Week 6

Wake Up and Search It Out

By Trish Tipton

If you've come again searching, I'm glad. I don't have all the answers, but I've got plenty of questions, and this week's are big ones. Last time I said I wanted to sit with you on the warnings about looking right on the outside while something is missing on the inside. That is this conversation. Why are so many of us asleep in the pews, and what would it look like to check the Word for ourselves?

When I say asleep, I don't mean literal sleep. I mean closed ears, going through the motions without really listening. Although I've seen people actually sleeping in church too. It's funny, but not funny when I think about what we might be missing.

Paul quotes this call in his letter to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 5:14 (NASB 2020)

¹⁴For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”

And he wrote to the Romans:

Romans 13:11 (NASB 2020)

¹¹Do this, 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 first believed.

"It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep." Paul wrote that almost two thousand years ago. If it was the hour then, it's past time now.

Then there's the young man who literally fell asleep while Paul was talking:

Acts 20:9-10, 12 (NASB 2020)

⁹And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, Eutychus was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor, and was picked up dead. ¹⁰But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for he is still alive.” ¹²They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.

I'll admit that one makes me smile a little, and it's a warning too. They "took away the boy alive." God was gracious. But nodding off in the presence of the Word can be a long fall.

Jesus had hard words for a church that had grown comfortable:

Revelation 3:15-16 (NASB 2020)

¹⁵‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Lukewarm. Not cold, not hot. Just comfortable. The drift we've been tracing, over about two thousand years, can look like that: we got used to sitting and listening. Checking the Scriptures started to feel optional, or even unwelcome.

I've seen it, and honestly, I've done it. There are things we'd rather not know, because if we knew, we'd have to do something about it, or admit we'd been wrong. If we haven't really read the Bible, we'll take whatever is said from the stage as scripturally sound.

But we can also read the whole Bible and never really question it, or wonder what it means. We wait for the preacher to touch on it someday, or quietly pass over what makes us uncomfortable. Finishing the pages isn't the same as letting the Word question us.

I've written about this in my Wonder series too. As we get older, we can lose that sense of wonder and curiosity. Sometimes parents, teachers, or friends stop a child's questions until the child learns to conform to the world instead of wonder. I don't want us to carry that habit into reading the Bible.

In Bible school, many of the visiting pastors admitted they didn't read negative emails or notes from church members. The thought that went through my mind was, "I'm right. I went to seminary. Don't question me." I can't know their hearts, but I know a question isn't always an attack.

Luke tells about a group of people in a town called Berea who heard Paul preach:

Acts 17:10-12 (NASB 2020)

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ¹¹Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. ¹²Therefore, many of them believed, along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.

They listened to Paul, the apostle Paul, with eagerness. And then they examined the Scriptures, "daily," to see "whether these things were so." Luke calls them "noble-minded" for it. Many of them believed. Checking didn't make them colder. It made them more ready to receive what was true.

Would that this were true today. I have one friend, a pastor, who reads the Word and asks questions with me like that. We just ask away, without worrying about how we sound. I've grown in leaps and bounds because we can wonder together instead of pretending we already know.

Paul himself told the church in Thessalonica:

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NASB 2020)

²¹but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good,

Examine everything. Not just the things you already doubt.

And he told Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15 (NASB 2020)

¹⁵Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

"Accurately handling the word of truth." You can't handle the Word accurately if you've never really read it.

He also told Timothy what the Scriptures are for:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB 2020)

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.

"All Scripture is inspired by God," so that "the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped." That includes you. That includes me. So how equipped are believers today? In my opinion, not very. I include myself in needing to keep learning, not in standing above anyone else.

And here's a short word I don't want us to lose while we search. The Bible is one story, not 66 separate ones. After His resurrection, Jesus walked with two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Luke tells us what He did:

Luke 24:27 (NASB 2020)

²⁷Then beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.

"Beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures." All of it. From the beginning. That's why I keep asking you to read whole chapters, not only the verse I quoted. I don't want to be your storyteller either.

There's another reason searching it out matters. Paul warned Timothy that a day would come when people would rather be soothed than told the truth:

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NASB 2020)

³For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, ⁴and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

"Wanting to have their ears tickled." Look closely at who's doing what. The people want their ears tickled, and they "accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires." It goes both ways. The crowd wants comfort, and they gather teachers who will give it to them.

Now put a budget in the middle of that. If the teacher's salary, the building, and the staff all depend on keeping the crowd happy, the pressure to tickle ears gets very strong. We talked about money earlier in this series. I don't want to walk through all of that again. I just don't want us to forget that a message can get shaped by what it costs to say it.

I don't think most pastors set out to do that. Many of them inherited what they were given and are trying to be faithful. But if I never leave a gathering uncomfortable, I have to ask whether I'm hearing the whole counsel of God, or just the parts that keep me coming back. And Paul's warning is for those of us who listen, too. We're the ones who accumulate the teachers. If we only reward comfortable preaching, that's what we'll get.

Just before those verses, Paul told Timothy what to do instead:

2 Timothy 4:2 (NASB 2020)

²preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction." Those aren't only comfortable words. Hard truth, said with patience. After about two thousand years of drift, "be ready in season and out of season" sounds like more than a note to preachers. It sounds like a call to stay awake.

