Let's go. All right. Open up your Bibles to Matthew 25. Matthew 25.
We have been in a very long series on the Kingdom of Heaven. And now we are finally closing. I promise. This is the last one.
I shouldn't promise that. I shouldn't. But we are going to tackle one final parable. Jesus, all throughout the Gospels, especially in Matthew.
He talks about the Kingdom of Heaven and he shares parables and metaphors to help us understand and get a picture of what his Kingdom, what his government, what his culture, what his society is like. And so we've been going after it because we want to actually know what Jesus' commentary on his Kingdom is. I mean, there's a lot of amazing theologians. There's a lot of great commentaries.
If you've been on Blue Letter Bible, you know, you got some commentaries on there. If you got Logos Bible software, if you're a Bible student, you've probably read some commentaries. How about Jesus' commentary on his Kingdom? That's the type of commentary that I want to read that I want to get to know.
And so the problem is that American Western commentators, those theologians that study who God is and what he's like, they just talk in straight lines, right? They just say things like, this is what the Word says and this is a truth about God. But Jesus is not from the West. Jesus is from the East.
And Jesus teaches more in story form and makes you dig for the truth. And it's kind of like he hides treasure and then you go find it. And so we're going to kind of start digging in a parable called the parable of the 10 Virgin. So are you guys ready?
All right. Now I want you to know that as Jesus is sharing this parable, the context of when he's sharing this is pretty significant because he's sharing it right before he dies on the cross, which happens to be right at the same time of like a festival season for him and his followers and the whole nation that he's in. He's living in in the first century in Israel. And this time is called the Passover.
It's the feast of unleavened bread. It's happening at this time. So they're ramping up. They're preparing to celebrate this festival.
Now this festival is all about how them as a nation, them as a people group, they were in slavery for 400 years. And then they got set free from slavery. And the night that they got set free from slavery was profound. What they did, God commanded them to actually go into their houses before they go into their houses.
They were to slaughter a lamb that was a pure spotless lamb. And they were supposed to take the blood of the lamb and put it on their door posts over their doors. And that was actually the covering that prevented judgment from coming to their houses. Now that's bad for your Zillow if you got blood on your front door, but it actually meant life and death for them.
And so they applied the blood of the lamb on their door posts. If you remember the wood post that Jesus was crucified on, there was blood on that door post. There's blood on that wood. And there's this picture that we see from the old to the new.
It's pointing to the perfect spotless lamb. Anyways, so they're in the house and there to have a Passover meal. Now what you need to know when we're studying this passage is the Passover meal took a very long time. I don't know if you've ever been a kid and there's guests at your house when you're growing up.
And it seemed like you never left the meal. It just seemed like you sat there forever. And you're ready to move and your dad or mom's like, stay seated. Well, think about doing that for five to six hours.
That's how long their meal was and it would lead all the way through the night. And it says, and this is actually what happened Passover night. They were to actually be readied for deliverance for freedom. They're be to be ready.
They've got they're not in their pajamas. God told them, don't be in your pajamas. He said, I want you to have your belt around your waist. I want you to be ready for when I come.
And they are they are like going on and on. They're drinking wine, making a more tired, right? They're drinking a whole or not drinking. They're eating a whole lamb as a household.
They had to eat the whole thing except for the bones. So they got full stomachs. They've been drinking wine. Now they're getting sleepy.
But then at midnight, what happens at midnight? There's a cry coming out of Egypt. Judgment has come. The plague has set his people free and then they ransacked the Egyptians and they get set free, right?
Well, Jesus is speaking to his disciples with that as context for this parable. Okay. They called that Passover night. They call it the night of watching.
Everybody say the night of watching night of watching. Let's read in Matthew 25 says this. The kingdom of heaven is going to be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five of the virgins were wise.
For when the for when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. 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's the bridegroom. Come out and meet them. Then all those virgins rose. They trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil. 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. Buy some for yourselves.
