Opening illustration: Play video.
Introduction: THERE IS ALSO SPIRITUAL sleep. Notice Ephesians 5:14: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead." This verse is often spoken to sinners, but it was not written to sinners. Ephesians was never written to sinners. It is not a message to sinners at all, but a message to one of the best churches in the New Testament. Yet the writer says, "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Some of the Ephesians were in a somnolent condition; that is, they were morally good but unenlightened. They were religious but unanointed.
It is perfectly possible for a good, faithful, loyal church member to be spiritually asleep--being in a spiritual state that parallels natural sleep. When your husband, your wife, your child, your relative, your friend or you go to sleep tonight, the fact that you are unconscious and out of the running for a while is not bothering you. You know that normally you will wake up again. You are not dead, but you are cut off from your environment, all but that which is reflex--breathing and a few other things. Likewise, it is possible to be a Christian, to be in the church and yet be asleep spiritually. Then you have to be wakened suddenly. You will probably be ashamed of yourself, angry with yourself, frustrated and disconcerted and say, "What's the matter with me? All this time I was almost awake, but not quite."
I hope some of you will agree with me that it is of far greater importance that we have better Christians than that we have more of them! If we have any spiritual concerns, our most pressing obligation is to do all in our power to obtain a revival that will result in a reformed, revitalized, purified church.
Each generation of Christians is the seed of the next, and degenerate seed is sure to produce a degenerate harvest; not a little better than but worse than the seed from which it sprang.
What does God desire us to wake up from?
1. From DARKNESS to LIGHT (vs. 8-10)
Note that he doesn’t say that they once lived in darkness. He says instead that they “were once darkness.” Darkness wasn’t external but internal—it penetrated to the core of their being. But Christ has reversed that, so that they are light—so that light now illuminates their lives all the way to the center.
Keep in mind that darkness can never dispel light. It always works the other way around. Light always dispels darkness. Light always wins.
Light and darkness are often used in both Old and New Testaments as metaphors for good and evil—chaos and order—danger and security—joy and sorrow—truth and untruth—life and death—salvation and condemnation.
Now Paul calls these Ephesian Christians to “walk as children of light.” In other words, he is challenging them to ensure that their lives reflect their true character—as “children of light.”
This counsel would not be needed if it were impossible for these Ephesian Christians to revert to their old ways—to backslide into darkness instead of walking in the light. The tempter never sleeps, so the Christian life requires eternal vigilance. The Light can expose the things done in the darkness.
I remember dining at a restaurant that had “atmosphere,” and by that they seemed to mean that they turned the lights down low. It was one of those restaurants with the ceiling painted black and some creative lighting techniques. For some reason, I was back at the same restaurant during the off hours when they had the lights turned up fully. I was surprised at how different the place looked. And even more, I was surprised to see that there was dirt in the corners. The darkness had covered up the dirt!
Jesus has the same effect on us. When His Light comes into our lives, He exposes our hidden ways of shamefulness.
Jesus put it this way: “But there is nothing covered up, that will not be revealed, nor hidden, that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3).
What is called or is a form of life that is out in the open, transparent before God. But the good news is that the Light has power.
2. From UNFRUITFULNESS to FRUITFULNESS (vs. 11-13)
A fig tree will bear figs, just as a grape vine will yield grapes and an olive tree will bear olives. “Each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush” (Luke 6:44). In like manner, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil” (Luke 6:45).
In other words, God has created the world in such a way that the fruit produced by a tree is determined by the nature of the tree, and the fruit produced by a person is determined by the nature of that person.
The Spirit mentioned in this verse is the Holy Spirit—God’s Spirit. It would be unnatural for God’s Holy Spirit to produce evil fruit—as unnatural as it would be for a fig tree to bear olives or a grape vine to bear figs. The Spirit—God’s Spirit will always bear good fruit.
Absence of rain brings unfruitfulness in and through our lives. We need the right climatic conditions to be fruitful. Only a godly climate of our lives can bring that about. The right amount of manure and fertilizer gives a healthy and bumper produce.
Jesus promised his disciples that he would “pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). Peter exhorted the crowd, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Peter went on to say, “For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself” (Acts 2:38-39)—thus assuring Christ’s future disciples that they too would enjoy the gift of the Spirit.
Therefore, these Ephesian Christians have God’s Spirit dwelling within them—so they should expect to bear fruit consistent with God’s Spirit—good fruit.
3. From DEATH to LIFE (vs. 14)
We often use the word “koinonia” to speak of koinonia groups (fellowship groups of closely knit, sympathetic people). Koinonia, of course, is a Greek word that has been appropriated “as is” into the English language. The word synkoinoneo, used in this verse, is a combination of syn (with) and koinonia (fellowship), so the translation “have no fellowship with” is a good one.
Paul is calling these Ephesian Christians to wall themselves off from “unfruitful works of darkness”—to keep themselves separate from those works so they won’t find themselves drawn into the vortex created by those dark works—to avoid temptation by refusing to rub elbows with it—avoid being, once again, “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God” (4:18).
The counsel to avoid the works of darkness follows naturally on the heels of verse 8, where Paul established that these Christians “were once darkness but are now light in the Lord.” They are familiar with the “unfruitful works of darkness,” because they have fellowshipped with those works in the past—but, in Christ, they have moved from darkness to light (v. 8) so it is no longer appropriate for them to fellowship with dark works. They have nothing to gain by doing so—and much to lose. If they were to fellowship with dark works, they would almost certainly find their reputations tainted—and they might even find the magnetic pull of temptation so powerful that they would revert to being darkness once again.
A Christian can hardly expect to oppose darkness with any effect unless he/she has maintained a good reputation for living in the light. A Christian who enjoys wallowing in the mud can hardly expect to persuade others to avoid mud-wallowing. The exception, of course, would be a person who has recently converted from darkness to light. The testimony of such a person can be effective only as long as they remain true to the light.
Jesus said that “the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed” (John 3:19-20). We can’t expect it to be easy when we set out to expose works of darkness. We should expect those who love darkness to oppose us—possibly violently.
But light does reveal things are they are. It exposes—illuminates—and eventually results in the rendering of judgments. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). He has called us to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). Light eventually overwhelms darkness. Light eventually wins. God will insure it.
“Therefore, he calls every believer and says, ‘Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you' (v. 14). This is apparently a fragment from a hymn that would have been well-known to these Ephesian Christians. While they don’t directly quote scripture, they allude to several well-known Old Testament verses:
• “Yahweh bless you and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you” (Numbers 6:24).
• “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2)
• “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh is risen on you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you” (Isaiah 60:1-2).
Application: Children of God must wake up –
• From DARKNESS to LIGHT
• From UNFRUITFULNESS to FRUITFULNESS
• From DEATH to LIFE
So that they can let the LIGHT of Christ –
• Transform
• Expose
• Awaken
