THE MIDNIGHT CRY
Mt. 25:8
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Appearances can be deceiving
1. A film crew was on location deep in the desert. One day an old Indian went up to the director and said, “Ugh. Tomorrow it rain.” The next day it rained.
2. A week later, the Indian went up to the director and said, “Ugh. Tomorrow it storm.” The next day there was a hailstorm.
3. “This Indian is incredible” said the director. He told his secretary to hire the Indian to predict the weather for the remainder of the shoot.
4. However, after several successful predictions, the old Indian didn’t show up for two weeks.
5. Finally the director sent for him. “I have to shoot a big scene tomorrow,” said the director, “and I’m depending on you. What will the weather be like?”
6. The Indian shrugged his shoulders. “Ugh. Don’t know,” he said. “My radio broken.”
7. We’re going to read about some who looked better than they actually were.
B. TEXT
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those
who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ 12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ 13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Here, our Lord speaks of His Second Coming and our READINESS for it, in the figure of the Jewish wedding.
C. JEWISH WEDDING CUSTOM
1. On the Wedding Day, the party would begin at the Groom's house. Then the Groom and his attendants would go – at dusk – with torches, to the Bride's house. People ran before them to announce His Coming.
2. The Bride and her maids would go out to meet the Groom.
3. And He would conduct them back to the Groom's house for the Wedding and Feast. (See John 14:2-4; "I go to prepare a place for you…").
D. IDENTITY OF PARTICIPANTS
1. Bridegroom = Christ.
2. 10 Virgins = Professing Church, real or counterfeit, sincere or insincere. The bride = the Church, but maids = individuals within the Church.
3. So this Parable is about Us! The rapture is like a wedding. Title: “The Midnight Cry”
I. A WEDDING: HOW EXCITING!
A. WEDDING HUMOR
1. How do most men define marriage? “A very expensive way to get your laundry done free.”
2. Rita Rudner said, “I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
3. Love is one long sweet dream, and marriage is the alarm clock.
B. ASSOC. W/ THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF JOY
1. If there is ever any joy on earth, it is associated
with our wedding day.
2. Looked forward to with great expectation.
3. And often look back to with fondest memories.
4. However difficult life is, the wedding = an emblem of joy.
5. Characteristics of Brides: (bf wedding)
a. Deeply in love with their grooms;
b. Want to spend the rest of their lives with them;
c. The dates of their wedding and their union with
their groom is the #1 focus of their thoughts, and they spend a whole year getting ready for that great day.
C. PICTURE OF BELIEVER & RAPTURE
1. Jesus gives this parable to encourage our joy, and our excitement about the great day of the Rapture.
2. Our focus, preparation and longing for that Day (of Rapture) when He takes us to the Father's House, should be like that of a bride with her approaching wedding.
3. But there is a Problem in the Parable.
II. THE GROOM’S COMING IS DELAYED
A. CHURCH MEMBERS BEGAN TO GO TO SLEEP
1. Warning to us: In the time of delay before Jesus’ Coming, there will be a tendency for people to get sleepy in their faith.
2. David Wilkerson said, "Christians will go to sleep when they stop looking expectantly for Jesus’ soon return!"
3. Isn't there a sense in which the church, generally, is asleep – wise or foolish?
a. Aren't most Christians far too worldly? Aren’t they failing to act like Jesus?
b. Don't they have a lack of concern for the world perishing around them?
4. ILLUS. What excitement would there be in a ship's crew if a man fell overboard and remained unrescued? Or among a fire department crew if a person still remained unrescued from a burning building? Are we not sleepy?
B. THE DELAY REVEALED A DIFFERENCE IN THE PROFESSING CHURCH
1. At first, all looked Identical.
a. All were called "virgins" – in their purity.
b. All had lamps (light of Christ/gospel).
c. All went out to wait for the Bridegroom.
d. There lamps burned with equal brightness.
e. All had at least some oil.
f. All slumbered and slept. All trimmed their lamps.
2. The delay of the Bridegroom played a critical role in the story. Had the bridegroom not delayed, all of the virgins would have been ready and waiting, and they all would’ve accompanied the bridegroom to the feast.
3. BUT DELAY REVEALED A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM. Everyone begins "On fire" for God (I hope). But what do you do after that?
4. Here is the mistake of the five foolish virgins: they didn't realize the toll that darkness would take on their resources/fuel.
5. The darkness went on longer & stronger than they thought it would. Godless culture makes you cold and hard.
6. Many miscalculate the strain of the times. You can't coast in your Christianity. Many Christians have settled for minimum Christianity and that won’t be enough.
