Wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return.

 

Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year, November 22, 2020

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Amen.

Matthew 25:1–13  “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  ²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  ³When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take any oil with them; ⁴but the wise took oil in their containers with their lamps.  ⁵While the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.  ⁶But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him!’  ⁷Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.  ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’  ⁹But the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you.  Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’  ¹⁰But while they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came.  Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.  ¹¹Later, the other virgins also came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, let us in.’  ¹²But he answered, ‘Amen I tell you: I do not know you.’  ¹³Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (EHV)

Wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return.

Dear friends of eager expectation, grace and peace to you,

            As you know, we live in two kingdoms; in the kingdom of the world, we have a little over another month before we can finally put this difficult, obnoxious, blest for some but most tragic for others, and certainly confusing year behind us.  Likely, most of us can’t wait to get it over.

In the kingdom of heaven, we have come to the end of the Church year, a Sunday in which we look forward eagerly to that moment when Jesus returns in triumph, and judgment, to take His people home to heaven and to send the rest to permanent exile in hell.  I think it is safe to say that the general population of our world is less eager to see Jesus return than we His people are.

Jesus gathered His disciples around Him, privately, on the Mount of Olives in what was one of His last teaching sessions before His arrest and crucifixion.  Jesus still had much to teach them, but the disciples asked Him about the end.  They understood that Jesus would be leaving them, even if they didn’t yet grasp that He would suffer and die in the process, so they asked about His return, what would happen, and what signs would precede His triumphant return. 

In answer, Jesus gave them many warnings, and in chapters twenty-four and twenty-five of Matthew’s Gospel, three themes recur several times: first, that Jesus would be returning to Judge the world, second, that His return would come unexpectedly with no opportunity for second chances to believe, and therefore third, His people must be ready at all times.  In His parable of the ten virgins, Jesus teaches that Wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return.

In this parable, the oil needed when our heavenly Bridegroom returns is true faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  The virgins represent all the people of the visible Christian Church.  All of these people were invited to the wedding and received their invitation by Baptism and the preaching of the Word, but while some remain in the faith until the end, others foolishly let their faith fade out, so when Jesus returns, those lacking real faith in Him are left out of the heavenly wedding feast, forever.

The first thing we need to understand is that we do not become wise Christians on our own. Faith is God-given through the power of His Word.  The Bible tells us, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)  Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure.” (John 15:16) 

Furthermore, no one volunteered to become a follower of the Savior.  No one found Him by his own study or effort.  To the Thessalonians Paul wrote, “God chose you from the beginning for salvation by the sanctifying work of the Spirit and faith in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13)  And the letter to the Ephesians tells us, “Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Though we could not come to forgiveness and salvation on our own, it certainly didn’t happen by chance.  Through the prophet, Isaiah, God declares, “I, yes I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.  I myself declared it.  I brought salvation, and I announced it.” (Isaiah 43:11-12)  It was God’s plan from before the fall into sin to bring salvation to the world and to rescue people from the disaster sin had given them.  God used all that Old Testament history to prepare for the exact moment of His Son’s entrance into the world to live, suffer, and die to redeem His people from sin and death.  Then, there at the cross of Calvary, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Dear friends, this is the faith God gave to you as a child in your Baptism.  This is the faith you must hold onto until Jesus returns in glory.  This is the faith that allows you to enter the marriage feast of the Son, and it is the faith that also keeps you going through all the highs and lows of this world.  Thus, the second thing we need to remember is that wise Christians don’t neglect their faith.

St. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Continue in the things you have learned and about which you have become convinced.  You know from whom you learned them and that from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)  Notice that Paul too continues the theme that we must stay in this God-given faith.  In his earlier letter to Timothy, Paul had urged him, “Fight the good fight, with faith and a good conscience.  By rejecting these, some people have suffered shipwreck with regard to their faith.” (1 Timothy 1:18-19)  Again we see the warning.  Like Esau with his birthright, too many people don’t treasure their faith in Jesus, nor guard and nurture it, so it fades away until none remains. 

On the other hand, wise Christians keep their lamps burning in this life and keep their oil supply well stocked for that moment they meet their Savior face to face.  This is both for their own benefit and for that of their neighbors.  Jesus told His followers, “Let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)  Likewise, James warned, “Faith, if it is alone and has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17)

At the same time, wise Christians know that their works don’t gain or preserve salvation.  We know by faith that it is the Holy Spirit who works in us to believe and to do good things.  Thus, we recognize the need to have the Holy Spirit working in us continually through His holy Word.  St. Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Because wise Christians recognize their need, you will find them regularly in church confessing their sins and letting the Good News of forgiveness in Christ lift their broken spirits.  They devote themselves to hearing and studying God’s Word to the best of their abilities and time.  The writer to the Hebrews said, “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing.  Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)

Wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return.  The final point I want to make based on this text is that wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return even in death.  To the world, it certainly looks like Jesus has been delayed in returning to take us into the banquet of heaven.  We should not despair at this delay.  Remember how Peter encouraged those who may have grown disheartened when Jesus didn’t come back in glory soon after His ascension.  Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow to do what he promised, as some consider slowness.  Instead, he is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) 

God in His infinite patience has allowed this world to continue in all its trials, hardships, fears, wickedness, and temptation until that final moment when all the elect from every age have been brought into His kingdom of grace.  Meanwhile, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus to send His Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, to make believers from every tribe, nation, people, and language so that His house in heaven will be filled with grateful celebrants.  Only then will Jesus return to separate the sheep from the goats as we heard last Sunday.  God allows this time for His Word to be proclaimed so that as many as might be saved will be.

Like those ten virgins in the parable, God’s people have fallen asleep while waiting for as long as Jesus has been promised.  The Old Testament believers looked forward to the day Jesus would come to redeem the world from sin and death.  They fell asleep trusting that God is their faithful Savior, and they will be raised in glory with that faith to enter heaven with their glorified bodies on the same day that all true Christian believers will be raised to enter with the Lord.

All true Christians before us, who like us have seen Jesus’ victory by faith, have been falling asleep while waiting since that time Jesus ascended to heaven to prepare a place for His people.  Yet, we don’t fall asleep empty handed.  The faith the Holy Spirit has worked in us stays with us to be ready for the moment the trumpet sounds from heaven announcing Jesus’ return in all His glory and with His angels reaping the fields to gather in the golden grain of His harvest.

When the call rings out, “Look, the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him!” those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will wake to a glorious new day to enter that heavenly wedding banquet that will never end.  Concerning Jesus second coming, St. Paul wrote,

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve in the same way as the others, who have no hope.  Indeed, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.  In fact, we tell you this by the word of the Lord: We who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)

Dear Christian friends, this is the sure and certain confidence Jesus has worked in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.  We have a home in heaven for our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and by His Gospel He has given us the oil of faith that will never run out or be lacking on the day He returns to welcome us into His heavenly mansion.  We are ready by faith to meet our Savior.  We will be ready always in the power of His grace, because by Word and Sacrament Jesus keeps us in the one true faith so that Wise Christians stay ready for Jesus’ return.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.