Be Prepared

July 07, 2019
Pastor Clint Ziemer

Audio of the sermon preached on July 7, 2019, at Cable Community Church, Sherrard, IL

Episode Notes

Be Prepared


Matthew 25:1-13


    So this is the 4th of July weekend.  If you’re from these parts, you’ve seen and heard the celebrations over the past four evenings.  This morning, I’d like you to think back in history, Just a few days.  Perhaps you recently witnessed a 4th of July parade being led by the Scouts’ Color Guard.  Similar to the Minutemen, the motto of the Boy Scouts is, Be Prepared. "Be prepared for what?" someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, "Why, for any old thing." said Baden-Powell. 

The training you receive in your troop will help you live up to the Scout motto. When someone has an accident, you are prepared because of your first aid instruction. Because of lifesaving practice, you might be able to save a non-swimmer who has fallen into deep water.

But Baden-Powell wasn’t thinking just of being ready for emergencies. His idea was that all Scouts should prepare themselves to become productive citizens and to give happiness to other people. He wanted each Scout to be ready in mind and body for any struggles, and to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges might lie ahead.

Be prepared for life - to live happily and without regret, knowing that you have done your best. That’s what the Scout motto means.

Now think back in history a little further; past the bombs bursting in air and the rockets red glare; past Betsy Ross and her flag-sewing, back to a civic-minded band of patriots known as the Minutemen.

    The Minutemen were part of their local militia.  They were no more than 30 years old, and were chosen for their enthusiasm, political reliability, and strength. They were the first armed militia to arrive at or await a battle.  Their members held themselves ready to turn out rapidly for emergencies, "at a minute's notice" and hence their name.  They trained regularly and more frequently than ordinary militiamen.  They kept abreast of political events both locally and abroad.  They were well prepared, ready for anything that might happen.  There are, to this day, local, organized militias who call themselves Minutemen.

The passage that we are going to look at today is all about being prepared. It is a parable of the kingdom. This means that Jesus begins His parable with the words, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like.’ Jesus is describing for us and teaching us about our faith and about our attitudes as we wait for Jesus to return.  Here we find ten virgins, five of which find themselves ...

Delayed   

Detoured    and ...

