Jeremy Camp- There will be a day (Lyrics video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtud5pvF08A
Taken from Bible.org
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 the virgins were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take extra266 olive oil with them. 4 But the wise ones took flasks of olive oil with their lamps. 5 When the bridegroom was delayed a long time,267 they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is here! 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, because our lamps are going out.’ 9 ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There won’t be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 But while they had gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went inside with him to the wedding banquet. Then the door was shut. 11 Later, the other virgins came too, saying, ‘Lord, lord! Let us in!’ 12 But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know you!’ 13 Therefore stay alert, because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:1-13). 268
Introduction
How many of you have ever run out of gas? In most audiences, this would be nearly everyone. I cannot verify these statistics, so I caution you that they may be flawed. It would appear that every year at least a half million people call for help because they have run out of gas. Besides flat tires, dead batteries, and misplaced keys, running out of gas ranks right up there in the reasons why people call for roadside service. One might understand this happening a generation ago, when gas gauges were not entirely accurate, and when all the warning lights of our day were non-existent. But now we have warning messages that our fuel is running low (giving us perhaps an hour more of driving), and then additional progressively urgent warnings indicating just how many estimated miles of driving we have left. One must say that most people who run out of fuel are “without excuse.”
Why, then, do we do it, seemingly as often today as people did years ago, when all of the advantages of technology were not available? We’ll come back to this question at the end of our message. In our text, it is not gasoline that is lacking, but olive oil “ the fuel burned in the lamps of Jesus’ day. And, I believe we will discover that the five foolish virgins did not really “run out” of oil; they never had it.
The Context
Before we get to the parable, we would do well to remind ourselves of the context. In response to the disciples’ request to know what sign would signal our Lord’s coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3), Jesus spoke to them about the last days. He made it clear that the end would not come immediately, but only after considerable time and troubles (Matthew 24:4-31). Our Lord issued various warnings (Matthew 24:4-5, 10-11, 23-28), because during these troubled times there would be many interlopers, who would seek to turn men’s attention and affections away from Jesus, the true Messiah.
In verses 32-51 of chapter 24, Jesus speaks of what His disciples can and cannot know, and on the basis of both, He gives some specific words of instruction regarding the last times.
32 “Learn this parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near, right at the door. 34 I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 36 “But as for that day and hour no one knows it”not even the angels in heaven”except the Father alone. 37 For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38 For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. 39 And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 There will be two women grinding grain with a mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 “Therefore stay alert, 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 been alert and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore 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 slave, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work when he comes. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave should say to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, 50 then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, 51 and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 24:32-51).
The parable of the fig tree is employed to teach us that there are certain signs which indicate the “season” of His return. When the fig tree begins to sprout new leaves, we can be assured that summer is near. So, too, when we see “all these things” “ that is, the things Jesus has just described, including the abomination of desolation “ then we can be assured that the season of our Lord’s return is at hand. Just how broad is this time frame, this season? One generation in length (Matthew 24:34).
Luke 13:24-25 New International Version (NIV)
24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
Although we are meant to recognize the “season” of our Lord’s return, we are not meant to know the exact time “ not the day nor the hour. This is consistent with God’s dealings with this world in the past. Specifically, we can see this in relation to the flood. No one “ not even Noah “ knew the exact day or hour that the flood would come. I believe we can safely say that at least Noah knew the season. We can see this when we read in Genesis 7.
Since no one can know the day or the hour that the Lord will come, we must be constantly in a state of alertness, ready at any moment. Jesus illustrates His point with the example of a burglary. If the owner of the home had known the hour when the burglary would occur, he would have made sure to prevent it. But, in fact, he did not know the hour. One might even conjecture that he was not even aware that a burglary would take place. Thus, it caught him off guard, to his loss.
We might illustrate the need for readiness in a different way. Firemen are trained and equipped to fight fires. They know there will be fires, but they don’t know when. And so they are in a constant state of readiness, even when they sleep. Their clothing is all laid out so they can quickly dress and get to the fire. Sometimes I see the fire truck outside the grocery store where I shop. The firemen are in the store, buying food. But they also have their portable radios in hand, ready to rush out if word of a fire is received.
