Presented to 614 Regent Park Toronto, 07
February 2016
Presented to Swift Current Corps, 16 August
2009
Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 02
December 2007
This is the 2016 Toronto Text.
To view the original text, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/12/victory-final-whistle-romans-1311-14.html
Today is Superbowl Sunday. It is a big deal
here and most places. In Saskatchewan – where we lived for 10 years – there is a
more important football event; do you know what that is? (The Grey Cup) Our
first year in Saskatchewan … something happened that had a profound effect on
the whole province…Saskatchewan won the Grey Cup. This was exciting.
We we responsible two churches in those days: One in a
town called Nipawin, where we lived, and another down the highway in Tisdale. The
game started as we were finishing up our church service in Tisdale and driving
back to Nipawin. On the way home in the car, when I turned on the radio, the other
team was up 3-0. (It was neat though as we were driving the highway between
these two small Saskatchewan towns because every farm house you passed you could
see had the game on the TV.) The other team then went up 10-0. I had faith, though that
the victory all of Saskatchewan had been waiting for for 18 years was finally
coming and –as history has since recorded now my faith, my hope was not in
vain. The cup returned to Saskatchewan.
I got back to Nipawin to see the end of the
game and something struck me in the last couple of moments of the football
game, right after an interception near the end of the game, you could see the
anticipation as the cameramen zoomed in on the Saskatchewan players’ faces.
They knew the game had been won already but it wasn’t over yet. The game had
been won, they wanted to celebrate but it wasn’t over yet. The game had been
won already and it took everything for the coach to keep the players on the
sideline and staff off the field because the game wasn’t over yet. They knew
that it had been won but the game wasn’t over yet. The anticipation was written
on the Riders’ faces as they knew that the game had been won but it wasn’t over
yet….
This is exactly the situation that Paul in Romans
is talking about in Romans 13:11-12, he writes: "And do this,
understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your
slumber, because our salvation is nearer
now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here...."
Verse 11 says that our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed! The Apostle Paul, in his letters, uses the word
‘salvation’ in a number different of ways.
One way he uses the word is to refer to how
we can be saved from the normal course of events in our lives. We can be saved
from daily events such might happen if we are driving too fast and are pulled
over; sometimes a friendly officer for some reason can decide not to
issue us a ticket: we are saved that expense. Another way is for someone
to offer us a ride when we were going to walk or catch the bus somewhere. This
is a common way that we are saved everyday and this is one way that Paul
does use the word ‘salvation’ but this daily salvation is not exactly
what Paul is talking about here.
Paul speaks at times also, in other places
in his letters - like in 2 Corinthians 6:2 – about the ‘Day of Salvation’ and that ‘Day of Salvation’, Paul syas, is already here. It is not still to come; it has already
arrived but in Verse 11 of our text Paul says that our salvation is still to come: it says that
our salvation is nearer now
than when we first believed; so how can that be?
How can our salvation be both now and still to
come? How can it be both near
and here already. This is an important idea to understand (theologians
refer to this concept as a ‘prolepsis’) because our Salvation, as it is, has
indeed already been achieved. It was achieved when Jesus died and then won the
victory through rising from the dead. Paul himself acknowledges this in other
places in the scriptures: 2 Corinthians
6:2, 1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:8 and the Apostle Peter talks about
just this in 1 Peter 1. So then Christ has already won the victory but the final reward of
Salvation is still to come. The Game is won - but the final whistle has not
been blown and the really super bowl, the Everlasting Cup is still to be
presented.
It is very much like a football game. When a
player goes down on one knee to run out the clock at the end of the game there is
no way they can be defeated. The fans are already victors with the team, they
are cheering like mad, coaches are being showered in Gatorade... even with
seconds still to play, players and fans are victorious with their team just
like we are already victors with Christ.
When Christ died on the cross and rose from
the grave, Death was dealt its deathblow: Christ intercepted the pass and ran
for the final touchdown putting game out of reach. There is no way now that sin
and death can ever come back and win the game but the thing is that that final
whistle hasn’t gone yet and this is exactly what Paul is speaking about.
In this passage in Romans, Paul is speaking
about salvation as if it were that final whistle of the game. Sure the Riders,
in our first year in Saskatchewan had won the game with 20 seconds left but
they did not get to hold the Cup until after the final whistle had sounded.
The analogy Paul uses to make this same point
is quite neat: Paul refers to our salvation as the daytime that is
almost here. This is exciting because just like a game that is out of reach,
there is nothing that we can do to stop the daytime from coming; there is no
such thing as a night that never ends; for that to happen the earth must stop
spinning and then we would have a lot more problems than just darkness. Day hasn’t
arrived yet but there is nothing we can do to stop it from coming.
That being said, Paul still has some words
for us. He says that we should wake up (v. 11)! We don’t want to miss it.
Wouldn’t you hate to be a sports fan who, after 18 years (or more) of waiting,
sleep through the victory and awarding of the cup to your team? It wouldn’t
change the outcome of the game but it would sure affect you. Paul says, wake up!
