If you've ever worked shift work in a job that goes twenty four hours a day, then you've probably worked the Third Watch. This is the third shift of the day, the four to midnight shift that wraps up all the details of the previous hours and prepares for the opening of the next day. This is a shift of afternoon heat, twilight and darkness, it ends in darkness. I'd like to suggest to you this morning that we all here are in the Third Watch of Time as we have known it. Think of it this way:
1st Watch ? from Creation to Flood (1600 years)'they looked for rest from the curse (see Genesis 5:29).
2nd Watch ? from Flood to Christ (2400 years)? they looked for rescue by the Messiah (prevalent theme of the entire Old Testament).
3rd Watch ? from Christ to Glory (2005 years?) , we look for reunion in eternity with Christ.
If you've ever worked shift work in a job that goes twenty four hours a day, then you've probably worked the Third Watch. This is the third shift of the day, the four to midnight shift that wraps up all the details of the previous hours and prepares for the opening of the next day. This is a shift of afternoon heat, twilight and darkness, it ends in darkness. I'd like to suggest to you this morning that we all here are in the Third Watch of Time as we have known it. Think of it this way:
1st Watch ? from Creation to Flood (1600 years)'they looked for rest from the curse (see Genesis 5:29).
2nd Watch ? from Flood to Christ (2400 years)? they looked for rescue by the Messiah (prevalent theme of the entire Old Testament).
3rd Watch ? from Christ to Glory (2005 years?) , we look for reunion in eternity with Christ.
If what I suggest is true, then the words of the New Testament were the God inspired words of men who began this last shift, words that are directed to you and I as we close this Third Watch. So what would you expect to hear, what is it you need to hear from the word of Scripture if this is indeed true? Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
I. The Third Watch Will End In an Un-Likely Way.
Have you ever been robbed? People say that when you see that someone has been in your home, gone through your things, taken or destroyed valuables, perhaps smashed things with utter abandon, there is this awful feeling of having been violated. It can seem strange that Paul would use this simile of a thief in the middle of the night to picture the second coming of Christ, but it wasn't a new image. The view of 'the day of the Lord? from the Old Testament was the same:
Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Mal 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Amo 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
For the unbelieving world 'the day of the Lord? will be un-likely, it will be unexpected, unprepared for, unpreventable and unsparing, thus the images of thieves and women in labor. Contrasted to this is Paul's statement, ?you yourselves know full well??, in other words, we've discussed these things before, this is not a new subject.
Here's the hitch, the problem for us is, ?Why is Paul is even bringing this subject up in the first place?. You remember that Paul has just told the Thessalonians that the Lord will come and catch up into the air all those who are united to Him by faith. It will happen at His timing and by His sovereign power. So, why the warning about the coming judgment day, why should they be vigilant and watchful if they are going to be caught up before it occurs? If God is sovereign in this, why shouldn't they just go on doing what they do as Christians and let God take care of the events of that day? Why do we need to know about this?
II. The Third Watch is a Period of Christ In Us, the Hope of Glory.
How easy it would be to get drawn into opinions of if or when the rapture occurs, of if we go through the Tribulation period, or how Christ will return. These are not why Paul has raised this subject, look at what he says in verses 4,5. You are not ?in darkness?, that doesn't mean you're a brighter bulb than the rest in the package, it means light has come into you. Before, things were obscure to you, you didn't see sin as sin, this was the darkness that obscures. Now you can see, not just because of knowledge, but because of the Spirit of God in you. You have been made new. Paul says that you are all 'sons of light?. Never before in the history of man has God indwelt people the way He does in this Third Watch. Never before in the history of the world has man known as much as you do right now about Who God is and what His purposes are. Never before in the history of Creation has the temptation to throw this away been so great. This reflection of the glory of God, it would seem, has never been so precariously placed. Amazingly this is specifically where God has chosen to go, the righteousness of Christ shining through imperfect people into darkness, to bring about life where there was none.
So Paul says, ?let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.? He implies that we can 'sleep? as the world does, getting drunk with things, in complacency saying ?Peace and safety?, being careless about faith and God.
The right reaction? be alert and sober.
III. The Third Watch Is a Time of Courage That Stands on Faith.
When you read verse 8 it begins to instruct us as to how we are to be alert and sober. Paul uses armor as a metaphor to illustrate the capability we have to actively be alert. You put on the armor, you consider your faith and the depths upon which it is grounded, you move forward in a love that is so contrary to the sleeping world, you act on the hope that has been presented to us in this final act of salvation that is ours at the coming of Christ. The Third Watch is a time of courage, but it's a courage that comes not just from experience but faith. Consider the basics of what your faith is composed of:
1. A trust and inexhaustible interest in the word of God.
2. An elementary view that dares to see more of the character of God.
3. An acceptance of my sin and of the penalty it demands'death.
4. A wonder of awe that I'm forgiven by faith in Christ.
5. A humbled praise that Christ has begun in me, eternity is coming.
6. A trembling love for the God who loves you and keeps you.
It is out of this kind of faith that courage grows. Paul reminded this early church that they were not destined for wrath but for obtaining the vast gifts of salvation together with Christ. If your life were a bag of money you would be cautious as to how much you spent, how fast you spent it and on on whom you spent it. In the back of your mind is always the grim belief that there is only so much and soon it will all be gone. It is when by faith that you move to the reality that in Christ, life is now with out quantity, it is limitless and can never end because of our sovereign God who has appointed us to salvation in Christ Jesus. The Third Watch is a time when believers in Christ are called to a courageous faith that points to the glory of God soon to be seen.
Let me close with excerpts from an e-mail this week from the
Pastor Sunday Adelaja writes:
Following President Yushenkos? Inauguration on Sunday, January 23, he started his first working day with public prayer and blessing. He invited the heads of all Ukrainian Christian denominations to join him. "This is a totally new thing for our nation," says Adelaja. After the prayer and blessing, he took his wife and children a few steps closer to the altar, and they bowed down on their knees, bringing the nation before the Lord. This is an unprecedented act in this part of the world and all the media and priests could do was stand in awe, and shock at what was happening."
Yushenko then chose Yulia Timoshenko, a woman, as Prime Minister. "She is not simply the most popular politician in Parliament, she is a born-again, Spirit-filled believer." Then the Prime Minister came to the stand, and made one simple point:
"Our government has come to the conclusion that
We are in the days of the Third Watch, our Lord is coming soon. Encourage one another and build up one another just as you already are doing.
Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca