So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
4 sermons cite this verse
… Therefore is pointing back to what went just before and what went just before is awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. So picturing people before conversion as sleeping and dead. Awake, O sleeper. It's like Lazarus, come forth from the dead. Christ will shine on you. And that relates to this drunkenness here. Sleeping, spiritual deadness is like being drunk. So therefore, since you're awake now, you're not asleep anymore. Christian. You were sleepwalking before you were saved. You didn't see anything the way it ought to be seen. And now you're not. And therefore, look carefully. Because your eyes are open now. You're alive. And you're not going to be drunk either. You're alive. Your eyes are open. And walking, that's just a another way of saying live. I mean, can you imagine? No cars, no trains, no electricity, no motors. Everybody's walking everywhere. That's how you live. You walk. Look carefully, therefore, how you walk. William Carey is one of my heroes, the missionary to India. …
… Now, let's notice that if there's therefore, then it's drawing in something just said. What was just said in verse 14 was this, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you, quoting from the Old Testament. So the point here is you've been raised from the dead. You've been given new life. You are now alive. The light of Christ shines on you and through you. Therefore, be careful how you walk. You're no longer walking in the darkness, you're walking in the light. You're no longer participating in the unfruitful deeds of darkness back in verse 11. You're no longer doing those things that are so disgraceful you shouldn't even speak about them. You are walking in the light. Everything is visible. You have come alive. Therefore, since you are walking in the light, since everything you are and everything you do is exposed clearly, be careful how you walk." And be careful is really look. Look, observe, watch, examine your steps. You have been transformed. …
… For everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you. Now the text compares light and darkness, obviously. There are essentially two commands. One is a positive command in verse 8, Walk as children of light. The second is a negative command in verse 11, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. So darkness and light are set against each other. Now the context for this, as you well know, began in chapter 4 as we began to look at the practical instruction of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul for living the Christian life, for walking through the world in a way that honors the Lord. And we have talked about walking worthy. We have talked about walking in unity. We have talked about walking in purity, walking in integrity, last time walking in love, and now we have come to walking in light, Just another way to perceive the life of the believer. …
… the same power, verse 26, to give life that the Father has as well. Ephesians 5.14 says, Awake, you sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. This is what we do with the gospel. We preach the message of salvation in Jesus Christ by which the Holy Spirit makes people alive. Colossians 2.13, He made you alive. Spiritual resurrection. He has the power for that, and He has the authority for that. But the issue that I want to focus on just briefly is not that spiritual resurrection, but rather what follows that spiritual resurrection in the future, and that is the physical resurrection. Look at verse 27. The Father not only gave the Son also to have life in Himself, but He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. He's the Son of God because it takes God to give life. He's the Son of Man because it takes one who is a man to sit in judgment on men, lest men think they were judged by an unfair judge. …