Leave your Bibles open where Amish just read to us.
And I'm going to pray.
Lord Jesus, as we come to your word
and as we think again about your coming again,
open our hearts to you
and help us to live our lives in the light of your coming
and to see what your coming means for those who are safe in you.
Great joy, great security
and help us to rejoice in what we see in here tonight.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
I had a pretty low day the other day.
I had a moment where I was desperately in need of God's wisdom
and I think also wanting a sense of his nearness and his care.
You know, you hit a low spot,
you almost want to feel God's there as well as know God's there.
And I went to a quiet spot.
In fact, I went up to the foyer at church.
Nobody was around.
And I sat there to pray.
And the best I was able to do was pray,
Lord, please give me wisdom and love.
That was about as big as the prayer got.
I needed God's presence.
I couldn't feel it.
And then I phoned a friend.
And he was wisdom in the flesh for me.
I don't know how I really expected God to answer my prayer,
but I tell you that he did it in a way that was really simple.
He answered it in the person of my friend,
whom I call wisdom personified.
In fact, my wife knows who this man is
because I said to her,
I prayed to God and then I rang wisdom personified
and she knew exactly who I rang.
And in that moment,
I take my friendship with my friend as God's blessing to me.
I was reassured about the presence
and the protection
and the purposes of God in the person of my friend.
Life this side of heaven
is sometimes very difficult.
And I guess when I talk to church family even tonight,
each of us are walking in a different place
and a different moment
and experiencing different things.
So some of us will be sitting here thinking,
it's pretty cool at the moment,
it's pretty great
and it's coming up to Christmas
and I'm going to get all the things I wanted.
And that's for you.
But there may be another one or two amongst us
who are really struggling at the moment
for whatever reason.
And when life is difficult,
I think that's when we really want to pray
the last words of the Bible,
which are,
come Lord Jesus, come.
Come back again, please Lord Jesus
and wrap this whole show up
because it's just not that cool
being here at the moment.
I want to say tonight
that the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
is an essential part of Christian understanding
and it helps us to wait
and make sense of the very imperfect world
which we're living in at the moment.
I'm preaching this short series
on Jesus coming,
the return of the Lord Jesus.
I spoke about it last week
and went to three passages,
a few different passages,
some in John's Gospel,
some in 1 Thessalonians
and some in Acts chapter 1.
And I said that Christians believe
very distinctive things
about life after death.
We believe in the resurrection of all people.
We don't believe in reincarnation.
We don't believe in endless cycles of life.
We don't believe that you can come back
as a flea on a dog's bottom.
And we don't believe in annihilation,
back to dust with no further consequences.
We believe that people cannot escape
the ultimate justice of God
by dying out of this world.
And we believe in the resurrection
to face the judgment of God
and of ultimate accountability.
We believe in the justice of God
which does not allow us
to escape responsibility.
And we believe in the mercy of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ
which allows us to stand safe
at his judgment.
We do not have to fear
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Jesus' second coming
from a Bible point of view,
it is certain,
it will be sudden,
it will be seen by all,
it will happen
when his father says it will happen.
Nobody can predict the moment.
So when somebody tries to,
somebody puts a date
on the coming of Jesus,
somebody says you can be slow,
it's not coming yet,
or it's going to happen next year
on such and such a date,
I want you as Christian people,
as my brothers and sisters
to be able to just say
straight out rubbish.
It's nonsense.
Even if it's the most well-meaning
and well-intentioned person.
What do I say to them?
Rubbish.
Because the scripture says otherwise.
All people will be raised
to face the judgment of God.
Jesus' coming will mean
that judgment and destruction
for those people
who have rejected him,
but joy for everyone
who trusts and hopes in him.
So to have your name
written in the Lamb's book of life
means that you will be safe
on the day of his coming.
I'm particularly preaching tonight
about Matthew chapter 25,
verses 1 to 13.
Jesus tells a story
about 10 virgins
waiting to meet a bridegroom
and to escort him
to collect his bride.
That doesn't sound very good,
does it?
I think the virgins
are the bridesmaids
and they're waiting
for the groom to come
and to collect his bride.
