Matthew 25:1-13, The Parable of the Ten Virgins

 ¹ “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.

Let’s not forget our typology (Israel and the church), OK?

Jesus is continuing his conversation with his disciples about the end times…and the importance of being prepared. In this parable we have virgins, oil, lamps, fire and a bridegroom.

• Virgins represent humankind
• Lamps represent the church
• Oil represents the Holy Spirit
• Bridegroom represents Jesus Christ

So this logical reduction follows:

1.   The invitation of Christ is open to all humankind

2.   Some of humankind responds and joins the confessing church (lamps)

3.   Some in the confessing church join the Body of Christ (Oil) by faith.

Remember when the disciples asked if the weeds should be pulled up (Mt 13)? Jesus said “no” because it’s not an exact science. Some wheat could be pulled out as well. Only at the coming of Christ will the church finally be able to distinguish who has the Holy Spirit (oil) and who doesn’t.

But then we’ll know… “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’  “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ “‘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.’ “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”. The Body of Christ (those with oil) will be ready and waiting with their lamps lit. The foolish virgins are at least smart enough to run out and get some oil but by the time they returned “the door was shut”.

Two teaching points jump out at me…

1.   Those of us in the church should never assume the person sitting next to us in the pew has been born again.

2.   Our most important message for the church is the need to be born again.

We all know this could look pretty ugly if we began deputizing “oil inspectors”. A better way would be to stay focused on the message and let the Holy Spirit do the investigating.

Live boldly out there today…

Matthew 24:36-50, The Day and Hour Unknown

    ³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[f] but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

   ⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

   ⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷ Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ ⁴⁹ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰ The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹ He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It’s probably important to make an important hermeneutic observation here in order to properly apply Christ’s teaching about the end times.

A type is a real historical event, object or person in the Old Testament that God has intended to use as a means of understanding and explaining a reality in the New Testament.

Israel is a type of the New Testament church (small “C”). This means we can make assertions about how we expect God to deal with the church by examining how He dealt with Israel. We claim this because God used Israel as a vehicle for expressing His will and purpose…as He does with the church.

Please note that I did not say “Body of Christ” (Church with a capital “C”). If we attempt to make that comparison the type breaks down. The most critical distinction is simple: The Body of Christ contains no unbelievers while the Church does (as we see in a number of Jesus’ parables in Matthew). In the same way, the nation of Israel, throughout its history has been comprised of both faithful and unfaithful people.

Failure to understand this type may lead to an belief that a believer can “fall from grace” (Arminianism). While you may believe this is possible, you cannot believe it be based on these teachings in Matthew.

Of course, nobody knows when the end will occur…not even Jesus. We do know, however, that it will come suddenly and unexpectedly…just like the flood.  

When it comes though, with all its suddenness and ferocity, it will not be indiscriminate like the flood. Christ’s coming will be precise and surgical in nature.  “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left”.

Jesus knows exactly who he wants and where they are…

Yet…we’re told to keep watch. What for, if Jesus has already figured out who goes and who stays?

It’s probably sufficient to say “because he told us to…” But there’s more to it.

We “keep watch” because we aren’t watching out for Jesus, we’re watching out for spiritual thieves and robbers that would destroy us…who could rob us of our faith. Allow me to speculate that the very way Jesus will identify who he takes with him is by the faith he can see in our lives. If we’ve allowed anything to rob us of our faith Jesus will pass right over us at his return (Gospel according to Lee).

General George Patton always said he wanted to die in battle…it was the mark of a true and faithful soldier. He said “I want to die from the final bullet fired in the final battle of the final war in history”.

Like dying in the pulpit…just as you finish your last sermon.

And, I can tell you…just about the time I decide to let down my guard and allow the barbarians at the gate to invade my life…that’s exactly when Jesus will return. How do I explain I was just too exhausted to keep my faith vital?

No…let’s just play it the way God planned it. Let’s settle in for the long haul. Let’s get up each morning and determine to spend our day being faithful.

After all…this could be “the” morning!

Live boldly out there today…

Matthew 24:1-35, The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

 ¹ Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

 ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

 ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

   ⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

   ¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

   ²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.

   ²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

   ²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days

   “‘the sun will be darkened,
   and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[b]

   ³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^{[d] 31} And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

   ³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[e] is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

We all know it’s going to end someday…and when it does, “not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.” Interesting choice of words here. “not one stone” and then “everyone”. It appears that when the end comes, everything…and everyone…that is the product of man will be reduced to nothing.