7. Many things occur which cause us to lose perspective: sickness, bills, tests, care-giving demands -- and our fuel is expiring.
8. You must maintain the flame! You are responsible for that.
C. WISDOM OF THE WISE VIRGINS
1. Five were ready. You're either on fire or you're out. You have to get your own oil -- which is intimacy with Christ.
2. You must get alone with Jesus to have intimacy with him. The enemy wars against your prayer closet. You won't make it depending on a prayer time during your shower.
3. You and I are engineered not to be satisfied with a mere acquaintance to God but only to be satisfied by
being completely possessed by Him and His presence.
4. Spiritual readiness doesn’t just happen. It comes as a result of intentional habits built into one’s life:
5. Time in prayer and being alone with God; reading God’s Word; acts of service to others; moral faithfulness and loving obedience.
III. THE MIDNIGHT CRY
A. SIGNS ARE THE CRY
1. The bridegroom didn’t come unannounced!
2. The Cry came from an unknown person.
3. The EVENTS of our world are that cry. They are crying, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes, He's EVEN NOW IS AT THE DOOR!"
B. THE MIDNIGHT CRY SIGNALS THE RAPTURE
1. Midnight Cry = Rapture!
2. When that happens, it’ll be too late to try to get your relationship with God back in order.
3. You'll be left behind. Too late.
4. Some tell themselves, "If I miss the rapture, I'll just have to repent and maybe die during the Great Tribulation Period."
a. If you can't live for God now, you sure won't during the Great Tribulation Period.
b. Nowhere does Scripture say that disobedient church members will get a second chance.
1). During the Great Tribulation period, it will no longer be the age of grace, but of judgment.
2). The "Times of the Gentiles" will be over with. The full number of the Gentiles will have already come in. God will turn back to saving the Jews.
3). Your chance to be grafted in will have been missed. So if you're not ready at that time, you're in trouble.
IV. “AND THE DOOR WAS SHUT”
A. FOOLISH VIRGINS = UNCOMMITTED CHURCH GOERS
1. They intended on going with the bridegroom;
they’d even made extensive preparations to go to heaven.
2. They thought their preparations were sufficient.
3. They were surprised and shocked that they were excluded.
B. THE SHUT DOOR WAS FINAL
1. James O. Davis writes, “When I was a little boy, my brother and I were riding on a country road with my father.
2. Our mother was following behind us in another car. My dad asked if I would like to ride with my mother. I thought that was a good idea, so my father stopped the car and let me out on the side of the road.
3. My mother was probably two or three miles behind us at that time. So, I waved goodbye to my father and brother and began watching for my mother to arrive.
4. Soon I saw her car in the distance and I began jumping up and down and waving my arms. Suddenly, for some unknown reason, she passed me by.
5. My first impulse was to begin running after her car. Soon, I found myself standing there in tears.
6. I have never forgotten how it felt to be left behind. When Jesus Christ comes back again, many people are going to be left behind.”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: TONY EVANS UN-STUCK
1. Tony Evans, the black pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas had always been nervous about elevators in a high-rise buildings.
2. He said, “There was something about riding up and down in a little box several hundred feet off the ground.” He worried that something would go wrong.
3. One day it did. The elevator he was riding in got stuck between floors way up. Some of the people became frantic.
4. They began to beat on the door hoping to get someone’s attention. Others began to yell. But nobody
heard their noise or their cries.
5. Then Tony quietly made his way to the front of the elevator, opened a little door in the wall and pulled out a telephone. Immediately he was connected with someone on the outside.
6. He didn’t need to beat on the wall to get their attention. He didn’t need to speak loudly in the phone to receive their help. He could have whispered and they would have heard him.
7. Evans said, “In this world, we’re going to get "stuck" in places we aren’t comfortable with. Some people will beat the walls or cry out in dismay…”
8. “But the person who trusts in the power of confident prayer knows there’s someone on the other end who hears their call and comes to their aid.”
B. THE CALL
1. Knowing your prayer life, hunger for God, reading of the Bible, and obedience to God, do you think you would be classified as one of the Five Wise or Five Foolish Virgins?
2. Do you feel certain that - should the Rapture happen today - you would be taken up?
3. Do you have extra oil? Or has your fire gone out?
4. Peter said, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" 1 Pet. 4:18.
5. It’s time we got prepared for the spiritual test that’s sure to come. Let’s pray.
