Topic: Do you have enough oil for
your lamp?
Text Matthew 25:1-13
Pr Lo Yi Ping
15 Sep 2019
Outline Background
Parables are stories told by Jesus to
explain the kingdom of God, shows the character of God and how believers should
live in light of the coming kingdom of God. Normally they are in contrast
of two groups of people and in this case are the wise versus the foolish
virgins. This is the event of waiting for the bridegroom that is taking a while
to come and they became tired as they waited. But when the bridegroom arrived
is where the contrast was seen between the two groups of the virgins. One group
have lamps with no oil and the other took extra oil with them to replenish their
lamps. It showed the wise virgins were ready for the event whereas the foolish virgins
were unprepared and eventually the wise virgins entered the banquet hall while
the foolish virgins were shut out.
This parable was to illustrate the
time when the kingdom of God will arrive. The disciples have not understood
about Jesus’s suffering and departure and coming back at a later time.
Likewise, today we too are like the disciples then asking about the time, date
and signs of the second coming of Christ and how we should prepare for it.
1. The wedding is planned; the bridegroom is coming- Christ is coming
Back! (Mt. 24:44)
In a Jewish wedding, the father of the groom visits the bride’s family
and pays for the bride price and
establish the marriage covenant in the presence of witnesses. The covenant
could be arranged when the children were young or in their adulthood and within
one year to the time of marriage. The bride and groom do not meet until their
wedding day. Next will be the preparation of the bridal chamber and may take
about a year or more. The bride will be waiting for the return of the
bridegroom during this time. When the chamber is completed, the father will
determine when to fetch the bride to his house.
In the same way, our heavenly Father
also came to us to make the marriage proposal and paid for it with a heavy
price of His son in order for us to enter into a marriage relationship with
Him. 1
Corinthians 6:19-20, Ephesians 5:25. God initiated the relationship. He came to look for us
first. When we accept Jesus as our personal saviour, we are accepting the bride
price and the marriage covenant with God is set and our confirmation and
baptism is a public declaration among witnesses that we belong to Jesus and He
belongs to us. Likewise, Jesus also goes back to the Father’s house to prepare the
bridal chamber to us. And how Jesus went back to the Father’s place, He will
also come back for us in the same way. The only thing we are not certain about
is the time of His coming back. John 14:2, Acts 1:11. Only the heavenly Father
knows the time Jesus will come back and no one else. Matt 24:36, John 14:3.
Despite it has been more then 2000 years since Jesus went back to the Father,
the scriptures tells us that His promise will be fulfilled. Matt 24: 34-35.
2. Watch
out because you do not know the day or the hour. I have told you ahead of
time.
The bridegroom coming is unknown so it is always preceded by a shout to
warn the bride that the groom is coming. Matt 25: 6-7. We are to watch out for
the coming of Christ again as only the heavenly Father know the timing and
Jesus have told to us this ahead of time. We maybe in the midst of some event
but we are to immediately respond to His coming. Matt 24:37-39. Just like the
virgins, 5 were invited into the banquet, the other 5 were shut out, so we too
will be if we were found to be unprepared. Matt 24: 39-41. This the message to
all believers ie all the ten virgins were believers as told in the parable.
Just like Noah warned his people, those who chose to ignore his message were
wiped out so we too need to heed the above warning. By faith Noah took God’s
word to heart and heeded the warning and his family was saved.
3. You
were invited. Are you ready for the party? Are you preparing?
Was God showing favouritism when He only chose the 5 virgins to the
banquet? Were they more intelligent or smarter than the rest? Shouldn’t God
have let all in? The key to enter the banquet was about one’s readiness and
preparedness and not about one’s intelligence. The other 5 virgins were not
around when the bridegroom arrived for they were looking for oil for their
lamps and as a result missed the banquet. The other 5 virgins couldn’t possibly
share their oil as they will need all the oil as they have a way to go to the
banquet. The light that was emitted is also limited to the front of their feet.
As the verse states, thy word is a lamp on my feet and a light to my path, oil
is likened to the spirit and the word of God. For believers to go further in
our spiritual journey, we need the word and spirit of God in our lives for
without these two, there can be no true salvation. Likewise in our Discipleship
Journey, we need to have an encounter with God, experience God by the Spirit
and read the word of God so that when we move out of our comfort zone, in times
of adversity, we can testify that as the Holy Spirit empowered us we can achieve
something beyond our ability and that is the time we can testify that God is faithful
and He is the one who empowered and enabled us to achieve what we cannot do on
our own. However, when we do not respond to opportunities to serve, one day God
may say that He does not know us. For God to know us, it has to be
experiential. Our times spent on the reading the Bible, serving, body ministry
in the Connect Group, experiencing the life of the faith community are the ways
of adding oil in our oil jar. Such encounter and knowledge gained with the Lord
can only be experienced personally and this experience cannot be transferred
just like the oil cannot be shared with the other virgins. So, it is important
for us to stock up our own oil jar. We are all invited to the banquet but are
we ready for the party? In our
preparation, are we reading the word of God and having regular devotion,
experiencing God daily, pray often, putting ourselves through some spiritual
discipline such as fasting and meditating, joining a CG or a group of brothers
or sisters to grow spiritually with. This is where we learn to grow our
spiritual character, such as loving one another, patience, kindness and
perseverance. In our serving, are we putting God given talents to use, setting
a goal to grow oneself spiritually, learning new things or reading spiritual
books to prepare ourselves? In constant upgrading ourselves, we will have fresh
experience and testimonies to share each year. Through it all, God will show He
is faithful, for He walks us through the process, He sustains us and we learn
to depend on God for one cannot do it on our strength. The guidance of the Holy
Spirit and the teaching of God’s word will give us revelation after revelation
to the mystery of God’s kingdom. If we have resisted change, then our
experience would have been much hampered. This is one way of adding oil bit by
bit to keep the light burning.
The picture of Hieronymus Francken
the Younger (c. 1616) gave another perspective of the parable of how the two
groups of virgins are preparing for the bridegroom. We need to evaluate our
lifestyle of indulgence on earthly things that are not pleasing to God. Is our
lives are entangled with things that pulls us down preventing us from moving
forward, are we loving our live so much that we are not willing to give it up
for the eternal kingdom, procrastinating in thinking we still have a lot of
time.
Conclusion
It is never God’s intention to
eliminate anyone but it is His heart’s desire for all nations to join the
banquet. He desires us to make disciples of all the nations. Matt 28:19-20.
Mark 16: 15-16
Our hearts and love may grow cold
while waiting for the bridegroom to come if we do not cultivate the discipline
of daily devotion with God. Matt 24:12-13
We keep watch for we do not know the
day or hour God will come. Mat 25: 13,
24: 42-44
Questions for discussion:
1. Jesus promised to return for us,
what if he never comes, how will that affect our hope of salvation? If you can
choose the date of Jesus return, would you prefer him to come sooner or later?
Why?
2. The church is encouraging everyone
to be on this Discipleship Journey together. In what way do you think the four
quadrants "Connect, Equip, Mentor and Release" will be helpful in
preparing you for Jesus' coming?
3. "Not everyone who says to me
'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." How do you view God with
regards to this statement?
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