Just about every house in America goes through a familiar ritual. This ritual takes place every day of the week. Some of you may be very familiar with it. I call it the "Are you ready yet?" ritual. As the time to leave the house draws near parents begin asking the question, "Are you ready yet?” A spree of responses follows. You hear: "I just need to brush my teeth." You hear: "I still have to get my lunch." And sometimes you even hear: "I can’t find my shoes!" Eventually, one of two things happens. Either everyone is ready and you leave, or you leave and someone is putting on their shoes or putting up their hair in the car.
Preparedness. The need to be ready is something that none of us will ever escape on this side of heaven. In a nutshell, my friends, this is what our text for today is all about. Jesus says it is of the utmost importance that we are organized spiritually. BE PREPARED! Jesus says. 1) Because Some Things You Can’t Borrow, and 2) When Life Seems A Snore.
1) Because Some Thing You Can’t Borrow
Jesus is talking about the last days: our days. He’s talking about what the “kingdom of heaven will be like.” The Kingdom of Heaven: how the Gospel will work among people, how the precious seed of God’s Word will affect hearts and lives, how it will save some from this fallen, condemned, sinful human race; and how others will fail to enjoy its benefits, offered freely to all. The Bible does speak of Judgment Day as a terrible day of wrath and mourning. But Jesus speaks to us as if it were a day of joy: a day to meet the bridegroom. He compares the work of the Gospel to ten virgins, or bridesmaids, who go out to meet the groom. In Jesus’ day, wedding parties did not meet at the church: they met at the home of the bride. The groom came to her parents’ house to pick her up. When he took her into his house, the wedding and the marriage officially began. All ten were brides maids were invited, all ten were part of the wedding party. All ten were looking forward to the joyous occasion. But there was a difference between them.
What made the difference? Why were some considered foolish and others wise? It wasn’t because half were true Christians, and the other half were hypocrites. Rather, it was for this reason: The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. They took the lamps: but no oil. The lamp was an important part as they waited to meet the groom. But without the oil, what good was the lamp? They had a little bit of the oil in their lamp, but no oil to spare. How long would the lamp burn without the oil? Not long enough.
What lamp and oil did the wise virgins have? The lamp is the Christian life that’s kept aglow by the oil of faith. It is burning with the Holy Spirit’s flame, and warming others with the glow of love and kind deeds that shine out as we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. The lamp is important, oh so important, but without the oil, it flickers, and goes out before it’s time.
So many Christians get so caught up with the lamp and it’s light, that they forget the oil that keeps it aglow. The zeal to do mission work, to build/maintain church buildings, the desire to help others, the warmth to serve: it all comes from the oil of faith. What good is a heap of offerings without faith? They are a stench before God. What good is a litany of prayers without faith that God will hear and answer them? They’re nothing but vain babbling. What good is a multitude of deeds without the oil of love and faith in the Holy Spirit? It’s nothing but empty, dead actions. It’s the inward work of the Holy Spirit – the fire of faith in Jesus -- that makes the outward things in our lives glow.
How do we get such faith, such oil that fuels our lives with the bright glow of love? “Faith comes from hearing the message…” Scripture says. “If my words remain in you,” Jesus says. When we come to hear the Gospel, when God puts out his Word to us, he’s putting the oil out for purchase: free of charge. When God’s Word is set before you, don’t just browse. Don’t make worship and catechism class and family devotional time and Bible class just a window-walk through the shopping mall of God’s grace, where you look but don’t leave with anything. And don’t just let your wife or child or husband or mother or father walk away with the goods. Take some yourself. Take God’s Word to heart, store it up in that one jar we have to carry our Savior home with us: the temple of our hearts. The wise thing is to make sure that the faith is there, the inward cleansing of the heart, the Holy Spirit’s fire. All the other stuff flows from that, and is kept lit by it.
The foolish virgins get to find out how foolish they really were. It’s time to meet the bridegroom, and they’ve no oil. They assume that the wise bridesmaids will be able to bail them out. But there’s not enough oil to go around. “There may not be enough for both us and you,’ the wise say. The point being: no one else’s personal faith will save YOU. There are some things you can’t borrow. Some people have a strong faith: but they need a strong faith. If they had a weaker faith, they’d be lost. Others have a weak faith: but that’s just enough to get them by. What’s sad is when a Christian loses faith: the wick goes out, because there’s no oil. I can’t believe for you: it’s tough enough to believe for myself. You can’t believe for me: having faith for your own salvation is tough enough. The faith of your mother, your grandmother, your daddy, your grandpa, won’t save you. Nor will the faith of your husband, your wife, your child, or your friend. Have it yourself. When you hear the Word of God, when you come to church here to purchase oil for free, you can’t let anyone else get it for you: you’ve got to get it yourself.
