Tawa Baptist

Mirrors & Reflections

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:14-18; John 15:8 & 2 Corinthians 4:6-15

Title: Mirrors and reflections

Key Idea: Our mission is to glorify God and be a blessing to His world

Later this morning, during the AGM, we plan to quiz you on the content of the Annual Report – I’ve got a warm-up question for you now

  • What did I see as I walked the streets of Tawa early in June this year?
  • [Wait] That’s right. A kowhai tree

Kowhai 1

And what was significant about this tree?

  • It was in full flower at the beginning winter; 3 months earlier than usual

The tree, which was on Lincoln Ave, was full of Tui (I counted at least seven) all feeding off the nectar of the flowers

  • I stood and watched the Tui in the kowhai tree for nearly 10 minutes
  • It was a beautiful sight, a glorious sight, and I found myself quietly praising God under my breath
  • The kowhai tree was a blessing to the Tui and a blessing to me

This morning, because it’s AGM Sunday, we are taking a break from our sermon series in Ephesians to focus on our church’s mission

For many years now we have expressed the church’s mission with the words:

  • To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
  • I don’t talk about this very much and probably should put it before you more often than I have – but there it is

 

To glorify God, means to show others what God is like

  • To reflect His good character
  • To praise His name and give God the credit or the honour

To be a blessing, means to communicate through word and deed something of God’s love and truth and presence to others

  • To do something that enhances someone’s else’s well-being

‘Glorifying God’ and ‘being a blessing’ are two sides of the same coin

  • When we glorify God by showing others God’s grace and truth, His justice and mercy, the world is blessed

This statement also reminds us that our mission is to God’s world

  • The church does not exist only for itself
  • We are here both for those within the church and those outside of it
  • So it’s not all about us
  • Our purpose, our ‘why’, our reason for being is God and the world

 

Some of you may be wondering, where did this mission statement come from?

  • Well, it comes from the Bible and from Christian tradition
  • The shorter Westminster catechism sounds similar a note where it says: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
  • The people who penned that were drawing from the meta narrative (the big story) of the Bible when they wrote

Right throughout the Bible we read about God’s glory and the role of God’s people in mediating His blessing

Ask for a volunteer

  • All you need to do is stand at the front here with your back to the audience. You don’t need to say anything and you can’t turn around

Position myself with a mirror facing the volunteer so the congregation can see the face of the volunteer reflected in the mirror.

Put up your hand if you can see [volunteer’s] face reflected in the mirror

  • What if I do this with the mirror – can you see now?
  • Try the mirror in a variety of positions and get the congregation’s feedback
  • What if the mirror was all dirty? You wouldn’t be able to see as clearly

Okay, thanks, you can sit down now

At the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1, we read… 

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them.

Our purpose as human beings is to glorify God

  • To glorify God means to show others what God is like
  • God created us to be like mirrors – to reflect His image to all of creation,
  • Sort of like the mirror reflected [volunteer’s] image so you could see her face
  • In practical terms this means that God wants us to shows others what His kindness and love and forgiveness and truth and care is like

Unfortunately, the mirror of our lives gets a bit dirty sometimes or it’s pointing in the wrong direction so we don’t reflect God’s image very well

  • When that happens we need to clean the mirror and reposition it

There are many stories in the Bible of how God has elected certain people to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

  • For example, the Lord said to Abraham, “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,”
  • God’s plan was for Abraham’s descendants, the nation of Israel, to show the other nations of the world what God is like and, in so doing, enhance their well-being
  • God gave Israel His law (the 10 commandments and so forth) to reveal His goodness and justice
  • Sometimes Israel managed to glorify God and be a blessing, and other times they failed miserably
  • Eventually, when the time was right, God sent His Son, Jesus, to show us how it is done. From the gospel of John chapter 1 we read about Jesus…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

In other words, Jesus glorifies God

  • Jesus shows us, better than anyone or anything else, what God is like
  • Jesus fulfils the purpose of humanity in being the perfect image of God
  • And therefore we need to look to Jesus to see what God is like and to see how to be human

As well as a mission statement our church also has a vision statement

  • A vision is a picture of what we are aiming for
  • If our mission statement is about purpose, then our vision statement is about hope
  • Why are we here? To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
  • What does that look like? It looks like Jesus; or as we phrase it, Christ in community.
  • We don’t have time this morning to explore what we mean by Christ in community, suffice to say that Jesus shows us how to glorify God and be a blessing to the world

 

Now it is important to understand that there is nothing we can do to add to God’s glory – His glory is perfect or complete already

  • God doesn’t need us to fill up the tank of His ego
  • Or to make Him look good – he already looks good
  • We can’t improve on His perfection

 

  • We are the mirror – the mirror doesn’t add anything to the image, it simply reflects what is already there

So when we talk about glorifying God we really mean reflecting or revealing the goodness of God that has always been there since before creation

In the same vein of thought, there is nothing we can do to create or manufacture blessing

  • In blessing others, we are simply passing on the blessings we ourselves have received from God – we are paying it forward

Lift up a plate covered with a tea-towel

  • I have here a plate with a number of items on it
  • You can’t see what is on this plate because it is covered with a tea towel
  • Would anyone like to guess what is on this plate? [Wait]
  • Okay, they were interesting guesses.
  • Let’s see what actually is on the plate [remove the tea towel]
  • It’s a fruit platter: we’ve got an apple, a banana, a mandarin, a lemon and a kiwifruit

Glorifying God is like removing the tea towel to reveal what God is like underneath; removing the tea towel doesn’t add anything to the plate it just shows people what’s there

  • God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and quick to forgive and a whole lot of other really wholesome things besides

Now, imagine you’ve never tasted any of these kinds of fruit before

  • I could try to explain to you what the fruit tastes like, by saying its yummy, or its sweet or its juicy, but you wouldn’t really understand, not until you tasted the fruit for yourself
  • People taste what God is like when they experience Jesus through us
  • Our lives are like the plate that holds or displays the fruit of God’s goodness

In John 15, Jesus says to his disciples…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit…

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The kind of fruit I believe Jesus had in mind here includes things like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

  • When people see and taste that kind of fruit in our lives they are blessed and God is glorified; much like the Tui feeding off the nectar of the kowhai tree

When we are able to tell others about the good things God has done in our lives, naturally and without embarrassment, we glorify God

  • There is so much hope and meaning in the Christian faith; when we are able to find wise and creative ways to communicate that hope and meaning, we glorify God
  • When we have the humility to admit we were wrong and the courage to put things right, we glorify God
  • When we have the grace to forgive those who have hurt us, we glorify God
  • When we have the faithfulness to keep our commitments, even though it is not convenient to us, we glorify God
  • When we have the patience to handle someone else’s anger with gentleness, we glorify God
  • When we have the faith to be generous and not worry too much about tomorrow, we glorify God
  • To be able to bear this sort of fruit we need to stay close to Jesus

 

One of the things you may notice about our mission is that it’s quite broad and inclusive – a lot of different things could fit under the framework of glorifying God and being a blessing. That’s intentional.

  • The glory of God is broad and the richness of His blessing is wide
  • God is glorified in many different ways

A child glorifies God by their innocence, their uncomplicated trust, their delight and their wonder

  • Young people bless us with their energy, their fresh ideas and their belief that, together, we can make a positive difference in this world
  • Those of us in mid-life tend to bless others by providing support and scaffolding for young and old alike
  • And those who are older glorify God by keeping the faith – they bless us with the wisdom and perspective that comes with experience
  • Older people often don’t realise how valuable their presence, their prayers, their support and their encouragement are to the rest of us

I’m speaking in generalisations of course and don’t mean to draw too sharp a distinction between the generations

  • Older people can still glorify God through their delight and wonder
  • And those in mid-life can still bring fresh ideas
  • Just as our young people can bless us with their service
  • The point is, everyone has a something to offer – God is able to use us all to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

 

Sometimes we may think we that we can only glorify God and be a blessing from a position of strength, but this is not true

    • God often uses our weakness and suffering to glorify Himself
  • As we heard Jesus say in John 15, God prunes every branch that bears fruit to make it bear more fruit…

 

  • Pruning hurts – it is not usually pleasant
  • Suffering and glory go hand in hand

In John 11, Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus to say that their brother Lazarus was ill, and Jesus responded by saying…

  • ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory’

 

    • By the time Jesus arrived in the town of Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days, and the sisters were in pain, grieving
    • Nevertheless, Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone’
    • When Martha protested that there would be a stench Jesus said to her,
  • ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God’

 

  • So they took the stone away and Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead

The miracle Jesus performed in raising Lazarus was a sign pointing to Jesus’ own glorification – his death and resurrection

  • It seems in this life we can’t glorify God without suffering

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Paul connects our weakness & troubles with God’s glory, when he writes…

For God…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

  • In other words, Jesus shows us what God is like and God helps us to understand this in our inner being. Paul continues…

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

  • ‘Jars of clay’ is a reference to our earthly bodies
  • A jar of clay is something humble and fragile; as opposed to a gold cup
  • God is glorified, His power it seen more clearly, in our weakness

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

  • Which is another way of saying, Jesus is glorified through our suffering and troubles

…we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

  • In other words, Jesus is our vision (our hope)
  • Jesus’ experience provides the picture or the pattern for us to follow
  • And the pattern is suffering, death and then resurrection to eternal life

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

  • The glory of God is a weighty thing, a meaningful thing, an enduring thing, a thing of substance
  • When we share in the sufferings of Christ, God shares His glory with us
  • Suffering in this life is the price we pay for glory, but really it’s a small price to pay in the light of eternity

I know that many of you face difficulties and challenges – perhaps with your health or with your family or in some other way

  • You may not always feel like you are glorifying God or being a blessing but it does not depend on you – not entirely
  • It is something God does when we remain in Christ
  • God is the great artist painting a masterpiece with our lives – he uses all the colours of our character and circumstances to display His glory
  • One of the joys of heaven will be seeing what God has done with our lives to reveal Himself and to bless others

 

There is a lot more we could say about all of this but that’s enough for now.

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?
  • Why do you think this stood out to you?

2. What does it mean to glorify God?

3. What does it mean to be a blessing to God’s world?

4. How do we know what God is like?

5. In John 15 Jesus talks about himself as the vine and us as the branches. He then says God is glorified by the fruit we bear and by us becoming his disciples.

  • What is the fruit Jesus is talking about? (Give practical examples)
  • Abiding in Christ is the key to being fruitful. How do we abide in Christ?

6. Can you think of someone who glorifies God through their weakness or suffering?

7. What is your purpose (mission) in life?

  • How does this fit with God’s purpose/mission?

 

Tawa Baptist

One

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6

Title: One

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Calling
  • Oneness
  • Worth
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 4 verses 1-6

  • If we think of Ephesians as a door, then chapter 4 is like the hinge, where Paul connects what God has done with what we must do
  • Or if we think of Ephesians as a book, then today’s passage is the spine, holding together theology (what we think and say about God) with praxis (how we are to live our lives)
  • In Ephesians 4 Paul opens the door from heart to hands
  • He turns the page from praise to practice. From verse 1 we read…

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Be completely humble and meek; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

 

On the wall here we have three letters: W C O

  • What word can you make with those three letters [Wait]
  • That’s right; COW
  • A cow is a wonderful creature; it has the ability to turn grass into milk
  • So many great tasting things come from cows, like hamburgers, ice-cream and thick-shakes. Cows are a source nourishment
  • This morning’s reading from Ephesians is like a cow in the sense that it is rich in nourishment too; it contains so many tasty words

But, to give some structure to the message, I want to focus your attention on three words: Calling, Oneness and Worth. First let’s consider our calling

 

Calling:

In verse 1, Paul writes: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

    • And in verse 4 …just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
  • Calling features quite strongly in these verses, so what is our calling?
  • Very simply, our calling is to be the people of God

Imagine you are at work. You might be sitting at your desk clearing emails, or rewiring a house, or dressing someone’s wound in hospital, or standing in front of a class of kids, or whatever it is you do for a job – and as you are working your cell phone rings

  • You take a quick look at your phone and see that it’s an unknown number so you ignore it, because it’s not a very convenient time
  • Later, during your lunch break, you’re sitting there with a coffee and you notice there’s a voice mail on your phone
  • Curiosity gets the better of you so you dial 083210 and listen to the message
  • A voice you recognise from TV addresses you by name and says,
  • “Look, I’m ringing to say we’ve had our eye on you for a while now and we see real potential in you. We would like to give you a place on the team for the world cup. Give me a call back when you get a minute.”
  • You sit there stunned for a few moments while your coffee starts to go cold. You can’t believe what you’ve just heard – you’ve received the call.
  • You’ve been offered a place in the team. You’re going to the world cup

 

From a western perspective we tend to think of calling in individual terms

  • We might think, my calling is to be a teacher or a doctor or a minister or a missionary or a mother or some other personal vocation that is all encompassing and more than a 9 to 5 job
  • And while that is a legitimate way to think of our calling, it’s not exactly what Paul means in Ephesians 4
  • The sense of calling in this context is more along the lines of becoming part of a group
  • It’s like the call to join the team that is going to the world cup
  • In the first three chapters of Ephesians Paul talked about being in Christ
  • Our call is to become part of Christ’s team; his body the church
  • Our calling is to be the people of God – to represent God like the Silver Ferns or the Black Caps or the All Blacks represent New Zealand

 

When our kids were younger and we were away on holiday we had this tradition that whenever we saw an assembly point sign, like this, we would go and stand up straight at attention beside it

  • Sometimes your body can go on holiday but your mind is still at work.
  • Looking out for assembly point signs to stand by was a fun way of calling our minds away from work so we could relax and enjoy our time together

The Greek verb for call shares the same root as the Greek word for church

  • When we hear the word ‘church’ we tend to think of an institution or a building. For us, the term ‘church’ has 2000 years of history attached to it
  • But for people in the first century, ekklesia (the Greek word for church) was not a religious word. It simply meant ‘assembly point’, a gathering of people who have been called together in a particular place. [1]

The calling we have received from God is not just an individual thing; it is also a collective or team thing

  • Our calling is to gather together around Christ, who is our assembly point
  • Sometimes our body can come to church on a Sunday but our mind is elsewhere, thinking about school or work or some other worry
  • The ritual of gathering together, in the name of Jesus each Sunday for a worship service, actually helps our mind to take a break from the burdens we carry and enjoy God

So much is lost in translation. Returning to verse 1 of Ephesians 4, Paul says, … I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

The Greek word for ‘call’ is kaleo

  • And the Greek word for ‘I urge you’ is parakaleo [2]
  • Para means ‘alongside’ and so parakaleo literally means ‘to call from alongside’
  • Parakaleo can also be translated as ‘I encourage you’, or ‘I beg you’, or ‘I exhort you’
  • Paul isn’t calling the Ephesian believers from on high – he’s not wagging his finger at them or exerting his authority over them
  • Rather he is coming alongside them to urge and encourage

 

Okay returning to our C.O.W.

