Are You Ready?
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
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Be Prepared
Be Prepared
The Ten Virgins.
The Ten Virgins.
From this parable of the “Ten Virgins” we learn several things of importance but first what is this parable about?
In the parable Jesus tells of ten virgins who went to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were considered wise and five foolish.
The foolish virgins took their lamps (long poles with cloth covered in oil) but took no extra oil.
The wise virgins took their lamps but also took enough oil for themselves if there was a delay by the bridegroom.
As you and I know the bridegroom was indeed delayed and by the time the shout came of his soon arrival (midnight) the foolish virgins oil had basically run out.
They begged the wise for oil but they only had enough for them and recommended going and trying to buy more oil.
While the foolish virgins were buying oil the bridegroom came and the wise virgins entered into the wedding feast with him but the doors were shut by the time the foolish got their and they were turned away.
So, what is…
The Lesson.
The Lesson.
There are several important lessons to be learned from this but all of them have to do with “Being Prepared” for the return of the coming Christ.
This of course is a reality as we are all preparing for our eternity, either with God or without God.
So what can we learn about being prepared from this parable?
First, it was customary for the bridegrooms to keep the time of the arrival secret and so it is with with Christ will return to the clouds in the sky and take his faithful home.
No one knows the day or hour of our Lord’s return but the Father only.
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Secondly, we are responsible for our own preparedness.
There is no doubt that we will be judged on whether or not we tried to get other people to prepare themselves for the coming of Christ.
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” 22 And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”
However, this doesn’t mean that we, on the day of judgment, will be able to make the case that “someone else didn’t prepare us.”
If we didn’t prepare in this life for the next that is on us and we will be judged based on that.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
We have prepare in this life for the next.
That is an everyday, 24/7, endeavor. Each waking hour is an opportunity to sow the seed of salvation in our lives so that we may reap the bounty of an eternity in heaven.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Summary
Summary
Jesus, with teaching the parable of the Ten Virgins, reminds us of how important it is to prepare in this life.
And that we will be responsible for our preparedness in this life and will not be able to blame others later.
Jesus then turns around and tells another parable.
The parable of the Talents which is about how we must…
Be Faithful
Be Faithful
The Talents.
The Talents.
In this parable we find a wealthy man going away for a time and leaving his property in the charge of his servants.
This would be a common reality as sometimes people would travel long distances and would be gone a considerable amount of time.
Take those in Acts 2 as an illustration of this. It would have taken some there over four months to make the round trip to Jerusalem for the Passover and back.
To one servant he gave 5 talents (talent being about 3 months wage) to another servant 2 talents, and to the last 1 talent of money.
Now you and I know how this one goes, the first two doubled their master’s money and were blessed by their master while the last one simply buried the money given him and then returned it for which he was condemned for not even do the bare minimum of investing it and gaining interest.
So considering this what is…
The Lesson.
The Lesson.
Again I think there are two important and valuable lessons being given here, though we could easily find and discuss more.
The two lessons are that we all are given “according to our ability” and we will be judged based on how hard we work to mature those gifts.
First, we learn from this parable that God supplies each of us abilities or gifts to help us in the faith.
It is without question that God knows us and has thus created within us each certain natural tenancies.
Some people are naturally more nurturing than others.
Some people are naturally more outgoing than others.
Some people are naturally better encouragers than others.
Some people are naturally better speakers, singers, leaders, etc…
The scriptures are full of this reality.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This parable reminds us that God has gifted us each abilities to serve him in the faith and we must “know” our strengths in these given areas.
Second, though we have these naturally given abilities and gifts we must not simply be satisfied with where we are with them.
In the parable God was only please when effort was made to “increase” the value of the given talents.
Even with the “wicked and slothful” servant God told him that if he had just tried a “little” God could have work with him with that.
The point is God expects us to increase or mature the gifts we have been given.
There is no spiritual gift, no spiritual talent, no spiritual ability we have that we cannot mature, grow, and develop better and better.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Now the beauty of this is that God knows we are to work on this and has provided others to helps grow and develop as we should.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
This parable reminds us that to be faithful we must “increase” our abilities given us by him.
Thirdly, we learn that God does not expect more from us than we can offer.
It is easy to look around and see so many great and faithful men and women of the bible.
To look around and see so many “in this congregation” that are strong faithful children of God and then try and compare yourself to them.
We learn from this parable that God doesn’t want us to “be another Noah, David, or Abraham” he wants us to be the best spiritual “us.”
The wicked and slothful servant wasn’t wicked and slothful because he didn’t turn his talent into 5 or 2 but because he did “nothing” to increase it at all.
Had he simply put it in the bank to grow interest he would have been called “good and faithful” but he didn’t even do that.
Not everyone is going to be able to be like a Landon or Paul.
Not everyone is going to be like a Mark or Riley or Rebecca or Carol but everyone can and should be all “they” can be.
If you are doing you best to “love the Lord your God with your all” (Luke 10:27) that is all God can or will ask of you.
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
Summary
Summary
In order to be prepared for the coming of Christ we must seek to develop the naturally God given abilities he has entrusted to us.
This isn’t to say that we cannot “develop” and “grow” other abilities, because God expects us to do just that where we are lacking in our Christian character.
If we are not naturally good and encouraging others we need to work at that.
If we are not naturally good and visiting other we must work on that.
If we are not naturally good at teach the lost we must work at that.
The last part of this chapter Jesus dives into one of the few large swaths of information on what will happen on the Judgment Day.
And the main take away I think we should get from this is that we should…
Be Excited
Be Excited
God Knows Your Works.
God Knows Your Works.
In this break down given the disciples about the coming judgment Jesus makes it abundantly clear that “he knows what we are doing for him.”
Let’s read Matthew 25:32-40.
32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
We, God’s children, were created into a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) for the purpose of do the “good works” of God (Ephesians 2:10).
And Jesus makes it abundantly clear here that no “hidden” act of righteousness goes unnoticed.
Sometimes, it can “feel” like all the hard work we are putting in to doing the right thing is not noticed by anyone, but that is not true, God knows what you are doing.
Satan can make preachers doubt their worth if they are not on all the “gospel meetings and lectureships.”
However, our text here reminds us that if a preacher is doing his part and living for God popularity with man is irrelevant.
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Satan can make elders, preachers, and members doubt the work they are doing if the congregation is growing numerically.
However, our text here reminds us that if we are doing “our part” and living for God as “he wants us to” the size of the congregation is irrelevant.
8 “ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Summary
Summary
There will be times when God alone knows our works and that is ok.
Don’t get me wrong people need to see us “bear the fruit of righteousness” but as far as “popularity” goes that has no value to God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus’ teachings here in Matthew 25 has a great deal to teach us.
We must be preparing for the next life in this life.
We must do that by being faithful and working hard for God.
We must stay excited about meeting Christ in the sky one day because he knows us and he knows the work we are putting in on his behalf.
With that in mind, as Christians, we must not keep all this information to ourselves.
Yes, Jesus engaged in benevolence but this was not his purpose, his purpose was to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
As our text points out it’s good to be benevolent but the end is to help them prepare for eternity like you are striving to do; to help lost be saved.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.