WAKE UP! THE END IS NEAR

INTRO

I. A CALL FOR URGENT OBEDIENCE (v. 11).

“Do this.” = 12:1-13:10.

A. The urgency for obedience.

“Knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near.”

1) Salvation here is future salvation (5:9-10) connected to the second coming of Christ.
It is nearer to us that when we first believed.

2) It is time to wake up.

Paul uses this metaphor of sleep here as moral drowsiness that characterizes those who belong to the night.

Believers can suffer from a sleepy spirit.

B. The signs of sleepiness.

C. The spiritual alarm clock.

II. THE IMPORTANCE OF ESCHATOLOGY.

This future coming salvation is a powerful incentive for godly living.

Cf. Rom. 8:18, 24-25; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; 2 Pet. 3:10-13; 1 Jn. 3:2-3.

III. THE PROBLEM OF THE NEARNESS OF CHRIST’S RETURN.

If Paul has the second coming of Christ in view, and says that the night is almost gone and the day is near (v. 12), how do we reconcile it with the fact that 19 1/2 centuries have gone by since the apostle wrote this.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS:

Don’t work:
1) Paul was in error.

2) A fuflillment at 70 A.D.

May work:
3) The “day” refers to the day of the believer’s death. See Hodge, Haldane, Gill, etc.

Con: “the day” in v. 12 is not used for the day of death, but it is commonly used for the day of salvation and judgment at the second coming of Christ (Rom. 2:5, 16; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:4; Heb. 10:25).

4) The temporal indicators in vv. 11-12 must be calculated by God’s clock, not ours, 2Pet. 3:8 “ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Con:
a)
b)
c)

Best pick
5) Paul’s language does not mean that Christ’s return is in the very near future.

CONCLUSION