Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
A few of us men went to the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO yesterday.
And we were reminded of the events leading up to World War 2. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain, had met with Hitler and came back reporting, “There will be peace for our day.”
Churchill, who understood war and understood Germany better than anyone, knew that was not possible.
He sought to warn the people that there would be no peace, but everyone believed he was just a war-mongerer.
Of course, he was right and within a year, the world was plunged back into one of the bloodiest wars the world had ever known.
What must it feel like to warn a people that it is high time to awaken out of their stupor and ready themselves for war while they all believed it better to make peace through accommodation?
Perhaps, it was something like Paul felt as he wrote the passage we study today.
I cannot be sure about the people in Paul’s day, but I can say that most Christians today, would see Paul as being a fear-mongerer.
In reality, Paul sees what most cannot.
There is a war already underway, and you and me, have been affected by it already, and if we haven’t been dragged into it already, we will be soon.
And if we ever hope to have the victory, then we must be prepared to fight.
So Paul gives us four ways to prepare for victory.
Rouse
Ready
Resist
Robe
Rouse from Sleep
The first way to prepare us to get victory is simply that we need rouse from our sleep.
One thing that Jesus talked quite a bit about was staying awake and staying alert.
Let me give you some of those times.
And there are many other places.
Sleep is linked to a dereliction of duty.
It is linked to unpreparedness.
The story of the ten virgins shows five being prepared while five others were not.
They were not ready for the bridegroom to come.
The master leaves instructing his servants to stay awake.
To not, is to go against the master’s orders, a dereliction of duty.
Paul was warning the Romans, and the warning has come to us, that we must rouse from our sleep.
We must be prepared.
We must not be sleeping, taking our responsibility as followers and soldiers of Christ lightly.
Why?
Because our salvation is closer than when we first believed.
Did Paul believe that Jesus was going to come again in his day?
Perhaps so.
But he certainly believed that there was nothing holding him back from coming.
The death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus was the second to last event in salvation’s history.
Nothing is left but for Christ to return.
Which means that our final salvation is closer than it has ever been.
Every single person who comes to faith takes us that much closer.
So while we may have received Christ 5, 10, 50 years ago, we do not want to be caught sleeping spiritually when he comes.
We want to be awake and ready, mentally and spiritually alert.
The enemy is at hand to fight us until the very end, and we must not act otherwise.
There might be some here who are awake politically speaking.
You know the fight well between Democrats and Republicans.
There are probably some awake judicially speaking.
You know the fights that come before the Supreme Court.
There are probably even some here who are awake entertainmently speaking.
You know which teams are battling over which star player.
What movies are coming out is battling to be number 1 at the Box Office.
And all the infighting between Harry and Meghan and the British crown.
But spiritually you are sleeping, not realizing there is a spiritual battle that being waged over your soul.
That’s how Peter put it in
Beloved, be roused from your sleep and and make yourself ready for battle.
Ready for Battle
Which leads us to the second way we can be prepared for victory.
The first was to rouse from our sleep.
The second is to ready ourselves for the battle ahead.
That’s exactly what Paul wrote.
Brothers and sisters, it is not just enough to be awake when Jesus comes, but to be fighting the spiritual war that is going on.
Notice the contrast here of night and day throughout the verses we’ve been reading.
Sleeping versus awakening, night versus day, darkness versus light.
So if Paul says the night is far gone, then the day is at hand.
The sun has crested.
That’s how close our final salvation is! Do we believe that?
Do we believe that as strongly as Paul?
I would imagine most of us look at the world today and see a dark, dark place.
We don’t see light at all.
Like Israel enslaved in Egypt, we are crying out to the LORD in our affliction.
There’s no daylight to be seen.
But the sun has crested!
Paul uses the perfect active indicative here, which indicates that the day has come and it has lingering effects.
When Jesus came preaching, he let the people know that the kingdom of God is at hand—perfect, active, indicative.
It has drawn near.
Why?
Because Jesus, the Son of God, is here.
He is ushering it in.
And it has lingering effects that will reach through the world.
Paul is making the same point.
The night is gone.
The day has cresting, and it has lingering effects.
What effects?
In part, the two that Paul immediately brings up.
We are to cast off the works of darkness.
The very acts or deeds that go on in darkness are to be thrown off of us.
Beloved, we cannot fight darkness if we are still clothed in it.
We are to cast them off, throw them away.
Acts of darkness are like comfy pajamas.
Anyone ever wear their comfy pajamas long after waking up and getting out of bed? They’re warm.
They’re comfortable.
And it has become the trend today to pretend like they’re for public wear.
You see people wearing pajamas to school, to the grocery store, to the movies, and even to church.
But pajamas are night wear, not day wear.
To wear them in the day is to say that you have not readied yourself for day.
Paul is calling us to take off the works of darkness.
Take off those PJs and ready yourself for battle.
Put on the armor of light.
The word could also be translated as weapon.
We do not live in a world that is passive in Jesus’s return.
We live in a world that is fighting his return tooth and nail.
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