Be Sober

Wednesday night a small group of us gathered together for our weekly Bible Study, and during our meeting we were discussing what Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica.  In the fifth chapter of his first letter, Paul wrote:
Dear brothers, you are not in the dark about these things, and you won’t be surprised as by a thief when that day of the Lord comes. For you are all children of the light and of the day, and do not belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Watch for his return and stay sober. Night is the time for sleep and the time when people get drunk. But let us who live in the light keep sober, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the happy hope of salvation.
For God has not chosen to pour out his anger upon us but to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ; he died for us so that we can live with him forever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return. So encourage each other to build each other up, just as you are already doing.
It might help to know that prior to these verses, Paul was discussing the return of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, you don’t need anyone to write to you about times and dates. You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, “Everything is safe and sound!” destruction will suddenly strike them. It will be as sudden as labor pains come to a pregnant woman. They won’t be able to escape.
So after saying that the Lord will come at any moment, “like a thief in the night,” he tells the Thessalonians that they had to be “on [their] guard,” not to “fall asleep,” and to stay “sober.”
But why would he say those kinds of things? Well, I think it is obvious. Because he is going to return, and at any, we must be prepared for His return. And I am immediately reminded of a parable Jesus told, I know you have heard, about some chicks who were waiting for a Bridegroom to arrive:
“When the end comes, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids. They took their oil lamps and went to meet the groom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  The foolish bridesmaids took their lamps, but they didn’t take any extra oil.  The wise bridesmaids, however, took along extra oil for their lamps. Since the groom was late, all the bridesmaids became drowsy and fell asleep.
There is more here than meets our “Westerner’s Eyes.” Here in the west our eyes are always on the Bride. We have high-quality magazines that advertise beautiful wedding gowns, with wonderful models posing as they adore their wedding rings. Everything revolves around the Bride. However, in the East, the spotlight is on the Groom (primarily because he is the one paying for it all). So, in Jesus’ parable, the focus was turned to the arrival of the groom.
Now to help you understand this, we have to understand that during this period, the custom was to have weddings held at night, and, as far as I know, in the East, it is still the custom (but since I don’t live there, don’t hold me to it). These wedding parties could last an entire week and at any time during that week the bridal party was expected to appear.
The bridegroom would come to get his bride and they would walk together to the site of the wedding, taking the longest possible route through the town, I imagine with the cans tied to the tails of their donkeys.
Now there were all kinds of people waiting at different corners to join the party as they went toward the wedding. This is the picture our Lord was attempting to draw here.
So, in Jesus’ parable, there were ten girls waiting to join the wedding party. They were expecting the bridegroom (some accounts read, “and the bride“) to arrive so they could all go and celebrate.
Interestingly, right before this parable, Jesus used another parable about some servants who were waiting for the owner to return. And obviously, that story was intended to describe us. Our Lord knew he would soon go away, and He knew there would be a period of time before His return. So through each of these parables (and others that I did not mention) He was telling us to, “Stay awake, because you don’t know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13).
There is the catch. It is so easy for us to lose our perspective on life. But the reason we are here is to learn how to live in our Lord’s Kingdom and under His Authority and we learn  this through the word of God — not simply understanding it but actually working it into life. Unless we learn to feed on the Word we will never learn to live the life He has called us to. That is what he meant when He told the devil: “A person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that God speaks” (Matthew 4:4).
Now in that parable we started out with, did you notice that there was a problem among those ten chicks? There were two groups: five wise, and five foolish. No, not five brunettes and five blonds, they were wise and foolish. Now foolish doesn’t mean they were stupid. It meant they lack spiritual insight and the ability to reason.
You there are some differences between them. Yes, all of them had lamps, and they all had oil when they started, and all of them were expecting the bridegroom’s to arrive (sooner or later); there was a sense of expectation in each of their hearts. And, when the Bridegroom was delayed, all of them fell asleep.
