Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] God provides everything there. There's nothing we need, and there's no sin. There's no difference between the wise and the sane. As we see people are trying to follow this in such a scattered way. It's a profound philosophy, a nostalgic belief. What people are doing here isn't selfishness or cruelty. You're asking them for something they can't share. We can't give you that. You don't need to be a member of a religion to recognize your shortcomings. If you look at your own life, you'll see that humanity, which can't even keep the promises it makes to itself, is aware of this.
[00:00:32] What do the people around you think of when they hear the word heaven? I'm sure you've thought of it in some of those videos we see online. Devout pilgrims and religious scholars praise that heaven, describing it in very different houris, wine, gold, and so on, whether Christian or Muslim. What are their perspectives on heaven?
[00:00:56] What do you desire when that final day comes? When that moment comes, when you face God, what is your desire? What are you waiting for? The analogy we'll look at today is about this. Let's explore it together.
[00:01:09] Matthew 25 the Parable of the Ten Virgins first we will read the word of the Lord. Then, verse by verse, we will understand the Word and apply it to our lives.
[00:01:21] Let's do this together.
[00:01:23] So I'm reading from Matthew chapter 25. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish.
[00:01:34] The foolish ones took their lamps, but no oil. But the wise ones distributed oil in vessels with their lamps.
[00:01:42] When the bridegroom delayed the they all fell asleep. They fell asleep. At midnight. A voice behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him.
[00:01:50] Then all the virgins got up and freshened their lamps. The foolish ones said to the our lamps are going out. Give us oil. But they have no wisdom. It may not be enough for both us and you.
[00:02:01] They said, go to the merchants and buy oil for yourselves.
[00:02:05] But as they were going to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived.
[00:02:10] The prepared girls entered the wedding feast with him, and the door was closed. The other girls who came later said, lord, Lord, open the door to us. The bridegroom said, truly, truly, I tell you, I do not know you.
[00:02:23] Therefore stay alert, for you cannot know the day or the hour.
[00:02:29] People can be very confident about knowing the hour and the hour.
[00:02:34] By confident they act or live as if they Know exactly when they will die and when they will meet God.
[00:02:41] In other words, even if they don't say, they know with their words. They don't say, I will die this day, I will die this way, or I will do this way. But what I mean here is we will do that later.
[00:02:52] Never mind. These matters are not important.
[00:02:55] You are making us tired. You are giving us headaches and tiring us out. How can we know with this kind of talk? They all say the same thing. Aren't all religions the same, brother?
[00:03:04] You can hear it in many different ways. But what is he trying to say here? Let's see.
[00:03:10] Here Jesus Christ is describing the kingdom of heaven again. That's the purpose of the parables, after all.
[00:03:16] It speaks of a realm we don't know, don't see. Or even, as one writer puts it, the kingdom of heaven, that union with God where God's sovereignty is absolute.
[00:03:26] And we see that kingdom of heaven in the Garden of Eden. That kingdom of heaven. God provides everything there. There's nothing we need, and there's no sin.
[00:03:36] And one writer says, we have a love left over from there.
[00:03:40] We experience that love there.
[00:03:43] We experience that happiness there. And we still long for that love.
[00:03:48] And we're still searching for that love, because we still haven't found what will fully satisfy us.
[00:03:55] Here Jesus Christ is trying to explain the kingdom of heaven to people.
[00:04:00] It's so important that Jesus Christ tells this dozens of times.
[00:04:04] He says, this is the kingdom of heaven. This is the kingdom of heaven. Here he compares it to 10 virgins. Five of them are wise and five are foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps with them, but they didn't take any oil. In other words, there is a lamp. There is oil, but there's no extra oil. Because how do we know? What do the minds do next? They took vessels of oil with the disciples when the bridegroom was delayed. They all fell asleep.
[00:04:32] Perhaps you've heard these verses beforehand.
[00:04:35] So the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, will return one day.
[00:04:39] The question here isn't, who is waiting before he returns?