  • Our calling is to assemble, to come together as the people of God, to stand alongside each other, with Christ at the centre as our assembly point
  • Or said another way, our calling is to practice oneness

Oneness:

In verses 4-6 we come across 7 ones: One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all

  • These 7 ones are not separate or independent of each other – they are all inter-related. The 7 ones are one.
  • Paul is reminding us here of the things that all believers share in common
  • And we need to be reminded because they are things we don’t necessarily see

The one body is the church invisible – all Christians everywhere throughout history

  • The church may seem fragmented and divided from our perspective, with all its different denominations and flavours, but from God’s perspective the church is one (like a tapestry with many different coloured threads)

The one Spirit is the Holy Spirit who gives life and breath to the body

  • The Spirit animates the body. Without the Spirit the body is dead

The one hope refers to the end of history when Christ returns in glory to bring heaven to earth and resurrection to the dead

The one Lord is Jesus Christ who has authority over all things

Although Christian believers might hold slightly different beliefs on the finer details of doctrine we still share one faith – we all believe in Jesus

  • We could think of the one Christian faith as a wheel
  • Although there are many spokes of belief, apparently branching off in different directions, Jesus is the hub at the centre of the wheel, holding all the spokes together, while the holy Scriptures are the rim of the wheel providing an anchor point for the spokes of belief
  • The wheel as a whole, with Jesus at the centre, is the one faith we share
  • And this faith is not static; it’s dynamic, it takes us on a journey

 

Likewise, although different Christian denominations may practice baptism in different ways, it is the one baptism we share, for we are all baptised by the same Spirit into the same person (into Jesus Christ)

  • If we think of the church invisible (the body of Christ) as a massive stadium, then baptism is like a door through which we enter the stadium
  • Most stadiums have a number of doors of entry all around the sides
  • Some people might enter through the Catholic door and others through the Anglican door and others through the Baptist door and so on
  • All the doors of baptism are one in the sense they serve the same purpose; they let people into Christ
  • If baptism is like a door into Christ, then the Holy Spirit is like the usher who leads us through the door
  • We need the Holy Spirit at work in our heart to germinate faith and right living

 

The seventh ‘one’, in Paul’s list, is the one God and Father of all

  • God is our creator; we are made in His image and those who believe in Christ are part of God’s family

 

Worth:

We are called to oneness and that oneness is not something we create by our own efforts or by some clever organisational structure

  • Our oneness is created by God; Father, Son & Holy Spirit
  • Responding to God’s call, walking in the oneness he has created, requires us to live a life worthy of that call

 

It’s 6:30pm on the 17th March, 1919. The Great War ended over four months ago and finally you are on your way home, aboard the RMS Remuera

  • You signed up more than 4 years ago, although it seems a lot longer
  • You served in Egypt to start with and then at Gallipoli before being sent to the Western Front

It’s a long voyage home from Plymouth in England to Auckland NZ

  • Staring out over an endless ocean you struggle to forget the heat and the flies and the stench in the Dardanelles
  • Or the mud and the groans and the cold of Passchendaele
  • You saw good mates die and you were powerless to do anything
  • You’re 26 and you’re old before your time
  • You aren’t sure what it was all for – both sides prayed to the same God
  • And as for ‘king and country’, you don’t believe in that anymore

Somehow though you survived while thousands around you died

  • ‘Why is that? Why did I make it and they didn’t?’ you ask yourself
  • ‘It’s not like I was a better soldier or even a better person.’
  • ‘We were all scared. All weak. All morally flawed.’
  • You soon realise that asking ‘why’ is like staring into an abyss – there’s no bottom to it

At that moment you feel a calling. Not an audible voice; more like a tugging on your heart

  • So you step away from the edge and you think about the future
  • You tell yourself, ‘There is nothing I can do about the past. I can’t control other people but I can try to control myself’
  • Deep down you know that for all that death and suffering and sacrifice to mean something you have to live a life worthy of surviving it.
  • You have been given a gift. You have to make the most of every day
  • You have to enjoy it because your mates can’t
  • You have to find the strength to resist violence, to be gentle and seek peace, because you know now that war is not the answer
  • You have to turn away from intolerance and find the love to be patient with your neighbour
  • You are counting the miles back to New Zealand where you will live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

In verse 1 of Ephesians 4, Paul urges his readers to live a life worthy of their calling, then he describes what a worthy lifestyle of looks like…

  • Be completely humble and meek; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Paul gives us five qualities of a life worthy of our calling to be God’s people

  • Five attitudes which are essential to keeping the unity of the Spirit
  • This is how Christians are to treat each other; with humility, meekness, patience, forbearance and love

Humility in this context means ‘lowliness of mind’, not being proud or haughty[3]

  • Being humble is about having an accurate awareness of yourself in relation to others – not thinking too much of yourself or too little
  • Humility keeps our ego in check – it prevents us from worshipping ourselves. Humility also makes meekness possible

Meekness is strength with gentleness

  • Or said another way, meekness is strength under control
  • A soothing medicine is meek in that it is both powerful to overcome the illness and (in the right dose) also gentle on the body
  • A horse which has been broken in and trained is meek; the horse is stronger than the rider but that strength is under control
  • A gentle breeze is meek
  • A skilled surgeon is meek. The surgeon, with scalpel in hand, holds the power of life and death over their patient but uses that power carefully and gently to restore life
  • We see Jesus’ meekness when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, ‘Not my will Father, but your will be done.’
  • Jesus had great power to save himself but controlled his power, in obedience to God the Father, so that we might be saved

Meekness is not popular these days. Violence, brute force, power – these are the things which are glorified in this world

  • Meekness is often misunderstood as weakness when the truth is: meekness requires greater strength than brute force or violence
  • Meekness requires self-control and skill

If violence is the hammer, then meekness is the screw driver

  • If force is the butcher’s cleaver, then meekness is the surgeon’s scalpel
  • If power is a drone strike, then meekness is the wise word of diplomacy

 

Patient endurance is another attribute we need to be worthy of our calling and to live in peace with others

  • An ancient Christian preacher by the name of John Chrysostom said,
  • To have patience is to have “…a wide soul” [4]
  • Having ‘a wide soul’ means being spacious and tolerant of difference, able to make room for other people in our lives

Take a moment now to look up and around you. What do you notice?

  • The ceiling is high; this auditorium is roomy, it’s spacious
  • I quite like that about this place. The architecture speaks of the spaciousness of God and the wideness of His mercy
  • The Lord is patient and slow to anger – he makes room for us

We can make room for each other in a whole variety of ways

  • By allowing ourselves to be interrupted for what is important
  • By singing each other’s songs and preferring each other’s needs,
  • By listening to a different point of view from our own without compromising our values and beliefs
  • By showing understanding when someone makes a mistake and not getting angry with them
  • Or simply by waiting for others and not hurrying them

 

Bearing with one another goes hand in hand with patient endurance – it means putting up with people

  • The reality is that other people can be annoying sometimes – they can get on your wick (often it’s the little things)
  • It’s not that they mean to aggravate you – they are just being themselves and it gets under your skin
  • Maybe they don’t put their dishes away in the dishwasher
  • Or they don’t replace the toilet roll on the holder when it runs out
  • Or they leave their toenail clippings on the floor
  • Or they leave an empty bottle of milk in the fridge
  • Or park their car across two car parks so you can’t fit in
  • Or perhaps they don’t use enough deodorant
  • Or hog the remote and keep changing the channel every 2 minutes
  • Or they don’t reply to your emails in a timely way
  • Or they use up all the hot water in the shower
  • Or they don’t follow the give way rules on the roundabout…
  • And so the list of little stones in our shoe goes on
  • Now, to avoid misunderstanding and to keep the bond of peace, I just need to say that I’m not trying to get at anyone in saying these things
  • To be clear my family do not leave toe nail clippings on the floor or hog the remote or anything like that (although I sometimes might)

The point is, don’t sweat the small stuff

  • Don’t walk away from the church over some trifle
  • Put up with the little things for the sake of love – that is for the well-being of the whole community

I remember the pastor who married us said, “Don’t worry about a bit of muck in the stable – muck is a sign of life” (except the word he used wasn’t ‘muck’)

Yea – people will annoy you sometimes but don’t lose sight of the fact they also have qualities which are good and which the rest of the church needs

    • Besides, we all have things about us which annoy others
    • You might think you are being very gracious in putting up with someone
    • But they probably think they are being gracious in putting up with you
    • What we realise as we get older is that we are all difficult in our own way
  • So we all need to show each other patience and forbearance

 

  • And we need to be able to laugh at ourselves as well

To humility, meekness, patience and forbearance Paul adds love

    • Love is a commitment to other people’s well-being
  • Love holds us together, it is the soil in which our relationships find stability and grow
  • Love gives humility, meekness, patience and forbearance their meaning, it makes our lives worthy of God’s calling and clears the path for peace

 

 

In verse 3 of Ephesians 4 Paul says we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

This tells us that we don’t create unity, the Holy Spirit does

  • However, we are responsible for maintaining the unity
  • And we maintain unity through the bond of peace
  • Peace (in the Bible) isn’t just the absence of conflict
  • It is shalom, it is abundant life, joy and right relationship in community with others
  • The bond of peace is not a bond which stops us from doing things
  • It’s not like hand cuffs or shackles or a leash
  • The bond of peace is more like a garden hose, gently watering our relationships
  • Sometimes, like a hose, the bond of peace gets a kink in it
  • Sometimes our relationships get a bit twisted
  • People misunderstand each other or have expectations which are disappointed, then one thing leads to another and before you know it they’re not talking – the gentle flow of water stops altogether
  • When our relationships get a kink in them we don’t throw the relationship out – we straighten the hose
  • We find a suitable time when we are calm and unhurried to talk it through and make peace. Is there anyone you need to make peace with?

 

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve heard that our calling is to be the people of God together, centred around Christ

  • We are to reflect and maintain the oneness God has created

In a few moments we will share communion together

  • Communion is a time when we remember our calling and express our oneness in Christ

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?
  • Why do you think this stood out to you?

 

2. What does Paul mean by our ‘calling’ in Ephesians 4?

  • To what extent are you aware of God’s call on your life?
  • How do you understand this call?

 

3. Discuss / reflect on the 7 ones in verses 4-6 of Ephesians 4

  • What do you observe about these 7 ones?
  • How do they interact with each other?

 

4. What difference does it make knowing that God creates oneness (unity)?

5. Discuss / reflect on the five qualities or attributes in verse 2 of Ephesians 4. (I.e. humility, meekness, patience, forbearance and love)

  • What do each of these words mean?
  • How might we put these things into practice? (Think of specific examples that could apply in your own life.)

 

6. What is the bond of peace?

  • How might we maintain the bond of peace?
  • Is there anyone you need to make peace with?

 

[1] Eugene Peterson, ‘Practice Resurrection’, page 170.

[2] Eugene Peterson, ‘Practice Resurrection’, page 171.

[3] Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 196.

[4] From Chrysostom’s homily on 1 Corinthians 13:4 – referenced in Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 197.

Tawa Baptist

Fullness

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

Title: Fullness

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Paul’s prayer for fullness
  • Strength for your inner being
  • Knowing Christ’s love
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

I have here a dry sponge [hold up the sponge] all rigid and hard

  • For this sponge to be useful it needs to be wet
  • I could sprinkle a few drops of water on top so that its damp in places but that’s not really going to work for wiping down a table
  • To carry out its purpose this sponge needs to be filled with water
  • [soak the sponge in a bucket of water]
  • When water has passed through every pore the sponge is no longer hard but becomes flexible and able to serve its purpose

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 3, verses 14-21. This is Paul’s prayer for his readers

  • From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

Paul’s prayer for fullness:

Prayer isn’t just words we might say. The 19th Century hymn writer James Montgomery wrote…

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast. [1]

This tells us that prayer has to do with true intention or desire

    • Sometimes that desire is expressed in words and other times it burns in our heart like a hidden fire
  • We might not always have the right words when we pray but that doesn’t matter so much to God because His Spirit understands the unseen intention of our heart

In verse 14, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes, “I bow my knees before the Father…”

    • Most Jews of Paul’s day stood up to pray, so the act of kneeling to pray is unusual; it demonstrates Paul’s earnest intention, his heartfelt desire
  • The richness and beauty of Paul’s language in Ephesians 3 suggests he is trying to find words to do justice to his hidden fire
  • Paul’s prayer is that his readers (people like us) would be filled with all the fullness of God
  • In other words, Paul wants us to be filled with the Spirit of Christ – not just a few drops on top of the sponge of our soul but completely saturated so our inner being expands to become flexible and useful in God’s hand
  • For that to happen though our inner being needs to be strengthened

 

Strength for your inner being:

In one hand here I have a plastic bag and in the other a hot water bottle

  • If I was to fill both of these with boiling water, which one would you put in your bed to warm up the sheets? [Wait]
  • I would put the hot water bottle in – I wouldn’t risk using the plastic bag because the plastic bag isn’t really strong enough

 

These are a couple of cardboard boxes and this is a wooden chair

  • What do you think will happen if I sit on the card board boxes?
  • Let’s find out [sit on the box]
  • Now what happens when I sit on the chair? [sit on the chair]
  • The card board boxes weren’t strong enough to support my weight but the wooden chair was – no surprises there

 

Okay, one more – If you are planning to stay in the same place for a while then chances are you will live in a house

  • But if you are just passing through or visiting a place on holiday then you might camp in a tent
  • A tent is okay for temporary accommodation but it’s not as strong or as warm as a house – houses are generally more permanent

In verses 16 & 17, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes: I pray… that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

As I said earlier, Paul’s prayer (his deep desire) is that we (his readers) be filled with all the fullness of God, but for that to happen our inner being needs to be strengthened 

God fills our inner being (our soul) like hot water fills a hot water bottle, so that we radiate his warmth to others

  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our inner being is like the plastic bag; it’s not suitable for holding the hot water of God’s fullness

 

Our inner being (our heart – the core of ourselves where desires are born and decisions are made) is a bit like a chair or, better still, a throne

  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our heart is like a cardboard box; it’s not strong enough to hold the weight of Christ the King

Our inner being is like a dwelling place; through Christ, God fills us like a family fills a house

  • For you Bible nerds out there, there are two words in Greek for dwelling
  • paroikeo, which means to inhabit a place temporarily as a stranger
  • And katoikeo, which means to settle down permanently – to make that place your home [2]
  • The word that is used, in verse 17, for Christ dwelling in us is katoikeo
  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our inner being is like a tent; it’s okay as a temporary measure but Jesus isn’t just passing through
  • Christ intends to take up residence in us permanently
  • God wants to make his home in us – pretty amazing aye

As you can see there, at the end of verse 17, Paul uses two other images of strengthening – being rooted and grounded in love.

  • Being rooted in love makes us think of a tree
  • Just as a tree gets its strength from being rooted in the soil, so too our inner being gets it stability and nourishment from being deeply rooted in God’s love
  • Being grounded in love makes us think of a building
  • Just as a house gets its strength from a firm foundation, so too our inner being gets its security and resilience from remaining in God’s love

You may be wondering, ‘what does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love?’

  • Well, in John 15 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love… This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…”
  • We remain in Christ’s love by loving one another

Some of you may have noticed Paul’s reference to the Trinity in Ephesians 3 – God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit

  • In receiving the Holy Spirit, we are receiving Christ and in receiving Christ we are receiving the fullness of God

 

Okay, so Paul’s prayer is that we (his readers) be filled with all the fullness of God and for that to happen our inner being needs to be strengthened

  • But there is something else we need in order to be filled with the fullness of God and that is the knowledge of Christ’s love
  • It seems we come to know Christ’s love incrementally, in stages

Knowing Christ’s love:

In verses 18-19, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes…

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

In these verses Paul seems to be talking about the dimensions of Christ’s divine love, which are beyond measure

  • Sometimes (perhaps most of the time) our thinking is too small where God is concerned
  • We have a tendency to put God in a box because it’s too overwhelming or too scary otherwise
  • As well as being strengthened, our inner being (our thinking) needs to be expanded or enlarged to receive the fullness of God
  • Knowing Christ’s love enlarges our inner being to make room for God
  • Sort of like water enlarges a sponge or like warm air inflates a balloon or baking powder expands cookie dough

How then do we know Christ’s love?

