makes this hard. There's a little sense of the importance, among some people, of what we call the means of grace and to receive grace. And they don't take any church seriously, and they don't understand why we do this. And for many in Christianity, America is just a cultural phenomenon. It's a club. It's all Christianity is. It's just a club. Nice stuff.
Point is, there are people leading very foolish lives. They're not prepared. And all of this is in contrast to the wise who take oil.
And I was listening to Ben Sasse's interview the other day, and he's dying. he's dying. So these interviews are very powerful. And I thought, you know, his political life was remarkable of what the Lord used for him to accomplish in this life, but probably his best moment is right now. I started thinking, maybe that's exactly what the Lord had for him to bless us, because he's a sharp cookie. And I listened to that interview, full of tumors in his spine, he can barely sit there, sad shape. All he's talking about is the hope of the resurrection. And he talked about a cemetery, amidst all the graves. And he says, "You know, we probably need to go back out to cemeteries again and just walk them." And he's talked about this particular cemetery, this old cemetery from the 1800s. And he says, "All these graves, and then over the grave is a sign: But the dead shall rise again. But the dead shall rise again. And he says, "I tell my kids now, looking back over life, I wish, now this is, do you listen to the dead who are dying? Do you listen to what they have to say? I wish I'd have taken the Lord's day more seriously, because this day is an antidote to all the idolatries that we fall into in this life."
Ben is teaching us right now what being ready looks like. And what is the testimony of the dying? All of us are going to have regrets. That's life under the sun. You're all going to say, "I wish I'd have done this better, and I wish I'd have done that better, and I wish I'd have never done that." All of us are going to have that. But it's where you turn in the midst of those things. This captures precisely readiness.
"Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, but God's truth abideth still."
John Boar showed me readiness all the time. Andy Vandy showed me readiness all the time. This is how the Bible describes you, beloved. Second Peter three speaks of us this way: "But according to his promise, we are waiting. It doesn't say, well we're we're not really we're no. You're waiting. You believe this for the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell. You're waiting for that. You believe that that's coming. Oh, I don't think you do it perfectly. I don't do it perfectly, far from
And the reality is, we often don't feel very ready. That's what makes this a challenge, doesn't it? But if you are in Christ, we are not of those who shrink back to perdition, but of those who believed the saving of the soul said the author of hebrews we are not of those as those. of which this day will overtake as a thief we're not those see there's a there's a line of demarcation here that jesus brings in this. complete unreadiness and complete readiness it's a shock but then He surprises us in the midst of this. I think he knows our struggle. See, if you get cancer and you waste away for six months, or you die from a heart attack, the outcome's the same. For those in Christ, you're forgiven. He has watched your life. You are ready people. You are hopeful people. This is who you are. You belong to him in body and in soul. None of the truths of the gospel we confess are absent from this parable that challenges us now.
Nobody says that's easy. I am not going to be up here grandstanding today saying this is easy.
Preceding the announcement of his coming, Jesus says, "When the bridegroom was delayed, that's right now, they all became drowsy and slept." You could make nothing of that, but I think you should make something of that. I don't often feel ready. Prayer is weak. Trust is not what we want. We struggle with every kind of worldly lust under the sun just like everyone else. I think Jesus recognizes that struggle here. But it's what's here that is meant to help us is what shines.
Remember what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus is going to the cross, and he says to his disciples, "Watch, pray, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Three times He comes back, and what are they doing? They're asleep. Who? Disciples.
And here's the blessing of His Word. Look at what He impressed upon us this week. Well, what did He do for us this week? It's an awful thing to see the sufferings of our brethren and death. I can barely take it anymore, especially as I get older. But it seems to me that the Lord takes moments like this and orchestrates. I mean, come on, the sermon title is "Perhaps Today." I didn't plan that. And he takes moments in his providence to impress a truth upon a congregation in a strong manner.