[00:04:43] The question we're actually asking here isn't, are we waiting? But how are we waiting? Because everyone is waiting. Everyone knows they will one day experience death. Everyone is aware of this has nothing to do with being a member of a religion or accepting a religion or not. We all know this. This life will end one day. We're certain of it.
[00:05:02] But how will we be when it ends?
[00:05:06] In other words, what will our situation be when that moment comes? That's actually one of the questions we're trying to answer here. As we see here, there are 10 girls. So all of them are girls. Both the foolish and the wise are girls. In other words, all. A person who appears to be a believer shouldn't immediately attach themselves to religion. Because if you ask an atheist, they proudly await that day. So I'm ready for that day too. Please, brother, we're going to die. Our bodies will turn to dust. Okay, as we see, they're all atheists, beasts, members of religion, non members. Regardless, we all have a way of waiting.
[00:05:40] We all wait for that moment. Everyone is equal in that sense externally. And they all have their own style of waiting. The lamp is a belief that manifests itself externally. As I said, it doesn't have to be a belief. There's something presented externally.
[00:05:54] So someone puts it first, saying, I've tried to be a good person, a just person.
[00:06:00] Someone else says, I'm a member of this religion and within that I've tried to be a just person, a good Muslim, a good Christian, a good Jew, a good Hindu, whatever. You fill in the blanks.
[00:06:11] And as we see, when that day comes, everyone comes out to welcome the bridegroom.
[00:06:16] When that moment comes, they're all ready to greet him.
[00:06:21] They take their lamps, that lamp that represents their faith, and they go out into the streets, they set out on the road.
[00:06:28] But then we see that they fall asleep. We can perceive this as follows. In other words, as human beings we are in a state of great anticipation.
[00:06:37] We declare it in a grand way, a communist will go.
[00:06:41] We can explain this in different ways. Like when that one day a communist, true communism comes true, Sharia comes true religious state comes true, heavenly sovereignty comes.
[00:06:53] There's something great we're all waiting for, but the exhaustion of daily life. The day will either be nothing like this or this.
[00:07:02] That's fine, that day will come. But we're human, so. So we're not perfect either.
[00:07:07] Let's do this, let's do this, let's do that. Anyway, that's where the falling asleep thing begins. But what we're trying to say here isn't that falling asleep is a direct sin. It's just the flow of life, the continuation of life, the state of continuity. There's no difference between the intelligent and the foolish. As we see it. That's it. There's only one difference.
[00:07:28] The foolish only oil enough for that moment.
[00:07:32] The intelligent, on the other hand, oil enough for that moment and beyond. That's the only difference.
[00:07:38] So what we need to understand or explain understand is what Is the difference between gaining enough fat and not gaining enough fat?
[00:07:47] According to what, According to whom? Should we understand this? Because the bridegroom's delay here is a test of our faith. You claim that this life is either perfect or utterly perfect? Or are you living a life worthy of this? Have you truly understood and comprehended this? One day, a brother I love very much told me about a very profound theology.
[00:08:05] By theology, he meant a worldview. He said that according to this person's teaching, the world is like this. Religions are like this, and there are these above this. And his teaching is the teaching that will truly save us above all religions. I was curious about this. Was this person you're describing able to do what he said?
[00:08:25] Did he truly live or did he just teach?
[00:08:27] Because for me, everyone can talk, everyone can tell. The important thing is to live it. You can tell a beautiful story. But can you live and practice what you so beautifully described? Or is it just talk?
[00:08:39] Later I learned that this person didn't do any of what he said properly. On the contrary, he did the opposite. But he taught that to those around him. And seeing this, people rejected that teaching anyway. And no one applied it.
[00:08:52] But in this disorganized way people try to follow.
[00:08:56] Because it's perceived as a profound philosophy, a nostalgic belief, a secret knowledge. In a sense, what's being said here is actually for us. There's a testing of faith here.
[00:09:06] So is this truly your faith or is it someone else's?
