Tawa Baptist

Balance

Scripture: Psalm 8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Security
  • Love
  • Responsibility
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Yippee, Wha-hoo, Go you good thing, On ya mate, Well done, Tu Meke, You are awesome, That was amazing

  • These words and phrases are different ways in which we express praise
  • Some of these words and expressions you won’t find in a dictionary but that doesn’t matter – the words themselves are not the main thing
  • It’s more the feeling we give to those words, the positive intention and energy behind them

This morning we take a break from our sermon series in Ephesians to focus on Psalm 8 – a psalm of David

    • In this song David pours out his praise for God’s creative activity – in particular for the security, love and responsibility God gives, which makes our lives functional and meaningful
  • From verse 1 we read…

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established, 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  5 Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.   9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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

[Listen to a recording of children laughing and playing]

Security:

That was a recording of children laughing and playing and having fun

  • Let’s listen to it again
  • [Replay the recording of children laughing and playing]
  • This is what praise sounds like out of the mouth of babes
  • Children make those sorts of happy sounds when they feel safe and secure – security is the foundation really

Psalm 8 begins and ends with the words…

  • O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

In the original – the word LORD (all in capitals) – actually translates as Yahweh

  • Yahweh is God’s personal name
  • It means something like, I am who I am, or I am with you and for you

The LORD is our Sovereign

    • A Sovereign is a King or a Queen – the ruler of the realm
    • God’s name is God’s reputation & integrity; His greatness and goodness
    • David is saying that Yahweh is King of the whole earth – second to none
  • This is basically a statement of adoration and allegiance

One of the main jobs of the King is security – keeping his people safe

  • The subject of security is pretty big in the psalms
  • Whenever you hear a word like ‘strong hold’ or ‘high tower’ or ‘shepherd’ or ‘bulwark’ or similar the psalmist is talking about security
  • Verse 2 reads…

2Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

It’s interesting that Psalm 8 (a hymn of praise) comes after 5 other psalms where David calls out for help and deliverance from his foes

  • David’s praise for the security God gives wasn’t just a theoretical thing
  • David knew God’s security first hand as someone who lived in a dangerous world and had actual enemies who wanted him dead

The praise of children and infants is pure because children possess a certain innocence

  • In Matthew 21, after Jesus had cleared the temple of the merchants, we read how the blind and lame came to Jesus and he healed them
  • Children witnessed this and shouted praise to God because of Jesus, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David”
  • When the religious leaders heard the children’s praise they were indignant, so Jesus quoted this verse from Psalm 8 to them
  • The Pharisees were the foe; they wanted to kill Jesus but the praise of children was Jesus’ defence, his stronghold
  • God silenced the religious leaders, not through brute force
  • Not through an overwhelming demonstration of his power and strength
  • But through the praise of children and infants; through what appears weak and of little account

Just a few days after that the religious leaders conspired to murder Jesus

  • There was no defence for Jesus on Good Friday, but that was God’s plan
  • To defeat strength with weakness
  • Jesus silenced the foe (sin) and the avenger (death) not with overwhelming force – but through his own suffering and humiliation
  • What looked like Christ’s defeat (on the cross) was actually God’s victory

From 1st Corinthians chapter 1 we read…

  • For the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power…
  • For what seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Now here’s the thing; when what we thought was strong is defeated by what we thought was weak, it has the power to completely change the way we think, so that what we fear most no longer has a hold on us

One of the things children need from parents is security – they need to feel safe

  • Parents give security to children in a number of ways
  • In the first two years of life children learn security by the presence of at least one adult who is consistently there for them to care for their needs
  • In the normal course of events a baby will cry for one of four reasons:
  • Either they are hungry or they have a dirty nappy or wind or they’re tired
  • You take care of those four things in a timely way and they will feel safe and secure and learn trust (as opposed to fear)

As kids gets older they still need to be fed but they also need boundaries to make them feel safe and secure; rules and routines that are kind and fair

  • And if they cross the line then they need to know that it’s not the end of the relationship, that there is a way back
  • For every mistake there is a remedy

God gives us security and we reveal to our children what God is like by giving them security and love

Love:

Some years ago now our family went to Opito Bay in the Coromandel for a summer holiday (Robyn’s aunty & uncle let us stay in their bach up there)

  • I have this enduring memory of lying on the concrete at night, with one of our daughters, looking up at the stars
  • The concrete was still warm, having baked in the sun all day, and the stars were bright because there isn’t much light pollution in Opito Bay
  • The star light we saw may have been billions of years old and who knows, perhaps some of the stars we were looking at had burnt out thousands of years before we were born
  • When you think about the vastness of time and space it makes your problems seem very small; it takes your focus off yourself and puts things in proper perspective
  • The person who looks up to God seldom looks down on other people

In verses 3 & 4 David describes feeling both small and cared for as he gazes up at the stars…

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established, 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

This is poetry – it’s not science. We are not to conclude that God literally made the moon and stars with his fingers

  • It’s a metaphor in which God is portrayed as an artist carefully arranging the heavens
  • Fingers are for fine work – they are for taking care of details
  • Fingers are gentle and skilled
  • The fact that God handles the moon and stars with His fingers shows us how big and strong God really is
  • It also speaks of God’s control over the heavenly bodies
  • Our lives are not controlled by the moon and stars or the horoscope
  • God is in control of the constellations, and this should help us to feel secure despite our smallness