2) When Life Seems A Snore
Jesus once asked a sad question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” In the last days the love of most will grow cold. Spiritual apathy and sleep would be the hallmark of these last days. Where is the awake and ready zeal to meet the Lord? Christianity as a whole sees very little watching and waiting. All ten bridesmaids fell asleep. They were all sleeping and slumbering. What percentage of Christians today doesn’t sleep in spiritual apathy? Once in awhile, we’re like fitful dreamers, who awake in the middle of the night. Something at church needs to be done – a bill needs to be paid, a window painted, or a bulb changed. We sense the obligations we have to meet as a congregation. We need more money. We need to fix this or that. And so we go off to take care of the business, but as soon as the little task is completed, it’s right back to sleep. The awake and ready zeal to tell others about Jesus and his sacrifice, to get on with the business of keeping an eye out for his return, of living life as a testament of his grace: that sort of constant zeal, the consuming passion for souls, and constant joyful faith in the Lord, it’s all so rare.
We’re ready, willing, and able to go tell others about a Saints’ win that most everybody already knows about. But when it comes to telling someone who doesn’t know that God loved and gave his one and only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for all their sins? “Oh, leave that to the experts”, we say. I’m too tired from the pressure of my life to be involved with that! And we snore. The cares and concerns of this life—jobs, careers, benefits, health, stuff—dreams of this perishing world, consume our hearts. We focus all our energy on momentary fun and entertainment, and, yet, forget that eternal wedding awaiting us in heaven. Again, we snore. We have receipts running into the hundreds on a weekly basis from Wal-Mart, Target, or Sears, but wealth spent on the gospel or on aiding this congregation to share the gospel? Well, that’s routine. Suddenly it’s naptime. And we snore. Oh, we’ll get to football practice and soccer practice, or the gym, but Sunday school, catechism class, or Bible study? That’s so routine. It’s a snore! Just as Christ asked Peter, James, and John—so today he must ask again, “Could you not keep watch with me for but an hour?”
The reason the bridesmaids fell asleep? “The bridegroom was a long time in coming,” Jesus explains. He was taking his time. But the Lord’s patience does not give us an excuse to sleep, or to think the work of his kingdom is routine. Our Lord will come to take his people home. He will come to receive his bride, the Church. Let us be in worship, in his Word – preparing ourselves!
“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” That’s what woke the virgins up. The realization that we might meet the Lord wakes us up from spiritual slumber. A close call with death, wakes a believer up: “Oh, my Lord may take me any day: time to get my lamp trimmed.” And for a while they are back in church, and the like. But one of these days, one of these hours, the call is going to come and there won’t be time to go get more oil. The trumpet will sound throughout all creation, and the Son of Man will be riding on the clouds of heaven, and all the angels with him. It’ll be time for everyone to get up to meet him: even the dead will be raised. But who knows when the call will come for you, for me?
The cry ringing out might not be that final trumpet. It may just be the loud horn of an oncoming semi truck, or the loud blast of a hunting rifle gone off in the wrong direction, or the ears ringing from a stroke, a heart attack, or some dread disease. Who knows? When God wakes you up, go get the oil—don’t put it off. Get that faith strengthened; the longer one waits, the harder the heart gets, the more shallow the roots of the Gospel go, the quicker the faith dies, and you’ve got to start all over again. Take it to heart, care for it, water it, tend it, feed it, protect it, encourage it; warm it by getting close to others with faith. Because the time will come when there won’t be time to get it back.
Remember we don’t have faith in Jesus just in case of an emergency. The ten virgins were not waiting to light the way for ambulances and hearses. They were not gathered with lamps at the ready for an impending war, a ten-car pile up on the highway, or a funeral service. They were to have lamps ready for a bridegroom: for a wedding. They were ready with those lamps to enter eternal joy.
That’s what faith is for! It’s just to get us through the bad times: faith in Jesus is meant to get us into the eternal joys of heaven. And that’s the saddest thing about those who are so foolish as to let their faith drip away drop by drop, without any thought as to keeping it going. By letting faith evaporate, they lose out on the joy prepared for them from the beginning of time! They lose out on the joy. In this life, they lose out on the joy that is given through answered prayer; through sharing the Gospel with others; through Christian living. Then, they lose out on the JOY that God has waiting for them in heaven, where nothing gets stolen or tarnished or rots away before your eyes; an eternal joy at their Savior’s side, rejoicing with the Bridegroom forever. God grant us strength, as He has promised, that we never lose our faith. His gospel commands us: “Be prepared.” And you know what? God’s Word gives us that faith, the oil to keep our lamps burning. There’s no need for us to be foolish. May we all be wise, and may we all take the gospel to heart: may we all believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be true to him from the heart. He’s been true to us with his whole heart, body, blood and soul. Then, even if we snooze a bit, we won’t ever miss out on the eternal joys awaiting us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
