I understand that Ephesians 5:1-13 is a difficult section in the Bible, for at least 50% of the men and about 25% of the women in churches across America view porn at least once a month. To listen to three weeks of sermons on Bible verses that address sexual sins when you already feel defeated is surely discouraging. According to one study, 43 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women acknowledge that your exposure to porn (and any sexual sin for that matter) has worsened their relationship with God.[1] What that means is that some of you not only feel stuck and defeated, but you also believe that you are far from God and that He is so disgusted by you he wants little or nothing to do with you. I want you to know that if I just described you, you have bought into a lie!
One of the titles given to the devil is “the accuser” and what is said of him is that he is, “the accuser of our brothers and sisters... the one who accuses them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10). Jesus said of the devil that, “He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The devil is both master accuser and master liar, and he wants nothing more than for you to believe that your ongoing pattern of sins is making you more inaccessible to a Holy God whose wrath is being stored up against humanity for sins such as sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (v. 3).
It is for the above reasons that I wanted to spend so much more time on Ephesians 5:14 then we were able to last week. What you must remember is that Paul is not writing to non-Christians in his epistle to the Ephesians, but to Christians whose most dangerous adversary exists in their own flesh. It is the thing that the apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 7:14-23,
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.
What is important to point out is that Paul was not paralyzed by the tension and struggle he experienced with sin in light of his relationship with Jesus, for it is in what he wrote in response to the war he experienced within that should help us to appreciate Ephesians 5:14-21. What are we to do with the evil that is present within? Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 7:24-25, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
I have four points that really serve as a plan to keep you from spiritual apathy that can result in the atrophy of your faith and relationship with Jesus. I will spend all this sermon on the first point and next week, we will look at the remaining three. However, I want to list my four points so that you know where we are going in Ephesians 5:14-21. Here is a pathway I believe the apostle gives us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that will keep you from spiritual apathy and atrophy:
- Run to Jesus as your only advocate (v. 14)
- Use your time wisely for what matters (vv. 15-16)
- Live with an awareness of God’s will for your life (v. 17)
- Be intentional about what you consume into your mind, soul, and heart (vv. 18-21)
Apathy is the kind of thing that happens when you are so paralyzed by shame that you stay in your shame instead of allowing it to motivate you into repentance. Repentance is never stagnant but always mobile in the direction where Jesus can be found. Apathy is what happens when you give up and are no longer interested in moving forward. Spiritual apathy, if left untreated, will lead to spiritual atrophy. Spiritual atrophy happens when your shame renders you spiritually immobile.
Run to Jesus as Your Only Advocate (v. 14)
Ephesians 5:14 is not so much an appeal to non-Christians to find Jesus, but for Christians. Most commentators/scholars agree that verse 14 is most likely a verse from an early church hymn quoted by Paul that was familiar to the Christians in Ephesus. What I find so fascinating about the placement of verse 14 is that it is sandwiched between verses 3-13 that address the need to refuse to participate in the “useless deeds of darkness” and 15-21 that encourages the Christian to live wisely as children of light.
Here is what I think was going on and why I believe Paul felt the need to write what he wrote in Ephesians 5:3-13. I believe that there were some Christians who were spiritually and morally apathetic towards certain forms of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthy and foolish talk, and vulgar joking. Not only were they apathetic, but their apathy resulted in a type of spiritual atrophy resulting in their participation in certain forms of sin, which Paul listed. In a very real sense, there were some in the Ephesian Church, as is true in churches today, who were slumbering in certain sins. One of the many reasons why I believe this is the case is what is written in Romans 13:11-14,
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let’s behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
As is true with many of the hymns and praise songs you are familiar with, the one quoted in verse 14 is infused with language from the Bible. In fact, there is so much packed into verse 14, that I could preach multiple sermons just on this one short verse, but I will not do that. What I will do is share four scripture passages with you that will open Ephesians 5:14 up to you in the same way they probably did for the Christians in Ephesus. I am not going to say a whole lot about the verses, I only want you to see them for reasons I believe will be obvious. So, here we go:
Here are two passages on what is waiting for those who have been redeemed by Jesus:
“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ‘For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.’” (Isa. 60:1-2)
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” (Dan. 12:2)
Here is a passage on how the redeemed should respond to God as a Father who loving disciplines His children:
“Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness.” (Mic. 7:8-9)
There is a fourth scripture passage I believe is tied to Ephesians 5:14, and it is found in Jonah 1:6. Before we look at that verse, you need to consider the story of Jonah and how he got into trouble after being commanded by God to go to Ninevah (the capital of Assyria) to preach about the coming wrath of God upon Ninevah; Jonah got on a boat to go the opposite direction from where God told Him to go. While in disobedience, we are told, “the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea...” (Jon. 1:4) which made life very difficult for everyone on the boat. While everyone on the boat desperately threw stuff off the boat to lighten it in hopes of surviving the storm, Jonah was sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Put another way: The prophet Jonah was asleep in his sin of rebellion. Finally the captain of the ship found Jonah sleeping and had some words for Jonah: “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish” (Jonah 1:6).
