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THE SOCIAL SCENE!

WAKE UP, O SLEEPER,
RISE FROM THE DEAD,
AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU!

These words, Paul’s words to the Ephesian believers, are generally believed to be taken from somewhere in the book of Isaiah. If so, it means that Paul saw a rough connection, maybe a close connection, between the social scene in Ephesus and the scene in Isaiah’s day. He saw that the church in Ephesus needed to be exhorted just as Isaiah exhorted the nation of Israel in his day. In each case, the recipients of the message needed to be shaken out of their slumber.

In Isaiah’s day, the nation of Israel, both the northern and southern kingdom, had turned its back on God. It had become a nation that was morally corrupt, full of greed, and though they continued to offer sacrifices they knew nothing of mercy and justice. They were in danger of being carried away by other nations; first the northern kingdom would be carried away by Assyria and then Judah, the southern kingdom, by Babylon.

To them, in the midst of their apathy, their complacency, and their idolatry, Isaiah cried out:
Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. 2 Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. Isaiah 52:1 - 3
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60:1 - 3

Paul, in similar fashion, cried out to the believers at Ephesus to wake up and expose the degradation within their culture. Expose the fruitless deeds of darkness not by pointing the finger at them, but by living such godly lives that the light of Christ shows them up for what they truly are - deeds that bring only sorrow, destruction, and death.
In our culture, Brittany Spears and Madonna kiss on a nationally televised show and the media can’t get enough of it, same sex marriage is on the verge of being certified as legitimate, greed in corporate and non-corporate American is alive and well, the divorce rate remains high, and while most of our neighbors believe in God this belief fails to transform their everyday lives. To you and I Paul says:
WAKE UP, O SLEEPER,
RISE FROM THE DEAD,
AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU!

Well, now that everyone is awake, wide awake, we’re encouraged to do the following as seen in Ephesians 5:15 - 20:
15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here Paul urges us to live wisely, making the most of every opportunity. Wisdom fills in the gaps between those commands of Scripture that are clear-cut, it tells you and I what to do when the distinction between right and wrong is lost in the fogginess of our mind. It is one of the tools that the Holy Spirit uses to personalize God’s will for you and me. For, in fact, what is wise for me may not be wise for you – and vice versa.

Sam’s work requires him, along with several coworkers, to be away from home two or three nights a week. He’s in love with his wife, he has three wonderful kids, and he serves his church. But on the road things are different.

His coworkers, once they get out-of-town, act like they are on spring break in Mexico. And while Sam tries to say “no” to their late night activities he inevitably ends up going along with them. They get together for dinner and as the dinner winds down they talk about what they are going to do that evening with their free time. And before Sam knows it, he’s getting in the car with them to participate in their “deeds of darkness.”

What is the wise thing for Sam to do? Should we encourage him to say “no” with a greater emphasis? Should he quit his job? Well, in the light of past experience, maybe the best advice is for him to eat dinner alone with a good book. Because what is happening is that he is putting himself in a situation, dinner with his buddies, that he can’t handle at this time in his life. Proverbs 28:26 says:
He who trusts in himself is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.
Someone who is single, comes to you as one whom they respect and ask, “What does the Bible say about dating? Can I date a man (woman) who doesn’t know Christ?”

How do you reply? What is the wise thing for this woman (man) to do? Do you tell them that the Bible doesn’t say anything about dating and therefore they best avoid the dating scene altogether? What would be the wise thing for this person to do in regards to dating? Can they really stand on the edge of the cliff without falling head over heels in love with this guy (woman)?

Or suppose, you are given an opportunity to earn an extra $10,000/year. Do you automatically jump at the opportunity? I mean, what is wrong with earning an extra $10,000/year? With that amount of money you could afford to do some things, even some religious things, that you haven’t been able to do in the past. But what is the real cost? Will it cost you time with your family? Will it drain you to the point that you can’t do your job well? Will it curtail your ability to serve your neighbor?

