Journey Through Matthew: Are You Out of Oil?

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back!

Tonight we are going to be continuing on with our journey, looking at , the first 13 verses.

And we are actually going to be looking at a very familiar passage of Scripture, but one also that Jesus is building on the main subjects from last week and then again this morning.

And the overall point that Jesus is trying to make throughout all of this is that we must always be ready.

And to be honest, it really doesn’t matter how many sermons or lessons we hear, being ready to meet the Lord is always going to take top priority.

And there are a variety of things that we do in order to “get ready” and “stay ready”.

And I say we “do” because there is no better way to say it, but the reality is, we are not doing the work, God is; we however must be willing to allow God to do the work.

And a big part of that work comes after we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.

The work of Jesus also being our Lord begins.

Savior is the one that covers our sins and saves us from Hell.

When Jesus becomes our Lord, then He becomes our Master, our Director, our All in All.

And that part of the work is carried out by the Holy Spirit, who is supposed to be dwelling within us.

And where we fall short many times is in the second part of our Christian life.

When we are saved we are “reborn” or “made new,” but we are “babes in Christ.”

And just like a physical baby grows and learn, we must also grow and learn spiritually.

We must “grow up in the Lord,” as Paul puts it.

We must be able to consume the meat and not only the milk of God’s word and God’s will.

And that only happens through the Holy Spirit.

And in our sermon tonight Jesus is going to be talking about this and also talking about some reasons why people fail at this as well.

And he is going to do so through the Parable of the Ten Virgins.

And the question we need to consider is “are we out of oil?”

So, if you have found in your Bibles, I’d invite you to stand with me if you are able.

Again, I will be reading the first 13 verses of that chapter.

Matthew writes . . .

Scripture Focus

Matthew 25:1–13 NIV - Anglicised

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 them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! 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; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ 12 “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ 13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Tired of Waiting (vs 1-5)

Alright, so right away we see Jesus drawing another comparison for the disciples.

And he is trying to get them to understand the gravity and the importance of the situation they are in.

Remember, this morning the last thing we read was Jesus telling them about the unworthy servant who was trying to skirt by, living an unholy life, thinking that the Master would not return for a long time.

Thinking that he would have plenty of time to get things together before the Master returned.

However, the Master returned unexpectantly and found things in disarray and found the servant doing ungodly things.

And Jesus is going to build on that with these 10 virgins, who were not doing anything ungodly, but rather half of them were just not ready to go.

And the point Jesus is making is that you don’t have to be this ungodly and evil person to miss out on heaven.

All you have to be is not ready.

Without Jesus all of us are not ready, because all of us are sinners.

But Jesus begins here . . .

Matthew 25:1–2 NIV - Anglicised

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 them were foolish and five were wise.

Matthew 25:1-

So, right off Jesus is separating them between those who were wise and those who were foolish.

And the separating factor was this . . .

Matthew 25:3–4 NIV - Anglicised

3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

Matthew 25:3 NIV - Anglicised

3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.

And this whole deal with the oil and the lamps had to do with Jewish tradition.

In Jewish tradition, the bridegroom would begin the tradition of the marriage supper by first visiting the bride’s home and then together returning to the grooms home in this long procession.

Once they made it to the bridegroom’s house, they would all go in with the wedding party and celebrate with the wedding banquet.

And the 10 virgins would represent what we would know as the bridesmaids.

And bridesmaids in Jesus’ day were different.

They were friends and family of the bride who were still single, never been married, so they were still virgins.

And the hope here was that through the marriage supper there was always a chance that a bridesmaid may find herself a husband, so she had to be ready when the bridegroom came by.

And depending on how long things took it could be up in the night sometime before the bridegroom came by.

And they didn’t have cars with headlights, flashlights, or even street lights back then.

You had to bring your own light, meaning a lamp with oil.

And you always brought extra oil because it could be a long walk.

And if you ran out on the way, well you were walking along in darkness.

Which is the first point.

Be in the light as he is in the light.

Walk in the light and not in darkness.

A bigger point though is the one that we have to be ready.

We have to have oil with us.

And the oil represents the anointing of God.

The Holy Spirit.

We have to be filled up and have extra for when we start to run low.

