“The Ten Virgins” – Matthew 25:1-13

The song, “I’m Trading My Sorrows” says,

“I'm trading my sorrows
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying it down
For the joy of the Lord

I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down
For the joy of the Lord”

Is that true of you? When you have sorrow, shame, sickness or pain, can you just lay it the feet of Jesus and take up His joy? In Nehemiah 8:10 it says, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Is that true of you? Is that true all the time for you? Part of the time? Hardly ever?  Why not?

If that’s not true of you, how much would you give for it? How much money would you give to trade in your sickness and your pain and walk off with joy? Think of it like buying a car… Just come on down to Honest Todd’s Joy Dealership and I will make you a deal! Push, pull or drag that old Sorrow on down here and drive a brand new Joy off the lot. This Joy is loaded with all the options. It has automatic transmission to shift from Shame to Peace at any time. It is powered by Grace, runs on Mercy and has an unlimited mileage warranty. Now, how much would you give?

Joy is a precious commodity, isn’t it? What exactly is joy? Is it the same as happiness? How are they different? How do I get joy? Those are some of the most important questions we can ask in this life because, for some of us, the kind of joy that song talks about is, at best, fleeting. We talked last week about how so many of God’s wonderful promises are hard to get and hold on to; things like joy and peace, a full and abundant life and not worrying about anything.

I hope that we are all getting better at that even though we probably all struggle with those things at times. But, if you are getting better with it, it is because you have learned the secret. The secret to having all those things is simply knowing God. And the more you know God, the more joy and peace you will have. The more you know God and start to learn His character, the easier it is to consider it all pure joy (James 1); the easier it is to be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4); the easier it is to be still and know Him even better (Ps. 46).

The good news in this is that this life is just a wisp of smoke (James 4) and only lasts a short time. While we sometimes have victory and sometimes we struggle with these issues, the ultimate victory over sin, shame, sickness, guilt, sorrow and pain will be in Heaven and for those of us who know God, that is our blessed hope (Titus 2); our blessed assurance, our inheritance from our loving heavenly Father as co-heirs with Jesus. That’s something to look forward to.

The bad news is that not everybody that calls themselves Christians will have that inheritance. Did you know that? Yes, Jesus is going to come back to earth to get those who truly believe in Him; for those who truly know Him and there are going to be quite a few people that are left behind because while they claimed the name “Christian” they didn’t truly know Christ. There are going to be church members and, I dare say, pastors who look like Christians, talk like Christians, at least sometimes, and believe themselves to be Christians who have fooled themselves and others around them but never truly believed and they will be left behind.

Toward the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is in the temple teaching and He is surrounded by the most religious men on the planet. They are professional teachers and preachers and are very proud of who they are and what they know. But they don’t know Jesus and they don’t know His Father and Jesus just rips into them. In chapter 23, Jesus says, “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.”

He continues by calling them blind guides, blind men, blind fools, blind Pharisees, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, snakes, broods of vipers and ends with, “How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (v. 33) No wonder they wanted to kill Him! These were very religious men. And all of that was in chapter 23.

Now, have you ever seen the cool movie star in a movie blow something up and just walk calmly away without looking back at the explosion. That’s the cool move that the superhero does in a movie, right? Well, that’s just what Jesus does here. Not literally, but just as effectively, He blew that place smooth up and it says in the beginning of chapter 24, “Jesus left the temple and was walking away.”

I’m getting to the text for this morning. Just be patient. I’m almost there. But it is important to know in what context Jesus was speaking. So, Jesus leaves the temple with His disciples and goes over to the nearby Mount of Olives where He gives them what is called the Olivet Discourse and in this discourse He tells them several parables to prepare them – and us – for the end times. He wants to make sure we are ready for His return and while the disciples had a hard time understanding what He meant, things are playing out in our day that help us to understand that the rapture could happen at any minute. Let’s look at one of those parables today in Matthew 25:1-13.

The parable of the Ten Virgins or Ten Bridesmaids was a story that Jesus’ audience could well relate to. Weddings today are a big deal but they only last a few hours at the most. In the days of Jesus, a wedding might easily last a week or even two. The whole town or community would be invited and lots of people had parts to play in the whole process. It was the most joyous occasion of the year and it was a great honor to be a part of it.

It would start at the groom’s house, which was usually his parent’s house as well. The groom and all his buddies would start there and play and dance and sing and this might last 2-3 days if they wanted. Then they would go to the bride’s house and do the same thing with the bride and all her friends. Again, this would last as long as they wanted it to and then the bride and groom would go back to the groom’s house to live.

In this parable that Jesus tells, this is something that could very easily happen. This was no wild tale they couldn’t relate to. They knew exactly what was going on and they knew the shame that the bridesmaids would have if it did happen. Let’s read it in Matthew 25:1-13.

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.

Now, what has happened here is that the groom and all his buddies stayed late at his house partying it up and by the time they left to go to the bride’s house, it was late. Typical boys, right? But the custom was for the bridesmaids to ceremonially welcome into the house the groom and his buddies with their lamps. It was a great honor to be included in the wedding party and to not do what you were supposed to do would bring great shame.

Imagine if you were asked to provide the food for the wedding reception and your whole family was there and all your friends and you brought a package of powdered donuts and a bottle of YooHoo. That’s the kind of etiquette breach we are talking about here. It was disrespectful. It was lazy and it was unpardonable.

Now, if you go back to verses one and two, Jesus said there were ten virgins, five were wise and five were foolish. And how do you tell the difference? Well, He tells us in the next verse that some had extra oil and some didn’t. Otherwise, they looked exactly the same. Don’t you know they all had on their best clothes? They all had their hair done and their makeup on and all their jewelry was sparkling. You can be pretty sure that if a woman is at a wedding, whether it is now or back then, she is going to look her best. There is just something about a wedding.