I've preached this passage before
and I was going to preach it,
not I haven't preached it here,
I've preached it in another place,
and I was going to preach it
unchanged for the night
and I got it out
and I thought,
oh, this is easy,
easy work of preparation,
I've done this before
and as I started to read
over the work
that I'd done before,
I realised I'd done
a really lousy job last time
and I hadn't understood
the passage properly
and all of a sudden
I had a workload
which I didn't expect
and I want to say to you tonight
that I think I've learnt some things,
I think I've got better
in understanding the passage
but I don't think
I've got it perfect,
so if you're sitting there
reading the passage
while I'm speaking to you tonight
and you see some things in it
and you go,
aha, tell me about it afterwards
because we don't see everything
every time we get up to speak.
You can't understand this passage
without understanding
Matthew chapter 24
which is immediately before it
and Matthew 24
is a notoriously difficult chapter
of the Bible to understand.
So the people of the first century,
the people that this was written to
were like some of us,
they were living at a time
when God hadn't spoken
for a long time,
maybe 500 years
since one of the prophets
had spoken.
There hadn't been a word of God
for a long time
and there was this growing expectancy
that God was going to turn up
and show his face.
some people were expecting
the coming of the Messiah,
the King
and they associated his coming
with the end of time,
one coming,
one end.
So when the Messiah comes,
that'll be the end,
it's all wrapped up.
We're a bit the same.
We're looking for one more coming
of Jesus
and we associate his coming
when he comes again
with the wrapping up of history
as we know it,
the end of the world,
one more coming,
one end.
Jesus lived in revolutionary times.
You find this out
when you read the New Testament.
People were anticipating a king
who would lead them to glory,
who would reestablish
the kingdom of David
with all its magnificence
for a thousand years before.
A king who would drive
the pagan Romans
out of the land
of God's promise
and there were false Christs
in Jesus' day
who were going to lead
God's people to glory.
You can read about them
in the New Testament.
Two of them are mentioned
in Acts chapter 5.
They were Jewish revolutionaries.
Their names were Thutis and Judas,
not Judas who was Jesus' disciple
but another Judas.
And both these men
led uprisings
of several hundred men
against the Romans
and these movements collapsed
when their leaders were killed.
So kill the leader,
the movement collapses.
Jesus was executed
in an environment
where he was seen to be
a threat to national security.
He died
and the movement around him
didn't collapse,
it grew.
When Jesus was on trial
before Pilate,
the Jewish leadership
whipped up the crowd
to demand the release of Barabbas.
Set Barabbas free.
Don't set Jesus free.
Set Barabbas free.
We want him.
And Barabbas was
a murderous insurrectionist.
When Jesus was arrested,
Peter drew his sword
straight away,
didn't hesitate
and cut off the ear
of the high priest's servant.
Great stroke.
Magic to see.
Because he was expecting
to have to swing his sword
in following his king,
Jesus.
These were all people
who were expecting
to use weapons
to help God achieve
his purposes.
They had preconceived ideas
about what the coming
of the Messiah
would look like.
And that's why
so many of them
had no idea
that it was even happening
when it was actually happening
because they had
such another idea
in their head
about what would happen.
even Peter.
And what you see here
is that God
is very active
in his work
in a way
that they cannot see
and is not yet understood.
So Matthew 24
begins with Jesus saying,
well, it's all over
for the temple
and it's all over
for Jerusalem.
The disciples
are with Jesus.
They're travelling.
They're marvelling
at the cityscape.
I did it yesterday.
We went,
by the grace
of some of our friends here,
we went and saw
the Messiah
in the Sydney Opera House
yesterday afternoon,
Kerry and I,
with a few of you.
Who else went?
Look at the hands going.
It was the
Foo Club.
The Foo Fan Club
because we were supporting
Chrissie Fulcher
who was singing
in the chorus.
And, you know,
the city skyline
is pretty magnificent,
isn't it?
You can sit on the northern
side of the harbour
and you look across the city,
you see the Opera House,
it's silhouetted
by the bridge down this side
and the high-rise buildings
on the other side
and you can go sometimes,
oh, wow,
isn't it awesome?
And that's what these guys
did outside Jerusalem.
They're travelling
with Jesus,
they're looking back
at Jerusalem,
they're seeing the walls
and the temple
and the other buildings
out there
and they're saying,
it's awesome, Jesus.
