The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Who knows what the end times are?
Are we in the end times?
How do you know?
What does the Bible teach about the end times?
Why is Jesus Coming back so important?
Tonight we are going to look at the Parable of the 10 Virgins.
Before we get started we need to understand the context of this parable.
Who can explain to me what context is?
Why is it important?
Context of the Parable:
The context of this parable is that Jesus has just finished telling His disciples, about the signs of the end of the world.
The end of the world is not centered on the end of the world. It is centered on Jesus coming back to earth again. John 14:3
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus has just explained to them what signs will be in the world, right before He comes back.
One of the last things Jesus says to his disciples before he teaches them this parable is this
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Before Jesus begins His parable, he sets the disciples up for this common theme which is “being ready”
This theme of “being ready” is not only found here, but it is found in the parable of the 10 virgins.
In fact, Jesus will use this parable to teach the 12 disciples and us today, that we should be prepared.
Who can remember what a parable is?
Parable: A story or saying that illustrates a truth using comparison, hyperbole, or simile. Jesus uses this story to teach us a highly important truth of being ready for His coming.
The Parable of the 10 Virgins
The Parable of the 10 Virgins
**Who can tell me where the parable of the 10 virgins is found in the Bible?**
1 “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 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
V. 1
V. 1
Matthew 25:1 (ESV)
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like…
Remember Jesus is teaching this in the context of the last days. By using the word “then” He is telling us that what He is about to tell is also about the conditions of the earth during the last days.
Which means that since we know we are living in the last days, this verse directly applies to who?
Matthew 25:1 (ESV)
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
1. Jesus is telling us the subject of the parable here, which is the 10 virgins.
Someone may ask, why did Jesus use virgins?
This is a good question, and the best way to answer it is by saying that throughout the Bible, when the word virgin is used it is normally a symbol of purity. And also throughout the Bible, the pure have always been identified as being Christians or the people of God. Therefore, it is safe for us to assume that the virgins in this text is symbolic of the Church or christians.
Which means that again who is this verse addressing?
2. The next thing we notice is that each of these virgins has a lamp.
3. The virgins were going out to meet the bridegroom.
This tells us that the setting of the parable is a wedding. So Jesus is basically telling us that when He comes back it is going to be kind of like a wedding.
In biblical times, weddings normally happened during the evening, during the day, they would dance, and at night the ceremony would begin. The bridesmaids would wait patiently for the husband (bridegroom) to be ready to take his bride. When he was ready they would escort him to his bride using torches. That is more than likely what Jesus is referring to in this parable.
Being a bridesmaid or virgin in a jewish wedding, was a great honor, and Christ is telling us that at the same time it is an honor to be a bridesmaid of a literal wedding, it is a great honor for us to be invited to be in His family.
V. 2-6
V. 2-6
2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
We see that half of the bridesmaids were wise and half were foolish.
The half that were wise were labeled as being wise because they brought oil in there lamps.
The other half were labeled foolish because they did not take any oil for their lamp.
Does it make sense to have a motorcycle but no gas? Why?
Does it make sense to have a rocket ship without fuel? Why?
Does it make sense to have a pen without paper? Why?
So what you are saying is that you must have both in order to make the whole thing work?
The sole job of the bridesmaids in the biblical times was to escort the groom to his bride. And this would always happen late at night. So a torch or lantern was common, if they did not have the oil for their lamp they wouldn’t be able to escort the groom to his bride.
What is Jesus saying?
He is saying that during these last days, all christians are invited to the wedding, but not all christians are going to be wise. Some are going to prepare themselves and others are not.
Just like in this parable many will be ready for his coming and many will not be.
There will be many so called christians who will not have oil in there lamps, when He comes back.
Lets look at what happened after the midnight cry for the bridegroom came:
V. 7-13
V. 7-13
7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
It was time for them all to go out and meet the bridegroom and bring him to his bride…But there one was major problem.
**Who can tell me what the problem here is?
The 5 foolish virgins who had no oil in there lamps realized last minute they didn’t have any oil.
Notice where it says in Matthew 25:5
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
They all had the same about of time to get prepared for the bridegroom. So why didn’t they go find oil then?
The answer is because it wasn’t on their mind. In other words they didn’t care, that is the only logical answer. It says they were sleeping, they were not busy doing anything. They could have looked at their lamps and said, “oops, I don’t have any oil, maybe I should go an buy some before the bridegroom comes” but they didn’t they chose to sleep.
Jesus is telling us this because a very sad reality that is occuring and will occur when He comes back is many Christians are “sleeping on Jesus” they have not truly prepared themselves for His coming.
Last minute they will try to buy some oil, but by then it will be too late.
Jesus will look at them and say “I never knew you”
Could you imagine living your whole life, thinking you are okay with God, but in the end find out that you weren’t? How devastating, this thought scares me, I don’t know about you.
2. So what about the oil?
If the virgins are christians, and the bridegroom is Jesus, and the wedding is the Second Coming of Christ, then what is the oil symbolizing?
It can be said that the oil is just symbolizing being ready and not being ready. Those that had it were prepare and those that didn’t were not.
Like we already noted the ones who did not have oil didn’t have it because they did not care.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
If the meaning of the parable of the 10 virgins could be summarized in a few words we could say these:
Be ready
Be expectant
We must all be ready by being in a genuine relationship with Christ, where we have trusted in Him to forgive us of our sins and lead a holy and righteous life, but also to accomplish His will.
We must be expectant that He is coming, and we should live our lives like He may come tomorrow.
If you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow, would you change how you are living right now?
If your answer to that question is yes, then that means that you should be living your life like that everyday, thinking in the back of your mind, Jesus is coming back tomorrow.
Because we don’t know when He is coming back, but we do know that it is soon, and He expects us all to be ready.
Jesus is looking at all of us, His followers like bridesmaids, He expects us to both be prepared for His coming by keeping oil in our lamps, and by waiting on Him.