1996 SINGLE SERMONS
JUDGEMENT DAY
DR. JIM DIXON
AUGUST 18, 1996
MATTHEW 25:1-13
One month ago, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 exploded in midair, 11 minutes after leaving Kennedy International Airport. Small pieces and fragments of the 747 fell from the sky and fell to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Two hundred and thirty people died, their lives snuffed out almost instantaneously. The FBI wants to know what happened. Was it a bomb? Was it a ground-to-air missile? Was it mechanical failure? Most people suspect a bomb, but the FBI either doesn’t know or isn’t saying.
Psychologists tell us that few things capture the attention of people like fatal disasters. From the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, to the Oklahoma City bombing, to the TWA Flight 800 explosion, few things capture people’s attention like fatal disasters. Psychologists tell us that these fatal disasters remind us of our own mortality—that life is sometimes short, and our human bodies are fragile and frail. It’s events like these that force people all over the world to contemplate their own mortality and to think about the subject of death.
For many people in this world, death is a mystery. Is death the cessation of life, or is there something after death? If there is something after death, what is it? Well, the Bible tells us that death is followed by judgement. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto people once to die, and after that, the judgement.” This is true of all people. Even Christians will appear before the Bema Seat, the judgement seat of Christ. No one escapes judgement. Even that final generation that will escape death will not escape judgement. That last generation at the consummation, the generation that will see the second coming of Jesus Christ, still will be judged.
This morning, God wants us to be ready. He wants us to be ready for death. He wants us to be ready for the second coming of Christ. He wants us to be ready for judgement. Our Lord Jesus Christ once preached a sermon on the subject of judgement. It’s called the Olivet Discourse because Christ preached this sermon on the Mount of Olives. In this sermon in Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus gave three teachings, and these three teachings on judgement are our three teachings this morning.
The first teaching is this: if you would be ready for judgement, you must have oil in your lamp. This is the Parable of the Ten Virgins (or the Ten Maidens). Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the Bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the coming of the Bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a great cry, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him!’ All of the maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The wise responded, ‘There may not be enough for you and for us. Go rather to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ But as they went to buy, the Bridegroom came and those who were ready went with Him into the marriage feast and the doors were shut. Afterward, the foolish maidens came saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us,’ and He said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Christ wants us to understand that we don’t know the day or the hour of His coming. We don’t know the day or the hour of our death, but we’re supposed to be ready. We’re supposed to be ready. Now, this is a parable, not an allegory. But there are allegorical components in every parable. All Bible scholars are in agreement that in this Parable of the Ten Virgins the Bridegroom is Christ. It’s very obvious just from the context. The Bridegroom is Christ, and so often in the Bible Christ is called the Bridegroom. All Bible scholars and theologians are also in agreement with this: the Ten Virgins represent the visible church of Christ around the world waiting for His coming. All Bible scholars are in agreement with this: the marriage feast represents Heaven itself.
Now, the scary thing about the Parable of the Ten Virgins is that not all of the church in waiting is going to be saved. Do you notice that? All ten of the virgins have lamps. They’re all torchbearers. They all have lamps. They’re all waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom. They’re all waiting for the coming of Christ, but they’re not going to all be saved. That’s kind of scary, isn’t it? Not everyone in the world who claims to be a Christian will be saved. Perhaps not everyone in this room who claims to be a Christian will be saved. You see, it’s just like the Parable of the Dragnet in Matthew, chapter 13, where Jesus said that “the gospel of the kingdom is like a great net cast into the sea which gathers fish of every kind. But at the end of the day the fish need to be sorted and some kept and some thrown away.” That is a scary teaching. So who is kept? Who is saved? Well, in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, those who are saved are those who have oil in their lamps. God would ask you this morning, “Do you have oil in your lamp?”
At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church said that the oil in the lamp represented faithfulness and good works. Martin Luther and the Reformers said, “No, the oil in the lamp represents true faith.” But the argument is really moot because, if you have true faith, you’re going to have faithfulness. And so, God would ask you this morning, “Do you have true faith and are you faithful? Do you have oil in your lamp?’ God would remind us that in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, oil is oftentimes a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Oil in your lamp in a sense means that you have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. You’re never going to be ready for the final judgement, never going to be ready for death, unless you have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
How can we know we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit? The Bible tells us we must repent of sin and believe in Christ, receiving Him as Lord and Savior. It’s a pretty clear message in the Bible. Repent of sin and believe in Christ, receiving Him as Lord and Savior, and you will receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The issue that confronts us this morning as we approach death (or the second coming of Christ, but surely judgement) is, “Do we really believe in Christ as Lord and Savior and have we really repented of sin?”
You know, I once attended a funeral. I was not conducting the funeral, but I attended a funeral in Aurora years ago. And the person who died requested that Frank Sinatra’s song “I Did it My Way” be sung (the song that was in our little drama this morning). What a tragic thing. You see, when you get to the end of your life you could say no more tragic thing than “I did it my way.” If you do it your way, you’ll have no oil in your lamp and you won’t be ready for death or for His coming or for judgement. If you feel like God cramps your style—if you’re not willing to embrace His style but you just feel like God wants to cramp your style—you can’t have oil in your lamp. To have the Holy Spirit within you, you must embrace His reign. God knows your heart this morning and whether you long to live for Him day by day.
