Sermon 29th January 2012
Rev Dr K Jeffrey
Romans 13
Introduction
Context:
Romans 1-11: doctrine, exposition, creed, what it means to believe in Jesus
Romans 12-15: daily living, exhortation, conduct, what it means to follow Jesus
‘Relationships’, Stott
12 v1-2: Our relationship to God: consecrated bodies and renewed minds
12 v3-8: Our relationship to ourselves: thinking soberly about our gifts
12 v9-16: Our relationship to one another: love in the family of God
12 v17-21: Our relationship to our enemies: not retaliation but service
13 v1-7: Our relationship to the state: conscientious citizenship
13 v8-10: Our relationship to the law: neighbour love as its fulfilment
13 v11-14: Our relationship to the day: living in the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’
14 v1-15 v13: Our relationship to the weak: welcoming and not despising, judging or offend them
This morning I would like to concentrate our attention on 13 v11-14: ‘Our relationship to the day’, where Paul’s purpose was to help the Roman Christians understand ‘what time they were living in’ and how they ought to live during this time.
These were uncertain times for the church. The shadow of the Roman persecution of Christians had cast itself upon the church. Dark and difficult times were ahead and many, it seems including Paul, believed that Jesus would return soon to herald the advent of the KoG.
How do we understand our time, this moment in which we live?
In the modern world we have all become slaves of time as lives are determined by schedules, dairies and deadlines, having to get certain jobs done by a certain time.
Meanwhile world is moving more quickly and our lives, consequently, are becoming more busy.
Can you believe that already we are at the end of January, while Christmas seems ages ago?
The bible clearly divides history into two periods, ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come / the KoG’.
Meanwhile apostles explain that ‘the age to come / the KoG’ began when Jesus was born.
Therefore these two ages now overlap, while we wait for ‘this age / old age’ to disappear and anticipate the ‘the age to come / the KoG’ to become fully established when Jesus returns.
Development
Exegesis [Meaning there and then] Turn with me, please, in your bibles to Rom 13, p 1140
1. v11-12a: ‘Understand the present time’
In these verses Paul assumes this understanding of time and of history among his readers.
a. ‘The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber’
ie. The time for sleep has passed. It is now time to wake up and get up.
b. This is ‘because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed’.
Daily we move towards the day when Jesus will come again and our salvation will be complete.
c. ‘The night is nearly over; the day is almost here’.
Christ is coming soon, and so we must be watchful and alert because we do not know the time.
Thus, according to Paul, we find ourselves today in this ‘present time’ between the ‘now already’ established by Christ’s first coming, and the ‘not yet’ of His second coming.
2. v13-14: ‘So let us…’
Then apostle moves on to work out practical implications for Christians who live in ‘present time’. It is not enough to understand ‘the time’, we have to live accordingly, so Paul issues three appeals.
a. ‘Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light’
Continuing with the metaphor of night and day and of waking up, Paul says that we must not only wake up, but get up and get dressed, removing ‘the deeds of darkness’ and put on ‘armour of light’.
b. ‘Let us behave decently…’
We are to live in daylight and ‘walk becomingly’, and not engage in those sinful activities that we might associate with darkness and the night, such as orgies, becoming drunk and sexual immorality.
c. ‘Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature’.
We are encouraged to be clothed with JC, so put on ‘compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’, while we seek to put to death those desires that long to satisfy our sinful natures.
Application [Meaning here and now]
1. Time to ‘wake up’
a. ‘Wake up!’
In 2 Cor, Eph, Col and 1 Thess Paul uses the metaphor of ‘darkness of night’ to describe the present age, and ‘light of the day’ to describe the age to come. Accord to Paul the night is almost over, the dawn is approaching and the new day has almost come, and so the time has come to ‘wake up’.
Many of us sleep even while we live, oblivious to the fact that every day is a day closer to the time when Jesus will come again to judge all peoples and reign as King over the new heaven and earth.
So Jesus warned his disciples, ‘no one knows about that day or hour… therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back… if he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ Mark 13 v32-37
b. ‘Stay awake!’
We need also to ‘stay awake’ and not doze off to sleep again. Even though the anticipation of Christ’s immediate return experienced by the first Xtians may have grown more faint, the fact remains that while no one knows when Jesus will return, the time is growing shorter and every day is a day closer to his return. Therefore, we are to live continually in anticipation of His return.
2. Time to ‘get dressed’
In Eph and Col Paul also speaks about putting on ‘the new man’. Indeed the metaphor of ‘put on’ was widely used in the early church when young converts were being taught the Christian faith. They were urged to ‘put on’ Christ as they would put on new or clean clothes.
a. What do we need to take off?
First, we have clothes that we need to remove, ‘the works of darkness’ Paul calls them, kinds of behaviour which we commonly associate with what people might do at night, in the dark.
Paul’s lists three pairs: orgies and drunkenness; sexual immorality and debauchery; dissension and jealousy. All six sins stem from a strong self will and spirit of selfishness.
Today, we are instructed to not get drunk or become involved in orgies; not to be unfaithful or indulge in internet pornography; not to get entangled in conflicts that arise from jealousy.
ie: Do not plan for sin, give it no welcome, offer it no opportunity, remove, kick sin out of your life.
What action, thought, habit, in particular, do you need to ‘take off’ today?
b. What do we need to put on?
Instead, Paul says, out on the ‘armour of light’, that reminds us that life is a battle, we are at war.
‘Behave decently’, he says, or in other translations ‘walk honourably or becomingly’, ‘plod on’.
Paul often used metaphor of ‘walk’ to illustrate the steady if unspectacular nature of the Xtian’s life.
‘Clothe yourselves with LJC’, ie Put on ‘Jesus’, let him and His grace be what you wear.
Again, what fruit of Sp [Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control] do you need to ‘put on’ today?
Conclusion
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
The new day will soon dawn, Jesus is coming again, we live in anticipation of this moment to come.
Yes, we live in the present, but let us not be imprisoned in the ‘now’. Rather let us live in the light of what is to come, of that day when Jesus returns and our salvation is complete, when …
‘changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise’
Let us also understand that because Jesus is coming soon ‘now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.’ 2 Cor 6 v2.
None of us knows what tomorrow might bring, nor do we know if we shall always enjoy the opport of hear the Gospel, of repenting and being saved. This grace may not always be available to us.
Therefore, ‘Wake up!’ and put on Jesus now and today!
Study Questions [taken from John Stott]
Our relationship to the day: living in the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’.
1. Understanding the time [v11-12a]
a. How would you answer someone who claimed that subsequent history shows Paul to have been mistaken in stating that ‘the night is nearly over’?
2. Understanding what is appropriate to the time [v12b-14]
a. What are we to ‘put on’ or ‘clothe’ ourselves with, and what are we to avoid and why?
b. How is it possible to avoid gratifying ‘the desires of the sinful nature’?
