Sunday Devotional
Be Alert For His Return!
Pastor Wes
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Greetings church! This past week in our midweek prayer focus, I took a quick dive into Matthew 24. If you missed that message, before viewing today’s message, please go back and view the short synopsis of Matthew 24, it’s entitled “End Times?”. In chapter 24, the disciples were probably hoping for a more definitive answer on when Jesus would return and the end of the world would occur, but instead He emphasized that they should just be alert, expecting His return any day. He gives four different illustrations, all intending to convey this same message- the message that He will return suddenly, unexpected, and that His followers are to be alert and ready at all times.
In verses 37-42, He says His return will be like the days of Noah- life was going on just as normal, when suddenly massive amounts of water came down gushing everywhere and flooded everything away. The point is emphasized in verse 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” The 2nd illustration is in verses 43-44… Then the 3rd illustration is conveyed through a parable, verses 45-51. I’ll give you the synopsis: A servant is placed in charge of His master’s household while the master is away. If the servant does like he’s supposed to and takes care of the household- even though he doesn’t know when exactly the master will come back- then he will be rewarded greatly. But, if he takes advantage of the situation and is a lousy caretaker, then he’ll be in for a big surprise of punishment when the master returns. The meaning is that we are each caretakers of “His household” while we are here on earth, and He expects us to be faithful stewards of what He has entrusted to us while He is away. When He returns, there will be the great reward of Heaven when He finds us doing the things we should be doing. If we live in manner that reveals we couldn’t care less if He returns or not, and we abuse what He has given to us, and we mistreat others- then we will not be welcomed into His Heavenly Kingdom when He returns, but will be thrown out into a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth- Hell.
Now this is really heavy stuff we’re talking about here, this isn’t a light Bible study about trying to be kind and love others. This is life and death stuff we’re talking about. Jesus wants it burned into our minds the understanding that there will be those ready for His return, and those not ready for His return. And He wants everyone listening to realize which category they fall into, and to hopefully persuade all He can to change their actions, mindset, and understanding, in order that they would be ready, prepared, and expectant to meet Him face to face.
This is such an important point Jesus wants to get across, that he gives yet another illustration, a 4th illustration, in an attempt to emphasize its truth. I want you to pause the video, and read it right now, Matthew 25:1-13.
Now the way these Jewish weddings worked at the time, was that the bride and groom made some formal vows at the home of the bride, and then there was procession to the groom’s house. The 10 virgins in this parable would be likened to 10 bridesmaids in our culture, and they would be waiting outside at the groom’s house, in order to welcome the bride. The procession would take place at night, after a day of preparing the wedding feast and going through other formalities. They didn’t have cell phones, so precise times were a little harder to nail down. The bridesmaids would just have to wait, and hang out, with lamps lit- waiting for the arrival of the groom with his new bride.
Their lamps worked similarly to traditional oil lamps, or even a zippo lighter. The wick is a long chord that coils down into the base of the lamp where the oil is stored, and only a small portion of it is exposed at the top where you light it and it burns. After burning for a period of time, the wick eventually dims as it gets charred and burnt up, and as the oil is burnt up. So, you have to “trim” the wick, you cut off the top charred portion of it, and move it up further from the base of the lamp- exposing new, fresh material that is soaked in oil. If the oil runs out, you can trim the wick and relight it, but without the oil it will just burn up quickly. The wick needs oil in the reservoir, it “wicks” up the liquid fuel and the fire burns the fuel instead of burning up the wick.
Now notice in this passage, that it’s probably safe to assume that all ten bridesmaids were invited to take part in this special role of the wedding ceremony. All ten were prepared with a lamp. All ten had oil in them and were able to keep them lit for a time. All ten even fell asleep. All ten knew how to trim the wick, and all ten did so. But only five had the foresight to have on hand extra oil. It’s like they all went camping with functioning flashlights, but only five thought to bring extra batteries in case the batteries they had ran out.
Notice that the 5 who weren’t prepared, first attempted to rely on the others to right their mistake, but when refused, they at least were willing to go and make things right and purchase extra oil for themselves. But their willingness came too late. It’s not that they didn’t want to be ready, it’s just that they weren’t ready. They missed the groom and then the wedding feast because they weren’t ready at the right time.
And Jesus doesn’t leave us to guess the meaning of His illustration, He states it plainly in verse 13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” It’s not that the 5 foolish virgins weren’t invited, it’s not that they didn’t have the main right tool (the lamp), it’s not that they didn’t start out doing the right thing (they did- they all had their lamps lit as they were supposed to). It’s not that they didn’t have the right knowledge of how to operate the lamp, no- they all were able to get up and trim their lamps. It’s not that they had a desire to put out their lamp fires- no, they wanted oil from the others in order to keep them burning. What separates these 5 foolish from the 5 prudent is that the 5 foolish weren’t alert and prepared for the wait. They weren’t prepared for the duration, they weren’t prepared to endure, they weren’t prepared for the long haul.
Christianity is a long haul. There’s not a whole lot of instant gratification offered to the follower of Christ. Sure, there are rewards and blessings in this life, and peace, comfort, joy- but Jesus over and over encourages us to endure and to persevere- why? Because He knows that is what following Him will take. Enduring and persevering. Life in general- even for the non-believer- often takes enduring and persevering. But also over and over, Jesus encourages us of the great reward in store for us who endure and persevere- why? Because it’s so easy to lose sight of the life He is preparing for us, and yet it is so true, real, and inevitable.
What might be the “oil flask” in your life that is missing and might cause you to be unprepared and thus barred from Jesus’ great wedding feast in Heaven? For some the missing piece might even be a profession of faith in Jesus. Maybe you grew up in church, maybe there’s always been a willingness to do the right thing, but for whatever reason you have delayed asking Jesus into your life for His forgiveness and help. I encourage you, don’t wait any longer! Make it right with Him right now. Pause the video, and call out to Him declaring your need for His forgiveness and presence in your life.
For others, the “oil flask” could represent anything that would need to be made right, before standing before the one who knows and sees all. If God Himself were coming over to your house tomorrow night for dinner, and you knew He was going to talk to you about the areas of your life that needed to be addressed, wouldn’t you want to go ahead and address those areas of your life right now, so that you wouldn’t have to have a painful, embarrassing conversation with Him tomorrow night? Each of us would want to make sure our relationships were right, we might ask someone for forgiveness, we would want to make sure no one had anything against us, we might even go have the “Jesus conversation” with our neighbor that we had been putting off. We’d make sure our TV was on an appropriate show when the doorbell rang, and we’d want our computer browsers not to remember any inappropriate websites. In light of recent events, maybe we’d do some serious soul searching to see if we’ve been discriminating or racist in any way, or if we’ve been turning a blind eye to other’s unjust sentiments. No matter what it is, if today you realize there is something you would want to make right before hosting God or Jesus at your house- I want to encourage you to make it right- right now. To go ahead and make yourself alert and prepared for Him to come at any moment, whether that’s a minute from now, tomorrow night, or years down the road. And this preparing, making things right, isn’t just a one-time thing. It should be a daily, habitual, posture of our hearts- cultivating an attitude of repentance- like we talked about a few weeks ago. Being prepared for His return involves daily searching our hearts, and allowing Him to search our hearts, bringing to mind anything that He needs to work on within us. So church, be alert! And don’t run out of oil! We’ll see you soon.