Keep Your Lamps Burning Series

This evening’s message is entitled, “Keep Your Lamps Burning,” and it’s taken from what is called, “The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.” Back when I was in high school, our choir once sang an old Negro spiritual that went like this: “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, for the time is drawing nigh. Darker midnight lies before us; lo the morning soon is breaking; Christian, journey soon be over. So, keep your lamps trimmed and burning, for the time is drawing nigh.”

In 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, we read, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (NIV). Those who know Jesus as Savior and Lord are like “earthen vessels” (NKJV), or even earthen lamps, that shine forth the light of Christ wherever they go. Jesus once declared of believers, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).

This evening, we will discover the benefit of having the eternal light of Christ; and we will learn about about the believer’s responsibility to remain faithful and vigilant in sharing the light of Jesus and proclaiming the gospel message. We will also hear about the horrible fate that awaits those who do not have the light of Christ abiding within them. It is my hope that by the time we are finished viewing this parable tonight, that anyone who doesn’t know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will finally surrender their heart and life and make a commitment to Him.

Waiting for the Bridegroom (vv. 1-4)

1 Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

In verse 1, we see the mention of ten virgins going out to meet a bridegroom. In ancient Palestinian weddings “the groom’s party would make their way to the bride’s home where they would pick up the bride, along with her friends and family, and lead them in a procession to the predetermined place for the ceremony, and the bride would wait there. She and her party would . . . have torches or lamps. They would spend the early hours of the night telling stories [and celebrating] while waiting for the groom.”(1) The imagery here is symbolic of the marriage of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, to His bride, the Church; which is the event that takes place immediately after the Lord returns to bring His people into His kingdom.

In verses 1-4, we read about some oil lamps. The oil that was burned in these lamps would have been olive oil. Now, concerning the lamps themselves, it is not quite certain what type they were, for there were two different kinds that could have utilized. Based on the Greek word for lamp in this passage, which is lampas, one opinion is that the lamps were of the small pottery type found in abundance in ancient Palestine.(2) The other opinion is that the Greek word lampas is more accurately translated as “torch.” R. E. Nixon explains that in this particular case rags would have formed its wick, and that these rags needed to be soaked in oil.(3)

We read here that some of the virgins were wise, and some were foolish (v. 2), and that “the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps” (v. 4). There are actually two separate items mentioned here that the wise virgins possessed: 1.) they had “lamps,” and 2.) they had “vessels,” which contained oil within them. According to R. K. Harrison, “When . . . lamps were being carried about it was customary in New Testament times for the bearer to attach a small container of olive oil to one finger by means of a string. Then if the lamp needed to be replenished at any time, an adequate supply of oil was readily available.”(4)

Whether these lamps were made of pottery, or were a torch, is not as important as the fact that they both required oil in order to burn. Oil in this passage is symbolic of something spiritual; and we will discuss the deeper meaning in just a moment.

The Bridegroom Was Delayed (vv. 5-9)

5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight a cry was heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise answered, saying, “No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.”