The Haves and the Have-Nots
Notes
Transcript
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church Elevated by the Holy Spirit
The Spirit of God carries us not beside ourselves, but above ourselves, upholding our human weakness along heights where we never could walk alone, leading us aright in the obscurity of our longing, and filling us with his own mighty desires for the rescue of souls and the redemption of the great sin-laden earth.
AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
I had never thought about this until preparing this sermon, but what do you think about the five wise virgins’ refusal to share their oil? I mean, I get it, the five foolish virgins should have been prepared for the long haul, too, but still, don’t we teach our kids that “sharing is caring?” It appears that when the virgins awoke and recognized their condition, they knew that being without a lamp would likely mean that they would not be granted entry into the wedding. The first set seemingly left the second set to fend for themselves. Is Jesus commending selfishness here? Of course not!
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.
As we approach the new liturgical calendar year in three more weeks, it behooves us to remember that Advent is the Season of the Coming Kingdom, as expressed in the presence of the King. The reason why we read passages of Scripture which generally seem to be more appropriate just before Passion Week is because Passion Week marks the procession of the King to His Enthronement - His glorification. At Christ’s 1st Advent, we get foreshadows of that at His birth, while it first manifests in the seeming weakness of His Crucifixion, which is in fact the very purpose for which He came. At His 2nd Advent, His Parousia, when He returns, He will bring all things to completion, as Jude quotes from Enoch: “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jud 14–15).
Today’s passage talks about this time, and therefore, is about “the Kingdom of Heaven” as it will be manifest at His return, not as it is right now. We must keep this in mind if we are to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
The Bible speaks about wisdom and foolishness.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
As it relates to this parable, the key to determining wisdom and foolishness is not in where the virgins were located, how they were dressed and equipped, or what they did while they waited for the Bridegroom - or the bridal party in some versions. It was in what they brought with their equipment. The flasks of oil (ἀγγεῖον - a flask, a small container), according to verse 4, establishes the wisdom of the second five. They brought olive oil in the flasks with their lamps - and the purpose of the lamps is to do honor to the Bridegroom and to brighten the entrance of the wedding party into the festivities.
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
What happened - why is he late? Who knows - but what we do know is that they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Don’t just skip past that point - it matters, but not in the way that many preach it. Remember, we are talking about what the Kingdom will be like when the Lord returns -
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Seemingly, all of the virgins have failed - for they all fell asleep. What is it that both wise and foolish do?
The English translation of the Tanach - the Hebrew Old Testament - reads like this in Ecc 2:15-16:
15 So I reflected: “The fate of the fool is also destined for me; to what advantage, then, have I been wise?” And I came to the conclusion that that too was futile, 16 because the wise man, just like the fool, is not remembered forever; for, as the succeeding days roll by, both are forgotten. Alas, the wise man dies, just like the fool!
The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, whether we take it as a warning or as an encouragement:
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Paul teaches that it is possible that we won’t all be asleep when Christ returns, in 1 Cor 15:51-52 and 1 Thes 4:16-17, but the presumption of Scripture is that you should be prepared to die rather than you should be prepared to be alive when Christ returns, thus giving you a moment for repentance. Rather, whatever you did in this life to prepare your soul for heaven will most likely need to be done on the presupposition that you will die before Christ returns. You need to have everything in order now, again, as the writer of Hebrew says in the 4th chapter:
7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
What identifies you as being part of the wedding party? It is baptism that unites us to Christ in His death, and it is His death that brought to us eternal life. What separates some from others? I’ll get to that, but first, back to our text:
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.’
This passage reminds me so much of what Paul said in 1 Cor 15 and 1 Thess 4. We shall not all be caught up, but we shall all be changed. We who are alive and remain will not precede those who are asleep. We will not rise separately, but together, yet we will not all rise to the same end.
All theological errors have a grain of truth to them. In this case, the Pentecostal understanding of the essentiality of the Holy Spirit for eternal life is correct in that, as it is written:
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
We believe, teach and confess the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Church and eternal life in the 3rd Article of the Creed in the Small Catechism (LSB p 323):
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions The Third Article: Sanctification
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean?
Answer: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise up me and all the dead and will give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
Where they go wrong is in their insistence that there is something that you do to obtain the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Scripture teaches that you are saved by grace through faith; it is not of yourselves:
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to be ready, because it is the Holy Spirit who prepares us through the Word of Christ. The Word of God identifies the Anointing oil with the Holy Spirit, identifies our status as God’s children with the Holy Spirit, identifies our having power with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So how do we have that power? Our siblings err by presenting the anointing as something that you must earn or pursue, when the Word is quite clear, it is a gift from God:
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
You need to know that God knows that you need, and provides to you, the Holy Spirit:
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
There is nothing that pertains to being a child of God that God withholds from you, and that includes the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit is for us, not by virtue of our moral or other purity, or evidenced by charismatic activities, but by virtue of God’s promise, and evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit.
You can fake tongues, but you cannot fake fruit. You can prophe-lie, but you can’t lie about your faith in Christ. The devil can deceive others with signs and wonders, but he can’t counterfeit the grace of God which is in Christ Jesus alone.
It is the Lord who supplies the Spirit to you by faith as He works through the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ.
That’s why the devil tries to separate you from the Word; that’s why he ties to trick you into thinking that you don’t need to resist him and instead cultivate godliness:
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s why he seeks to separate you from the Body, from the fellowship of the saints:
1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
In this hour when the devil seeks to sow fear, doubt, and separation through this viral pandemic, the beauty of the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the glory of the Divine Service, shines more brightly than ever before. We gather together to hear of God’s love for us, and to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” We have experienced what it means to be restricted in our worship. We know the value of His body and blood - Jesus calls it true food and true drink in John 6:55 and says in the next verse that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood abide in Him and He in them. To avoid the communion of the saints is to despise the gifts that God has bestowed through the Church, it is to dismiss what Christ so graciously gives to us through Word and Sacrament - His very presence and promise. As Daryl Coley sang, “I need your Spirit to fall fresh on me.”
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.
Far too many people are lost, not because they couldn’t receive, but because they wouldn’t receive. Far too many, however, are having the opportunity to hear denied to them, because we who know better, act as if we don’t know at all. When we keep to ourselves the gift of God; when we bury the treasure of the Gospel rather than share it; when we act as if the word that God has hidden in our heart is a Word that we get to hide under a basket rather than allow it to shine through our lives of Witness - Mercy - and Life Together. As we will learn next week, What we hide we lose. What we don’t invest we forfeit.
A little boy had five loaves and two fishes. Right now, in Gary, the Lord Jesus Christ has one school and two confessing congregations. In both cases some might say, “But what is that amongst so many?” If we trust the Lord, and give to Him what He has blessed to us, He will multiply it, He will use it, to the praise of His glorious grace.
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.