Or what about when driving somewhere and your mind had drifted off and you missed a turn and then you ‘come back’ and start to notice something seems off and you are not where you should be. It can be quite a jolt to the system. (Did you catch my post about showing up at the wrong airport when I was returning home after the twins were born?)
Multiple readings in the NT seem to suggest that the condition of the ‘church’ in the last days (prior to the return of the ‘Bridegroom’) will be one of either asleep (Matt. 25:5) or ‘fallen away’ -deceived. (1 Thess. 5:1-7; 2 Thess. 2:1-12)
To come out of either condition, spiritually speaking, can be a jolt to the system as well. I would liken it to the experience (one which I fortunately have never had) of waking up in the middle of the night and smelling smoke from a fire in the house.
I don’t know how many of you can identify with this next question or observation...but having been around for a few years now...been in multiple churches, not to mention pastoring two myself...it’s hard not to read through the Book of Acts and study what the first early church looked like...and then look around today and conclude quickly that what we see today resembles very little what the early church looked like back then. Which then leads to the question of ...”How did we get here?” (And this is not about criticizing and finding fault with churches today either)
I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that out. We ‘drift’. (Heb. 2:1) We get complacent or comfortable. (Amos 6:1; Zeph. 1:12). We ‘fall asleep’. We, like Eve did...get seduced by ‘other gospels’ and if we are not careful, end up following ‘another Jesus’ and receiving “another spirit’ as Paul warned us might happen. (2 Cor. 11:2-4)
If you have studied/read through Acts, you see this phrase repeatedly...they ‘grew and multiplied’. (Acts 6:7; 9:31; 12:24). This refers to the early church. You read about the power of God working through them...people being set free and healed and delivered of demons. (2:43; 5:16) And you also see God’s hand of judgement as well. Remember Ananias and his wife, Sapphira? (Acts 5)...”so great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.” (11)
So let’s take a look back to another time in history where God had made great promises to Abraham. God, seeking to establish relationship and covenant with His creation...called Abram out of his homeland and wanted to lead him into a new land where God could bless him (and his descendants) abundantly. What is interesting to note there in Genesis 15 as God establishes this covenant with him, is a ‘heads up’ He shares there in vs. 13. “Know for sure your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”
Sure enough...we read where Abraham’s descendants end up in Egypt. (There was this great famine and Joseph was instrumental in them ending up there in Egypt where God blessed them). We read in Exodus 1:7- “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.”
Sound remotely familiar to what we read there in Acts regarding the growth of the early church?
Let’s read on in vs. 8-11- “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh...” In other words, they made them slaves.
You know...there’s a reason why God likens us to sheep. Sheep tend not to be very bright animals. Why even Jesus made this statement: “the children of this world are in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light.” (Luke 16:8)
Maybe that is why Paul was constantly warning the early church to be careful...be not deceived...take heed.....lest you fall. His letter there to the Corinthians cites in detail, specific warnings to the early church based on what happened to previous generations. He even admonishes us with “These things happened to them as examples and warnings...for us on whom the end of the ages have come.” (1 Cor. 10:1-11)
“All we like sheep, have gone astray”, Isaiah would write.(53:6) And wandering, lost sheep usually end up becoming prey to wild beast, or end up in captivity. Hence, the need to constantly send deliverers to His people. Did Jesus not come to ‘set the captives free’? Well, so did Moses.
Funny about drifting off and becoming enslaved or captive to a host of things...you tend to lose sight of God...and who He really is. It happens more often than it should. And after 400+ years, God’s people became enslaved to Pharoah. So God looking down in His mercy and compassion...remembering His promise to Abraham...sends Moses to deliver them. I’m sure you are familiar with that enthralling tale of plagues and judgements and seas opening up as God leads several million people through and into a desert wilderness.
This might be a good place to remind us what WE become ‘enslaved’ to – Jesus tells us matter-of-fact that ‘whoever commits sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). The irony in all this is the fact that most professing believers today will freely admit that they ‘sin all the time’ or ‘daily’. Yes, I know about the advocate we have in Christ and his forgiving power but....you do realize what He came to set us free from, yes? Sin. As in...we don’t have to ‘sin’ anymore. And I’m telling you in Jesus Name that the great lie that has been etched in our minds by ‘another Pharoah’ is that we will continue to sin until we die. Hence, we remain ‘slaves’. (Folks, we are not talking minor ‘doctrinal differences’ here – This is Huge! )
God really had good things in store for His people. He provided for them miraculously in that barren land and admonished them to pay attention and follow His leading...and even promised if they did so, that He would keep them healthy and disease free. (15:26). Oh...there was another matter that needed to be tended to. After displaying His mighty power and provision...and protection in dramatic fashion...do you know where He led them to? - Mt. Sinai. And I am assuming most of you know what took place there.
That’s where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. It was quite the scene when Moses went up that mountain...there was fire and earthquakes and rumblings and thunder and noise. God was about to introduce Himself to this group of people and get acquainted letting them know who He was and what He was all about. Do you know why? They were clueless. Four hundred years of tradition and enslavement will do that to you...dim your vision and outlook.
This happened to another character in the bible...remember Sampson? After he succumbed to Delilah’s persistent nagging of wanting to know the secret to his power...(his long hair) she cuts if off and next thing you know, Sampson is powerless...get’s taken in to captivity...has his eyes gauged out and is chained to a millstone where his life is reduced to pushing the ‘ole grindstone’, as we commonly say. No vision. Mundane existence. That...is what sin does to us. Sin enslaves us, it blinds us, and it leaves us powerless.
And let’s not forget: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Prov. 29:18)
I would imagine that these several million Israelites who end up at the base of this mountain and see all these dramatic manifestations and hear the thundering voice of God...are asking themselves where in the world are they and how did they get here. It had to be a jolt to their system in many ways. It sure was not ‘business as usual’. Let’s call it the ‘mother of all wake up calls’. Sadly...many of this first generation were not ready to sign up for all this dramatic change and began carving out ‘other god’s’ to worship and even expressing desire to return to their old way of living...looking for leaders to take them back to Egypt.
I would submit to you here today, that a ‘sleeping church’ finds itself in a similar situation. There is a reason most of us have a hard time processing and embracing the ‘God of the Old Testament’ who laid down a law with expectations that He made clear that His people would abide by. As Paul reminds us...behold the ‘goodness and the severity of God’. He desires to show His love and mercy to thousands of generations but can certainly be ‘provoked to anger and jealousy’ as well. (Deut. 5:8-10). Again, Paul asks us: “Do we want to provoke the Lord to jealously?” (1 Cor. 10:22)
The writer of Hebrews asked a rhetorical question after advising us to give ‘earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away’...”How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation’? (Heb. 2:1-3). The answer to that is: We won’t. Unless we repent, and ‘hear Him in ALL things, we will all perish and be utterly destroyed.’. (Luke 13:1-5; Acts 3:22). I am convinced we easily ‘neglect’ this great salvation because of our ignorance as to what He actually ‘saved us from’. This is not a time for rolling back over and going to sleep. The ‘house really is on fire’ and He’s trying warn us. “Woe to them who are at ease in Zion (church) Amos 6:1.
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