CHRIST HAS OPENED THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TO ALL BELIEVERS
Prayer: We thank You, Lord God, heavenly Father, that in the past church year You have preserved Your saving Word among us and by it kept us waiting to receive Your Son when He comes again. Forgive our neglect, unbelief, and disobedience with respect to Your Word, and continue to pour down upon us the oil of gladness so that we are prepared to go into eternal life. Amen.
Sermon Text, Matthew 25:1-13 (v. 1). “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.”
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us completely by the truth. Your Word is truth. By Your Word of truth, open the gates of heaven before us. Amen!
Dear people whom God so loves that He does not want you to perish, but does everything so that you will have eternal life: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
When it comes to this parable of the ten virgins, it helps to understand the background to Jesus’ story, since weddings in that culture were different:
The bridegroom would come to the bride’s home to conduct her to the place of the wedding, usually at his home or his father’s home. The bride had female attendants, who would wait for the bridegroom’s arrival to lead him in to the bride. Because it was in the evening, the bridesmaids would go out with lamps to meet the bridegroom, and their lamps would light the way.
So there are two points in this parable that show what Jesus is teaching. First, it’s when we hear: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him!” This is all about the door. Going inside with Him through the open door. And not getting left outside, when the door is shut and it’s too late.
Second, it’s about the oil for the lamp. This is what the parable’s really about. Jesus doesn’t say the kingdom of heaven is like a-bridegroom-and-ten-virgins; He says it’s like “ten virgins,” what’s going on with them.
So first, we zero in on the door. The door being open and then being shut. This is the door to paradise, the door to eternal life. It’s about getting in to heaven. Ever since the Fall into sin, this has been an issue.
After Adam and Eve sinned, God first gave them the promise of a Savior and then announced the curse of sin. Next He drove them out of the Garden, out of Paradise. An angel and a flaming sword were put there “to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:24), to guard the entrance and keep sinners out.
So now the issue is, how do you get in to heaven if you have sins? There’s no sin in heaven. So the only way to get in is to have your sins taken away. This is where Jesus comes in.
When Jesus was born, heaven opened up and the angels came out and sang to the shepherds. It was a sign that God was opening heaven’s door. We sing about it in a Christmas hymn which says: “today He opens heav’n again and gives us His own Son.” The last verse of that hymn uses the picture of being locked out of the Garden of Eden: “For us He opens wide the door of Paradise today. The angel guards the gate no more; to God our thanks we pay” (ELH #148 v. 1, 8).
On Good Friday we hear how Jesus’ death opened the door: “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”In His death, this is what Jesus did: He opened or unblocked the door, the pathway, to God in heaven. The temple veil showed that our sins block the way to God, but the veil was ripped in two by Jesus’ death. His death took away our sins so we can go in.
Then Jesus rose from the dead. What does He say about the door to heaven? The risen Lord Jesus says in Revelation 1: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.” Then He adds: “And I have the keys” (Rev 1:18). He has the keys for opening the door of heaven.
But does everyone go in to heaven? The parable of the ten virgins shows that not everyone does. Jesus shows that some go in with Him. But we don’t see them enjoying it in the parable. We don’t get to look inside.
Instead, we see what it’s like to be left out. He shows the ones who find too late that they can’t get in to heaven, and we hear them pleading – with Jesus! – “Lord, Lord, open to us!” and that door will not open. Not because God doesn’t love them or want them. But because they rejected Him. Because they resisted His grace. Now they regret it, but it’s too late. He can’t let them in. They’re left outside, without the Lord, without love, never seeing His face again, or any of the ones who go in with Him. It’s final. It’s horrible.
Why does Jesus want us to see this? Because He wants us to see what it’s like to miss out on heaven, and to fervently desire to avoid that sad reality.
So this brings us to the crisis of the oil for the lamps. It’s the question of how someone is let in or kept out. This is the main point in Jesus’ parable.
In these lamps, the oil keeps the lamp burning, it keeps the flame alive. The wise virgins brought a supply of oil so they wouldn’t run out, and they could keep the light going. The foolish virgins “brought no oil in their vessels with their lamps.” So their flame is going to go out.
