Wake Up Now Romans 13:1-14 (by Ciro Castro)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
A Senegalese proverb says, “The opportunity that God sends does not wake up those that are asleep.” Our slumber or idleness can stand in the way of what God has prepared for us. Therefore, we need to take the Bible seriously when it plainly warns us that the hour has come to wake up from our slumber.
We can not sleep. Our Lord and Savior is returning and God is calling on us, His children to help Him reconcile all men to Himself.
Our passage for this morning is:
1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;
4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
This morning we will look at:
1. What should we do?
2. Wake Up, Now!
3. On to the “Awakened Life”
1. What should we do?
Verse 11 begins with the words, “and do this,” connecting the preceding verses in chapter 13 with what Paul is about to say. The previous verses give believers a window into the ethics of the Kingdom, and how God calls us to conduct ourselves in this life with our primary allegiance to the Kingdom of God.
A. Submit to Authority Romans 13:1-7
Romans 13:1 says:
1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
This may be an unpopular message, but Paul makes the case that “there is no authority except that which God has established” so we are to submit ourselves to governing authorities above us. This can mean Federal, State, Local and community governments, chain of command at work and even here in the church.
ii. The writings of Paul are not comprehensive for every situation that comes up, as we see examples in Scripture of when the laws of governing authorities are in direct conflict with God’s law and the response of the people of God (e.g., Daniel, Hebrew midwives). However, it gives us a baseline to know how to live within the authority structures of our world and how to maintain our witness as a disciple of Christ.
A time to rebel - when the governing authorities tell us to break God’s law (expand).
B. Love Your Neighbor
8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
i. Paul goes on to say that the only “debt” we should owe each other is love. Loving our neighbor is the fulfillment of the law because love, as laid out in Scripture, is the reversal of all that is evil, harmful, and self-seeking.
ii. Loving others is the second greatest qualifying marker of a true follower of Jesus after loving God. When we “understand our present time,” we realize that our time is limited, and we must be all the more motivated to love people as God did.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. But who is my neighbor you may ask… Tell about the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and -
36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”
37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
2. Wake Up, Now!
Paul’s words in Romans 13 frame the warning he was about to share for the Church to wake up from their slumber and a reason as to why. It is not only because sleeping is an obstacle to living the Christ-life but because the salvation that we have been promised is coming and coming very soon.
A. Parallel between Romans 13:11 and Ephesians 5:14
i. In Ephesians 5:14, Paul writes,
14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”
In this verse, the word “sleeper” is a metaphor for one who “yields to sloth and sin” or one who is “indifferent to their salvation” (Blue letter Bible).
In Romans 13:11 Paul says:
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
In this verse Paul uses the word hypnos. Which carries the idea of being hypnotized. Your walking around doing stuff but you aren’t really aware of what you are doing. Being in a hypnotic trace leaves us vulnerable to attacks from satan who wants to destroy all those who believe in Christ Jesus.
ii. It is extremely dangerous for us as believers to give into sloth and sin or walk around in a hypnotic trance. It is dangerous for us to be indifferent to our salvation, and to simply be “going through the motions” of the Christian life. Spiritual sleepiness is a huge obstacle to the life Jesus modeled for us. So wake up!
B. The Scope of the Salvation of God
i. It’s a tremendous mistake to simply understand salvation as our “ticket to heaven” or a decision we make that has no effects on the rest of our life on earth. In fact, it is not only a mistake, but it demonstrates spiritual sleepiness.
If we only see our salvation as a ticket to heaven we will miss out on the fullness of life that Jesus provides us. John 10:10 says:
10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
An abundant life. That is truly what Christ Jesus wants for us, but the thief comes to take it all away. If you are asleep the thief can come in and steal what Christ Jesus has provided. Instead a wonderful life in Christ you wind up with a mess.
ii. The word “salvation” that Paul uses means much more than just deliverance from sin and death. This salvation in the here and now keeps us from sin when Jesus is a part of life from an early age, or it pulls us out of sin if we accept Jesus at a later age. If you want to know more about this salvation look at Chapter 1 of the letter to the Ephesians. Some of what this salvation provides is adoption into the Family of God, Redemption from the evil one, grace, mercy, and an inheritance in His Kingdom. This salvation also reflects our “future salvation, the sum benefits and blessings which Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God”. How glorious is this salvation that God’s children will get to experience!
C. The Urgency of Salvation
i. The nearness of our salvation should invoke a sense of urgency. We are one day farther from the beginning of our salvation, and one day closer to the time when we will receive our final call. I started on this journey more than 20 years ago, some of you much longer. No matter how far from our beginning we are or how close to our close we are we are not to delay any longer. The time is now. These words from Paul are not only instructions to wake up from our slumber, but they are to propel us towards those who need to hear about this salvation that is coming.
ii. To wake up and live the Christ-life is to share the greatest hope we have with those who knowingly or unknowingly, are asleep and far from the path of life. That hope is eternal life.
3. On to the “Awakened Life”
Paul continues this passage by unpacking even further the “awakened life” we are to live in the light of the spiritual and physical reality of the world around us and the Kingdom of God.
A. Put On God’s Armor Romans 13:12
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
i. As followers of Jesus, we cannot live in both light and darkness, so in order to put on the armor of God, we need to reject the works of darkness. The works of darkness are sin. 1 John 3:7-8
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
We need to live in the light. The light of God living in us cannot be extinguished by the darkness around us.
ii. So, the armor of God is not a list of individual things we work to achieve, but it is received through the Spirit of God as we continually pursue Him. The armor of God allows us to stand firm against the evil one, it allows us to be light living in the darkness. The armor allows us to stand against spiritual forces that we cannot see. So gird your loins with truth, put on the breast plate of righteousness, shod your feet with the Gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. This is the armor of God, these are the weapons God has given us to live in the light.
B. Cloth Yourself with Jesus
i. Just as Christ was clothed in human flesh, we are to clothe ourselves with Jesus through our union with Him
13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
By clothing ourselves with Christ and pursuing Christlikeness, we reject “the desires of the flesh” in order to honor God as Jesus did with His life.
Ralph in a bunny suit - or me in cover alls.
ii. As Charles Spurgeon says, “The rags of sin must come off if we put on the robe of Christ. There must be a taking away of the love of sin, there must be a renouncing of the practices and habits of sin, or else a man cannot be a Christian. It will be an idle attempt to try and wear religion as a sort of celestial overall over the top of old sins.”
C. On Earth as it is in Heaven
i. Each day that passes is a day closer to when we will experience the culmination of our salvation as we are with our Savior for all eternity. Until then, we play an active part in living the already/not yet life, seeing the Kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven.
ii. We live into the reality of the Kingdom by submitting to authority, demonstrating our trust in the sovereignty of God above human rule and reign by loving our neighbor, demonstrating our adoption of the values of God; by putting on the armor of light, demonstrating our confidence in the power of God; and by clothing ourselves with Jesus, demonstrating our embrace of the life of Christ in us.
Exit: Take a moment to reflect. What is God speaking? What is the Spirit revealing? What is Jesus wanting to do in your life today? If you are convicted, receive it. If you are encouraged, receive it. If you seek direction, receive it. The most troubling response to this message would be to walk out indifferent, asleep, and with the blinders still on. The directive of Paul is clear. The hour has come to wake up; so wake up!