This Week's Focus Passage

This Week’s Focus Passage: Matthew 25:10 ‘And the door was shut.’

 This Week’s Focus Passage: Matthew 25:10

‘And the door was shut.’

    This Matthean passage contained in his twenty-fifth chapter, and the first thirteen verses, is considered, by all accounts, as a parable set forth by Jesus Christ. W. E. Vine, in his Comprehensive Dictionary of the Original Greek Words with their Precise Meanings for English Readers, also known as, “Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, informs us that, of, PARABOLE, “it signifies a placing of one thing beside another with a view to comparison. In the N. T. it is found outside the Gospels, only in Hebrews 9:9 and 11:19. It is generally used of a somewhat lengthy utterance or narrative drawn from nature or human circumstances, the object of which is to set forth a spiritual lesson.

      This discourse may be reckoned to have begun when His disciples asked their Master, in 24:1-2, as He was teaching them regarding the last days, in saying:

And Jesus went out from the temple and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. But he answered and said unto them, see ye not all these things? verily, I say unto you There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. The response of His disciples to these words, was;

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?—24:3.

From this point on through chapter 24, Jesus is responding about the end of the world. we believe that His response is continued into verse 32, where He uses the term, parable, speaking of the fig tree; and through to the first verse of chapter 25, where He continues in speaking of the end of the world, as He says Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened [placing one thing beside another] unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Charles Spurgeon is quite helpful, in his commentary, as he has written of this beginning of the 25th chapter:

“Our Lord was still seated, with His disciples, upon the Mount of Olives (see chapter 24:3). The instructive parable that follows was spoken by Him in continuation of the discourse we have been considering. It is evidently intended to set forth, under a familiar figure, the need of preparation for the King’s glorious appearing when He comes to claim His bride. To those of us who will not be alive at Christ’s Second Advent, the midnight cry, ‘Go ye out to meet him,’ will sound forth at the hour of death.”—The Gospel of Matthew, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

This instructive parable, of which we just read Spurgeon’s comments, has been spoken of, more familiarly, as The Parable of the Ten Virgins, or, The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, and is, indeed, as Spurgeon noted, a continuation of the ‘Olivet Discourse.’ 

    Its teaching is, of course, that we must be ready and watching for our Lord’s return. Jesus has informed His hearers, primarily His disciples who had gathered around Him, as we read in the first verses of chapter 24:1-2, (cited above), His disciples came to Him, verse 3. And He goes on in the chapter, speaking to them of ‘wars and rumors of wars,’ and, ‘then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and kill you.’ How rapidly these persecutions about which He warned His disciples began, we remember the account of the ‘proto-martyr, Stephen, in Acts 7; how that he proclaimed the Lord to his audience of those about to kill him, and then suffered execution by stoning. Recall how soon it was that James, the brother of John; the two that made up the ‘sons of Boanerges; the sons of Thunder, and yet James was destined to death by the sword of Herod. These things would certainly be; yea, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished. He goes on to remind them, in verses 45-51, that there will be a division made between those that are faithful, saying, Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing [namely, His will]. These are compared to ‘evil servants,’ whom He shall cut asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. The great division shall then be made between the righteous and the unrighteous; between believers and unbelievers. We are brought to remember our Savior’s words recorded by John, in his gospel account, and in the fifth chapter, where He speaks of the ‘end times,’ as He refers to those, in verse 25, both a lovely verse as well as a horrific verse, lovely or horrific, depending upon whether one has heard the word of the Christ, and has believed, one has not believed in the Son. Verily, verily, [Jesus said], I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. He further explicates, in verse 29, They that hath done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgement. Jesus had taught this beforehand, in the parable that we are looking at. There are five wise virgins, and there are five foolish virgins. The five that are wise, had oil for their lamps; the five that were foolish had none; they were not prepared.     At the end of the days, when Jesus returns at His Second Coming, there will be a pronounced distinction between those who are ready to meet Him; those ‘brides-maids’ having oil, and those who are not ready to meet the Bridegroom, those having no oil for their lamps; we may well say, those who have not light. The Bridegroom will take the five wise virgins to His marriage feast; the marriage supper of the Lamb, to be forever with Him in heaven. These were taken into the feast by the Bridegroom, and then the door was shut. Those who have not seen to it that they have oil in their lamps, are therefore in darkness yet, and when they would afterwards seek to obtain entry at the door, as we read, in verses 11-13, Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Jesus then concludes His parabolic lesson with this lesson for each and every one of us, when He has said, Watch therefore, for ye know not the day ore the hour. There will be a day, and there will be an hour. Do we have oil in our lamps?

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church          

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