The First Sunday in Advent
November 27, 2016
Romans 13:11-14
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Have any of you ever studied a foreign language? My first foray into studying a foreign language came when I had to take Latin in high school. Now very often people— including high school people— wonder why anyone would study and learn Latin. After all, it is a “dead language” right? To my knowledge no one speaks classical Latin any more. My response to that question now is very different than it would have been when I was still in high school. I now believe that one of the best ways to learn English and especially English grammar is by studying Latin. I learned how to distinguish between a direct object and an indirect object, I learned how to determine the subject of a sentence and the predicate of a sentence, and I learned the difference between the active voice of a verb and the passive voice of a verb all by studying Latin.
How does all of that tie in with our sermon text for today? Let me try and explain. Another point of grammar that I learned by studying Latin is called the imperative voice of a verb. The imperative voice of a verb emphasizes a command, a strong request or an exhortation.
As I looked at the Scripture readings that are scheduled for the four Sundays in Advent I noticed that all the epistle lessons contained imperatives. Once that got my attention I decided to design and follow a sermon series for the Sundays in Advent. The overall theme of this series is: Advent Imperatives. On each of the four Sundays in Advent we will look at one of the imperatives, one of the commands that God Himself gives to us through His servant Paul. This morning our Advent Imperative is: Understand the Present. There are two points we will focus on from this text. First let’s see how Paul commands us: Wake Up! Then let’s see how Paul commands us: Get dressed!
Since our text for today opens with the words, “And do this…” we ought to go back and see what Paul was commanding the Roman Christians— and us— to do. Please open your Bibles to Romans 13. Glance through the first seven verses. What is Paul encouraging God’s children to do? He is encouraging us to be obedient and respectful citizens since, “The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1). No matter where you stand on the recent presidential election here in our country, as Christians we need to be respectful and obedient to the government God has placed over us— unless, of course, our government tells us to do something that contradicts what our God tells us here in His holy Word. Now look at verses 8-10. What is Paul encouraging here? Here Paul reminds us of our responsibility as the children of God to “Love your neighbor as yourself” because “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13: 9 & 10).
So then, whether it is obeying and respecting our government or whether it is loving our neighbor Paul commands us today, “And do this, understanding the present time.” The Greek word that is translated here as “present time” very literally means, “the appointed time.” Paul is not using this word to simply encourage God’s children to recognize the evil that is presently going on in the world around them No my friends, Paul is using this word to exhort us to remember that we are living in “the appointed time”— in the “last days,” the “last chapter” in the history of this world. That’s why Paul immediately goes on to say, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”
The picture that Paul is painting for us here in this portion of our text is one that many of us can relate to. The person who is “slumbering” is the person who puts off getting out of bed in the morning. Their bed is cozy and warm and safe. Outside it is cold and rainy and perhaps even a little scary. And if someone really doesn’t have a great deal on their “agenda” for the day, if there is nothing important that needs to get done, they just might hit the snooze button and curl up under the comforter.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us as Christians to do a similar thing— but on a spiritual level? Either consciously or unconsciously we work very hard to “cocoon” ourselves in our own comfortable little world. While we do attend church and maybe even Bible class on a regular basis we shy away from talking about Jesus at work or with our family, our friends and our neighbors. After all, isn’t a person’s religion a very personal thing? While we regularly kneel before the cross to confess our own sins and be assured of our own forgiveness when we see someone else caught in Satan’s web of sin we tend to look the other way and pretend it isn’t all that serious. After all, who are we to judge?
If we are slumbering on a spiritual level, my friends, Paul says to us today: Wake up! Wake up and understand the present time! We are now approximately 365 days closer to Judgment Day than we were the last time we celebrated the First Sunday in Advent. Each and every “tick” of the clock brings us closer and closer to the moment when either our life or the life of someone we know will come to an end. Each and every “tock” of the clock brings us closer and closer to the moment when the trumpets of heaven will blast, the skies will fill with myriads of angels and Jesus will visibly return to this earth in all of His power and glory as the Judge of the living and the dead. Yes, each and every “tick-tock” of the clock brings us closer to the moment when the scary darkness of this sin-filled world will come to an end and the glorious light of eternity will dawn.
That is why Paul says to us today: Wake up! We don’t have time to slumber. We don’t have time to curl up in our own little comfort zone. There are people who need to hear the powerful message of God’s holy Law. There are people who need to hear the sweet message of God’s glorious Gospel. There are people who need our prayers. There’s Kingdom work that needs to be supported with our generous offerings. And while it is true that some 2000 years have gone by since God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to first pen these words, don’t let Satan fool you into thinking there is still lots of time left! You could get to work tomorrow and find out that the co-worker you have been meaning to invite to church never made it home from Grandma’s house after Thanksgiving. You may think that you will have lots of time to be actively involved in the work of God’s Kingdom after you retire only to have the doctor tell you that you don’t have that much time. That’s why Paul says to us: Understand the present time and wake up!
Of course, one of the first things we need to do when we wake up in the morning is to get dressed, right? Notice how Paul brings that particular truth into the picture that he paints for us today. Look at verses 12b-14 of our text. We read, “So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
Does anyone have any trouble understanding what Paul is telling us here? It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? When it comes to our life of Christian sanctification, when it comes to living the faith which God has graciously created in our hearts you and I have a “choice” to make each and every day. In keeping with the picture that Paul uses here in our text you and I might get up in the morning or come home from work at night and choose to dress ourselves with the “deeds of darkness.” We could deck ourselves out with drunkenness. We could slip on some sexual immorality. We could get all duded up with some dissension and then jazz it up with a little jealousy. If that’s what we choose to do, however, we still need to remember that the “tick-tock” of the clock does not stop just so we can go out and “have a little fun.” Somehow I think that would be a little hard to explain to the Lord should He return sooner than we were expecting.
Understanding the present time, my friends, means that each and every day we lift up our eyes to the cross and remember that we are a saved child of God. Understanding the present time means that each and every day we lift up our eyes to the cross and rejoice in knowing that we are forgiven. With God’s gift of salvation and with God’s gift of forgiveness clearly in view then in joy, in love and in thankfulness we will want to “clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” each and every day. This means that our regular daily attire will be the beautiful white robe of perfect righteousness that God the Holy Spirit gave to us when He brought us to faith in Jesus as our Savior. And if in His wisdom the good Lord chooses not to call us home today, if in His wisdom the good Lord decides that there is still more work that He wants us to do for Him here on this earth, well then, tomorrow when we wake up, we’ll look at the cross, we’ll remember what the Lord has done for us and we’ll get dressed in our robe of righteousness. That way no matter what tomorrow does or does not bring— we’ll be wide awake, properly dressed and ready to work for the Lord!
All too often when you and I are given a command, an exhortation or even a strong request we tend to bristle a little bit. We don’t like being told what to do. My prayer is that no matter how much our old Adam may bristle at the imperatives we will be studying during the season of Advent this year that our New Man, the Christian part of us will remember that when our Savior God gives us an imperative it is always designed for our good. With that in mind, my friends, understand the present time! Because we are living in the last days we need to stay awake! Because we are living in the last days we need to be properly dressed!
To God be the glory!
Amen
