02 - The Parable Of The Ten Virgins By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

Last Days Parables

Part 2

"The Ten Virgins"

Last time we looked at the five illustrations Jesus gave of what His return would be like, and of how the church is to behave while waiting. The five illustrations were of lightning, a carcass with eagles gathered around it, a fig tree, a master of a household invaded by a thief, and finally The Lord returning to His household.

These illustrations were part and parcel of the Lord's response to the three questions His disciples asked Him in response to His stunning prediction that the Temple and Jerusalem itself would be completely destroyed.

Their questions were, "When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming? And of the end of the age? Jesus responded by predicting many signs for them to look for preceding Jerusalem's demise, and He also looked down through the centuries to our day and predicted signs relating to His return to earth.

Now, not only did Jesus answer their questions with numerous general signs to look for along with the five illustrations, He continued with three striking parables. So always remember that Matthew 24-25 is a complete whole. It all flows out of the Lord's response to the questions concerning His return. So let's read the parable of the Ten Virgins:

25 “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, 4 but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. 5 When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’

7 “All the virgins got up and prepared their lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

9 “But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. 11 Later, when the other five virgins returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’

12 “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’

13 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return."

This parable follows the former illustration/parable of the householder who goes on a long journey and leaves the servants in charge of the house. This is the Lord's focus with the parables. They all deal with an absent Lord.

The parable of the householder presents the Lord absent, his servants left in charge. Then the parable of the Lord is presented as the bridegroom absent, with certain people left there to wait for him; and finally we have the parable of the absent lord who bestowed talents upon his own servants, and their response while waiting for his return.

As we'll see, a threefold responsibility is revealed in the three parables. They merge and agree in their revelation. The first parable deals with communal responsibility--how the lord's household (the church) treats each other.

The second parable of the 10 virgins is the responsibility of the individual over him or herself--to keep oil in their lamp. And in the parable of the talents we see the responsibility of the church to impact the world, literally to invest the goods of the kingdom into the world and bring a return on that investment.

So again, let's be sure we get this. The parable of the householder refers to communal responsibility--how we treat one another; the Ten Virgins refers to personal responsibility--how we care for our own souls, and the parable of the Talents refers to kingdom responsibility--how well we invest the kingdom into the world.

When the Lord returns, three things will be scrutinized in His church---how did you treat one another, how well were you personally prepared for His return, and how successfully did you invest the goods of the kingdom into the world He died for?

Chapter 24 ends with the parable of the householder and the return of the Master of the house. Chapter 25 begins with the word "then." Then what? "Then" when the Lord shall come to deal with His people concerning their communal responsibility, "Then" shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.

Now the Lord is shifting from our communal responsibility to our individual responsibility to be ready for His return. The parable uses the illustration of a bride and bridegroom. His emphasis is not on service, but rather on spiritual life--illustrated by the oil in the lamps and the trimmed wick.

Jesus is using here the beautiful picture of a first-century Eastern wedding. Everyone listening to Him understood it. In that time there was the engagement that was usually arranged by the parents or by professional matchmakers. The couple could be mere children at the time of the engagement, and they may never have seen each other.

Then there was the betrothal. This happened when the couple approached a marriageable age. It was carried out with feasting and ceremony almost as elaborate as the wedding itself. It was binding and usually took legal action to break it. If the man died, the young woman was technically his widow.

About a year after the betrothal, there was the wedding. It was a festival. Everyone in the community joined in a procession to the home of the newly-married couple. The couple didn't go away on a honeymoon, but stayed home. They were guests of honor at a week-long continuous feast.

If the bridegroom came from any distance, there was no predicting when he would arrive. Because he was a highly honored guest, he deserved the welcome of the community, even if he came late at night.

In the parable, the ten virgins were much like the equivalent of modern day bridesmaids who were there to celebrate the marriage of their friend. They didn't know when he would come. And notice that not once is a mention made of the bride. Only the groom. The bridegroom is away, and all of the focus is on his imminent and unknown time of arrival.

This parable is an illustration and type of what it will be like when Jesus returns to earth. We have five wise virgins who are ready with oil in their lamps and five foolish virgins who are caught utterly unprepared.

It says the bridegroom finally arrives at the midnight hour. Jesus focuses first on the five foolish virgins who are essentially panicking and saying to the wise virgins, 8 ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

9 “But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’

Now the question has always been, "What is the oil?" What was it that the five wise virgins were in possession of that the five foolish didn't have? For me it is clear that the oil is the Holy Spirit, and the wick they trimmed and that was on fire illustrates our soul. The lamp itself pictures our body.

The lamps of that day were fueled by oil. In order to keep a good flame the wicks had to be trimmed by cutting away the charred remains. The five wise virgins had plenty of oil to fuel the wick and light up the night at the bridegrooms return.

Oil in the Bible has always represented the Holy Spirit. The five foolish had no oil. They tried to borrow some from the wise virgins but could not. They were told to go and get their own. Clearly, Jesus is pointing to the five wise virgins being genuinely saved, and the five foolish were not. The give-away is the bridegrooms words to the five foolish, "Believe me, I don’t know you!"

The reason the five wise didn't give them some of their oil is because they couldn't. You can't give to someone else the salvation they must get for themselves! We are never saved by mama's faith, grandma's faith, the preacher's faith, or anyone else's. We must personally come to Christ to get oil in our own lamps.

What we have in this parable is a sobering picture of Christendom at the Lord's return. Not of the true church which is comprised of only born again, blood washed, redeemed saints of God. But of Christendom, which holds under its umbrella both the truly born again as well as the religious.

When Jesus returns there will be a sifting of Christendom. It will include those who did things under the guise of Christianity but who never really knew Him. Jesus anticipated their words in Matthew 7:22:

"Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name. But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws."

This is the five foolish virgins. At the Lord's coming there will be a revelation of truth concerning those who have supposedly been His own during the period of His absence. All of those involved in symbolism over substance, ritual over relationship will be exposed. It will not be pretty.

Jesus ends His parable with the familiar word, "Watch!" What are we to watch? Watch to be certain you are His. As Paul wrote, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). Watch to be certain you have a supply of the oil. Walk in the Spirit, yield fully to the Lord, be led by and controlled by the precious Holy Ghost.

So we've looked at our communal responsibility and our personal responsibility. Next time we will explore our kingdom responsibility to invest His goods into the world He died for.