In summary, it became obvious to the sailors that Jonah was running from His God (1:7-14). When they asked what they needed to do to get Jonah’s God to calm the storm, the prophet told them that they needed to throw him overboard (vv. 15-16). They tried to avoid throwing Jonah overboard, but it became clear that it was their only option, so they threw him into the sea, and while in the sea, “the Lord designated a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights” (1:17). While in the belly of the “great fish” Jonah endured the rage and discipline of his heavenly Father because he sinned against Him. Jonah called out to the Lord for help (Jon. 2:1-9), and God delivered His prophet by commanding the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land (v. 10). Awakened from his proverbial slumber from the stern of the ship to the belly of the great fish, Jonah obeyed God’s will upon his life by going to Nineveh to preach the word of God to a people walking in the darkness of their sins and idols (3:1-9).
The whole reason why Jonah fled for Tarshish when God told him to go to Nineveh is because of what Nineveh represented. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire whose army has been credited with some of the earliest forms of psychological warfare. Nineveh was filled with violent people who were guilty of some of the most horrible things against humanity. After Jonah preached his very brief message about God’s coming wrath, the entire city repented (see Jonah 3:5-10). Jonah’s response was resentment and anger; this is what he prayed after God spared Nineveh from His wrath: “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster” (4:1-2).
Against the backdrop of God’s promise of redemption for His people because of the shed blood of Jesus (Isa. 60:1-2; Dan. 12:2), how His redeemed people ought to respond to His loving discipline (Mic. 7:8-9), and Jonah’s story of his rebellion and repentance, consider Ephesians 5:14 again: “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Conclusion
Maybe you are like Jonah, while in your sin, you are asleep in it. Maybe you have slipped back into certain sins due to your spiritual apathy. Maybe your apathy has become spiritual atrophy. If you are truly a Christian, this 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes how it is you have been made alive with Christ: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” You are here today, not by accident, but because it is time to wake up! The enemy of your soul wants nothing more for you than to remain in your spiritual apathy and atrophy, but today your heavenly Father summons you from the stern of your rebellious slumber: “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
So, how do you get up from your slumber? You must repent by calling your sin for what it is and by turning from it to Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says about your sin:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)
The Devil is a liar and the great accuser, but Jesus is a great savior and our all-sufficient advocate! We can run to Him in the spirit of Micah 7:8-9 and we can respond to our sins, failures, and even the devil himself: “Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness” (Mic. 7:8-9).
One more thing I would like to point out that I find ironic about Jonah’s story and ours. It is possible that the “great fish” that swallowed Jonah was some other creature rather than a whale, but in my opinion that is doubtful. I do believe that the “great fish” that swallowed Jonah was most likely a whale. A species of whale that is large enough to swallow a human and swam in the same waters where Jonah most likely would have been tossed overboard is the sperm whale which can grow up to 60 feet long. Do you want to know what else the sperm whale is known for? It is known for both being one of the few whales that vomit, and it is also known for what it vomits! The sperm whale’s vomit is called Ambergris (aka liquid gold). In the water, it is a dung-like smelly substance, but once exposed to the sunlight and saltwater, it develops a muskier (perfumed) odor.
After Jonah was vomited up onto the shore, covered in Ambergris and saltwater under the Arabic sun, it was not the stench of death and dung that Jonah was covered in, but a fragrant aroma that was the result of the forgiveness of his heavenly Father that he did not deserve that resulted in his redemption!
Oh dear Christian! Can you see the parallels of Jonah’s story and ours? Jesus said, “...for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). Jesus died a death we deserved for our sins, was buried in the belly of the earth, and three days later... He came out of the tomb for our redemption! Unlike Jonah, we are not covered by Ambergris and salt water under the hot sun! No, we are covered in something infinitely better! If you are a Christian, it is in Jesus, that you have redemption; listen again to Ephesians 1:7-8, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” If you are a Christian, you are covered in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and according to the apostle Peter: “...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
My appeal to you is the appeal of Ephesians 5:14; do not slumber in your sin and do not stay there! Do not be apathetic towards those sins that the wrath of God is coming for and those sins for which Jesus endured that wrath you deserved. You are covered under the blood of Jesus and because that is the case, “There is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). So turn, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
