Friday, 9 October 2015

Gatekeepers and Watchmen - Part Three

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Over the last two days I have been sharing some excerpts from a sermon I preached at Beit Simcha. In my last post I want to focus on the role of watchmen and gatekeepers in a believing community.

The Greek for "keep alert", agrupneite, means "to be vigilant in awareness of threatening peril." Yet what we are watching for is not always a threatening peril - it might be good news, or someone ready to hear the Good News. Note the connection Paul makes [in Ephesians 6] between alert watchfulness, intercessory prayer and boldness to make known the Good News.

I make the connection with another passage ...

The same word agrupneite is used in Mark 13:33, when Yeshua instructs His disciples concerning the last days just before His return, "Keep on the lookout! Stay alert! For you do not know when the time is. It is like a man away on a journey. After leaving his house and putting his servants in charge and giving each his task, he also commanded the doorkeeper to watch."

And in application for all of us:

Messiah's true disciples must stay alert, watching for the things that are coming, down the road. They/we must work together as a team - both the servants in charge and the doorkeeper. And we must have discernment, especially in these times - though we do not now when the time of His return, we do know the times we live in - therefore we need to distinguish spirits of deception and delusion from the One who alone is the way, the life and the truth.

You can read or listen to the whole sermon here and please leave a comment if you have any other insights about watchmen and gatekeepers to add!