11/5 Sermon - Keep Watch With Joy

Keep Watch With Joy

Matthew 25:1-13

Doesn’t this story seem a little cruel or odd? Couldn’t the wise virgins have shared with the foolish ones? Couldn’t the doorkeeper have forgiven the foolish virgins and let them in? Couldn’t the bride have confirmed who her friends were? Why did the bridegroom take so long to come? It wasn’t really the five foolish ones’ fault, right?

- God’s Word is all about forgiveness, grace, and love. But that is not what this parable is about. This parable has one laser-focused point: Keep watch. We don’t know the day or hour. 

Five wise and five foolish virgins were waiting for the wedding party. The five wise ones brought extra oil; the five foolish ones did not. The groom took forever to come, it was dark, so they both fell asleep. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the groom arrives and they all wake up! The wise ones lit their lamps and followed the groom into the wedding party. The foolish had to go buy oil, missed the groom, and were locked out of the wedding party.

- Here’s a modern retelling: Ten bridesmaids need to buy dresses. Five wise ones buy them months in advance, so they have time to tailor them. The five foolish ones say, day after day, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Suddenly, the day of the wedding comes, and they don’t have their dresses ready. They need to drive hours away to buy the dresses, drives hours more to find an available tailor for alterations, and drive still more hours to make it back for the wedding. They arrive, but the wedding is already over.

- The message couldn’t be clearer: Keep watch. Be prepared for Jesus to come back.

- Maybe you’re thinking what I thought: The five wise ones didn’t keep watch! They fell asleep! The Greek word for “keep watch” here is a little deeper than what we might think. It doesn’t just mean “keep your eyes open.” It means, “Be ready, be prepared.” Keep watch, be ready, be prepared, for the bridegroom.

It’s tough, isn’t it? I read messages like this in God’s Word, and I have a couple questions:

- “Where is he?” Jesus seems like he’s taking a long time to return, doesn’t he? It’s been 2000+ years since he came the first time. Is he even coming? Maybe he never came in the first place? We doubt Jesus’ promises.

- “What’s the point?” If he takes so long to return, if he may not be coming back, what’s the point? Why read God’s Word, why come to church, why pray, why give money, why should I live for Christ? It seems pointless. So, we are lazy in our Christian living.

- If our reason is just “it’s what my parents did,” or church becomes a “cultural” thing, or some other shallow reason, we quickly lose our faith. That’s what happened, by and large, in America. Church can quickly become an outward thing we do, and not a love of our heart.

We get a little sleepy, don’t we?  Tired. We can’t keep our eyes open. We sleepwalk in our life of faith.

- This is a very real threat to every single Christian! Big problems can attack us. People can lose their faith all at once. But usually we just slowly fall asleep, exhausted by our daily problems and schedules.

- “Keep watch,” Jesus says to us in this parable. “Always be prepared for me to return.” Spiritual sleep or drowsiness is an ever-present threat.

Have you ever been suddenly woken up? A spouse, mom or dad, someone else turns the bedroom light on all of a sudden? You oversleep and someone shakes you awake? We all have! You’re groggy, disoriented, confused. All you can think is, “Where am I?:

- That is what Jesus wants to do to you today. “Wake up! Keep watch!”

- The voice cries out to the ten bridesmaids, “The bridegroom is here! Come out to meet him! Wake up!” The sleepy bridesmaids suddenly wake up, disoriented, confused. The groom has arrived. Good news or bad news? Depends, right?

- For the five foolish, it was bad news. They did not keep watch, they were not prepared. For the five wise, it was great news! They kept watch, they were prepared for the bridegroom.

- Is Jesus’ return good or bad news? For some, it is bad news. For us, it’s great news.

- We are prepared. We are ready. How? Jesus has taken away our sins, we stand by God’s grace, the Spirit has given us new birth, we are prepared and ready to meet Jesus. We keep watch with joy, for the return of Jesus is the best news possible.  He will return and take us to the wedding feast. So, we keep watch with joy.

- Let’s explore our other two readings and see what they tell us about this good news.

Isaiah 52. “Awake, awake, Zion.” When a child wakes up on Christmas morning, or on his birthday, joy fills his heart. Family, food, presents. We have that same joy every day. We wake up ready and prepared every day with the forgiveness of Jesus and the grace of God. We keep watch with joy.

- “Cloth yourself with strength, put on your garments of splendor.” Jesus lived a perfect life in our place. He was righteous and perfect. We are given the robes of Jesus’ righteousness. We are counted as holy in God’s eyes because Jesus’ perfect life covers our own life. We cloth ourselves with Jesus’ holiness. We keep watch with joy, as holy and perfect in God’s eyes.

- “Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion.” Jesus broke the chains of death that bound our necks. He shattered the cold grip the grave had on us. Through faith in Jesus, we will not die but live forever in heaven. We keep watch with joy.

- “You were sold for nothing, and for nothing you will be redeemed.” Jesus bought us back from sin with the price of his life. He redeemed us from Satan with his own blood. We no longer belong to sin, but we belong to the living God. We keep watch with joy.

1 Thessalonians 5. A thief or robber will steal all your jewels, your TV, and your valuable items. A thief WON’T call you ahead of time, send you a google invite, and remind you of his break-in time. He comes when you least expect it. Same is true of Jesus’ return. So keep watch! But as Paul explains, we can keep watch for Jesus with joy.

- “You are all children of the light and day. We do not belong to the night or darkness.” You have been baptized. You have been washed with the water and the Word in baptism. Do you know what that means? God has adopted you into his family. You have been joined with Jesus. When Jesus returns, you will inherit eternal life, so keep watch with joy.

- “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but receive salvation.” God has picked you and chosen you to be his own daughter or son, to receive salvation. God has predestinated you before time to be his own child. Keep watch for Jesus with joy.”

How can I keep watch? What does it mean to be prepared, like the five wise bridesmaids? It’s easy.

1. How can I keep watch? Remember what I said before? Keep watch also means ‘be prepared.” That only happens in Jesus.  

- Stand on Jesus your cornerstone, look to him as your only hope, trust in him for forgiveness, life and salvation. Then, when he returns, he will lead us to the eternal wedding feast in heaven.

2. How can I keep watch? Be church-y. No, I don’t mean in a self-righteous, pharisaical sort of way. Be “church-y” with humility, put God first. It’s good to come to church regularly and often. It’s good to read your Bible every morning. It’s good to pray to God every day. It’s good to give a % of your money to church. But not if we keep Jesus as our focus: our salvation and hope our foundation. We keep watch for Jesus by being in his Word and by praying to him.

3. How can I keep watch? Encourages each other. We cannot believe for someone else. We cannot force our friends and families to believe. Our faith won’t save someone else, that’s not how it works. But we can encourage each other to keep watch for Jesus. We can invite our friends and family back to church. We can offer to help and befriend other people.

4. How can I keep watch? Be confident in the promises of God in Jesus. The uncertain, the unknown scares us. But our future is not unknown. We are “ready”, we are “prepared,” because we have been washed with Jesus’ blood.

We can get sleepy. Our eyes grow tired. We wonder to ourselves, “What’s the point?” Will Jesus ever return?

- He will. Suddenly, with a loud shout, with trumpets blowing, Jesus will return and lead those who are ready into the eternal feast.

- You are ready. You are prepared. You are joined with Jesus through your baptism. Your sins are forgiven. God has adopted you into his family. You are a forgiven child of God. You are ready and prepared to follow Jesus into heaven. 

- Keep watch. Come to church. Read your Bibles. Pray. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus who will take us to heaven. Keep watch with joy.