The Lord is mindful of us and cares for us

  • When you love someone they populate your every thought (whether that’s your husband or your wife, your son or your daughter, your friend your sister, brother or whoever); you are mindful of them
  • You remember them in your prayers, you remember what they asked you to get at the supermarket, you remember their birthday and you send them text messages when you’re not with them
  • Likewise, when you love someone you care for them – you are affected by what happens to them so that if they cut their finger you feel their pain
  • Care isn’t just a feeling though – care is something practical that we do to help make those we love more comfortable

Children need love – they need people in their lives who are mindful of them and who care for them in practical ways

  • When a child is very young they aren’t able to separate themselves from their mother – they have just spent 9 months in the womb and haven’t developed a sense of their own identity yet
  • This means that they are very sensitive to the way dad treats their mum
  • If dad is kind to mum and treats her with thoughtfulness and care, then they will feel loved by dad
  • But if dad mistreats mum then they will feel hurt and not worth much
  • So the first way for parents to love their children is to love one another

As the child gets older, and is able to differentiate themselves from their mother a bit more, love is given in other ways – mainly through time spent together

  • I don’t remember many of the toys I was given as a child; but I do remember the quality time my parents spent with me
  • We want to give our kids as many good memories as we can

Responsibility:

God provides us with security, God loves us and God trusts us with real responsibility

Some years ago now I read Bill Bryson’s book, ‘A short history of everything’ in which Bryson describes the ‘Goldilocks Effect’

  • The goldilocks effect is a metaphor for how everything is ‘just right’ for sustaining life on earth
  • The earth is just the right distance from the sun, just the right distance from the moon, just the right size and therefore the right gravity
  • With just the right amount of oxygen in our atmosphere, just the right amount of salt in our oceans and so on
  • This planet is held in a wonderfully intricate balance – if any one of thousands of different factors was even a little bit out, planet earth wouldn’t be habitable.
  • Some people say the Goldilocks Effect is just random luck; but there is no hope (or truth) in thinking like that
  • The Bible teaches that God took great care in making this world just right for sustaining life
  • When we think of it like that, we begin to realise there is meaning and purpose to life on earth; our lives are not random, they matter

Not long after I first started at Tawa Baptist I conducted a survey. It was a way of getting to know the congregation

  • One of the questions at the end of the survey had to do with how we contribute to the well-being of others especially in the wider world
  • And I remember R answered in a way that no one else did
  • R said, “I ride my bike to work” and in brackets he wrote ‘pollute-less’
  • R was doing his bit to keep the balance in our world – he was taking care of the environment
  • But I think also that R really likes riding his bike
  • Given R’s love of cycling I had to include a bicycle illustration in the sermon – so please wait for a moment. I’ll be back…

[Go back stage and return with a bicycle]

How long do you think I can keep my balance on this bike? [Wait]

  • Okay, let’s test my balance – let’s see how long I can stay upright

[Try to balance on my bike while not moving]

That wasn’t very long was it. Why couldn’t I keep my balance for more than a few seconds? [Wait]

  • That’s right, because I wasn’t moving. To keep my balance, I need forward momentum, I need positive purpose

Returning to Psalm 8. In verse 5 David talks about the dignity God has given humanity, saying…

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.   

Verses 5-8 of Psalm 8 come from Genesis chapter 1

  • There (in the first chapter of Genesis) it tells how God created order out of the chaos and how God made us human beings in His own image

To be crowned with glory and honour is a privilege

  • To have dominion (or stewardship) over the animals, the birds and the fish, is a responsibility
  • As God’s vice regents, as His representatives, His deputies, it is our job to help maintain the balance

The position we have in creation is a position of trust

  • And it’s not a position or a trust that we have earned – it has simply been given to us
  • God shared his glory & honour with us before we had a chance to do anything at all
  • This means that we did not become the dominant species on planet earth by natural selection
  • Our place in the natural order is not the consequence of survival of the fittest. We have dominion over other creatures by divine selection

This means our royal status and authority over creation is subject to God

  • We don’t have free reign to do whatever we want
  • We are to use our authority and power in ways that serve God’s own purposes and reflect God’s own practices
  • God is mindful of us and cares for us, therefore we need to be mindful of the rest of God’s creation and care for it, both human and non-human
  • We are dependent on God to help us keep the balance – we can’t do it without Him
  • Trying fulfil our responsibility as human beings, without God, is like trying to ride a bike without forward momentum; God gives us the positive purpose we need to stay upright

So how are we doing with our responsibility?

  • Not so great. There is a huge disparity between the vision of humanity in this psalm and the reality of human history
  • Our dominion has become domination
  • Our stewardship has become slavery
  • Our rule has become ruin
  • We have dragged God’s reputation through the mud
  • We have become the foe and the avenger
  • And all creation groans as it waits for its salvation

One of the tasks of parenting is to teach our children responsibility

  • We want our kids to grow up to be responsible adults
  • As human beings, made in the image of God, we have a responsibility to care for our neighbour, to care for the environment and to care for ourselves

Responsibility is like riding a bike – it requires balance

  • If our sense of responsibility is too great, then this creates problems:
  • Like we might feel guilty when we don’t need to
  • Or we might keep coming to the rescue when others don’t need rescuing
  • Or we might feel like we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders and life loses its joy
  • Or we find ourselves becoming resentful because we always seem to be the one who does the work while others keep letting us down

On the other hand, if our sense of responsibility is too light or missing altogether, then that creates a different set of problems:

  • Like we make a mess that others have to clean up
  • Or we throw away our plastic so sea birds eat it and die horribly
  • Or we indulge ourselves at the expense of others, causing them trauma and pain

The prodigal son didn’t feel enough responsibility – he was reckless

  • Whereas his older brother carried too much responsibility and he became resentful
  • Responsibility is a balancing act and we teach children to manage the balance by living a balanced lifestyle ourselves
  • By avoiding extremes and excesses
  • Having a time for doing chores, a time for rest and a time for play
  • Having a consequence for misbehaviour that is fair and not too heavy handed
  • By balancing involvement in church with involvement in the community
  • Having time alone and time to socialise
  • Being good to others without neglecting our own needs
  • Being mindful of the products we buy and how we dispose of our waste
  • I could go on but you get the point: being responsible means keeping a healthy balance and the key to keeping our balance is letting God be the boss of our lives because God is the one who gives us the forward momentum of a positive purpose

Conclusion:

While we have failed in our responsibility, Jesus is our Saviour (He has taken responsibility)

    • Jesus is the one who fulfils Psalm 8’s vision of humanity
    • Jesus shows us what God originally intended
    • In Christ we find security.
    • In Christ we experience God’s love
    • And in Christ we learn to balance responsibility

 

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. How do you feel when you hear children laughing and playing happily? (What memory does this evoke for you?)

3. What is your experience of the security God gives?

  • How might we give a sense of security to those close to us (especially children)?

4. Have you looked up at the stars at night and contemplated like David did? What happened within you as a consequence of doing this?

5. Who do you love? (That is, who are you mindful of, who affects you, who do you show care for?)

  • How might we show love to those around us (especially children)?

6. What does it mean to have dominion over the animals, birds and fish? (What does it mean to live responsibly?)

7. What do we need to keep our balance?

  • What are some of the symptoms of having an over developed sense of responsibility?
  • What are some of the symptoms of having an under developed sense of responsibility?
  • Thinking about these symptoms is there anything you need to do to restore the balance of responsibility?

 

Tawa Baptist

M&M’s

Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-32

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Mind
  • Morals
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

If we think of the Christian church as a tree; historically the church has two main branches to it

  • There is the eastern branch, which stems from the Greek tradition
  • And there is the western branch, which stems from the Latin tradition
  • We are part of the Latin tradition – the western church

 

 

Generally speaking, the Greek church believed that sin was intellectual blindness and that salvation was found in illumination of the mind; by clear thinking about God, or Christ

  • The Latin church, on the other hand, believed that sin was moral evil and that salvation is found in right conduct; behaving in a Christ like way
  • Consequently, the Greek saint is more inclined to contemplate, while the Latin saint is more inclined to get busy and act [1]
  • From our perspective we can see that both are needed
  • You wouldn’t cut off one of the main branches
  • We can’t really have a conversion in our moral behaviour without having a conversion of our mind

 

Please turn with me to Ephesians 4, verse 17, page 241 toward the back of your pew Bibles

    • Chapter 4 is like a hinge connecting the two halves of Ephesians
    • In the first half Paul talks about what God has done for us in Christ
    • And in the second half he talks about what we need to do; our response
    • Being ‘in Christ’ requires us to live a life worthy of our calling
    • This means a profound transformation of our M&M’s – our mind and our morals. The Christian life involves both contemplation and action
  • From Ephesians 4, verses 17-32 we read…

17 In the Lord’s name, then, I warn you: do not continue to live like the heathen, whose thoughts are worthless 18 and whose minds are in the dark. They have no part in the life that God gives, for they are completely ignorant and stubborn. 19 They have lost all feeling of shame; they give themselves over to vice and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint.

20 That was not what you learned about Christ! 21 You certainly heard about him, and as his followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. 22 So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. 23 Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, 24 and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

25 No more lying, then! Each of you must tell the truth to the other believer, because we are all members together in the body of Christ. 26 If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day. 27 Don’t give the Devil a chance. 28 If you used to rob, you must stop robbing and start working, in order to earn an honest living for yourself and to be able to help the poor. 29 Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you. 30 And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort. 32 Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ.

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

 

Mind:

When I was in my teens my friends and I would sometimes go away for a few days kayaking

  • One place we went to was Reid’s Farm on the Waikato River, near Taupo
  • Reid’s Farm is about 2 kilometres upstream from Huka Falls

 

On our first visit to Reid’s Farm, the sun was shining; it was a beautiful day

  • We approached the river bank and looked down
  • The water was so clear you could see the bottom of the river bed 10 metres below; not at all like the dark brackish water of the same river 200km’s north in Hamilton
  • We knelt down to put our hands in the water – it was freezing but the cold made the water seem even more fresh, more pristine
  • A voice from behind said, ‘I wouldn’t drink that if I were you. It might look clean but it’s full of effluent. If you swallow even one mouthful, you’ll be puking your guts out for days.’

 

Having the right advice, knowing the truth, illuminates the mind

  • And when your mind is enlightened you are able to make informed choices and take the right course of action
  • Actions which will serve, not only your health and wellbeing, but also the health and wellbeing of those around you
  • The reason we receive an education and training is so we can learn from other people’s mistakes, and not have to find out the hard way

 

Now some of you may be wondering, ‘Did we learn the hard way? Did my mates and I ignore the voice and drink the water that day?’

