About a week ago, I was scrolling on Instagram, as you do. Maybe some of you prefer Facebook, I don’t know. But I came across this page called thegospelbrotherzzz, and it’s basically these two friends in the UK, and they go around and they conduct these street interviews where they ask random strangers in the street about their views on religion, Christianity, etc.
Last week, they posted a viral video in which they met a man named David. They asked David if he was a Christian, to which he responded, “Oh, no, I’m going to hell. I accept my fate.”
“Why would you say that?” they replied.
Free will.
That’s an odd way to exercise your free will!
My dad’s a preacher. I grew up in church. I know the truth. I just chose to walk away. It’s an amazing thing that God gave us free will. Doesn’t mean I made the right choice, but that’s the choice I made, and the debt must be paid. He offered to pay it, but if I have to pay it back on my own, then so be it. Man must take responsibility for his actions. You’ll never meet a more honest sinner than me.
No, never… Why did you turn away?
I just decided that if I want to live my life my way, not God’s way, I have to accept the consequences. I wanna live by my rules. Rebellion!
At least he’s honest.
I will lie to many other people, never lie to myself. You can fool man, you can’t fool God. I don’t deny the truth. I don’t deny it. I know the power of God.
What would the breaking point have to be for you to go, “Do you know what, man, there’s only so much longer I can go on living my own way.”
It would have to be, if I could say anything, a heaviness on my heart prompted by the Holy Spirit.
I’m inclined to agree with David when he says, “You’ll never meet a more honest sinner than me.” When I watched that video, I was captivated. No wonder it’s got about a million views now. In our Matthew chapter 25 story, we actually have a very similar dynamic. You’ve got five wise bridesmaids and five foolish bridesmaids. The five foolish bridesmaids, as we read, started out with a full supply of oil. But by the end of the story, they’ve run out of oil and they’re shut out of the marriage feast as a result. They ran out of oil just like David ran out of steam.
Just to recap the first part of the story, it says in verse 3 (NLT):
3The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, 4but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.
What does the oil symbolize? After all, this is a parable—which is to say, a fictional story with a message. According to Martin Luther in a 1537 Lenten sermon, the oil represents the “anointing of the Holy Spirit.” This makes sense given that the Holy Spirit is linked with oil time and time again in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Bible, to be anointed is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to work out God’s purposes. It’s safe to say that the anointing of the Holy Spirit is very important. It’s our source of strength and our source of power.
We pick up the story in verse 5 (ESV) where it says that the bridegroom was delayed and so all the bridesmaids “became drowsy and slept.” Verse 6: “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”
The bridegroom is also an image that shows up in Scripture a lot and it always, as far as I know, represents Jesus. His arrival in this story represents the Second Coming. In verse 7, all the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Verse 8 (NLT):
8Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’
9“But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’
Now, for those of you that have raised children or taken care of children, I’m sure that at some point or another you’ve told them a version of “Sharing is caring.” But it appears like these wise bridesmaids weren’t very caring because they weren’t at all willing to share. They didn’t even consider it. Why might that be? I think it’s not because they were cold of heart, but because the anointing of the Holy Spirit is something that has to be cultivated at an individual level.
Naturally, the foolish five had to embark on a last-minute hunt for extra oil. When they were gone, however, the bridegroom arrived. In verse 10, it says that the ones…
who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. 11Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’
12“But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’
The foolish five’s lack of oil prevented them from feasting with the bridegroom. For them, the day of the bridegroom’s arrival was a dark and hopeless day, just like we’re told the day of the Lord will be for many people in Amos chapter 5.
As was read earlier this morning in Amos 5:18…
18What sorrow awaits you who say,
“If only the day of the Lord were here!”
You have no idea what you are wishing for.
That day will bring darkness, not light.
20Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,
without a ray of joy or hope.
Pretty grim stuff.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, though, which was also read this morning, we have the opposite scenario. Paul writes to the Thessalonian Christians and says:
13And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
Amos 5 paints a hopeless picture. 1 Thessalonians 4 paints a hopeful picture of the day of the Lord. Based on what we read in Matthew 25, it seems that the difference between a hopeless end and a hopeful end comes down to oil. But why is oil such a big deal? Why is the anointing of the Holy Spirit such a big deal?
I think Paul actually answered this question in Galatians chapter 3. Fun fact about Galatians, it’s the only one, to my knowledge, of Paul’s letters in the Bible which doesn’t start with thanksgiving. A lot of the times he’ll start and it’s very nice and he’s talking about all the things that are going well and it’s just, you know, it’s a pretty happy tone. But the tone of Galatians is famously a very angry and stern tone.
In verses 2 to 3 of Galatians 3, Paul says:
Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
After starting your new lives in the spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your human effort?
There are two $99 words in theology which you’ll hear from time to time: Justification and sanctification. Justification refers to the fact that we are made worthy of becoming God’s sons and daughters because of Christ’s finished work on the cross. Sanctification, on the other hand, is the process by which God makes us perfect.