And while they're going to buy, the bridegroom came. 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. I really have a short message for us today. But the lesson that Jesus is getting across is in that last part of the parable. He's trying to draw conclusions for us, which is very generous for him as a teacher.
He's saying, Hey, I do not know you to the foolish virgins. And then he's saying, I want you to watch, because you don't know when I'm going to come. So I think it's interesting though, that both the foolish and the wise virgins, they're both sleeping. They both got drowsy, right?
And what that tells me is that to be foolish or to wise, to be wise, doesn't necessarily, isn't based on your performance. And you really being like the gold star Christian. Okay? And that's about right in the Kingdom of Heaven.
You know, because we think like, man, I better just strive and then I'm going to make it. And the Lord's going, ah, that's not how it works. You're all going to fall asleep. You're all going to fall asleep and you're going to wake up just in time.
You're going to get startled awake. And that's just going to be how it is. Okay? This is, it's really helpful to understand some Jewish marriage customs in order to understand what this parable is talking about.
Okay? So what would happen is this? Are you guys ready? Some of you have maybe heard a couple of these things.
Others, this is maybe your first time being able to contrast American engagement and Jewish engagement. Okay? So what would happen? Bridegroom.
Maybe it's an arranged marriage. I don't know how that worked. Okay? I'm ready to start arranging some marriages in this house.
So if you're like, I need an arrangement, I know Katie and I, we'd love to do some arranged marriage for you. We're ready. We're going to start a dating app probably just for this community. Yeah?
Okay. So anyways, like if you want to go Eastern on the whole marriage thing, we're ready. Okay? So anyways, what would happen is there would be a bridegroom and a bride, right?
And the groom would get engaged or betrothed to this bride. And what would happen is he would actually, he would give his bride a gift because he was going to go away and not see her for a while. So he'd give her an engagement gift. And this would be to remind her, I promise I'm going to come back.
Because if he's married, if he took a long time, it's like, man, the bride needs to remember. No, he will come back, but it's going to be a minute, right? And so why would he leave? Well, he would leave because he had a building project to do.
How many trades people like plumbers, electricians, how many people do we have in the house? Raise your hand? Yeah, more. There's more of you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. These are the people that are actually going to make money in the AI time. Okay?
These are the smart people among us. All right? Go to, go, go learn how to do carpentry. That's my counsel for you.
Anyways, okay, so we're going to get through this, I promise. So the groom would give this gift to the bride. And then what he would do is he'd go do a building project on his father's house. His father's house, he would build an addition.
So how do we see this? That's like practically what would happen. But Jesus also draws us to see him as the bridegroom and the church as the bride. How do I know that?
Because he's going, hey, guess what? I'm going to go prepare. This isn't John 14 or 16. I'm going to go prepare a place for you.
And in my father's house, there's many rooms, right? He says that. And then he says, but I'm going to give you a gift. The gift of the Holy Spirit, right?
And the Holy Spirit is going to remind you of everything that I've said and remind you that I'm actually coming back, right? So Jesus is revealing himself. I'm the bridegroom, church, people of God. You're the bride.
Then what happens is there's going to be a return, right? Jesus is going to return. What does it say in Matthew 25 later? Jesus says in a parable, he basically says, I don't know the hour.
Only my father knows the hour. Why is that? Because in Jewish customs, the dad was the one that was the building inspector. The dad would check the son's work and he'd be the one that'd give the stamp of like, yeah, you're good.
Now go get her, right? Now go get her, get your bride once the building project was done. So Jesus, why does it say that Jesus? I mean, Jesus is not what is he even saying that he doesn't even know the day or the hour?
It's just, that's the marriage customs of like he's going to know, guys. Father's going to give him approval and he's like, he's knowing when he's returning in that moment, right? Okay, so anyways, don't get caught up on that. So, then he gets the thumbs up.
He returns and what happens when he returns is there's a loud shout. Do you remember in this parable, right? There's this, it's the bridegroom. That's what would happen in the first century, but it's also going to happen at the end of the story when Jesus returns.
