Awake, O Sleeper

Children of Light  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Good morning, welcome to New Horizon Christian Church. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 5.
Read Ephesians 5:12–14- “For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
Pray.
A word about our verses in context:
Conclusion to what we have been reading since 4:17.
You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
Put away certain behaviors and mentalities.
Put on others.
V. 12-13 continues this theme, highlighting the negative nature of sin and darkness while calling people to repentance and light.
So Paul writes to Christians who are in constant temptation to fall back into old ways of sinfulness and darkness.
V. 14 focuses on the words of what was likely a baptismal hymn in the early church, a hymn of repentance in which many OT passages, such as Isaiah 60, are recalled.
In the event that this was a hymn, based on Scripture, that was likely often recited in the life of the early church, I’d like to know its contents well.
Let’s focus on some of the words that we see in v. 14

1. Sleeper.

One who has drifted off.
Specifically, those who have drifted off spiritually. The very subject of what Paul has been addressing.
Conscious or unconscious.
Sometimes we know that we are falling asleep.
Groggy while driving.
Sometimes we are just out.
Sleeping at Oma’s.
What does it mean to be a sleeper?
Spiritual retreat.
Gone back to our old ways.
Spiritual autopilot.
Aren’t considering much about our faith at all.
How do I know if I am a spiritual sleeper today?
What are the symptoms?
Spiritual Apathy.
See no need for Christ’s influence in our lives, so we do without.
No time in God’s Word, drifting from the fellowship of the Church.
Spiritual Stubbornness.
I don’t care. I will do what I want to do, regardless of whether it reflects the light of Christ or the darkness of Satan.
So what is the instruction that is given to the sleeper?

2. Awake.

To arouse from sleep.
Paul here calls the Ephesian Christians who have fallen back into dark and sinful practices to wake up.
To see that they have been asleep, to see the condition of their spiritual life, and to see their need for waking.
Likely not a gentle waking, but instead a jolt.
Waking Tiny this morning.
How does God wake us up?
Warnings in His Word.
2 Timothy 4:2- “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
The preaching of God’s Word is meant to do a lot. Park of what it does is to reprove and rebuke.
Not only the hearers, but the speaker as well.
1 Peter 2:2- “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—”
Crave the truth of God’s Word, long for it. Why? Because it grows you into what you are supposed to be.
We move from darkness to light, from old ways to new,
People in our lives.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10- “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”
We must have friendships that are aimed at moving from darkness and into light.
Hebrews 10:24–25- “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
We are meant to ask this of our friendships. Are those to whom we are closest stirring us to good works?
Extensions of mercy and kindness.
Romans 2:4- “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
God’s mercy is not meant to keep us in sin.
We see this in parenting. No desire to punish, so our hope is that an extension of mercy will lead to new behavior.
God is doing plenty to wake us up, to arouse us from our spiritual slumber. Do we see it?

3. Arise.

Two words given that have roughly the same definition.
Both can mean to wake up from sleep, both can mean to rise from lying down.
To stand up from laying down.
Don’t merely wake up and stay in bed.
Continues this theme from Paul. It is not enough merely to avoid the bad, or to avoid what is done in darkness.
Instead, our lives are to be lived in the light.
What we do, how we live, how we speak, is all meant to not only take place in the light, but is meant to proclaim the light.
This is the point of Ephesians 5:13–14- “But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.”
Don’t continue to live a life of darkness, but rather come into the light and allow your life to be made light.
What does this life look like? How is the life of light to be lived?
Take a quick glance backward.
Ephesians 4:25- “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
The life lived in darkness speaks that which is untrue,
Ephesians 4:29- “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:32- “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 5:2- “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Ephesians 5:4- “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
What Paul has been doing throughout chapters 4 and 5 is defining what it looks like for Christians to come out of darkness and into light.
All of what Paul has written since 4:17 has had the aim of leading up to 5:14. Wake up sleeper, and arise from the dead.

4. Shine.

Christ will shine on you.
Here is the result of a person’s waking up from spiritual slumber, of their rising up from the bed.
When we wake up to how we have been living and move away from it, the light of Christ will shine on us.
This makes sense. Waking up and moving out of what is dark and into what is light.
And the light of Christ does great things in our lives.
Eva laying on the hardwood floor where the sun comes in. Looks uncomfortable, but it’s warm.
We have these moments of spiritual apathy, of returning to our past darkness.
What we need most in these moments is the light of Christ to shine on us.
Remember, Jesus is the light of the world. And so long as we reflect Christ’s light, we are the light of the world as well.
What influences our thoughts about what we are to believe and how we are to live?
Why do I think the thoughts that I think? Why do I live the life that I live?
What are the places in our minds, hearts and lives that have never been impacted by the light of Christ?
Remember, some sleep we are aware of. Other sleep we are completely unconscious of.
We are to wake up to both kinds of sleep. Both darknesses.
Paul spends so much time warning of this difference between light and darkness because it is not difficult to fall back into the thoughts and practices of darkness.
Think about the disciples in their time with Jesus.
While we see growth as they learn to live as Jesus lives, there is always the temptation to fall back into the lives they once lived.
We see plenty of examples of pride, of fear, of selfishness, of anger.
We are to ask- Where does that come from? What will cause the disciples to turn away from such mindsets and take on the mindset of Christ?
A final word of warning.
These words of Paul have focused on believers who are finding their way back into areas of darkness.
But what of those who live there?
These are dire warnings for believers, but even moreso for those who have not embraced Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior of their lives.
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