Awake, Sleeper — Shining Christ’s Light into Darkness - Eph 5:11-14

Good morning, and welcome to the service of Dillingham Moravian Church.

We have the wonderful opportunity to be able to worship the Lord with our prayers

and songs as we fellowship with each other in Jesus Christ.

What a joy it is to be children of the Most High God, Jesus Christ, is it not?

Our goal here at DMC is to make disciples of Christ here in Bristol Bay and

beyond through the study of God's Word as we trust in Christ together.

Years ago, I crewed on a drift boat fishing for salmon.

I was on the night watch, where our job was to keep an eye on the GPS to make

sure that we're not drifting close to the southern line of our fishing district.

Additionally, the night watch was to keep watch out for boats and other fishing

nets, that we did not get tangled together or run into each other.

Well, that one night, it was especially dark out.

The stars were not showing. As we drifted along, I could sort of make out in

the darkness one little light on the end of a net, and maybe another little

light or a reflector on a boat.

Now when the drift boats run at night, they must be sufficiently lighted for other boats to see them.

This boat was not, and there did not seem to be anyone on watch.

So I took a big light and I shined it toward where I thought there was a boat,

and lo and behold, there was a drift boat, and we were getting way too close fast.

So I yelled for my captain to wake up and I started yelling for the other boat's

crew to wake up and then we started backing up the boat and pulling in our net.

Thankfully, we avoided a collision that night. My point with the story is that

similar to my light exposing the boat in the darkness and having to wake up crews on both boats,

so also God in Christ shines his light upon us to illuminate what is in the

darkness and wake us up to who the Lord is and who we are called to be in Christ

and to shine His favor upon us.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The theme of this letter is the unity of God displayed in God's church.

Previously, in Ephesians chapter 5, God through Paul taught that through the

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

cross and the resurrection of Jesus, God has transformed us who respond in faith

to the grace of God into new creations,

Christ's holy set-apart ones within Christ's church.

Unified in the oneness of God, dedicated to God and His ways.

And thus God commanded us not to live with the immoralities and filthiness of the world.

Rather, we are commanded to live lives set apart to God in gratitude for Him.

Paul also explained with God's authority to the Ephesians and to us as Christians

that God considers that those who live their lives committed to and practicing

sexual morality, impurities,

and greediness are idolaters, those who put other gods before God Himself.

God through Paul also taught that the sins of sexual morality or sexual impurity

or greed characterizes or sums up the type of sins that has drawn the wrath

of God upon those who do not believe in Christ,

Jesus as only Lord.

Moreover, God through Paul also taught that our identities are to be light in the Lord.

The evidence that we are children of the light is that we live with the goodness,

righteousness, and truth of God, as we continually learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

And today we're going to continue on in Ephesians 5, verse 11-14,

Ephesians 5:11–14

Ephesians 5, verse 11-14, where Paul commanded, And do not participate in the

Ephesians 5:11–14

unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them.

For it is great disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light,

for everything that becomes visible is light.

For this reason it says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine upon you.

Many Christians love and quote Paul's letter to Ephesians, yet out of all the

verses that Christians quote from the letter to Ephesians, usually chapter 5 is left out.

With the state of immorality in our culture that is constantly encroaching on

the church, it is essential for us to understand that the unity of Christ's

church with God and each other is evidenced by, and in great part,

dependent on, we as Christ believers living in the holy set-apartness that God

Himself has called us to be.

There are two main truths the Lord through Paul wishes to teach us as we continue

with our study in Ephesians 5.

The first main truth that I want to bring to your attention today is that as

Christ's disciples, we are to not participate in the works of darkness,

but expose and reprove them.

In our house, we have a bunch of hydroponic systems set up. We had some plants

in the hydroponic systems versus plants that are not in those systems.

And I want to tell you that it's not just the timed watering that is so helpful

for the plants in the hydroponic systems.

It is the light that shines upon them all the time or is on timers that is regulated

for the best time for that particular plant.

Yet the other plants, even if they are watered well, they tend to be spindly

and are always trying to seek out the nearest light.