And Jesus says,
it's up for demolition.
It's all coming down.
And in AD 67,
the Roman army
came in
and totaled the city.
And 600 years later,
Muslims built a mosque
on the side,
the third holiest shrine
in Islam
and it's been
the most contentious
piece of real estate
in the world
ever since.
A temple
hasn't been rebuilt.
Why wasn't a temple
rebuilt?
Why doesn't a temple
need to be rebuilt?
Help me out.
God is everywhere.
We are the temple
of the living God.
So why do we need
a temple rebuilt
to sacrifice animals
over and over again
to God
in worship of him
when we have had
the one true sacrifice
for sin
that Romans describes
in the person
of the Lord Jesus
step onto the stage
of the world history?
So Christians
who want to bring
a temple back,
we need to be able
to say to them,
rubbish as well.
There's two rubbishes
tonight.
If you go to the chapter
before,
Matthew chapter 23,
Jesus actually brings
the curtain down
on the whole
of the Old Testament.
He says these words,
O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem,
the city that kills
the prophets
and stones those
who are sent to it.
how often would I
have gathered
your children together
as a hen gathers
her brood under
her wings
and you would not.
Your house is left
to you desolate
for I tell you,
you will not see me
again until you say,
blessed is he
who comes in the name
of the Lord.
Jesus has told
parables
about the rejection
of God's messengers
and ultimately
God's son
and a new age
is coming
and a new dawn
is about to begin
and so in chapter 24
verse 3,
he sat on the
Mount of Olives,
the disciples
came to him privately
and they said,
tell us,
when will these things
be and what will be
the sign of your coming
and of the close
of the age?
So you get
information here,
you see that Jesus
is alone with his disciples,
he's teaching them privately,
this private teaching
goes on through
the whole of chapter 24
and the whole of chapter 25
and his close friends,
his disciples,
his followers
have got two
really big questions,
when and what?
When will these things
happen?
And what will be
the sign of your coming
and of the close
of the age?
How will we know
that it's about to happen
so that we can see
it coming and be warned?
They have this mindset
that the coming of Jesus
means the close
of the age,
for them the end
of history is upon them
and they want to be
ready for it.
And the first question
has an easy answer,
chapter 24 verse 36,
concerning that,
this is Jesus speaking,
concerning that day
and hour,
no one knows,
not even the angels
of heaven
nor the son
but the father only.
Only the father
of God in heaven
knows when this
is going to happen,
not even me.
And then in verse 44,
therefore you must
be ready
because the son of man
is coming at an hour
when you do not expect.
And so the easy answer
is be ready.
My father is the only
person who knows
the timing,
it will be sudden,
it will be unexpected
and if anybody else
has got a suggestion
about the timing,
just forget it.
They don't know.
But the second question
is much harder.
It's a really good question
but they're asking it
with wrong expectations.
They don't yet understand
that Jesus will come twice.
All the end time expectations
which they're expecting
to happen right now
aren't going to happen
just right now,
they're going to be spread
over time.
Not everything's going
to be completed
with Jesus' first coming.
It's a brand new idea
and it's never been
on their radar before
that Jesus might come once
and then he might come again
or the Messiah,
the King might come once
and then he might come again.
And so Jesus tells them
things about the destruction
of the temple,
many false Christs,
wars, famines,
persecution of believers
to death,
sun, moon and stars
not giving light,
the abomination
of desolation
standing in the temple.
And in verses 34 and 35
he says,
I tell you the truth,
this generation
will certainly not pass away
until all these things
have happened.
And he's saying
that there are events
of cosmic consequence
in the life and times
of the current generation.
You're living in them
at the moment
to the people back there
2,000 years ago.
They're happening
with this current visit
of God to his world
and in the person
of his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have to move past Christmas.
Christmas is nothing
compared with what
Christ is about to do.
It's a great time of the year
but in terms of what
Christ is about to do,
it's what he's come to do
and who he is
which is really important.
We move beyond
the baby story
to the glory of Christ
and the kingship
which he's going to exercise
and he's particularly
going to exercise
that cross,
that,
his kingship
on a hill
outside of Jerusalem
when he gives his life
for the sins
of anybody
who would trust in him
and when God vindicates him
by raising him
from the dead.
