September 2024 – jeffersonvann

BE HOLY

BE HOLY

Leviticus 19:1-4 NET.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. ³ Each of you must respect his mother and his father, and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols, and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the LORD your God.

God has always called his people to be holy. This command is found in today’s text and elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is also repeated in the New Testament, just in case believers under the New Covenant might think that holiness is no longer important to God.

The Apostle Paul reminded the Christians in Ephesus of this command:

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love” (Ephesians 1:3-4). I don’t know what goes through your mind when you hear the words “every spiritual blessing.” Still, when I read those words, my mind did not automatically go to the idea of holiness. But for Paul, to be blessed spiritually is to be holy and unblemished.

I want that. I want it more than I want to be blessed physically. I want it not just as a hope for my future but also as a present reality that I experience now. It is comforting to know that God has already blessed me with that holiness in Christ. But I’m not satisfied with a mere expectation of future holiness. I want what God wants for me now.

The Apostle Peter addressed this two-fold reality – the fact that we have a hope of future glory and a need to manifest that holiness in the present. He said:

^“Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:13-16).

For Peter, holiness was not just a future hope. It was a standard of action in the present. Holiness must be more than an idea. It must be a calling and a lifestyle. But Peter recognized that there would be obstacles to living by that standard. He challenged his readers to stop following the evil urges that they used to follow when they didn’t know better. He called them to stop letting the world around them dictate their behavior. The Apostle Paul directed the Romans to do the same thing when he said, “Do not be conformed to this present world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). That is another challenge for New Testament Christians to walk in holiness.

The world is telling us that holiness is impossible, but the word tells us that it is not only possible; it is our calling. A holy life today is proof that we will inherit a holy universe in the future. If we cannot learn to live in holiness today, we will always be subject to the accusations of the enemy that we are not authentic. Now, the question for us today is how do we walk in holiness? How can we live so under God’s control that the accusations bounce off?

When we go up and down the highways, there are cars with blue lights that flash. They catch people who disregard the speed limits. There are two ways to avoid blue light anxiety. You can listen for warnings that the police are present in your area and adjust your speed when they are near. Or you can monitor your speed and always drive within the limit. As far as holiness is concerned, we cannot use avoidance tactic number 1. The reason is – unlike the patrol cars – God is always present. The only avoidance tactic that works is maintaining control of your life at all times. Holiness has to become our normal.

So, again, the question: How do we walk in holiness? How do we spend our days doing the right thing so that we never have to fear heaven’s blue lights? Today’s passage from Leviticus 19 gives us some insight into what holiness means to God. It is written under the Mosaic covenant, but it spells out four principles that can be applied to the life of any believer anywhere, anytime. I want us to get familiar with these principles because they can help us live in God’s standard of holiness.

First, the principle of identity (1-2).

The whole congregation of the Israelites was required to be holy—not just Moses, the leader, Aaron and the priests and Levites, the tribal leaders, the fanatical super-committed Nazarites, or the soldiers. Every man, woman, and child were required to be holy. They were united under God, and it was God’s holiness that formed the ground and purpose for their holiness. God told them that they must be holy because He is holy.

In his book, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, Vern Poythress writes, “The people could not survive alongside the tabernacle unless they respected the holiness of God and maintained holiness among themselves. Or, to put it another way, now that the people themselves had in some sense become a dwelling place of God through the erection and consecration of the tabernacle, they had to maintain practices exhibiting the principles of God’s dwelling.”[1]

Not only had God rescued them from Egypt and promised to bring them to the promised land, but he also agreed to go with them as they traveled. Every step they took was as representatives of God, who was among them. They were no longer just the children of Israel. They now had the identity as a nation of being God’s own. Hence, their actions and lifestyles had to correspond to that new identity.

Every aspect of their lives now had to conform to God and his will. They could not decide to go somewhere apart from where God was going. Their tribes camped around the Tabernacle. They advanced when God told them to advance. They stayed put when God told them to stay put. God was among them – making decisions for them – keeping them from danger. But God could not endorse their sins, nor could he look the other way when they rebelled. Being delivered did not make them free from accountability. They were even more accountable to God now that they had identified with him.

Second, the principle of morality (3a).

God told them that they had the moral responsibility to respect their parents. Of course, there were more moral responsibilities than just that, but that was an excellent place to start. This chapter contains a mix of ethical and ceremonial obligations. It shows that God is concerned with both. There would always be Israelites who were only worried about looking like good followers, so they focused on the ceremony and omitted the weightier matters of the Law. Those weightier matters were the moral obligations.

