Get Ready ‘cause Here I Come (Part 2) | Matthew 25:1-13 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] matthew chapter 24 is where we're going to start as we make our way into chapter 25 today in matthew chapter 24 jesus predicts several world events that will happen just prior to his second coming a couple of weeks ago we looked at chapter 24 in detail i pointed out 15 major global events that will happen just prior to the second coming of jesus and then near the end of chapter 24 the verse i want us to look at is verse 44. jesus concludes all of these predictions with this warning verse 44 therefore you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect and then following that statement he teaches three parables to help us know what it means to be ready and so we we're looking at each of these three parables over three successive sundays last week we looked at the first of the three parables the parable of the faithful wise servant and the parable of the evil servant and i've entitled this three-part series get ready because here i come and of course as i mentioned last week the temptations made that line popular in a hit song in 1966 but of course jesus made it even more popular way before 1966 uh because this is his main exhortation here get ready because i'm coming and so last week when we looked at the first of the three parables the takeaway from that first parable was that we need to serve faithfully live holy and watch expectantly and so we come today to the second of the three parables in chapter 25 and if you look at the first 13 verses of chapter 25 i'll read them verse 1 then the kingdom of heaven jesus says shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom now five of them were wise and five were foolish those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps but while the bridegroom was delayed they all slumbered and slept and at midnight a cry was heard behold the bridegroom is coming go out to meet him and then all those virgins arose 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 answer is saying no lest there should not be enough for us and you but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves and while they went to buy the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut after where the other virgins came also saying lord lord open to us but he answered and said assuredly i say to you i do not know you watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming let's pause there and pray father we come before you today thankful for your word that gives us a glimpse of the things that are to come that you are coming again and your return is the hope of the church as we eagerly await our savior and we pray that we would come to learn what does it mean to be ready that we would take to heart these parables that our hearts would be ready that we would continue to look to you and lord long for your glorious appearing so help us as we study this parable together that we would be equipped and that we would be more ready for your imminent return we love you we praise you together in jesus name and everybody said amen so as i was studying this parable and preparing for today's teaching and you know this is about these 10 virgins or bridesmaids who have these lamps and and five have oil and five don't i was reminded of this song that was typical back when i grew up now i grew up in the 70s and so as a pre-teen and teenager there was a song at church that we would sing and we were i mean it was popular and but we were serious about it wasn't a goofy song as goofy as it's gonna be when i tell you what the song was and many of you will be familiar with this song but it was give me oil in my lamp right and so we're saying give me oil in my land keep it burning burn and burn and give me oil in my lamp i pray give me oil in my lamb keep it burning burn and burn and keep it burning till the break of day and then there was this chorus sing hosanna sing how many of you remember that song okay now even if you weren't a product of the 70s if you've ever watched veggie tales they sing it but here here's the here's the funny thing i i can remember that it was very i mean it's the 70s the jesus movement so you know everybody's trying to be hip and cool and all this stuff and as we would sing these songs people would start to integrate new lyrics that they thought was really cool so you remember this it was give me gas in my ford keep me trucking for the lord oh come on yeah i'm not making it up give me give me wax on my board keep me surfing for the lord come on we would sing these songs you talk about christian geeks we were i'll own it give me hot sauce in my taco let me witness in morocco come on i'm not making this up that was the song that we would sing and it was all about this parable like we got to get ready so you know give me gas in my fort i got to keep trucking for the lord get me oil in my lamp keep me burning that's about this parable but we were geeks and didn't know it now i know i'm a geek but then back then i didn't and so we are to be ready i got a question actually at the wednesday night service somebody had submitted asking and they were very sincere in the question why do we really need to be ready i mean since jesus is coming again anyway what's there to get ready for when the rapture happens i go so what do i need to be ready for and i understand the sincere question but here's the sincere answer that god calls us to live with the joyful anticipation of his second coming and for two reasons now the first one i shared last week but i just want to reiterate if you're joining us for this three-part study number one the joyful anticipation of the lord's return motivates me to holy living second peter 3 says you want to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of god and speed it's coming so then dear friends since you are looking forward to this make every effort to be found spotless blameless and at peace with god and so again if if god had put in print when the second coming would occur most of us would not be as serious about our faith until it got right up to the date and so intentionally god does not tell us when so that we can always be living in this careful joyful anticipation of a second coming and that should