Matthew 25:1-10, Luke 18:1-8, Luke 11:9-10

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Matthew 25:1-13

CRITICAL NOTESMatthew 25:1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven.—The three parables of this chapter appear here as in closest sequence to the great discourse of chap. 24, and are as its natural conclusion (Plumptre). Ten virgins which took their lamps.—According to Rabbinical authority, such lamps carried on the top of staves were frequently used, while ten is the number always mentioned in connection with public solemnities (Edersheim). To meet the bridegroom.—The usual Jewish custom was for the... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:1

Matthew 25:1 The kingdom of Heaven has a strange fulness of meaning in the Scriptures, and must be understood to signify something quite different from the company of those who may call themselves saints, or may truly be saints, in any particular age. These last are "the children of the kingdom," but do not define its limits. It is a state; as real and complex as earthly commonwealths; it is the government of a King over masses of various character and worth. I. The Creator is already the... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:1-5

Matthew 25:1-5 I. The main difficulty of interpretation in this parable is to understand what is meant by the wise and foolish virgins respectively; and also what is meant by the "taking oil in their vessels with their lamps." In the meaning of those expressions lies the key to the passage. It seems of very inferior importance to determine why the precise number ten should be specified; and why there should be an exactly equal division into five wise and five foolish. Ten persons in Jewish... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25:1-13 Here is one of the larger and grander pictures in this gallery of various glory. It is sublime in its ample outline, and exquisitely tender in its details. It is charged with many precious lessons, which flow freely at the gentlest touch; and it is cruel to put it to the torture, to compel it to give meaning which it never received from its Author. I. I think no symbolic significance should be attributed to the virgins, as such, in the interpretation of the parable: It is when... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:5

Matthew 25:5 Maiden Spirits waiting for Happy Life. I. Men are always discussing questions of time how long the world has lasted, or will last; the day of judgment, questions of futurity in one shape or another; in fact, putting off getting their thoughts away from the present, which contains for them all that is to come. There are three remarkable parables which turn on this unwillingness of man to live in the present, because the future seems far off. They are all spoken by our Blessed Lord... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:6

Matthew 25:6 The Duty of Watchfulness. I. The ten virgins represent the people of the Lord, awakened by the Spirit, separate from the world, looking for His coming. But among these there is a wide distinction. Some were wise, prudent, circumspect; others were foolish, improvident, unthrifty. And in what was this shown? The improvident, although they took their lamps, did not take with them oil, whereby those lamps might be fed. The prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And wise,... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:6-9

Matthew 25:6-9 Mark here: . I. The Discovery. "Our lamps are gone out." (1) There is no indwelling grace. Their lamps went out because they had no oil. They burned for a while, as a dry wick will do, often with a great blaze, but soon the flame decays, and it goes out for want of oil. This is the case with hypocrites. They have no spring of gracious oil within their hearts. (2) They have to appear before Christ. It is an easy thing to appear a Christian before men. "Man looks only on the... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:7

Matthew 25:7 I. Our parable teaches that, however long and deeply a man may sleep, he is sure to awake at last. "Then." Is it not true that to every soul comes the time when God calls calls plainly, audibly, loudly, "Then"? (1) There are epochs in an age when all things seem to call to arise and trim the lamps; and when the Bridegroom seems so near. There are times when events in an age seem to muster so rapidly; when iniquity abounds and love waxes cold; and when voices and events seem in the... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:8

Matthew 25:8 I. "Our lamps are gone out." The horror of the cry; all that is compressed in it; what secrets of slovenly lives which only half suspected their own slovenliness. Numbers of dying people are uttering it daily; if it could be heard and understood, it would surely crush all creatures into silence, it is so thrilling, so significant, a whole, boundless eternity echoing it so wildly. II. You see they had got lamps: they had been at the pains to buy oil: once their lamps were not out.... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Matthew 25:10

Matthew 25:10 Observe here. I. The Description of the Closing-up of the Final Chance. The shut door is the token of the passing away of the latest chance of entry. No one's penitence, no one's prayer, no one's groaning shall any more open it. This sentence tells of the close, the irrevocable close, of one stage of man's being; the shutting-off the great chance of life, as the several chances of infancy and youth were shut off before. That shutting of the everlasting door, it is but the... read more

Grupo de Marcas