Hebrews says we need each other for that:

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB 2020)

²⁴and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, ²⁵not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Not abandoning one another. Encouraging one another, "and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

Now I want to sit with the two passages I mentioned last time, the ones about looking right on the outside. I have carried Matthew 7:21-23, and the story of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, for five to ten years. I'll be honest with you: I have not heard a good explanation that settles my heart. I don't say that to dismiss anyone who has taught them. I say it because I don't want to pretend I have this wrapped up. These are the verses themselves.

Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB 2020)

²¹“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²²Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

The people in that crowd can say "Lord, Lord." They can point to what they have done in Jesus' name: prophesying, casting out demons, performing many miracles. Those are gifts, things God can do through a person. Last time I said that gifts are what God does through someone, and fruit is what He grows inside someone. Religious people can know the right words and stay busy with good activity while their lives show a steady habit of ignoring God's will. Jesus calls that lawlessness. The word behind it is anomia: a practice of living as if His will does not apply.

And then He says, "I never knew you." The Greek word there is ginosko. It means a personal, relational knowing, not knowing facts about someone. They knew His name. They used His name. He says He never knew them.

In the same Gospel, in the chapter we sat with last time for the sheep and the goats, Jesus tells another story:

Matthew 25:1-13 (NASB 2020)

¹“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. ²Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. ³For when the foolish took their lamps, they did not take extra oil with them; ⁴but the prudent ones took oil in flasks with their lamps. ⁵Now while the groom was delaying, they all became drowsy and began to sleep. ⁶But at midnight there finally was a shout: ‘Behold, the groom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸But the foolish virgins said to the prudent ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’ ⁹However, the prudent ones answered, ‘No, there most certainly would not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the groom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. ¹¹Yet later, the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ ¹²But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³Be on the alert then, because you do not know the day nor the hour.

The NASB calls the five who were ready "prudent," not "wise," though many of us grew up hearing "wise virgins." They took oil in flasks with their lamps. The foolish ones had lamps, but no extra oil. Many teachers see that oil as the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him":

Romans 8:9 (NASB 2020)

⁹However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Other readers see the oil differently, and I want to say that plainly. Scholars differ here, and I am still sitting with it. What I cannot shake in both stories is this: what counts is not activity or appearance, but whether Jesus knows them. The prudent were ready. The others came later saying, "Lord, lord, open up for us." And he answered, "I do not know you."

I don't tell you this to make you live scared. I tell you because these passages will not leave me alone, and I would rather search them out with you than smooth them over.

When I talk about someone who calls themselves a Christian while another person is living as a believer, I'm talking about hunger for God and the Word, compared with sleepwalking. I'm not claiming I can see who is saved. I can't. A label doesn't tell me what is happening in a heart.

People ask about 'once saved, always saved.' I'm not sure I believe that. I believe a stumble doesn't cost us His grace. When we fall short, we can get back on target by coming back to the Word with a fresh hunger. But I also believe a person can deny the Spirit, walk away, and never come back. Whether that means they lost their salvation or never fully took hold of it, I'm still searching out.

Jesus also talks about His sheep this way:

John 10:27-29 (NASB 2020)

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

"I know them, and they follow Me." "No one will snatch them out of My hand." I sit with that promise right beside the warnings. I don't want to use one set of verses to cancel the other.

Hebrews adds a sober warning:

Hebrews 6:4-6 (NASB 2020)

⁴For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

That's a hard passage. I read it as a warning about walking away after tasting what God has given, not something I want to explain away.

I would rather say: come back to the Word. Ask Him for that hunger again. Don't turn a stumble into a reason to give up. Grace saves us, and grace teaches us to get back on target.

I'm not asking any of this to point a finger at your church, or at you. I had to ask it of myself first. I have sat through sermons with closed ears. I have waited for a preacher to get to a hard passage someday. People who teach with patience, and people who open the Book after they listen, are doing something noble-minded, whether they stand on a platform or sit in a chair. I can honor that and still say, the way I read it, God is still calling, "Awake, sleeper." After all these years of drift, He still says to be ready in season and out of season.

When did you last open the Bible to see whether these things are so?

I would rather you not take my word for any of this. Open your Bible and read it yourself. Read Acts 17, and watch the Bereans receive the word eagerly and then examine the Scriptures daily. Read 2 Timothy 2, 3, and 4, and sit with accurately handling the word, with all Scripture, with ears that want to be tickled, and with being ready in season and out of season. Read 1 Thessalonians 5, Ephesians 5, Romans 13, and Revelation 3. Read Acts 20, and remember they took the boy away alive. Read Matthew 7 and Matthew 25, slowly, including the prudent virgins and not only the sheep and the goats we looked at last time. Read Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10, and John 10, and Luke 24, and let the warnings and the promises sit side by side.

If something doesn't sit right, stay with it. If a passage you've carried for years still has no easy answer, stay with that too. That's how this one started for me: a sense that many of us have been asleep with our eyes open, and a growing hunger to search the Word for myself, the way the Bereans did, to see whether these things are so.

Back to the Room To Grow series