Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gathering church.

My name is Rob; I’m one of the pastors here.

If this is your first time joining us, I’d like to welcome you.

If there’s anything that we can do for you while you’re here, find me or one of our members after service and we’ll be happy to help.

Let me ask you a question this morning.

Have you ever found yourself waiting for something, but you didn’t know when it was going to arrive?

Pastor Scott and his wife, Bonnie, recently went through this.

For the past several months, they’ve been expecting the arrival of their new baby boy, John Micah Day, who was born on Wednesday morning, and if you’ve gone through a pregnancy or you’re close to someone who has, you know that there’s a lot of preparation that goes into welcoming a baby into the world.

When we found out that my wife, Cass, was pregnant with our daughter, Emma, I was thinking, “Well, we’ll get a crib, slap some sheets on it, get some clothes and diapers, and away we go.”

One and done.

Right?

Wrong.

“What color should the baby’s room be?

Modern or vintage?

Do you like this shirt better, or this shirt?

Rob, isn’t this the cutest little dress?!”

And I’m standing there like, “Uhhh… As long as she’s clothed, I’m happy?”

Dads, am I right?

So you have preparation that needs to be done.

And you know you have a certain period of time in which to complete that preparation—your due date, which is an estimate of when the baby will arrive.

And then as you get closer to your due date, there are certain signs that indicate that the baby might be coming soon.

A kick here.

A contraction there.

But outside of that, there’s no telling when the baby might arrive.

Morning?

Night?

A week early?

A week late?

When Emma, was born, Cass and I went in to the hospital for a checkup, and they’re like, “Whelp, your water is broken, so we’re going to need to induce labor.”

And so it’s our first baby, I’m thinking “Sweet.

Bring her on.

We’ll be out of here in two hours.”

Little did I know, Emma takes after both her momma and her daddy; she’s a stubborn child.

22 hours later of labor later, baby Emma popped out.

You never know when they’re going to come.

But at the moment that the baby comes—no matter what you’re doing at the time—there is absolutely nothing in this world that is more important than that child coming.

It’s fascinating just how disruptive a tiny little six-pound human can be in a daily routine, isn’t it?

Call up the parents, go to the hospital, call the midwife or the doctor.

If dad has a job, call up the boss and tell him you won’t be in that day—right, guys?

Everything around you comes to a halt and all attention is on getting that little baby out.

No matter what time of day it is, no matter how prepared you are (or aren’t), you have no choice but to address that child.

And so, if you’ve experienced the preparation and arrival of a child, you have a good working framework for understanding and interpreting our passage today.

This morning, we’re going to look at the arrival of our King—the second coming of Jesus Christ—and the preparation, anticipation, and expectations that come along with His return.

We’ve been tracing the Kingdom of Heaven throughout the book of Matthew.

We know that Jesus is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who reigns sovereignly over all creation.

We know that, as Christians, we are subjects of the King and citizens of His Kingdom, with all of the privileges and responsibilities that come along with that citizenship.

We measure the compassion of our King by His sacrifice on our behalf, bearing the weight and shame and penalty of our sin against our Creator as He hang on the cross.

We serve a King who, unlike human kings and rulers, laid down his life for the sake of the Kingdom—knowing that it was only by laying down his life that he could obtain the Kingdom and rescue its inhabitants from their slavery to sin.

We measure the power of our King by His resurrection, as He climbed out of a grave, conquering sin and death for eternity, and we know that, in the Holy Spirit, we have access to that very same power that raised Jesus from death.

We know, as we’ve preached in this pulpit before and as Pastor Luke will revisit in a couple of weeks, that as citizens and ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, that we have been commissioned by the King to labor for His Kingdom while he prepares for his return.

And yet, we find ourselves in a time between the first coming of the Christ and His second coming.

We find ourselves in a time and place in which we have experienced a taste of the Kingdom, we’ve seen a glimpse of the glory of the eternal King who reigns and rules sovereignly over His creation, but we have not yet seen the full realization of that Kingdom.

And our passage today addresses how we, as Christians, can live as we await the return of our King.

We’re going to learn how to respond as we look forward with anticipation to Jesus’ return.

We’re going to learn two important preparations that we need to be making in our short time on this earth, and we’re going to learn the rewards and consequences associated with engaging or not engaging in that preparation.

Our passage this morning is Matthew 25—Matthew 25—but we’ll be starting a few verses before Matthew 25.

So if you’ll open your bibles there, turn to Matthew 25, and then we’ll back up a few verses and get to work this morning.

Let’s start in Matthew 24:36.

Matthew 24:36.

Jesus, referring to his return, says this:

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.

41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

All throughout His ministry, Jesus has gone out of his way to describe the hidden and unexpected nature of the Kingdom of God.

As Pastor Luke showed us a few weeks ago, he compared the Kingdom to a lump of leaven that was hidden in three measures of flour.

Marnie has gotten many of the ladies in our congregation hooked on making bread.

My wife was making a batch of bread last week, and she started by mixing up some yeast and sugar, and mixing it with some flour to form a small lump of dough.

And I looked at it, and I’m thinking to myself, “Surely, she’s going to make a larger batch of bread than that.”

So then she put the little lump of dough in a bowl and covered it up.

And a few hours later, without any intervention on our part, I see the towel that was covering the bowl start to rise up in the middle.

A little while later, the small lump of dough had begun overflowing the bowl.

My expectation was that the bread wouldn’t amount to much.

But because of the leavening power of the yeast within the bread, it couldn’t help but to grow until it overflowed the bowl.

Not only did Cass bake one loaf of bread, she baked two loaves of bread.

So is the Kingdom of God.

It starts small and unassuming, and you look upon it and think nothing of it, but when you’re least expecting it, the bread has leavened and it’s ready to bake.

And so Jesus here is again emphasizing the unexpected nature of the Kingdom of God.

He says that no one knows the day or the hour, but we must be ready, verse 44, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

He shows us the in-or-out, exclusionary nature of the Kingdom of God.

Two men will be in the field—one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill—one will be taken and one left.

So, unlike some self-described spiritual leaders would tell you these days, the message of the Gospel, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, is inherently exclusive.

There will come a day when Jesus will return, and on that day, some will be granted entry into the Kingdom and some will be left out.

So the question we have this morning, church, is who?

Who will be granted entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, and who will miss out?

What are the characteristics of each group?

How can we prepare for the return of our King, what will he expect when he returns, and how can we be serving him while we await his arrival?

The answer to that question is in Chapter 25.

Jesus gives us two parables for showing us the difference between each group—those who will be welcomed into the Kingdom and those who will be turned away.

He’s going to give us two postures that faithful Christians must adopt while we wait for the return of our King.

Let’s look at Chapter 25, verse 1. We’ll read both parables, and then we’ll come back around to discuss.

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom!