[Hold up cell phone.]
Yep … we talked a little bit about this handy device last week. More accurately, we talked about one of the apps … the GPS. But there is another little handy app that I use all the time to help me plan my day … The Weather Channel’s Ten Day Weather app which, as the name says, predicts the weather for the Canton area for the next 10 days. Yesterday it said that we had a 95% chance of rain. Today it says 100%. Does anyone here know what it means when the weather forecast says that there’s a 40 or 50 percent chance of rain? It doesn’t mean that we have a 40 or 50 percent chance out of a hundred that it will rain. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it means that 40 or 50 percent of our area WILL receive rain … the question is, which 40 or 50%. So … the question is not “if” it will rain but “where” it will rain, amen?
Predictions about the weather are useful when it comes to planning our day, even though we know that predicting the weather is, well, a hit-or-miss proposition, right? Still, we tend to listen to the weather report or look it up on-line and we tend to look up at the sky and make the most educated guess that we can as we head outdoors and into our day. Whether it rains or not, we’re prepared … most of the time. Sometimes it catches us off guard. But there’s one time we don’t want to get caught off guard.
“The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked Him to show them a sign from Heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:1-3).
So, here’s the thing. On the one hand, we’re always looking for signs of the “end time.” People thought that World War I was the beginning of the end times spoken about by Jesus and John in the Book of Revelation. Some thought it was World War II. Then it was the Cold War. Today it seems like we have plenty of “signs” … the pandemic, the trucker strike up north. Now it looks like the conflict in the Ukraine could spark a world war. When the Disciples asked Jesus for a sign of His coming and the end of the age, He told them: “Beware that no one leads you astray” … we have a lot of that today don’t we? … “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” We will hear of wars and rumors of wars … nation will rise against nation … kingdom against kingdom … famine and earthquakes … but we are not to be alarmed because the end is not yet. Which leads me to the flip side of seeking for signs.
It’s a weird thing. We check the weather forecast all the time but the running joke is that weather forecasting is nothing more than an educated guess and that they are wrong almost as often as they are right … and this can lead us to doubt the veracity of forecast, am I right? Take our weather recently. A few weeks back the local forecasters were warning us about a huge snowstorm coming our way … nothing … nothing worth worrying about anyways. Then, about a week later, they predicted another snowstorm and, well, frankly, I didn’t really buy it … and it turned out we got a pretty good amount of snow.
This can have some pretty serious consequences … like not preparing for a snowstorm … and we know that, so we prepare anyways. I’ve been through this many, many times in Florida. Every year they predict that Florida or the Gulf Coast region is going to get slammed by a hurricane or several hurricanes. The watch begins. The models and predictions are literally all over the map … could hit here, could hit there … could be a category 5 … thousands could die … and then it never comes … it suddenly changes direction … it never really organizes or gains strength … it goes somewhere else. And so, we rush to the store, we stock up and prepare, but we don’t put much stock in it because we’ve been down this road so many times and had nothing happen. We become, well, anesthetized … skeptical … we don’t take the warnings as seriously as we did the first time we went through this. Or, we’re so used to it and we have permanent supplies and emergency equipment on hand so that we feel safe, prepared and we don’t get as worried or scared or as worked up as we used to.
Every once in a while … wham! And it’s more powerful or more damaging that we could have ever imagined. Floods are not that uncommon in this area. We recently had one and it was devasting but in a year or two, if we don’t have another one and all the damage has been repaired … the imminent threat of another flood will slowly become, well, less and less imminent as time goes by, amen? It’s just human nature.
Just before Jesus was arrested and crucified, He made a prediction … a promise, if you will: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3). And when He comes, Jesus said that there would be absolutely no doubt that it was Him and why He came:
“Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).
For those who believed and followed Jesus, the question was “when?” When would He return? The empty tomb was proof that He had risen but what about His promise to return, to come and gather His elect and bring them to heaven to be with Him? And the message that they got was “any day now” but as the days stretched into weeks, months into years, their hope and their anticipation began to wane. As one author put it: “It is terribly difficult to inspire people to prepare for a potential crisis that has never happened before and may not happen for decades to come” (Brooks, M. “Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe.” In New Scientist, March 23, 3009). As another author put it: “Just because a highly probable event has not yet occurred is no guarantee that it will never happen” (Jeremiah, D. Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World. Nashville: W Group Publishing; 2009; p. 216). But, as I pointed out, the sense of urgency and expectation begin to wane over time and this is one of the issues that Paul is addressing to the Christian community in Rome.
Paul is concerned that the Christians in Rome are falling “asleep.” “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep” (Romans 13:11). Even Jesus warned us about the danger of falling asleep in the parable of the 10 bridesmaids who missed the arrival of the bridegroom and ended up getting locked out of the celebration. Speaking of His return, Jesus said that no one knows the hour or the day, not even the angels of Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Matthew 24:42-44).
Time is passing. Jesus has not come and the people are beginning to give up hope … at least any hope of it happening anytime soon or even in their lifetime. Some begin to doubt that it will happen at all and some feel that they’ve been lied to. The Apostle Peter, who was with Jesus and heard Jesus speak these words and make these promises, ran into people who were beginning to doubt that Jesus was ever going to come at all or that He even made such promises and were beginning to abandon their faith and go back to their old ways. “First of all you must understand this,” writes Peter, “that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’” (2nd Peter 3:3-4).
Listen carefully to what Peter is saying: “… that in the last days scoffers will come.” Those who were scoffing during the time that Peter wrote that letter needed to watch out. Perhaps they were the scoffers in the last days and they sure didn’t want to be going around scoffing and doubting the promises lest these be the “last days” and Jesus should suddenly appear, amen?
Peter attempts to explain this in terms of time … chronos verses kairos. “Chronos” is time based on the movement of the sun … a day equaling one rotation of the earth around the sun marked off by a period of day light and a period of darkness. “Kairos” is “divine” time. It refers to the quality of time. It describes a season or an opportunity. God’s time, says Peter, God’s experience of “time,” is different from ours. “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2nd Peter 3:8-9). One thing is certain. Be it tomorrow or a thousand years from now, says Peter, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2nd Peter 3:8-12).
Paul is expressing the same concern and warning: “… how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep [for] salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near” (Romans 13:11). Both Peter and Paul raise the question … what should we be doing when … not ‘if’ but ‘when’ … the Lord appears? How do you want Him to find you? Vigilant? Full of hope and expectation? Prepared? Ready to greet Him? Or scoffing? Asleep?
“Knowing the time,” says Paul, “that now it is time to awake out of sleep” (Romans 13:11). Sleep is something that we do at the end of the day. We lay our heads down and we lose or suspend our consciousness for a while. But “sleep” is another way of describing someone who is not very alert … someone who is not vigilant or attentive … someone who is not aware of their surroundings or the passing of time … they’re somnolent … sleep walking through life. And the anecdote for our somnolence, our sleep walking, is not what you would expect. “Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).
One of the things that can keep us awake at night is worry … especially worrying about the bills, amen? “Well,” says Paul, “the cure for that is to not have any bills or owe anyone.” But that would lead to us having a good night’s sleep and the goal is to stay awake. Again, Paul is not talking about physical sleep. If the Lord were to come tomorrow, do I have any unfinished business … business that shouldn’t be unfinished because I was acting in love. Do I owe an amends for harms that I’ve done? Harsh words that I’ve said? The time to make them right is now. But if I live in love, then the chances are that I’m not going to “owe” a lot of amends or apologies, amen? As one author explained: “The Old Testament system works on the basis of detailed restrictions: Thou shalt not. The gospel, however, offers a streamlined and proactive way to live. We don’t have to worry so much about what we should not do because we are busy with what we should [do]” (Jeremiah, ibid., p. 219; italics the author’s). We are supposed to be “busy” loving our neighbors, taking care of them. Love is about action. It’s about showing our love by doing things for others … which means paying attention to the needs, the wants, the pain, and the suffering of those around us and figuring out ways that we can be there for them and help them … and this is a good thing to do and a good thing for Jesus to find us doing when He comes to claim us, His bride, amen? “Get your act together. Get your relationships in order,” says Paul, “because Jesus could be here before you even finish reading this sentence.”
As I mentioned earlier, some of the people were beginning to lose hope and began sliding back into their old ways and their old lifestyles before they became believers. “Wake up!” cries Paul. “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorable as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy” (Romans 13:11-13).
When Paul calls us to “lay aside the works of darkness,” he is calling us to deliberately, purposefully, significantly, and, most importantly, permanently put aside the works of darkness. Not just to avoid them but to aggressively and deliberately shove them aside or out of the way like a quarterback or a running back running into the forward defensive line. We are not to be passive but aggressive in our dealings with darkness because, let’s face it, we might fall asleep but the devil doesn’t, amen? As Charles Spurgeon puts it: “You can sleep, but you cannot induce the devil to close his eyes. … The prince of power of the air keeps his servants well up to their work … if we could, with a glance, see the activities of the servants of Satan, we would be astonished at our sluggishness” (Spurgeon, C.H. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons Preached and Revised, “Wake Up! Wake Up!” London: Passmore & Alabaster; 1879; p. 657). We may, as Spurgeon points out, be astonished at our sluggishness but we certainly don’t want Jesus to be astonished by our sluggishness, do we? I hope not.
Paul gives us some examples of the kind of “works” that can result from our sluggishness or our inattention. These are only a few examples, there are many more. He only uses these to make his point. For example, “drunkenness” and “reveling” are “public” sins. They are examples of disorderly social behavior. Behavior that is done at night under the cover of darkness … unlike honorable behavior that is done out in the open in the bright sunlight, amen? Some sin is obvious … some sin, the most insidious and dangerous, is the sin that is “private” or in secret … that remains hidden in the dark regions of our hearts and minds. “Debauchery,” licentiousness,” “quarreling,” and “jealousy aren’t always plainly visible. And, because they hide in the mind and in the heart, we can’t be held accountable for them by others. Others can’t call us out for what they can’t see … and that lulls us into thinking that we are safe in our secrets but nothing is hidden from the Lord. As David points out in Psalm 139:
“O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, You know it completely” (Psalm 139:1-4).
I want you to note Paul’s use of darkness and light in this passage. We believe that the day starts when the sun rises. The ancient Jews believed that the day started when the sun went down and the world was once again plunged into darkness like it was before the beginning of creation. Each day is a re-creation of the first day, when God separated the darkness from the light or drove the darkness back with light. The way to drive away the darkness is with light, amen? The smallest candle can drive away the darkest dark. The Apostle John described Jesus as … say it with me … the “Light of the World” (John 9:5). “The light shines in the darkness,” wrote the Apostle John, “and the darkness did not overcome it.” Paul tells us to put on the “armor of light” to drive away the works of darkness so that when THE Light of the World comes, we will have nothing to fear because we have, in Paul’s words, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, so that there is no space, no room, no “provision” for the flesh to gratify its desires (Romans 13:14).
Here’s the problem with falling asleep. Sometimes we simply doze off and don’t even know that we’ve fallen asleep. Has that ever happened to you? You wake up all of a sudden and you don’t remember falling asleep and it takes you a minute or two to figure out where you are or what time it is? It’s a weird feeling, amen? Sometimes we fall into sin and don’t even realize it. We give in to a “little” temptation … we make a concession here, an exception there … and we end up lost … worse, not even aware that we are lost. A Barna study in 2009 found that three-quarters of American Christians believe God is the “all powerful, all-knowing Creator of the Universe who rules the world today” (“Most America Christians Do Not Believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit Exists.” Barna Research Group Update, April 13, 2009). Seventy-five percent. It should be higher than that, don’t you think? But, as you might expect, it gets worse. Thirty-nine percent of American Christians … I want to emphasize that … American “Christians” … believe that Jesus sinned during His time on earth … yeah, right? Fifty-eight percent of American Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living being but the study didn’t go into what they believe the Holy Spirit actually is. Sixty percent don’t believe in Satan but 64% believe that demons are real and that demons can affect us … which doesn’t make sense to me. How can you believe in demons but not Satan but that’s the point here. We’re falling asleep little by little. One out of every three American Christians believe that the Bible and the Koran teach the same truths. At the end of their study, Barna concluded that “American Christians tend to stretch the Bible to fit their everyday experiences” instead of striving to make their everyday experiences fit the Bible (Barna, ibid.). As one author pointed out, “we’re not sitting on the fence at this point; we’re helping the enemy tear down the fence entirely” (Jeremiah, ibid., p. 222). Like Paul, we need to shout and wake up our Christian sisters and brothers because we don’t want them to be caught unaware and get left out of the wedding feast of our Lord and Savior when He comes, amen?