Nowadays, some take grace for granted and flaunt their sinfulness. They say things like, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” What people hear when we say such things is, “I am a believer in grace, but I cannot be trusted with your teenage daughter.” God’s word never condones immorality. We saw in Matthew chapter 25 recently that there will be many who appear before the Lord on Judgment Day convinced that they are true Christians only to discover that they were not. They may have talked about eternity, but they were not prepared for it. They had the opportunity to use their gifts for the gospel but did not. They thought they were sheep, but they were goats. Jesus said that the true sheep cared about others. Moses told the Israelites that to be holy, they had to respect their parents. Loving others had to start at home.

Third, the principle of conformity (3b).

God tells the Israelites that to be holy, they had to keep his Sabbaths. This had nothing to do with going to church on Saturday. There was a whole barrage of rituals and regulations prescribed by God for his people to adhere to. There were sacrifices and offerings. There were Feasts and fasts. There were rules and regulations about what to wear, what to eat, what to say when, who to marry, and who not to marry. God expected every Israelite to conform to his standard of living. The reason for this requirement is also stated three times in today’s text. The reason is ‎

אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם. In English, “I am Yahveh, Your God.” The reason for all of these regulations was not to get saved. The reason is that the Israelites claim that Yahveh is their God. So, they are responsible for conforming to his will.

Fast-forward to today, and there have been a few changes because we are no longer under the Mosaic covenant. Christ fulfilled the law by becoming our one sacrifice. His death atoned for sin once and for all, so there is no longer a need for sacrifice. We are no longer under obligation to conform to the regulations about the Sabbath days. But there are still some things that God expects us to do in order to identify with Jesus, our Savior. Baptism is the initial rite of admission into the New Covenant community. The Lord’s Supper is the ongoing rite. In addition to this, the instructions given to us by the Apostles in their letters to the churches help us to set standards of behavior so that we identify ourselves as Christians and our fellowships as Christian churches. The means of conformity have changed, but the principle of conformity remains.

Finally, the principle of loyalty (4).

God commands his people not to turn to idols. When they were in Egypt, their captors worshipped idols. God instructs them not to go back. He tells them to forsake their old way of living and their old way of thinking. They would be tempted to go back to the old way of doing things, but God says don’t. He also instructed them not to make for themselves gods of cast metal. Egypt had been filled with gods, goddesses, and idols. The nations surrounding the Israelites, when they arrive at the promised land, will also be filled with gods, goddesses, and idols. But holiness cannot be achieved by being religiously inclusive.

This same principle of undivided loyalty is found throughout the pages of the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians, Paul warns believers not to eat food offered to idols because it could lead to participation with demons. Paul lists idolatry as one of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). John tells his readers to guard themselves against idols (1 John 5:21). In Revelation, he predicts that this world will suffer great pandemics, but they will still refuse to repent. They will “not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood — idols that cannot see or hear or walk about” (Revelation 9:20).

Those dead idols are still with us in this generation. We have not rid ourselves of them. Anything that competes with your loyalty to God and Jesus Christ is an idol. We are warned to guard ourselves from them. You cannot be holy and idolatrous at the same time. Holiness is a matter of undivided loyalty. It makes no sense to brag about not having any idols in your house if the house itself is an idol. There are people today who live in their idols, drive their idols, work for their idols, play with their idols, watch their idols on the screen, and plan for retirement so they can spend more time with their idols, but still insist that they are not idol worshippers.

We need to start asking ourselves what things in our lives are competing with our devotion to Christ and his gospel. God instructed the Israelites through Moses to live as a holy nation. They failed to live up to those instructions. The same God who called them to be holy is calling us to live holy lives today. Be holy because your God is holy.

[1] Poythress, Vern S. The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses. P & R Pub., 1991. p. 42.

SHEEP?

SHEEP?

Matthew 25:31-46 NET.

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴ Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ ⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!

⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

We have been looking at the parables our Lord gave to illustrate his teachings about the last things. Three parables appear in Matthew 25: the ten virgins in verses 1-13, the Talents in verses 14-30, and the sheep and goats in today’s text. The overall theme of the chapter is authenticity. Each parable describes two groups. The ten virgins are separated into two groups. One group was wise because they waited for the party with extra oil for their lamps. The other group did not. The Talents were divided among three slaves. Two of the slaves invested what they had been given. One slave did not. He was a group of one. The parable part of today’s text also highlights two groups, identified as sheep and goats.

