It was Labour Weekend 5 weeks ago and we travelled up to Whangarei to see my parents. It's always good to go there, in the last couple of years we have made it a tradition to climb Mt Manaia at the Whangarei Heads. It's 1000 steps to the top and a good challenge. The boys can run up there in about 15 minutes, it takes me about 25 but I don't run. It's always great to stand on top of a mountain and get some perspective : )
Anyway this time while staying with my parents, I noticed my Dad had this intriguing jigsaw puzzle sitting in the lounge which contains 12 parables of Jesus. We had a go at naming all 12, we got to 10 and then needed some help. How many can you spot?
The next day we went to Maungataupere Community Church, it was a very good service and I wrote a lot of notes when one of the ladies got up and spoke about the Tetrad of Blood Moons that we are having over 2014/2015 and the possible connection to End Times prophecy in scripture. I won't give you that lesson now as it is very detailed but it is certainly very interesting and worth you considering. The lady got my attention because of her studious nature and because she is not the type of person to get up front normally - like one of those kids with glasses you see always down the school library, the brains of the class.
As a result of what she said I went back and re-read Matthew 24 where Jesus explains what the World would be like just before his Return. As I read Matthew 24 with what she had said in mind, it was as if the words came to life, that they are for now, for this moment in history.
At my work, we have a lot of computer applications that are used by our staff that have minor bugs in them. A warning message will pop up on their screen but the person can easily step through it and carry on with their work without the process failing. Sounds OK but there is a problem with that. There is a known phenomenon where people get so used to seeing warning messages that they don't recognise a real problem since their brain starts thinking all warning messages are to be ignored. Don't live with the bugs! Let's hope that the previous pilot of your next plane flight has reported all warnings received and your pilot is just as diligent ; )
We are living in an age where nothing shocks us anymore. We have gotten so use to the alarm bells that we don't pay attention to what's developing around us. The alarm bells that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 have been ringing for some time, here is an End Times checklist for you to consider. These are only the main ones, there are many more.
Matthew 24 – the words of Jesus
- False Christs, False Prophets, False miracles
- World Wars
- Famines and Earthquakes in many places
- Worldwide persecution of Christians (by the way, that's an astounding prophecy to make to just a few followers 2000 years ago!)
- Great falling away from the Faith
- Sin rampant everywhere, cooling the love of many
- Gospel preached to all Nations
- World blind and at ease as in the days of Noah
Genesis 6 - the story of Noah
- Population explosion and crime rate rising rapidly
Daniel 12
- Travel and Education vastly increased
1 Timothy 4
2 Timothy 3
“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without
love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying
its power.”
2 Peter 3
Revelation 13
I will leave it to you to consider which ones are already fulfilled. The End Times topic is very extensive and there are plenty of books, music, art, theatre and even movies made on this topic. If it does happen shortly, no one could honestly say they hadn't been warned. And yet, Jesus prophesised the World would be completely SURPRISED. What a terrible tragic shock for them!
Matthew 24:29-31
29“Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Actually I'm only now getting to the point of my message!
The very next chapter of Matthew 25 is what Jesus taught next on the End of the Age. Matthew 25 contains the last 3 parables that Jesus ever told, that are also the last 3 mentioned in the jigsaw puzzle. Jesus used these 3 parables to teach what it would be like at the End in the Kingdom of Heaven. They contain very SEVERE warnings to us, the Believers so that we will not get a nasty SURPRISE like the World.
Matthew 25 begins 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 ones, 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. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
The obvious points
- Jesus is the Bridegroom
- The return of Jesus is a long time coming
- The return is at a very inconvenient and dark hour
- The Church at that time is composed of wise and foolish
- It is your responsibility to be prepared - the oil will not be shared
- 50% fail to enter because they were not ready
- The Wedding Banquet is the celebration in Heaven after the wise (prepared) enter in
- The foolish (unprepared) are locked out and remain in the darkness
The questions we may have
- Where is the bride?
- What is the oil?
- How do we prepare?
It helps to have an understanding of what a wedding was like in Jesus' day.
—MacArthur New Testament Commentary –
"The setting for this parable was a typical Jewish wedding ceremony. In Israel, as well as in most other parts of the ancient Near East, a wedding was the most celebrated social event. Virtually everyone in a village or in a neighborhood community of a large city would be involved as a participant or as a guest. It was a time of great happiness and festivity.
A Jewish marriage consisted of three parts, the first of which was the engagement. Most often arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom, the engagement amounted to a contract of marriage in which the couple had little, if any, direct involvement.
The second stage was the betrothal, the marriage ceremony at which the bride and groom exchanged vows in the presence of family and friends. At that point the couple was considered married, and their relationship could be broken only by formal divorce, just as if they had been married for many years. If the husband happened to die during the betrothal, the bride was considered a widow although the marriage had not been physically consummated and the two had never lived together. The betrothal could last for many months, sometimes a year, during which time the groom would establish himself in a business, trade, or farming and would make provision for a place for the couple to live.
At the end of the betrothal period the wedding feast would be held, and it was in the feast and its related celebrations that the entire community became involved. This festivity, which could last a week, began with the groom's coming with his groomsmen to the bride's house, where her bridesmaids were waiting with her. Together the bride and groom and their attendants would then parade through the streets proclaiming that the wedding feast was about to begin. The procession was generally begun at night, and lamps or torches were used by the wedding party to illumine their way and to attract attention. At the end of the feast period, a close friend of the groom, who acted much like a best man, would take the hand of the bride and place it in the hand of the groom, and the couple would for the first time be left alone together. The marriage would be consummated and the couple would henceforth live together in their new home.
It was that third part of the marriage rite that Jesus used as the framework for this parable. The parable is not an allegory, as many interpreters have claimed. Every small facet of the story does not carry a mystical meaning that is subject to speculation and imagination. Nor does every part of the parable have application to Christian living, as devotionalists frequently maintain. Still less is the parable a confused and clumsy teaching effort on Jesus' part, as some liberal interpreters suggest. The fact that details such as the bride's identity and the place where the virgins slept are not mentioned has no bearing on the point Jesus was making. For His purpose, the story was clear and complete."
This parable simply warns us to be PREPARED.
While I was pondering further on the meaning of the oil, Psalm 23 came to mind which I believe is more than a prayer for funerals but a warrior prayer to be used in the End Times. Please observe in this passage who will uphold us in these dark times, the meaning of the oil and the table that God has prepared for his loved ones.
Keith Green wrote this beautiful rendition of
Psalm 23 released barely 3 months before he died in a plane crash.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
2 he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.
In fact this first parable of Matthew 25 is quite easy to understand if you think simply like a child. We have to prepare ourselves for a dark time that lies ahead. Jesus could come at any moment but don't let him catch us burned out, weary and unprepared. It is our responsibility to get the extra reserve we need to keep our lamps burning and keep our joy right to the End. We have to ask the Lord to fill us with his Spirit and to teach us how to draw on this reserve when we are in the midst of the darkest times. And we need to maintain our great hope because Jesus is coming soon. That way, when he returns we will go with him with joy into the Wedding Feast that God has prepared for the true Church.
Next time, if there is one, I want to talk about the 2nd parable in this chapter because that has something more to teach us to about the End Times!
OF PART ONE ; )
