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Homiletics I
Sermon 1
Text:  Romans 13:11-14
  He is Coming!
(Advent 1)
 Submitted to:  Prof.
David Schmitt
10~/11~/04
 
*Focus:  *The Savior is coming!
*Function:  *That my hearers would anticipate the second coming of our savior with joy and, remembering their baptism, be ready for Him, while not falling into sin.
*Sermon Structure:  *Four Pages of the Sermon
 
Have you ever anticipated something so much that you thought you were going to /die/?
When we are looking forward to something, we manifest all kinds of feelings, from anxiousness to excited ness and everything in between.[DS1]
I remember going to see President Bush just before the election[DS2] .
My family and I went to Queenie Park to see him after the debate here in town.
We waited /four/ hours.
We watched different speakers, a band, and then the debate, before he made his way over to the park from where the debate was held.
When he was getting close to the park the Secret Service became very active as they scanned the auditorium and checked the President’s pathway through the building.
Then they lowered the lights and began playing some kind of “build up” music, apparently for his entrance.
We were /all/ getting very excited.
As a Secret Service agent attached the Presidential emblem to the podium it struck me that now the /President of the United States /was going to speak there, and they had to prepare it for him…the most powerful man in the world.
I can remember telling my wife that I felt chills on the back of my neck when the lights went down and the music began to play.
This was a joyful kind of anticipation.
[DS3] Then the music seemed to loop around and just kept on playing the same tune over and over.
Some of the crowd would break into a chant of “four more years” then this would slowly subside as he still didn’t seem to be coming in.
The crowd was patient, yet we all seemed to be on the verge of /impatience/.
I remember anticipating Christmas like that.
[DS4] This was especially true as I was being read “/The Night before Christmas.”
/ The stockings had been hung, as in the story, and the tree was a shimmer with lights.
I can remember my mother reading to me and my mind being consumed with wonder of what would happen the next morning.
I could hardly sleep!
I would flirt with the idea of sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night to see what was happening.
My childhood memories, of not being able to wait for the night to end and for the morning to come, remind me of this text.
We have a strange way of anticipating the coming of Christ.
Are we ready?
Do you feel ready for Him to come?
Are we excited?
Are we even anxious?
Have we prepared for his arrival?
Do you ever feel like you are asleep at the wheel as a Christian?
That you are just going through the motions and posing, but…you know in your heart you aren’t in line with what God would have you doing.
We are born anew…yet has the newness faded, or have we fallen asleep?[DS5]
I became a Christian at age thirty.
When I did, I was renewed through my baptism.
I confessed to a loving savior that could finally forgive me for all the sin that I had committed through those thirty years of life!
Through confession with my pastor and at the Lord’s alter altar I felt as though a tremendous burden had been lifted off of my shoulders and lay at the feet of Jesus.
This was fourteen years ago and many things have happened in my life since then.
Unfortunately…I have sinned again since then.
There have been days when this “new sin” has weighed me down.
I have felt in my heart that, now that I am a believer, I should know better than that!
This makes me feel as though I have fallen backwards.
Or that the Spirit, which had entered me in baptism, might have left me.
I felt that this “new Christian” had fallen asleep in darkness.
I pray that He will come to me at those times.
Times like…when I have had an argument with my wife and cannot find it in myself to go to her and ask for her forgiveness.
I feel as though something /else/ has taken control of me as I stand firm on being right and I play the game of “no talking until one of us cracks.”
Do you ever have days like that?[DS6]
I believe Paul was trying to wake the Romans from this kind of a sleep [DS7] in our passage for today.
[DS8] To appreciate the context of this call, we must look at the rest of his letter to the Romans.
He had just laid out an exhortation on the conduct expected of a Christian and the traits to be exemplified.
In the immediately preceding section of chapter 13, Paul delineates the role of a Christian in his relationship with the government as an ordinance of God.
He speaks of righteousness practiced through faith in the body and with a government established by God.
He continues this theme by bringing our attention to the commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
He exhorts that we must pay the “continuing debt to love one another,” and this includes all people as a fulfillment of the law.
This then brings us to our text, in which we start with the word “/and/.”
[DS9] This “and” really should be translated from the Greek as “And especially” or “And at that.”
Assigning a more intensive tone and demanding that the context of this passage be addressed[DS10] .
He is not just saying to do these things “also” because they understand the present time, but “/especially/” because they know the time.
The force of the participle, “understanding,” describes a /particular/ understanding and even culpability /because/ of that understanding.[DS11]
The Romans are being told to uphold all of these laws he has listed especially because they knew that the coming of Christ was near.
He conveys a sense of urgency with the use of language like; “the hour has come” and “our salvation is nearer now.”
This is not the first time we see this kind of call to wake up in the Bible.
In Matt.
26 we read of Jesus saying to the disciples, “Are you still sleeping and resting?
Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us go!
Here comes my betrayer!’”
This text displays urgency as in our text.
But /this/ text pertains to the crucifixion then resurrection of “the hour” of the Son of Man, while our text looks to His /return/.
Both of which are pressing and imminent and are requiring the hearers to be awake and alert.
Paul appeals to the Romans to not step backwards into the life of darkness, but put aside the deeds of darkness in preparation for His coming.
This appeal includes a list of actions that typify immorality from a Christian perspective offering a contrast between the world and the life of a believer.
This is a general classification of a sinful life known in the world of the Romans at the time.
He exhorts for them to live Godly lives in light of the certainty of the close of the present age.
In the midst of all of these exhortations about Christian living, Paul offers a vision of the future coming of Jesus that must change the way they live now.
He calls them to “put on the armor of light.”
[DS12] But what is this “armor”?
It can be translated as a weapon and as both an /offensive/ and defensive armor.
It refers to “the weapons of righteousness” from 2 Cor. that are given in the time of God’s favor, the day of salvation, of the present age of grace between the two comings of Christ.
In Eph.
5:14 we read,* “…*for it is light that makes everything visible.
This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
This also deals with “light” and “waking up.”
We see again the urgency to arise and this brings in the light of Christ that we see in Romans.
In both we will be given life through the light of Christ.
He is exhorting us to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and avoid the darkness of a fallen world.[DS13]
Now Paul gives us good news between the lines of all of this urgent warning of darkness[DS14] .
He tells you about your close proximity to the second coming of Christ, to your salvation and its promise.
He assures you that the “night is nearly over.”
Paul encourages the Romans with the hope of their salvation being closer now than ever before.
He reminds them of the excitement of the coming savior.
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