It says there's going to be a trumpet shout. It's going to be, there's a loud command in the streets. The bridegroom is coming. It's going to happen at the end of the age.
It happened in the first century in their culture. And Jesus is painting this picture of, I'm the bridegroom. You're the bride, but it's also in the parable. You see that?
So, I mean, I'm just giving you context. They get it. We don't get it, but they get it because he's talking to their culture. All right, so there's a loud shout.
The bridegroom and all of his groomsmen start walking towards the bride's house. And then what happens is all of the bridesmaids, aka virgins in this parable, they go out to meet the bridegroom in the streets. And they bring their lamps. So, they meet the bridegroom in the streets.
They meet halfway. And then they lead the bridegroom back to the bride's house. So, they accompany. It's like a procession.
They are part of the procession and they bring light to the procession to light up the path to the bride's house. Then they leave the bride's house. Are you following? And they go to the bridegroom's house where he's been working for way too long because he wasn't very good at construction.
And except for Jesus, because he was building with gold streets and pearls and everything, all the diamonds, right? And he's like building the most amazing dwelling for us as his people to dwell with him. This is incredible. But anyway, so that's the picture at the end.
Jesus speaking to their culture. He's speaking in this parable. Then what they do is they go consummate the marriage. They don't even do a ceremony.
It's just like consummation time. Okay? And then they do a wedding feast right after that. I won't get into John the Baptist and what the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom does, the best man.
It's kind of weird. And we won't go there today, just for the sake of time. So, okay. So what happens is, thank you, Katie.
Okay. What would happen is the best man would stand outside of the door while the groom and the bride are consummating the marriage, which is weird, right? And then the bridegroom, once they had consummated the marriage, would say, hey, it's consummated, all right? And then the friend of the bridegroom would rejoice when he hears the bridegroom's voice and say, it's party time.
And then they would do the marriage feast. Okay? And that's why John the Baptist, you remember John the Baptist? He goes, it's my joy.
I rejoice when I hear the voice of the bridegroom. What is he saying? It's so good to be the best man and stand witness to God's people becoming one with God and meeting him, right? So that's why John the Baptist is like, I must increase.
He must increase. I'm so excited to rejoice when I hear his voice because God is connecting with his people, right? And it's time to party, right? So that is the picture.
But I want you to know that there's a delay in a moment here. It's the delay of, I think the bridegroom is coming. And for some reason, all throughout the scriptures, Jesus makes it really clear and parable is about the end, that there's going to be a delay. Just over and over and over again.
He says, there's going to be a delay. Servants are going to be like, I don't think the master's coming back. Delay. The virgins and the bride, they're going to be like, oh man, I thought he was coming.
Delay. There's a drowsiness that's going to set. There's going to be people. There are going to be scoffers in the last days.
They're going to say, yeah, yeah. Jesus is going to come back. Sure. Things have been going on and on just like all the years have passed in human history and he's still not here.
I'm sure he's going to come back. There's delay. We are living in delay. Jesus is not here yet.
Is that right? Jesus has not returned yet. I haven't heard a trumpet sound. I haven't seen the sun and the moon and the stars go dark and have lightning flash in the sky and have every single human on the planet see him with his eyes appearing.
There's delay here. And Jesus says, I don't. It's not as much about in the parable. We see it's not as much about getting the timing right.
Are you hearing that? Jesus doesn't seem to be concerned with they predicted the timing of my arrival perfectly. Jesus is not worried about you getting it right the exact timing of when he's going to arrive. The different and he's going and you're going to be weak.
You're going to fall asleep. You're going to in the delay spiritually. You're going to fall asleep sometimes and you're going to get tired and weary. And he knows it.
So we don't even have to fake it. Everybody say I don't have to fake it. I can just be real. He knows that you're going to be weak.
Who are you going to be like? His disciples. Do you remember Jesus? On the night of Passover, a week after he says this.
Do you know what happens? He says, I'm going to go pray on the Mount of Olives where all of us were crushed. Into olive oil that gave light to lamps. And he says, I am going to pray.
Can you watch and pray with me to his disciples? He says this three times. Guess what happens? All three times.
His best friends. His best followers. The ones that actually led the church. The ones that we follow behind.
Guess what they all did? They all fell asleep. Jesus is not surprised when you kind of screwed up and you fell asleep spiritually. You're like, well, okay, so there's no hope.
So I'm just going to be a foolish virgin. No. Jesus is saying, I want you. I want you to understand how to be wise.
He wouldn't tell us the story if he doesn't think that we have capacity to be like the wise virgins. That's what he wants for us. He doesn't want you to be foolish. He wants you to be wise.
So how do we be wise? Well, we get a flask of oil. Because that's the difference between the wise and the foolish. The wise had oil in a flask.
And the foolish didn't. I searched in the Old Testament and there is nowhere in the Old Testament that talks about flasks of oil other than anointing somebody with oil. And that feels like a dead end for me. So it creates this wondering in me, what are you getting at Lord?
And I was looking into how the temple actually had lamps in the temple, in Solomon's temple, where God's presence dwelled. And it says that there was five. Did you hear me? Five lamps on the north side of the temple and five on the south side of the temple.
And the role of the priests, the role of the Levites was to tend to keeping these lamps burning. In the morning and evening, they would tend to the lamps. They would be putting oil in the lamps and trimming the lamps, making sure those things are lit. And I think that's interesting that there's five and five and in this parable there's five and five.
And what happens later is that in Jeremiah, what is it? Jeremiah 23? Nope, Jeremiah 25. What happens is we see that foolishness has come upon the nation of Israel and that for 23 years they had minimized the responsibility to tend to the Lord and what he was saying.
They minimized their responsibility to tend to God as a people. And when I say tend, I mean be present to, I mean be connected to and humbly be reverent and distracted by actually caring for the place of worship. And ministering to him and ministering to his people. In other words, for 23 years they minimized God.
Okay, they minimized the bridegroom. They minimized his voice. They minimized what he had to say. They minimized his warnings.
They minimized his heart. They minimized his commands. They minimized him. And they minimized their role in being stewards of what God had called them to as priests.
And they minimized the value of his people. So they're minimizing the bride and her value. They're minimizing the groom. And for 23 years they just said, we don't care.
Life just goes on, whatever. They were indifferent. Okay. And they're indifferent or their lack of valuing him and his people and his warnings resulted in Babylonian captivity.
In other words, they got completely destroyed and all of their best and brightest got shipped to a different country. That's not good. Jesus is going, I don't want you to be foolish. I want you to be wise.
And his remedy for you being wise is to know him and watch with him. This is right at the end of the parable. He says to the foolish ones, I didn't know you. And in verse 13 he says, watch therefore.
So what we do as the people of God, we read that and we go, but I'm not very good at staying awake. And that's really what watching means is staying awake in Greek. Like, oh man, oh, I feel under qualified to do this. Your disciples were really, really bad at it.
What makes me think that I'm going to be better than your disciples? Like, hey, the bar isn't very high. Look at my disciples, the leaders of the church, they made it. Okay.
Even Peter did 93 times and he's in. Okay. But what I want you to know is this. There, Jesus is casting vision for us to have a sobriety and an attentiveness and actually not be like the priests in Jeremiah 25.
And instead be priests under the Lord that actually carry this anticipation of even though you delay, even though I got a tired heart. I'm going to believe that you are going to return and I'm going to have an attentiveness and how I have an attentiveness to you is through prayer, through being connected to you, to living life with you. Okay. The difference between the foolish and the wise is the foolish, minimized, getting oil.
So how do you get oil? You get oil by going through crushing. You get oil by tending to your relationship with God. You get oil by being with him and tending to his presence in your life.
I want you to hear me. This is the life of the wise son or daughter, the wise virgin. She tends to her relationship with God. And how that happens is through constant communion with God.
It's the pray without ceasing. Everybody say pray without ceasing. It's the sobriety around. I know the days are evil, but I'm going to keep on showing up.