We, too, must be ready, Jesus tells us. We do not know the hour of His return, and more than this, the coming of the Son of Man will be at a time that we don’t expect. From the context of chapter 24, I am tempted to think that while His return will be preceded by very difficult days, the actual day of His return will appear to be trouble-free, much like the day Noah and his family entered the ark. (I’ll bet the sky was blue and clear all day long.) When Jesus returns, people will be going about their normal routines because there will be no sign of imminent danger. We therefore must be ready at all times.
Just what does being alert look like? In Matthew 24:45-51, Jesus describes how He desires to find His disciples when He does return “ going about the tasks He has assigned them. The “faithful and wise slave” knows that his master may not return for some time, but he also knows that he has been instructed to feed and care for his fellow slaves (Matthew 24:45). And so he uses the time of his master’s absence to fulfill his mission. And because this is his normal routine, his master will find him at his appointed work when he returns, even though the hour of his return is unknown (Matthew 24:46-47). The evil slave interprets his master’s prolonged delay very differently. He concludes that his master’s return is yet in the distant future. He may also assume that he will be given some forewarning, so that he will have time to “clean up his act” in time to look good for his master. And so he misappropriates his master’s resources and ignores his master’s instructions. Instead of caring for his fellow slaves by feeding them, he feeds himself and his cronies, indulging himself and others in that which should be given to his fellow slaves. This man will be cut in two and assigned to hell with his fellow hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 24:48-51).
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
There are several things we need to consider before we attempt to interpret this parable. First, we need to recognize that this is a selective account. There are many details omitted. From where is the groom coming? Where are the virgins waiting? What will happen there? What role do the lamps play in this ceremony and celebration? And, perhaps most notable, where is the bride? She is never mentioned. It is obviously the groom who is central to this story (after all, it is about the coming of the Messiah at the end of the age).
Second, we may not be looking at a typical wedding. I doubt that in most wedding celebrations the groom would exclude bridesmaids for forgetting to bring oil for their lamps. I doubt that arriving late, as five of the virgins did, would keep them from gaining entrance to the celebration. This seems to be a rather exceptional situation, and not a typical event. Thus, knowledge of how wedding ceremonies were conducted in those days (largely gained from sources outside the Bible) will not prove that helpful. This extra-biblical information is not the key to understanding our text.
Third, we need to set aside our 20th century assumptions about weddings, bridesmaids and lamps. Specifically, we must not think of these lamps in terms that are familiar to us. The word which is used for “lamp” here (lampas) is not the normal term for “lamp” in Matthew, or in the New Testament. It is used five times in this parable of the virgins in Matthew 25, once in John 18:3, once in Acts 20:8, and twice in Revelation (4:5; 8:10). The lampas is more of a torch, a larger, brighter “lamp” than that which is normally used inside a house. In John 18:3, the lampas was the torch held by those who came in the night to arrest Jesus near the Garden of Gethsemane. There were many of these larger lamps in the room where Paul was teaching in Acts 20:8 (thus the extra warmth which must have contributed to the young man’s sleepiness and fatal fall).
From what I have learned, this lampas was not like any of the oil lamps my wife has collected. There was no glass chimney, no neat wick or adjusting device, and no attached tank in which oil would be stored. It was more like a large, flat, bowl, with a rag or rope-like “wick.” Apparently this kind of lamp could be attached to a pole, and used as an outdoor torch to illuminate one’s steps in the darkness. The word “trim,” employed by almost every translation, is a word which is found ten times in the King James Version, but only once (here in Matthew 25:7) is it rendered “trim.” This gives us a modern-day mental image of a bridesmaid (virgin) adjusting the wick upward in her glass-topped lamp, lighting it with a match. I think she was preparing the lamp by fixing it to a pole and then lighting the rag or primitive wick.