  • Well, we were 16 years old at that time and didn’t always make good choices, but we did heed that piece of advice
  • I remember watching someone, from a distance a day or two later, who did drink the water and it wasn’t pretty
  • Had we hardened our hearts and stubbornly refused to accept the truth then our trip to Reid’s Farm would have been ruined, futile, wasted

 

In today’s reading Paul contrasts the Ephesians’ old way of life with their new life in Christ

  • Verses 17-19 describe the mind-set and lifestyle of the heathen.
  • A heathen is someone who doesn’t adhere to a religious system; they ignore God

 

According to Paul, four things characterise the heathen:

  • Hardness of heart (stubborn)
  • Darkness of mind (ignorant)
  • An unfeeling conscience (insensitive)
  • And a self-indulgent lifestyle (dissolute)

 

I have here a square of concrete and a container of soil

  • Which of these two is better for growing a seed in, do you think? [Wait]
  • That’s right the container of soil
  • If I drop a seed on the concrete slab it won’t go in. It will either be blown away by the wind or eaten by a bird
  • But if I drop a seed in the soil, it will go in, the soil receives it
  • The seed might lay dormant in the soil for some time but eventually, when the conditions are right, the seed will germinate and grow

 

The seed represents the truth and the soil and concrete each represent the human heart in different states

  • The concrete slab is a hard heart and the soil is a receptive heart
  • Someone who is hard of heart refuses to listen or be taught – they are unreceptive to the truth
  • Hardness of heart is the opposite of an open, trusting heart
  • Jesus celebrated little children and said, …the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, because children normally have a heart like soft soil, which is open and trusting and receptive, not a heart of stone
  • If we receive the truth and contemplate it in the soil of our mind, then God will grow it
  • But if we don’t let the seed of truth into our heart and mind, then our mind will be shrouded in darkness

 

Hardness of heart leads to ignorance

  • It is a tragic irony that sometimes very intelligent people can have minds which are in the dark spiritually speaking
  • Sometimes a great intellect gets in the way of an enlightened mind

 

When a person’s mind is unreceptive and ignorant of the truth, their conscience loses feeling

  • If we cut our foot our body heals that wound through blood flow
  • If blood is prevented from flowing to and from the foot the cut won’t heal and will become infected
  • At first the wound will hurt, but after a while (if the cut is left untreated) we will lose feeling in our foot and then our leg

 

The truth is to our conscience what blood flow is to the body

  • Truth heals wounds in our mind and soul
  • If the truth isn’t allowed access to our mind, then eventually our conscience will stop hurting (we will stop feeling guilt and shame at wrong doing) and become reckless in our behaviour; insensitive toward others
  • Without a properly functioning conscience, anything goes and self-indulgence reigns – we lose feeling and compassion for others
  • We become a slave to our appetites

 

Now, there’s a couple things I want to say about Paul’s description of the heathen, as it relates to our experience

  • Firstly, not all non-Christians fit Paul’s description of the heathen
  • We are all on a moral spectrum; most people have some conscience, some residue of the image of God, some redeeming quality, whatever their religion or lack of
  • And even we Christians have a bit of heathen left in us still
  • With this in view, it seems to me, Paul is describing the extreme end of the moral spectrum
  • This is the destination one arrives at if they go down the path of pure heathenism (of totally rejecting God)
  • Paul’s description of the outcome of a heathen lifestyle is pretty accurate

 

In the last couple of years, during the summer holidays, I’ve noticed car wrecks on the side of the road, positioned where drivers can easily see them

  • This is part of a road safety campaign designed to warn motorists to drive carefully
  • The smashed up cars are a picture of the worst that can happen if we don’t slow down or if we drive carelessly
  • In today’s reading Paul is describing the moral car crash that a heathen lifestyle leads to
  • He is warning his readers to not return to that way of life; to not drink the water at Reid’s Farm (even though it looks beautiful and clean); because ultimately a life without God is meaningless – it has you puking your guts out

 

In contrast to a heathen mind-set and lifestyle Paul also describes the Christian pathway, in verse 21. A more literal translation of this verse reads… [2]

  • You learned Christ
  • You heard Christ
  • You were taught in Christ

 

 

You learned Christ, means that Jesus himself is the content of the teaching; he is the curriculum

  • You heard Christ, means the Ephesian believers heard Jesus’ words through the gospel stories they were told; so Jesus is the teacher
  • And, you were taught in Christ, means that Jesus was the environment or the classroom in which they learned

 

Robyn is doing a Maori language course at the moment as part of her professional development

  • This course involves 4 days’ total immersion in the Maori language – which means no speaking English, only speaking Maori for 4 days
  • To be taught in Christ means total immersion in the language and kaupapa of Jesus
  • Christ is the curriculum, he is the teacher and he is the environment in which we learn how to relate with God and each other

 

Verse 23 continues the mind theme…

  • Your hearts and minds must be made completely new…
  • Or more literally, You were taught… to be renewed in the spirit [or the attitude] of your minds
  • We can’t live right until we’ve been taught how to think right
  • We can’t behave in a moral way until our minds have been renewed by God
  • This is why the Greek church’s emphasis on contemplation is so important
  • The purpose of Christian contemplation is not to empty our minds but rather to learn to put our thoughts and thought processes in good order

 

 

Unlike the heathen who are too stubborn to learn, the Christian disciple is open and receptive to learn

  • Unlike the heathen whose minds are darkened in ignorance, the mind of the Christian disciple is enlightened and informed in the ways of God
  • Unlike the heathen whose conscience has lost all feeling, the conscience of the Christian disciple is sensitive to right and wrong
  • And unlike the heathen who are self-indulgent and dissolute, the Christian disciple is supposed to exercise self-control and purity

 

As verse 24 says: we must clothe ourselves with the new self which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright & holy.

