AWAKING FROM SLEEP AND ARISING FROM THE DEAD
Study Text: Ephesians 5: 1 – 17
Introduction:
- We live in a hard, dark world, a world that is dominated and driven by sin. In the midst of that darkness and depravity, God has redeemed a people.
- He has redeemed a people that He expects to be different. He has redeemed a people He has empowered to be different.
- Somebody that sleep and the one that is dead have something in common: they have both lost control of conscious activities and have become insensitive to things happening around them.
- So many things that they could not tolerate or cope with when awaken or alive can easily be done or performed around or with them without their awareness.
- This loss of sensitivity and consciousness differ in the degree and extent, in that it is very easy for one to wake out of sleep than to arise from the dead, even though, both are possible.
- When we become spiritually insensitive to and unconscious of:
i. Our true identity in Christ.
ii. Our expected attitudes, character and lifestyle from the word of God.
iii. Our restrictions in behaviour, relationships and involvement by the word of God.
- We are described as someone that is spiritually sleeping or someone that is spiritually dead, depending on the degree and extent to which we have gone.
- The scripture that we read is all about change. It is designed to teach us that we are different from the world around us, and since we are different, we should live lives that are different.
- The simple truth is that believers should be different from those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. A brief review of the first eight verses of this chapter clearly demonstrate this truth.
• In verse 1, we are commanded to live like God.
• In verse 2, we are commanded to love like God.
• In verses 3-7, we are commanded to leave this world and its ways behind.
• Beginning in verse 8, the Apostle tells us why we are to be different.
- This is something we need to hear and heed. After all, we are living in this world, but we are “strangers and pilgrims” here. 1 Pet. 2:11.
- While we are “strangers and pilgrims,” in this world, there was a time when we were citizens of this world. We lived like they live. We thought like they think. We did what they do. We were part of them.
- But, when we were saved by the grace of God, we were delivered from our old life of sin, and we were given a new life of righteousness.
- While we delivered from the world, we still possess a deep familiarity with the world and its ways. There is still a part of us, the fleshly part that still desires the things of the world we left behind when we were saved, and beyond that:
• There is always pressure for the saints of God to be more like the world around them.
• There is overt pressure from advertising, entertainment, and other forms of media for us to do what the world does.
• There is subtle pressure even from people we love who would like to see us behave a little more like them. They would like to see us do the things they do. These folk do what they do because our lifestyle makes them feel guilty about the way they are living. Rom 12: 1-2
• There is pressure from within as the flesh reaches out for the things that are now forbidden to it. We might be saved, but there is still a part of us that loves sin and that hates the rigours of holiness.
- While there is pressure to go back, there is also pressure to go forward. Just as surely as the flesh and the world longs for us to conform to its ways, the Spirit of God and the word of God want us to be transformed so that we might be what God saved us to be, Gal. 5:16-17.
- We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:
1. Substantive Changes by our Redemption
2. Salient Characteristics of the Redeemed
3. Specific Commands of the Redeemer
1. Substantive Changes by our Redemption
- We “were sometimes darkness.” This means that we were lost and in the darkness of sin and depravity. We were blinded by the god of this world, 2 Cor. 4:4. We lived like every other lost person, and we enjoyed it, Eph. 2:1-3.
- We were enslaved to sin. We knew nothing else. We wanted nothing else. We were lost in the dark and headed to Hell. We lived like the lost people we were.
- But we are transformed by our redemption. When the Lord saved us, He delivered us from darkness. Col. 1:13.
- When the Lord delivered us from darkness, He set us free from the power of sin. He has changed and made us children of the light.
- Since we have been changed, we are to walk in light and no longer in the darkness that once characterized us. Rom. 13:12-14.
- Our lives once manifested the works of the world, the flesh and the devil. Sin was a way of life for us. Darkness was where we lived, and what we loved.
- By the power of grace, the Lord has touched us, saved us, delivered us and changed us. He has brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
- Since that is true, we are to “walk as children of light.” How do we do that? We do that by avoiding sinful thinking and sinful living.
