RED DAWN

Red Dawn is a 1984 war film about a fictional invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union and Cuba, and the resulting guerrilla actions of a group of high school students in a little town in Colorado. The fictional adventure movie was not a giant hit at the box office but 24 years later it has become a staple on the action/adventure cable movie channels.

The title of the movie is actually lifted from a passage of Scripture, Matthew 16:1-3: “The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.'”

As a boy growing up on the west coast of Canada, I heard the following saying repeated dozens and dozens of times by my parents.

“Red sky at night, sailors delight! Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning!”

Again this saying is lifted from the same passage of Scripture as the title of the movie.

It’s time for the Laodicean church (that’s us, the end-time church) to understand that the night is almost over, the dawn is breaking, the sky is red and we are not alert—we are not ready!

I wonder what is needed in the church of today to re-sensitize us to the stormy weather that is in our immediate future. What will it take to get the western church to behave as though they are actually a vibrant, living New Testament church?

Let me ask the question another way. How do you awaken someone who is soundly asleep? Maybe they have overslept and you have the wonderful task of awakening them. How do you do that? Do you begin to softly sing a gentle lullaby? Do you just slowly open the drapes and let the light into the room? Sound sleepers usually awaken only when they are prodded or spoken to sharply. Sound sleepers are generally unmoved by gentle, nurturing sounds and touches.

Am I suggesting that the church is asleep? Yes! Yes, I am! I can hear the sound of snoring from here!

I have mentioned frequently that I live in what is considered the buckle of the Bible Belt. Within two miles of my home is one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the nation with an estimated 17,000 in attendance on the average Sunday. Within 15 miles of our home are at least a dozen evangelical churches that consistently average between 5,000 and 10,000 or more in attendance.

Could you guess how many times our home has been reached out to in any kind of evangelistic effort from these bastions of successful “Christendom”? We have lived here for nine years. Have you made your guess yet? Let me make it easy on you…the answer is zero. I am not aware of any church in the area that actually reaches out to the people of the surrounding neighborhoods! Sure, they send out the occasional mailing announcing a new spectacular sermon/teaching series or inviting us to their Easter musical. The majority of these churches are so concerned about lost souls that they never give an altar call, not ever!

Asleep? No, the churches here are comatose! They have gorged themselves on the fallacy called transfer growth. They have cannibalized hundreds of smaller churches and because they have become large, they actually think they are fulfilling the great commission. What is it going to take to awaken those who have fallen asleep doing the work of God?

I am taking a fresh look at something Jesus said about the end times. In Luke 21:23, Jesus speaks of there being distress in the land. The word distress as it is used here means necessity imposed by external circumstances, including the lack of material things.

Let me pose some additional questions to you. If God loves His people and the church, would He be willing to orchestrate end-time events in such a way that prod the church awake? Would God bring pressure and circumstances to bear on the church to jerk it out of its sleepwalking? How did God deal with Israel when they failed to live up to His plan for them? Did God withhold painful circumstances from Israel? Would God treat us differently?

Is it possible that the primary reason for the end-time signs is that they are for the church, to snap the church out of its slumber and into wakefulness?

Look around. Dawn’s coming and the sky is red!