In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings.
He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus.
As we begin this new year, we look back and see the goodness and sovereignty of God. We have experienced good times and bad times, ups and downs. But in the midst of the bad times and the down times, in hindsight we can thank God that He has been with us and we have experienced His arms holding us and carrying us.
He has promised us in the Scriptures that he will never ever leave us or forsake us. He has promised that when we pass through deep waters He will be with us. He has brought us this far by His grace, and we are grateful for His love, mercy and grace.
Once when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai.
Prophet Haggai
“Consider your ways!’’ (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.
Even some most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going.
The beginning of a New Year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings.
So let us evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with Biblical diligence, remembering that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage.” (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let us also remember our dependence on our Lord who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Ephesians 5:15-17:
“Look carefully then how you walk,
not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of time,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
My text today is very short, only three verses. And the verses themselves are short. They are often overlooked because they are sandwiched between two passages that are very well known. As is often the case in the Bible, little verses say a lot.
The question posed in the title comes from the middle verse, which speaks of making the most every opportunity because the days are evil.
We need to hear what God is saying to us because we do indeed live in difficult times.
People have lost faith in their government. They feel they have been lied to. How else to explain the mess we’re in? The pervasive cynicism about our leaders seems to cross party lines.
The moment we are living now is a strange one, a disquieting one, a time that seems full of endings.
Our text offers us three answers, each one filled with clear direction for the days to come. We face a strange situation in the world today, a seeming contradiction.
Things are getting worse.
There are great opportunities for the children of God.
- Should we be optimists or pessimists?
- Should we be somewhere in between?
Let’s see how God’s Word helps us answer those questions.
I: Watch Your Step.
“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15).
To “be careful” literally means to walk accurately or precisely. Keep your eyes open lest you take a wrong step and plunge to your death.
Most often we trip not in headlong pursuit of evil but in our headlong pursuit of good.
Sometimes we are guilty of living too fast. We make too many snap judgments, too many hasty decisions, we speak too fast, we move too fast, we react too fast, we answer before we hear the question, we just keep on pressing the throttle of life forward because we’ve got too much on our plate and we dare not slow down.
It’s even possible in the name of God to go too fast. We want to right the wrongs of the world too fast. We try to win the world too fast. Because we speak too quickly, our words are hasty and ill-timed. We go before we’re ready, speak before we have anything to say, teach before we’re taught, and build high before we build deep.
What happens when you hurry, hurry, hurry? You don’t watch where you’re going and you trip and fall.
The answer lies not in buying a planner or getting organized, but in those ancient words of the Psalmist. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
When we slow down enough to get God involved, we discover that he can do more through us than we can ever accomplish on our own.
II: Redeem the Time.
“Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).
To us redeem is a salvation word, but originally it comes from the marketplace and means to “buy back” or to “purchase” something. You “redeem” something when you buy it for your own use.
The New International Version of the Bible uses the word “opportunity” instead of time.
That’s because the Greek language has two basic words for time. One word refers to the passage of time in the sense that we talk about hours, minutes and seconds. “What time is it?” “It’s 6:22 PM. We’re leaving in eight minutes.” That’s one sort of time.
The other Greek word refers not to the strict passage of time but to the moment of opportunity that requires action. It’s what Martin Luther King meant when he told the vast crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on a hot August day in 1963, “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.” It’s that phrase – the fierce urgency of now.
Martin Luther King
But that’s not all. Paul says there is a particular reason we must “redeem the time” and grasp “the fierce urgency of now.” Check that little phrase at the end of Ephesians 5, verse 16. “Because the days are evil.” Here’s another translation. “These are desperate times!” (The Message)
Paul writes these words while chained to the guards in a Roman jail. The emperor was a man by the name of Nero, a perverted excuse for a king. Before too long he would set fire to Rome and blame the Christians.
Later he would order Paul beheaded. And Ephesus was a city wholly given over to heathenism. In Paul’s day it was the most important city in the Roman province of Asia. Located near the coast, Ephesus served as a center for international commerce. It was a prosperous, bustling, booming city.
Ephesus
It held the famous Temple of Artemis. That was the glory of ancient Ephesus. Artemis was called Diana by the Romans. But they referred to the same thing. Artemis was the goddess of sex.
Her temple was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The central portion contained a statue of a woman with many breasts, symbolising unfettered sexual freedom.