Now, there’s a second teaching in the Olivet Discourse, and it concerns faithful stewardship. If we would be ready for death—if we would be ready for His coming and if we would be ready for judgement day—then we must be faithful stewards. And in this context, Christ tells the parable of the talents.
A week and a half ago, NASA made a startling announcement that life once existed on the planet Mars. This announcement shook the world and was carried in headlines and newspapers all over the world. According to the scientists at NASA, fifteen billion years ago an asteroid collided with the planet Mars, sending fragments of Mars out into space as meteorites. Eleven thousand years before Christ, one of these little meteorites fell to Earth. It was just the size of a potato.
Then, in the year 1984, a woman from Colorado on an expedition found that potato-sized meteorite on an ice field in Antarctica. These last two years, scientists at NASA have examined this meteorite (allegedly from Mars) and they found organic compounds that would indicate that perhaps there was once life on Mars. They found fossil evidence that would indicate that perhaps there was once primitive biological life on Mars.
This announcement shook the world. Of course, scientists are in debate and a lot of theologians are in debate too. There’s really nothing in the Bible to preclude the possibility of life on other planets. There’s nothing in God’s Word that would deny the possibility that there’s life on other planets, even the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. All the Bible tells us is that God is the source of life and God has created the cosmos. He has created the universe. We know biblically that God ultimately has a cosmic plan. The truth is that we don’t know whether there’s life in the universe and we don’t know whether there’s intelligent life in the universe, but the London Gambling Syndicates have lowered the odds that scientists will find intelligent life in the universe in the calendar year 1997. The odds were 500 to 1 and now they’ve lowered the odds to 25 to 1. The odds are 25 to 1 that scientists will, in the calendar year 1997, find intelligent life somewhere in the universe (strangely enough, in Las Vegas those are exactly the same odds that have been established on the Denver Broncos winning the Super Bowl).
You’d be stupid to gamble on the Broncos winning the Super Bowl. You’d be more stupid still to gamble on scientists finding intelligent life in the calendar year 1997. The truth is, God doesn’t want us to gamble. We live in a world where a lot of people gamble. They gamble on everything, from sports to space. What God wants us to do is invest. You see, the Bible’s message is very clear: God doesn’t want us to gamble. What God wants us to do is invest. And we need to understand that, when we come to judgement day, God’s going to look at our investments. He’s going to look at how we invested our time, how we invested our abilities, and how we invested our money.
Jesus, in this second teaching in the Olivet Discourse, gives the Parable of the Talents. He said, “It will be as when a man going on a distant journey summoned his servants, entrusting to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent. He gave to each according to their abilities. He who had received the five talents immediately went out and traded with them, making five talents more. He who received the two talents likewise made two talents more. But he who received the one talent went out and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time, the master of those servants returned to settle accounts. He who had received the five talents came forward saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The second came forward saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here, I’ve made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over little. I’ll set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
“But the third came forward, he who had received the one talent, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping what you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter. So I took your talent and I hid it in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ His master said to him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew I was a hard man, reaping where I did not sow, gathering where I did not scatter seed. Then you should have invested my money with the bankers, and upon my return I would have had what was mine with interest. Take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to those who have shall more be given, but from him who has not even what he has will be taken away. Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. There people will weep and gnash their teeth.’” This is a difficult teaching relating to judgement and having to do with stewardship.
There’s no denying, as you look at the Parable of the Talents, that we are called to invest time, abilities, and dollars. We are called to invest them not for ourselves but for the King and His kingdom. There’s no denying that. Every Bible scholar, every theologian, and every common person who reads the Bible has to agree with that. The point of the parable is clear. We are to invest for the King and His kingdom so that, when the King returns, He’ll be pleased.
God would ask you today, “How’s your stewardship?” Are you investing time and abilities? Are you investing dollars in the King and His kingdom? Are you being a faithful steward? Is this your highest purpose in living, to serve the King and His kingdom? You see, that’s all going to be evaluated when Christ comes back. That’s all going to be evaluated at death. That will all be evaluated on judgement day.
This church, Cherry Hills Community Church, is part of the King and His kingdom. If you doubt that, you don’t understand what God is doing here. This church is part of the King and His kingdom, and it is called to serve the King in South Metropolitan Denver. The future of this ministry—the future of this church—is as bright as our faithfulness in stewardship. God’s standards are the same for all of us. We would never ask you to give if we were not ourselves required to give. We would ask you to give as we do—of time, abilities, and of dollars.
There’s a third teaching that Jesus gave in the Olivet Discourse, and this third teaching concerns compassion and action. This is a well-known passage of scripture, this last portion of Matthew 25. The first two teachings were parables, but this third and final section of the Olivet Discourse is what theologians call an apocalyptic pericope. That simply means it’s a literal teaching concerning a literal eschatological event, the second corning of Jesus Christ. It describes that event.