I thought it convenient to feature an animal on each slide presentation for these three weeks. An owl represented the wise virgins. A dog represented the faithful stewards. It wasn’t too hard to figure out which animal to use to represent the sheep.

This passage describes the coming judgment. The sheep and goats parable is mostly not a parable. It is actually a description of a conversation that Jesus says will happen on Judgment Day. It has one sentence in it which is parabolic. The rest is instruction about the coming judgment day.

On Judgment Day, Jesus is going to return.

He is not going to come as a baby in a manger but as the glorious Lord of the universe, with his angels to accomplish his will. You will remember that the disciples had asked Jesus what the sign of his coming would be. They knew that he was going to return in triumph as the king of kings and Lord of Lords. They didn’t know when to expect that event. Jesus taught them always to expect that event and live accordingly.

When Jesus does return, the first thing on his “to-do” list is to raise the dead. He said, “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out — the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation” (John 5:28-29).

Then, we who are in Christ will join those who have just been raised. Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). That reunion is described as a marriage celebration both by Jesus and by John in the book of Revelation. We don’t go to be with the Lord when we die, but we will go to be with the Lord and each other when he returns.

The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus “will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). We talk about being saved now, but our present salvation is only partial. Complete salvation comes when Christ brings it. We are presently saved from the penalty of sin. When Jesus returns, we will be saved forever from the presence of sin.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will gather all the nations to himself.

This gathering of the nations is the reversal of the scattering to the nations at the tower of Babel. God divided humanity at Babel in judgment. He will bring us all back together again at Christ’s return for individual judgment.

He had commissioned his followers to go into all these nations and preach the gospel to them, to make disciples of them. God the Father had sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. Jesus has sent us to reach this world for him. Judgment Day is when we find out how well we accomplished his Great Commission.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will judge individuals.

He will sit on his glorious throne to judge. He will separate the sheep from the goats. Actually, the text says, “he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” That is individual judgment. Jesus is not going to judge us based on which nation we live in. It will not matter which flag we are under when Jesus gathers the nations. Nationality, ethnic identity, gender, social status – none of those things will matter on Judgment Day. Only our identity in Christ will matter.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will not judge us based on what we profess.

In today’s passage, Jesus speaks to two groups, and both groups call him Lord. The righteous call him Lord in verse 37, and the accursed call him Lord in verse 44. Both groups claim to be faithful Christians.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will judge us based on how we proved our profession.

Profession is a good thing. You cannot enter the kingdom without confession that Jesus is Lord. But our Lord wants us to back up our confession with a life of obedience. That is why Jesus asked, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus taught that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven — only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Specifically, Jesus says in today’s text that true Christians will prove their profession by feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty something to drink, inviting strangers in, providing clothing, and visiting the sick and those in prison. All of these activities are examples of what it means to love one’s neighbor as he loves himself. But Jesus says that when we do these things for others, we are actually ministering to him.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn the pretenders.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn those who merely professed a relationship with him but did not prove that relationship by what they did. Again, I am not preaching salvation by works here. And neither is Jesus. No one is saved except by God’s grace on the basis of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. We cannot do what God has already done. We cannot save ourselves no matter how many good works we do. But God’s grace always changes people. The theologians call that change conversion. In conversion, we change from one person to another. We change inside. That inside change is reflected by what we will do from then on. An outer transformation manifests our inner conversion. It is a new birth – a regeneration. One day, our Lord is going to make a new universe, but right now, he is making new people who will populate that new universe.

How do you know if someone is not genuinely regenerated? You look at what they do not do. They do not feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, invite strangers in, provide clothing, or visit the sick and those in prison. They may profess a relationship with Christ, but they do not demonstrate a Christlike attitude toward others.

Jesus did not teach this lesson to unbelievers. He taught it to the same audience that he had been speaking to in Matthew 24: the disciples who wanted to know about his second coming. He had taught them that they should stay alert and ready for his arrival. This parable is one of the answers to the question, “What does ready look like?” A Christian who is prepared for Christ to come again is not going to be a goat – a pretender. They will prove their identity in Christ by showing God’s love to others.

Because I am talking about Jesus’ condemnation of the pretenders here, I must address the question of hell. In today’s text, Jesus calls hell “the eternal fire” (in verse 41) and “eternal punishment” in verse 46. From reading phrases like that, many interpret hell as a process that will never end. They say that Jesus is going to throw people into hell, and they will keep burning and suffering forever.

If that is what Jesus said, then he contradicted something he had previously taught about hell. You remember that Jesus said that hell would destroy soul and body (Matthew 10:28). Someone who is destroyed soul and body cannot keep suffering forever. So, what is Jesus saying the fate of the pretenders will be? What is the eternal fire and the eternal punishment?

