Are you prepared for the wait?

Text: Matthew 25:1-13

Topic: Remaining prepared for Jesus’ return

Big Idea: Jesus will return suddenly when many are not prepared

Sermon Outline:

Introduction:

Illustration: Just as the management of our physical health is an ongoing watchful waiting period, as Christians we need to live in a spiritual watchful waiting period. Ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away, it only lets it fester and cause worsening damage...

Passage introduction: Matthew 25:1-13

The Bridegroom will return suddenly

All Christians will be called to present themselves when He comes, and many will not be prepared for His sudden return.

Watchful waiting requires maintenance.

Application questions:

How do we submit to spiritual watchful waiting?

When was y our last Holy Spirit checkup?

How can we keep ourselves prepared for the sudden return of Jesus?

Sermon Transcript:

Recently, one of my surgeons and I saw a patient who was in need of heart surgery for his failing heart. While the man who was obviously not comfortable with showing weakness, attempted to remain strong and unmoved, his fearful wife had many questions. Her biggest question was why was this happening so suddenly to her husband who had never been sick in all of his life? In fact, he had never even needed to see a doctor because of how great his health was…and suddenly he was being told he had congestive heart failure, and that if he didn’t have his heart fixed NOW, his life expectancy was very short.

The answer to her question lay in her own words: this man had never seen a doctor! While this sounded like a badge of honor to them both, it was the straw that broke the camels back for him – his uncontrolled blood pressure, high cholesterol, and family genetics finally caught up with him…and it happened suddenly. For years he had been unknowingly letting his body slowly erode away until his heart could no longer sustain the damage it had incurred and began failing on him.

Many health conditions require a period of watchful waiting. It might look like nothing is happening on the surface, but during this period, medical experts focus entirely on proactively managing the health of a patient and watching for any subtle warning signs that may indicate that the patient’s health may need more aggressive attention and therapies. Blood labs, medications, health screenings are all done during this time to ensure nothing is slipping through the cracks because if these warning signs are missed or mismanaged, the disease progresses silently until it may be too late to reverse the damage.

Just as the management of our physical health is an ongoing watchful waiting period, as Christians we need to live in a spiritual watchful waiting period because Jesus will return suddenly.

Passage introduction: Matthew 25:1-13

The Bridegroom will return suddenly

According to Andrew Knowles in The Bible Guide, Jesus is describing Himself as the bridegroom and the bridesmaids are believers who are awaiting His return to take them to heaven. Jesus even takes a moment at the end of this parable to reiterate His warning to stay vigilant, awake, and on the alert. (BEC)

When I read this story, I have always imagined that the bridesmaids literally took their oil lamps and went to stay in a tower on the edge of town where they could watch for the return of the bridegroom. I imagined they sat around all day fully dressed for the wedding - all dolled up - makeup, hair, manicure, pedicure - the whole nine yards. Then he showed up at midnight - once their makeup was smeared, hair was a mess , and dresses were all wrinkled...so that reading between the lines of “they all rose and trimmed their lamps” was more of a “they jumped up in panic and frantically tried to get presentable again PLUS lighting their lamps and get all their purses and things packed up and ready to go! This Gospel was written by a man, after all, so he may have left out those important details…but not to worry, I read between the lines.

I was struck by the statement in vs. 5 that “the Bridegroom was a long time in coming and all the awaiting bridesmaids got drowsy and fell asleep.” I wondered, “How long was ‘a long time’?” and, “How long did they make it?” and “Why couldn’t these women stay awake for even one night when they knew their bridegroom was coming to get them at any moment?”

Then I recalled that when Jesus asked His disciples to stay up and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was to be crucified, they couldn’t even make it ONE HOUR before nodding off to sleep! So in my humble female opinion, I gave these bridesmaids a pass because they worked all day to prepare and at least they outlasted the men! Remember, when running from a bear, you don’t have to be fast, just faster than the slowest runner! Regardless, there was definitely some major chaos going on in that room when the bridesmaids heard the trumpet announcing that the Bridegroom had come!