Because the flame burns hot and bright for a while, but eventually we grow weary and when the oil starts to get low, then the flame starts to die out as well.

And we have to refresh/recharge it— CONSTANTLY

It’s not a get filled one time and that’s it.

If we are not constantly being refilled we are going to run out.

And the difference here between wisdom and foolishness is the understanding that we need to be getting extra and preparing ourselves with a constant flow of oil for when the bridegroom — which is Christ by the way comes.

Those who are wise realize and do this.

Those who are foolish think they can get by on an initial fill up and that is all they need.

It don’t work that way.

Which is why many people who at one time were on fire for the Lord, are now a dim fizzle.

Things get hard and . . .

Matthew 25:5 NIV - Anglicised

5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

Matthew

We grow weary.

We grow complacent.

We grow weak.

Borrowing Someone Else’s Oil (vs 6-9)

However, just as promised though the Bridegroom will come.

Matthew 25:6 NIV - Anglicised

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

Matthew 25:6

And everybody jumps up all excited and gathering their stuff getting ready to go!

But as they are getting ready they run into a little issue . . . .

Matthew 25:7–8 NIV - Anglicised

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; our lamps are going out.’

Matthew 25:

And this is the true foolish part of it all.

The foolish virgins wanted the wise ones to share their oil.

And in a spiritual sense, they are asking them to share their anointing with them.

In essence saying “give us some of your Holy Spirit.”

And we know that that will never work.

It doesn’t work that way either.

We can’t borrow someone else’s anointing.

We can’t piggyback off somebody else’s walk with God.

It has to be our own anointing, our own oil, our own walk with God.

And one problem we see is a lot of people thinking that they can make it into heaven on somebody else’s anointing.

Just because they had a Christian mom or dad or granny or papaw, they think it automatically grants them access.

But even more common than that is the notion that just because somebody comes to church or gives to the church, they have some sort of free pass into Heaven.

That the Church is going to get them there.

Nothing is going to get u there except Jesus Christ and our relationship with God through Christ.

And nothing is going to prepare us except the work of the Holy Spirit in us and through us.

And we had better realize that before it is too late.

Because we have a lot of people who come to church week after week, year after year, who think that that is good enough.

Who may have even asked God to forgive them through Christ at one time.

But have they trusted Him as their Lord?

Have they given themselves fully to him?

Have they allowed the Holy Spirit to anoint them, to fill them?

Are they living a Christian life?

Walking the Christian walk?

Preparing for the Bridegroom to return?

Or, are they asleep?

Thinking that they can get ready at the last minute, or borrow someone else’s oil.

Jesus responds to this notion . . .

Matthew 25:9 NIV - Anglicised

9 “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

You can’t have mine, go get your own.

Go get ready yourself.

Consequence of Not Being Ready (vs 10-13)

But here’s the thing, they put it off and put if off.

And when they finally decided that “hey maybe we should go and start looking for some oil”

Or in a Spiritual sense— maybe we should find a church and start learning about some things.

I call it “dabbling.”

Put their toe in the water, but not fully submitted.

Procrastinating.

Probably not even doing anything bad…starting to “play the part” of Christian on Sunday, but not committed to God the rest of the week.

Wandering around looking like they are getting ready but not really doing much to actually get ready.

Look what happens . . . .

Matthew 25:10 NIV - Anglicised

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

Matthew 25:

They were left out in the cold.

Left behind.

But hold on a minute…They know where the Bridegroom lives, so after he’s already gone, they see the desperation of their situation and decide to get ready then.

But again, it doesn’t work that way . . .

Matthew 25:11–12 NIV - Anglicised

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ 12 “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

Matthew 25:11-

It is too late.

Their chance is over.

Altar Call

And the lesson Jesus is teaching is summed up this way . . .

Matthew 25:13 NIV - Anglicised

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Not just for the people then but for us as well.

However, are we listening?

Are we ready now?

Are we preparing ourselves daily?

Or are we procrastinating?

Tired and weary?

Falling asleep even?

Why don’t we come and fill our lamps up with the sweet oil of God.

Be renewed.

Stoke the fire a bit.

What are we afraid of?

If you need to pray I would encourage you to come and do so as we put on some music.

God is speaking right now, are you listening?