The First Sunday in Advent
\nNovember 27, 2016
\nRomans 13:11-14<\/p>\n
And do this, understanding the present time.\u00a0 The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.\u00a0 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.\u00a0 So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.\u00a0 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.\u00a0 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.\u00a0 (NIV1984)<\/p>\n
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,<\/p>\n
Have any of you ever studied a foreign language?\u00a0 My first foray into studying a foreign language came when I had to take Latin in high school.\u00a0 Now very often people\u2014 including high school people\u2014 wonder why anyone would study and learn Latin.\u00a0 After all, it is a \u201cdead language\u201d right?\u00a0 To my knowledge no one speaks classical Latin any more.\u00a0 My response to that question now is very different than it would have been when I was still in high school.\u00a0 I now believe that one of the best ways to learn English and especially English grammar is by studying Latin.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
How does all of that tie in with our sermon text for today?\u00a0 Let me try and explain.\u00a0 Another point of grammar that I learned by studying Latin is called the imperative voice of a verb.\u00a0 The imperative voice of a verb emphasizes a command, a strong request or an exhortation.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Once that got my attention I decided to design and follow a sermon series for the Sundays in Advent.\u00a0 The overall theme of this series is:\u00a0 Advent Imperatives.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This morning our Advent Imperative<\/em><\/strong> is:\u00a0 Understand the Present.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 There are two points we will focus on from this text.\u00a0 First let\u2019s see how Paul commands us:\u00a0 Wake Up!\u00a0 Then let\u2019s see how Paul commands us:\u00a0 Get dressed!<\/p>\n Since our text for today opens with the words, \u201cAnd do this\u2026\u201d<\/em> we ought to go back and see what Paul was commanding the Roman Christians\u2014 and us\u2014 to do.\u00a0 Please open your Bibles to Romans 13.\u00a0 Glance through the first seven verses.\u00a0 What is Paul encouraging God\u2019s children to do?\u00a0 He is encouraging us to be obedient and respectful citizens since, \u201cThe authorities that exist have been established by God\u201d<\/em> (Romans 13:1).\u00a0 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\u2014 unless, of course, our government tells us to do something that contradicts what our God tells us here in His holy Word.\u00a0 Now look at verses 8-10.\u00a0 What is Paul encouraging here?\u00a0 Here Paul reminds us of our responsibility as the children of God to \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself\u201d<\/em> because \u201cLove is the fulfillment of the law\u201d<\/em> (Romans 13: 9 & 10).<\/p>\n So then, whether it is obeying and respecting our government or whether it is loving our neighbor Paul commands us today, \u201cAnd do this, understanding the present time.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 The Greek word that is translated here as \u201cpresent time\u201d<\/em> very literally means, \u201cthe appointed time.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Paul is not using this word to simply encourage God\u2019s children to recognize the evil that is presently going on in the world around them\u00a0 No my friends, Paul is using this word to exhort us to remember that we are living in \u201cthe appointed time\u201d<\/em>\u2014 in the \u201clast days,\u201d <\/em>the \u201clast chapter\u201d<\/em> in the history of this world.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul immediately goes on to say, \u201cThe hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.\u00a0 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The picture that Paul is painting for us here in this portion of our text is one that many of us can relate to.\u00a0 The person who is \u201cslumbering\u201d<\/em> is the person who puts off getting out of bed in the morning.\u00a0 Their bed is cozy and warm and safe.\u00a0 Outside it is cold and rainy and perhaps even a little scary.\u00a0 And if someone really doesn\u2019t have a great deal on their \u201cagenda\u201d for the day, if there is nothing important that needs<\/strong> to get done, they just might hit the snooze button and curl up under the comforter.<\/p>\n Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us as Christians to do a similar thing\u2014 but on a spiritual level?\u00a0 Either consciously or unconsciously we work very hard to \u201ccocoon\u201d ourselves in our own comfortable little world.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After all, isn\u2019t a person\u2019s religion a very personal thing?\u00a0 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\u2019s web of sin we tend to look the other way and pretend it isn\u2019t all that serious.\u00a0 After all, who are we to judge?<\/p>\n If we are slumbering on a spiritual level, my friends, Paul says to us today:\u00a0 Wake up!\u00a0 Wake up and understand the present time!\u00a0 We are now approximately 365 days closer to Judgment Day than we were the last time we celebrated the First Sunday in Advent.\u00a0 Each and every \u201ctick\u201d 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.\u00a0 Each and every \u201ctock\u201d 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.\u00a0 Yes, each and every \u201ctick-tock\u201d 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.<\/p>\n That is why Paul says to us today:\u00a0 Wake up!\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to slumber.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to curl up in our own little comfort zone.\u00a0 There are people who need to hear the powerful message of God\u2019s holy Law.\u00a0 There are people who need to hear the sweet message of God\u2019s glorious Gospel.\u00a0 There are people who need our prayers.\u00a0 There\u2019s Kingdom work that needs to be supported with our generous offerings.\u00a0 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\u2019t let Satan fool you into thinking there is still lots of time left!\u00a0 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\u2019s house after Thanksgiving.\u00a0 You may think that you will have lots of time to be actively involved in the work of God\u2019s Kingdom after you retire only to have the doctor tell you that you don\u2019t have that much time.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul says to us:\u00a0 Understand the present time and wake up!<\/p>\n Of course, one of the first things we need to do when we wake up in the morning is to get dressed, right?\u00a0 Notice how Paul brings that particular truth into the picture that he paints for us today.\u00a0 Look at verses 12b-14 of our text.\u00a0 We read, \u201cSo let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.\u00a0 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy.\u00a0 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Does anyone have any trouble understanding what Paul is telling us here?\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty clear, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 When it comes to our life of Christian sanctification<\/strong>, when it comes to living<\/strong> the faith which God has graciously created in our hearts you and I have a \u201cchoice\u201d to make each and every day.\u00a0 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 \u201cdeeds of darkness.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 We could deck ourselves out with drunkenness.\u00a0 We could slip on some sexual immorality.\u00a0 We could get all duded up with some dissension and then jazz it up with a little jealousy.\u00a0 If that\u2019s what we choose to do, however, we still need to remember that the \u201ctick-tock\u201d of the clock does not stop just so we can go out and \u201chave a little fun.\u201d\u00a0 Somehow I think that would be a little hard to explain to the Lord should He return sooner<\/strong> than we were expecting.<\/p>\n 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<\/strong> a saved child of God.\u00a0 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<\/strong> forgiven.\u00a0 With God\u2019s gift of salvation and with God\u2019s gift of forgiveness clearly in view then in joy, in love and in thankfulness we will want to \u201cclothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ\u201d<\/em> each and every day.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019ll look at the cross, we\u2019ll remember what the Lord has done for us and we\u2019ll get dressed in our robe of righteousness.\u00a0 That way no matter what tomorrow does or does not bring\u2014 we\u2019ll be wide awake, properly dressed and ready to work for the Lord!<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like being told what to do.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 With that in mind, my friends, understand the present time!\u00a0 Because we are living in the last days we need to stay awake!\u00a0 Because we are living in the last days we need to be properly dressed!<\/p>\n To God be the glory!<\/p>\n Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The First Sunday in Advent November 27, 2016 Romans 13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time.\u00a0 The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.\u00a0 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.\u00a0 So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and 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