Invited But Not Ready

I want to start this dialog, this interchange and this discourse off by asking a question, my question is, have you ever invited someone out for a day of pleasure and relaxation? You even offer to drive across town to pick them up, in your car, whereas, you put the gas in, you had the car washed and vacuum your car, you offered to treat them, pamper them, and spoil them for the day. You offered to pay the entire bill for the day of their luxury and comfort, but once you call them and told them that you are on your way, drive across town in traffic, get to their house, get out of your car, ring their door- bell only to find out that they are not ready, and nothing worry me more than offering to pick to treat someone, and pick them up, go to get them and they are not ready. Them not being ready tells me that they didn’t value my time, my efforts and my generosity. And many times I drove off because they were not ready for the reservations, and the sacrifices that were set up for them.

I remember some of my favorite childhood games, like tag your it, kick the can and my all-time favorite hide-and-seek. Each of these games involved someone being it. The rules of hide and seek, was that the finder would have to count to give everyone a chance to find a safe place. The time ended with the phrase, “Ready or not, here I come!” The time was up. There was no more opportunity to hide or find a safe place. Such will be the case with the Last Day.

So, now is our time of grace to be found safe and secure in the hand of our master. The invitation has been extended. And know that the time will come when the Lord Jesus returns as the Judge, and if you are ready or not, he’s coming. And understand that this is not a game, but it is the reality and the truth of God’s Word. Because no one knows the day or hour, when the Lord shall return.

When we look at the passages of this text, Matthew gives us the parable of the ten virgins each of which attended a wedding celebration at night with their lanterns.

In our text, we find ten virgins who was invited to the same feast, 10 being the number of testimony. The bible teaches us that 5 were wise and 5 were foolish. Five is the number of grace. In other words, he gave 10 the opportunity to have the benefit of a great testimony, and only 5 of them took his grace for granted. If we look at verse one all of them have been welcomed or invited if you will.

All ten of these women were welcomed to the marriage feast. They were all issued invitations. They were to be the bridesmaids. Each one was looking forward to the party, they had been talking about it, dreaming about it. They were lining up their make-up artist, getting fitted for their dresses, they were forecasting a party until they dropped. This was going to be some celebration.

But not only were they invited; they had all accepted the invitation. They had sent their RSVP’s in. They wanted to be a part of that number. They were looking for the bridegroom. They wanted to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

And can I tell you that all of us here have been invited to join the bridegroom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Over and over throughout the Scriptures, we read that God is calling out to us to come to Him. We are all invited to enter into His rest, enter into his peace, and to enter into his love. Jesus has called us, in fact, he says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Even in his death He died with His arms outstretched in welcome.

Many times, when we are driving our cars, we run our tanks on empty, and we pass up many invitations to stop and fuel up, but we ignored the warning because we wanting a better price, and sometimes the better price is not always the better deal. But this wasn’t the case of these virgins. They had accepted the invitation; they had made themselves ready. They had brought their lamps, worn their best dresses, and were looking for the bridegroom.

Matthew is giving us this parable of the ten virgins each of which attended a wedding celebration at night with their lanterns.

Now At the time of Christ, marriage rituals were a lot more elaborate than we have at the present. Once a groom had paid the wedding price to the father of the bride, the groom would go back to his home and prepare it for the arrival of his bride.