  • Paul’s image here is of the Christian believer taking off an old pair of rags and putting on a new set of clothes
  • The new clothes represent a new morality

 

A number of times over the years I’ve visited people in prison

  • When I used to go to Rimutaka the prisoners in the visiting area were dressed in bright orange boiler suits to distinguish them from the visitors
  • Most of the time I think the prisoners just wore grey sweat pants and tops
  • When the prisoner is released they put away their old prison clothes and put on new clothes to wear in their freedom
  • It’s like that when we become a Christian – we leave behind our old way of life and put on our new self

 

The new self isn’t a uniform that makes us look the same as everyone else

  • The new self is a unique set of clothes, custom made for us by God
  • The new self is our true self, our best self, as God intended us to be
  • To put on our new self is to live in our own soul, to be our authentic self
  • When we put on our new self we are doing away with pretence and we are embracing what is real and genuine
  • The clothes of our new-self fit perfectly; they aren’t too tight or too loose
  • And because they fit perfectly we feel comfortable and at home in them; we don’t have to pretend to be something we’re not

 

It is important to note here that we can’t create our new self any more than we could cause our self to be born.

  • God makes the clothes. All we do is put them on

 

Morals:

A renewed mind will affect our moral behaviour

  • Christian contemplation ultimately leads to Christian action
  • Right thinking about God will lead to right living with our neighbour
  • In verses 25-32, Paul describes a number of very practical ways in which we put away the old self and get dressed in our new morality

 

The word ‘morality’ has fallen out of favour in recent years

  • People tend to associate being moral with being a prude or ultra conservative or being oppressive and denying people their freedom
  • This is unfair and misleading – morals are helpful

 

I like the kind of thinking Eugene Peterson brings to the subject of morals [3]

  • Peterson says, (and I paraphrase his words a bit here) morality is both beautiful and functional
  • Just as a vase holds a flower arrangement in an artful way, revealing the flowers’ beauty, so too morality lends function and beauty to our lives and relationships

 

Or to use another example; I can drink this grape juice straight out of the box or I can pour it into a glass like this [pour juice into a nice glass]

  • Not only is drinking out of the glass more functional than drinking out of the box, the glass (of morality) holds the grape juice in a beautiful way

 

Morality might also be compared to a cornet or a bugle

  • Just as the brass instrument gives shape to sound as air passes through it, so too good morals give a pleasant sounding shape to the words and feelings and behaviours that pass through us

 

In verse 25, Paul writes: Don’t lie, instead speak the truth.

  • This moral is about being honest with people, not deceiving others
  • Honesty and truth create trust and trust is the foundation of relationships
  • But in speaking the truth we need to remember verse 29, where Paul encourages his readers to use kind, helpful words that build others up and do good to those who hear them.
  • Remember, the truth is like blood flow which heals wounds

 

Verse 28 continues the theme of creating trust through honesty and kindness

  • The man who used to rob must stop robbing and start working, in order to earn an honest living for himself and be able to help the poor
  • This verse holds together the twin concepts of justice and mercy
  • Like a vase it gives shape to the flower arrangement of our relationships

 

Paul’s concern for right moral behaviour isn’t just focused on our words and deeds though, it also involves our feelings

 

In verse 26 Paul says: If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day.

  • This tells us that anger (within certain limits) is not a sin
  • Jesus got angry on occasion but his anger was over injustice
  • He became indignant when the disciples tried to prevent the little children coming to him and he became furious when the merchants in the temple prevented the heathen Gentiles from coming to God to pray
  • The interesting thing is that Jesus didn’t become angry when people treated him unfairly – he took that on the chin

 

Anger is one of the many emotions of love

  • If we don’t get angry over injustice done to others, then we don’t really care about others
  • The trick is using the energy of anger in a constructive way, not a destructive way
  • Housework is a good vent for anger – take it out on the mould in your bathroom, or the grease in your oven. Chop some wood or prune some trees
  • When Jesus became angry with the money changers in the temple he expressed his anger by cleaning up his Father’s house
  • He decluttered the courtyard and took out the rubbish
  • Next time you visit someone with a really clean house, make a note; this person knows how to handle their anger

 

In verse 31 Paul touches on some more emotions:

  • Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort.
  • The kind of anger in view here is the unrighteous kind
  • Bitterness speaks of resentment (nursing a grudge)
  • We need to find ways to let go of our hurt and not hold on to grievances
  • Our morality should shape the sounds that come out of us like a bugle shapes the air that passes through it

 

In reading these verses we notice three common threads with Paul’s morality:

  • They all have to do with personal relationships
  • (How are your relationships? Are they functioning well and are they pleasant? If not, maybe take a look at your morals)
  • They all require us to exercise self-control,
  • (Self control is the opposite of self indulgence)
  • And they all affect the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit feels our morality)

 

Verse 30 tells us that when our morality is bad this grieves the Holy Spirit

  • The Holy Spirit connects us to God and each other, so when relationships go sour the Holy Spirit feels it
  • We don’t just practise good morality for our own well-being, we do it also for the sake of the Holy Spirit
  • If someone treats you badly that makes the Holy Spirit sad
  • If we retaliate or try to get even that just adds to the Spirit’s grief
  • But when we behave in ways that bless others I imagine the Spirit must take some comfort and joy from that

 

Conclusion:

Our reading this morning finishes on a positive note:

  • Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ.