All Christians will be called to present themselves when He comes, and many will not be prepared for His sudden return.

Jesus emphasized that the Bridegroom was delayed and the bridesmaids had to WAIT longer than expected. Jesus told this parable knowing fully well that He was going to be gone longer than His disciples expected. This is why the parable mentions they ALL fell asleep, which often depicts death. All of us have a set lifespan to remain vigilant and prepared should Jesus come back suddenly, but if He doesn’t come in our lifetime, we will sleep in death until His return. The point of the parable was that even though they went to sleep, some had enough oil stored up to wait as long as it took for Him to come while the others were already out of oil before they even fell asleep. Regardless of whether we are still alive or not when He returns, there comes a moment when the opportunity to fill our lamps is gone. We will only have the supply of oil we were able to gather during our lifetime to either be prepared or lacking at His coming. When Jesus returns, it will be suddenly and the Bible says that many Christians will not be expecting Him. In Eph 1:12-14, Paul tells us thatJesus left His betrothed bride, the church, on earth in a period of watchful waiting, but that He didn’t leave us without our oil - He gave the Holy Spirit to keep us sealed until He returns! According to Warren W. Wiersbe in the Bible Exposition Commentary, this passage “suggests that not every professing Christian will enter heaven, for some really have not trusted Jesus Christ sincerely. Without the Spirit of God and the Word of God, there can be no true salvation.”

Watchful waiting requires maintenance.

Any time Jesus spoke in parables, it was because the truth was for a specific group rather than for everyone. Oscar Brooks in his article, “The Gospel of Matthew” notes that in these parables, Jesus concentrated His teaching only on His disciples. In the Gospels, the authors often reiterate Jesus’ words to the wise: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear” or heed the warning and pay close attention! If you have ever read Hans Christian Anderson’s book of fairy tales, you have no doubt come across the story of Hansel and Gretel, the young children who made a trail of breadcrumbs through the forest to help them find their way home. When Jesus spoke in parables, He was in essence leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for those with “an ear to hear” to choose to follow. C.H. Dodd pointed out that the purpose of parables is to make the hearer WORK to understand the application of the story. If you read the Gospels, you will notice that most people were not ready to put in the work. They were there for the food and miracles - dinner and a movie mentality, but as soon as it took effort on their part, they lost interest. It was always His devoted followers who would keep following the breadcrumbs and pressing in for deeper revelation. In Luke 10:42 and Luke 10:39, Mary is commended by Jesus for choosing the best thing - to sit at His feet and listen to His teachings as a disciple .

In today’s world, we may not be able to literally sit at Jesus’ feet, but we have His Spirit within us helping us as we spend time in fellowship with the Holy Spirit through meditating on His Word. If we are to keep the lamp of our Christian faith burning brightly and have enough “oil” to wait as long as Jesus tarries, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to refill our oil supply. J. Knox Chamblin put it this way in his commentary on Matthew, “...because the exact time of Christ’s return is unknown, constant watchfulness is required. He calls for habitual obedience, for a life of good works [fueled by the Holy Spirit living within the follower of Christ, I might add](additional text is mine), as distinct from a desperate attempt at the very end to make up for years of neglect and disobedience.”

Just as the foolish bridesmaids ran out of oil at the crucial moment, many Christians who are not regularly checking their spiritual walk through prayer and study of God’s Word with the Holy Spirit will not be prepared for His sudden return.

Application Questions:

How do we submit to spiritual watchful waiting?

When was your last Holy Spirit checkup?

How can we keep ourselves prepared for the sudden return of Jesus?

Oscar Brooks, “Matthew, Gospel Of,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1092.

J. Knox Chamblin, “Matthew,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 753.

Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide, 1st Augsburg books ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2001), 434–435.

Jeffrey E. Miller, “Jesus, Parables of,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 92.