The Comatose Christian

Ephesians 5:14–20 (NKJV)

14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The New Testament always pictures the servant of God as active. The apostle Paul describes Christian servants as athletes, soldiers, pilgrims, builders, and farmers. He knew nothing of “taking it easy, a retirement plan, or something you just do on the weekends.” And here in his letter to the Ephesians he urges individual Christians and the Christian church in general to wake up, get up, buy up, and fill up!

1 The Christian is Awake

“Therefore He says, Awake you who sleep” v.14

The Greek word for “awake” means to collect one’s faculties. There is no place for the half-asleep in God’s service.

It is possible to be asleep spiritually and not know it. We can be doing all the right things and saying all the right words but still be spiritually asleep.. Just as some people walk and talk in their sleep and are oblivious to their condition, so some try to serve Christ and his church while spiritually asleep.

It is one of the devil’s masterstrokes to get a Christian or a Christian church to go to sleep through pride or complacency. We must wake up and become aware of our condition and the condition of the unsaved world around us. We need to Stop going through the motions and stop playing church and start Being the church

We can become comfortable and lazy in regards to our faith. We allow other people to do things when God is actually calling us to do them. Faith without works is dead. It’s also true if we turn that around. Our works without faith is dead

King James Version Chapter 13

32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. 33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. 34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

There is a medical term called “Comatose”. It is defined as....

Being in a state of deep unconsciousness for a prolonged or indefinite period, especially as a result of severe injury or illness.

Our illness and injury is sin. It has tarnished the image of God in us

2 The Christian is Alive

“Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”-v14b.

Realizing that he would soon be gone from this world one day, Moody said to a friend, “Someday you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it.

“At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”

Paul says that we must wake up and then get up; jump out of bed as if having a resurrection experience and rising from one’s death bed.

This is, of course, a picture of revival, and only the revived Christian can truly be an active servant of the Lord. The hymnwriter puts it like this:

Revive Thy work, O Lord!

Thy mighty arm make bare;

Speak with the voice that wakes the dead,

And make Thy people hear.

Revive Thy work, O Lord!

Disturb this sleep of death;

Quicken the smouldering embers now,

By Thine Almighty breath.

The result of such a revival experience is that not only do we have new life but we receive new light—“Christ shall give thee light.” This is the word used in Matthew 28 for the dawn of the Savior’s resurrection day.

We need to awake first, then get up and LIVE

As the hymn goes on....

Rise up, O men of God

Have done with lesser things;

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of kings.

Ezekiel and the valley of Dry bones- “Can these dry bones live”?

Jesus goes to the cave or tomb of Lazarus and cried out with a loud voice “Lazarus come forth”!

The Christian is Redeemed

v15-17 “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil” Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

The phrase is translated in some modern versions of the Bible: “Buy up opportunity.” The metaphor has changed from that of a sleepy man to a business-like tradesman, one whose chief desire is to make a profit.

To “walk circumspectly” means “to be very careful, cautious, and sensitive.

In Colossians 4:5 Paul urges Christians to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”

A study revealed that an average seventy-year-old man has spent twenty-four years sleeping, fourteen years working, eight years in amusements, six years at the dinner table, five years in transportation, four years in conversation, three years in education, and two years in studying and reading.

His other four years were spent in miscellaneous pursuits. Of those four years, he spent forty-five minutes in church on Sundays, and five minutes were devoted to prayer each day. This adds up to a not at all impressive total of five months that he gave to God over the seventy years of his life.

Even if this man had been a faithful churchgoer who attended Sunday school and three one-hour services per week, he would have spent only one year and nine months in church!

If you have a question about the above arithmetic, sit down and figure out how you have been using your time. How large a portion of it is for the things related to God? When you finish this exercise, ponder what Jesus said: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?…” (Matt. 16:26, NIV)

4 The Christian is Refilled

Ephesians 5:18–21 (NKJV)

V.18-21 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God. “

Once again the apostle changes the metaphor. He now pictures a drunken man. The same Greek word for “filled” is used of a net “crammed full” with the catch.

Drunkenness exhilarates and often induces singing (though the songs may be scrambled and sung out of tune).

Spiritual drunkenness results in heights of joy and delight beyond anything the world can offer.

Drunkenness gives courage, but it leads to disaster.

Spiritual drunkenness gives holy boldness to the Christian servant (as evident in missionary biographies or in the lives of Christians persecuted for their faith in Communist countries).

Drunkenness results in a kind of fellowship, but spiritual drunkenness results in a real and lasting bond between Christians.

Note Paul’s tense: “Be filled,” or “Go on being filled.” It is a recurring experience for Christian service, like recharging a battery.

CONCLUSION

We all have times when God just needs to wake us up from our sleep so we can feel alive again so we can redeem the time we have left and make him a priority in our lives. Only when we do this can we be refilled with His Spirit and refueled to handle whatever comes our way.

C.S Lewis said “Pain is God’s megaphone to arouse a deaf world

Can you imagine a world full of Comatose Christians that would wake up from sleep to serve the king of kings? That would redeem their time and make God their priority? Time is something that we can never undue or take back. Once it’s gone it’s gone.

We cant change what happened in the past, but we can start right now and change how it ends.