Lamps Aflame (Matt 25:1-13)
As I look out on this congregation I see only lamps rather than people this morning. I am looking at us as God might look upon us in the Gospel parable. We are to be children of light, of which the Gospel is that light. We are to be as attendants of Christ Jesus professing not only to believe and look for but to love and long for the appearing of Christ, not only enlightened by it ourselves but must shine as lights.
I am looking this morning through the eyes of Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins. I am seeing two different characters, with proof and evidence of it. I see lamps with oil for that is what God has told me He has done. But do I see lamps with fire; that is the question today. Do I see extra virgin oil in reserve for the late coming Bridegroom. There is no doubt the Bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no doubt we live in a darkened world awaiting His return. We need to figure out exactly what we are waiting for in Jesus return.
When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming John the Baptist said, “You brood of vipers, who has warned you to escape from the wrath to come.” The Pharisees and Sadducees surly lived up to the title of children of snakes. The Pharisees and Sadducees opposed Jesus ministry at every turn. Often it is those who are regarded as fringe who are indeed touched with the gospel flame. Take the Olympics for example for without the flame there can be no competition. The passions of the Olympian athletes arrive with the fire of the movement. It is equally so that the empowered lamps light the way of our Lord’s return.
I tell you something; without doubt this parable is about entry to the kingdom of heaven. This is about religious puritans who thought they had the right to enter and all slept. But half of these pure at heart saints were shut out because they never knew Christ. Unless you are converted and become as little children you will by no means enter. (Matt 18:4) The parable points to the wrath to come, the exclusion of the five virgins is so poignant. To those who came late Jesus says “I do not know you. Watch therefore…”
It is therefore imperative that we have some spare oil for the lamps of the Gospel. The Pharisees and Sadducees coming were therefore as though lamps without spare oil. There was no room for such as these children of snakes in the kingdom of heaven. These were men shut out of what they believed they already had in Judaism. Sadly the religious leaders has led Israel into the long night of Holy Spirit emptiness.
It is therefore imperative that we have some spare oil for the lamps of the Gospel. The Pharisees and Sadducees coming were therefore as though lamps without spare oil. There was no room for such as these children of snakes in the kingdom of heaven. These were men shut out of what they believed they already had in Judaism. Sadly the religious leaders has led Israel into the long night of Holy Spirit emptiness.
Obviously anyone who opposes the light of the Gospel is just an empty religious vessel. For the antagonist to the Spirit of God there is no entry, no place prepared in heaven. To the Thessalonians Paul says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies.” There are some who are so doing, who scoff and ridicule the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says to the brood of vipers (Matt 12:32) “Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”
A tree is known by its fruit says the Lord and likewise a lamp is known by its light. The character of the lamp keeper is revealed by preparedness by anointing. To be well prepared is to be holding more than adequate relationship in the Holy Spirit. Jesus knows intimately those who are in relationship with him in the Holy Spirit. In the parish we are offering oil filling meetings but mostly the spirit is indifferent. But there are those who hunger and thirst for the presence of the Holy Spirit anointing. There are those who passionately love to be with their Savior when He comes. You see the lamps of the enthusiastic fire-bearers search for the Bridegroom.
I am looking at and speaking to you Lamps, the office of these virgins is to meet the bridegroom, this is as much their happiness as their duty. There are those who are wise and top up on the Holy Spirit and find the Bridegroom. There are those who are foolish who rely on their friends but find themselves out in the dark.
If you want to know for sure where you are look at you’re the condition of your footwear.. According to Ephesians 6 you ought to be shod in the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. If not the shoes of our Lord Jesus then you can be sure you walk not in the Way.
Comments
(John 5:17)
“I bless you my children! Today I wish to speak to you about God’s work in these times and about the general picture in which your life and your mission is inserted.
“Try to understand, above all, that you did not happen to be in the reality in which you are by accident, but you are here because of a precise divine project. Whatever you might think about yourselves or others might think about you, know that your life is precious and irreplaceable in the time and place in which you find yourselves to be, according to God’s projects. You have been preordained for this reality, and for this reason God gave you irreplaceable and original potentialities. No one in the universe is equal to you, because God’s creativity is unlimited and inexhaustable, and because each one of you is absolutely unique in his being and in his way of acting.
“Unfortunatly, many on Earth live below their potentiality, because they do not make of themselves a gift to Me. I am the only One to know pefectly the Father’s project for each one of you, because from Him I received the order to bring to completion His work in every person. I am acting in you by the power of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens you, cloaks you, constantly inspires you pointing out the avenue towards Me, so that I might reveal to you the Will of the Father for each one of you.
Without me you shall never truly be able to know yourselves, nor to be able to understand what is asked of you to do in this life.
“The Holy Spirit and I are constantely at work in order to realize the Father’s project in each one of you, but we can do this only with the help of your freedom, that is, only when you willingly and freely choose to love and serve God and you offer to Him your life. This is the indispensable condition so that your potentialities activate and are at work. In fact, by the moment you decide to live for God and to be totally abandoned to His will, within you the action of the Holy Trinity starts working, and little by little, transforms your life and your thoughts. Thus, you are beginning to become conscious of who you are in God and to make a mark on reality, a creative mark, because it is divine creativity working in you. I wish you to be conscious about what I am saying to you, because the knowledge that God is active in you, independently from your human limitations and frailties, is determinant for your mission in the time in which you live.
“Yours is a grand time and a difficult time for the entire universe. Grandiose for the power of the events that the hand of God is preparing, and difficult because it is a time of battle with the powers of evil, an always more open battle.
All this does not refer to the planet earth alone, but to the entire creation and all the people who inhabit many other planets. I have already told you that they are children of God as you are, and that I gave My life for them as well. They are your brothers in whom the project of My Father has to be perfectly accomplished, just as it is in yours.
“What is the project of the Father? To bring back the entire creation to the state of integrity and perfection it had before original sin; to bring back every person to the dignity and glory of a child of God. All men and every creature that exists in the universe must be made free from corruption and death which infiltrated themselves in the work of God because of the sin of your forefathers. Humanity must return to a correct relationship with God, by recognizing His authority and by submitting to His guide. How is the Father going to realize this project? By recapitulating all creation in Me, since He gave Me all power in the whole universe.
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