Paul’s advice is for us to put ourselves in the best possible situation to succeed and as far away as possible from the place of failure and we do that, says Paul, by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ so as “to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). Pastor and author Ray Steadman has a beautiful way of understanding and describing what Paul meant when he said that we should “put on” Christ:
“When I get up in the morning, I put on my clothes, intending them to be part of me all day, to go where I go and do what I do. They cover me and make me presentable to others. That is the purpose of clothes. In the same way, the apostle is saying to us, ‘Put on Jesus Christ when you get up in the morning. Make Him a part of your life that day. Intend that he go with you everywhere you go, and that He act through you in everything you do. Call upon His resources. Live your life IN CHRIST’” (Steadman, R. From Guilt to Glory (Vol. 21). Waco, TX: Word; 1978; p. 136; emphasis the author’s).
In a later publication, Steadman goes on to say: “’Flee immorality’ – that is the advice everywhere in the Bible. Do not try to fight with it; do not try to overcome it; do not try to suppress it. Get away! There are subtle, powerful forces, and the widespread destruction we see in [the] lives around us is simply testimony to the subtlety with which they conquer us” (Steadman, R. Expository Studies in 1 Corinthians: The Deep Things of God. Waco, TX: Words Books; 1981; pp. 130-131).
We know that nobody has to live what one author called “a disappointing Christian life” (Jeremiah, ibid., p. 224). We know it can be done because Jesus Christ has won the victory. We tend to think of our salvation as a moment in our past when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior but Paul has a much, much more dynamic understanding of our salvation. For him, it is an on-going process that began when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, but it is also an on-going process, in the present, as we grow more and more into the image of Christ … and it is a future salvation as Paul describes here in Romans 13 when Jesus comes and takes us, made pure and holy by His sacrifice and blood on the cross, to be with Him. And, like Paul, author James Montgomery, reminds us that with each passing day we “pitch our moving tent a day’s march nearer home” (“Forever with the Lord.” In Poet’s Portfolio, 1835; Cyberhynal.com). Every day we move closer to the day when we will finally be freed from the presence of sin. The good news, says Paul, is that the ”night is far gone, the day is near” (Romans 13:12). “The devil has played all his cards, and we have the victory of Christ on our side” (Jeremiah, ibid., p. 221). Until that day when Christ comes, we must put on the armor of light and be vigilant. We must be on constant guard against the encroachment of the old ways. We mustn’t let the devil get his nose into the tent, amen? If we strap on the armor light, the devil will flee.
Lent is the time of year when we are reminded, as Paul is attempting to remind us today, that we live in the age between the time when Christ first came and Christ will come again. The cross represents the most awesome force in the universe. As Paul put it: “… it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Lent is a time when we remember that we can’t earn our salvation and a time to be eternally grateful that we don’t have to, amen? Let me repeat that. Lent is a time when we remember that we can’t earn our salvation and a time to be eternally grateful that we don’t have to. Do we know what Christ has done for us in the past? Do we know that He is with us right now? And do we know that He is coming back? Or are we asleep? Going through our days, alone … lost … weary … afraid … tossed about like a feather in the wind? Lent is a time of reflection and Lent is a wake-up call. We journey with Christ to the cross and we stand before the empty tomb and we know that we have yet to see the end of the story, amen? Until then, Lent reminds us to put on the armor of light and live honorably, to be alert, to be vigilant, to be ready, to be watchful … with one eye on what’s happening in the world and the other eye on Heaven.