The people worked themselves up into a religious frenzy and then followed their lustful desires. One ancient writer said of the Ephesians, “Their morals were lower than animals.” Astrology, black magic, and sorcery joined with sexual perversion to produce a degraded form of idolatry that held ancient Ephesus in its grip.
Meanwhile clouds of persecution are rolling in on the horizon. As the gospel spread, it encountered opposition in the form of entrenched interests that saw Jesus and his followers as a threat. The crosscurrents of heresy threatened to undermine the purity of the gospel.
That’s what Paul meant when he said, “These are desperate times!”
What would he say today?
Evil days tempt us to despair, encourage us to give up, to say, “We can’t do it” because the day is dark, the hearts of men have grown cold, and there is nothing to be done. I for one refuse to think like that. Sometimes we give up too soon.
“Day of moral corruption offer special opportunities for the prosecution of great enterprises for the kingdom of God” (G. Campbell Morgan). That’s good news. The things that make it difficult for us for live as Christians are the things that make us shine.
Hard times are blessings in disguise.
When the world around us seems to be going haywire, we have an incredible opportunity to display the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. The darker the night, the brighter the light shines.
III. Do God’s Will.
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5:17).
I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.
But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know today, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.
“I just want to do God’s will.” Those seven words summarize how we all ought to face the future, understanding the fierce urgency of now, grateful for the privilege of being alive for such a time as this, wherever God has placed us:
Christians are both pessimists and optimists, but we are much more optimistic because though we see what is happening in the world around us, we know that Jesus Christ conquered the grave.
I just want to do God’s will.
So, then, the final question. “Dr Ron, are you an optimist or a pessimist?” Both, but mostly an optimist because I know that God is in control of the circumstances of life.
Sometimes the answer depends on where you are at the moment. It’s like being in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. On Friday pessimism reigned. But on Sunday, as the truth slowly dawned that the Lord had risen from the dead, as that one great truth broke through, as they began to believe the best good news anyone would ever hear, sorrow turned to joy, grief turned to laughter, and despair gave way to hope.
We live on this side of the empty tomb!
The empty tomb of Jesus
So, yes, Christians are both pessimists and optimists, but we are much more optimistic because though we see what is happening in the world around us, we know that Jesus Christ conquered the grave. And because he lives, we too will live.
These are great days to be alive.
- Exciting days.
- Amazing days.
- Uncertain days.
- Frightening days.
All those things are true at the same time. When we see evil advancing in the world, keep in mind what Jesus said. “Let not your heart be troubled.” (John 14:1 King James Version).
“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (Exodus 15:2).
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
“There is no rock like our God” (1 Samuel 2:2).
“Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16).
“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1 King James Version).
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
“Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?” (Micah 7:18)
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4 King James Version).
And here are two final verses (of hundreds that might be quoted from every part of the Bible). The first one is the next-to-the-last verse in the entire Bible:
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
- Seize the day for God!
And this is how we should live in light of these magnificent promises of God:
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
- Be encouraged.
- Let not your heart be troubled.
- Watch your step.
- Redeem the time.
- Seek to do God’s will every day.
Why be a pessimist when we’re living in the greatest days of history? Who knows but that we may be the generation that hears the trumpet call of God? Jesus may come back in our lifetime. If that is true, things will get better and worse at the same time. In any case, do not despair.
As we move into the new year, let us resolve to follow our Lord and Saviour, the one who is Sovereign God, the one who knows all about us, the one in whom we trust and have absolute confidence. He is Sovereign and he has plans for our life. He has brought us this far by His grace. We thank God He has brought us through 2022 and was with us in our hard times. And He has promised to be with us into the coming days.
The celebration that surrounds the beginning of a new year is rooted in the history of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. In Exodus 35 – 40, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he gave to the congregation of Israel God’s instructions for constructing the Tabernacle. After the people responded to Moses’ appeal for materials and workers to build the Tabernacle, God gave specific directions for its construction.
Exodus 40:1 says, “then the Lord spoke to Moses: ‘You are to set up the Tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the month”. Even though the Jewish calendar differs significantly from our modern calendar, “the first day of the month” is New Year’s Day. This dramatic event in Israel’s history can help us understand the importance of getting the new year off to a great start by following the Lord, reading His Word, worshipping the Lord.
Let us now pray for God’s blessing in the new year:
Remember us, O God;
from age to age be our Comforter.
You have given us the wonder of time,
blessings in days and nights, seasons and years.
Bless your children at the turning of the year
and fill the months ahead with the bright hope
that is ours in the coming of Christ.
You are our God, living and reigning, forever and ever.
Amen.