[00:09:10] So is what's being said here truly your faith?
[00:09:14] So do you have this faith? Or was it just preparation for that moment?
[00:09:18] But was the aftermath never fully considered?
[00:09:23] When we look at the following verses, we see that a voice echoed in the middle of the night. There's a moment of crisis. They wake up in a panic at midnight. Both groups have fallen asleep. Recently, both wake up.
[00:09:35] One has enough oil. While their lamp is burning.
[00:09:39] The other's lamp begins to fade.
[00:09:42] And as we see, the foolish people here are panicking and starting to fade.
[00:09:46] That external display that one day. I think this is how it should be done. This is how it should be done. This is how we should do it.
[00:09:54] This is religion, brother. And at that last moment, reality, the truth emerges.
[00:10:00] They begin to realize that external display is not enough because there isn't enough oil.
[00:10:06] They don't have enough oil left.
[00:10:08] And then in a panic, they. They give us your oil.
[00:10:12] In other words, you have extra. Share it with us. But these people refuse.
[00:10:17] The five smart girls reject the requests of these other five girls.
[00:10:22] Why because they're so bad.
[00:10:24] No, there's a different lesson being taught here.
[00:10:27] This either represents something that can't be transferred, that is, you and I can't transfer our faith to another person. So believe in you and immediately accept this and that. Accept this too. Do this. Like this. You can't do that. Faith isn't something that happens, happens overnight. As we said in previous parables. It requires humility, it requires preparation, it requires seriousness.
[00:10:50] You can't take this at the last minute in a panic.
[00:10:53] Therefore, what these people are doing here isn't selfishness or cruelty.
[00:10:58] You're asking them something they can't share. We can't give you that because, as we'll see in the verses we'll look at later, there's a personal relationship being discussed here.
[00:11:07] I can't introduce you to this person at the last minute. Meet them immediately, it's urgent. Or understand this immediately. You can't understand. There's a very deep truth there. It's not something to be done at the last minute. It's an inner state, an inner truth. As you and I both know. I learned this. I learned this by living it. We sometimes say, I learned by living it. Why? Because you have to live it. It doesn't happen all at once. You experience that pain, for example, in a situation. You learn from that pain. You learn it.
[00:11:37] Even if I explained it to you all night, you wouldn't understand it all. Or even if you did, you wouldn't feel it all.
[00:11:43] Therefore it can't be entirely yours.
[00:11:46] It's impossible to get something that isn't yours from someone else at the last minute. Especially at this moment when the moth arrives, which represents the second coming of Jesus Christ. That moment when we will face God.
[00:11:59] So in a sense, if you're in church or a faith community, your mother's faith, your pastor's faith, or any other faith you hold dear doesn't apply to you.
[00:12:09] It's their faith. You can't demand something from them that isn't yours because it's not something they can give. I can't hand over my relationship, my relationship with someone, to someone else. That's what it's like. Now we'll look at the relationship with whom we have it. And the wise tell them, go buy it. The foolish also set out to buy it at the last minute. They said, it's best to go and buy oil for yourselves. But while they were going to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived.
[00:12:36] The prepared maidens entered the wedding feast with him, and the door closed.
[00:12:41] The Other maidens who arrived later said, lord, Lord, open the door to us. The bridegroom said, truly, I tell you, I don't know you. There's a very interesting statement there.
[00:12:52] The door has closed.
[00:12:54] That means one day that door of opportunity will close.
[00:12:59] Therefore, our goal isn't just to get to know Him.
[00:13:03] We're to invite people to know him, to know God.
[00:13:07] We're also going to encourage them to question this relationship and this belief.
[00:13:11] Why? Because if you question, they'll recognize their need and establish that relationship. And there's another interesting detail here.
[00:13:19] They say, lord, Lord, that bridegroom's approach is correct. There's respect.
[00:13:25] They know who he is.
[00:13:27] That's why they approach him with respect.
[00:13:30] When we talk about God, about Allah, we use grandiloquent phrases like these.