I'm going to keep on gathering. I'm going to keep on praying. I'm going to keep on worshiping. I'm going to be watchful.
I'm going to be awake and watchful in every season and I'm going to take his word seriously. That's really the difference between the foolish and the wise. The foolish just minimize the value of this moment. They took the greatest moment in history when God is going to come back for his people and they minimize the preparedness for it.
Now some of us are like, but we don't know when he's going to come back. You're right. That's not the point. So it's like, but what if I prepared for him to come back and then he delayed and I died and he didn't come back?
I think that's the wisdom of God. I think it's the wisdom of God that in every generation they probably thought he was going to return in his lifetime. I think he likes it. I think he likes that there's an ache and a desire for him to return in our lifetime.
I think he has an affinity for it where he's like, but you think I'm going to return in your lifetime? He's got a smile on when he's like, you think it's soon? Oh, it's very soon. Even if it's 100 years away, he's going, I want you to live ready.
I want you to live prepared. I want you to live with an expectation of good because listen, this parable, when you first glance at it, you're like, oh, this is kind of a negative parable. But I want you to know, this is the most joyous parable ever. How many of you know wedding days are a good day?
How many of you know if you get to stand witness and it's like a godly couple and they're weeping and there's like love and affection? They're like, oh, there's so much joy. How many of you know wedding receptions are a good time? How many of you know that you want to be a part of that moment and have joy in your heart because you've been preparing your heart going?
I've been tending to my relationship with him. I haven't been minimizing his leadership. I've been watching and waiting the best I can and I sleep spiritually a lot of time, but I get up again. I wake up again and I go, Lord, I want to be attentive to who you are, what you're saying.
I want to value your bride. I want to have your heart. It's just like what Jesus was doing. He was watching in John 17.
You know, John 17, the high priestly prayer on Passover night. He's watching. What is he doing? He's talking about, this is what I want them to know.
My glory. And then I want my people to be one. In other words, when you watch and you wait and you're prepared and you have this attentiveness to the Lord, guess what he does? He gives you a watchful spirit and the watchful spirit starts desiring the things he desires.
The watchful spirit starts loving those that he loves. The watchful spirit says, well, I love you and I want you back and I want to see your glory. And at the same time, the watchful spirit looks at the bride and goes, and I love the one that you love. I want her to be one.
And all of a sudden, as you're preparing and tending your heart before the Lord, you get a couple flasks of oil. You just, you got this massive flask of oil. You're like ready forever. How long that delay is.
It's like you got oil built up. And then people are like, can I have some of your oil? It's like, no, it's all for me. I am going to have the biggest torch on his return.
It is going to be so bright. You can't get, you can't give it to anybody else. It's your torch and you're going to burn so bright. Oh, you're burning heart of love.
When you return, it's probably going to, you know, how it says that his appearance is like lightning in the sky. Can you imagine all of us with torches? They're so burning bright because we got so much oil and history of tending to our relationship with God, ministering to his heart and then loving his people. All of a sudden, we got such big torches.
It's almost like lightning when he's a pierce in the sky. And it's this beautiful procession. It's the most joyful moment in human history when he returns. And we meet him in the sky.
And then he says, now heaven's going to be on earth. Heaven's going to overlap earth. You better believe it's going to be the most incredible wedding feast ever. I feel like we just keep on going back to it because we've talked about a couple of weeks ago the wedding feast of the Lamb.
And the Lord seems to be like, on it. He wants us to know, he wants us to have a day in the future that we're going, I know this isn't the end of the story. I want to be burning. I want to be oil on that day.
I want to have love burning in my heart. I want to have this watchfulness and preparedness where I'm like, I'm ready for him. Because I love him. And I love her.
And this moment, oh man, if I can just frame it up. Now I know that we're the bride. But Jesus wants us to see this. Like Virgin, the bridesmaid thing.
He wants us to relate with that. He wants us to get a vision that we get to be the bride of Christ in that moment. We're part of that. But then there's also this, I think there's this moment in that day.
