Watching for the Son

February 26, 1989

Matthew 25:1-13

During this Lenten Season we are looking forward to revival, and we are looking forward to Good Friday and Easter; Lent is a "forward looking" sort of time.

But wouldn't it be a sad irony if in all our anticipation, we were surprised by the really Big Event as it comes in all its inconceivable power and glory and trauma? [How much, really, do we think about "Thy kingdom come!"?]

Jesus spoke of being ready for His Second Coming. True, He used some cultural settings that we may not fully understand. [ I have heard a great deal about mid-eastern weddings, ancient and modern, and I am not convinced about all the ramifications and details of what goes on, and how that applies to us today.] But I am convinced that the heart of what Jesus said strikes to the heart of your spiritual need and mine. It is impossible to miss.

We must not only be in the company that is watching for the Bridegroom, we must not only be dressed and equipped like the company waiting for the bridegroom, we must have "oil in our lamps," whatever that means! And, too, we cannot GET READY once He comes, we have to BE READY!

The sufficient supply of OIL in the lamps of the wise virgins is generally accepted to be the Reality of the Presence of God the Holy Spirit. It is God's Presence, by the abiding Holy Spirit in the believer that gives light and life to the witness. [Oil = The Holy Spirit in present Reality!]

And so the question is:"How may we be sure to have oil when Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom, breaks in on the scene?"

[There are plenty of people willing to "help" you and me at this point. I get confused and I get discouraged and I get "guilty feelings" when I listen to people telling me what I need to do in order to have all God wants me to have. One says: "Experience is everything!" Another says: "The way we worship or pray is everything!" Another says: "Correct agreement with correct interpretation is everything!"]

What does the Bible say? What does the Holy Spirit Himself say to me? To You? Are we listening?

All I know is I want to have OIL in my lamp! I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit!!!

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT?

  1. We RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT in the miracle of the New Birth. In John chapter three, as Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, he says again and again that we must be born of the Spirit: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit: ye must be born again."

    And in Romans 8:9 Paul says, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His."

    So we receive the OIL of the Spirit, initially, in the miracle of new birth.

  2. We ARE TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT in cleansing, empowering fullness, in a crisis of deliberate surrender, and in an on-going, day-by-day, even moment-by-moment carrying through of that surrender.

    In Acts 2 we read of the initial Pentecost outpouring (Acts 2:4) and the disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But other times we read that these same disciples were filled (Acts 4:31) "When they had prayed the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

    AND WE ARE TO BE BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT IN AN ON-GOING BASIS It is the command of God (Ephesians 5:18): "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be (being) filled with the Holy Spirit!"

    And this is a dynamic thing, this 'having sufficient oil.' It is not enough to say: "I was soundly saved! I know I was sanctified! I am (smugly) all set for the coming of the Lord!" For the Holy Spirit is a Person, a living Presence.

  3. We are to SET THE SPIRIT FREE WITHIN US, AND NOT TO QUENCH HIM.

    It is possible to "quench" the Spirit! Look at the context of that phrase, in I Thessalonians:

    [I Thessalonians 5:15-23 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.]

    Look at the imperatives Paul gives us to seek to be God's channels, instead of seeking to use God for our enrichment.

  4. We are to PLEASE THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND NOT TO GRIEVE HIM. The Scripture also says it is possible to GRIEVE God's Spirit. Look at the context of that phrase in Ephesians 4:30 [READ IT:]

    In this Golden Chapter, being loving and kind and gracious is contrasted with grieving the Spirit!

  5. The HOLY SPIRIT IS MADE EVIDENT BY HIS FRUIT Galatians 5:22-23, and not by some "nominal" experience in the sometime past. The question is not: Am I orthodox? I should hope so! Not even 'Am I a tithing Nazarene? Wonderful if you are! But: AM I JUST NOW POSSESSED/FILLED/OWNED/USED OF/BY THE HOLY SPIRIT??

Conclusion:

The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of compulsion, of whim, of secretive directives. But He is found of those who SEEK Him; He is given to those who ASK for Him; He is God's Spirit of LOVE; He is Christ's Spirit of GRACE.

Are YOU "born of the Spirit?" Have you opened your life to the Spirit of Jesus, and have you confessed Him as Lord, and have you been baptized?

Have YOU set Him free in YOUR life?

Have YOU received Him in all His fullness?

Thomas Kelly, not a "holiness preacher," but a Quaker, put it this way:

"Meister Eckhart wrote:"There are plenty to follow our Lord half-way, but not the other half. They will give up possessions, friends and honors, but it touches them too closely to disown themselves." It is just this astonishing life which is willing to follow Him the other half, sincerely to disown itself, this life which intends complete obedience, without any reservations, that I would propose to you in all humility, in all boldness, in all seriousness. I mean this literally, utterly, completely, and I mean it for you and for me- commit your lives in unreserved obedience to Him.

If you don't understand the revolutionary explosiveness of this proposal you don't understand what I mean. Only now and then comes a man or a woman who, like John Woolman or Francis of Assisi, is willing to be utterly obedient, to go the other half, to follow God's faintest whisper. But when such a commitment comes in a human life, God breaks through, miracles are wrought, world-renewing divine forces are released, history changes. There is nothing more important now than to have the human race endowed with just such committed lives. . .

"We have plenty of Quakers to follow God the first half of the way. Many of us have become as mildly and as conventionally religious as were the church folk . . . against whose... mediocrity and passionlessness George Fox and his followers flung themselves with all the passion ... of a new discovery.. Religion as a dull habit is not that for which Christ lived and died." -A Testament of Devotion (52,53)

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN. That is His promise. More and more this world is groaning, waiting for its true Master to come and set things right. I want to be filled with His Spirit when He comes!

I don't know Christ's agenda. I do know that He said, Himself: "Watch! (verse 13 & Mark 13:33) You do not know when I am coming!" We can BE ready when Jesus returns!

#193 One Day