What Paul is arguing in Galatians 3 is that we contribute nothing to our justification. We become Christians based on God’s power—not by anything we can do. And Paul is saying that the same is true of sanctification. We become Christians through the power of God and He gives us His Holy Spirit. But also, the way we remain Christians is by the power of that Holy Spirit. Not by our own power.
If any of you today have yet to believe the good news about Jesus Christ—that He died on the cross and rose again after three days—all you need to do to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit is to believe. To believe and to make a public declaration of that belief. And then God freely gives you the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how we become Christians. What happens next though?
Are we supposed to white knuckle our way into being good Christians? The truth is, that is what many of us do. Many of us think we just need to try harder. Try to be kinder, to be more selfless, to be more humble, to be more self-controlled, to be more patient, you name it.
But that’s always going to be a losing battle. Some will lose in silence, putting on a brave face Sunday after Sunday while carrying intense shame inside. But others actually are very honest. Just like David in the video, they wave the white flag and they say, “You know what? This Christian thing? Too difficult. It’s way easier to just live for myself.”
I was chatting with a former professor of mine last summer and he shared a quote that really struck with me. He said, “To be a Christian is to live for the other.” The reason that quote stuck with me is because I examine my own life and when I wake up morning after morning, the first thought on my mind is almost never about other people—about how I can serve them.
I’m usually thinking about my to-do list, my goals, the things that I want out of life. But if to be a Christian is to live for the other, then that means I’m not very good at being a Christian. Should I just give up then? Should I just fake it until I die? Neither of these options are God’s will for me. His will for me and for you is way better than that. But it requires oil. It requires a lot of oil.
Because to quote Zechariah, “it is not by force nor by strength, but by [God’s] Spirit” that we stand a chance of going the distance. It is by the Holy Spirit’s might alone that we are both justified and sanctified.
We cannot afford to be like the foolish bridesmaids who left oil on the table. Neither can we afford to be like the foolish Galatians who brought knives to a gunfight. They both thought that, through willpower and human effort, they could be Christians. But that’s impossible. The fleshly nature, the world, temptations, Satan, you name it, are way more powerful than human willpower alone.
This is why God supplies us with his Holy Spirit when we become Christians. And it is by that Spirit’s power alone that we can live a godly life. This begs the question, “Okay, great, the Holy Spirit is powerful and it’s by that power that I’m supposed to live the Christian life—to be more humble, more selfless, more self-controlled. My only hope is the Spirit’s anointing and the Spirit’s power. But how do I tap into it?” Let me share with you three quick things, three quick ways that we can tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.
Word
In 2 Peter chapter 1, we are told that “no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding or from human initiative.” Rather, “those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God” (vv.20-21). In other words, the Spirit of God inspired every word that’s in our Bibles.
This is why when we crack it open and read it on our own time, He meets us there and energizes us through the word of God. And when you come to church and hear the Scriptures preached and hear them read aloud every week, the Holy Spirit empowers you to do God’s will.
And throughout the week, when many of you come and show up to various Bible studies that our pastors put on, the Holy Spirit is present there as well, and He empowers us through that Scripture. Praise be to God.
Sacrament
Secondly, we have the sacraments. The Holy Spirit empowers us through all the sacraments, including Holy Communion.
Every Sunday, when our pastors are celebrating the Eucharist, they pray a prayer that Christians have been praying since at least the third century, maybe even before that. The prayer is:
Send your Spirit upon these gifts of your Church; gather into one all who share this bread and wine; fill us with your Holy Spirit to establish our faith in truth, that we may praise and glorify you through your Son Jesus Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit who consecrates the elements of Holy Communion so that they may spiritually nourish us. And it is He who fills us so that we may glorify God day in, day out. Praise God for that.
Prayer
The third way, though, I would argue, is actually even more helpful. Because even though we have Bibles on our phones nowadays, we don’t always have the Scriptures right in front of our eyes. And with the sacraments, we’re not always at church receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
But what we can always do is just pray. The Holy Spirit is always available for us to call on Him for help when we badly need it. One of my favorite worship songs of all time is Matt Maher’s “Lord, I Need You.” For those of you who don’t know the song, the chorus is a beautiful prayer:
Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour, I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You
God loves to see us acknowledge our helplessness. When we come to our wits’ end and we realize that we suck at being good people—at being good Christians, at exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit—when we come to that humble realization, we can either turn away like David did because it’s too hard, or we can humbly fall to our knees—whether physically or metaphorically—and just be like, “Lord, my only prayer, my only hope of living this Christian life you’ve called me to is if your Holy Spirit empowers me to do so.”
It is a beautiful and comforting truth that the Spirit is always with us and is always ready to hear our prayers. The Christian life is not meant to be white -knuckled. Only fools would dare approach it that way. It’s way too hard.
The wise among us know that the source of our power is the Holy Spirit. May He continue to show us how to receive His anointing.