I share this example to you because plants cannot grow without light and even

more so cannot bear fruit in the darkness.

The plant itself will not live.

And as believers in Christ, God commands us to stay out of the darkness and

to live in and seek the light of God in Christ Jesus.

It is only as we are living in Christ's light through His word that we can bear

fruit for the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5, verses 11-12, Paul wrote, And do not participate in the unfruitful

Ephesians 5:11–12

works of darkness, but instead even expose them.

For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

In the earlier verses, Paul had taught the Ephesians that they were to live

as lights in the Lord and as children of light.

Paul Paul in Ephesians 5, verses 8-10 said, For you were formerly darkness,

Ephesians 5:8–10

but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. For the fruit of that light consists in all goodness

and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

Now in verse 11, there are two principles I want you to notice.

First off, Paul remonstrated that believers in Christ were not to participate

in the unfruitful works of darkness.

What Paul was doing was explaining the sharp contrast between the light which

bears the fruit of goodness, righteousness,

and truth, versus the darkness which has works but no fruit.

One commentator wrote, plants cannot bear fruit in the absence of light.

Sin is darkness, and its parent is the prince of darkness.

Graces, on the other hand, as flourishing in the light, are reproductive and

abound in fruits, which is harmoniously combined in one whole,

are termed in the singular the fruit of the Spirit.

I find it interesting that our human natures are so drawn to sin and darkness

which masquerades as so beautiful, enticing, and yet it does not bear fruit

for anything that resembles a godly and good life.

In fact, the only thing that sin does bring is death and eternal light in the fiery inferno of hell.

This is like my illustration where plants do not grow in darkness.

They do not bear fruit. Rather, darkness causes the plants to die.

And this is why Paul taught that believers in Christ are not to participate

with or be connected with sin because the darkness of sin kills growth in our life in the Spirit.

And if we truly are believers in Christ, our desire must be that Christ's life

in us by the Holy Spirit grows to the point that we are not running our own lives.

But it is Christ who is operating us. It is Christ that is controlling us.

Like an operator would operate a forklift, or an excavator, or a skiff.

Sin actively tries to destroy the Spirit's work to make Christ the only Lord

and operator of our lives.

That is what the Holy Spirit is working at doing in us. And yet sin.

Wants to destroy that. Sin kills any fruit that we would have to expand the kingdom of God.

The second principle I want to show you is that not only are believers in Christ

not to take part in sinful activity, but the believer is also to expose the

unfruitful works of darkness,

especially within Christ's church.

There are two ways that the word exposed can be translated.

The first way exposed can be translated meant to scrutinize or examine carefully,

to bring to light, to expose, to set forth.

Secondly, this word can be viewed as reproved, meaning to state that someone

has done wrong, with the implication that there is adequate proof of such wrongdoing, to rebuke, to reproach.

There's also a sense of conviction in the one being reproved.

Personally, I view both of these translations to go hand in hand,

To lovingly show someone that they have done wrong And that they need to repent

Their sin first needs to be exposed And brought to light And examined carefully

To see if there was in fact something wrong done.

But in Paul, in 1 Timothy 5, verse 20, he instructed Timothy,

1 Timothy 5:20

Those who continue in sin reprove in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful.

Jesus, in John 3, verse 20-21, proclaimed this, For everyone who does evil hates

John 3:20–21

the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.

But he who practices the truth comes to light, so that his deeds may be manifest

as having been done by God.

Jesus in Matthew 18, 15-20 taught his disciples, Now if your brother sins,

go and show him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to

you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses,

every fact may be confirmed.

And if he listens to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen

even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.

Now, this instruction that Jesus gave his disciples was descriptive, not prescriptive.

What I mean is that this Matthew 18 passage was not an exact prescription on

how to confront a Christian of his or her sin, an exact order of how to do it.

The way I'm talking about this is like getting a prescription from a doctor.

And they put the instructions often in the bag with the medicine that's been

prescribed us with precise directions on how to use it.

But this is not how Jesus was using this passage. Jesus was describing the type

of way that we can help a brother or sister in Christ to recognize their sin,

to repent and be reconciled with God in the church.

Sometimes it takes multiple times alone with another brother in Christ before

we move on to bringing someone else into it or bringing the church into a matter.

The focus is not a witch hunt, but rather loving reconciliation.

Right before the church discipline passage in Matthew 18, verse 12 to 14,

Matthew 18:12–14

Jesus explained God's heart towards the sinner.

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray,

does he not leave the 99 on the mountains, where it's safe, by the way,

and go and search for the one that is straying?

And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it

more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.

In this way, is it not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of

these little ones perish?

At the same point, when the brother or sister is completely unrepentant,

the church will have to enact church discipline in a humble,

prayerful, loving manner with the goal of the Holy Spirit bringing the unrepentant back to Christ.

Some Bible scholars believe that Jesus meant that treating unrepentant brothers

and sisters as tax collectors and Gentiles was that there was an outer court

for the Gentiles to come and pray,

but they were not allowed inside into the inner parts of the temple.

They were not allowed into full fellowship with the church.

Some Bible teachers believe that this may mean that the unrepentant cannot partake

of communion, which is the deepest aspect of fellowship in the church.

Other Bible teachers believe that the Matthew 18 command to treat the unrepentant

as Gentile or tax collector means to humbly ask the unrepentant Christ follower

to leave the church fellowship until they have repented and turned back to the Lord.

Both views also include repeated visits or communication from the church leaders

and church family to lovingly encourage the fallen believer to turn back to

the Lord and obey God's word again.

Personally, I believe a combination of the two views can work.

Since I've been a pastor here at this church, we've used a variety of church

discipline at the various stages using the Matthew 18 principle.

With success, I might add.

We need to understand the importance of what Paul and Jesus were getting at

in Ephesians chapter 5 and Matthew 15.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

God designed the church to be set apart unto holy service to God alone,

so that although we live in the world, we live as set apart holy ones,

not to be defiled by the world.

One commentator used the example of light that I really liked.

Light can touch the darkness, but it's not defiled by the darkness.

The darkness does not affect its nature. And this is similar to the way Christ's church is to be.

We live in the world and we interact with people living in the darkness every day,

but we must not be affected by the darkness of sin so that our nature and our

mission as set-apart people for God is not dirty, is not affected by the sin.

The second main truth that I want to share with you from Ephesians 5 is that

we as the church of Christ is that the darkness is exposed by the light and becomes visible.

Paul in Ephesians 5, verse 13 to 14 explained, but all things become visible

Ephesians 5:13–14

when they are exposed by the light for everything that becomes visible is the light.

For this reason, it says, awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you.

There are two aspects that Paul in these two verses was describing.

First off, in verse 3, Paul was portraying that light makes things that were

once invisible in the darkness, now visible, were able to be seen because what

is there is now illuminated.

Yet Paul says something even more interesting. And this is what Paul wrote,

that everything that is made visible is now light.

One commentator explains rather well what Paul meant.

And this is what the commentator says. But he seems to be describing a second

stage in what the light does It actually transforms what illuminates into light

This may mean that the Christians who lead a righteous life Thereby restrain

and reform evildoers Yes,

even convert them for as their light shines what it makes visible is suddenly

light Just as the Ephesians themselves are light.

One paraphrase says, it is possible, after all that happened to you,

for light to turn the thing it shines upon into light.

So when God shines his light upon us through the word, using other believers

in Christ, we who were once were darkness, were converted or transformed from

darkness to the light in Christ.

Thus, Paul in Ephesians 5, verse 13, was calling for the Ephesian Christians

Ephesians 5:13

to shine the light of Christ to those who are sinning by speaking with grace the truth of God,

so that they will be transformed from being enslaved from the darkness of sin

to being lights in Christ themselves.

Secondly, in verse 14, Paul wrote, For this reason it says, Awake,

sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.

Paul paraphrased from Isaiah 60, verse 1 through 2, which read,

Isaiah 60:1–2

Arise, shine, for light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and dense gloom the peoples.