You don’t want to miss the finish! You don’t want to miss the dawn but he says
even more than that.
Paul says that since the darkness is fading
(v 12), we should no longer live like we are in the darkness. It is like ‘regime
change’ such as we’ve heard so much in the news the last couple of years and
there is a good example of this from historical England actually.
There was a time in England’s history when
she had neither a King nor a Queen. Parliament had won the war against the
monarchy and that is arguably the darkest period in all of English history. The
rules of their society changed so drastically: it became so repressive without
the king to look out for the common people that they eventually begged the son
of the king to come back to rule over them again – but, even then, it takes a
while and people have to be convinced to act the way the new regime wants. Just
ask the Americans how well their new regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan are
going…it may be a new day there but many people are not choosing to live under their authority.
It is the same in our world here today.
When Christ died and rose there came about a regime change – the King is back.
The Son of the King has come. And soon again he is even coming back and as this
is the case, it is time to stop acting as if he is not.
Daytime is arriving so we should stop doing
all of those things that people like to do in the night. Some of these things
that we should stop are listed in our Romans 10: it says in v 13 that we should
not engage in sexual immorality and debauchery; we should not engage in
dissention and jealousy. Doing so, acting on our own selfish desires, would be
like swearing allegiance to the darkness, to the old regime, the defeated
regime; it would be like paddling out to join the Titanic as it’s going down or
buying shares in Eaton’s or Enron as it goes ‘belly up.’ It would not be
prudent. It would not be smart.
This is important: when we focus on
ourselves rather than God and others (8-10; Matt 7:12, 22:40), we are serving
the defeated regime and don’t be mistaken, even though it is defeated, it is
still fighting and even though darkness has lost, people are still dying.
This is very much like the battle of New
Orleans in the War of 1812. I don’t know how much you know about that battle or
that war but it is very significant. You see the War of 1812 began when England
was busy trying to contain Napoleon as he was bringing war to every corner of
the planet. England was very busy trying to stop him so the Americans thought
this would be a good time to conquer Canada so like they did many times before,
they invaded – only it didn’t go so well. They lost. We were saved. They failed
to conquer Canada and they were forced to send their agents overseas to sue for
peace.
On December 24, Christmas Eve, 1815, the
war ended with the US but there was no long distance telephone, no e-mail, and
no other way to tell the troops in the field this news quickly in those days
and so on January 8, 1816 (after the war had officially already ended) a terrible thing happened. General Pakenham
took the initiative on his own and invaded New Orleans. The Americans, the
enemy had already been defeated; the war had already been won but there were
over 1700 casualties that day. The war had already been won but many people
still perished in the battle that followed.
This is what it is like for us today. Even
though the victory has been won, people are still perishing. If we follow our
own selfish desires, even though the war has been won…not everyone has been
delivered from the darkness. There are still people perishing today.
How many of us, like General Pakenham’s
troops, are perishing when we don’t have to? How many of us are acting on our
own instead of submitting to God? How many of us, our friends, our family,
still give in to drunkenness, debauchery, sexual sin..? When we do so we are
serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime.
How many of us still give into quarrelling
and jealousy? They are the same as the former sins, you know. And so when we
do, we are serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime. If you
break one aspect of the law you break the whole thing (Gal 3). In the eyes of
the Lord sin is sin and the consequence of sin is the same as it was for those
poor people who marched to their graves in New Orleans even though the
victory has been one. The wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23).
So why would we commit sexual sin or
quarrel with each other? Why when we know that this is submitting to the old
regime? Why? Why are we content to live in the darkness?
Why not rather strap on the armour of light
like it says in Verse 12. Actually this is neat too. Did you know that the word
translated as ‘armour’ here (and in Ephesians 6) –‘hopla’ - is probably better
translated ‘weapons’? This designates much more than just defending oneself
with amour. This refers to going out and seizing the foe. We should not just
hide from the darkness we must wage war against it.
It says in Verse 14 that we must put on
Jesus Christ himself and make no provisions for our own selfish desires and
really that is what the answer to everything is isn’t it? As we put on Christ,
we can engage the world and not succumb to it. When we have Him as our armour
nothing can slay us – He has no Achilles heel.
So it is to
this end that I exhort us today. Even as we are awaiting the Superbowl today, Our
Game, the Eternal Game has been won, the foe has been defeated; therefore for
us to be engaged in selfishness now would be like if in the last seconds of
play one of the players on the winning side switched uniforms to join the losing
team. Why when the victory is already won would anyone want to forfeit their
prize before it is awarded? Why would we
want to reject our salvation now that the daylight is coming?
So today, I leave us with this
encouragement. Sin is already defeated. Death is already dead and
the darkness is already fading; so let us, like Jesus said to the lady
accused of adultery in John 8:10, `let us go and sin no more` so that we may be
there to experience the really super bowl victory and hoist that great cup of
eternal life high with Christ who has already won us the victory.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
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