CaryCOG | Cary Church of God
Today's Message: "The Call to Awake"
By: Pastor Patrick Jensen
Ephesians 5:14 NKJV
I. The call to awake disorients and reorients.
a. The process by which we naturally awake.
b. We find in our text a hymn that was birthed from instruction that preceded it. Paul provides explicit direction for the Ephesian church to come out of the darkness which was embodied by shameful sins of reproach.
c. Indeed, Paul states that we should have no fellowship with those who bear the marks of evil deeds. However, he goes further than this. He encourages the church to reprove or renounce such works so that there would be no confusion concerning the church’s stand on such issues.
d. Paul then gives insight as to why such a rebuke should be offered and it is for the purpose of bringing hidden idolatry, hidden evil, hidden sin, and hidden reproach to the light. Listen to the weight of his argument concerning this:
e. We live in a world where everyone around us lives in a dream like state, really asleep to the pain and suffering that ensues all around. We sleep and continue slumbering not knowing what it is like to awaken and breathe the fresh air of the Lord’s bounty. We prefer to slumber, living in darkness, not able to see with our eyes closed. Such was the case of Elisha’s servant.
f. We find that slumber is ubiquitous to all ages of humanity. We find another slumbering man just after the death of Christ when Saul, still breathing murderous threats upon his lips is blinded by Christ.
g. The call to awake has a particular use here in the N.T. The word used is "egeiro" and does carry with it the usual sense to awake, but is also used in various New Testament contexts to convey the sense of becoming acutely aware of one’s danger of hell and one’s need of salvation. Such is the use in Romans 13:11
h. Second, "egeiro", carries another meaning throughout the N.T. – that is, it indicates the raising up from sickness. This was the utilization of the word in Mark 1:31 when Jesus raised Peter’s mother in law out of sickness.
i. Third, the word is used to convey a sense of calling one to come forth.
Quote:
The days says to the night, “Let us say no more about our differences, but let us compromise in a neutral tint or tone of colour, and let us lay down the noble democratic doctrine that one thing is as good as another in its own sphere, and if taken in its own atmosphere and in its proper relationships to the universe at large.” So we are feeble, we are a school of cripples, we are a home of incurables, we have lost the nerve, the muscle, the tremendous energy that moved the world some centuries ago.
Joseph Parker
Song Lyrics: "Asleep in the Night" by Keith Green
Do you see?
Do you see all the people sinking down?
Don’t you care? Don’t you care?
Are you gonna let them drown?
How can you be so numb not to care if they come?
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done.
"Oh, Bless me Lord. Bless me Lord."
You know it’s all I ever hear.
No once aches. No one hurts. No one even sheds one tear.
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds and He cares for your need.
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in.
II. The call to awake births new vision.
a. Now we move to the 2nd phase of God’s deconstructive and redemptive plan. He says, “arise from the dead.”
b. Those who are awakened in the first phase of revival have yet to appropriate their new found alertness by shaking off the linens of death. Herein, the apostle gives us yet a 2nd call from Christ mediated by the Holy, “get out of the tomb.”
c. Jesus gives more clarity on this call from the dead when He says in John:
d. But are you not picturing an over-realized eschatology Pastor? We are not in heaven yet? Beloved, listen to Paul:
e. Now, as we did with awake, let us perform a word study with arise to obtain more clarity on this clarion call from God.
f. Finally the word for arise can take on the meaning of "emerging" or "causing to appear". This was the use in Acts 3.
III. The call to awake follows with further illumination
a. So, beloved, we have discussed the need to be disoriented from our slumber so that a new orientation can be imparted.
b. We have underscored the necessity to move from one position to the next when the 2nd call comes for us to arise. This may requires a career change, relationship change, personnel change, and vision change. Remember the death of one thing is the beginning of another!
c. Now we conclude with what follows our response to God’s call – further illumination.
d. Now this is the reassurance once someone has made a step into uncharted territory and taken the plunge – illumination. Christ shines upon you and you see the path more clearly.
e. Now, for this light to shine, what we have aforementioned must take place, take for example Abram.
Quote:
But light makes all things come out – you cannot stop at home when it is light; light scatters and yet unites; light creates at once a common joy and a common sympathy, and people who never saw one another before are almost inclined to speak when the sun is doing its very best to make the earth merry and glad, as with a new song.
Joseph Parker
Quote:
But as to the Holy Spirit, be drunk with that Spirit, that holy wine; be intoxicated and transported by that high revelry and that noblest ecstasy, in which there is no satiety, no excess, no surfeit, for the mind grows by what it feeds on, and our capacity to receive the Spirit enlarges as we bid Him welcome to the hospitality of our love.
Joseph Parker