- We do it by surrendering our all to the Spirit of God, Who will produce within us the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
- We have been changed, and we should live different lives. If we are truly saved, and if we have been truly changed, then holiness should be a way of life for us. 2 Cor. 5:17
2. Salient Characteristics of the Redeemed
- If we are truly saved, and walking in the light, it will be clear from the life we live. Paul says the “fruit of the Spirit” is seen in three ways. Eph 5: 9-10
• It is seen in Goodness - This word refers to godliness in the motives, thoughts and actions. It is the quality of godlikeness. This has also to do with our treatment of others. When we practice “goodness,” we are walking in love to those around us. We are being God-like toward them, as we treat them like God treats us.
• It is seen in Righteousness - This word refers to our standing before the Lord. When He saved us, God declared us righteous. He took away all our guilt, imputed the righteousness of Christ to us, and made us holy in His sight. Righteousness is seen in our lives when we live out the reality of who we are, and what we have been made in Christ Jesus. It speaks of a godliness that makes a life as being different and as belonging to the Lord.
• It is seen in Truth - This word has to do with honesty, reliability, and trustworthiness. When this quality is seen in the life of a believer, it stands in stark contrast to the hypocritical, deceptive and false ways of the world.
- “Goodness” deals with our relationship with others.
- “Righteousness” deals with our relationship with God.
- “Truth” deals with the personal integrity of our own lives.
- These three characteristics are called fruit. They are the proof of the presence of the life of the Lord in us. When we know Him, we will be like Him!
- You will notice that he did not speak about praying a prayer, joining the church, being baptized, being good to people, doing good works, or giving to or serving the church. All those things are good, but they are works that are easily accomplished in the flesh. Anyone can do them, even someone who has never been saved.
- On the other hand, the three characteristics Paul did mention, goodness, righteousness and truth, are only possible through the work of the Spirit in the life of a redeemed believer.
3. Specific Commands of the Redeemer
- These phrase “have no fellowship” means “do not be a partaker of.” Those who know the Lord should not be a partaker of those things that are evil, even by association. Eph 5: 11-12.
- We are to avoid all things that are evil. We are to avoid even the appearance of evil, 1 Thes. 5:22. We have to be in the world. If we are not in the world at all, we cannot witness to the lost.
- However, we must be careful that we do not allow ourselves to get trapped by the ways of the world. We are to be a separate, holy people to the glory of the Lord.
- The kind of sins we are to avoid have been mentioned in Eph. 4:25-31, and in Eph. 5:4-6. This is not an exhaustive list of sins we are to avoid. We are to avoid all sin! 1 Cor. 5:9-11.
- We are to guard our hearts, our minds and our bodies. Sin is all around us, but so is the help of the Spirit of God, 1 John 4:4. If we trust Him, He will help us to live lives that are holy and pleasing to Him.
- Our responsibility to abstain from sin goes farther than simply not doing sinful things. Here, we are commanded to “reprove them.”
- This means that we are to “expose” evil for what it is. When we are silent about sin, we are guilty of encouraging it. When we ignore sin, we are guilty of promoting it.
- It means that we confront sin by refusing to tolerate it. This means that there are times when we must speak out. We must tell others what the Bible says is right and what it says is wrong.
- Sometimes our intolerance of sin will be direct, as we deal face to face with those who are involved in sinful activities. At other times, our reproof of wickedness will be indirect. That is, we do the opposite of what the world around us does, and God uses that to rebuke them for their error.
- They are selfish, but we are giving. They curse, we bless. They live for self, we live for God and for others. They lie, we speak the truth. Simply living for the Lord is a powerful testimony in the face of evil.
- One of our problems is the fact that we don’t take sin seriously enough. We wink at it. We laugh about it. We see those around us who are engaged in sin, and we fail to confront. We just don’t take sin as seriously as we should.
- While we would never do many of the things those around us do, we enjoy them from a distance. Thus, we were still contaminated by it, because we refuse to take a stand against sin and rebuke it.
- When we walk in the light, it makes the evil of the world around us easy to see. The children of God should walk so holy, so clean, and so close to God that we stand out as beacons of light in a dark world.
- To maintain a high level of awareness is essential to godly living. To stay awake in your service to the Lord is crucial to inspect yourself. Walk with your eyes open - alert to everything around you.
Conclusion:
- If you are lost, you can be saved. The Lord will change your life, deliver you from darkness and fill you with His light.
- There is also a call here for believers to wake up. We have wandered through this world in a spiritual slumber for far too long. It is time we woke up and got about the Saviour’s business.
- When we do, we will be light to a world trapped in darkness. It may just be that the Lord will use that light to save sinners. Rom. 13:11–14.