And the Bible says
that this is a climactic event
with cosmic consequences.
What Jesus is doing
back there
has implications
for the whole of history.
That's how big this event is.
I think when Jesus died
on the cross
that was the abomination
that causes desolation.
There is nothing
that has happened
in the whole of human history
which is as gross
as what happened
to Jesus on the cross.
Because we,
the people that God has made,
even the religious leaders
of his own time,
the people who were supposed
to protect religion
and the temple
and keep it holy
and all those things
seized God himself
with their own hands
and tried to destroy him
as ridiculous
as that is.
That is an abomination.
So Jesus is also preparing them
for an intervening period
and another coming.
In chapter 24,
verses 39 to 44,
he says,
keep watch
because you do not know
on what day
your Lord will come.
But understand this,
if the owner of the house
had known
at what time of night
the thief was coming,
he would have kept watch
and would not have let
his house be broken into.
If the thief had made
an appointment,
the owner of the house
wouldn't have got caught out.
So you also must be ready
because the Son of God
will come at an hour
when you don't expect him.
God's not going to make
an appointment
for you to look forward to.
There will be another coming.
There will be a delay
between the two
and that is where
the story of the wedding
in chapter 25 comes in.
Ten virgins
took their lamps
and they went out
to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish
and five were wise.
The foolish ones
took their lamps
but did not take
any oil with them.
The wise, however,
took oil in jars
along with their lamps.
Bridegroom was a long time
in coming
and they all became drowsy
and fell asleep.
So Jesus tells this story.
There's a wedding.
No, I can't say
what I want to say.
And you hear nothing
about the bride
in this wedding.
It's bridegroom focused.
It's man-centric.
The man spends the money.
The man makes the arrangements.
I'm a dad
and I've got
one married son,
one unmarried son
and I've also got
three unmarried daughters.
So I like this passage
because
I think it's great
for the man's family
to bear the cost
of the marriage
and I think
dowries
are especially
encouraged
and
I know I'm right
because I talked
to my boss this morning
and he totally agrees
with me.
So in Jesus' day,
marriage was like
this three-stage process.
You'd get engaged.
There was engagement,
there was betrothal
and then there was marriage
and the story Jesus tells
is about the third stage
where the bridegroom
returns from his dad's place
to take his bride.
He's been building
and what he's been doing,
he's been at his dad's house
building on an additional room
that he can bring his bride to
to begin their married life together.
So he will come
as soon as the building's completed,
he will come
at that moment
with his entourage
to get his bride
and take her to his house
to consummate the marriage
and to live in their new home.
It's a great moment.
It's a moment
that they've been anticipating
together for some time.
Really interesting,
Jesus uses similar language
and imagery
in John chapter 14
when he said,
in my father's house
are many rooms
and I am going there
to prepare a place for you.
And he also said,
I will come back
and take you to be with me
that you may be where I am.
I'm going away,
there are going to be rooms
for my followers,
I will return
and we will journey
to the place where I am.
So these ten young women
are going to light the way
for the groom
when he arrives
and they will go with him
to the wedding banquet.
Five are described as foolish,
five are wise,
all of them have lamps,
the lamps are not the little thing
they carry around a house,
they're probably long sticks
with a rag on the end
soaked in oil
that creates a blazing light
outside as you travel
through the night.
Five are called wise
because they have jars of oil,
five are called foolish
because they don't.
They all look the same
while they're waiting,
they don't look any different,
there's no difference
except the oil.
The bridegroom's delayed,
he takes a long time,
he doesn't come as quickly
as they had expected him to come,
everybody gets the nods
and they go to sleep.
And it's really interesting
because there's no judgment
in this passage
about them going to sleep,
it's not as though
going to sleep
was a wrong thing
for them to do,
they all go to sleep.
But what Jesus is preparing them for
is a delayed return,
that's a new thought.
It may well be
an unexpectedly long time
into the future
and for people like us
we can see that,
we can look back,
we can say,
well it's been 2,000 years already,
of course it was going to be
a long time into the future.
But it doesn't take faith
for us to see that,
we just look and see.
But we do need faith
to know that Jesus
is still coming.
