Be on the Alert #1

The main point of what Jesus is teaching here is that he is telling us what to do in light of his future return. Christ is coming.

What does that mean for today? Welcome once again to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Well, today as he continues in his series titled Reflections on Our Lord, Don will share with us the importance of being ready for the return of Jesus Christ.

And now to continue teaching God's people God's word, here is Don Green with part one of a message called Be on the Alert, here on the Truth Pulpit. Let's look at 2 Peter chapter 3 with me, when Peter says, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the climate and its works will be burned up. You've got a biblical look at what real climate change will be like in that passage, and it won't be the kind of thing that people are fussing about in our day and age.

It'll be supernatural, and it will be final. Verse 11, since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat? But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless.

These future events, Peter says, are coming. Therefore, there is a way for you to live in response. You are to consider these things. You are to live in holy conduct. You are to live in godliness.

You are to be found in peace, spotless and blameless, pursuing sanctification, pursuing a holiness of life, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ and you confess these things. And so these things have a profound impact on the way that we think about the purpose and the way in which we are to live. Do you even think about this?

Have you ever thought about the consequences of that? The fact that the earth is going to be destroyed and Christ is going to return means that there's a way in which we hold this life loosely, realizing that it's all passing and transient. The very environment in which we live is passing away, to say nothing about the fact that our lives themselves are transient and passing away.

Well, this has great consequences then in terms of what we set our affections on and what we give our time and our resources and our love to. And Jesus taught a parable to impress the importance of this upon us, to impress that view of life upon us, and it's found in Matthew 25, and that will be our text for today. Matthew 25, I invite you to turn there with me. Matthew 25, it comes in the midst of a text in chapters 24 and 25 that are known as the Olivet Discourse, dealing with future things to come. And Jesus taught his disciples a parable to help them understand how they should think and live in response to the reality of his second coming. In verse 1 of chapter 25, it says this. We're going to read through verse 13. Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, Behold, the bridegroom!

Come out to meet him! Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the prudent answered, No, there will not be enough for us and you too.

Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, Lord, Lord, open up for us. But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.

Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. Now, if you're not familiar with the background of this parable, the cultural matters that gave context to what Jesus would say, this might sound like a little bit of a strange parable. But when you look at the background, it all becomes clear, it all becomes very obvious what Jesus is saying. And as with any of the parables, Jesus is teaching one primary point. There is one main point that is to be derived from the parables.

And we're not supposed to fuss and look for great meaning in every single detail of what a parable says. The main point of this parable, the main point of what Jesus is teaching here, is that he is telling us what to do in light of his future return. Christ is coming, what does that mean for today? What does that mean for the way that you use your life and the way that you use your time? And so Jesus is teaching his disciples what to do in light of his return.

And the answer, simply speaking, the answer that we're going to see is this. There is a spiritual urgency to the matter. It is urgent spiritually for you to take these things to heart and to do something in response. It is urgent for you to prepare now for what will surely happen then. You must prepare now while you have opportunity.

You must prepare now while you have breath in your lungs. You must prepare now and take spiritual matters seriously. You must respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ and live in a life that's bringing forth fruit of repentance to prepare yourself for that coming day. If you foolishly disregard the warning and you foolishly go about your life and foolishly give yourself over to the things of this world and loving the things of this world with no regard for the things of Christ, something bad is going to happen. Christ is going to return at a time when you don't expect it and then it's going to be too late. And when Christ returns and you're unready at that time, perhaps it's as simple as when the day of your death unexpectedly comes. If you are not ready to meet Christ, oh, the horror of the loss. The horror of the loss.

It's unspeakable. And so what a wise person does in light of the certainty of these truths is that they prepare while they have time for that great coming day. Well, that's where Jesus is going here.

Let's consider the background of the context of the parable and a little bit of cultural background and then all of these things will be opened up to your understanding as the Holy Spirit helps us in this hour. Back in Matthew 24, verse 3, turn back there with me. Back in Matthew 24, verse 3, and we're doing a rapid review here, the disciples of Christ had earlier asked him about the sign of his coming. They were interested in future events. It's not that interest in future events is bad.

It's good to know these things. The book of Revelation promises a blessing on those who read and consider its approach to future matters. And so the disciples are interested. And verse 3, as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things happen?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? That is a very crucial verse to understand what follows in the remainder of the Olivet Discourse. The passage is framed by the question that the disciples asked. Help us understand things about the future and about your second coming.