That it is interesting to notice that in each of the parables Jesus told, He clearly indicated that his second coming was going to some time to come. So, that is obviously something we need to understand. Jesus never taught that He would return immediately. In fact, He clearly said that even He didn’t know when it would be. He merely said that we would know the season of His return
So, while they were waiting for the bridegroom, each of the ten babes fell asleep. Now before you start thinking that they should never have fallen asleep, there is nothing in this story that indicates that they were wrong for falling asleep. It was a perfectly natural thing for them to do. I mean, come on, it was night, and since it was a festive time and they could not do any work, so there was no reason why they shouldn’t sleep. They were simply waiting for the bridegroom to appear, and, when he was delayed, for whatever reason, it was only natural for them to catch a few winks while they waited. Don’t read into these parables things that are not implied.
Maybe our Lord mentioned that they were asleep because when he said “watch” he clearly meant that we are not to be constantly thinking about his return. During our Bible study last Wednesday someone, understandably, stated that they felt a lot of condemnation because there was no way to continually think about “acting” like a Christian. And that is the point. In my mind, Jesus is underscoring the fact that watching involves living and doing perfectly normal things while we are waiting. I eat every day; I play with our grand kids whenever I can; go to work and drive my car. All of these need to be done. Babies have to be changed. Buses have operate. Banks have to be function. Schools must be operated, and Hospitals have to be open, There are all types of activities that still must go on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Each of us are to be involved in the natural normal affairs of life, and it does not mean that we have stopped waiting for the Lord’s return; it is all part of the process, a perfectly normal part. Go ahead and call me a heretic, but prove that I am wrong.
But now, according to the story, someone cried, “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” That immediately plunges us into the rest of the story:
Then all the bridesmaids woke up and got their lamps ready. The foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out. But the wise bridesmaids replied, ‘We can’t do that. There won’t be enough for both of us. Go! Find someone to sell you some oil.’
“While they were buying oil, the groom arrived. The bridesmaids who were ready went with him into the wedding hall, and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids arrived and said, ‘Sir, sir, open the door for us!’ But he answered them, ‘I don’t even know who you are!’
“So stay awake, because you don’t know the day or the hour.”
Oh! So the difference between the wise and the foolish is that the wise had extra oil. When they began, all of them had oil, but the wise took along an extra supply of oil. That is what made it possible for them to endure the delay of the bridegroom.
That seems quite significant, doesn’t it? The whole parable hangs on that one thing: those who were wise, had an extra supply of oi! We can clearly see two points in this parable: One is that without a light these maidens could not get into the marriage feast. The lamp — or light — is used throughout Scripture as a symbol of knowledge and understanding.  All ten maidens had some light, some knowledge, some understanding, but five had a deeper, hidden, resource of light.
If you are wiling to consider this, you can see how this fits in our lives. Every one of us has a certain degree of light about our Lord’s return. In that respect, all of us have some light regarding the darkness of our modern age. We also know more than those who do not understand this truth. We know it is going to end according to specific schedule. Symbolically, each of these maidens had at least this much knowledge. The light was supplied by the oil, and it was absolutely essential that they had enough oil, or their light was going to go out, right?
And, it is also clear that they could not borrow a supply of oil from someone else. When the bridegroom came and their lights began to flicker from a lack of oil, the foolish wanted to borrow some. But the wise said, “We cannot do that, or we won’t have enough for ourselves. You’ll have to go yourself and get more.” But it was too late. By the time the foolish returned, the door was shut, and they were probably shocked to hear it, the Lord said, “I never knew you,” and, of course, weddings are no place for strangers.
Some of you feel the Lord is unfair here. He should have let these maidens in. After all, they were earnestly and sincerely waiting for His return, and the fact that they did not have enough oil was hardly their fault because they no idea that he was going take so long. So, He should have let them in.
But we have to be careful  when we read these parables. We cannot read them from our limited point of view. When He shut out the five foolish maidens, He clearly said that they were strangers to him. They were never a part of the True family, waiting for the bridegroom. It all centers on this matter of the oil.
Throughout the Scriptures, oil is used as a type or picture of the Holy Spirit. Some of you remember that in the book of Zechariah the prophet was given a vision of two olive trees standing, one on each side of a lamp stand, and the oil from the olive trees dripped into a bowl on top of the lamp stand. It was the oil, constantly flowing down, which caused the lamps in the lamp stand to burn. Zechariah was told that the oil symbolized the Spirit of God. Then we have that great quotation which is frequently heard, although many of us have no idea where it is from. Zechariah is told, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts,” (Zechariah 4:6). The oil is a picture of the power of the Holy Spirit which keeps the light of knowledge and truth burning.
