Friday, August 1, 2014

Awake, Thou That Sleepest


“Wake up, sleeper,  
rise from the dead,  
and Christ will shine on you.”
(Ephesians 5:14)

     One of the things I have always admired about John Wesley is that from all the evidence we have, he was a very self effacing man. While his opinions were strong, he never wanted God to be on his side, instead he wanted to be sure he was on God's side. We see this in his preface to the 52 standard sermons. Here he is giving his life work and theology. Those things he holds most dear he is about to share and instead of dogmatically saying it's my way  or the highway, he writes, "Are you persuaded you see more clearly than me... Then treat me as you would desire to be treated yourself upon a change of circumstances. Point me out a better way than I have yet known."
     Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of Wesley's self effacing personality is the fact that not all of his 52 standard sermons are his sermons. Instead, John honors and acknowledges the theological and poetic abilities of his little brother Charles by including this sermon. As one reads this sermon, it is obvious that John was the mind of the Methodist but Charles was the heart. This sermon is full of poetic and emotional imagery he borrowed from scripture. Images that he hoped would stir our hearts to wake up out of our sinful slumber. Waking up so that the Holy Spirit may open our eyes to see our need for God's grace, mercy, and transformation through Jesus Christ. 
     In this sermon, Charles breaks this waking process in three stages. First, he describes what it means to be 'spiritual asleep.' Second, he attempts to wake us up! Here he attempts to shake anyone listening out of that sleep. Finally, he talks about the promise of forgiveness and transformation we have if we turn toward Christ in our awakened state. I will now summarize each of these points with some discussion questions afterward. If you are interested in reading the full sermon you can click here.

Who are the the sleepers?

     Charles tells us, and I think he is correct, that the people who are spiritually asleep are people who are not 'awake' to their own broken relationship with God nor are they aware of how that relationship can be healed. Charles says that this person, "sees no necessity for the one thing needful' and later says that they are "ignorant of both the disease, and of the only remedy for it."
     We can see this today in folks who say, "I'm a good person, isn't that enough?" The reason I think they are asleep is because if you start probing this statement you discover how unthought-out it is. For example, why do you want to be a 'good person?' What does it mean to be a 'good person?' Put differently, what standard are you using? Many times people will respond by saying something like, "I try hard to be nice and I'm not like all those bad people," then list bad people to highlight how 'good they are.' This, I believe is the draw of shows like Jerry Springer. I have heard people saying that they watch it to feel better about themselves. Charles calls this person a "wretched self deceiver" and "thanks God that he or she, 'is not as other people are; adulterers, unjust, extortioners."
     Under the surface, however people in Wesley's day and our day, know that something is wrong. Charles says the Holy Spirit is a sinner "made sensible of his or her lost estate." We might believe that folks do not talk or think in these categories anymore. It may be argued that since 'sin' and 'being lost' are not ways people think and talk, how can it possibly be true that people are awakened to their sin or lostness. To illustrate this I am reminded of a scene from the movie Forest Gump. Lt. Dan asks Forest "Have you found Jesus, Gump?" To which Forest answers, "I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for Him sir." In other words, how can God judge us for not finding Jesus if no one knows they are supposed to be looking for him.
    To this I would make some observations. We live in the wealthiest, safest, and most comfortable country in the history of the world. Now, there are folks that are unsafe, genuinely poor, hungry, and lack the basic necessities in our country. However, they are more the expedition here than in any other country ever. Despite this fact we people cannot beat down the doors of therapists, buy self-help books, or ingest medication (prescribed or otherwise) fast enough!
     I want to be very clear on what I am and am not saying in this observation. I am not saying that medicine and professional councilors are never needed. Indeed, the Lord works mightily through these things to help make people whole again. What I am saying is that we are kidding ourselves if we think everything is alright! We are asleep to our need of a savior if we continue to use pills, professionals, and self-help books to numb our soul to the reality that we are broken and in need of a savior!

Questions

1. Why is it so easy to be 'asleep' to how much we need transformation in Christ?

2. What are some things that act as 'sleeping pills' for our souls? Put differently, what are those distractions that keep us from admitting to God that we are broken sinners in need of His mercy and transformation?

3. Have you ever had a 'wake up call' for your soul? What was it like?



Wake Up Call!