This instruction to forgive one another reminds us that we are all on a journey with the renewing of our minds and the reformation of our morals

  • None of us is perfect yet and so we all stand in need of grace

 

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 are you most drawn to: contemplation or action?

  • How might we keep these two things together?

3. What does it mean to be hard hearted?

  • How does Paul’s description of the heathen fit with your experience / observation of the world?

4. Why is it important to receive the truth and contemplate on it?

  • What is the purpose of Christian contemplation?

5. Discuss / reflect on verse 21: ‘You learned Christ. You heard Christ. You were taught in Christ’. What does this mean and how might we apply it in our context today?

6. When is it right to feel angry?

  • What strategies do you have for dealing with your anger?

7. What do Paul’s morals have in common?

  • Take some time this week to reflect on the quality of your relationships with others. Is there anything you would like to do differently?

 

[1] Refer Lynn White’s article ‘Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’, Science, 10 March 1967, Vol 155, Number 3767, page 1206.  

[2] Refer John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians, page 179.

[3] Refer chapter 10 of Eugene Peterson’s book, ‘Practise Resurrection’.

Tawa Baptist

Passenger or Crew?

Scripture: Ephesians 4:7-16

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Diversity
  • Maturity
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Are you a passenger or crew?

  • Are you a spectator or a player?
  • Are you a casual observer or an active participant?

Today we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 4:7-16

  • Two weeks ago we explored the first six verses of Ephesians 4 where Paul talked about the unity of Christian believers and living a life worthy of our calling
  • In this morning’s reading Paul develops those themes by talking about diversity and maturity
  • In the body of Christ unity goes hand in hand with diversity and a growth in maturity of faith. From Ephesians 4, verse 7, we read…

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was Christ who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

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

 

Diversity:

I want you to imagine Star Trek Crew

  • We have Sulu, who is the Helmsman or pilot/navigator of the ship
  • Then we have Uhura, who is the Communications expert,
  • Spock, the Science Officer, also second in command
  • Captain Kirk
  • Chekhov, the head of Security,
  • Then Bones, the ship’s Doctor
  • And Scotty, the ship’s Chief Engineer (‘Beam me up Scotty’)

The Star Trek crew are an example of unity with diversity

  • A crew of people, each with their own speciality, working together as one

Paul has just been talking about the unity of the body of Christ – now he talks about its diversity – in particular the diversity of gifts

In verse 7 we read, ‘But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.’

  • Then, to support his point Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18, where it talks about the Lord returning victorious from battle and ascending on high to share the spoils of victory with His people

Paul connects Jesus’ descent to earth (i.e. his incarnation) and his ascension to heaven, with his authority and power to distribute gifts to his people

  • Because Jesus has descended to earth he knows what we need
  • And because he has ascended higher than all the heavens no one can usurp his power

 

In verse 11 Paul lists four or five gifts which are needed for building up the body of Christ: apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor/teacher

An apostle is someone who is sent with a certain delegated authority – like an ambassador

  • In one sense all Christians are apostles; we are all ambassadors for Christ
  • But that’s not what Paul means here. In the first century the term apostle referred to those leaders in the church who had witnessed the risen Jesus
  • People like Peter, James, John and Paul
  • By that definition we don’t have apostles today because Jesus has ascended to heaven and isn’t walking around appearing to people
  • But although we don’t have apostles in the sense that Paul meant, we do have specially gifted leaders who God works through for his purpose
  • So the term apostle has evolved to mean someone who initiates and leads a movement of God
  • In that sense, people like William Wilberforce and John Wesley were apostles; although they hadn’t seen the risen Christ, the Spirit did work through them to lead significant movements of reform in society
  • Returning to our Star Trek analogy, Captain Kirk is like an apostle of Star Fleet (but not of the church)

 

A prophet is someone who tells people what is on God’s mind

  • Their message may be related to the future but more often is about what is happening in the present
  • In the Bible a prophet got a direct revelation from God and communicated what they heard – they were God’s mouth piece

A prophet, in the modern sense, is not exactly the same as a prophet in the ancient Biblical sense

  • These days a prophet is someone with the gift of insight into the Scriptures and / or our contemporary society
  • So a modern prophet doesn’t add anything new to the Bible but they may reveal the meaning of the ancient text in fresh ways that are relevant for our time
  • I believe Martin Luther was a prophet; he interpreted the New Testament in a way that brought much needed correction to the church of his time

Or, to use the Star Trek analogy, if Captain Kirk is like an apostle leading and inspiring the crew, then Spock is like a prophet, giving insightful honest advice and challenging Kirk at times

Of course, God can speak through anyone at any time, so any of us could potentially be a prophet

  • However, not everyone who thinks they are a prophet actually is
  • As a teenager I remember there was someone in the congregation of the church I attended who would quite often stand up in a Sunday worship service and give a pronouncement, prefaced with the words, ‘Thus saith the Lord’. He believed he was a prophet
  • Sometimes the minister would challenge what he said by saying to the congregation, ‘I don’t believe that was God speaking to us’.
  • Often the most effective prophets are those who don’t realise they are passing on a message from God

We have two measures for discerning whether a prophet is from God or not: The Bible and that person’s character

  • If what the person is saying doesn’t fit with Scripture, then it can’t be trusted (they’re not from God)
  • Likewise, if the person giving the message behaves in an ungodly way then they are not the real deal
  • As Jesus said, by their fruit you will know them.