motivate us to holy living because we don't know when he will come again and we want him to find us faithful jesus even said in luke 18 verse 8 when the son of man comes again will he find faith on the earth and so we are to be faithful and sometimes if we lose sight of the fact that oh he's coming again we get sloppy and lazy in our walk with him number two the joyful anticipation of the lord's return it calibrates my perspective on life and the world around me when you're living constantly aware of the fact not not apprehensive just aware the fact jesus is coming again then you don't get as worried and wigged out about stuff on the planet that is happening because you know oh that's right jesus predicted some of these things and and so we just have this this mindset that we're ready and we're not attached to this planet and you know for example ii peter 3 he writes in verses 10 and 13 but the day of the lord will come like a thief the heavens will disappear with a roar the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare but in keeping with this promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth the home of righteousness and when you read that in relation to the second coming of christ that this planet is going to be destroyed it's going to burn up god's going to destroy this planet destroy heaven and create a new heaven and a new earth that's all tied into the second coming of jesus guess what i'm not walking around worshiping this planet because it's going to burn you talk about global warming it's gonna burn and i don't i don't get wigged out i don't think oh gotta go green you know oh what's my carbon footprint oh no the the you know the polar ice caps are melting oh you know the cows are you know expelling gas you know i'm not caring but that whole cow thing expelling gas is part of the green new deal you know that right like they're going to somehow stop cows from it it's nuts but yet but yet this is where people are focused like you know we got we got to control the planet you know and then environmentalism takes over and people begin to worship the planet that's it's it's gonna burn now i i'm not indifferent or cavalier i i we we should take care of what god has given us i i'm not trying to be cavalier about it i'm just simply saying i i i'm not obsessed by it and i'm not worried about things on the planet when we hear about wars and pandemics earthquakes how how the love of many is growing cold and there's an increase in wickedness all those things are spelled out in matthew 24 and more that jesus said will happen so when i see these things and hear about these things i i know through the the lens of scripture okay it recalibrates my perspective on life and the world and i'm not worried about it and these things are going to happen jesus said so and so we just need to be ready and prepared and we we don't get all preoccupied with the horizontal you know what happens in a world where people don't know jesus all they focus on is everything horizontally and and that's where they get preoccupied and worried and obsessed but see as christians we know about the second coming and so our gaze is fixed upward we think vertically and this is why jesus said in luke 19 21 28 he says now these things must happen look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near while the rest of the world is looking down we need to be looking up because our hope is jesus and he's coming again job even understood this in job 19 25-27 he says i know that my redeemer lives and in the end he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been destroyed meaning when i returned to dust in the grave he said yet in my flesh i shall see him because he even understood he'll be resurrected from the dead with a glorified body through faith in a living lord and he said i shall see him with my own eyes i and not another not meaning that others won't see him but meaning that others don't have to tell me because i'm going to see him face to face oh how my heart yearns within me [Applause] amen and so and so we we have this joyful anticipation and it and it motivates us to holy living and it shapes our perspective on life and world events and we're not worried and obsessed we're waiting and so jesus tells us here to be ready and he uses another parable in matthew 25 what we're looking at today to help us understand what that looks like now again if you're new to church in biblical terminology a parable is a tool of communication that jesus often used to help express a deeper truth by using everyday common examples and illustrations and it was it was often told in a way that would cause the hearers or in our case the readers to think what does he mean by this he's a little bit of veiled terminology from everyday life to help us understand a deeper truth now when he teaches this parable here in matthew 25 he is using wedding terminology this whole parable is about a wedding party because you hear the reference to a bridegroom there's no specific reference to the bride herself although she's inferred in the story because her bridal party is mentioned those are the ten virgins the the virgins were bridesmaids so i may use the term interchangeably that's what we're talking about the 10 virgins were 10 bridesmaids these were the attendants of the bride and jesus talks about his second coming in relation to and he uses terminology about like an ancient jewish wedding and and how his return is similar to some of the elements in an ancient jewish wedding so in order for us here in the 20 you know first century to understand well what is what are the elements of an ancient jewish wedding i'm going to just walk us through it briefly so we can understand and appreciate this parable so there are three main elements to an ancient jewish wedding there's first the betrothal the betrothal is more than an engagement you know in our western culture we have an engagement and you know there's usually a ring with the engagement and then and then a couple plans a wedding some distance out from engagement um but the betrothal is much more serious than an engagement it was a legally binding contract between the parents of the groom and the parents of the bride this was an arranged marriage that was the culture and when there