His coming or Your Home going: Two events must happen, and we must prepare for them, yet we do not know for certainty when they will happen. The first is our home going, for it is appointed for man once to die. (Hebrew 9:27) and the other is Jesus coming, this same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back. Acts 1:11). Whereas there has been a lot of debate on the latter, we are all witnesses to the former. People will argue and say, it has been thousand of years and Jesus is not coming back but none will say, it has been hundreds of years and I have not seen man dying. I want to push for our readiness from both fronts by this statement, ‘Anybody reading this article will have participated either in Jesus coming or death in the next 150 years’. The moral of this statement is that we are on the move, anybody acquainted with travel ought to know, that we get ready, we prepare our travel documents and understand the travel requirements.
What if you were told the church has been taken: As an eighteen-year young man, on one rainy thunderous windy morning at about 5am, the bed was warm and I was enjoying sleeping in, then suddenly there was a heavy and repeated knock on my door. Hey, who is that, then I had a voice of Anthony, it was a mix of fear and urgency, ‘The church has been raptured, he roared!’ I was as calm as could be, I long for that state of mind again, I told him, if that be the case, then why are you here, to this I added, if I am still here then no rapture has taken place. What a confidence, what a faith I had that Jesus would not come and leave me back.
Two essentials that make you ready: I want to provide two essentials for our readiness either for his coming or our going. The first is the filling of the spirt of God and the second is faith in his saving grace. I will look at either of them from two parables that in essence promote the aspect of waiting with oil and waiting with faith.
All boxes checked except one box: The parable of the waiting virgins in Mathew 25 gives 5 virgins classified as fools and the other five as wise. What is interesting is all of them had most of the things similar, they were all virgins, they all had lamps, they were all waiting for the groom and they all got tired and slept.
We do know that virgins may mean an image of purity, I want to stretch this and say all these girls accepted salvation, the word of God is a lamp to our feet according to the Psalmist, I want to suggest that all the girls had bible, they all were waiting for the coming of the bridegroom, which means they all had some form of expectation that Jesus was coming back. What then, every box seems ticked, I got saved at one time, I have a bible, or I read it, I know Jesus will come, I am human so it is fine to get tired and fatigue and sleep, his grace must bail me out.
Defining moment : The defining moment though in this parable for readiness came to the test when the trumpet sounded and the announcement came that the Bridegroom has come, those that lacked the oil in their lamps went all over in panic.
The spiritual million-dollar question for your readiness is, does your lamp have oil? This might appeal to the theology of illumination, are the letters in your bible illuminated, so that you find light in the word.
The letter kills but the spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). The spirit of God is essential (person), left behind to make us ready. He alone puts light to our lamps. He is at work in the church preparing her as bride for the soon coming King, or at least for the soon going bride. Without him, our lamps do not help and at trumpet call, we do not want to panic in the dark.
Systematic injustice in the waiting: The second parable is that of the waiting widow in Luke 18 famously taken to teach about prayer.
It presents a persistent widow, an indication of someone whose husband has gone and is working out life on her own, Christ seems taken away from the church with a promise to come back in a cloud.
it also presents a lack of justice; the world system is harsh on the church manifesting no fear of God and denying rights to the church. At last, it presents the God of Justice: God will intervene in providing justice if we do not faint and give up. Part of his justice is embedded in his return.
Defining Moment: The defining moment in this parable for me is what looks like a change of subject in the conversation, the story quickly shifts to the coming of Jesus and the writer asks, Will the son of man find faith on earth when he comes?
The million-dollar question for your readiness in case the son of man comes, or should you go, Will faith be found in you. This faith to me is the saving faith, the one that the Bible says comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. The faith that holds on to the promises of God such as was held by Joshua and Caleb in the face of intimidating circumstances. The two inherited the promised land
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The convergence of your readiness is where your faith, and spirit meet God’s word.
Through mankind history (The 1st and second Adam) the test was on how they treated God’s word. The first Adam was tested on 'Did God say?’ (Genesis 3:3). He failed on having an illumination(oil) on what God had said. He also fell on believing or having a firm faith in what God had said. He can be referred to as a canal man. He was in the first parable a fool without oil, he was in the second parable without faith when God appeared, he went hiding. The second Adam, Jesus was tested and, on all accounts, retaliated by “it is written” affirming an illumination of God’s word and a firm faith. Even when the devil wanted to use the word itself by quoting a scripture, Jesus was quick to discern that it is not just the written (Logos) but the illuminated (Rhema) that is active and sharper than any two-edged sword. He can be referred to as a spiritual man of faith. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word ….
Faith and the spirit will make or illuminate Gods word and promise to you.
It infers therefore that in both parable the waiting virgins and the waiting widow can represent the waiting church.
We note that in both parables the church is easily prone to slumber and getting tired (he who endured to the end will be saved).
We can conclude that from the two parables the call is a readiness for the coming
bridegroom or son of man and the required elements is oil in our lamps or the in filling of the spirit of God who makes alive the promises of God including the ultimate promise of his coming back and the faith that he will come looking for. The allusion to a rapture or the being caught up can be comparable to a magnetic attraction. It appears to me that the faith in the word of promise that allowed Caleb and Joshua enter the promise land and it was said of them that they had a different spirit. When the son of God comes what will be the proportion of people that are firmly holding to faith. How many will have a magnetic faith that his promise can attract in the sky. Out of 12 spies only two had that spirit and that faith.
you are right Bora, lets examine ourselves
How amazingly the parable of the virgins has been explained, and related to the life we have now. Personally am left challenged where am asking myself is my soul ( Lamp) filled with the spirit of God (oil)? But am also very encouraged by the promises in God's word.
God bless you!