  • Well, Paul touches on two ways in verse 18: by the Holy Spirit and through the church

The ‘power to comprehend’ is likely a reference to the Holy Spirit

  • The Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of love and truth
  • Jesus said His Spirit would lead us into truth
  • So we comprehend Christ’s love by the power of God’s Spirit, just like we understand the Scriptures by the illumination of God’s Spirit

The Holy Spirit gives us a lens through which to interpret the events of our lives

  • Two people may have exactly the same experience and yet see that experience in a completely different way because one has the power to comprehend and the other doesn’t
  • When the people of Israel were in the desert, Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land to check the place out
  • Ten of the spies returned saying the people are giants and we can’t possibly take them on
  • Those 10 spies had a pretty small idea of God – either they didn’t really believe that God loved them or they thought God was pretty weak
  • But two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, returned excited, believing that God wanted to give them victory
  • While all 12 spies had the same experience, only Joshua and Caleb had the power to comprehend that God loved them and was bigger than the people of the land

Let me give another example of how the Spirit helps us to comprehend Christ’s love. This is a personal example and I’m reluctant to share it because it makes me feel vulnerable so please don’t make me regret it

  • Last week we were away from Tawa on holiday and for some reason or other I was feeling grumpy so I poured out my heart to God
  • Things build up over time and the holidays are often the only opportunity I have to do any house-keeping on my soul
  • Anyway I was honest with God about how I felt and my feelings were not pretty – I was quite sour with God
  • Afterwards I felt a bit bad for being so honest with the Lord
  • God is incredibly good to me, He is so kind and gracious
  • I want to always give God my best but sometimes he gets my worst – my pain and my anger; and that’s not fair because he doesn’t deserve that
  • But in that moment, of feeling bad for being sour, I sensed God’s Spirit saying to me that he likes both my sweetness and my sourness
  • Just like I enjoy sugar and lemon on my pancakes
  • You need the sourness of the lemon to cut the sweetness of the sugar

Normally I would hide the fact that I can be sour sometimes but I take the risk of sharing this with you because I think that most of us (perhaps all of us) unconsciously think that there are parts of ourselves which are unacceptable to God and which God cannot love

  • We don’t like that part of ourselves so how can God like it?
  • God’s love is far more spacious and generous than we imagine
  • God’s love is great enough to swallow our sourness and kiss our ugliness
  • It’s God’s Spirit who reveals this truth to our inner being
  • I can tell you that God accepts you but you won’t be convinced until God’s Spirit touches that part of you
  • I believe this is one of the things Paul is praying for when he says, ‘may you have the power to comprehend Christ’s love.’

 

The next thing we note, in verse 18, is that knowing Christ’s love happens ‘with all the saints’

  • ‘Saints’ is just another word for other Christian believers – the church
  • A saint isn’t an especially good Christian in this context
  • In Paul’s thinking, all those who believe in Jesus are saints, no matter where they are in their journey of faith
  • The point is, we need other Christians (or the church) to enlarge and deepen our knowledge of Christ’s love

For example, when you look at the church, through the lens of God’s Spirit, you see the wide range of different people who follow Jesus and you start to get an idea of the breadth of God’s love

  • You realise that God doesn’t just love people like me – he loves all sorts of different kinds of people
  • You only have to look around this room – Tawa Baptist is made up of people of every age group, from many different cultures and countries and with a whole variety of denominational and theological backgrounds
  • God’s love is big enough to embrace humanity in all its diversity

Now anyone who has managed to remain in the church for more than a few years will realise how imperfect the church is. People get hurt in churches

  • Usually it’s not intentional or malicious but either way it’s only a matter of time before someone ruffles your feathers or offends you or takes you for granted or even wounds you deeply and you are faced with a choice: either forgive them or leave in a huff
  • It is in the act of forgiving the hurt that we begin to know Christ’s love in forgiving us
  • The paradox is we wouldn’t have known that aspect of Christ’s love unless we had been hurt ourselves

Of course, we learn about Christ’s love in more positive ways too

  • Not long after I became a Christian my parents divorced – I was in my early teens at that stage
  • In the years that followed I experienced the love of Christ through one or two men in the church who took the time to come alongside me and be there for me, to listen and give me support
  • The time they spent with me showed me I was cared for and valued
  • Looking back, I may not have experienced that aspect of Christ’s love unless my parents had split up

We come to know Christ’s love, therefore, through the Holy Spirit, through other Christian believers and through our own suffering

  • You see, there are two sides to love – there’s joy and there’s pain, there’s comfort and there’s grief
  • The truth is we can’t know Christ’s love without some degree of suffering
  • And so we come back to our need for Christ who redeems our suffering
  • By His Spirit, God takes the imperfect circumstances of our lives and uses them to renovate our soul – to strengthen and enlarge our inner being so that the fullness of God fills us

Conclusion:

We do well to remember that it is God who renovates our inner being

  • We can’t enlarge or strengthen ourselves any more than a plastic bag could change itself into a hot water bottle or a cardboard box could change itself into a chair or a tent could change itself into a house
  • As Paul says in verses 20-21, of Ephesians 3, the glory goes to God, who is able to accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine…

 

  • Paul’s confidence was in God

Having said that, we still need to cooperate with God’s Spirit at work in us

  • We still need to pay attention to our inner being
  • We need to spend time in prayer and study of the Scriptures
  • We need to guard our thoughts and weigh our desires
  • We need to be intentional about listening for God and discerning His will
  • There is a healthy balance to find here of course – we don’t want to become so focused on our inner life that we forget to love our neighbour
  • By the same token, we don’t want to become so caught up in serving others that we neglect our own soul

How is the sponge of your inner being?

  • Is it filled with the fullness of God, wet through and flexible in His hand?
  • Or is it dry and hard and in need of refreshment?

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.) What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

  • Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.) Discuss / reflect on James Montgomery’s thought that, Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, unuttered or expressed.

  • Are you aware of your soul’s sincere desire?
  • To what extent do the words you pray reflect your soul’s sincere desire?

3.) What was Paul’s sincere desire for his readers?

  • What does it mean to be filled with all the fullness of God?

4.) What do you think Paul means by our ‘inner being’?

  • How is our inner being strengthened and enlarged?

5.) How do we come to know Christ’s love?

  • Can you think of a time when the Holy Spirit has given you power to comprehend Christ’s love for you?
  • Can you think of a time when you have experienced some aspect of Christ’s love from other Christian believers?
  • What role does suffering have to play in the process of knowing Christ’s love?

6.) How is the sponge of your inner being?

  • Is it filled with the fullness of God, wet through and flexible in His hand?
  • Or is it dry and hard and in need of refreshment?

 

[1] John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians provided the inspiration for this illustration on prayer

[2] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, page 135-136.

Tawa Baptist

The Big Reveal

Scripture: Ephesians 3:1-13

Title: The Big Reveal

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God reveals his plan
  • Paul preaches Christ
  • The church reveals God’s wisdom
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Walk on to stage with a blindfold on: I can’t see. Can anyone help me?

  • Wait for someone to tell me to take the blindfold off
  • That’s better – now all is revealed

The goodness of God, the providence of God, the grace of God, the beauty of God, the thoughtfulness of God, the wisdom of God, the kindness of God, the plan & purpose of God is all around us

  • But we don’t always see it because we haven’t removed our blindfold

 

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 3, verses 1-13

  • In chapter 2 Paul had been talking about our salvation in Christ, both our personal salvation and the salvation of the group
  • Now, in chapter 3, Paul is about to pray for the Ephesians when he gets side tracked for a few moments talking about the work God has given him to do – this is essentially the work of revealing God’s eternal plan
  • Paul’s job is to help remove the blindfold by preaching Jesus
  • From Ephesians 3, verse 1, we read…

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture

Following Paul’s train of thought can a little difficult at times – like a braided river Paul’s stream of consciousness is complex and intertwined

  • We need to step back to try and see the bigger picture – where is this braided river heading?
  • Well, Paul is essentially talking about the revelation of God’s eternal plan
  • In Ephesians 3 Paul describes the revelation of God’s plan like this…

By his Spirit, God reveals the mystery of his plan to Paul and the other apostles

  • Paul (and the other apostles) then reveal God’s plan of salvation to humanity by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
  • As a result of their preaching people find peace with God and with each other – communities of like-minded believers become the church
  • And, through the church, God reveals his wisdom to the unseen (non-human) spiritual beings
  • So that’s the big picture of this passage – now let’s look at the different braids of Paul’s thought
  • First let’s consider the mystery of God’s plan revealed to Paul

God reveals his plan:

Hold up a USB stick. I have here, in my hand, a USB stick

  • No one here (but me) knows what secrets are held in this device
  • And none of you, just by looking at it, can know – not without plugging it in to a computer – but even then you might not understand it

In verses 2-5 of Ephesians 3 Paul talks about the mystery of God’s plan revealed to him

  • In this context a ‘mystery’ is a truth known only by divine revelation
  • In some ways the Old Testament Scriptures were sort of like a USB stick – they contained a secret, the mystery of God’s plan, but no one knew how to properly access the Scriptures to reveal the contents
  • Jesus and the Holy Spirit unlock the USB of the Scriptures to reveal God’s plan
  • Paul, and the other apostles of the first century, got to see the contents because God showed them – he opened their minds with insight to understand
  • Therefore, the writings of the New Testament achieve the status of holy Scripture because they are a record of God’s revelation to human beings

When we were kids we would go to birthday parties and almost always we would play a game of pass the parcel

  • Sitting in a circle we would pass the present around and each time the music stopped the person holding the present would remove a layer of paper. Pass the parcel was exciting because it was full of mystery
  • No one knew when the music would stop or how many layers of paper there were or what present was waiting inside
  • The mystery of God’s plan is a bit like the present hidden inside layers of paper in a pass the parcel game
  • Each generation removed a layer and got a bit closer to revealing the mystery inside but it was Paul’s generation who were at the right time and place in history to open the final layer

So what is God’s mystery plan then? Well, it was a gift no one expected. Paul spells it out in verse 6…

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

Notice here the repetition of the word ‘together’

  • Paul is talking about God’s creation of the church in this verse

Those of us who have grown up in NZ probably don’t realise how incredible and audacious God’s plan is because most of us haven’t been close to the kind of Jewish / Gentile hostility that Paul was in touch with

  • But we do have some idea. Throughout our lifetime we have watched news reports of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel’s other Gentile neighbours
  • God’s mystery plan is to bring the Jews & Gentiles together, in peace, and make us one in Christ
  • And it’s the church’s purpose to model that togetherness – it is the church which embodies the hope of that peace
  • But God’s plan goes beyond mere reconciliation – God’s plan is to give believing Jews & Gentiles equal status in Christ
  • While the Old Testament does talk about the Gentiles turning to the God of Israel no one thought we would be included on an equal footing with the Jews, as members of God’s family – no one foresaw the Christian church hidden in the USB of the Hebrew Bible

 

Paul preaches Christ:

Having received the revelation of God’s plan, Paul then shares it with others by preaching Christ to people – he realises he can’t keep it to himself

  • If you are a scientist and you discover a cure for cancer you don’t keep it to yourself – you share it with the world
  • Evangelism, sharing the good news, is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread

In verses 8-9 Paul says…

  • Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery…

Paul hasn’t forgotten how he used to persecute the followers of Christ and so he refers to himself as less than the least of all the Lord’s people

Paul describes the preaching task he has been given as a ‘grace’ – that is, a gift, a privilege, something beautiful that God has given him

  • As well as being a privilege preaching is also hard work and it can get you in trouble
  • Preaching that it was God’s plan to include the Gentiles on an equal footing with the Jews got Paul arrested and jailed
  • He was under house arrest when writing this because of the message he preached, but his eyes weren’t on his chains
  • His eyes were on the privilege of being the one who got to unwrap the final layer of God’s parcel of truth to share with others

The content of Paul’s preaching is the boundless riches of Christ

  • Paul has already touched on the nature of these riches in the first two chapters of Ephesians – let me refresh your memory…
  • Christ’s riches include: resurrection from death,
  • Enthronement with Jesus in the heavenly realms,
  • Reconciliation with God and peace with other believers
  • Citizenship in the Kingdom of God
  • Adoption into God’s family
  • And intimacy with God – becoming a part of God’s new temple, where his Spirit dwells

In verse 12 of Ephesians 3 Paul describes another one of the riches of Christ

  • In Christ and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
  • This connects with what Paul had been saying at the end of chapter 2 when he talked about us being part of God’s family and indeed his temple
  • This access of all Christian people to God through Christ is what the sixteenth century reformers termed ‘the priesthood of all believers’ [1]
  • In Old Testament times, only the descendants of Aaron could serve as priests in the temple but through faith in Christ we too can draw near to God as his priests

So it’s not like Daryl & I are the only priests here, you also are priests

  • The role of a priest is to help people in their relationship with God
  • When you intercede in prayer for others you are acting as a priest
  • When you listen with compassion to someone at work and encourage them to find the right path you are acting as a priest
  • When you say a blessing over your children at home and proclaim the goodness of God to them you are acting as a priest
  • When you sacrifice your time and your money for the sake of God’s church and God’s purpose in the world you are acting as a priest

Paul’s message to everyone also includes the administration of this mystery

  • In verse 2 Paul talks about the administration of God’s grace
  • Two ways of referring to the same thing – God’s plan of salvation
  • Paul’s use of the word administration is quite refreshing
  • Normally we associate administration with tedious paper work but Paul associates it with the mystery of God’s grace
  • Medicine might be administered in the form of a pill or by an injection
  • And the payment of money might be administered by cash or eftpos
  • But the mystery of God’s grace is administered by faith in Christ and by preaching

When I was reflecting on this passage over the past week or so I was reminded of Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was an administrator of God’s grace

  • Sold into slavery in Egypt, Joseph proved to be a good manager and, through the revelation and insight God gave him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph rose to the position of Prime Minister where he administered God’s grace in the form of food security

We, like Paul and Joseph, can also administer God’s grace at least to the extent that we have received it

  • What grace or gift has God given you as one of his priests?
  • Is it the grace to be present and listen – who would God have you come alongside?
  • Is it the grace to speak words of encouragement into the lives of others – what would God have you say?
  • Is it the grace of being in a position to help people with your influence or your resources – who would God have you empower?
  • Is it the grace to remove someone’s blindfold so they can see God’s goodness in the world around us – who can you help to see the good news?
  • There are many other gifts of course but the question is: What grace has God given you to share as one of his priests?

God revealed his plan to Paul and Paul didn’t keep it to himself – he preached Christ to all kinds of people because Christ is the key to God’s plan, Christ opens God’s USB

 

The church reveals God’s wisdom:

But there is another level of revelation going on that we can’t see and might not even be aware of: The church reveals God’s wisdom, not to humankind necessarily but to non-human spiritual beings in the heavenly realms

A tapestry has two sides – a top side and an underside

  • The underside of the tapestry usually looks like a mess – you can barely tell from the underside what’s going on up top
  • The physical / material world in which we live is like the underside of the tapestry, while the spiritual world is like the top
  • From our perspective (in the upside down, from underneath) we can’t see things as they really are in the spiritual realm

In verse 10 of Ephesians 3 Paul writes…

  • His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers & authorities in the heavenly realms,

God’s wisdom is manifold – it is multi-faceted, with many different threads forming a coherent and beautiful picture

  • The rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms is most likely a reference to spiritual (non-human) creatures like angels and demons
  • The main idea here is that God reveals his wisdom to these spiritual beings through the church on earth
  • From our perspective below, the church doesn’t always seem beautiful or gracious or perfectly ordered – it often looks and feels a bit messy
  • But when angels & demons look at the church they see the topside of the tapestry and they are in awe of what God has done through Christ

We might wonder why God would do this – using a church comprised of imperfect human beings to reveal his wisdom to the spiritual realm

  • I don’t think it is just to make himself look good
  • More likely God does it to redeem his non-human creation
  • It is, after all, God’s plan and purpose to reconcile all things to himself through Christ – ‘all things’ includes the creatures of the spiritual realm

Now, if you think about it, this places a very high value and meaning on church

  • The church isn’t just about us – it’s also about a whole dimension of reality that we can’t see
  • When we gather for worship each Sunday our audience is greater than we might imagine

 

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve heard how God, by his Spirit, reveals the mystery of his plan to Paul and the other apostles

  • Paul (and the other apostles) then reveal God’s plan of salvation to humanity by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
  • As a result of their preaching people find peace with God and with each other – communities of like-minded believers become the church
  • And, through the church, God reveals his wisdom to the unseen (non-human) spiritual beings

This morning’s reading finishes with Paul saying…

  • I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
  • The reason Paul was in prison was that he believed Gentiles now have the same access to God that Jews have
  • Paul’s suffering tells us that he really loved the Gentiles and believed in God’s plan for them
  • ‘Glory’ is a weighty word, it refers to something substantial and meaningful, something lasting
  • Paul’s suffering for the Gentiles gives real weight and substance to his message and it gives glory to his Gentile readers also
  • Paul’s suffering says people like us matter to God
  • You might not feel that glorious – you might not think your life is that significant but Paul’s suffering for us says otherwise
  • You are glorious, your life is significant, you do matter to God
  • We matter to God

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  • What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?
    • Why do you think this stood out to you?
  • Have you ever had a significant ‘aha’ moment, when God revealed to you a deeper insight about himself and his purpose?
    • What happened? What was the revelation you received? How did you respond?
  • What revelation did God give Paul?
    • How did Paul respond?
  • Why do you think Paul describes the task of preaching as a ‘grace’?
    • What grace (or gift) has God given you to share with (or administer to) others?
    • In what ways can you act as a priest?
  • Discuss / reflect on / give thanks for the boundless riches of Christ
  • What are the implications of Ephesians 3:10 for us?
    • How might this verse inform our attitude and behaviour regarding church?
  • Take some time to reflect on Paul’s suffering for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
    • How do you feel knowing that Paul (and others) have paid a high price so that you/we can be included in God’s family?
    • How might you/we honour Paul’s sacrifice?

 

[1] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, page 124.

Tawa Baptist

Included

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22

Title: Included

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • A new access
  • A new humanity
  • A new temple
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

As well as being Trinity Sunday, today is also Disability Awareness Sunday

–         My first job after leaving university was with a community organisation who worked with people with disabilities, in Tauranga

–         I was 23 at the time and had very little disability awareness – so they made me a disability awareness educator

–         Nothing like being thrown in the deep end

My job was to help people with disabilities to be included in the community by educating the community

–         For many years people with disabilities were excluded from mainstream society – they were locked away in institutions and this proved to be quite harmful, both to the people locked away and to mainstream society

–         One of the challenges people with disabilities faced, when they were released from institutions, was the prejudice of others

–         I soon learned that disability isn’t so much a deficit with an individual person, it’s actually more a deficit with our society

–         It is our society which disables people

–         If the only means of access into a building is stairs, then it’s not the person in the wheelchair who is disabled, it’s the building

–         If someone pokes fun at a person because they can’t hear then the problem is not with the person who is deaf

Unless you’ve been excluded (or spent meaningful time with people who are excluded) then you don’t really see the barriers that exist in our society

–         The world we live in says, in a thousand ways, that our value is based on our ability – but the Bible says that isn’t true

–         The truth is our value comes from God who made us and loves us

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians

  • – Our focus today is Ephesians 2, verses 11-22
  • – We could summarise this passage by saying: ‘We were excluded, but in Christ we have now been included, reconciled and brought home’
  • – In today’s reading Paul traces the movement from division to unity
  • – From alienation to reconciliation
  • – From hostility to peace
  • – From despair to hope
  • – And from being excluded to being included
  • – From Ephesians 2, verse 11, in the NIV we read…

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

In our message last week we heard about three aspects of our personal salvation

  • – This week’s reading is about the salvation of the group
  • – In and through Christ we have a new access to God, a new humanity under God and we become part of God’s new temple
  • – First let’s consider the new access we have in Christ

 

A new access:

When I was a boy we used to visit my great aunt Avis in Auckland

–         She has passed on now but in her day she was a very capable woman

–         Avis’ fulltime job was as PA for Mr Gladding, the general manager of South Auckland Motors

–         In addition to her day job Avis attended St Philip’s Congregational Church in Papatoetoe where she taught Sunday school for many years and also served as the church secretary for a while

During the 1950’s my aunt studied by correspondence to earn her lay preacher’s license

–         It was quite a significant qualification involving Greek, theology, Biblical exegesis and so on

–         The minister, a man named Ted Tabor, was supportive of my aunt and included her by providing opportunities for her to preach in church

–         Having no family of her own the church became her family – she was warmly included

Then in the early 1960’s Avis applied to become a minister within the Congregational denomination

–         Despite her qualifications, her professional skills, her church ministry experience & the support of her minister, the denominational hierarchy turned her down

–         No reason was given but it appears my aunt didn’t make the cut because she was a single woman

–         Now I don’t want to be unfair to the people that made that decision

–         Attitudes in NZ society were different then – maybe they thought they were doing what was best for her and the church at the time

–         But my aunt didn’t see it that way

–         Although Avis had access to the Bible in its original language and although she had proven herself to be a faithful servant of the church for many years, she was denied access to fulltime pastoral ministry

–         Sadly this was not her first rejection in life

–         She decided to stop attending church after that

In some ways my aunt’s experience was similar to that of many people – a mixture of being included and excluded

–         Although she wasn’t excluded from God’s people or from lay preaching, she received the message, ‘you can come this far but no further’

 

In verses 11-12 of Ephesians 2, Paul reminds his non-Jewish readers how, previously, they were excluded from God’s people and God’s promises, having no hope in the world

Now for most of us, who are used to being included, these verses are water off a ducks back – they don’t penetrate the surface, we don’t really appreciate them

–         But if you have been systematically excluded and de-valued over a long period of time you will be very sensitive to what Paul is saying here

When I was working with and for people with disabilities there was one guy (with cerebral palsy) who knew I was a Christian and took a crack at my faith

–         He found some verses in Leviticus 21 which talk about how people with disabilities can’t draw near to offer sacrifices – how they are kept at arm’s length and don’t have the same access as able bodied people

–         He was quoting Scripture out of context – so I tried to explain how that was in the time of the Old Testament but now, because of Jesus, we have a new access to God – we go from being excluded to being included

–         Or, as Paul says in verse 13, now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ (that is, by Christ’s sacrifice)

–         Unfortunately my friend with cerebral palsy was too angry to listen – and after the hurt and rejection he had experienced in life it was no wonder

–         Having said that, we don’t do ourselves any favours by holding on to our hurt

There is a temptation when we are rejected or excluded to feel sorry for ourselves – but when that happens we still have a choice

–         We can either carry on feeling sorry for ourselves and wind up polishing the bar with a hard luck story

–         Or we can find a way to forgive the hurt and move on

–         I don’t mean to sound brutal but sooner or later everyone suffers – no one gets through life unscathed

–         Everyone sins and everyone is sinned against – so we have to learn to forgive, because without forgiveness we can’t have peace

 

Returning to the story of my aunt for a moment…

–         Some years later a minister from the Congregational church went to visit Avis. When he heard her story he apologised (although it wasn’t his fault) and asked her to return. Sounds like he was trying to bring reconciliation

–         Although my aunt didn’t go back to church I never heard her speak ill of the church – we only learned about her experience through a couple at St Philips who stayed in touch with her after she left

–         The fact that Avis didn’t bad mouth the church and kept her friendship with people in the church, suggests to me that she did forgive and find some peace

 

We are talking about salvation in a corporate or group sense

–         In and through Christ we Gentiles, who were excluded, now have a new access to God

–         More than this though, in and through Christ, God creates a new humanity

 

A new humanity:

The Rohingya people are a stateless ethnic group who reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The majority are Muslim while a minority are Hindu

–         Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar Nationality Law

–         Although Rohingya history in the region can be traced back to the 8th Century, Myanmar law does not recognize the ethnic minority as one of the eight national indigenous races

–         They are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.

–         Because of persecution hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, have crossed the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar

–         The Kutupalong refugee settlement, in Bangladesh, has grown to become the largest of its kind in the world, with more than 600,000 people living in an area of just 13 square kilometres

I don’t really understand the situation or how God might work his purpose in it – but clearly the Rohingya have suffered hostility and are excluded

 

The sort of hostility the Rohingya have experienced is foreign to most of us but it wasn’t foreign to the people of Paul’s day

–         For centuries Jews and Gentiles had been at each other’s throats

–         When we read the Old Testament we see that Israel is almost constantly in a state of war with the surrounding nations

–         But Jesus came to bring peace between Jews and Gentiles

–         In fact he came to make the two groups one

–         In Ephesians 2 verse 14, Paul writes of Christ…

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.

This verse requires some explanation

  • – The ‘two groups’, as I’ve already alluded to, are the Jews and Gentiles
  • – Generally speaking both sides hated each other
  • – The Jewish temple of Jesus’ & Paul’s day had a literal wall which Gentiles were not allowed to go past – you can go this far but no further
  • – In fact there was a sign on the wall that basically said, ‘Gentile trespassers will be executed’ – not ‘prosecuted’ but ‘executed’
  • – The temple in Jerusalem wasn’t literally destroyed by the Romans until AD70 – but spiritually speaking Jesus destroyed the dividing wall decades before that

 

With his death on the cross Jesus also set aside the law with its commands and regulations

  • – Now those who are familiar with Matthew 5 will see a red flag here, because in his sermon on the mount Jesus said, ‘Do not think I have come to do away with the law – no, I’ve come to fulfil it’
  • – John Stott helps to give clarity on this point
  • – When Paul talks about the law in Ephesians 2 he means the ceremonial law, not the moral law
  • – But when Jesus talks about the law in Matthew 5 he means the moral law

The ceremonial law is that part, in Leviticus for example, which says people with disabilities can’t draw near to the altar to offer sacrifices

  • – Jesus’ coming makes the ceremonial law unnecessary because we don’t approach God by offering sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem anymore
  • – Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross does away with the need for animal sacrifice
  • – We now approach God through Jesus and anyone can come to Jesus
  • – In distinction from the ceremonial law, the moral law includes things like the 10 commandments – don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t covet, that sort of thing
  • – Jesus doesn’t do away with the moral law – rather he fulfils it so we are no longer condemned by it

I have in my hand a walnut. To eat this walnut I must first remove the shell

  • – The shell is like a dividing wall – it is useful for a time, to protect the nut inside – but once the shell has been broken we no longer need the wall
  • – The Law of Moses is like a walnut
  • – The outer shell represents the ceremonial law, while the nut inside represents the moral law
  • – Jesus came to fulfil the moral law – in other words he came to crack open the shell and remove the dividing wall of the ceremonial law so we could eat the moral nut inside

 

In verses 15 & 16 Paul continues talking about what Christ did…

–         His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  

This is mind blowing stuff – Jesus takes two groups of people who for centuries have been trying to kill each other, and reconciles them to God and to each other so they become one body of people at peace

–         To give you an idea of the sort of reconciliation Jesus achieves here, it would be like getting Donald Trump to apologise to Hilary Clinton and Hilary Clinton accepting it

–         It would be like having the people of Myanmar welcoming the Rohingya home with full citizenship

–         Or like seeing the National Rifle Association lobby for stricter gun laws

–         Or, closer to home, like seeing the Treaty of Waitangi honoured

 

Jesus came with a message of peace for those, like us, who were far away – the Gentiles, women, people with disabilities, the Rohingya and so on

–         And he preached peace to those who were near – able bodied Jewish males, like Paul

–         For through Christ we both have access to the Father by one Spirit

–         Here we notice the Trinity : Father, Son & Holy Spirit

–         Paul is saying that in and through Christ we are able to participate in the very life of God – a bit like Abraham & Sarah participated in the life of God when they received the three visitors in Genesis 18 and soon after Sarah became pregnant

 

As a consequence those who were once far away and excluded are now brought near and included as citizens of God’s kingdom & members of God’s household

–         In other words, in Christ the excluded become part of God’s family

–         But wait there’s more – in Christ we actually become a new temple for God’s presence

A new temple:

Bullseye - 16 Jun 2019

This diagram on the wall here (which looks like a bullseye) shows the three images of inclusion Paul uses in verses 19 to 21

–         Being a citizen in God’s kingdom (the outer ring) is closer to God than being a foreigner

–         Being a member of God’s family (the next ring in) is closer again than being a citizen

–         But being part of God’s temple (the bullseye) is the closest one can get to God, because to be God’s temple is to have the presence of God inside you

From verse 20 Paul expands on the new temple image

The foundation of the new temple is the apostles and prophets – essentially the teachings of the New Testament

–         As John Stott observes: the church’s foundation documents are the New Testament Scriptures. And just as a foundation cannot be tampered with once it has been laid and the structure is being built on top, so too the New Testament… can’t be changed by additions, subtractions or modifications [1]

–         If we try to build something outside the footprint of the New Testament then it won’t last

 

Verse 20 tells us Jesus is the cornerstone of the new temple – the one who holds the whole building together

Those who were here for the all-age Christmas service last year may remember these verses and how we built a wall out of shoe boxes at the front

–         Neville explained how a cornerstone, in Biblical times, was the largest, most solid stone in a building. It gave the building its shape and size.

–         If you took the cornerstone away, the whole building would fall down

–         More recently, buildings have cornerstones on each corner, supporting all the smaller bricks. The idea is the same.

–         As a cornerstone, Jesus is like a solid rock supporting us, a friend beside us who we can rely on – the one from whom we get our plumb line

That makes us the bricks (or living stones) of God’s new temple

–         In Christ we too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

–         Again we notice the Trinity in this image and our participation in the life of the Trinity

–         God the Son, is the cornerstone, we are the bricks and God the Father lives in us by his Spirit

This means the Christian church replaces the Jerusalem temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD70

–         We don’t replace Israel as such, but we do replace the temple building

–         So wherever you go in the world, particularly when you go with another believer, you take the presence of God with you

–         Although my aunt stopped going to church the church didn’t abandon her

–         One couple from the church, who loved Avis, stayed in touch with her and supported her through a difficult time

–         This couple embodied God’s presence for my aunt – they literally took the temple to Avis by visiting her and showing care for her

–         Is there someone you can take the presence of God to?

 

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve heard how Christ includes people in the very life of God

–         Through Christ we have a new access to God

–         Through Christ we become a new humanity under God

–         And through Christ we become a new temple for the presence of God

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Have you ever been excluded in a significant way?

–         What was this like for you?

–         Have you been able to forgive the hurt and move on?

3.)    Do you know what it is to be included (&/or reconciled) in a significant way?

–         What was this like for you?

–         Have you been able to include others too?

4.)    What is the difference (or relationship) between the ceremonial law and the moral law?

–         What does Jesus destroy and what does he fulfil?

5.)    Where do we see the Trinity in Ephesians 2:11-22?

–         What is our relationship to the Trinity, in Christ?

6.)    Looking at the bullseye, in the sermon notes above, where are you in relation to God?

–         Ask someone close to you if they agree. Where do they see you in relation to God?

–         Where would Paul say you were in relation to God?

7.)    Reflect on (or discuss) the various aspects of the temple image in verses 20-22. That is, the foundation, the cornerstone, the bricks, God’s Spirit

–         What are the practical implications with each of these aspects?

–         Is there someone you can take the presence of God to?

 

 

 

[1] John Stott, BST Commentary on Ephesians, page 107.

Tawa Baptist

Once were Zombies

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Title: Once were Zombies

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Once were Zombies
  • God’s salvation

o   God’s salvation changes our relationship with Him

o   God’s salvation changes our spiritual environment

o   God’s salvation changes our condition

  • Conclusion – God’s character

 

Introduction:

On the wall here we have a list of movie titles

–         28 Days Later

–         Black Sheep

–         World War Z

–         I am Legend

–         Pathogen (and)

–         Warm Bodies

–         Can anyone tell me what these movies share in common?

That’s right – they all have Zombies in them

–         A Zombie is a fictional creature – they don’t exist except in the movies

–         Zombies used to be human but have lost their humanity (usually through a virus) and essentially become the walking dead

The script for most Zombie films that I’ve seen (and to be fair I haven’t seen that many) usually involves a remnant of people who are struggling to survive the Zombie apocalypse

–         And survival normally involves lots of guns and shooting – with the human survivors destroying the Zombies to save themselves

But the better Zombie films usually try to create some redemption and hope by having the hero and heroine find a cure to reverse the Zombie virus or at least give people immunity from it

 

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 2, verses 1-10

–         In this section Paul talks about God’s salvation of us

–         Paul contrasts the way the Ephesians believers used to be, before God acted to save them, with the way they are now

–         Before believing in Christ’s death & resurrection we were essentially like Zombies – the walking dead

–         But with Christ we are raised to new life and our humanity is restored

–         From Ephesians 2, verse 1, we read…

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to walk when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following the desires of body and mind. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

This reading is essentially about God’s salvation of us

Once were Zombies:

Paul begins by describing our situation before God saved us – we were once Zombies – the walking dead

–         In verse 1 Paul says we were dead in our transgressions and sins

–         We tend to think of death in physical terms – when someone’s heart stops beating and their brain function ceases

–         But that’s not what Paul means here by death

–         Often when the Bible talks about death it refers to spiritual death

–         If eternal life is union with God, or intimacy with God, then death is separation, or alienation, from God

–         Someone might still be breathing and walking around, (even able to run marathons) apparently going about their life like normal, but if they are estranged from God then they are dead, spiritually speaking

We see this in Genesis – God told Adam & Eve they would die if they disobeyed Him by eating the forbidden fruit

–         Then, after they ate the fruit, God sent them away from the Garden of Eden and they lost their close connection with the Lord

–         Adam & Eve didn’t die physically for a long time – but they lost the intimacy they previously had with God

–         Sin was the virus that entered the human race and made us Zombies so that we lost an important part of our humanity, our connection with God

–         That’s not to say we have completely lost our humanity but we have missed the mark God intended for us – we have gone astray

The word ‘sin’ actually means to miss the mark and the word ‘transgression’ means to cross a boundary that shouldn’t be crossed, to leave the path and lose our way

 

One of the things about Zombies is that they don’t know they are Zombies

–         Their self-awareness isn’t working all that well – they are obtuse

–         Zombies are driven by an insatiable desire which they can’t control

–         Zombies are consumers in the extreme, following their own cravings without regard for anyone else. We live in a consumerist society.

 

In vs. 2 Paul continues to describe the situation we were in before God saved us

–         We followed the ways of this world

–         We followed the ways of the ruler of the air (i.e. Satan)

–         And, in verse 3, we followed the desires of our mind and body

–         The old fashioned expression for that unholy trinity is ‘the world, the flesh and the devil’

–         Like Bob Dylan said, ‘You gotta serve somebody’

–         If we don’t follow God (if we don’t serve Him) then we will end up serving something far less – the world, the flesh and the devil

–         And when that happens we essentially become slaves to evil

 

In verse 3 Paul continues his summary of our situation before God saved us by saying, ‘Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.’

–         ‘Like the rest’ says we are not better than anyone else, the ground at the foot of the cross is level, we all have the same zombie pedigree

–         ‘By nature’ describes what we become when left to our own devices

–         ‘By nature’ stands in contrast to ‘by grace’ which we’ll come to shortly

To be an ‘object of wrath’ means to be destined for the garbage heap or headed for destruction

–         If I make a mistake on a piece of paper I might screw it up and throw it in the bin – the paper is an object of wrath

–         Or if my car keeps breaking down and costs too much to keep on the road then I might sell it to the wreckers – the car becomes an object of wrath

–         I’m not necessarily angry with the paper or the car, it’s just that they are headed for destruction

Now the word ‘wrath’, in the English language at least, has associations with powerful and destructive anger

–         Wrath makes us think of someone flying off the handle or losing their rag, going into a rage

–         We need to distinguish human wrath from God’s wrath

–         Although Paul doesn’t attach God’s name to the wrath in this context, God’s wrath seems to be implied – certainly Paul isn’t shy about talking of God’s wrath in other letters he wrote

–         It is important to understand that God’s wrath is not an arbitrary reaction, nor an impersonal process, like human wrath can be

–         God doesn’t fly off the handle in a rage or lose his rag

–         John Stott describes God’s wrath as his ‘constant hostility to evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it and his resolve to condemn it’

–         The idea of God’s wrath shouldn’t scare us – it should comfort us

–         God’s wrath is an appropriate and measured response to injustice

–         God’s wrath means that God won’t abide evil, at least not forever

–         God’s wrath means evil will ultimately be destroyed but first God wants to redeem his good, albeit damaged and fallen, creation

In a nutshell then, we were once like zombies – dead in our sins, slaves to the world, the devil and the desires of our own mind & body and, because of our union with evil, we were objects of wrath on a path to destruction

 

Now, as someone who didn’t grow up in a Christian household, and who still feels an affinity with non-Christians, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the strength of Paul’s language in these verses

–         To say your non-Christian friends and family are akin to zombies is kind of offensive – it makes me cringe

–         And although Paul doesn’t exactly use the word ‘zombie’, that’s pretty much what he is describing when he talks about the walking dead

Three things I would like to say in Paul’s defence…

–         Firstly, Paul himself is very quick to point out that Christian believers are in no position to look down on unbelievers

–         In no way can we claim to be superior or ‘holier than thou’ because we have all been like zombies at some point in our life, to some degree

–         What’s more Paul emphasises the fact we are saved by God’s grace, not by any virtue or merit on our part – therefore we cannot boast

–         We may be luckier than some but we’re not better

–         The second thing is that Paul, more than most, had a genuine desire to see people of all creeds and races come to faith in Christ

–         Paul suffered greatly so that zombies like me could become human again

–         And the third thing to say in Paul’s defence is that his language is accurate – Paul doesn’t mean to be offensive – he’s simply being honest

–         To really appreciate what God has done to save us, in Christ, we must first realise how bad the problem was

–         Sin created a zombie apocalypse and God provided the remedy in Christ

 

God’s salvation:

Okay, so we were once zombies, before God saved us

–         What then does it mean to be saved by God?

–         Well, it means a number of things – God’s salvation is not one dimensional, there are many facets to God’s salvation

–         Three dimensions in particular to be aware of from today’s reading…

o   Salvation brings about a change in our relationship with God

o   A change in our spiritual environment

o   And a change in our condition

–         First let’s consider salvation as a change in our relationship with God

God’s salvation changes our relationship with God:

In verses 4 & 5 we read that God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions

–         Remember to be dead, in a spiritual sense, means to be separated from God – therefore to be made alive means to have our union with God restored

–         Eternal life isn’t just about living forever – eternal life describes a certain quality of relationship with God

One of the things about zombies is they don’t talk – they don’t have any means of communication and so they aren’t capable of real intimacy

Intimacy is about being close with someone – it’s about sharing yourself with them and letting them share themselves with you

–         Intimacy requires us to trust the other person – to lower our defences and make ourselves vulnerable

–         It also requires honesty and a deep respect for the other person who is putting their trust in us

–         With intimacy we let the other person in and a common understanding forms, an understanding too deep to express with words

–         Intimacy is the antidote to loneliness and alienation

–         One of the biggest diseases (killers) in our society today is loneliness and the feeling of alienation that comes with it

Now the important thing to note here is that we are made alive with Christ

–         When God raised Christ from the dead all those who believe in Christ were raised from spiritual death too

–         So it’s through Christ and His Spirit that God restores the communication and intimacy with us

Imagine you’ve been walking around, lost in the desert for days – your water bottle has run out and you’re extremely dehydrated

–         As a consequence you are having hallucinations and seeing mirages

–         You’re just not sure what is real anymore

–         Eventually you fall down, unable to go any further, and as you lie on the ground panting for breathe, a man rides up to you on a camel

–         He gets off his animal, bends down and offers you a drink

–         At this point you have a choice – you can either trust that he is real and not another hallucination, accept his kindness, drink the water and live

–         Or you can refuse to believe he is real, not trust his water and die

–         We are raised with Christ – we are saved by believing that Jesus’ resurrection is real and accepting his Spirit for our parched soul

–         You see, the real thirst of our soul is to be close to God – to share in His life, to drink His Spirit

 

God’s salvation changes our spiritual environment:

Another dimension to God’s salvation is that it changes our spiritual environment. In verse 6 of Ephesians 2 we read…

–         And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…

Last week we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension. Forty days after his death & resurrection Jesus ascended to the heavenly realms

–         The ‘heavenly realms’ refer to the spiritual realm – which we can’t see or hear or measure but which is still very real

–         Paul is saying that what is true for Christ is true also for those who believe in Christ

–         Just as Christ ascended, so too we who are in Christ have ascended to another spiritual realm

–         Physically we are still here on earth, but spiritually we have changed sphere’s or environments

For those who watch the Netflix show, ‘Stranger Things’, it’s like we used to live in the ‘upside down’ (spiritually speaking) but God saved us by transferring us to the world above

Or if Charles Dickens is more your thing, it’s like we used to live in a slum with a gang of pick pockets who answered to a criminal called Fagin but now we have been delivered to a better, healthier environment – one in which we are not forced to steal to survive

Or if fiction is not your thing, then it’s like we used to live in a refugee camp but now we have been granted citizenship to live in a land which is free of poverty and injustice

Or it’s like we were soldiers, fighting in a war overseas we wanted nothing to do with, but now we have been released from our tour of duty and are free to return home to live in peace

Or it’s like we were born in prison, where might is right and it is survival of the fittest, but now we have been released into a society where weakness is met with compassion and the measure of success is how well we treat the least

As I said a couple of weeks’ ago – Christian conversion is ‘in Christ’

–         When we become a Christian we are entering a new spiritual realm

–         We leave the realm of Satan and enter the realm of Christ – and Jesus is a far kinder and more just ruler than the devil

 

In Paul’s mind salvation means a restored relationship with God and entry into a new spiritual environment, one in which we can thrive

–         God’s salvation also changes our condition, our self

 

God’s salvation changes our condition:

If we were once zombies then God’s salvation is the process of restoring our humanity to its fullness

–         God originally made us in His image and he declared us to be ‘very good’

–         We became infected by sin and the image of God was damaged – we lost something of our humanity and became like the walking dead

–         God’s salvation includes re-creating us in His image

In verse 10 Paul writes…

–         For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Again we note that the environment in which God creates us is ‘in Christ’

–         Just as God creates a baby inside a woman’s womb, so too we are created inside Christ

And our creation is meaningful (not accidental) – we are created for a purpose

–         Previously we walked in sin, but now we are to walk in good works

–         To walk in ‘good works’ means we live our life in a way that points to God and reflects His image

–         Paul is quite clear (in verse 9 and other places) that ‘good works’ are not the means of our salvation but rather the outcome

–         Twice in our reading today Paul says we are ‘saved by grace’

–         In other words God’s salvation is a gift – we don’t do anything to earn it

–         God’s grace is the root of our salvation, good works are the fruit

 

Conclusion:

So God’s salvation changes our relationship with him, it changes our spiritual environment and it changes our condition

 

We may well ask, why did God save us? After all, as zombies, we had nothing to offer – we were not at all attractive and we were powerless to save ourselves

–         God saved us because that’s who he is – saving us was simply Him being true to His character – to not save us would be a denial of Himself

 

Verses 4-10 of Ephesians 2 are peppered with words which describe God’s character and motivation

–         Verse 4 tells us, God made us alive with Christ because of his great love for us, and because, He is rich in mercy

–         Verse 7 tells us, God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms…to show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

–         And verse 10, For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus…

–         God is a craftsman, an artist, who enjoys making things

–         So God saves us because He is loving, merciful, gracious, kind & creative

As creatures made in God’s image – we are to emulate God’s character

–         Like God, our good work (the way we live our lives) is to be loving, merciful, gracious, kind and creative.

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Do you have a favourite Zombie movie? What is it and why do you like it?

3.)    What was our situation / condition before God saved us?

–         What does Paul mean by death in Ephesians 2:1?

4.)    What is God’s wrath?

–         Why is God’s wrath a comfort to us?

5.)    What does it mean to be ‘made alive with Christ’?

6.)    What does it mean to be ‘raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms’?

7.)    What does it mean that we are ‘God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works’?

8.)    Take some time this week to reflect on the words Paul uses to describe God’s character

–         How might we emulate God’s character in our daily lives?

Tawa Baptist

Knowing

Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23

Title: Knowing

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Know the hope of God’s calling
  • Know the glory of God’s inheritance
  • Know the greatness of God’s power
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Knowledge is K.E.Y. – Knowledge Empowers You

–         I may have the latest computer with 10 terabytes of memory, all the latest application software and lightning fast broadband, but if I don’t know how to turn it on (let alone use it) then it’s wasted on me

–         I may own a luxury launch equipped with satellite TV, full kitchen facilities and a spa pool, but if I don’t know where I am in relation to land then I’m lost at sea

–         I may have access to the finest library in the world, all the books, journals and source documents I could wish for, but if I can’t read then I’m just guessing

 

This morning we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

–         Last week we looked at verses 3-14 which, in the original Greek, are one long sentence of praise to God for his blessings for us in Christ

–         This morning we focus on chapter 1, verses 15-23, which is another long sentence, only this time it’s a prayer

–         Paul follows his praise of God with a prayer for the Ephesian believers

–         After thanking God for their faith and love Paul prayers for wisdom and revelation for them – he asks for the eyes of their heart to opened so they would know God better – because knowing God is KEY

–         Knowing God empowers you.

From Ephesians 1:15-23, in the New International Version, we read…

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

May the Spirit of Jesus open the eyes of our heart to know God better

 

In some ways our faith is like a puppy

–         When it is born its eyes are closed over – it is blind

–         But as it grows its eyes are opened

–         Enlightenment is when the eyes of our heart (our inner being) are opened and our faith begins to see God’s blessings

In this prayer Paul asks that the Ephesians would know God better

–         This knowing isn’t just an intellectual head knowledge – it is the deeper kind of knowing that comes with relationship and experience

–         I might have read lots of books on parenting and attended all sorts of helpful courses, but I don’t really know what it is to be a parent until I care for a child through all the ages and stages of their development

–         It’s this kind of long and deep experiential, relational knowledge that Paul is praying for the Ephesians

–         It’s a knowledge of God born of faith & love as well as vulnerability and suffering – it’s a knowledge not given lightly

In particular Paul asks that the Ephesian believers would know… [1]

–         The hope of God’s calling

–         The glory of God’s inheritance

–         And the greatness of God’s power

If you can imagine a bridge anchored at one end by God’s call and at the other by God’s inheritance, with God’s great power spanning the chasm in between

–         It’s the hope of God’s call and the strength of God’s power that gets us to the other side, the glory of his inheritance

–         First lets us consider the hope of God’s call

The hope of God’s call:

When we applied for ministry training one of the things they wanted us to be sure about was God’s call – how well did we know God’s call on our lives?

–         Knowing the hope of God’s call on your life is important for all Christian believers, in whatever capacity you might serve

–         Knowing deep within that God has called you to himself and to a greater purpose in Christ, provides a firm foothold when the going gets tough

–         God’s call often comes with some kind of promise which inspires hope

The Bible is full of stories of God calling people

–         For example, when God called Abram to leave his homeland he promised to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation

–         And that promise sustained Abraham with hope for a journey of a lifetime

When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery he promised to be with Moses, to give him the words and power needed for the task

–         And that call, from the burning bush, guided Moses as he led the people of Israel for 40 years in the wilderness

When God called Isaiah to be a prophet he gave Isaiah a vision of His splendour and touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal saying, ‘Your guilt is gone, your sins are forgiven.’

–         And that vision informed Isaiah’s message even as he preached to a people who refused to listen

When Jesus called Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples he said, ‘Come follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.’

–         And that promise was fulfilled as the disciples became witnesses of Jesus’ death, resurrection & ascension in a hostile environment

When Jesus called Zacchaeus (the tax collector) he did so by inviting himself over for dinner, which gave great honour to Zacchaeus in his culture

–         And, as Zacchaeus opened his home to Jesus in hospitality, the little tax collector realised God’s call to be fair and generous despite being hated by the community

God’s call can come in any number of different ways

–         It may come quietly while you are alone, as it did for Samuel at Shiloh

–         Or it may come very publicly, as it did for Zacchaeus in front of a crowd

–         It may come while you are at church, as it did for Zechariah in the temple

–         Or it may come while you at work, as it did for Matthew the tax collector

–         It may come all of a sudden, as it did for Saul on the road to Damascus

–         Or it may develop slowly over a period of time, like the growing seed in Jesus’ parable

–         It may be a call to leave, as it was for the Israelites in Egypt

–         Or it may be a call to stay and bear witness where you are, as it was for the man delivered from a legion of demons

–         It may be a call to a particular vocation or task, as it was for king David and the prophets of old

–         Or it may be a call, not so much to do something for God but, simply to receive something from God, as it was for so many of those whom Jesus healed – Unless we let Jesus wash our feet we have no part in him

God’s call on your life is likely to be unique – so we can’t measure the call we receive with the call others have received

–         We don’t all get a burning bush like Moses

 

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘I don’t know what my calling is. How do I find out?’

I like what Frederick Beuchner says…

–         The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

–         This tells us at least two things:

–         God’s call fits who you are – it goes with the grain of your soul

–         So God is not going to call you to a place or a vocation that you are not suited to – he has made you a certain way for a certain purpose

–         The other thing this tells us is that God’s call is not all about us – it’s about others and their deep need

Some couples would be deeply glad to become parents but for whatever reason they aren’t able to have children

–         There are many kids out there who have a deep hunger for a loving home

–         The Open Home Foundation are always looking for couples to foster kids

–         The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

 

Often we have already been called and we aren’t aware of it or we’ve forgotten

–         If that’s the case for you then ask God to make you aware of His call and the hope which comes with it.