 

What about the evangelist?

  • An evangelist is someone who shares the good news of salvation in Christ using their words
  • Again, we all have a responsibility to share our faith with others; we must all be ready to do the work of an evangelist and give account for our hope
  • But there are some people who are just more naturally suited to it
  • Evangelists are sort of like Uhura, they are the church’s communications specialists

Sadly, the term evangelist has fallen into disrepute in recent decades

  • People often associate evangelism with TV personalities who scam vulnerable people out of money; that is not what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 4
  • We need to redeem the word and recover a proper understanding of what an evangelist does

An evangelist is a communicator of good news

  • They are able to listen to you and understand your needs
  • They can explain the gospel of Jesus in a way that is relevant and makes sense to people unfamiliar with the Bible, because they understand the cultural context in which they are living
  • They have the ability to gain your trust and give you the confidence to make a commitment to Christ
  • But their trustworthiness doesn’t come by deception or using some special trick or technique – their trustworthiness comes from the way they embody the message of the gospel in their lives
  • An evangelist genuinely believes the message they are sharing and they are living in the hope and joy that they profess
  • A true Christian evangelist doesn’t do anything from selfish ambition or vain conceit – a true evangelist operates with pure motives and that fosters trust
  • Evangelists understand God to be generous and they want to invite as many people to God’s party as they can
  • As I’ve often said before, an evangelist is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread
  • We desperately need good Christian evangelists today

 

The expression, pastors and teachers may be two names for the same ministry

  • The minister of a church is traditionally both a pastor and a teacher
  • The word pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd
  • A shepherd guides and protects and feeds the sheep of their flock
  • Teaching people the ways of God is at the heart of shepherding people
  • Biblical preaching guides, protects and feeds people’s souls

Thinking of our Star Trek crew again, the pastor / teacher role is embodied by a number of characters, particularly Chekhov, the chief security officer, whose job it is to protect people, and Bones, the ship’s doctor

 

Some of you may be wondering, ‘But what about Scotty, the chief engineer? Where does he fit in?’

  • Well, the four or five gifts named in Ephesians 4 are not an exhaustive list of the spiritual gifts Christ gives; there are other gift lists in the New Testament as well and each list is different
  • Perhaps Scotty’s gift is practical helps
  • There is no limit to the diversity of gifts that the Spirit gives
  • A spiritual gift is simply the way the Holy Spirit works through a person for the well-being of others
  • Last Sunday we talked about the church’s mission: To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
  • Our gift is the specific way we bless others

This is not to assume that any of the gifts is a lifelong possession

  • We are just the conduit, or the vessel, for the gift
  • When I was a boy I would go with my grandparents to their bach up north
  • Their bach was located in a fairly remote area so we collected rain water off the roof into tanks
  • I remember my grandfather had this long pole he would lower into the tanks to measure how much water we had
  • We were taught to be careful not to leave taps on unnecessarily – water is a precious resource and needs to be thoughtfully used

If the gifts Jesus gives are like rain water, then we are the tanks

  • We might hold the gift for a while – but really it’s not ours to keep
  • The water of Christ’s gifts is just passing through us to bless and refresh and strengthen others
  • While there is no limit to God’s resources we still need to be thoughtful in how we use the gifts God has given us and not waste them down the drain

 

Maturity:

Okay, so there is one body with a diversity of gifts and the purpose of those gifts is to …equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

These verses tell us a number of things

  • Firstly, that church is not a spectator sport; everyone has a part to play
  • Church isn’t like a bus with one person up the front doing all the driving while everyone else sleeps in the passenger seats behind [1]
  • Church is more like the crew on a yacht; it requires everyone to man their station, pitch in and pull their weight
  • Are you a passenger or crew?

 

We share our gifts to build others up

  • The goal is maturity and maturity is understood as all of us reaching unity in the faith and knowledge of Christ

 

I have here a bucket

  • Hold up a bucket with sections cut out at different levels
  • Bucket illustration - 11 Aug 2019
  • This bucket is yet to reach unity (or maturity)
  • You can see different sections of the side are at different heights, which means I can only fill this bucket to the level of the lowest section
  • As it is this bucket can’t attain the whole measure of its fullness
  • If you can imagine this is an organic growing bucket, then each of the sides needs grow to the same height so the bucket can be whole and reach its full potential – like this [hold up a bucket that hasn’t been cut]
  • Everyone needs to exercise their gifts for the bucket of the church to reach maturity and be able to hold the full measure of Christ

I guess one question for us to ask ourselves, as a congregation, is what gifts are we missing or not exercising? [Hold up the bucket with the gaps in it]

  • In what areas does this church need to grow to reach maturity and unity?
  • It’s not just a question of us exercising our own gifts – reaching maturity also requires us to encourage those around us to exercise their gifts, because it is in the process of exercising our gifts that our faith and knowledge of Jesus grows and develops

 

When I was 10 I joined Cubs. (Cubs is like Boy Scouts for younger kids)