It was probably
very difficult
for Jesus' disciples
to come to terms
with a slow return
because they just thought
it was going to be imminent.
You know,
this same Jesus
that you've seen
going to heaven,
he's going to return again
in the same way
that you've seen him
going to heaven,
said the angel.
And they thought
it was going to be
in their own lifetime.
But it shouldn't fill us
with a,
or lull us
into a false sense
of security either.
One of,
when I was in
country town
in New South Wales
ministering,
one of my precious
90 year old ladies
who was full of faith
and she'd walked
through some hard yards
in her life
and God had been
really gracious with her
so I really respected her.
but she said to me
one day,
she said,
I don't think
Jesus will return yet
because I don't think
all the prophecies
have been fulfilled yet.
She was trying
to be scriptural
but she was limiting
God with her theology.
And I lovingly
disagreed
and reminded her
that Jesus teaches us
to be at the ready.
I don't think
I changed her mind
by the way
but we differed
and it was okay.
And when you think
about readiness
I think there's two ways
of understanding
or thinking about readiness.
There's a right way
and there's a wrong way.
So the wrong way
is the story
I told in my message
last week
about the deputy principal
at Frenchess Forest High School
who resigned his job
in 1981
absolutely convinced
that Jesus would return
in 1982.
I'm not sure
what he did
after 1982.
And I was thinking
about this
because I thought
if I knew Jesus
was coming back
in four weeks time
I'm going to stop
putting money
into superannuation
straight away
and I'm going to
start spending it.
I'm not going
to do any work.
I said that to Steve
this morning.
No work.
Sorry Deb.
You have to do it all.
You do it all anyway.
That's probably
what you're going to say.
I'd be with my family
and I'd probably
be pleading
with any members
of my family
to prepare
to meet Christ.
That would be
important for me
just because I know
and love the Lord Jesus.
But if I was
in the country
I wouldn't bother
planting any more crops.
Wouldn't even bother
harvesting them
because there'd be
no one to sell to
in four weeks time.
People who aren't
Christians
I think would go
into a frantic
indulgent panic
if they thought
it was true
if the world
was going to end
in four weeks time.
I think you'd
go and load up
your credit card
knowing that you'd
never have any bank fees
again never have
to pay it back.
I think life
would be turned
on its head.
We'd become
totally irresponsible
and selfish.
We'd go out there
and live and do
whatever we wanted
to do without
regard to the
consequences.
The routines
of life would be
shot to pieces.
Nobody would be
serving one another.
That's the wrong
type of readiness
and when somebody
preaches to us
that you've just
got to be ever ready
as though he's
going to walk
in the door
tonight
well yes
that's right
but no
in terms of panic.
So what is
the right way?
Well I think you
see it in the
remainder of the
story.
The moment of
truth arrives
verse 6
at midnight
the cry rang out
here's the bridegroom
come out to meet
him and all the
virgins woke
and they trimmed
their lamps
and the bridegroom's
return catches
everyone by surprise
the wise and the
foolish everybody's
caught up in the
surprise of his
return.
They all have to
wake up to meet
him.
He turns up in the
dead of the night
when all the women
are asleep.
Everyone needs to
do the normal
things including
sleep so it's all
right to sleep
but now there is a
problem because the
difference between
the two groups
becomes immediately
obvious with the
coming of the
groom.
Some are ready
to meet him
and some
aren't.
And the
foolish ones
in a panic
say to the
wives give us
some of your
oil our lamps
are going out.
No they replied
there mightn't be
enough for both
of us and you
you get down
the shop really
quickly and go to
the cellars of
oil wake them
up and buy
some for
yourselves.
And while they
were on their
way to buy
some oil the
bridegroom arrived
the virgins who
were ready went
in with him to
the wedding banquet
and the door
was shut.
it's a hard
word and if
you're like me
you sort of you
ask all sorts of
questions when you're
trying to prepare a
message and figure out
what's going on here
but you know
couldn't they have
shared?
But you've got to
look beyond the
parable to see that
this is a decisive
moment of truth.
There just isn't
enough for everyone.
It is the moment
when preparedness
is going to be
seen in a final
and an unchangeable
way.
When Jesus
returns it will
be too late to
decide to get
ready.
The opportunity
will be in the
past.