[00:13:36] By saying, lord, Lord who is sovereign over all things, Lord who knows all things, we actually demonstrate that we know him even if we don't.
[00:13:46] Regardless of our religion, there are moments when we acknowledge our shortcomings. And in a sense, we recognize God in that relationship. We see our shortcomings by looking at his perfection. The problem here isn't a lack of knowledge. We all know this.
[00:14:00] The problem here is more than just a problem of knowledge. It's a relational problem. Why we look for the answer. They said, lord, Lord, open the door for us. But if the bridegroom is, I tell you the truth, I don't know you.
[00:14:14] When I talk to many of my Muslim friends, this idea becomes a little clearer. This is, of course, one of the verses we specifically share with Christians, because we're also talking about living based on someone else's faith.
[00:14:27] But there's also a word here for my Muslim brothers and sisters. When this last day comes, the question you, all of us, should ask or answer is, do you know God?
[00:14:39] So will he rebuke me at the last minute? Will he send me to hell? This much? Will he take me straight to heaven? What will happen? What will end? Not into the unknown, knowing him, your problem, our problem, the problem of this world isn't an informational one. He's already aware of his shortcomings. You don't have to be a member of a religion to be aware of this, this shortcoming. If you look at your own life, humanity, which can't even keep the promises it makes to itself, is aware of this. But the problem here is a relational one. In other words, do you know the person who can solve this? Do you have a relationship with him, a sincere connection with Him? Because his answer is, he says, I Don't know you. Who are you?
[00:15:20] I don't know you. Do you know him?
[00:15:23] Does God know you?
[00:15:25] He knows you.
[00:15:28] He knows your heart.
[00:15:30] But is there a sense of fulfillment between you? Is there such a sincere relationship?
[00:15:35] Because one of the things that matters here is not I don't love you. It's not you're bad. It's not you are this, it's not you, or that I don't know you. Jesus Christ repeats this in several places. Every person who comes to him saying lord, Lord means in your name. We did this. In your name, we did that. We loved you like this. We loved you like this. Stay away from me.
[00:15:55] I. I do not know you. You who do evil.
[00:15:59] That is, these words also apply to those who call themselves Christians and followers of Jesus Christ. But I especially invite my Muslim brothers and sisters around me to this thought. Do you know him?
[00:16:11] Do you have a connection?
[00:16:12] If not, what will happen on the last day?
[00:16:16] Do you have enough oil?
[00:16:19] That verse I just mentioned appears in Matthew 721.
[00:16:24] In Matthew, chapter 721, Jesus Christ warns the people around him. His warnings are very serious. These are very serious verses and words for all of us.
[00:16:34] Not everyone who calls upon me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
[00:16:39] Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven will come on that day. Many will say to me, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons? And in your name did we do many miracles?
[00:16:53] Then I will say to them plainly, I never knew you get away from me. You who do evil.
[00:17:00] In fact, one of the most valuable lessons we should learn from this story, this parable, is what did the two wise and foolish virgins expect from the bridegroom?
[00:17:10] What do you envision when you think of heaven?
[00:17:13] When you face God, when you are fully within his sovereignty? What do you expect from him? He will give me this, he will give me that. He will do this to me. He will do that to me.
[00:17:23] Do you want that? Or do you want something? He will give you what is your desire, your crux? Grit your teeth. Is everything yours? On the other side, if you don't want the bridegroom, it means you don't know the bridegroom.
[00:17:37] If you knew the bridegroom, you wouldn't consider them valuable. If you knew the bridegroom, you wouldn't think of the virgins. If you knew the bridegroom, you wouldn't. You wouldn't think of wine. If you knew the bridegroom, you would Want to know God?
[00:17:49] You would love Him. That would be your primary focus.
[00:17:53] But what is the focus of those five foolish virgins here?
[00:17:57] What will God give me? They want his invitation.
[00:18:00] They want to accept his invitation, but they don't want Him.