     In this section, Charles has a flurry of poetic and powerful appeals for us to WAKE UP from our spiritual slumber. He begins it by reminding us of the text from which this sermon was inspirit. Charles says:
Wherefore, "awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." God calleth thee now by my mouth; and bids thee know thyself, thou fallen spirit, thy true state and only concern below. "What meanest thou, O sleeper Arise! Call upon thy God, if so be thy God will think upon thee, that thou perish not." A mighty tempest is stirred up round about thee, and thou art sinking into the depths of perdition, the gulf of God's judgements. If thou wouldest escape them, cast thyself into them. "Judge thyself, and thou shalt not be judged of the Lord."
     Here Charles is begging us to not lead an examined life.  Most believe in God but few reflect on who He is and what He created us for. To this Charles encourages us to "Awake, thou everlasting spirit, out of thy dream of worldly happiness! Did not God create thee for Himself" (Italics mine)? If we are created beings, what were we created for? The Christian answer is that we were created for loving relationship. Loving relationship with our creator that flows out into loving relationship with our fellow image bearers!
     Being engaged in this relationship is being asleep to one thing that we were created for, the one thing needful in our lives. Charles goes on to ask penetrating questions about our relationship with the Lord. These questions center around whether we earnestly desire, even mourn over the lack of, reconciled relationship with God. Do we feel the separation? Do we earnestly want reconciliation? Charles finishes the section by saying:
O that in all these questions ye may hear the voice that wakes the dead; and feel that hammer of the Word, which breaketh the rocks in pieces! "If ye will hear his voice to-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts." Now, "awake, thou that sleepest" in spiritual death, that thou sleep not in death eternal! Feel thy lost estate, and "arise from the dead." Leave thine old companions in sin and death. Follow thou Jesus, and let the dead bury their dead. "Save thyself from this untoward generation." "Come out from among them, and be thou separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and the Lord shall receive thee." "Christ shall give thee light."

Questions

1. Have you ever missed someone so much that it hurt? Why did you miss that person?

2. What is it like whenever you have been reconciled with someone you love? 

3. Have you ever felt a rift between you and God? What causes that rift?

4. What might reconciliation to the Lord look like if that rift were healed?

The Promise

     If we feel this rather jolting wake up call of that one thing necessary, Charles closes with a word of encouragement. If we are awakened to the the one thing needful, a reconciled relationship to our creator, we should be of good cheer! For, in the words of Charles, "whosoever you are who obeys His call, you cannot seek His face in vain" (updated language and italics mine)!  Did you catch that? If you seek His face you cannot fail! That is good news!
     Charles closes with this good news by reminding us that "God is light, and will give Himself to every awakened sinner that waits for Him." If we wait on Him, the Holy Spirit will witness to our spirit that we are redeemed sons and daughters of the Lord. However, there are times when we all do not feel that witness. Charles closes with this promise to encourage us that, if we are awakened to our sin, we need to be patient and alert in waiting on the Lord. Alert in that "he hath given us long space to repent" so we should take advantage and search our own hearts. Search them to be sure that we are not "resisting the last effort of divine grace to save us. 
     In this alertness of being awakened we also need to be patient by waiting on Him while being in, what both of the Wesley's called the means of grace. These means are things like prayer, Christian conferencing, the reading and exposition of scripture, Communion and acts of mercy. If we are awakened to lost state and desire God's mercy and reconciliation, God has set out certain ways in which He communicates His mercy and reconciliation. 
     While not in this sermon, the Wesley's were careful to remind us that these things are not God's mercy in and of themselves. Put differently, it is not as if doing these things will 'earn' our salvation. Instead our salvation is a gift wrought for us on Calvary's Hill by Christ's sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. However, this does not mean that God has left us to do nothing while waiting on Him. Instead, these means of grace are normal ways in which the Holy Spirit communicates God's mercy and transformation. 
     I use the analogy of a cell phone. Imagine you are separated from someone you love and the only way you can communicate with them is your cell phone. That phone becomes vitally important to you, and you want to avail yourself to it whenever possible. However, that phone is not important for its own sake. Rather it is important because it is your means of connecting with that person. In the same way, means of grace to not earn our salvation. However, once we are awakened to our need for salvation we wait in these means of grace for the Holy Spirit to bring us back into reconciled loving relationship with our Lord. As we stay in these means of grace they not only communicate saving grace but also the transformation grace that enables us to become who we were created to be!
     So let us all call upon His name, mercy, grace and salvation. Call upon Him to awaken us to all of those areas of our hearts and lives that are separated from Him. Let us call upon Him to awaken us to the reality that we can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to send His Holy Spirit so to turn us away from that brokenness toward His hope, healing, and wholeness!

Questions

1. Have you ever had to 'wait on the Lord?' What was it like?

2. What is it like when you have been 'awakened' to something you were unaware of? What did you do when being awakened? 

3. Have you felt the saving and transforming grace of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in the means of grace that our Heavenly Father has ordained? What was it like?

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