God’s Wake-Up Call

Matthew 24:36-44 and Romans 13:11-14

Jesus declares, unequivocally, “No one knows the day or hour.” This means two things: First, don’t try to figure it out. Don’t waste your time trying to figure out if this or that means Christ is coming back soon. Second, don’t pay any attention to those who claim they have figured it out.

God tells us what we need to know. But he doesn’t tell us everything we would like to know. Some things are just left as a mystery. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants so that we might obey.” What God tells us is so we can obey him. What he doesn’t tell us is not for us to know. At least, not yet.

The fact that some things are left as a mystery is no excuse for us not to be watchful. We don’t know when it will happen, but Jesus tells us plainly that when it happens, it will be sudden. “It will be like in the days of Noah. People going about the business of life as if nothing was going to change up until the Flood came.” There was no awareness that God’s judgment was about to come.

Now, if we read the Bible, we don’t really find a lot of information about what was happening as Noah was building the Ark. The Bible never specifically says how long Noah worked on the Ark, but Jewish tradition said it was 120 years. And Jewish tradition also had a lot more to say about what was going on in the world while Noah was working, about the extent of human depravity. And they also had traditions about Noah preaching repentance to people before the Flood came. Noah begged people to repent, and the unfinished Ark stood for decades as a testimony of God’s coming judgment, but people paid it no mind.

Jesus tells us it will be the same when he returns. It will not be expected by the world. People will not see any signs and say, “God’s judgment is coming soon,” just as people did not notice the Ark as a sign of coming judgment. Two men will be working in the field, and one will be taken to judgment. Two women will be grinding grain, and one will be taken to judgment. The emphasis is that people will be going about regular life, not expecting a judgment to come.

So Jesus tells us, “Be prepared. Live a life of watchfulness. If the homeowner knew when the thief was coming during the night, he would stay awake. So you must be ready at all times for the Son of Man will come when it is least expected.”

Watchfulness is basically spiritual awareness. A watchful person is aware of God and his purposes. A watchful person is living in obedience to God and ready to stand before him and give an accounting of his life. A watchful person is looking for the coming of Christ and the beginning of the New Creation.

Paul speaks about the need for watchfulness in Romans 13.

He says, “Time is running out.” This makes it sound as if Paul expected the return of Christ to be imminent. But, of course, 2000 years have passed since Paul penned these words. This begs the question, “Was he wrong?”

I think it depends on how we define the word imminent. If we think imminent means “very close in time, happening very soon,” then, yes, I suppose Paul was wrong. But if we define imminent as “something that could happen at any time,” then, no, Paul was not wrong. And when we talk about the return of Christ, that’s the meaning we should have in mind. Christ’s return is imminent. It could happen today. It could not happen for another 1000 years. But in either case, it is imminent. It is something that could happen at any moment.

“Wake up!”

Who here likes being awoken suddenly? Pretty sure that the answer is no one. We don’t like alarm clocks. We don’t like wake up calls. We don’t like four year olds poking us in the arm and telling us they’re thirsty. These are not experiences we relish in life. And that’s to say nothing of being woken up by a smoke alarm or a home security system or another driver honking at us! But wake up calls are a necessary evil in life. No one wants to be woken up from a peaceful sleep, but it sure beats some of the alternatives like being late to work and getting chewed out by your boss, missing your flight, having your hunting buddies give up on you and going off hunting without you.

God’s wake up call is this: Be aware of spiritual things. Don’t miss out on the day of salvation. The night is almost gone.

Night is used here, and other places in Scripture, as a picture of the spiritual darkness of this present age, as compared to the day of the New Creation. We are not to live in the night that is passing. We are to live in the day that is dawning. We must shed the deeds of darkness, that is, cease from participating in the ways of this world. We must take them off like dirty clothes. Take off the appearances of this world. Do not be defined by the character, the values, or the behaviors of this world.

Instead, we must put on the armor of right living. Paul uses that image here, but he doesn’t go into great detail with it. Years later, when he wrote to the Ephesians, he fleshed out that image.

We should be defined by the character, values, and behaviors of the day that is dawning, the world that is coming. The same image is used by the Old Testament prophet Zechariah who said that in the Day of the Lord, there would be no night any more, but that there would be a continuous day.

“Be decent and true in everything.” To be true in everything is to have integrity. When we are true to our real identity in Christ, we have integrity.

“Don’t take part in the adultery, drunkenness, and wild parties of this age.” This is very typical of how Hebrew people conceived of pagan lifestyles. Thing is, in the case of upper class Roman society, they really weren’t far off the mark! That’s pretty much what the rich, powerful, and bored elites of Rome did. There was enormous wealth in Rome, built on the backs of slave labor and the taxation of subjugated peoples. And you gotta do something with all that money and free time! Exotic foods, plenty of wine, and a relaxed attitude toward adultery and toward “relations” with slaves and children gave them something to do with that time and money.

In the midst of all these sins, Paul mentions something else: Jealousy. Most of the Christians in Rome were not part of the upper class, but, of course, “when in Rome…” There is always a tendency to want to emulate the lifestyles of the rich and powerful.

But in a broader sense, attitudes matter. The attitude of jealousy gives birth to the actions of sin. It’s not wrong to be tempted. Temptations are inevitable in life. The problem comes when we dwell on temptations. Then we start thinking about how we can indulge them, and devising plans. Sinful actions begin with sinful attitudes.

Instead, Paul urges us, “Let the Lord Christ take control of you.” Wakefulness requires a surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Wakefulness is the only proper attitude for God’s people in the light of the imminent return of Christ and the coming of the “day” of the New Creation. Wake up calls might be unpleasant, in a way, but they are far better than the alternatives. Bad enough to miss your flight. Even worse to miss out on eternal life.