[00:18:04] This is a very serious and important lesson for us.
[00:18:08] Do you want him?
[00:18:09] Do you want something he will give you?
[00:18:13] And the final verse of our chapter.
[00:18:16] So stay awake, because you cannot know that day or that hour.
[00:18:19] When I say stay awake, of course, I don't mean physically. I mean stay awake spiritually.
[00:18:26] Is this faith truly your own? Or are you trying to get by with what you've learned from the faith of those around you?
[00:18:32] You think it's enough? We'll figure it out later. You know how they used to say that when we were kids and about the mosque we go when we get older? Faith is like that for many people. It's the same for the church. I'm sure it's no different in the synagogue. When the time comes, we go often.
[00:18:48] When the time comes, we say our prayers.
[00:18:52] We don't know when.
[00:18:54] And will you really do it? Will you truly desire that day?
[00:18:58] Is it preparation for the other side?
[00:19:00] Let's burn a little less. Let's have a little more of this. A little. A little more of that. Do you truly know God? Do you truly want to know Him? The faith of those around you won't be enough for you.
[00:19:11] The invitation of those around you won't be enough for you. You don't know when that day will come.
[00:19:17] Their oil is not your oil.
[00:19:19] And as with many people, there may be an effort to appear outwardly as a good person, a good Christian.
[00:19:26] So there's an outward appearance that says, I have my heart. I have it too.
[00:19:31] But does that lamp have oil?
[00:19:33] Is there enough oil?
[00:19:35] When temptations come, when difficult times come, will that oil be enough or will it not be enough?
[00:19:43] Finally, my question to you. I asked it many times during the parable. Do you know him?
[00:19:49] Do you want to know God?
[00:19:51] Or do you want what God will give you?
[00:19:54] Do you have an ATM approach to God? Like, I'll give you this. You'll give me that? This is a valuable question and one that needs to be asked seriously. Yes, we have many opportunities in our lives, but sometimes they don't. This question deserves some reflection. Today, its purpose isn't to intimidate. Its purpose is to convey seriousness. So, my brother, are you ready or not? Of course it's an important thing to say. But the reason I'm sharing this with you is that you'll burn if you don't do this. We can't know that. But give me an answer today.
[00:20:26] Do you know him and do you want to know him? And what guarantee is that you'll want to know him?
[00:20:31] Take the time while you're here with me today, while you have the opportunity, invite him. Ask him about it.
[00:20:38] God, I want to know you. I want to have a relationship with you. I want to move forward with you. Not through the words I've heard from you or the narratives of pilgrims, but by knowing you and knowing you.
[00:20:49] This bridegroom, the bridegroom who will come today, Jesus Christ.
[00:20:55] The bond you will establish through Jesus Christ. The bond you will establish today means living with the understanding, knowledge and faith that on that last day a Lord who knows you will come.
[00:21:06] It means waiting for that day with hope, not with fear or panic, but knowing that when he comes, no matter when death demands it, my oil will be sufficient on that day.
[00:21:18] Here's a question for those who didn't know. Who is the bridegroom here? The bridegroom here is Jesus Christ.
[00:21:24] Jesus Christ, who will restore the kingdom of heaven completely and permanently, will one day return. We don't know the time, hour, day, month or year, but we know he will come. When that day comes, his relationship with those he knows, with those with whom he has that relationship will continue.
[00:21:42] However, those who don't know him, who reject him, and in a sense, don't recognize him, will not be able to enter his kingdom.
[00:21:49] The door will close.
[00:21:51] My invitation to you today is not one of fear.
[00:21:55] It's an opportunity to truly desire God through an intimate relationship, to truly walk in his ways.
[00:22:02] Do you want to know Him?
[00:22:04] Do you want to have an intimate relationship with God? That's the question you need to answer today.
[00:22:09] Please don't forget to like our video and subscribe to our channel. I welcome your questions and thoughts in the comments. Take care.
[00:22:15] See you in our next parable video. Peace be upon you.
