Daylight is the Savings Time

Well by virtue of your presence here this morning I can deduce that each of you remembered that last night was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time and so you set you clocks ahead 1 hour accordingly

Those who forgot to do so will come in in the next 10-15 minutes wondering why everyone else is so early this week

In keeping with our spring time theme this month, today I want to take advantage of this daylight savings time to bring to you an important message

Although we usually credit the oil crisis in the early 70’s as the beginning of DST, it actually started much earlier in the city of Port Arthur, now called Thunder Bay

On July 1, 1908 at the stroke of midnight the citizens of Port Arthur turned their clocks ahead by 1 hour becoming the first place in the world to do so

Other Canadian cities soon followed suit and so at least some part of Canada has observed DST for the last 112 years

The purpose is and has always been that by changing the clock so that people can take advantage of more natural light, people would conserve energy

While it may have at one time that purpose is widely debated today and some experts even claim DST costs money

But did you know that thousands of years before Port Arthur ever considered the idea of DST, someone else had already conceived of the idea but for a much greater purpose

Take your Bible or you Bible app and open it up to the 9th chapter of John’s gospel and let’s look at what Jesus said to His followers,

John 9:4 NIV

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

Now Jesus wasn’t concerning Himself with setting the clocks ahead or back, He had already done that before, for Isaiah in and again for Joshua in

But those were different, this time Jesus was making the declaration to His disciples that Daylight is the Saving Time,

A concept that Paul shared also in

Ephesians 5:15-16

Ephesians 5:15–16 NIV

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

And in his letter to the Thessalonians he encouraged them,

1 Thessalonians 5:8 NIV

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

1 Thessalonians

So Jesus tells us that we are to do the works of Him who has sent us and that our opportunity to do so will be limited as the world slips into an ever increasing darkness but what are those works that we are to do?

Well let’s turn once again to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as he explains it a couple different ways

First in the second chapter of the letter Paul says,

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

So they are “good works” which God prepared for us a long time ago and which became a part of us when we were born again in Jesus Christ

So it’s something that we were incapable of in our old nature, in the person we used to be but possible through who we’ve become in Christ

Well could you be a little more specific Paul?

Actually yes, yes he could and so turn over a page or 2 to chapter 5 and let’s begin at verse 8,

Ephesians 5:8–10 NIV

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:8-10

Oh how I love it when a sermon almost writes itself, not because it is less work in fact it’s often more work but because when an outline for a sermon is so clear and obvious from the text it means that it is much easier for the Word to remain forefront and not my agenda

So let’s look at these 3 works that Paul says are only possible after our rebirth and are crucial to accomplishing what God has laid out in advance for us to accomplish

As long as it is still day, that is until darkness has completely taken over we have an obligation to do the work of goodness

Now I don’t know if the Apostle did this on purpose but as we go through these 3 works we are going to see a pattern emerge

And the pattern begins here in this first work in that goodness is the work that we do in relation to others

The Greek word that Paul uses is the word “ A-ga-tho-sun-ee” and in his interlinear New Testament word study William Mounce defines this word as, “virtue, generosity”

In other words goodness isn’t IN the way that we treat others, goodness IS the way that we treat others

And if you look up this word in Strong’s Complete Word Study Concordance it goes so far as to say that in this context this word “A-ga-tho-sun-ee” can and should be interpreted as, “Love for human beings”

Goodness isn’t simply about doing things that are good but it is about our motivation for doing those things

Are we doing them out of duty, to look good, or maybe because of guilt?

Or are we doing them because we love others and we are motivated to things from that love with compassion and with a desire to help make things right or better for that person?

Those are the types of “goodness” that God birthed in us when we were reborn

The kind of “goodness” that He prepared in advance by putting certain people and certain situations into our path so that we could respond in love and in doing so be children of light

1 Corinthians 4:1–5 NIV

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

1 Corinthians

The second work is this, that as long as there is light to do so, we are to do the work of righteousness

Now in the same way that the work of goodness relates to how we work with others, the work of righteousness relates to how we work within ourselves

Again going back to the original Greek, the word used by Paul is the word “Dik-ah-yos-oo-nay” and the simple definition is “to have integrity or godliness”

But again when we do a deeper word study and looking at the context we see that when spoken of in an internal aspect it means, “where the heart is right with God, piety towards God, and hence righteous, godliness”

Now there are 2 aspects to this that I want to touch on because both are important to making sure that we are doing this work

The first is that we need to put our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to atone for our sins

When we do that there’s a transfer that takes place, the fancy theological word for it is “propitiation” but what it really means is that when we put our faith, our trust in Jesus Christ as our saviour, our sinful past is transferred over to Him and His righteousness is transferred over to us

We looked at this passage last week but let’s turn again to Romans Chapter 3 and perhaps Paul explains it a little better

Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21–26 NIV

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

I hope that’s clear because I would love to spend more time going over this but we need to move on to the second aspect of this “work of righteousness” and that is once we receive the righteousness of Jesus we make every possible effort to maintain that righteousness

Philippians 2:12–13 NIV

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Philippians 4:12–13 NIV

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 2:12 NIV

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

God has made us righteous through Jesus Christ but how many of you realize that we still have a long way to go to before we become what we already are

I know that it sounds like an oxymoron but it is exactly what God has called us to in Jesus Christ

1 Timothy 6:11–12 NIV

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Now let’s move on to the third job that is ours to do while it is still light and that is “truth”

Now you might be thinking that truth is something that is and not something that we can “do”

How many were thinking that?

Well I don’t blame you but once again we need to go back to the Greek where we find the word “A-lay-thia” which, as I’m sure you’ve already deduced means more than just truth but rather the love of truth

As the first 2 works that God has for us to do relate outwardly and inwardly, this third job relates from us heavenwardly

In our second task we receive the work of righteousness that God wants to do in us but in our third task we respond back to God with love and devotion to Him

Just before being arrested Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all who would follow in their footsteps and as a part of His prayer he prayed,

John 17:17 NIV

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:

A couple of chapters earlier Jesus declared,

John 14:6 NIV

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Which should come as no surprise to us because Jesus is the Word of God and so the Word of God is God’s truth, is absolute and complete truth and the job that we have is to fall deeper and deeper in love with Him by cultivating that relation we have through the word and through His Spirit because the time will come when darkness takes over and we will not have access to the Word and then it will be too late

In 2 Thessalonians as Paul is warning what will take place on the earth when the lawless one is received he says,

2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 NIV

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

2 Thessalonians 2:912

And so we have a job to do, to fall in love with truth and to fall in love with Him who is truth and to do that we need to spend time in the truth

42 minutes on Sunday morning is not enough time, we need to do better than that

Now I am not going to be legalistic and set an amount of time for you to spend in the word each day, that’s ridiculous and not love

My wife wouldn’t stand for it why would my saviour and soon coming groom?

So there you have it on this DST Sunday, , while there is still light to work Jesus has a job for us to do, Jesus has three jobs for us to do

Goodness, look beyond yourself to others and love them and act accordingly

Righteousness, get yourself right with God by receiving the work that was done for you on the cross and then do what you can to live righteously making the Father proud of our efforts

Truth, or more specifically, the love of truth, getting into God’s Word and falling deeper in love with His Son cultivating a relationship beyond anything we ever thought possible