Our English word eternal has a particular meaning. It means something that endures perpetually or continues without intermission. But the word that Jesus used – and the word Matthew used in today’s text was more versatile. That word was αἰώνιος. It could mean perpetual, but it could also mean permanent.

If we were to have a fire in this building, and some of us were destroyed in that fire, it would be a tragedy. But it would not be a permanent fire. We know that Jesus is going to raise all the dead when he returns, even those who die in fires. But hell will be the permanent fire. There will be no resurrection from that destruction. It is permanent destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

It is also a permanent punishment. Criminals today are punished for their crimes, but when their penalty is paid, they cease to be punished. They get out of prison. All of their punishment is temporary. Even those who die in prison are not continually punished by the state after they die. They are released to be buried. Their punishment is temporary. But hell will be a permanent punishment. It will destroy the sinner’s body and soul. It will eradicate them.

In the New Testament, the word αἰώνιος is usually not used in comparison with something else, so we cannot tell what its specific meaning is. However, there are a few exceptions when it is used in comparison, so by looking at those texts we can tell what the word entails.

In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul compares our momentary, light suffering with an “αἰώνιος weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” Our present suffering is temporary, but our future destiny will be permanent.

In the next verse, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul says, “What can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is αἰώνιος.” It is clear that Paul is talking about something permanent, not a perpetual process.

In 2 Corinthians 5:1, Paul compares our present temporary bodies with the αἰώνιος bodies we will have after the resurrection. These present bodies wear out, but our permanent bodies will not.

In Philemon, verse 15, Paul tells Philemon that his slave Onesimus was perhaps separated from him for a while so that he would later be restored to him αἰώνιος – permanently.

These four examples show that when the New Testament uses the word αἰώνιος it refers to something permanent. Jesus’ point in using the word in today’s text is to warn that hell will destroy permanently, which agrees precisely with what he said in Matthew 10:28. There is no contradiction.

On Judgment Day, Jesus will condemn the pretenders. They will be destroyed forever in hell. Only those with a real relationship with Christ will survive Judgment Day. We know that we are real sheep when we love the least of these, just like Jesus did.

LORD, thank you for your promise to come again. Thank you for the warning you gave in today’s text. Help is to get real and stay real. Help us to prove our authenticity by loving others – as you commanded.

FAITHFUL?

FAITHFUL?

Matthew 25:14-30

¹⁴ “For it is like a man going on a journey, who summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The one who had received five talents went off right away and put his money to work and gained five more. ¹⁷ In the same way, the one who had two gained two more. ¹⁸ But the one who had received one talent went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money in it. ¹⁹ After a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled his accounts with them. ²⁰ The one who had received the five talents came and brought five more, saying, ‘Sir, you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ ²¹ His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²² The one with the two talents also came and said, ‘Sir, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more.’ ²³ His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴ Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master answered, ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter? ²⁷ Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! ²⁸ Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. ²⁹ For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ³⁰ And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Last week, we looked at the first of the three parables that Jesus told in Matthew 25 as illustrations of the commands for us to be alert and ready when he returns at his second coming. It was the Parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Only the young women who provided enough oil for their lamps were allowed into the wedding party in that parable. Those not prepared for the long wait were excluded from the party.

The parable did not explain one thing: what we Christians can do to remain ready. If it is simply a matter of keeping enough oil in our lamps, then obedience to Jesus would be easy. All we have to do is purchase some old-fashioned oil lamps and buy up all the olive oil we can get our hands on. That sounds too easy, and it is.

Jesus leaves the details of what we should be doing when he returns to the next part of his sermon, the Parable of the Talents. I want us to approach today’s text by asking three questions. We will look for the answers to each question in the text of the parable.

The first question is, “What is a Talent?”

Many books and sermons on this Parable assume that Jesus talks about talents, as in natural aptitude or skills. That is one definition of the word, and it seems to fit what Jesus is saying and preaches well. Preachers can get much mileage from encouraging their listeners to use their natural talents and skills for the Lord.

There are two problems with that approach. One problem is that it tends to gear us toward a doctrine of righteousness by works. The slaves in the parable who had worked the hardest were commended, and the one who did the least was condemned. It is hard to reconcile that message with the message of the New Testament that salvation is by grace—that it isn’t earned by what we do for the Lord.