Jesus says, “The Son of Man will come from Heaven in power and great glory.” Of course, the Son of Man is one of His messianic titles. “When the Son of Man comes from Heaven in power and great glory, and all of His angels with, Him and He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at His right hand and the goats at His left. He will say to those at His right hand, ‘Come, oh blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, thirsty and you gave Me to drink, naked and you clothed Me, sick and in prison and you visited Me. I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me.’ They will say, ‘When, Lord? When were You hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison or a stranger and we did these things?’ He will say, ‘Inasmuch as you’ve done it to the least of these, My brothers and sisters, you’ve done it unto Me.’
“Then He will say to those at His left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat, thirsty and you gave Me not to drink, naked and you clothed Me not, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me.’ They will say, ‘When Lord?’ He will say, ‘Inasmuch as you have not done it to the least of these, you have not done it unto Me.’”
That is a hard teaching. But, you see, Christ wants His people to be faithful stewardship and He wants them to be people of compassion. Now, as evangelicals we’ve all been taught that we’re not saved by good works. As evangelicals, we’ve all been taught that we’re saved by grace through faith. We’re not saved by our works but by His works. We’re not saved by our righteousness but by His righteousness. We’ve all been taught that, and it is true. But things, biblically, are a little more complex than that, because, you see, biblically, if you really have oil in your lamp it’s going to change your life. It’s going to change your stewardship. It’s going to affect your compassion if there’s really oil in your lamp.
On November 21, 1884 (and with this we’ll close), there was a horrible collision at sea. A ship called the Ville du Havre collided with another ship called the Loch Earn. The Ville du Havre sank in a few brief minutes. Hundreds of people were on board but only 47 were rescued. One of those who were rescued was a woman named Anna Spafford. I know some of you know her story.
Anna Spafford was married to Horatio Spafford, who was a lawyer in Chicago. They had four children. They’d already gone through the tragedy of the Chicago Fire in 1871. They lost their home and everything they had, but they’d rebuilt. Now here she was on this ship, crossing the Atlantic with her four children. Her husband was going to join her one week later in Europe. This was a horrible tragedy.
There she was on November 21, 1874, up on the deck of the ship as it was going down, with her four children around her. A wave swept over the ship and swept them into the sea. They found her unconscious on driftwood. They never found her children. She was taken to France, and, of course, the news was soon spread all over the world. Her husband, Horatio Spafford, heard about this ship going down. He was just devastated and desperate to hear about his family. She sent him a telegram from France, two words: “Saved alone.” So, this dad knew he’d lost his four kids and his wife was alive. He telegrammed her in return and said he was coming to meet her in France.
From New York City he got aboard a ship. As he crossed the Atlantic, he came to the spot where the Ville du Havre went down. It was there, on that spot, that he wrote that great Christian hymn, “It is Well with My Soul.” “When peace, like a river, attendeth my soul, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
Now, I think most of you knew that part of the story, but as Paul Harvey would say, “We need to hear the rest of the story.” Horatio and Anna Spafford then returned to Chicago, having lost all four of their kids. But they were deep in their Christian faith, and they began to pour their lives into ministry, helping needy people and reaching out to the poor.
In 1881, they left America as missionaries to Israel, which was then called Palestine. They established the American Colony in Israel and they reached out to people who were hurting—Turks, Arabs, and Jews. They established orphanages so they could care for all people with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. The American Colony still exists in Jerusalem. Bard and I had dinner there just two weeks ago. All over the walls are the stories of Anna and Horatio Spafford. They had three more children, one of which died in childbirth. Their great-granddaughter still lives there at the American Colony Hotel. The orphanages are still serving Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you talk to a Palestinian or a Jewish person, they loved the Spaffords because they showed the love of Christ.
You see, that’s what Christ is looking for in our lives. In the midst of the hurt, in the midst of the tragedies… I don’t know what you’re going through, but if you believe in Christ, don’t let your pain turn inward in bitterness, but reach out in love. Reach out in love, because that’s the call of Christ. When we stand there on that day, Christ is going to be looking for oil in our lamps—true faith, faithful stewardship, service to King and kingdom, and the outpouring of His love and compassion.
I would not be faithful as a minister of the gospel if I did not call you to faithfulness. Our job here at the church is to prepare you for that day when you will meet Him face-to-face, either by death or by His coming. Our job is to prepare you. So we have this clear teaching from His Word: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, perhaps there is someone here who has no oil in their lamp. They’ve never really taken You as Lord. They may have asked You to save them from sin, but they’ve never really accepted Your reign and they don’t really belong to You. Lord, we pray that by Your Holy Spirit You’re tugging on their heart and soul today. We pray that they might make a confession that brings regeneration, a commitment that brings salvation. We pray that they might pray this prayer with me: “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Thank You for dying on the cross for me. Forgive me of my sin. Lord, I repent. Wash me as white as snow. Come now, Lord, and sit on the throne of my life. I want to do it Your way, not my way. I want my style to be Your style. I want to live for You day by day. I commit my life to You. Fill me with Your Spirit. Empower me to be like You, Lord.” Lord, for the rest of us here, we commit ourselves anew. This day, we reconsecrate ourselves, that we would be faithful stewards and show forth Your compassion so that we might hear You say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We love You, Lord, and we pray these things in Your great and matchless name. Amen.