You see wisdom, if we let it, shines a spotlight on our soul. It reveals what our heart really looks like and challenges us, by faith, to make the most of every opportunity. In social interactions it reveals our lust and challenges us to recommit ourselves to those we love. In relational issues it reveals our selfishness and challenges us to trust God to heal our loneliness. And, in financial matters it reveals our greed and challenges us to remember what is important in life. It tells us to be careful, to make the most of every opportunity.

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” for your individual life. In light of the previous verse, I think Paul is commanding us to understand two things. First, we are to understand our own hearts. We’re to understand that our own hearts are desperately corrupt, deceitful above all things. If we think we can stand on the edge of some cliff without yielding to its temptation to jump, we are indeed fools.

Second, we’re to understand the Lord’s heart. We’re to understand that he wants what is best for each one of us and that while there are universal commands and principles within Scripture, situations arise in our complicated lives that call for wisdom. Wisdom, that by its very nature is tailored to our individual circumstances. And the better we understand the Lord’s heart for us, the better we understand what his will is for us.

We now come to a very unusual command, “be filled with the Spirit.” It is unusual for two reasons. First, you just don’t see this phrase outside the book of Acts and the gospel of Luke. That is, you just don’t see it in the epistles except for its occurrence here in Ephesians.

Second, in the Greek it is accompanied by the preposition “with” whereas the other nine occurrences of the phrase are not accompanied by this preposition. Yes, in our English translations you will see the word “with” but it is there so that you and I will understand the “content” of the filling; “filled with the Holy Spirit.” But a preposition is found in the Ephesian passage, the Greek of the passage, and it is normally translated as “with.”

This, however, is a little confusing because it gives you the idea that Paul is referring to the “content” of the Holy Spirit. But Paul is admonishing the Ephesian believers to be filled “by” the Holy Spirit. But why would he admonish the Ephesians and not use the same phrase to admonish everyone else in his letters to the various churches. Why single out the Ephesians? Why would he challenge them to be “filled by the Spirit” and not others believers.

Well, it may be because he came up with a better way of saying it. He challenged others to “walk in the Spirit as opposed to walking in the flesh.” But I think the real reason is found in Acts 19:1 - 7 where we read:
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Though the word “filled” is not used in this passage it is clear, as in the other passages of Acts, that Jesus is fulfilling his promise to send the Holy Spirit to all who believe in him. In doing so, he gives every Christian the potential to be a true representative of Christ in this world.

What is of interest to us is that this unusual “filling” of the twelve happened at Ephesus. So it makes sense that as Paul wrote to the Ephesians that this bit of history would come back to him and he would “complete” the education of the Ephesians in this area of spirituality.

In essence, he said to them: “As you know, you have all of the Holy Spirit. When you believed in Christ, when you believed in the one who came after John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit took up residence within you. As with all the other believers in the book of Acts, you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit when you put your trust in the one who John the Baptist pointed to as the Messiah. But, here is the question you must answer for yourself. Does the Holy Spirit have all of you? If not, I exhort you to be filled by the Holy Spirit. Instead of letting wine control you, let the Spirit control your every action. Put yourself under the influence of the Spirit.”
Of course, this is easier said then done. It is easier said then done because most of us think we can live the Christian life on our own. We think that though the Christian life began in faith, when we placed our faith in work of Christ, that it can be lived apart from faith.

We’re wrong! But we won’t admit that we’re wrong until we come to that point in our lives where we have nowhere else to turn but back to Him. It is at that point, the point where we are broken of self-reliance, of self-effort, when we discover that real life is found in the Spirit-filled life.

Look at it this way. At any and every funeral people are filled with grief. It colors everything that is done and said on that particular day. It fills every waking moment. That is what Paul means in Ephesians when he encourages us to “be filled with the Spirit.” We’re to let the Spirit dominate and control every waking moment.

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