So, it’s not because any of the bridesmaids were not dressed nice enough to get into the party. They all looked nice. They were all invited. They had all waited. They all had lamps. None of those were reasons that the five girls couldn’t come in. It was that they weren’t prepared.

Jesus, who represents the groom in this story, is coming back to get His bride, the church, any day now. I was joking with somebody about preparing a message about the rapture and said I wasn’t even going to start preparing this message until Saturday night because I didn’t want to waste my time since I expected Him to come back this week sometime. But if He waits a little longer, it is just to give you time to be prepared.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Oh, I’m prepared. I go to church every Sunday. I give money to the church. I pray. I was even baptized. Well, all those are good. You should do those things as part of being a Christian but those are outward signs and none of that gets you to Heaven. There is going to be a big party in Heaven and God wants you to be there, but you have to be prepared ahead of time. If you wait until the rapture, it will be too late. If you only have the outward signs, it’s not enough. You can’t tell by looking at the outside.

Now, go back and look at verses 6-9. It says, “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.”

When Jesus comes back again, you won’t be able to borrow somebody else’s salvation. I saw a survey by the Pew Research Center that showed about 70% of Americans today call themselves Christian. That number goes down every year, too, unfortunately, but do you think all 70% of those people are true, Bible-believing, Jesus-following, God-fearing, Spirit-filled Christians? I doubt it. I doubt it because of what Jesus is saying here.

Just because we live in a Christian nation doesn’t make a person a Christian. Just because your daddy taught Sunday School and your mama was on the such-and-such committee doesn’t mean you are a Christian. Let’s just get right to the heart of things. What DOES it mean to be a Christian? What DO you have to do? Well, here it is. This is the Gospel; the Good News. When asked what they had to do to be saved, Jesus told people and the disciples all told people to just believe. That’s all you have to do.

Believe in Jesus, not just that He lived but that He also died on a cross to pay the debt of sin that you owed to God. He paid the price and rose again three days later and ascended back to Heaven and lives today and is coming back soon. Now, if you truly believe that to be true, several things will happen. Your life will be changed. It will be changed the day of your conversion and it will continue to change every day for the rest of your life.

You will start to make decisions, led by the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you, that will reflect the decisions God wants you to make. You will learn more about Jesus and will become more like Him in every way. He will affect your job, your marriage, your conversations, your free time, your hobbies and your thoughts.

Sin will start to bother you more and more. It’s not that you are perfect, but it will pain you when you displease God and you will start to ask His forgiveness sooner and sooner. God will start to convict you of sin that you didn’t know was sin and you will agree with Him about those things. You might not like it but you will agree.

You will also want other people to know about Jesus. We learned a while back that to be a disciple of Jesus simply means that you learn something from Him and then tell somebody else. That’s what will happen to you if you are a true believer. You will have a great desire to tell other people what you know, whether it’s a little or a lot.

Also, don’t tell me you are a Christian if church is not an obvious priority in your life. I don’t believe it, don’t believe it, don’t believe it. You can’t love Jesus and ignore His bride. It Won’t Happen! We’ve talked about this a lot of times so I’m not going to dwell on it but a true believer will have a passion for the church.

Lastly, your life will start to have more peace and joy. It doesn’t mean that your circumstances will get better. They may even get worse. But you will start to see how to have joy and peace in the midst of those bad times because you understand that God is in control and He loves you and you can’t be convinced otherwise.

Now, if that is true of you then do not let Satan ever make you think otherwise. He loves to make believers doubt their salvation. If you can remember a time in your life when you submitted to God and prayed for His forgiveness and you now see these things happening in your life then don’t let Satan steal your joy. But He also, because he is the father of lies, likes to make unbelievers think they are believers. He likes to make the bridesmaids think they are prepared or that because you come from a religious family or country that you now are prepared for the rapture. You can’t beg, borrow or steal your salvation from someone else. You have to receive it yourself as a gift from God.

That’s the Gospel; the Good News. All you have to do is believe but that belief will manifest itself in a changed life, inside and out. Now, here’s the bad news. There is going to come a time when it is too late.

In verses 10-12 of our parable, Jesus makes that clear. 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.’

I heard the story of a famous opera singer who was asked to sing for a wealthy man’s wedding. The woman showed up with her husband and she performed a beautiful song at just the right time in just the right way and everyone was so impressed. She just nailed it. After the wedding, the host announced that the reception would be held in the great hall next door and for those that were invited, they just needed to show their invitation and they would be seated and would enjoy a lavish buffet with all the trappings.

So, the opera singer and her husband got in line and when asked for her invitation, the opera singer realized she had left it at home. So, she just leaned forward and told the attendant who she was. The young man said again that she needed an invitation. The singer got agitated and proceeded to inform the young man just who she was and who she knew and what was going to happen if he didn’t let them in. And what do you think happened?

The woman later said that as security was escorting them from the property and away from the buffet with lavish ice sculptures and every kind of delicious food and delicacy imaginable set on beautifully prepared tables that her only thought in her great embarrassment was wondering why she hadn’t been prepared. She had been invited. She had dressed the part and played the part and expected to be treated as one of the party. It was too late to go back home and get the invitation and so she was locked out and it was only her fault.

In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

As your pastor but more as your friend, I beg of you to search your heart right now. You don’t have to understand everything. You never will. That’s what faith is for. But today, if you don’t know or you are unsure if you are truly prepared then I need to talk with you and pray with you right now. Come to the front right now as the music plays.