You can't rely on
another person's
preparedness.
You might live in
a family where
one partner knows
and loves the
Lord Jesus Christ
or maybe your
mum or your
dad do and
they are well
prepared for the
return of Christ.
They know him
and he knows
them.
And they don't
have to fear the
day and on that
day you won't be
able to say my
partner did all the
church going for
our family.
Or don't you see
the fine Christian
kids that I've
raised or my
family goes back
three or four
generations,
believers, we've
been saying grace
for the last
hundred years in
our family.
family.
Or the really
hard one from a
parent point of
view is take my
faith, take my
oil and give it to
my children, please
save them instead of
me.
That doesn't work
either.
We have to answer
for ourselves.
Do we have any
oil?
Have we prepared?
It's about you and
whether you have
prepared for that
day.
Will you go in with
the groom or will
the door be shut in
your face?
And I know as I
speak tonight that
there may be some
people here who
know that what I'm
saying about Christ
and his return is
true.
You also know that
you are unprepared to
face him.
You may know lots of
true things about the
Bible especially
because you hang
around churches and
churches are a great
place to hang around
so no discouragement
of that.
Even if you don't
believe this is a
wonderful place to
be.
You may know that
Jesus died.
You may know that
Jesus was raised.
You may know that
Jesus is king in
heaven right now.
You may know some
great theology and you
may have read some
great Christian books.
But to know about
Jesus is different
from knowing Jesus
and loving Jesus.
Need both.
people who know and
trust the Lord Jesus
will be well prepared
to meet him when he
comes.
We don't have to be
afraid.
He has prepared us for
his coming by taking
our sin and nailing it
to the cross.
And we have already
entrusted ourselves to
him in response to what
he has done for us.
We will be safe when he
returns by the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Story goes on and
almost comes to a
conclusion in verse 11.
Others came to him.
Sir, sir, they said,
open the door.
The others, the others,
that's the foolish ones,
came to him and said,
sir, sir, open the door
for us.
And he replied,
I tell you the truth,
I don't know you.
And then Jesus says,
therefore keep watch
because you do not know
the day or the hour.
See, the rejection for
the unprepared is
dreadfully clear.
It's too late.
There is no reversal.
Rejection is final.
And I think at the very
heart of this story are
the words at the end of
the story which are,
I don't know you.
The wise ones are known
by the groom and the
foolish ones aren't.
I said this morning,
nobody invites guests
to a wedding whom
they don't know.
Well, one of our mums
contradicted me,
but there you go.
It's the gardener wedding
next week and they've got
250 people coming.
I don't think they know
them all.
But take the principle.
You don't get invited
if you're not known.
So being ready for Jesus'
coming does not mean
frantic panic,
really important.
It means knowing the
Saviour now.
It means being on about
his business.
I'm going to come to that
next week.
Chapter 24,
verse 44 says,
you must also be ready
because the Son of Man
will come at an hour
when you do not expect
him.
Who then is the faithful
and wise servant whom
the Master has put in
charge of the servants in
his household to give them
the food at the proper
time?
The Master has given
him a job to do.
Who's the faithful servant?
It will be good for that
servant whose Master
finds him doing what
he's supposed to be doing
when he returns.
So when Jesus returns,
people will see what they
are missing out on and
they will want it.
But it will be too late.
When Jesus returns,
there won't be anybody
having a peek at how good
it is and saying,
I don't want any of that.
We'll all want in.
And those who reject
Christ now face a future
of grieving what they
have missed out on.
But the call throughout
the Bible is to a life
of faith now.
Faith which has impact
on how we live now.
Faith which is driving us
to want to know Christ
now.
Faith which leads us to
hope in Christ now.
Faith which is hungry
for the righteousness
of Christ now.
Faith which leads us
to bow our knee to Jesus
and to give way to him
now.
Faith which puts all our
hope and trust in Jesus
now.
It's a verse in Acts,
isn't it?
Today is the day of
salvation.
Knowing the groom now
is what will keep us
safe then.
So, and that makes us
safe right now,
even tonight,
to pray,
come Lord Jesus
come.
And we can only pray
that safely now
because we know
that we will be safe
then.
Amen.
that you will take
who lives
with Christ.
You
father
and
how
you