Awake and Clothed

“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

Revelation 16:15

Even with all the Bible reveals to us about Jesus' second coming, people will still be caught off guard. Jesus says He will come like a thief, so He warns us to make sure that we are ready

How do you make sure you’re ready for Jesus’ return? Well, according to this verse, part of being ready is staying awake. Be careful not to allow yourself to be lulled to “sleep” by the enemy or by our world. You must keep your eyes open if you are going to see the signs that Scripture tells us will signal the end. If you want to avoid being caught off guard by Jesus' coming, the first thing you must do is stay “awake.”

The second thing Jesus mentions is keeping your clothes with you. “In the ancient Near East, conquering armies often paraded prisoners of war naked to expose them to as much shame as possible”* Can you imagine? Wanting to hide so badly but being completely exposed with no way to cover or hide anything from anyone. It would be awful!

So, being properly clothed in case of an attack was important. It could help you fend off your attackers. (It's difficult to fight for your life in your pajamas.) It could help you outrun them. (It’s hard to run for your life without shoes on.) At the very least being properly clothed when you were captured ensured that you weren’t embarrassed until and if they stripped you naked to parade you.

 

For believers “keeping our clothes with us” probably refers to making sure we are clothed with righteousness. Jesus is warning you to be careful not to sully yourself with the sins of the world. You don't want to end up ashamed when Jesus returns. Because when he returns we will all be exposed for what we really are. He will see what you have been doing, and there will be nowhere to hide.

So, are you ready? Are you staying awake? Are your eyes open to what's going on in the world? And are you keeping your clothes with you? Are you clothed with righteous deeds or will you be embarrassed when Jesus returns? Take Jesus' advice: "stay awake and remain clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

*John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Re 16:15.

Preparing the Way

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Mark 1:4-5

Baptism is inherently an act of repentance. When a person gets baptized they are saying, “I have dirtied and defiled myself with sin and I need to be washed clean.” This is one reason why an infant cannot be baptized strictly speaking. An infant has neither sinned consciously nor can it repent consciously. And Baptism, from its earliest days, was a public act of repentance.

Now think about this. The way John the Baptist prepared people for this new work of God, for the coming of the Messiah, was by calling them to confess their sins and repent. John the Baptist taught that confession and repentance were the necessary preparation for God to begin a new work in their lives. It's the same for us. If God is going to use you, if He is going to do anything great in your life, then it will begin with confession and repentance.

If a farmer tried to plant new seeds on hard unbroken soil, He wouldn’t get much of a crop would he? No! He has to break up the hard soil before it is ready to receive new seed. In the same way, if you keep planting the seeds of a fresh start with God in your life but it never works. It may be that you don’t reap a harvest because you haven’t broken up the soil of your heart with confession and repentance. If you want God to do something new in your life, start by breaking up the hard soil of your heart. Confess your sins and repent of them. Then you will be ready to receive whatever new thing God wants to plant in your life.

All In the family

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:26-28

When you became a Christian, God not only saved you from your sin He also adopted you into His family. Some Christians act as though they would like it if God's family consisted only of themselves and the Trinity, but that's not how it works. You see on the same day you became a child of God you also became a spiritually adopted brother or sister in Christ to believers everywhere. The church universal is one spiritual family with God at its head. 

Galatians 3:26-28 teaches that we are all children of God, made one by our baptism into Christ. This passage lists several of the major ethnic, socioeconomic and spiritual barriers of the day and says that they no longer matter at all! Now, these barriers weren't obliterated overnight. A Jewish Christian was still Jewish. Slaves who got saved often remained slaves for some time. And certainly male and female distinctives never went away in the New Testament church. So what does it mean when it says that there is "neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus"? It simply means that no matter what divides us, what Christians have in common in Jesus far outweighs our differences!

This is an important reminder for believers today. Too many Christians would rather speak to a heathen from their own political party than a Christian from the other. Too many Christians claim to oppose racism but would rather their child marry an unbeliever from their own race than a Christian from another race. And far too many Christians are more comfortable socializing with people who have attained their own socioeconomic and educational level than they are socializing with poor, uneducated Christians in a bricko block church in a third world country on a mission trip. 

This isn't how it should be! All who believe in Jesus have been adopted into God’s family; and if we have been joined in one family in heaven, then certainly we can be on earth as well! If someone is good enough for God’s family, then who are you to say they aren't good enough for you?! Are you going to tell God that His child isn't good enough to marry your child? Are you going to tell God that you can't bear to talk to His child because of their political leanings? Are you going to tell God that some of His children are beneath you because they aren't as wealthy or as educated as you are? We would never dream of saying such things to God's face, so let us be careful and set a watch on ourselves to ensure we never think them in the dark recesses of our hearts and minds.