 

The glory of God’s inheritance:

Okay, so Paul prays for the Ephesians to know the hope of God’s call and the glory of God’s inheritance

–         What then does it mean to know the glory of God’s inheritance?

Well, God’s inheritance could mean either the inheritance God receives or the inheritance God bestows

–         If it means the inheritance God receives then, according to the Old Testament, God’s people are his inheritance

–         But, if we follow Colossians 1:12, it means the inheritance God gives us – that is eternal life

–         Either way God’s inheritance amounts to the same thing – enjoying abundant life with the Lord forever

Now, this side of Christ’s second coming, we can’t fully comprehend what the inheritance of eternal life is like – it is hidden in the realm of mystery

–         But we can catch a glimpse of it in the here & now

–         And perhaps this is what Paul wants for the Ephesians, that the glory of God’s inheritance wouldn’t be some pie in the sky a way off in the future

–         But rather they (and we) would experience now the sort of closeness and union with God, in Christ, that is the essence of eternal life

–         Because, at its core, that’s what eternal life is – union with God

 

Please turn with me to Luke 14, verse 15 – page 99 toward the back of your pew Bibles

–         In Luke 14 Jesus tells a parable which I think speaks to this idea of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints and of our need to not be so focused on the temporary things of this world that we miss the eternal

–         From Luke 14, verses 15-24 we read…

15 When one of the guests sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”

16 Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people. 17 When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, ‘Come, everything is ready!’ 18 But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought a field and must go and look at it; please accept my apologies.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, ‘Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 Soon the servant said, ‘Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.’ 23 So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you all that none of those who were invited will taste my dinner!’”

May the Spirit Jesus open the eyes of our heart to know God better

Jesus uses the image of a great feast (a party) to point to God’s glorious inheritance in the saints

–         Some of those who were invited declined the invitation because they didn’t know the importance of it

–         Paul wants his readers to understand the eternal significance of God’s invitation in Christ

 

Again I’d like to quote Frederick Beuchner…

Whatever you do with your life – whatever you end up achieving or not achieving – the great gift you have in you, to give to the world, is the gift of who you alone are; your way of seeing things, and saying things, and feeling about things, that is like nobody else’s. If so much as a single one of you were missing, there would be an empty place at the great feast of life that nobody else in all creation could fill.

This life is not all there is – beyond this life God is planning a party and there is room for you

–         Sadly not everyone accepts God’s invitation, perhaps because they don’t know the one who is calling them or the inheritance to which they are called

 

Paul prays for the Ephesians to know the hope of God’s call, the glory of God’s inheritance and the greatness of God’s power

 

The greatness of God’s power:

God’s great power bridges the gap between the hope of his call and the glory of his inheritance

Power is the ability to do something

–         Paul describes God’s power (His ability to make things happen) as beyond compare

–         The message is, no matter what obstacles we might face, no matter how weak or inadequate we might feel in our circumstances, God’s power is all sufficient for those who believe

The interesting thing here is that Paul is writing from prison

–         Ironically Paul writes about enlightenment while he is in a dark place

–         And he writes about God’s power in exalting Christ while he is powerless

–         Paul’s confidence in God’s power is not wishful thinking – it is not based on blind (puppy) faith

–         Paul’s claim about God’s power is based on the historical facts of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven 

When Jesus was at his weakest – when he was dead and buried in the tomb – God’s power was evident, raising Jesus from the dead

–         But God’s power at work in Christ did not stop there

–         Because after God had raised Jesus from the dead, He exalted Jesus to his right hand in the spiritual realm

–         To be seated at God’s right hand means to be given the highest honour, the highest authority and the most power of all

–         Paul is saying that Jesus is above all powers

John Stott sums it up nicely when he writes…

–         The resurrection and ascension were a decisive demonstration of divine power. For if there are two powers which human beings cannot control, but which hold us in bondage, they are death and evil. Human beings are mortal; we cannot avoid death. Human beings are fallen; we cannot overcome evil. But God, in Christ, has conquered both and therefore can rescue us from both.

 

God’s power, in Jesus, does not necessarily mean the absence of evil

–         Nor does the presence of evil in the world in any way discount Jesus’ power or authority over evil

–         If evil exists in the world it is only because Jesus (in his ultimate wisdom) allows it for a time – but he won’t allow it forever

–         At the end of the age evil will be uprooted and destroyed

–         In the meantime Jesus gives the strength we need to live with it

 

Okay, so God is more powerful than anyone or anything else and he shares that power with Jesus – but knowing God is all powerful doesn’t necessarily give me comfort, unless I also know that God’s intentions toward me are good 

In verse 22 of Ephesians 1, Paul says that God… appointed Jesus to be head over everything for the church, which is his body…

–         This tells us that God’s power is for our good

–         Jesus exercises power as someone who himself knows first-hand what it is be powerless and oppressed

–         Jesus exercises power from a place of understanding and compassion and love toward us

Let me give you an analogy

–         At the same time that Jacinda Ardern is the Prime Minister of NZ, she is also the mother of Neve

–         Neve has a mum with more political clout than anyone else in her kindergarten or neighbourhood

At the same time that Jesus is head over all things, he is also head of the church and so we Christians have a leader with more clout than anyone else

–         Jesus isn’t our mother but, spiritually speaking, he is our older brother if we believe in him

–         Which means we have a special relationship with the one who is above all powers

To say the church is the body of Christ, means that we are closely connected to Jesus and to each other

–         So, if something happens to us – if we suffer in some way for example – then Christ (who is head over all) feels that and is moved by it

–         And knowing this is what gives us comfort and strength in this life

 

Conclusion:

Knowledge is key – knowledge empowers you

–         When we know the hope of God’s call on our life, we have purpose to sustain us when life is difficult

–         When we know the glory of God’s inheritance that awaits us, we can keep our perspective when others are losing theirs

–         And when we know the greatness of God’s power for us, we are released from fear and free to love

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Why do you think Paul prays for the Ephesians to know God better?

–         What kind of ‘knowing’ is Paul praying for?

3.)    Are you aware of God’s call on your life?

–         If so, what is that call and how did you become aware of it?

–         If not, how might you become aware of it?

4.)    Why is it important that we know the hope of God’s call?

–         How does this help us?

5.)    What is meant by God’s inheritance?

6.)    Why is it important that we know the glory of God’s inheritance?

–         How does this help us?

7.)     How did Paul know that God’s power is great beyond compare?

8.)    Why is it important that we know the greatness of God’s power?

–         How does this help us?

 

[1] The structure for the sermon (taken from the text) aligns with John Stott’s view, in his BST commentary on Ephesians, page 55ff.

Tawa Baptist

Artesian Wells

Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-14

Title: Artesian Wells

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Praise for God’s blessings
  • Blessings in the heavenly realms
  • Blessings in Christ
  • Blessings by God’s will
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

When Robyn and I were sent from Welcome Bay Baptist (in Tauranga) to train for ministry in Auckland, one of the members of our sending church (a guy called Dave) said to me, ‘Look for artesian wells’

–         It was said with love and out of a concern for our well-being

–         Dave was using the term ‘artesian wells’ as a metaphor of something that is deep and ancient and life sustaining

–         An artesian well is different from a regular well in that the water rises to the surface by internal pressure, so you don’t need a bucket or a pump to draw the water out

The water in an artesian well is trapped between layers of rock and consequently is under pressure so that when a hole is drilled in the upper layer of rock the water trapped underneath rises to the surface

–         The pressure may be created by a glacier or snow melt from a mountain which feeds the underground aquifer – and the well acts like a pressure release valve

Artesian wells were named after the former province of ‘Artois’ in France, where many artesian wells were drilled by Carthusian monks around 1126AD

–         The monks found the well water was a lot safer to drink than river water, because it had been filtered over centuries

Water from a flowing artesian well, therefore, is deep and ancient and pure

This morning we begin a new sermon series in the book of Ephesians

–         Ephesians reminds me of an artesian well

–         It is such a pure and positive letter – Paul is not writing to the Ephesians to correct some problem in the church and so it has quite a different tone to many of his other letters which are dealing with problems

–         More than this though, Paul has tapped into the goodness of God and it bubbles up naturally to the surface of his writing

Our focus this morning is Ephesians 1, verses 1-14

–         Verses 3-14 are an outpouring of praise to God for his goodness to us in Christ – technically known as a doxology

–         Paul’s praise is rising, like water from an artesian well, from a deep aquifer of spirit. From verse 1, in the NIV we read…

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

Praise for God’s blessings:

There’s a lot being said in these verses – they are thick & rich with meaning like condensed milk

–         What we need to keep in mind, as we wade through the words, is that this is worship – it is primarily adoration of God

–         Verse 3 says it plainly:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…

–         Paul goes on to punctuate his doxology three more times with the phrase: …to the praise of his glory…

–         In the original Greek this effusion of praise, in verses 3-14, is one long sentence – It’s like Paul is surfing a wave of God’s goodness and the wave is carrying him the length of the beach

What makes this even more remarkable is that Paul is under house arrest – he is chained to a Roman soldier while writing this letter

–         Physically he isn’t free but internally (his mind and his spirit) are soaring on wings like eagles

–         Most people in Paul’s situation would not be happy but Paul is worshipping God like he’s on cloud nine.

–         How is Paul able to do this?

Well, Paul can do this because the aquifer of his spirit is fed by the thought of how God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

 

Blessings in the heavenly realms:

That phrase, ‘heavenly realms’, refers to the spiritual realm

–         The spiritual realm is sort of like another dimension all around us that we don’t normally see

–         We live in a materialistic society – so many of us have a bias toward physical, material things that we can touch and see

–         We tend to be less aware of spiritual realities, even though the spiritual world is just as real as the physical

Dogs can’t see orange or green, like we do, but they can see blue and yellow, so the same picture looks quite washed out in their eyes

–         If you throw a bright orange ball across the lawn they will struggle to see it because the orange & green look the same greyish colour to them

–         When it comes to the spiritual realm we are a bit like dogs (no offence)

–         We don’t see all the colours – spiritual things are camouflaged to us

–         This means there is more to reality than meets the eye

–         The heavenly realm or spiritual realm is still real even if it is beyond what we can perceive with our five senses

In 2nd Kings, chapter 6, the prophet Elisha and his servant are surrounded by an army of Arameans, with their chariots and horses, all there to capture him

–         The servant is shaking in his boots and says to Elisha, “Oh my lord, what shall we do?”

–         “Don’t be afraid”, Elisha answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

–         And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”

–         Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

–         Elisha could see the spiritual realm – the Lord’s army right there to protect them

 

You know, it’s that time of year again when I look at the church’s attendance statistics and write my contributions for the annual report

–         The last few years’ attendance has been a bit discouraging

–         We need to remember there is more to the picture than meets the eye

–         There is a spiritual audience all around us which we don’t see

–         In many ways the church is like an ice-berg with a lot happening under the surface – God is doing more than our statistics can measure

 

When we read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we might imagine some kind of large and thriving church that has it altogether and enjoys a wonderful relationship with the community around it – but that wasn’t the historical reality

–         The church in Ephesus was quite small by our standards – only about 12 men and I suppose their families, if the men were married

–         And most of the wider community of Ephesus didn’t like the Christians all that much because they were bad for business

–         Ephesus was famous for making silver idols and Christians are against idol worship

–         But as small and as unpopular as they were, God was at work through the Ephesian believers to achieve his purpose

–         In Christ they were making waves in the spiritual realm

The other thing we need to keep in mind is that Paul’s letter was read aloud to the believers as they gathered in people’s homes for a church service

–         In a way Paul’s letter to the Ephesians functioned like a liturgy

–         Paul was leading the people in worship through his writing

–         They may have felt small and extremely vulnerable but I imagine Paul’s artesian well of adoration and praise refreshed them

–         It had the power to lift their eyes off the here & now and remind them of the spiritual reality

–         They might feel pretty insignificant and at odds with the world around them but in spiritual terms they had it made

 

Blessings in Christ:

One of the things Paul is at pains to emphasise it that God’s many blessings for the Ephesian believers (and for us) are ‘in Christ’

–         That expression ‘in Christ’ crops up 11 times in 14 verses, in the original Greek, although you won’t find it that many times in English translations

–         Paul describes the Ephesians as faithful in Christ – verse 1

–         They (and we) have every spiritual blessing in Christ – verse 3

–         God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless – verse 4

–         We are given grace in Christ – verse 6

–         In Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins – verse 7

–         God revealed his will and purpose to us in Christ – verse 9

–         Again, we are chosen in Christ – verse 11

–         We put our hope in Christ – verse 12

–         We are included in Christ when we believe the gospel – verse 13

–         And we are marked in Christ with the seal of the Holy Spirit – verse 13

Clearly the key to God’s many blessings is being ‘in Christ’

–         What then does it mean to be in Christ?

–         Well, it can mean different things depending on the context

–         But generally speaking, being in Christ refers to being in a particular spiritual environment

The environment in which we live (the geography, the climate, the values, the history and so on) shapes and defines who we are as a person

–         If someone lives underwater then they are a fish and not a person

–         Or if someone works in the countryside they have quite a different outlook to someone who works in the city

–         Or if someone grew up in middle class society this shapes them differently to someone who grew up in poverty

–         If you have been immersed in Maori culture then you will think in a different way from someone immersed in Pakeha culture

–         I grew up in 1970’s New Zealand and in many ways that has shaped me, just as my family have shaped me and the church too

–         If I had grown up in Russia or Iran or Germany or Venezuela I would be shaped by a different cultural and political reality

When our family became Christians in the 1980’s, spiritually speaking, we entered a different environment – we went from a pagan materialistic environment to being in Christ, and this required us to learn a whole new way of thinking and living

 

Being in Christ shapes and defines who we are – it informs our outlook

–         We live in Christ like a fish lives in water – Jesus is our natural environment, we belong in Jesus

We are in Christ like someone granted citizenship – Jesus becomes our new country, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails.

–         When we enter a new country we don’t impose our own culture on that country, we learn the local language and obey the laws of the land

–         When we become a Christian we cross a spiritual border, we enter Christ

–         That means we leave our old way of life behind – we don’t try to colonise Christ by imposing an ungodly culture on him

–         We learn his language of grace & truth and we follow his law of love & forgiveness

We are in Christ like a lock in a rugby scrum, or a first five in the back row – we are not just individuals, we are in Jesus’ team, we wear his colours

We are in Christ like a child adopted into God’s family – which means the history of God’s people becomes our history, our story, our whakapapa

–         Being adopted into God’s family also means Jesus is our older, kinder brother who looks out for us

We are in Christ like we are in a premium Kiwi Saver scheme – Jesus is our eternal security.