It makes me hope that anything I’ve become has been built by God and not man…

But then the end might be the easy part. When the disciples asked about when this would happen Jesus laid out some pretty ominous scenarios.

1.   Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.

2.   We will hear of wars and rumors of wars

3.   There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  

And this is just the beginning…

1.   We will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death…because of me.

2.   Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,

3.   Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

4.   The love of most will grow cold,

The one who stands firm to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

Trust me when I say “standing firm” is not something we will be doing, but something Christ will be doing in us. Since I know myself pretty well, this is very good news.

And then the end will come...

When it does, we’re supposed to grab our stuff and run. Actually, don’t even stop to grab you stuff. Just get out. It will be so dangerous for us that if God didn’t shorten the time we would all perish. This will be a cosmic conflagration that touches every one of us.

And don’t be so quick to look for Christ in all this. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders, hoping to deceive

I’m not so interested in understanding the abomination of desolation or the wars, or earthquakes or darkened skies. They are going to happen whether I understand them or not. I’m far more interested in the outcome…for me and my loved ones.

We could be nervous, but it’s a waste of energy and focus. Jesus says these false prophets would deceive even the elect…if that were possible.

This is a clear implication that our survival of this holocaust rests not on our ability to discern the signs, but on Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus.

This doesn’t mean it won’t be painful. But remember. It will be just as painful for unbelievers and their ending will not be as secure.  It’s not a difficult choice.

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^{[d] 31} And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Could it get any better than this? Is it worth a little trouble? I went through a ton of trouble just trying to get Bronco-Viking football tickets and the payoff was meaningless. We do it all the time. So let’s not get focused on the coming trouble. Let’s simply see it as a small price to pay for the biggest payoff in history.

Live boldly out there today…

Matthew 23:13-39, Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

    ¹³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. ^{[14] [b]}

   ¹⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

   ¹⁶ “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ ¹⁷ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? ¹⁸ You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ ¹⁹ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰ Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. ²² And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

   ²³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

   ²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

   ²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

   ²⁹ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

   ³³ “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

   ³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’^[c]”

My GPS has two parts. It has the map with a clear, colorful and precise display of all the roads and streets in my vicinity.




And...it has the nice lady with the annoying voice.


Most of the time I turn off the voice. It's obtrusive and disruptive when I'm trying to listen to the radio. And after all...I can read a map!


Recently Mali and I were going to a big Home Show in Denver. I programmed the GPS because our destination was in an unfamiliar part of town. As we got to the junction of I-70 and I-25 there was such a jumble of exits and turns that I couldn't watch the map and watch the road at the same time.


I turned on the voice. The voice allowed me to focus on the exits and signs without stress...turning when I was prompted. When the two worked together the results were far better.


However, I noticed that in the real conjested interchanges with several exits my Norwegian brain's ability to process the voice lagged just enough so I had to occasionally glance at the map to confirm the commands.


The map is God's law...precise and objective. The voice is the Holy Spirit... interpreting the map.

(hold on to that thought)

Jesus sounds angry…26 verses of Jesus screaming (figuratively, I suppose) at the Pharisees. This has to be important. I suggest you read the entire passage; we need to in order to fully absorb the importance of what Jesus is telling us.

There’s a lot here…what sticks out to me? I’d say we can capture Christ’s intent in this verse: “But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former”.

It's human nature…when given a choice…to pick one or the other. The Pharisees chose the “letter of the Law” and nobody did it better. And…we’ve been choosing sides ever since. The two sides rarely get along.

So, when the voice of the Spirit gets annoying we turn it off. When the law gets to restrictive we ignore it.We gravitate toward one or the other but Jesus tells us we should do both.

Why?

Sometimes...particularly when obeying God...the choice is “both…and” rather than “either…or”.  In fact, I’d say they are two sides of the same coin. We really can’t do one without the other. We think we can…but we can’t

It’s fair to infer, from this passage and others, that God’s default preference is that we follow the "spirit of the law". We see this frequently with the Old Testament offerings when God simply says “quit doing it…I don’t like your attitude!” (Lee’s translation). You see, it's possible to obey the law and have absolutely no idea what it means.