Help us to understand that. And so in what follows in the rest of chapter 24 and in chapter 25, Jesus is answering their question. He is explaining to them things about his second coming. So look at chapter 24 verse 30. Actually go to verse 27.

We'll start there. And we just want to see the emphasis that is woven throughout chapter 24 to see what the emphasis that Jesus is giving to it. So in chapter 24 verse 27, he tells them, Just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Verse 30, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Verse 42, Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. Verse 44, For this reason you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will. So, my friends, they asked him a question about his coming, and you can see by the subsequent repetition in Jesus' words that followed, he is emphasizing to them the coming of Christ, his coming return, his future return. And so what you find as you read it, and as we saw even there in verse 44, the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will.

Here's what we find. And here's a place where those of you who are not in Christ, and you are not Christians, God's Word is showing you the profound place of utter vulnerability that you are in. The coming of Christ will be unexpected.

It will be sudden. And what's going to happen at that time is Christ will separate believers unto his presence, and unbelievers will be separated unto judgment. There will be a great division taken between humanity, and my friends, it will not be based on the modern preoccupation with black and white and other matters of skin color. The separation is going to take place based on whether someone is in Christ or outside of Christ, whether someone is a Christian or is not, and that is going to be the determining factor, and there will be people of all kinds of skin colors in both groups.

Skin color is not the primary issue that we have to face. We have to face the reality, the thing that we most need to deal with is that there is a coming appointment of appearing before Christ in judgment. Scripture makes this abundantly clear. It says in Hebrews 9, verse 27, it is appointed for man to die once, and after this comes judgment. And so whether you die and face Christ in judgment or whether you're living at the time of his return and face him in judgment, either way, there is a coming appointment with Christ that you must take into effect. You know, and I'm reminded of the preacher that said, I preach as a dying man to dying men. You know, we're all mortal here. We're all passing away, and we should not presume upon the fact that we're going to have another opportunity to hear truth and be able to respond to it.

It's that urgent. We can't presume on these things. I've spent a good bit of time this past week speaking with people who are on the doorway of death, and so these things are fresh and urgent upon my mind, and they should be on yours as well. The coming of Christ and that judgment, beloved, is going to be a cataclysmic event for us all.

The whole earth is going to burn up, Peter says. And so there's this sense of sobriety that comes upon us that says, well, then what does that mean for me? What does that mean for my soul?

What should you know, and what should you do? What does this parable teach us? Well, we're going to break it into two principles here this morning. And the first one is this, is that Christ is certainly coming.

Christ is certainly coming. And the parable that Jesus is teaching here in chapter 25, he is referring to what at the time would have been a very familiar marriage custom among the Jews. Jewish marriages at that time were arranged by the family, and couples had actually very little say in whom they would marry. They certainly couldn't count on it. You know, the idea is you get married and love comes after.

We kind of flip that script, or at least try to. But Jewish marriages were arranged by the family, and there was a lot that went into the wedding. It was a big event that took 12 months of preparation in order for it to take place. So after the arrangements had been made, there was a formal period of about 12 months that led up to the actual wedding, called the betrothal period. And this was more binding to the couple and to the families. This was more binding than the engagement periods that we're used to in our days. We need to kind of set aside what we think about engagement and weddings and stand on different ground here.

So a lot of things happened in that intervening 12 months. The groom, the future groom, would prepare the home that he and his bride would one day live in. The bride during that 12 months would be preparing her wedding clothes and making preparation for the gallant affair. The bride's family would be preparing the wedding feast and the wedding festivities. So once the marriage had been arranged, there was a lot of anticipation and expectation that was going into it, a lot of work going into making it the special time that it would be. When the wedding itself came, it was an elaborate fare. The bride and groom were like a queen and a king in their attire and then the royalty, so to speak, metaphorically speaking, the royal projection that was made of a couple to emphasize how important this moment was, how sacred the institution of marriage was, and what a profound moment it was for the couple to be embarking upon a new life together.

And so there's all of this going together to make it really, really special. Sometimes we lose that. People get so casual about weddings and about marriage that the event loses some of its significance because it's treated with such a casual attitude and so forth. Not in their day. In their day, this was a big deal. And so the wedding takes place, and as we enter into the custom that Jesus is alluding to in verse 25, here's what happened. After the wedding, after the wedding occurred, there would be a procession. Kind of think about it like a little bit of a parade that would occur in the village at the end of the day. The bridegroom and his groomsmen would go to the bride's house.

