Latter Parables Of Jesus 16

NTRO: This is the third to last parable that we have sought to cover. I am grateful to have had opportunity to give time to these parables. I have had time to study things I have puzzled over for 43 years as a Christian and put together in my own mind some of the details I had not yet settled.

Let me review just a little with a few overhead slides (Slide 1). In the first 6 parables, the topic centered around the time of Christ, 2,000 years ago. The last six, to which we added one, center around the return of Christ. We’ll go to the second slide now (Slide 2). The return of Christ, as I understand the Scriptures, has two phases; the rapture, when Christ comes into the air for the Church; and what we call the second coming, when He comes all the way to earth to set up His kingdom.

As I interpret the parable we had last Sunday, the parable we will look at this morning, and the next parable, they all deal first with those that will be ready when the Lord raptures the Church. The faithful servant of last week’s parable, the five wise virgins of today’s parable, and the two faithful servants of the next parable speak of those who are ready when Christ returns, and they are caught up to heaven.