I assume that Jesus knew all about this righteousness by grace. Why, then, did he give us this parable? I think that all three parables in this chapter essentially teach the same thing: that this age in which we are living is going to consist of true and false Christians. There are going to be wise and foolish virgins. Some will get to the party; others will be left out. There are going to be good and faithful slaves and evil and lazy slaves. The faithful ones will be commended by the Master when he returns. The evil and lazy ones will be condemned to the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ There are going to be true sheep and sheep lookalikes: goats. The Lord will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep get to inherit the kingdom and will have permanent life. The goats get the fire and the permanent punishment.

So, the point of all three parables in this chapter is that some who claim to be Christians saved by grace will be true Christians. Others will be just pretending. The second coming is when Jesus will sort them out and show those truly his.

The parable of the Talents illustrates that true Christians in this age are going to be working for their Master, and they are not going to hide. True salvation is always by grace, but true salvation produces Christians who put their faith to work. So, this parable does not prove salvation by works. It demonstrates that salvation works. It changes people’s lives and makes them want to invest in the Master’s service.

I mentioned two problems with the approach that sees Jesus talking about talents as in human aptitude or skills. The second problem is that the word talent in the text is not the same as our English word talent. The word that Jesus used referred to a unit of currency used by the Greeks and Romans in the first century. A τάλαντον was a unit of weight. They had silver talents worth about 6000 days’ wages. A gold talent was worth thirty times more than that. So, the amount of money Jesus is talking about is at least 16 years and five months’ worth of income. It could be as much as 493 years’ worth of income.

In the parable, the Master distributed eight talents: Five to one, two to another, and one to another. That’s either 131 plus years of income or 3,943 plus years of income. That’s a boatload of cash! You see, the Master distributed all his property to these three slaves. They were left with an enormous amount to manage in their master’s place.

So, let’s get back to the question. I didn’t forget it. The question is: What is a Talent? When Jesus left, he commissioned all of us to manage his kingdom while he was in heaven. He gave us the keys to that kingdom to let others into it. That is the commission of evangelism. He told us to make disciples of all nations. That is the commission of worldwide evangelization or missions. He gave us the commands we have been studying for many years. That is the commission of being salt and light to the world. The next parable in this chapter focuses on that commission. He gave us a new commandment that we are to love one another just as he loved us (John 13:34). That is the commission of sacrificial love to other Christians.

The talents in the parable represent all that Jesus wants to do through us as we await his return. He wants us to bless others as he has blessed us. Now, let’s look further into the parable.

The second question is, “Why were the two slaves commended?”

The slave who had been given the five talents went to work right away and fulfilled the commission of his master. He gained five more. The slave who had been given the two talents went to work right away and fulfilled the commission of his master. He gained two more. Jesus commended them both for being excellent and faithful slaves. They did what he had commissioned them to do.

Here is a vital distinction we all need to recognize. The slaves were not commissioned to spend the money they had been given—that was not the work. The commission was to invest it.

I witnessed a missionary friend who decided he wanted to bless a young couple, so he gave them the money to buy all the products they needed to start a small retail business. The couple later came to him and told him they were in trouble. They had run out of products to sell. The missionary asked them what they did with the proceeds they had earned from selling the products they had been given. They said they used it to pay bills. That illustrates the difference between spending money and investing money.

Jesus is not calling us to merely enjoy all the blessings that he has given us. He has commissioned us to invest his blessings and to build his kingdom while he is away. In the parable, the two slaves whom Jesus commended were not praised for being decent private folk. They were commended because they took their initial gifts given to them by grace and invested them so that the Master’s holdings increased because of their hard work. That is why the Master called them good and faithful slaves.

The final question is, “Why was the one slave condemned?”

Hear me now; the message gets a little less comfortable here. The slave was not condemned because he refused to gather with all the other slaves for a worship service once a week. He was not condemned for refusing to boast to everyone about how blessed he was. He was not condemned because of the size of his original gift—it was small only compared with that of the other slaves. He was not condemned because he was given little. He was condemned because he chose to do nothing with the gift.

In the parable, the master takes away the one talent he had given and gives it to one of the other slaves. The other slaves had been obedient to their master’s commission. This slave also loses his status and is thrown into the outer darkness. He loses everything because he fails to follow his master’s instructions.

This parable teaches that authentic Christians will prove what they profess by what they do. It is not works righteousness, but God’s grace at work. It is a good seed producing a crop that, in turn, makes it possible to plant more good seeds. It is a tree that keeps growing until it fills the whole earth. It is good slaves doing what their master commissioned them to do.