But Yahweh will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you.

It's also thought that this was a hymn from Paul's time that took the themes of Isaiah 60.

One commentator wrote as Israel is called

on to awake from its previous state of darkness and death for that her light

for that her light is to come so that the church and each individual is similarly

called to awake believers are called to awake out of sleep and unbelievers to rise from the dead.

Christ will shine upon you, meant that Christ will shine His approval upon the

Christian who repents and turns away from his or her sins.

The same goes for the unbeliever, that when the light of Christ,

through His Word, illuminates the sin in a person's life, and the Holy Spirit

causes that person to repent and be saved, be made into a new creation,

Christ is pleased with them and shines His light upon them.

We can apply two truths to us as Christians from these verses.

The first truth is that it is essential for us to lovingly and gently reprove

our brothers and sisters in Christ, using God's word when they are being disobedient to the word.

When we do so, we're actually shining God's light upon our brother and sister

in Christ so that the light of God's truth can convict them and transform them.

I see on social media that a lot of Christians attempt to convict the culture

and our country of sin through their posts and comments to others' posts.

Paul wasn't focused on attempting to change the culture around him,

but he was committed to exposing the darkness in the church because the church

of Christ is meant to shine the light of Christ around it.

It's God's truth working in the church that shines outward in the darkness.

Yet when the church is infected by the darkness, our light does not shine very much.

Without Christ's light being shone through us, people will not be transformed

from darkness to light in Christ.

Now, we also must be very careful that we're examining ourselves in the light

of the Word and being transparent with our brothers and sisters so that we,

you and I, can stay abiding in light.

It is hypocritical of us to point out other sins when we ourselves are going

back and trying to live in the darkness.

Jesus rightly pointed out in Matthew 7, verses 3-5, And why do you look at the

Matthew 7:3–5

speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,

and behold, the log is in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see

clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

God through Paul has commanded us as Christ believers to help other Christians

see that when they are sinning and that they need repentance.

But we also must be repenting and getting right with the Lord ourselves before we reprove others.

The second application is that we can apply to ourselves,

is that God through Paul is calling all Christians to wake up and be roused

from sleeping in the darkness of sin and let the light of Christ's truth,

the Word of God shine upon us.

Additionally, if you have not surrendered by faith your life in the Lordship

of Christ, then God is calling you to wake up from spiritual death to life in

Christ and let His light shine upon you.

I want to encourage all of us to always be reading and meditating on God's Word

so that Christ's light will shine upon us with His approval.

We, you and I really need to be continually and intentionally encouraging each other,

sharpening each other with God's Word, because all of us need the accountability

and the encouragement of Christ so that one day we will all hear those words from Christ.

Well done, faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.

And one day, I am so looking forward to that, and I hope you are too.

How has God been teaching us through His Word this morning?

The first overarching truth that God through Paul has taught us today is that,

as believers in Christ, we are not to take part in sinful activity.

We are also called to humbly and lovingly expose the unfruitful works of darkness,

especially within Christ's church.

The second truth that we have learned is in two parts.

First off, we as Christians are to lovingly and gently reprove our brothers

and sisters in Christ using God's Word when they are being disobedient to the Word.

Moreover, Christ also calls believers and unbelievers to wake up from the darkness

of sin, repent, and trust Christ as our Lord and Savior, and the result will

be that Christ shines His favor upon us.

Let us pray. Father, we are so grateful Grateful that you are The Most High

God But we also pray For help.

In being able to shine your light in the midst of this dark world,

to be able to expose the darkness that is around us, that is within us as well,

by your light through your word, and help us to lovingly follow you and lovingly

encourage and build up the people of God so that all of us can be the light

into this dark world that you have called us to be. Thank you, Lord.

You are so wonderful, and you are so good, and we trust in you, and we need you.

We ask these things in your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen. I'll leave you with this benediction from Ephesians 3, verses 17 and 19.

Ephesians 3:17

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and

length and height and depth, to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Have a wonderful day, and thank you.

Trust and follow the Lord together.