Denied

  1. Body
    1. Delayed
        1. Jesus is coming, when?
      1. Looking for a bridegroom.
        1. The context is a Middle Eastern village wedding celebration, which was culturally somewhat different back then.  In our culture, the wedding is mostly the bride’s special day, but in that patriarchal society, the focus was on the groom.  The bride and her attendant bridesmaids would wait all together while the groom and his party negotiated the ’bride’s price’ with her family.
          A sign of the families love for their daughter was to be difficult and draw out the negotiations, to show their reluctance at losing their daughter.
          You would need to have haggled and bargained in a Middle Eastern market to appreciate how much they enjoy the verbal exchange  - the give and take is an important part of their culture; -- it's not really about the money or the cost of the item, but it's establishing a relationship and respect; which is why even today it is a great insult  when a tourist accepts the first price offered
        2. So having appropriately discussed at length the ‘bride price’ and once an agreed upon figure has been carefully negotiated, it's now late into the night when the groom and his party would go and bring the bride and her attendants to the great wedding feast and celebration. 
        3. This was before the age of flashlights and street lights, so the bridesmaids would provide lamps and torches; their job was to illuminate the way, their light creating a bright festive atmosphere.
      2. The two groups waiting
        1. Wise vs. foolish
          1. Mat 7 -- building on sand or on the Rock
          2. Mat 13:36ff - the Kingdom as wheat & weeds
        2. Full vs. empty
        3. Five of them were not ready. They had time to get the extra oil they needed, but they did not feel the sense of urgency to do it right away.
      3. All sleptDetoured
        1. We thought we were ready.
      4. A cry is heard
        1. "He's coming"
        2. "Let's go"
      5. "I'm not ready!"
      6. "Share with me?"
      7. The foolish bridesmaids saw that they did not have enough oil, and they asked their wise friends to loan them some of theirs, but that was not possible. This means that another person’s faith will not cover you. Just because you were reared in a Christian home, or you are in church with other people of faith, does not necessarily mean that you have faith. It will not rub off just by sitting next to someone who has a vital relationship with Christ. You cannot “catch” faith like you catch a cold. You cannot borrow it from your friends, and you cannot get it from your parents. God has no grandchildren, only children. Every spiritual birth comes directly from him. Your faith must be your own. It is good for us to sing “Faith of Our Fathers,” but it is also necessary to be able to sing, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine!” The Jews of Jesus’ day were fond of calling Abraham their father. They were the physical descendants of Abraham and assumed they were also his spiritual descendants. But one day, as Jesus saw them coming toward him, he said, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). You may have a great heritage of faith, but you need to make that heritage into your own personal relationship. 
      8. Don’t try to borrow someone else’s oil, be sure to have your own. Character cannot be borrowed. Neither can a relationship with God be borrowed. William Barclay says, “We cannot always be living on the spiritual capital which others have amassed. There are certain things we must acquire for ourselves.” In the story, the foolish bridesmaids did not realize their need of oil until the bridegroom appeared. They were told to go out and buy oil, but they found that impossible. This means that a relationship with God cannot be bought at the last minute at any price. There are many, as Matthew Henry says, “who care not to live the [Christian] life, yet [want to] die the death of the righteous.” The Bible simply says, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). Jesus said, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning” (Luke 12:35-36). The wise bridesmaids said to the others, “Go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.” God is the "dispenser of oil," and you need to come to him while there is still time.Denied
        1. What is Jesus saying here?
      9. "Go, get for yourselves"
      10. The door was shut to them.
      11. Dennis was a guy from Texas who had an emergency and needed his suit dry cleaned before he left on a trip. He remembered one store with a huge sign, “One-Hour Dry Cleaners.” It was on the other side of town, so he drove out of his way to drop off his suit. After the clerk filled out the necessary information, he told her, “I have some errands to run and I’ll be back in an hour to pick it up.” She said, “I can’t get this back to you until Thursday.” “I thought you did dry cleaning in an hour,” he said. “Oh, no,” she replied, “That’s just the name of the store, we don’t actually do that.” There are many folks today who wear a sign saying they are a Christian, but they fail to deliver the goods. There are many churches who do not deliver on what the sign out front says either. 
      12. It is interesting that in this parable the bridesmaids all appeared to be alike. They all thought of themselves as bridesmaids who were acquainted with the groom. They all dressed alike. They were all expecting the bridegroom. When the bridegroom was delayed they all fell asleep. They all had lamps. All of them trimmed their lamps. They all wanted to be a part of the wedding feast. But not all of them were prepared, some of them failed to bring oil for their lamps — as unimaginable as that seems. This is a warning from the parable: Be sure that you are truly prepared, because it is possible to look just like everyone else, talk like everyone else, carry a Bible and desire to go to heaven, go to church, think of yourself as a Christian, yet ultimately be unprepared. It is possible to know about Christ and not know Christ, or more importantly to this text - to be known. It is possible to know the Bible and not be living for the God of the Bible, and not doing what the Bible says. It is possible to be a nice person and know all the right doctrine, yet have no relationship with God. It is possible to look like everyone else, and have your Christianity on the surface, while never allowing God’s Spirit to penetrate who you are and change the way you live. 
      13. The damning words are - to the foolish ones -, "I never knew you."
        1. Mat 7:23 -- "then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me..."
        2. Luke 13:25-27 -- "When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me..."
  2. Conclusion 
    1. Anyone else remember the TV series MASH?  I remember one episode where Hawkeye is called out to the front lines due to a shortage of doctors there. When he arrives, there are bombs and bullets flying all around. He suddenly realizes that his own life is in great danger. So in the few spare moments he has there, he takes time to write out his last will and testament. Eventually, another doctor arrives at the front and Hawkeye is able to return to the 4077 MASH. He arrives late in the evening, enters the office, sits down at the desk and works on the conclusion of his will. Klinger comes in and sees him and asks what he’s doing. Hawkeye tells him and Klinger responds by saying "No paper work is so important that it can’t wait until tomorrow." Hawkeye looks at him thoughtfully and says, "I used to think that way too, but not anymore." It was not until Hawkeye had experienced his close encounter with death on the front lines that he had come to realize the great importance of being prepared for death.
    2. If you knew that tomorrow was your last day on earth, how would you live it differently? Would you confess hidden sins that you thought you could get away with or that you thought you would deal with some day later? Would you decide to follow through in accepting God’s offer of forgiveness in Jesus? Would you be baptized into Christ? Would you heal a relationship with someone you are angry with or someone you hurt? Would you talk to God more in prayer? Would you finally get around to sharing your faith with that person you have been thinking about for so long? If so, then what Jesus is saying is "do that today, right now, because today may be your last day."
    3. Jesus said, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”  In other words, His return could be at any minute.
    4. "Watch therefore" could just as well be translated "Be Prepared."
      Are you prepared, this morning?
    5. ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ They said.  But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
      Does He know you?
    6. Notice that we usually ask that question the other way around.
      Today it's not, "Do you know Jesus?"  Does He know you?

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