This is also what we have in this parable. We can take this parable as a picture of those who are waiting for his appearance and who certainly have some understanding of the fact that he is coming again. Some of us are wise and have an extra supply of oil, a supply that is able to meet the test of whatever circumstance comes. But, sadly, there are also some, who are foolish, who hang in there sometimes; they may read their Bibles sometimes, but really have no passion or interest in the things of God. They may possess some knowledge our Lord’s return, but they have no interest in pursuing it much. Their belief is weak and poor and really don’t take it seriously. Quite simply, they lack an adequate supply of oil! They have never discovered the full ministry of the Spirit.
There is, you know, a ministry of the Holy Spirit to the minds and hearts of even those who are not yet born again. He enlightens them to a degree, He puts a desire, an interest in their hearts, so they read the Bible some and understand such truth as the Lord’s return, but they have never yet come to the place where the truth has gripped them. They have understood it, but it has not yet gripped and held them. They have not yet come into a personal knowledge of the One whom the truth is to reveal, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the whole purpose of Bible study. It is not so you can learn what God is going to do with the world, or to understand how you fit into it all; it is so you can understand and know personally, in a day-by-day living relationship, the Lord Jesus Christ who has come to live within you. That is the basis for true life. That, of course, is the extra flask of oil hidden away inside. Those who have it don’t look any different than anyone else. But when the hour of testing comes, when the pressures come, their light never goes out. They hold to the truth and maintain it.
That is what this parable is telling us. When the “affairs of life” begin to press on us, does our zeal as Christians fade and the excitement of knowing God dim? That is when the test comes. Our knowledge of Christ must go deeper than the head; it must reach the heart. The Truth of God’s Word must change who we are and how we behave. That is what our Lord is bringing out.
You can learn how to act like a Christian. You can learn what Christian truth is, learn all of the doctrines of Christianity, learn the truth it teaches. You can fill your head with this kind of thing and display it on Sundays, but it will not be enough during the week, at work or at home. These are the foolish. They have no extra oil. They have truth for the surface of life, but it doesn’t go any deeper. You will know when the crises come! You may know the doctrine of the Scripture, but never experience the power of it. It is in your head but it has never reached your heart. You say that you believe in Jesus as Savior, but you have never known him as your Living Lord! That is what makes the difference. That is what our Lord is saying. Without that you cannot properly watch for his appearing.
As the days become darker, as error becomes more prevalent and begins to take over the churches, it will become harder and harder to believe the Truth. The only way you will remain faithful is if the Truth has actually gripped you, and you are held by the Son of God himself! The wise have oil for the crisis hour. When the hard tests come and the pressures are on, their light will not flicker! They will not give up — or give in! They will not forsake the Truth, and will cling to it even more closely. When the final summons comes they will be prepared to enter in. That is clearly, unmistakably, the picture our Lord is drawing!
I believe we are living in this kind of an hour. The Scriptures are being re-written to accommodate the lifestyle of sin; many are being blinded by the wisdom and affections of the world. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in being infiltrated with heresy and perversion.  But Jesus says the wise are those who remain steadfast on the Truth during these times of pressure. When darkness settles on the earth their lights do not go out. Why? Because they are fed by a reserve supply of the Holy Spirit who dwells within them, to keep them in the time of pressure.
Are you ready for that? That is what this parable is all about. If you do not have that quality of relationship of Jesus Christ, you will not stand the test. You must be gripped by a Lord who will compel you, control you, and run your life. That will be the final test for the wise and the foolish!
Nickolas
(I send out messages like this each morning in emails, and if you are interested in receiving them, send me your email address and I will add you to the list: Mail List. However, you can also find these messages at:Thought For The Day)
Nickolas
(I send out messages like this each morning in emails, and if you are interested in receiving them, send me your email address and I will add you to the list: Mail List)
With these Morning Messages, I take you on guided tours to, as Bunyan described, the Celestial City. At times we linger at corners familiar and unseen. And explore the depths of our faith along the way.
The trail is long, but there’s no hurry. Though we do need to stock up on supplies for the way, and that’s where I need your help. If you enjoy these messages, please consider becoming a contributing member of this tour group. It will be very much appreciated.
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