They separated briefly after the service and made whatever preparations they made. The groom would then take his attendants, go to the bride's house. The bride's house meaning her house with her parents.

He would go to the bride's house, meet her, pick her up, and then they would proceed to go to their new home. And this was a huge village event. This was a great celebration taking place. And so there would be a procession from the bride's old house as her groom took her to the new house where the feast and the festivities and the celebration would take place.

You must understand this was a huge community deal and celebration. And so this procession would occur toward the end of the day as darkness is starting to descend upon the day. And what would happen is as they were making this progression from her house to their new combined house is that the people of the village would have like torches. It's described as lamps here, but think about them as torches. Torches that would light the procession and give light to the way. So there was a practical function of the light helping people see where they were going joined with the celebration of joining in the celebration of this couple having just been married and making their way to their new home. And so everybody wanted to participate in this event, but you needed to have a lighted torch. You needed to have your lamp lit in order to enter into the festivities at the bridegroom's new home. And so everyone would proceed to the bridegroom's house for the festivities and the celebrations. But let me just repeat and emphasize only those with a burning lamp could march in the procession and share in the festivities.

Now when it's such a big deal and there's just this great event taking place, what should you do? Well, you want to be ready. You want to make sure that your lamp is ready. You want to make sure that you've got oil to fuel the lamp so that it can burn and that you can participate in the way that's expected and required of you. To not do that is of the most foolish consequence. It was crucial to have your lamp prepared or you would miss it all. You would be excluded.

You would be outside looking in. Now what this parable Jesus teaches is it's focusing on the preparation of the virgins. Those young ladies who would be a part of the procession going on who knew that this was coming. And one of the other aspects I suppose that I should say is that it was not uncommon for the bride and groom to be delayed in making the procession so that they never knew precisely what time they were going to come. They knew that they were going to come, but sometimes the time wasn't exactly what they expected. Sometimes it was delayed.

And so you had to be ready for whenever it was, even if there was a time of delay. And so now with that background, let's go back and review the first five verses here. Now let's read them again. The kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins. In other words, Jesus is making a comparison between his second coming and what it is like at a wedding procession. He's making a comparison going from something familiar, watch this, this is very important. He is, in order to teach, he is bringing them to something that is familiar to draw a principle out that will apply in spiritual matters that are unfamiliar.

You reason from the familiar to the unfamiliar so that the mind can absorb the comparison and see the obvious implications of it. And so he says in verse 25, the kingdom of heaven will be comparable. It will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. Unthinkably stupid. The word there for foolish means stupid. I'm not speaking out of turn for you homeschool moms. Verse four, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. And so there's a contrast that is being made here. Jesus is teaching by comparison and by contrast. And he is contrasting the foolish virgins with the prudent ones. The word foolish comes from a word that we get our English word moron from.

The Greek word moros is the word that we get our English word moron. These five virgins are behaving like morons. They're being utterly ridiculous in their lack of preparation. The word can mean dull. As I said earlier, it can mean someone who has sluggardly in their thinking. They're stupid. This is just inexcusable neglect in light of a certain event that is coming.

This is foolish contrasted with the prudent one, which is describing someone who has practical wisdom. There's common sense involved in the way that they are responding to the events of the day. They say there's this procession coming. I want to be a part of it. For me to be a part of it, I have to have a burning lamp. If I want my lamp to burn, I have to have oil. That means I'm going to make sure I've got the oil now beforehand so that I'm ready when the time comes.

Just common sense. This is exactly what the foolish ones refused to do. That's Don Green reminding us to remain ever vigilant as we await the return of the Lord. Well, friends, you're listening to The Truth Pulpit, and Don will bring us the conclusion of today's message next time. If you'd like to find out more about this ministry, go to thetruthpulpit.com. Once there, just click the free offers button to find all of Don's lessons, including messages on important and timely topics that affect all of our lives. That's thetruthpulpit.com. And now before we close out our time today, here again is Don. Well, I hope that The Truth Pulpit is a source of strength to you as you live for Christ. And if it is, would you do us a favor? Would you return the blessing by dropping us a note at thetruthpulpit.com?

Look for the Contact Us link in the upper right-hand corner. Your brief greeting can assure that we keep the broadcast on this outlet as we continue to minister to you. Thank you so much, and God bless you. Thanks, Don. And, friend, we'll continue in our series called Reflections on Our Lord next time, as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word here on The Truth Pulpit.