You know this story. I tell it because I think it's so important, at least it was for me in my own formation as a pastor, but it was Eric Fenema. He was a member, he was a pastor in our churches, he was 58 years ago. I was young, I was a lot younger. And I preached for him in Lethbridge, and we built this bond and friendship. It was like David and Jonathan; I love this man. And he says, "Hey, when I'm down in Linden sometime, I'd like to, I'll come see you." And I said, "Why don't you do better? Why don't you just preach?" And so he happens to show up on the time when Zach, my third, had just been born. And we're a little tired. And he offers to preach. So he comes to preach for us at the Linden URC. And he opens up. And the text that he chose was Matthew 25, 1 through 13: "Watch. Be ready. For you don't know the day nor the hour." It's one of my favorite sermons. I still remember him preaching it. And he said, "Watch your life, be ready." And we sat together at dinner that night with the Camingas and the Finemas. And next Saturday comes, and I'm sitting down getting ready for Sunday, I'm emailing you to tell you the sad news: today, that Reverend Fenema went to be with the Lord. He had a massive heart attack and died.
I fell out of my chair. His last sermon was this. And his last sermon was to us, not his congregation. You don't think there's a message in that? And it happened today, last night. That's not coincidental. That's the Lord.
What am I saying about preparation, then? He's doing it for you. That's what I thought about. He's doing it for you. He's preparing you. That's the blessing of being under His Word. That's the blessing of the church. That's the blessing of the kingdom of God. That's the blessing of being part of a family like this. Uncomfortable is all this is. He's got something so much better. He wants us ready. And so he does things that are reversed to us. He does things that are backwards to us. Those are his purposes, and you can't figure them. His ways are not our ways, nor are his thoughts our thoughts.
But back to the main concern of Christ, to close this today: is that many are not ready. Many are not thinking about this. And he describes it; he says in verse 6, "At midnight, there's a cry, Here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him. We've been preaching. We've been preaching Jesus for a long time. We've been preaching, "Come to him, believe." And then all the virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said, "Wait, what? Come back to that." What we have here is the moment, most likely, if you're putting this together, when Christ said, "Then the sign will appear in the heavens, and the sign of the Son of Man will appear, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn." It's capturing for us a moment. There will be a great trumpet sound, there'll be a great sound, an announcement: He's coming, he's coming, he's here. On that day, to be glorified in his people first christians 15. "We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. Then the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are alive shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Not a day of dread for you it's those who love Him and His appearing."
But Jesus pushes us with the foolish. They get up. "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." The wise said, "We can't. We can't give our oil. You got to go get it yourself." And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and they went into the feast, and the door was shut.
And you see what He's concerned about? You see how pastoral He is here? "Watch and be alert. He's coming when you don't expect it." And the virgins come the foolish ones: "Open, open to us." But he says, "I do not know you." See? He never knew them. It's the same sort of language when the ark door was shut and the kingdom was shut forever, and there were people on the outside.
And what is clear is that there was no faith throughout the course of their lives. Did you hear me? There was no faith. There was no belief. Their whole lives told that story.
You've seen ready saints, and you've seen those, you know this. You've seen those who are leaving unbelieving lives. Don't do that. If you can say today, "I have believed the gospel, and I have looked to Christ, and I've come to him in true faith, and I believed you are a ready people. You've been justified by... You are a ready people. You see? And the life that you now live, you live by faith. And yes, we in the Heidelberg is just right. We begin to put off the old and put on the new, and we begin to walk in the newness of life.
And we look forward to this. Turn to the Lord today. If you've not come, repent and believe the gospel today. If you have not come, hear the call of the gospel. It's the day of salvation. It's the day of mercy.
And that's why ends the parable: "Watch, therefore. You do not know the day nor the hour when the Son a Man is coming."
So then, come. You, come today.
And I close with this question: Does it show in your joy to worship him? Are you burdened by your sins? Are you looking to his provision God's provision of the Father giving his Son? Do you confess to the Lord and come to him as an adopted child, believing? Have you come and received from his hand freely help, forgiveness, steadfast love? Watch your life. Be ready, he says, for I am coming, and my reward is with me. And behold, I will make all things new.
Perhaps today.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word to us. With heavy hearts, we come realizing you have done a great work of preparing our hearts by leaving the witnesses of servants like what we just had witnessed in Andy Van D. and John Boer. And we pray, O Lord, that we would take note of these examples and that we, Lord, would be a new generation that rises up and steps into that place, that we might model well to a next generation what ready servants are. Forgive us, Lord, for often looking back to the things of this life and even sin that easily ensnares us. Cleanse us. Strengthen us by your Holy Spirit. May every last one of us be looking and hastening for the coming day of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.