–         Yes, we make some contributions to the scheme but really God, our employer, contributes far more than we do

We are in Christ like being in a good job – God is our boss and discipleship is our career

We are in Christ like a business in profit – Jesus has saved us from bankruptcy and liquidation

–         He has turned the business of our lives around by paying our debts and making us prosper, so we are free to be generous

We are in Christ like survivors in a life boat – God has provided the means for our rescue

We are in Christ like a branch grafted into a vine – Jesus makes our lives fruitful for God’s glory

We are in Christ like being included in someone’s will or estate – we stand to inherit the kingdom of God

We are in Christ like a fine artwork in a collector’s possession – God values us and appreciates us and he won’t sell us at any price

We are in Christ like a reader who has finished a book – we know how the story ends

–         I could go on but you get the point: God blesses us in many, many ways but all of those ways are in Christ

 

Ok – so we’ve heard how the opening verses of Ephesians are an artesian well of praise and adoration for God

–         This worship is the natural overflow of God having blessed us in the spiritual realm and in Christ

–         The other idea that comes through strongly in our Bible reading this morning is that of God’s will, his purpose, his plan

–         We are blessed by the will of God

 

Blessings by the will of God:

In verse 1 Paul says he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God

In verse 5 he says, God predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

In verse 9, God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure 

And in verse 11 we read, In Christ we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…

Paul wants to make it very clear that all these wonderful spiritual blessings are happening by the will of God

–         They are not happening by fate or chance or karma or by anything we do

–         They are happening according to God’s purpose and plan

–         What’s more they are not happening because God is under any sort of obligation – God is acting freely, his hand is not forced

–         These blessings are happening (and indeed have happened) because it gives God pleasure – he wants to bless us generously, lavishly

 

Now some people hear the word ‘predestination’, which appears twice in our reading today, and they get themselves tied up in knots

–         They start thinking things like, ‘So we get no choice. God chooses some people to be saved and others miss out. That doesn’t seem very fair’

–         Or they think, ‘I go to church. I must be predestined for heaven. It’s all arranged and so I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to worry about people who don’t yet know about Jesus because their fate is already decided. And I don’t need to worry too much about my own behaviour either because I’m already in’

–         That sort of thinking completely misunderstands what Paul is saying here

–         The whole tone of this passage is adoration, not calculation [1]

–         God is good – he is generous and thoughtful and kind and fair

–         God is looking for ways to include people in His plan of salvation

 

Our thinking is shaped by our society which, generally speaking, is very individualistic – Paul is talking in collective terms, not individual terms

–         So it’s not that God decides beforehand this person is in and this one is out – it’s not a fait a accompli

–         Christ is the one who was predestined by God before the creation of the world – Christ is the one God has elected to save and bless

–         Therefore if we are in Christ we too are saved and blessed

 

If you can imagine being at sea in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the boat you are on is sinking – it was damaged in a storm and despite your best efforts to keep it afloat you know it’s just a matter of time before it goes under

–         Jesus is the rescue boat prepared by God, before the storm, to save us

–         When God’s rescue boat comes our way we have a choice – we can either stay on our own leaky boat or get on board with Jesus and go looking for others who are about to go under

–         To be in Christ is to be in the rescue boat with others with a mission

 

Eugene Peterson provides a helpful comment on this issue of predestination

–         He notes how the verb ‘destine’ (as in predestine) derives from the noun ‘boundary’ – so when it talks about God having predestined us in Christ, it means God has marked out the boundaries in which we live

–         In other words, Christ defines the boundaries for life – sort of like a rescue boat defines the boundaries for our survival

–         More than just surviving though, Christ is the environment in which we get the most out of life

–         If we are in Christ then we are in a good environment for spiritual life

–         But if we are not in Christ, who holds us and supports our life, then we’re overboard treading water to delay the inevitable

 

Having said we are blessed and saved in Christ, we need to remember it’s not all about us

–         Verse 10 tells us God’s purpose is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ

–         God cares for all of his creation, not just human beings

–         ‘All things’ includes the physical that we can see and the spiritual that we can’t see

–         It includes the land and the sea, the animals, birds, fish, insects and plant life, as well as the angels and other spiritual beings

–         The scope of God’s plan is both comprehensive and beyond our comprehension

 

Conclusion:

When was the last time you spontaneously burst into praise for God’s goodness and blessings? Maybe it’s been a while.

–         Perhaps the only time you offer God adoration and praise is at church on a Sunday morning

–         Is your spiritual life feeling a bit dry – a bit empty

–         Look for artesian wells

–         Find ways to tap into the aquifer of God’s blessings in Christ

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Why do you think Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians with an outpouring of praise?

3.)    What awareness do you have of the spiritual realm?

–         Where does this awareness come from?

4.)    What affect do you think Paul’s description of God’s activity in the spiritual realm would have had on the Ephesian believers who were relatively small in number and at odds with many of the people in their community?

5.)    What does it mean to be ‘in Christ’?

6.)    Why does God choose to bless us?

7.)    Where might you find an artesian well (spiritually speaking)?

–         How might you tap into the aquifer of God’s goodness to us in Christ?

 

[1] This is my paraphrase of something Markus Barth said

Tawa Baptist

Does God care about these people?

Scripture: Jonah

Title: Does God care about these people?

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jonah 1
  • Jonah 3
  • Jonah 4
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full person?

–         For a long time I was a glass half empty sort of person

 

Forgive me, I’m forgetting my manners – allow me to introduce myself…

–         My name is Jonah, son of Amittai – you may have heard about me in Sunday school

–         I was born nearly 800 years before Christ, which makes me about 2,800 years old now

–         I know what you’re thinking – I look good for my age

–         Some of you may be wondering, ‘Why is he wearing that outfit?’

–         Well, I’m a prophet – this is what the future looks like baby

–         I’m just kidding – I wear it because it’s comfortable

–         Although, when you’ve lived as long as I have, you notice fashion does keep going around in circles

 

Anyway, as I was saying, I used to be a glass half empty person – in fact my wife would say I was a bit grumpy and cantankerous, on a good day

–         All I wanted was the quiet life – to be left in peace with my work, to ignore my neighbours and make an appearance at the synagogue just often enough to avoid a visit from the local Rabbi

–         As you can see, by the way I’m dressed, I don’t like to draw attention to myself – I have no interest in public speaking either

–         God knew this of course – he knew how much I valued my privacy and yet he completely disregarded all that and called me to be a missionary prophet

 

Sounds a bit grand, even wonderful, to say ‘I am a missionary prophet’ but I can tell you the reality is far from it

–         Being a prophet is an incredibly lonely life

–         It makes you famous & poor, which is a combination you want to avoid

–         The messages God gives are usually unpopular – warnings of judgement if you don’t change your wicked ways

–         In a society like yours where people are always bowing down to the idol of individualism and your media insists personal freedom be worshipped, no one likes to be criticised for the way they live their life

–         And on those rare occasions when I do get to bring a message of hope, people are usually so despondent they refuse to believe it

–         It takes a great deal of courage to risk hope when you’ve lost nearly everything

 

Jonah 1

That’s why I did a runner when the Word of the Lord came to me

–         Don’t ask me how I knew it was God speaking – some things you just know to be true in the core of your being

–         God said to me, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

 

My first reaction was to ignore God, pretend like I didn’t hear

–         But there is an inevitability about God’s Word – it gets under your skin – the more you try to ignore it the more it irritates you

–         It becomes an itch that just has to be scratched

–         I tried distracting myself by keeping busy but that didn’t work so, even though God was leading me to Nineveh, I set off in the opposite direction for Spain – that’s how much I didn’t want to do this

 

What you need to understand is that Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, which you probably know as northern Iraq

–         The Assyrians were our enemies – I won’t go into it all but they did some terrible things to our people

–         And God wanted me to go to them as a missionary prophet, when I wasn’t even prepared to cross the street to give them the time of day

 

Now you might be thinking, ‘Surely Jonah you would jump at the chance to tell your enemies how rotten they are’

–         Well, you’re wrong. I knew God well enough to know his true motivation

–         God was sending me to Nineveh because deep down he really cares about them – why else would he give them a warning?

–         God likes to give people second and third and fourth chances – it’s just the way he is

–         I know this about God because he has been giving my people (Israel) hundreds of second chances for centuries

–         God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love

–         He doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants everyone to be saved

–         Which is a real pain in the backside – because it means mugs like me get sent on a fool’s errand

–         I knew how it was going to turn out and that’s why I ran away

I guess I thought I would get away with it – I reasoned that if I didn’t go God would send someone else

–         I mean it’s not like I was anyone special – there were plenty of people more capable, more eloquent, more sociable, more charming than me

–         The Lord could use one of them

–         For a moment there I managed to convince myself that I was actually doing God a favour – I would probably stuff it up anyway

–         It never occurred to me that he would interfere with the weather

 

There I was, below deck, sleeping like a baby, while all hell was breaking loose above me

–         The men on board were seasoned sailors and they were scared for their lives, which tells you just how bad it was

–         As soon as they woke me I knew I was to blame

–         At that moment the psalmist’s words returned to me,

–         Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

–         Still I wasn’t ready to give in – I thought, ‘God cares about these men, he isn’t going to let them drown because of me.’

–         It was like I was playing chicken with God and the lives of everyone on the ship – that’s how reckless I had become

 

Eventually they caste lots (which is like throwing dice or drawing straws) and my number came up

–         That’s one of the differences between you people today and the ancients

–         They didn’t believe in chance like you do

–         Nothing was random to them – everything had a purpose and a meaning

–         The spiritual realm was everywhere – the hands of the gods were directing fate. Nothing happened by accident

–         You call it superstition or luck and your post enlightenment, hyper-rational mind-set rules out the possibility of divine involvement

–         People today close their eyes to what they don’t want to see

–         No wonder you are starved for meaning

–         Your society may be rich, in material terms, but it’s spiritually poor

 

Anyway, enough about you, let’s get back to me – as I was saying, my number came up and I had to fess up

–         The storm was caused by my God – the same God who made the land and the sea – a God far more powerful than any other

–         And the Lord was doing this because I was running away from him

–         I told the sailors it was my fault and that if they picked me up and threw me into the sea it will become calm again

–         But they didn’t want to do it – they tried to save me by rowing to shore

–         There was I, a son of Abraham, one of God’s chosen people

–         I had grown up being taught the ways of the one true, living God, and I took my Godly heritage for granted, despised it even

–         These sailors didn’t even know the Lord – and yet they were risking their lives to save mine

–         Their religion was based on a lie (they worshipped idols) but their humanity was true

–         They loved me like a brother and they hardly knew me

–         I can’t tell you how much their actions touched me – as lonely as I was

 

When the storm got even worse, and they realised I was right, they reluctantly threw me overboard. The water became dead flat in an instant

–         Jesus did the same thing on a lake in Galilee 800 years later

–         People these days have no idea how powerful the Lord is – if you did you would show him more respect than you do

 

As providence would have it I met one of those sailors years later and he explained how profound his conversion experience was at the moment the waters became still

–         It occurred to him just how gracious and wise God is, turning my failure, my disobedience, into their salvation

–         If I hadn’t run away those sailors may never have known the power of God’s goodness

–         The old sailor’s eyes misted up when he told me that and I was humbled to silence

Of course that humility came years later with the benefit of hindsight – at the moment of being thrown overboard and hitting the water I was terrified

–         You New Zealanders are surrounded by the sea – you love going to the beach and swimming in the waves – but I’m a Hebrew, a land-lover

–         The sea reminds you of summertime and holidays but for me the sea represents chaos and death

 

I hadn’t been thrashing around in the ocean for long when a huge fish swallowed me up

–         Now I know that many people today struggle to believe this

–         Your culture holds up this ideal of being broad minded & inclusive and yet your imagination is too small to include this possibility

–         I’m not going to waste my time trying to convince you – arguments about the fish are a distraction

 

The point is: God is sovereign – he is in control of the outcome

–         He is able to work all things for good

–         I thought I was a gonna when that fish swam up

–         Funny how sometimes the things we fear most, the things we think will destroy us, actually turn out to be our salvation

–         It’s like that famous hymn writer William Cowper said…

–         God moves in a Mysterious way, His Wonders to perform,
He plants his Footsteps in the Sea, and rides upon the Storm.

–         Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.   

–         I knew William Cowper – he was a glass half empty person, like me

–         During his lifetime he never really grasped how deeply God cared for him

–         But I’m not sure any of us do

 

I was three days and three nights in that fish and, after I had calmed down from the initial shock, it gave me time to think

–         I wrote a song of my own, which didn’t make it into the charts but did make it into the Bible.  Suffering is the mid-wife of art

 

Jonah 3

After the fish had spat me out on the beach the Word of the Lord came to me a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

–         So this time I obeyed the Word of the Lord and went to Nineveh

–         Now, getting to Nineveh is not easy – it’s a journey of hundreds of miles on foot. There were no cars or aeroplanes 2,800 years ago

–         It actually took me weeks to get there, and I had to rely on the kindness of strangers the whole way

 

Naturally I thought a lot about what had happened to me

–         How God had given me a second chance and persevered with me despite my stubbornness

–         How he didn’t trade me in for a more reliable, lower maintenance missionary prophet

–         How his Word to me the second time was different from the first time

–         The first time he told me to ‘preach against the city’, but now his message was more open ended, more flexible – simply: ‘Proclaim the message I give you’ – which could be anything

–         I wondered what he might ask me to say – I guess that’s faith isn’t it, walking in trust, not knowing what the future holds

–         Which doesn’t suit me at all – I want to know beforehand, I want to be prepared

 

When I finally arrived in Nineveh it was as bad as I had imagined – domestic violence, child abuse, women treated shamelessly, bribery and corruption in the justice system, a huge gap between rich & poor and an economy fuelled by war mongering – How can people live like that?

 

The message God gave me was simple: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”

–         It had to be simple really – I spoke a different language to them and, as I said before, I don’t enjoy public speaking. None of that mattered though

–         Even though I must have looked a pitiful picture to them the people believed my message – don’t ask me how

–         I guess some things you just know to be true in the core of your being.

–         The people believed God and showed remorse for their wrong doing by fasting and wearing sackcloth

Fasting is when you go without food – it is an act of self-denial

–         Fasting is the opposite of celebrating

–         When you fast you have more time to pray and listen to God

–         Wearing sack cloth is a way of putting appearances aside

–         When someone puts on sackcloth they are saying I am spiritually poor and I’m not going to hide my poverty

The people of Nineveh were serious about their repentance – the king even issued a proclamation telling everyone to call on God for mercy and give up their violent ways. And the people did

–         When God saw they had turned away from evil, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened

 

Jonah 4

And they all lived happily ever after – except for me – I was not happy

–         Like I said before, I knew God was sending me to Nineveh because he really cares about them

–         It was God’s hope all along that the Assyrians would repent

–         God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love

–         He doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants everyone to be saved

–         God will jump at the chance to let people off the hook, if they are genuinely sorry

 

I was so gutted I said, “Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

–         I did tell you I was a ‘glass half empty’ kind of person – but at that moment it seemed to me like the glass was completely empty

–         Not only did I have to live with the indignity of having my prediction unfulfilled (God didn’t make my words come true) – I just couldn’t face returning to my family and community

–         I knew people personally who had family members killed, crops destroyed and their homes burned to the ground by the Assyrians

–         How could I live with the shame of having helped my enemies

–         It was too much to bear – I felt like a traitor

And you know what God said to me?

–         “[Jonah], have you any right to be angry?”

 

Sullen and brooding I decided to give God the silent treatment

–         I wanted to put some distance between myself and the city, and between myself and God, so I walked East, even further away from the temple in Jerusalem

–         Have I any right to be angry? How could he ask that? Of course I do

–         Grace is fine when it’s for me and the people I care about, but mercy for the people of Nineveh, after all the suffering they had caused?

–         Where was the Lord’s sense of justice?

–         Cleary he cared about them but he didn’t seem to care about Israel, or about me.  I felt betrayed by God – whose side was he on?

 

God has a way of getting us to talk, even when we don’t want to

–         The Lord caused a vine, a leafy plant, to grow up beside me – it was incredible, sprang up overnight

–         The plant gave me shade from the sun – it was a comfort to me, my only comfort actually

–         Next day though God provides a worm to kill the plant

–         So that was my reward for obedience

–         I felt like Job – the Lord gives and takes away

–         The wind and sun was particularly bad that day – and I knew it was Him who was doing it

By this stage I could see the plant had been a real and living parable

–         You know you’re in trouble when God gives you a parable

–         Parables irritate you, they get under your skin and become an itch that has to be scratched – so I broke my silence and said again,

–         “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

–         I didn’t really want to die – I just didn’t want to be in pain anymore

–         I wanted to get off this nightmare carnival ride I was on

–         I wanted to get out of my head and feel good again

–         I wanted my cup to be full to overflowing

–         So God said to me, really softy and gently, “[Jonah], do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”

–         He was trying to help me feel better but I couldn’t see that yet. I replied,

–         “I do have a right to be angry. I am angry enough to die.”

–         I wanted God to feel my pain, to understand

–         He sits on his throne in heaven, makes his plans, gives his orders and expects us to carry them out, but does he know how difficult this life is, how hard it is to be human?

 

The Lord said to me: “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

It was an argument from the lesser to the greater

–         I cared about that plant, even though I had done nothing to create it or look after it – how much more then should God care about 120,000 people (and their livestock) who he did create and who are far more valuable than a single vine

–         There was nothing I could say in reply to that – God had the last word

 

Conclusion:

Will asked me to preach today because my story fits with the theme of your self-denial campaign: ‘Where God leads’

–         Well, God led me hundreds of miles away from home to preach a message of repentance to my enemies

–         And why did he do that?