What is this oil for the lamp? Christ or Messiah means “Anointed One.” He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. The oil is the Holy Spirit. But also this is connected to the flame in the lamp. This is the light of faith. So this is about having faith in Jesus and keeping this faith. The Holy Spirit gives faith.
It makes us afraid to see the ones who are left outside. It means they don’t have faith. It can make us uncertain about our own faith and salvation.
You might think: What if my faith isn’t good enough or strong enough? What if I don’t feel fervent in my faith? What if I happen to die while I’m having doubts about God? What if I’m not as sorry for my sins as I should be, or if I am caught up in worldly things more than taking care of my faith?
We can make “faith” itself the object on which we focus. We look to see if we have enough faith. But we aren’t Faith-ians. We’re Christians! There’s a way you can make an idol out of your faith; you can have faith in faith. It’s another form of relying on yourself, doing it yourself, always working to have a better faith. Satan loves for you to focus on how your faith is – he’ll show you how your faith fails. He doesn’t want you to see Christ. At all costs he wants to keep you looking inside yourself, not at Christ. He wants you to doubt your salvation by having doubts about your faith.
But look at Christ, and you see the door open! Faith needs to be connected to Jesus. It’s not just faith in general. It’s faith in Jesus. It’s believing that He died for you. It’s believing that He forgives you. It’s believing He loves you.
We can make faith into a do-it-yourself job. But there isn’t one person here, myself included, who does a good job of taking care of his/her faith. If it were up to us to guard our faith so that we come to heaven, we would fail to make it. But the good news is that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. When it comes to obtaining faith the Bible is clear. Faith in Jesus – that you believe and say that He is your Lord – only comes about “by the Holy Spirit.” This being saved through faith is “the gift of God, not of works.” We can’t come to believe at all on our own, nor can we keep believing by our own doing, at all.
The Holy Spirit does it all. This is a great gift! This work of preparing for Jesus’ return, preparing so that you’re ready, doesn’t depend on you doing it well enough. What Jesus tells us to do, to prepare and have faith, He sends the Holy Spirit to do for us. “He gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and live godly lives according to it.”
It happens by means of His Word and Sacraments. In the parable, the obtaining of faith is stated as “go to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” This is receiving faith where it’s offered: through the hearing of His Word.
In Isaiah 55, the great chapter of the Word – where God says, “My Word shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please” – we also hear Him say: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat … Come to Me. Hear, and Your soul shall live.” God is saying that in His Word, we receive this gift of eternal life for free. We receive it by faith. In fact, His Word gives us this saving faith to believe it. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Ro 10:17).
We have to fight the sinful flesh so we actually come hear His Word. In order to receive faith, we need to be where His Word is proclaimed. Our part is to hear and receive, the Holy Spirit’s part is to work this faith, the “oil of gladness.” In order to keep this faith, we need to keep hearing His Word.
What’s this faith concerned with? The forgiveness of sins. That’s how you come in to heaven. Your sins are forgiven and by grace you believe it. He forgives your sins, through faith, “which the Holy Spirit increases in our hearts to full assurance.” (ELH p. 42)
This is how the opening and closing of heaven takes place. This is how the Office of the Keys work, the keys of the kingdom of heaven that are in Jesus’ hand. If you don’t repent, heaven is closed. Jesus instructs the church, through the pastor, to say: “Your sins are not forgiven, as long as you do not repent.” The goal is to lead a person to repent, to bring their sins to Jesus and get a supply of the oil. And when the Spirit, through God’s Word, leads you to be sorry for your sins, Jesus instructs the church, through the pastor, to say: “Your sins are forgiven!” The door of heaven is open to you!
It isn’t about how strong or good your faith is. It isn’t whether you happen to feel doubts; God is greater than your heart, and if you’re in the midst of this kind of weakness, He says He will not snuff out a smoldering flame. Weak faith is still saving faith. The important thing is that He takes care of your faith – through His Word, which doesn’t return to Him void.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, your Savior? Do you believe He died for you? Do you believe His forgiveness? Then the door of heaven is open for you, and you go in! With Him! Amen!