was a betrothal there would be a bride price or a dowry paid by the family of the groom to the family of the bride because there was a contract that was made and so to seal the contract here's a dowry price a bride price that was given uh and in an arranged marriage now i've shared this before but you know it always comes to my mind when i talk about this that about 10 years ago when when we were in israel on one of our tours and lindsay was with us my daughter and she was a teenager at the time we're walking on the sidewalk of jerusalem this black mercedes with you know tinted windows pulls up next to us rolls down the window it's a very wealthy arab guy on the inside and he says to me i will give you 30 candles for your daughter i said 35 and you had the deal no i didn't but he was wanting to i'll i'll pay a bride price right and so even in some cultures today there's that kind of a um an arrangement like that when the betrothal period started the dowry price was paid the bride price keep that in mind valves were exchanged there was a covet a contract entered into and it was legally binding you could not get out of the marriage unless there was a divorce and the only reason there might be divorce is if there's unfaithfulness by either the groom or the bride now remember when mary conceived jesus by the holy spirit joseph thought that she had been unfaithful to him in their betrothal and the bible says he had in mind to put her away quietly to quietly to divorce her privately but the angel lord appeared him in a dream and said do not be afraid to take mary home as your wife or that which is conceived in hers of the holy spirit so he didn't but that's how serious betrothal is it is legally binding and can only be separated by divorce once the couple exchanged the bride price and the vows and the contract was entered into in this arranged marriage the groom would go off for about a year and he would build a home for his bride in him and usually that was an addition onto the father's house the father of the groom he was gone for that entire year roughly and during that year he was exempt from any other obligation including military service deuteronomy 24 verse 5. his total focus was to only be on the preparation for his bride that was it at the end of the year roughly it wasn't like on the day but it was like at the end of about a year he would return that's the second phase he would return for the bride and when he would return it would be unannounced and that's why everybody was anticipating when's he coming when's he coming the bridal party would be ready because they would know it's about a year so we better be ready we better be watching he's going to be coming at any point and when the bridegroom would return the wedding party would arise it would usually at night so that they would have lit torches to draw attention to the whole village to make it more spectacular with fanfare the whole village would be let out with procession the bridal party first the bride would be hoisted up it would be this wonderful moment where the bridegroom came for the bride and then they would follow him back to the new home that he had built usually in addition under the father's house for the bride and the whole village would gather and there would be number three a wedding banquet and it would last about seven days and during that seven day period is when that couple for the first time would physically sexually consummate their marriage the distance between the betrothal and when they would consummate the marriage the wedding banquet was about a year so these three elements in a an ancient jewish wedding it's important to understand it because jesus is using all this terminology in this parable and there's a wonderful parallel to all of these three major events and here related to our relationship with jesus and here's what they are the betrothal is like unto our salvation where jesus is the groom we are the bride we enter into this relationship it is binding the bride price is paid by the groom it was his blood that he shed on the cross you all get this we are living right now in the betrothal period jesus has purchased us from sin and death he has secured us because he loves us and the bible often uses this analogy that he is the bridegroom and we the church are the bride so we're living in this betrothal period but guess what he's coming again because he has presently gone away what to prepare a place for us this is john 14 2 and 3. more wedding language when jesus said in my father's house there are many mansions many rooms but i go to prepare a place for you and if i go to prepare a place for you i will come again and receive you unto myself that where i am there you might be also what is he referring to he's referring to the fact that he's presently gone away he's delayed in coming but the bridegroom is coming again for his bride it is the second thing that's going to happen it's the rapture of the church it's the rapture of the church it's john 14 2-3 what i just recited to you he's coming again to get his bride and to take his bride home so we're waiting for the bridegroom to return and then afterwards the rest of revelation which talks about a tribulation period that follows the rapture of the church in other words when i say rapture for those of you don't know there's going to be a generation of people who never experience death the bible says that there's going to be a trumpet call of god jesus comes in the clouds and he physically it's a miraculous event that's going to happen he physically snatches christians off of the planet and up to heaven we go it's first thessalonians chapter 4 verses 16 and 17 so that we shall ever be with the lord and so he comes for his bride he comes to rescue us to take us home to be with him but then he's going to come again he's going to bring the saints with him his bride with him he's going to rule and reign on the earth for a thousand years and revelation 19 tells us that when he establishes his kingdom he has a wedding banquet it is the culmination of the whole marriage the wedding banquet of the lamb revelation chapter 19. so salvation is like betrothal we enter into this relationship this relationship of love jesus paid the bride price his shed blood on the