But then, as we grow accustomed to followoing the spirit of the law we begin to turn attention away from the letter of the law...it's just so restrictive, and certainly not adequate to evaluate the purity of our hearts.  As a result we no longer observe many of our traditional Christian rules…we’ve moved on to a higher spiritual plane. And…we love our new found freedom in Christ.

But…that’s not the end of it. Jesus never permits us to follow the spirit of the law at the expense of the letter of the law.

I think it's like the GPS. We need the map (Letter) and the voice (Spirit) together. There are times when our human brains are not able to comprehend the voice of the Holy Spirit in real time. We lag a bit. And during that brief moment we have a choice: either we look at the map for confirmation or we risk missing the turn God intended for us.

 

But sometimes we still turn off the voice. I recall telling Mali I didn't need any directions to find Lakefield...just before I missed the exit.

Live boldly out there today…

Matthew 23:1-12, A Warning Against Hypocrisy

 ¹ Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴ They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

   ⁵ “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries^[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

   ⁸ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

“I can’t learn anything from a hypocrite!”

Our preferred response is to keep our distance from hypocrites and ignore everything they say…as though hypocrisy were dangerously contagious. Not so fast, my friend…we are actually expected to listen and learn from them.

Should an aspiring Christian musician refuse to attend The Julliard School simply because the president of the school owns a karaoke machine?

This is why Jesus taught the crowd with these words…”you must be careful to do everything they (the Pharisees) tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach”.

Today’s scripture raises a critical point for us Christians: It’s possible to be perfectly precise in our doctrine and still be completely messed up. In fact, it’s the quintessential definition of hypocrisy…when we know one value to be true but live by another. Sadly, by this definition we all struggle with hypocrisy on some points.

But be careful. Hypocrisy is not just another sin. Sin (as an act) is failing to measure up to the standard God has established. We believe the standard, we’re devoted to it, but we fail. Hypocrisy, on the other hand, is proclaiming the standard for others while making no attempt to achieve it in our own lives.

Like…preaching a “6 day creation” if we don’t personally believe it to be true. This is hypocrisy because we are only doing it to keep the congregation and the District Superintendent happy. If we weren’t worried about what others thought we wouldn’t preach that sermon.

There is a reason this happens…and Jesus continues to explain the root of the whole thing: “Everything they do is done for people to see”.

How can we know if we’re submitting to this temptation? The easiest way is to look at how we present ourselves. “Colonel!”, “Doctor!”, “Senator!”, “Professor!” Do we use our titles when it’s professionally appropriate, or do we lead with them? I bring my car to the shop and introduce myself as “Reverend Thompson” as though the mechanic cares. What I really want is for him to be impressed enough by my title so he will give me special treatment.

This is how we know…

It doesn’t mean people can’t learn from me. It only means they shouldn’t emulate me.

And, here’s a piece of advice you might take from a recovering hypocrite: I was told in my early religious education that the Catholic Church was wrong to call their clergy “Father” base on this text. Wow, did that teacher miss the point!

Live boldly our there…

Matthew 22:41-46, Whose Son Is the Messiah?

Matthew 22:41-46, Whose Son Is the Messiah?

 ⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

   “The son of David,” they replied.

 ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

   ⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
   “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
   under your feet.”’^[e]

   ⁴⁵ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶ No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I wonder what Jesus would have said if their answer would have been Abraham, or anybody else other than God.

Really, there is only one answer…and it’s not a trick question. I think the Pharisees actually knew the answer but couldn’t bring themselves to offer it. David was a safe and, in some respects, true answer…if we don’t look at the whole picture, which Christ demands.

I’m thinking…next time I hear Jesus ask me a question, I’m just going to ask him what the answer is before I sound silly.

Live boldly out there today…

Matthew 22:34-40, The Greatest Commandment

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

 ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It doesn’t get any simpler than this…it’s just that it’s so complicated.

The simple part is the math. Ten minus eight is two. And, two is much simpler to keep track of than ten. Plus…we still get credit for ten.

I really like new math...

The complication is that these two seem to be the toughest to measure. After all, I know if I lie. I know if I covet. I know if I commit adultery. I even know if I’m honoring the Lord’s Day. But “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and Love your neighbor as yourself”. That can keep us up at night if we take it seriously.

As God intended…

Serving Him faithfully should consume us. It should never be a question of math.

Live boldly out there today…