A, The First Sunday of Advent - Matthew 24:42-44, Romans 13:11-14 "Stolen From..."
I have forgotten many things learnt from school, but I’ve
never forgotten this quirky identification on the teacher’s blackboard
ruler. It probably says quite a bit
about the sense of humour of my manual arts teachers. Humour blended with sarcastic cynicism, that
appeals to the Australian psyche, which no doubt has come about through experience
of misfortune.
Imagine finding this ruler in the English or science classroom! It would have been enough to have the
teacher’s name on the ruler, but seeing, “Stolen from the Manual Arts Dept.”,
one is entertained by the comedy of the teacher going to rule a line on the
blackboard, or whiteboard, only to discover being ruler-less.
In Matthew chapter twenty-four, Jesus seems to say
something equally as quirky as that which was written on the teacher’s metre
ruler. Jesus says, “Therefore, stay
awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the
house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have
stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:42–44 ESV)
So, are we to be ready, staying awake, so that we will be
stolen? Or are we to be ready, staying
awake, so we are not stolen? Is Jesus
coming to thieve us from the master of this world, Satan? Or is the call to stay awake, a call to stop
the forces of evil stealing our salvation, through being lured back into a
sleep of unbelief and death?
Jesus uses what seems to be a mixed metaphor or contrary
image in his warning, making us ponder, “who is the master of the house, who is
the thief, and for what must one be ready?”
Like the manual arts ruler identified in the science classroom,
are we staying awake to be picked up and found?
Or, are we staying awake so we’re not picked up and stolen to a place
where we just should not be?
If I am the master or the servant, do I need to be stolen or do I need to
protect myself not to be stolen? If
Jesus is the thief, from what am I being stolen? What am I staying awake and waiting for?
If the thief is sin, death, or the devil, how does staying
awake protect my identity, so it’s not stolen?
One must let the context of Jesus’ words determine what he
is teaching us here. Jesus continues, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant,
whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the
proper time? Blessed is that servant
whom his master will find so doing when he comes.” (Matthew 24:45–46 ESV)
But the servant who has not stayed awake, eats and drinks
in drunkenness and violence, and is sleeping in a wicked life that leads to
death. This is the person who has not remained
awake and has been stolen by death.
In Luke’s parallel account, Jesus says, “But stay awake at all times, praying that
you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place,
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
(Luke 21:36 ESV)
Here Jesus calls us to stay awake so we can escape and not
be stolen by the cares of life. As chaos
increases, we’re not stolen back to a hopeless sleep of eternal death.
So, the anomaly to “stay awake”, is one that can be viewed
both ways. We stay awake ready to be
rescued and stolen by Jesus when he returns, and we also stay awake, so we are
not stolen by worry and doubt, which allows sin, death, and the devil to break
into those whom Christ has made holy!
But how does one stay awake? How is one stolen by God? Or, how does one remain awake so they are not
stolen by death?
In Revelation twenty, John reports the hidden reality of
how we are stolen from the jaws of the evil one, kept awake, sustained and saved from eternal death. This is the picture he sees and reports to
the church…
Then I saw an angel
coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and
a great chain. And he seized the dragon,
that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years… Then I saw thrones, and seated on
them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. They came to life and reigned with Christ for
a thousand years. Blessed and holy is
the one who shares in the first resurrection!
Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God
and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:1, 2, 4a, 4c, 6 ESV)
For the sake of brevity, I haven’t given you the full text.
However, I encourage you to read the
whole of Revelation chapter twenty through to the end. When you do you will see and hear the victory
that belongs to Jesus Christ and all who remain awake in him. Or, who allow themselves to be stolen by him
from our sinful selves and the deceptive world in which we suffer and by which
we are tempted.
But a few things are worth noting from what I have read to
you from Revelation twenty.
The devil is bound for a thousand years. He has limited power in this era that began
at Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension and will end upon
his return. The thousand years is the
perfect time only known to God the Father.
In the fulness of this time when his purpose is complete, God the Father
will send Jesus Christ, and Jesus will come again to this world.
In this era of the church, perfected by Jesus Christ, we
reign with him having already died in our first death, and that death was at
our holy baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection over sin and death.
In fact, those who stay awake in Jesus Christ, are continually
being woken through the waking work of the Holy Spirit as he calls, gathers,
enlightens, and makes us holy in the Gospel of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and
forgiveness.
Jesus will come, returning like a thief in the night. But let us remain awake to the reality of our
reign with Christ. Though, for now, it
is hidden from all those who have not been baptised into Christ or who have
fallen back into a sleep ending in death! We live in a generation that is stolen! In a culture that is not awake to Jesus
Christ.
But when we allow the Holy Spirit access to keep us awake,
we are blessed! The devil has been bound.
We live in the daily resurrection of our
baptism into Jesus Christ. We live with
the freedom to be witnesses and martyrs of the faith. We do so, because the second death and the
devil, have no power over us.
We might think of our hope in Jesus Christ, as Hell Out
and Permanently Eliminated for those awake in Jesus Christ. Or, Jesus has stolen those he loves
from eternal death, Jesus is stealing those he loves from eternal death,
and Jesus will steal those he loves from eternal death.
If we are stolen from Satan, and he is bound in what he can
do, we still need God’s waking protection in the Holy Spirit. This is because there’s still limited power
and principals of evil being exercised in the world. By our sinful human spirit, and our corporate
human spirit, feeding and fuelling the desires of a corrupt world.
Finally, Paul encourages us in Romans chapter thirteen, “Owe no one anything, except to love each
other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8 ESV)
Then he continues, “Besides
this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when
we first believed. The night is far
gone; the day is at hand. So then let us
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not
in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in
quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
(Romans 13:11–14 ESV)
Here he calls us from the desires of selfish love to being
loved by God! When we remain in God’s
love, like the manual arts ruler, we bear the quirky sign of God, “Stolen by
God, stolen from sin, death and Satan.”
Let us continually remain awake in the Holy Spirit!
Rather than being identified as “Stolen from God,
stolen by sin death and the devil”. We endure being “Stolen from sin death
and the devil because we’re stolen by Jesus Christ.” Amen.