LORD, thank you for the tremendous blessing of citizenship in your coming kingdom. While we have time, we want to invest our lives in shining the light of that kingdom and growing the population of that kingdom. LORD, make us people unsatisfied with merely spending your gifts. Please give us the wisdom to invest them. May your kingdom come, and your will be done. Amen.

WISE?

WISE?

Matthew 25:1-13 NET.

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 the virgins were foolish, and five were wise. ³ When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take extra olive oil with them. ⁴ But the wise ones took flasks of olive oil with their lamps. ⁵ When the bridegroom was delayed a long time, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. ⁶ But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is here! 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, because our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There won’t be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ But while they had gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went inside with him to the wedding banquet. Then the door was shut. ¹¹Later, the other virgins came too, saying, ‘Lord, lord! Let us in!’ ¹² But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know you!’ ¹³ Therefore stay alert, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel consists of three parables that Jesus taught on the same occasion as his teachings about his second coming. We will not find much new instruction in this chapter, but we will find some helpful illustrations about how to obey the commands that Jesus gave in chapter 24.

The command is to Stay Alert (13).

The command is the same as the one Jesus gave in 24:42-43. The reason for the command is the same. Jesus tells us that his coming will be sudden, and there will be no advance warning. That is why his servants must always be ready for him to arrive.

I won’t spend much time elaborating on this because I have already done that. Today’s text gives us another illustration. He used a parable to do that.

· Parables are not a topic themselves. They were used to illustrate and explain something that had already been taught.

· The word parable means something placed alongside to explain. It is based on the combination of the Greek verb ballō, which means to place or through something, and the preposition para, which means alongside.

He tells a story about ten young ladies waiting to attend a party. The parable explains what it means to stay alert and be ready for Christ’s return.

· Not everyone is as ready as she thinks she is. All the young ladies thought they were prepared for the big party, but only some were. For parties, that does not really matter. But for the second coming, it matters. We cannot afford to be unprepared for that. The problem these five foolish virgins had was thinking that they had plenty of time to get their lives in order. They didn’t. They thought they were OK, but they were not.

· The thoughtless had lamps, but they started going out. Some people trust their ministries to get them into the party. Jesus had told his disciples that they were the light of the world. The lamps seem to speak to that reality. But sharing God’s glory by influencing the world around us is not our qualification. Nobody does enough for their works to count toward their eternal destiny.

The wise virgins kept shining (8-10).

· The Christian life is a marathon, not a short sprint. We all know people who make great starts trying to live the Christian life but then get sidetracked by some failure. The intelligent virgins in Jesus’ story were ready to wait for as long as it took. They did not have a plan B. The thoughtless virgins were OK with waiting for a while, but if the party were delayed too long, they would think of other options. Like Sarah, in the Old Testament, when the promised baby did not come, she introduced her maid, Hagar, into the picture—lousy choice. We must stick with plan A, no matter how long it takes.

I also see in the story that there was a time when all of the ladies waiting fell asleep. I can’t prove it, but I think Jesus was alluding to death here. The Bible often refers to death as sleep. We all have a limited time to invest ourselves in the Lord’s work because our lifespans are limited. We are mortal. If there is something we can do for our Lord to reach the lost with his gospel, then we had better not put it off. After we die, our time to shine will be over.

The wise virgins knew the Lord (11-12)

· The real difference is not the oil but the relationship. Some people get hung up on the symbol. I’ve been taught all my life that oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and it was. But in this parable, the oil stands for the preparation itself. When the bridegroom explained why he was denying them entrance, he didn’t blame it on their lack of oil. He said he didn’t know them. The question we should be asking is not what we can bring to the party. The question is will the host recognize us?

It isn’t even whether we know the Lord. The foolish virgins thought they knew the host of the party. But he didn’t know them. Our theology is what we think we know about the Lord. Our standing is based on what he knows about us. We can have an immaculate theology and be evil people inside. What matters is what Jesus knows about us.

· Those who were ready went in, and the door was shut. This tells me that the grace the LORD offers us today to come to him is a limited-time offer. If we fail to respond to his invitation today, we will not get a second chance on the coming day.

Here are some practical suggestions for living ready today:

Invest yourself in the coming kingdom. Jesus gave another parable – that of the talents — to encourage us to invest ourselves in the kingdom that will appear when the king does.

We invest in the kingdom by getting into the word of God, which describes it.
We invest in the kingdom by fellowshipping with the King.
We invest in the kingdom by fellowshipping with other kingdom citizens.

Serve Christ by serving others. The parable of the talents and that of the sheep & goats encourage us to serve others and meet other people’s needs. That is one way to prepare for eternity. The light shining from our lamps is light that helps others to see the God we belong to.

Resist shortcuts to righteousness. The intelligent virgins were willing to pay the full price of admission. They knew they would only have one chance of joining the party, so they invested in the extra oil they would need to be ready when the bridegroom appeared.

Eliminate distractions. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught that some people would make a good start in the kingdom but then be sidetracked by other desires and worries. The intelligent virgins stayed on target.

Be real. The parable of the sheep & goats shows us that not everyone who looks and sounds like an authentic Christian is really an authentic Christian. In fact, there was a long period when all ten virgins appeared to be ready for the party.

Sometimes, Jesus’s words are designed to comfort the troubled, and sometimes, they are designed to trouble the comfortable. I hope you have been troubled this morning; I know I have. Let’s recommit ourselves to living ready for our Lord’s return.

LORD, we are in this for as long as it takes. We commit ourselves to living ready today and every day until you burst through the clouds. Show us how to make ourselves ready for your coming kingdom.

ALIENATED

ALIENATED

Isaiah 59:1-2 NET.

¹ Look, the LORD’s hand is not too weak to deliver you; his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ² But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.

Here are three dictionary definitions of a word. Can you determine what the word is?

a situation, question, or thing that causes difficulty, stress, or doubt.
a statement or equation that requires a solution.
a thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand.

The word is problem. Isaiah, the prophet, spoke to a nation with a problem. They seemed to have lost the ability to contact God. Their ancestors had known God and communicated with him. He even rescued them when they needed it. But Isaiah’s nation had lost the ability to connect with their creator. It was a problem for them. It even seemed like an unsolvable problem. But two things cannot exist in the same universe: an Almighty God and an unsolvable problem.

God is not the problem (1).

Isaiah’s people had considered that there must be some problem with their God. Perhaps he had gotten too old and worn out and could no longer do the miracles he had done in the past. Or maybe he had lost the ability to hear their prayers. Maybe they should go shopping for a new God. This old one does not seem to function anymore. Maybe they can go to Walmart and see if there’s a sale on the latest gods. Perhaps they should check the nations around them and see if they are having better luck with their gods. Yes, it appears to be time for a change.

But Isaiah said whoa. Before you change gods like you’re putting on a new pair of shoes, you had better check and see if God is your problem. Changing gods and discovering you still have the same situation would be embarrassing.

Isaiah knows that God is not the problem. He knows what our theologians keep discovering, generation after generation. He knows the truth encapsulated in the prayer that some of us learned to pray at meals when we were small children: God is great, and God is good.

One of the traditional ways for theologians to describe God has been to use negative statements. In other words, God is described by pointing out who and what he is not. He is immeasurable, immutable, and immortal. Or, to put it in one word: He is infinite. Scientists sometimes

speak of space as infinite, but only because they lack the means to measure its immensity. The evidence from scripture reveals that God is infinite by nature. Even if it were possible to measure the vastness of space, God’s measurements would still be outside and beyond it.

For explanation purposes, we theologians sometimes convert these negative statements into positive ones. In doing so, we sacrifice accuracy, but we do so to express our faith in the One we

are trying to define. The positive definitions of God’s being resulting from this conversion are omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

To say that God is omnipresent is to recognize that he exists everywhere simultaneously.

To say that God is omniscient is to recognize that he knows everything – everything that was, is now, and will be in the future.

To say that he is omnipotent is to recognize that he is all-powerful. He never gets weak or wears out. Isaiah reminded his people of that truth when he said the LORD’s hand was not too weak to deliver them.

But God is not only great, but he is also good. He not only can save us, but he also inclines to do so because he has compassion for us. The Bible describes the Lord’s goodness in Exodus 34:6-7, where he is described as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love and forgiving.

He is compassionate. He is more aware of our sins than we are. Yet he has chosen within the depths of his goodness to forego punishing us as we deserve because he wants the best for us.

He is gracious. He gives constant blessings and undeserved favors out of his supply of graciousness.

He is slow to anger. God can be angered by the wrongs so often manifested in this rebellious world, but his anger is under control.

He abounds in loyal love. It is the stubborn, relentless devotion to his

own people that led God to rescue them from bondage in Egypt powerfully.

He abounds in faithfulness. He is faithful to himself. He is a firm and solid rock because he never wavers from one position to another. What

is true about him remains true about him. In theological terms, he is immutable. In practical terms, he can be trusted.

He will keep his loyal love. We can trust our children to him just as much as we trust ourselves in his hands.