  • One evening we went to Te Rapa pools in Hamilton to earn our swimming badges
  • There were three levels of swimming badges: gold, silver and bronze
  • Gold being the highest level and bronze the lowest
  • Naturally we all wanted to gain our gold badge
  • They put us into groups of about four boys each and you weren’t allowed to progress up a level until everyone in your group had attained the required standard
  • There was one boy in our group who wasn’t as physically capable as the rest of us and, even though he tried really hard, he wasn’t able to get past silver, which meant everyone in our group was held back with him, even though the rest of us had done what we needed to attain gold
  • It’s a bit like that with church as well – we stick together, no one gets left behind; we reach maturity together, as one. Maturity is unity

As a 10 year old boy I was pretty disappointed to miss out on gaining my gold swimming badge

  • Looking back now though, I am grateful for the experience
  • Our Cub leaders were teaching us to think about others in our team
  • We don’t come to know Christ by individual achievement
  • We come to know Christ through a caring commitment to one another – by using our gifts to serve each other and build each other up

We know our faith and knowledge of Christ is mature when we are no longer unsettled or deceived by false teaching

  • A mature faith is able to listen, and discern truth from error
  • A mature faith is a knowing faith; it isn’t rattled by clever rhetoric
  • A mature faith is not a blind faith; it is faith born of experience with God
  • The kind of knowledge that is in view here isn’t just an intellectual head knowledge (as important as that is) – it’s the intimacy that comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus

 

In verse 15 Paul continues his theme of maturity when he writes…

  • Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

For many years I read this verse in English and thought that speaking the truth in love meant having the maturity to handle difficult conversations with people

  • You know, speaking those truths that hard for people to hear in such a way that leaves the relationship intact
  • And while it can mean that, it actually means so much more
  • You see, in the original Greek text the verb speaking is not there

What it actually says in the original text is…

  • Instead, truthing in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

In the Greek then, the word truth here is a verb, a doing word

  • English doesn’t have a verb for truth; in English truth is a noun
  • So the translators had to find a verb to put in because ‘truthing’ isn’t a word in English
  • While you can say, ‘speaking the truth in love’ it would be more accurate to phrase this verse as living the truth in love. or, doing the truth in love [2]
  • The idea is one of integrity – that is, integrating the truth of the gospel with all of our life; not just our speech but our thinking and our deeds too
  • Truth and love go together – we can’t separate them

Take evangelism for example – you might be able to explain the gospel in ways that are really creative and clear so people can understand in their head what you’re saying, but if they don’t feel like the church loves them or cares about them, then they won’t believe you.

  • Without love, the truth of the message just won’t hit home, it won’t stick.

True story: During the week I met with a man whose wife used to attend Tawa Baptist back in the late 1960’s and early 70’s (during Jack McFadyen and Barrie Hibbert’s time)

  • She first came as a child to the Sunday school here. Her parents didn’t attend church but were happy to send her along
  • This girl didn’t have a wonderfully stable home life; I was told her parents had their challenges
  • But there was something about the people here that made her feel welcome and safe – she found sanctuary in this place
  • When she out grew Sunday school this girl started attending youth group
  • Around that time the church put on a musical production called Saul Talk and they found a place for her in that production
  • As someone whose parents didn’t attend it would have been easy for her to be overlooked but certain individuals in this church went out of their way to make sure she was included – they made room for her
  • That young woman came to faith in this church and, although she left the area for work, she has carried on in Christian faith and service all her life
  • She would be in her early 60’s now

The man who told me this story said he was thankful for Tawa Baptist because this church cared for his wife (before they were married)

  • He then went on to name a number of people who in very practical ways went the extra mile to look after her, by helping her shift flats and that sort of thing
  • I tell you that story because it’s a good example of what truthing in love means – this church has a heritage of living the truth in love
  • To those of you who were here at that time I want to say, thank you
  • As a consequence of your love this young woman believed the truth of the gospel and grew to maturity in her faith and knowledge of Christ
  • Truth and love go together

From him [that is, Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The point here is that truthing in love is meant to be done in community with other believers

  • If we try to do it on our own, we’re not going to get very far, we’ll run out of steam
  • Caring for people, like that young woman, is a team effort – every supporting ligament is involved
  • What do ligaments do?
  • They hold us together on the inside – they connect bones and muscle and allow movement
  • A ligament is not seen. Maybe you aren’t an upfront person. Maybe you don’t serve in ways that people can see. Perhaps you are a ligament connecting other people to the church and to Christ
  • You are important – we need you

Conclusion:

What is your gift?

  • What has Christ equipped you to do to strengthen his body?
  • Where can you serve?
  • We have a wonderful heritage in this church
  • We need to keep on ‘living the truth in love’
  • Are you a passenger or crew?

 

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 do we mean by unity with diversity?

  • Can you think of examples of unity with diversity functioning in the body of Christ?

3. Discuss / reflect on the gifts that Paul lists in Ephesians 4:11

  • What does each one mean?
  • How does the first century understanding of these gifts differ from a 21st Century understanding?

4. What other gifts does the Spirit of Jesus give?

  • What is your particular gift?
  • Are you able to exercise this gift? (When/how?)

5. What gifts is your church strong in?

  • What gifts are missing or need of building up?

6. What is Christian maturity? What does it look like?

7. What does it mean to ‘live the truth in love’?

  • Can you think of a story from your own experience of ‘truthing in love’?
  • Find someone you trust to share your story with

8. Are you a passenger or crew?

 

[1] The bus illustration comes from John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians

[2] Refer John Stott and Klyne Snodgrass

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.