I think we're going to have this like, you love us. You came from us. And then I think there's also going to be in that moment. Just like stepping back that he's going to give us.
And we're going to see him loving her. In his return, we're going to be like hosting. We're going to be like with our torches, riding on the clouds to the earth. We're going to be there.
And we're going to be located. We're going to be like, it's going to be so much joy. And I'm not going to be caught by surprise and foolishness minimizing what God has been whispering to me. Day after day, year after year, I think some of us, we know internally God's been after me.
We know that he's been on our heels. He's been the good shepherd. We've been the one. We've been the one sheep that have just kind of gone on our own way.
And I think there's many of us in our hearts, in our lives, where we've decided, ah, and we've been minimizing what he's said. We've been minimizing our history with him. We've been just taking it with a grain of salt. And I want you to know that the Lord loves you even in your weakness.
And he loves you even in your mess. Even when you've minimized him and what he has to say, he still loves you. And you're like, no, I've been messing up bad. I've been totally screwed up.
I've been deviating away from the way of God and I have to clean myself up. And the Lord's going, no, no, no, no. I clean you up. I prepare you for that day.
You don't prepare yourself. I prepare you. And I give you a robe of righteousness and I make you right. You come to me.
And I want you to stop minimizing what I'm saying. There's people in the room. I think we've all done this. We've been minimizing what the Lord's whispering.
And I want to have an attentive heart to go, I hear you. Holy Spirit, that nudge, I'm going to go with what you're saying. Rather than just minimize what he's saying, it's an attentiveness in our life. It's a preparedness in our life to go even in the delay.
I'm going to tend to the flame of my life. Yeah, that's all Stan. I want to respond to the Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. If you're willing, you can just put out your hands before the Lord. You don't have to, but if you want to, you can put them out like this. You can just say, Lord, I want to be wise.
You can just whisper all throughout the room, Lord, I want to be wise. Is there anything that you've been trying to get my attention that I've been minimizing what you're saying? You need to say that in your own words. Is there anything that you've been trying to get my attention that you want me to be reminded of?
It's all throughout the room. I really feel like the Holy Spirit was highlighting that question going into this 530 service. It might be something that you're saying where he's like, hey, I want you to come back home. I want you to come back to me.
I love you and I want you back in relationship with me. Some of you, he's been going, hey, this area is out of alignment. I want you to stop doing that. This is bad for you.
You might be bringing up something where it's maybe like a relationship. He's going, hey, I want you to make that right. I want you to bring reconciliation in that area. Lord, is there anything else?
We want to tend to our relationship with you and be attentive to you and not minimize your word. Is there anything else you want to say to us? Thank you, Lord. You can just say to the Lord, I love obeying you.
And if you want to, you can have a smile on your face. I love obeying you. It's good for me. I'll throw out the room, Lord.
We just say that we want to be prepared. We want to have oil. No matter how long you tear your Lord, we want to have this preparation. We're prepared for you because we've been tending to your voice.
We've been praying. We've been awake to you. We know that we're frail so often, but it's not by our might or by our strength. But it's by your spirit that you help us be fervent in spirit.
You help us to have that zeal that keeps building oil and history in connection with you so that we grow in our affection for you and our value of you. We grow in our love for others. So Lord, we just say that we can't wait for that day. When you return, when you're in the heavens, you split the sky and you come back.
We don't want to have dread in our hearts on that day. We actually want to have joy in our hearts. It's the wedding day. What?
The bridegroom's coming. It's the best day in human history. And I get to be a part of it. Lord, I want that to be my response.
And I've been waiting for this day. I've been watching for this day. I've been ready. Lord, I want that.
Thank you, Lord. Lord, we thank you for making us a people as a community that just are bent on being sober and attentive to your leadership, to your heart, being attentive to you, what you think, how you feel, and then carry your love for the bride. That's what we want. Thank you, Lord.
We love you, Jesus. And everybody, say amen.