cross he's coming again to get his bride he's gone off to prepare a place for us and then after that there's going to be this great wedding banquet but the parable that he teaches here in chapter 25 has to do with phase two which is the rapture of the church when jesus speaks here in chapter 25 about the bridegroom's coming the bridal party better be watching and waiting he's talking about his imminent return he's saying he better be waiting and you better be watching now when he starts to teach this parable though he tells us something that is tragic out of the 10 bridesmaids or virgins the wedding party five are wise and five are foolish the five who are wise have oil for their lamps the five who are foolish do not by the way the greek word for lamps here is probably better translated torches these are not little clay lamps with little tiny wicks these are more like torches with rags on the top that they would dip in oil and that they would then light and and so when the wedding party would go out to meet the groomsmen they would be waving their torches and the whole village would see this at night and they would be drawn to this great procession with a lot of fanfare and so jesus says but tragically they're all there all ten they are all watching they all fall asleep which is not necessarily bad they're just like living life they don't know when he's gonna come back so they go to sleep but when they awaken because they hear that he's here five are ready and five are not and in this story jesus is the bridegroom in this parable he is the one coming again and in the parable we are the bridesmaids who should be waiting and watching now don't get tripped up on every nuance of every detail within a parable and then miss the bigger point sometimes people look at this parable and they try to pick apart every single word and they're like wait a minute i thought you even just told us pastor g the bible teaches that we are the bride but in the parable these are bridesmaids the bride isn't even specifically mentioned so this can't really refer to us yes it does it refers to us don't trip over every little detail because the bigger picture jesus is trying to paint here is the idea that some christians are ready and some are not because some are not really christians at all that's the sobering truth of this parable but that's what he's teaching now here's here's how we know this in the bible oil is symbolic of the holy spirit in the old testament the prophets would anoint kings with olive oil drenched them with oil it was symbolic of the outpouring of god's anointing god's spirit to come upon them in the new testament we see the outpouring of the holy spirit at pentecost and the indwelling of god's spirit at the time of conversion and the overflowing work of god's spirit at the baptism of the spirit in other words the holy spirit represents both the indwelling and the empowering of god's presence in our lives and when you read this parable and you and you hear the symbolism of the oil and how five had the oil and five didn't what jesus is simply saying to us as tragic as it is is that five are really born again they're believers they're waiting for the return of christ and five just aren't even believers at all and so we need to understand this i'm going to give you three quick points from this parable to help us be ready number one some people look the part but lack the heart they go to church they sing the songs they carry their bibles around they go on mission trips they do this year after year but they don't really know jesus how can this be i can tell you from first hand i grew up in the church and for years i thought i was a christian just because i went to church it was just kind of this thought that you know you hang around christians you go to church you must automatically be a christian until i was 15 years of age i went on a youth retreat and the youth leader asked me privately hey are you a christian me yes him how do you know me because i go to church that was my answer as if going to church itself makes you a christian like like sitting in starbucks makes you a barista you know or or you know hanging out in your garage makes you a car or lounging in a donut shop makes you a cop all right forget that last analogy but i might get arrested but i mean the truth is churches are filled with people who are part of the crowd but not really part of the faith now sometimes that's the case because people want to know jesus but they just don't yet understand him and so they come to learn more about him that's great but the reality is that sometimes churches are filled with people who are part of the crowd but not really part of the faith because they don't really want to know jesus at all not really they just like to hang out at the church because it makes them feel better they like the fellowship they like the friendship they like the coffee they like the camaraderie they like to hear but not do they like to learn but not believe they like to be a part of the wedding party but they don't really want to get to know the bridegroom now look in every church there are believers and non-believers and that's great that's the way it should be and the hope of every church should be that believers grow in their faith and that unbelievers come to faith in jesus but the most dangerous thing when i say dangerous thing i mean to an individual themself the most dangerous thing is for a non-believer to think that he or she is a believer to look the part but lack the heart because notice in the parable in verse seven they're all trimming the wicks they're all getting ready they're all doing what they need to do but it's not just about doing it it's believing it and embracing it and walking in it which leads me to point number two you cannot have a relationship with jesus on borrowed faith if you notice in verses 8 and 9 it says in the foolish said the wise give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out but the wise answered saying no less there should not be enough for us and you but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves now again don't trip up on the nuance of the details what does jesus say saying go buy oil for yourself can faith be purchased or acquired no that's not his point don't get