–         Because his purpose (his mission) is not all about me – and it’s not all about Israel either

–         God cares about my enemies (and yours)

–         Think about the person you care the least for in this world – God loves them – their life is precious to him

–         In fact he cares for all of his creation – not just human life

 

I said before that I wanted God to feel my pain, to understand, to know how hard it is to be human

–         Well, 800 years after I was born, he did just that

–         God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

–         And he suffered terribly – he felt my pain alright, and then some

–         His cup was emptied completely and after he had tasted death, his cup was filled to overflowing with eternal life

Jesus’ experience was my experience

–         I used to be a glass half empty sort of person – then the Lord emptied me completely, but only so he could fill me again with something far better

–         Jesus’ coming fulfilled the purpose of my life

–         He can fill your glass too but first he’ll probably want to empty it and make you wait – and that’s the hard part

–         Hold on to God through the emptying and the waiting – it’s worth it in the end

 

Where is God leading you?

–         Maybe overseas but more likely just over the fence to your neighbour or to someone in your own family

–         Peace be with you.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full person?

3.)    Why did God call Jonah to preach against the city of Nineveh?

–         Why do you think Jonah ran away?

4.)    Has God ever asked you to do something you really didn’t want to?

–         What happened?

5.)    How did God work Jonah’s disobedience for good?

6.)    Why do you think Jonah was angry after God relented from destroying Nineveh?

–         How did God handle Jonah’s anger?

7.)    Think of someone you don’t like or don’t care about

–         Take some time to imagine God’s love and care for the one(s) you don’t like

–         Ask God to bless your enemies

8.)    In what ways does Jonah’s story point to Jesus?

9.)    Where is God leading you?

 

Tawa Baptist

A New Filter

Scripture: Luke 24:36-49

Title: A New Filter

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • From fear to joy
  • From doubt to understanding
  • From disbelief to witness
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

I’m thinking of a word ending in ‘R’ – six letters. Can anyone tell me what it is?

  • – You find these everywhere: in sunglasses, in car engines, in coffee machines, swimming pools, fish tanks and cigarette butts.
  • – You even have one in your brain. Any guesses?
  • – I’ll give you some more clues: purify, refine, sieve, sift, strain, winnow
  • – That’s right, the word I’m thinking of is ‘filter’

The purpose of a filter is to remove or separate that which is not wanted

  • – Ideally a filter lets the good things through and keeps the bad things out

We might not be aware of it but each of us has a filter, in our mind, which automatically accepts some things and excludes others

  • – Having a filter is not a bad thing – we need a filter, we can’t let everything in all the time
  • – When we are young we tend to have less of a filter – we accept most things without question
  • – But as we get older our filter gets blocked or dirty, with bad experiences, and we become a bit fussy about what we accept – more things are automatically excluded. When that happens we need a new filter

 

Our Scripture reading this morning comes from Luke 24, verses 36-49

  • – This passage describes what happened when the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples the evening of the first Easter Sunday
  • – Already it has been a long day for the disciples – Earlier that morning the women had gone to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty
  • – Two angels appeared to them and explained that Jesus had risen from the dead – the women reported this to the other disciples
  • – Later, the same day, the risen Jesus himself appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus
  • – These two disciples didn’t recognise Jesus at first – they had seen Jesus die just three days before and so their filter excluded the possibility of talking with Jesus now
  • – It wasn’t until Jesus broke bread with them that they suddenly accepted that Jesus was alive
  • – Then Jesus disappeared and the two disciples returned to Jerusalem to tell the eleven. It’s at this point we pick up the story…

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture.

In this reading the risen Jesus gives his disciples a new filter

  • – He helps them to move from fear to joy
  • – From doubt to understanding
  • – And from disbelief to witness

 

From fear to joy:

Some of you may be into Snap Chat – I’m not but each to their own

  • – With Snap Chat you are able to put different filters on your photo to change your appearance – give yourself glasses, make yourself look like a dog or a gangster or a cartoon character, or whatever
  • – Normally a filter takes things out – it excludes things – but Snap Chat filters seem to add things in and distort the true picture
  • – The unconscious mental filters we have in our mind are bit like Snap Chat – as well as taking things out, they add things in.
  • – We call that stereotyping or prejudice
  • – For many years women were excluded from voting because men had a filter which said women were not competent to vote
  • – Most of us don’t cope well with the unknown and so, to prevent the vacuum from being filled with fear, we add in our own assumptions and beliefs which are often untrue.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of filter people apply to us when they learn we are Christian

  • – Do they see us as a person of light with angel eyes and a halo of golden butterflies fluttering over our head
  • – Or do they see us as a bit scary, judgemental and angry
  • – Neither of these pictures are fair or true

 

Verse 37 (of Luke 24) tells us, the disciples’ initial reaction to seeing Jesus in the room with them was one of shock & fear – they thought they were seeing a ghost, a spirit without a body

  • – They had seen Jesus killed and so their mental filter excluded the possibility that he could be alive and blindly adopted the prevailing cultural belief of the day – that the human soul is released from the body when a person dies and floats around in a disembodied state
  • – Their assumption was false but they lacked an alternative.

Jesus deals with their fear by engaging the disciples’ senses

  • – He speaks so they can hear him and recognise his voice
  • – He identifies himself by his scars – showing them his hands and his feet where the nails had been
  • – He offers his body for the disciples to touch if they want to
  • – And Jesus eats some fish in their presence so they can see he has an actual body – that he isn’t a phantom
  • – In doing this Jesus is giving his disciples physical evidence that he is alive and well.

Jesus is also doing some very practical things to calm his disciples’ fear

  • – When someone is having a panic attack you can help them by speaking calmly to them, pointing out something in the environment that is real, gently touching their arm, and offering them something to eat or drink
  • – Anything really that engages their physical senses and puts them in touch with the reality around them so they stop focusing on the fear inside.

Jesus’ strategy works – he manages to calm the disciples down so their fear gives way to ‘joy & amazement’ – but their unconscious filter is strong and they struggle to accept the fact of Jesus’ resurrection – ‘doubts rise in their minds’

 

From doubt to understanding:

Now doubt sometimes gets a bad rap in Christian circles and while doubt certainly has its downside, it also serves an important purpose

  • – If our filter becomes blocked – if it excludes too many possibilities – then we run the risk of going through life convinced we are right only to learn, at some point, we were wrong
  • – Doubt is a good thing when our filter is too narrow – doubt causes us to question and test our assumptions.

The fact the disciples can’t believe Jesus is alive, at first, proves they were convinced of his death in the first place

  • – The prerequisite to believing in Jesus’ resurrection is believing in his death
  • – So the strength of the disciples’ doubt proves Jesus’ death, which paves the way for believing in his resurrection

Doubt clears a path for faith – doubt actually makes room for understanding

  • – If we are too firmly fixed in our ideas & beliefs then those ideas & beliefs have no room to grow
  • – Robyn bought me a kowhai plant as a present one year
  • – It came in a small plastic container about 15cm’s in diameter
  • – That little pot was fine for a while but it didn’t allow the roots to spread or the plant to grow
  • – So I transplanted the kowhai to a barrel about a metre wide and it took off, until that became too small and now it’s planted in the backyard.

If we think of our understanding of God as a growing tree then, inevitably, our faith’s understanding will get to a point when the little pot it was planted in is too small and needs more room to put out roots and grow

  • – Doubt is what tells us the pot is too small – doubt challenges (perhaps even breaks) the little pot of our fixed ideas and beliefs
  • – Sometimes we mistakenly think the little pot in which our faith was first planted is all there is and we ignore the voice of doubt which is prompting us to transplant into a more spacious understanding of God.

Having said that, not all doubt is good – when doubt is intentional or leads to worry or paralysis of faith then it becomes a cruel master

  • – But when doubt challenges our presuppositions about what is possible
  • – When doubt dismantles our filter, removing the blockages to belief and enlarging our perspective on the truth, then it is our servant
  • – Perhaps this is why Jesus asks, ‘Why do doubts arise in your minds?’
  • – By acknowledging the presence of doubt and bringing it out into the open Jesus puts doubt in its proper place – he makes it serve his disciples

Verse 41 tells us the disciples still did not believe (even after seeing Jesus) because of ‘joy and amazement’

  • – In other words, they liked the thought that Jesus was alive and wanted to accept this but were being cautious because the idea seemed ‘too good to be true’
  • – This implies the disciples’ doubt was not cynical or sinister
  • – Their doubt was simply a form of self-preservation – they didn’t want to get their hopes up too quickly and have those hopes disappointed again
  • – After all their hope had just recently been crushed by Jesus’ crucifixion

It’s strange isn’t it how we often find loss & pain more convincing than joy – bad news is easier to believe than good news

  • – When we drill down into it we discover that trusting ourselves is actually more difficult than trusting God
  • – It was in the disciples’ interest to believe that God had raised Jesus from the dead, which is precisely why they struggled with it
  • – How can they trust themselves?
  • – How can they know their belief is not based on wishful thinking or self-interest?

Well, Jesus seems to understand this and so he points to the Bible as an objective independent verifier of the truth

  • – If the disciples can’t trust their own judgment then they can at least trust the testimony of Scripture – in verse 44 we read…

“This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

  • – Which is another way of saying, ‘This was God’s plan all along’

If we think of the Bible as a map book or a Satellite Navigation System or GPS, then Jesus is the destination

  • – The purpose of the Bible is to point to Jesus – to help people find Jesus
  • – Jesus’ coming into the world fulfils the purpose of the Bible, just like reaching your destination fulfils the purpose of a map or a Sat Nav device

 

Verse 45 tells how Jesus then opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. In other words, Jesus gave his disciples a new filter

–         He transplanted the kowhai plant of their faith into a much bigger pot

–         He showed them a larger portion of the map so they could see how all roads of Scripture lead to him

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…”

Before Jesus died the disciples’ filter excluded the possibility that he would be crucified, then after he had died their filter excluded the possibility he would be raised from the dead to eternal life – theirs was a kind of ‘either / or’ thinking

–         If he is crucified then he can’t be the Messiah

–         If he dies then he can’t live again

–         But Jesus helps his disciples to think in terms of ‘both / and’

–         Jesus can be the Messiah and be crucified

–         Jesus can die and be raised to life

–         It’s not ‘either / or’ – it’s ‘both /and’

–         Both repentance and forgiveness will be preached in Jesus’ name,

–         Both Israel and all the other nations will hear the good news preached

 

So what does this mean for us?

–         Well, we are faced with essentially the same sorts of questions

For example, ‘How can God be love when there is so much suffering in the world?’

–         Or to make it more personal. ‘How can God love me when I’m suffering?’ It’s not either / or – it’s both / and

–         God loves us and allows us to suffer

–         The Bible doesn’t offer any explanation as to why a God of love allows suffering – it simply maintains that both are true

–         So if we are suffering in some way it does not mean that God doesn’t love us anymore – but it could mean we are entering into a greater intimacy with God, we are getting closer to Him

–         When we consider how much God suffers it is little wonder that we would suffer too as we draw closer to Him

 

Repentance & forgiveness also go together

–         Forgiveness is about letting go – it’s about being set free from something

–         And repentance is a change of attitude which leads to a change of behaviour

–         We can’t have forgiveness (or freedom) without repentance

–         If nothing changes, then nothing changes

Some people want forgiveness without repentance but it doesn’t work like that

–         I can’t expect to be free from a hangover if I keep drinking too much, just like I can’t expect to get fit by lying on the couch

–         Once I repent though, I can expect the release of forgiveness

In contrast to those who want forgiveness without repentance there are some who do the repentance but then don’t forgive themselves

–         Sometimes we are slow to let ourselves off the hook

–         How long are you going to carry your guilt around?

–         Jesus died so we wouldn’t have to do that

 

From disbelief to witness:

In verses 48 & 49 Jesus says to his disciples…

–         You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Just as Scripture is fulfilled by Jesus, so too the purpose of the disciples’ lives is fulfilled by Jesus

–         They have heard Jesus’ message of repentance & forgiveness, they have witnessed Jesus’ ministry, his suffering, death and resurrection – now it is their job to tell others what they’ve seen and heard

–         But before they bear witness they need to wait for power from on high – they need to wait for the Holy Spirit in other words

–         Here we have another ‘both / and’

–         Our witness for Jesus and the Holy Spirit go together – without the power of God’s Spirit our witness falls flat

For a number of years I thought my job as a Christian was to convert people – to get people to believe in Jesus and become like him

–         What I learned is that by myself I can’t change a hair of my own head let alone anyone else’s heart

–         It is not our job to convert people – the most we can do is bear witness to the love & truth of Christ

–         It’s the Holy Spirit who converts people – it’s the Holy Spirit who brings repentance and change, and who convinces people they are forgiven

 

Let me tell you a true story, from New Zealand’s history [1]

–         In the 1820’s the Nga Puhi tribe (from Northland) came down to the East Cape (near Gisborne) and raided the Ngati Porou

–         During the raid they captured a young man called Piripi Taumata-a-Kura

–         The Nga Puhi took Piripi back to Northland and made him a slave

–         While he was there Piripi met the English missionary Henry Williams, who taught Piripi how to read and introduced him to the stories of Jesus

–         At the time no one really thought much about Piripi – he was a slave, which meant he was on the bottom rung, so people filtered him out.

About ten years passed during which time the Spirit of Jesus was opening Piripi’s mind to understand the Scriptures

–         Then one day, in 1833, a vicious storm off the East Cape blew a ship from Piripi’s hometown all the way up to Nga Puhi territory in Northland.

–         The ship came ashore near where Piripi was held captive

–         The Nga Puhi captured the Ngati Porou leaders, intending to make them slaves, but Henry Williams talked the chiefs out of that idea

–         Instead they were allowed to receive instruction from the Waimate mission station, just as Piripi had

–         The influence of the gospel softened the hearts of the Nga Puhi captors and after eight months the Ngati Porou leaders were released

–         Piripi sailed home with the leaders from his tribe

When their ship arrived back at Rangitukia (on the East Cape) the people were completely stunned – after 10 years they had assumed Piripi was dead (their filter had excluded his survival)

–         Getting all the men back alive was like a miracle of resurrection

On the first evening of his return Piripi Taumata-a-Kura held a prayer service and sent word throughout the area, inviting people to come and hear his story

–         The very next day Piripi preached the first sermon on the East Coast, sharing the good news of Jesus with his tribe

–         Piripi and those who had returned with him preached the gospel up and down the East Cape years before any Pakeha missionaries arrived

When the English missionary William Williams came to the East Coast in 1838 he saw the effects of Piripi’s witness and wrote:

–         A great work has been accomplished in which the hand of the Lord has been… manifest. It has not been through the labour of your missionaries; for the word has only been preached by Native teachers. We had literally stood still to see the salvation of God.

Piripi is someone who wouldn’t make it through most people’s filters

–         He was someone no one would expect and therefore perfect for dismantling filters

–         Piripi suffered like Jesus suffered

–         Piripi’s story is one of slavery and redemption, suffering and new life

–         He bore witness to the truth he had received and the power of God’s Spirit did the rest

 

Conclusion:

Easter Sunday is the day we remember anew the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection

–         It is a day to change our filter – to reset our assumptions about what is possible and let God open our minds to the largeness of his purpose

 

Let us pray: Loving Father, move us by your Spirit from fear to joy, from doubt to understanding and from disbelief to witness. In the powerful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    Why do we need a (mental) filter – how does this help us?

–         When does a filter become detrimental and need replacing?

3.)    How did Jesus move his disciples from a state of shock & fear to joy & amazement?

–         What are some practical things we can do to help someone who is having a panic attack?

4.)    When is doubt a good thing?

–         When is doubt not a good thing?

5.)    Has God ever transplanted your faith’s understanding into a larger pot?

–         What happened? How did God do this? What change took place in you?

6.)     Discuss (or reflect on) the relationship between repentance and forgiveness

7.)    What does the story of Piripi Taumata-a-Kura teach us?

–         How might God give us a new filter?

 

[1] From Jay Ruka’s book, ‘Huia Come Home’, pages 47-49.