He forgives. The gods of the nations usually only offer the opportunity for sinners to make up for their sins through gifts, rituals, or acts of penance. The LORD actively bears the punishment for the sins himself. That is forgiveness. He can offer such lavish grace because he has already paid the price of all humanity’s sins by the death of Christ on Calvary’s cross.

Isaiah reminded his people that their God is good. His ears are not deaf to their cries. There is a problem, but it isn’t God.

Sin is the problem (2).

Isaiah tells his people that their sinful acts have alienated them from their God. God is still as strong as he has ever been, but the connection that the Israelites had with God has been severed. Sin has cut the cord. If the cord is cut, no power will get to the motor. It won’t start. It won’t run. All the engine pieces may still be there, but the energy that makes the whole thing work is gone.

Alienation happens when something separates a person from another person or a group from another group. A wall has separated the Israelites from their God. They cannot scale that wall or burst through it. God hears them trying to live normally on the other side of the wall. It isn’t working. They have to overcome the barrier, but they don’t know how. The wall is not God. The wall is their sin. Because of their sin, God has rejected them. He still hears them. He can’t not hear them. But he is not listening to their prayers.

They cannot undo the wall with their hands because they built it with their hands. Isaiah goes on to say that their hands are stained with blood, and their fingers are stained with sin.

They cannot undo the wall by saying something because everything they say is building it. Their lips speak lies, and their tongues utter malicious words.

They have been busy like poisonous snakes, hatching eggs to make more poisonous snakes. They have been busy spinning spiders’ webs to trap others like they are trapped. They have been busy with violent acts and don’t even know what peace is. They wait for the light, but it never comes. They only see darkness.

As I said before, two things cannot exist in the same universe: an Almighty God and an unsolvable problem. If the people cannot save themselves, then God, who is both great and good, must save them.

God has provided a Solution (20).

“A protector comes to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds,” says the LORD.

Notice three things about this protector that the Lord says will come to Zion. First, he says the protector will come to Zion. The protector will not come from Zion. The solution will come from the other side of the wall. No one has ever been saved by deciding to do better. You can decide to do better every day of your life and still die in your sins. God does not have two solutions to our alienation problem. He doesn’t say, “Y’all try your best, and I’ll help a little if needed.” No, if salvation will happen, it has to come from outside us.

Many of the world’s religions are based on the idea of self-help. They tell us to get in touch with our inner selves and find help that way. But the Bible tells us that “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

We cannot save ourselves. We cannot even help ourselves. But God is our helper and savior. He promised through the prophet Isaiah to send a protector. The Hebrew word is גּוֹאֵל, which means a reclaimer. That is a significant word to use in this context because the problem the Israelites had was that they had been alienated from God (verse 2). The word for alienated is used in Genesis to separate light from the darkness. When God was creating, he divided the day of time into day and night. He used light as a divider. When it was night, it was not day because there was no light. When it was day, it was not night because the light was shining.

The problem the Israelites had was that they were separated from God. They were the darkness, and he was the light. The only way for them to become light again was for God to reclaim them. Isaiah says that God is going to do that by sending a reclaimer. He was going to come into the darkness and bring the light with him so that the people would have the opportunity to get back into God’s light.

Notice what the Israelites had to do to be reclaimed. It was not automatic. The one who is coming will only reclaim “those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds.” The light will come, but the Israelites will have to decide whether or not they want to walk in the light. If they remain in darkness, they will remain alienated, no matter who their ancestors were.

Our communion meditation this morning continues the same theme and is based on John’s words in one of his letters:

“…the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:8-11 NET).

We move in time a few centuries from the prophet Isaiah’s time to that of the apostles. The reclaimer has already come to Israel. He was the light that came into the world and he came to reconcile all people to God, not just the children of Jacob. So, John tells us that if we are Christians, the world will know it.

The apostle says that there are two things that a Christian does. A Christian says he is in the light. That’s the first thing. This morning, we confess that we are in the light by taking these emblems representing the world’s reclaimer. By taking this bread, we acknowledge that Christ’s body was put to death for us to reclaim us for God. By taking this cup, we confess that Christ’s blood was shed for our forgiveness, to rescue us from the darkness of sin, and to reclaim us for the light of God.

The second thing that the apostle says a Christian does is reside in the light. It’s the proof that our confession is real. John says we prove the reality of our confession by loving one another.

FATHER, give us the courage and wisdom to love one another as Christians and prove our confession of Christ. We want to be authentic. We want to walk in the light to prove that Jesus is the light of the world. In His name, we pray, Amen.

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