stuck on that he is simply illustrating the fact that sometimes people turn to others for their faith instead of having a faith walk for themselves they look to friends they look to parents they look to a spouse you can't get it from them you have to have a personal relationship with jesus yourself it can't be borrowed from somebody you can't vicariously live it through somebody else you have to own it for yourself listen one of the most beautiful things is to be raised in a christian home with loving christian parents who expose you early to the things of god into the ways of god and it's a beautiful thing if you offer that to your children but one of the most challenging things in a home like that is for those children to grow up and realize that they have to own their faith for themselves you can't be living off a mom's faith or dad's faith or grandma's faith or grandpa's faith you can't borrow their oil so to speak you have to own it for yourself and this is important if you want to be ready for the return of christ don't be hanging on to mama's apron thinking you're going to get to heaven holding on to her the rapture doesn't work like that you have to be ready yourself to see jesus and this leads to the last point which needs to be understood that a time will come when the door is shut he tells us here jesus does in verses 10 to 12 he says and while they were while they went to buy while they went to go get their oil the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut and afterward the other virgins came also saying lord lord open to us but he answered and said assuredly i say to you i do not know you this is very sobering stuff here again this is not a parable about well maybe some people were really serious about their faith and others were just immature no no this is the difference between saved and unsaved they have the holy spirit they don't at all they're waiting for the return of christ these are going to miss it you see the door was shut the bible says there's actually an end game to all of this everybody needs to hear this it's not like baseball you know baseball is is like the the only major sport that has no clock if you remember the 2018 world series game three in the 2018 world series between the dodgers and the red sox and went 18 innings six hours there's no clock in baseball there's a clock with the lord there are two clocks basically there's a clock that marks the time left on your life and there's a clock that marks the time when jesus comes again and if the time runs out before you make a decision for him the door will be shut and you will have no access to heaven you say are you trying to scare us into heaven no i'm just giving you a dose of a dose of reality this is what jesus says there's a time when the door is shut god is patient not wanting any to perish but there is a limit to his patience and there is a point at which jesus will come or you will die one of those is going to happen first and then what if you don't know him the door's shut so you have to be ready by owning your own relationship with him by not just looking the part but having the heart engaged and recognizing there's going to be a time limit on all this and you and i are not guaranteed tomorrow you and i aren't guaranteed another hour not another minute so get ready get ready he's coming again or you're gonna go see him face to face one or the other so i urge you to make a decision for christ don't make a decision under compulsion but make it because you know the time is now i need to be right with him jesus died on a cross for you because he loves you and he's telling us these things to give us fair warning so that we wouldn't be caught off guard he wants us to be ready are you ready i'm going to lead us in a word of prayer if you would bow your heads close your eyes and even those of you watching online you can pray this prayer with me if you want to know christ as your savior make a decision for him today make a decision to surrender your life to his lordship make a decision to acknowledge you're a sinner like everybody else and that he's the only savior who can save you from your sins so that you might be ready so i'm going to lead in a word of prayer if you already know christ just pray for somebody else that you have a heart for that doesn't but if you don't know christ and you're not sure that you're ready you can be sure today you can know now that when he comes or when you die you're going to be received into eternity without any doubts make a decision for christ today pray this prayer with me if you if you want to know christ just pray this just say lord jesus i thank you that you died on a cross for my sins forgive me of my sins lord cleanse my heart i want to be a new person i need you i surrender my life to you as lord and savior come into my heart i pray fill me with your holy spirit i confess with my mouth jesus is lord and i believe in my heart that god raised jesus from the dead that i might be saved right now by faith i receive your free gift of salvation i want to be ready lord i don't know when i'm going home and i don't know when you're coming again but whichever happens first i want to be ready thank you lord for loving me and dying for me i surrender to you in jesus name now if you prayed that prayer with me i want to invite you after the service to come and receive a bible today from one of our pastors they'll be down front there's no strings attached we don't want anything from you we just want to be able to give you a bible to remember today's decision and because of kobit we still have a lot of people watching online if you prayed that prayer you also can get a bible if you're on our web page there's a button that says i have decided you can click that and give us information we'll send you a bible if you are watching on other platforms just text 703-844-9969 and tell us you've decided give us your information we'll send you a bible too he's coming again friends lift up your head look up your redemption draws near god bless you all have a great day you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 134,510

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

Id: 5dyblk2eaj8

Length: 36min 15sec (2175 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021