Tawa Baptist

One

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:6-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/0ZRwCAwoBDg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s grace
  • God’s uniqueness
  • God’s character
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Seeds are powerful things. Small, compact, seeds contain the DNA of the plant. From one tiny seed much fruit is produced. 

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy by focusing on the first of the ten commandments. If the law of Moses is like a tree, then the ten commandments are the seed from which the tree of the law grows.

The ten commandments are at the core of God’s covenant with Israel. They contain the DNA of how Israel were to relate with God. From Deuteronomy 5, verses 6-10, God Almighty says to Israel… 

6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 7 “You shall have no other gods beforeme. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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

Sometimes the ten commandments are described as the Decalogue or the ‘ten words’. This tells us the commandments are not just a list of rules. They reveal something of the soul or the Spirit of God.

Today’s verses, for example, tell us about God’s grace, God’s uniqueness and God’s character. Let’s start then at the beginning, with God’s grace.

God’s grace:

When you cook a meal, the order in which you do things is very important. For example, if you are crumbing a piece of meat (maybe a fillet of fish or some chicken tender loins or a nice cut of schnitzel), you always start by coating your protein in flour first, then dipping it in an egg wash, before rolling it in bread crumbs and frying in the pan.

If you cook the meat first and then try to coat it in bread crumbs after, it doesn’t taste so good. You do the frying last to give the meal texture and flavour.

Enjoying a good relationship with God is a bit like cooking. You have to get things in the proper order or it just doesn’t taste right.

When it comes to friendship with God, grace must always come first, then obedience can follow. Trying to obey God without grace is like cooking your meat first and then putting it through an egg wash later.  

God does not start his ten words with a command. He begins, in verse 6, with a reminder of his grace, saying…

6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

You see, God gave his law after he had redeemed Israel from slavery. God saved the people and set them free first, then he made a covenant with them. Israel’s redemption from Egypt was not conditional on them obeying God’s commands. God didn’t say, “I’ll set you free if you obey me”. Grace came first. 

Obedience grows out of the soil of God’s grace. This means the commandments (and indeed the whole law) are part and parcel of God’s grace.

The commandments are an invitation to an ongoing friendship with God. They show us how to related with God in a right way.

We might think of God’s grace as a bridge across an otherwise unpassable ravine. God’s grace provides a way for us to cross over to the other side, to God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is where God is obeyed freely and willingly out of gratitude and love. 

Time and time again we read in the gospels how Jesus put grace first and in so doing left the door of obedience open for people to walk through. In Mark 2, four men lower their paralyzed friend through the roof of a house in faith that Jesus would heal him.

The very first thing Jesus says to the man is, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. Grace comes first. Then Jesus heals the man, telling him to pick up his mat and walk. Grace upon grace.

What does the man do with that grace? He obeys Jesus in faith. He picks up his mat and he walks off. Beyond that we are not told. What we do know is the grace of forgiveness and the grace of healing has built a bridge to God for the man. That same grace has also opened a way for others to follow in faith too.

This idea of grace coming before obedience is a beautiful thought, but it is difficult for us to accept. It goes against the grain of this world. We are raised to do the mahi (the work) then reap the reward. We want to pay our own way and not be in anyone’s debt. While that approach is necessary and applauded in the work place, it does not transfer well to our relationship with God.

We can’t earn God’s favour, we can only receive it humbly. We can’t obey God in our own strength. Obedience to God’s commands grows out of the soil of God’s grace. Or to put it another way, grace empowers obedience. God’s grace gives us the moral currency to invest in a faithful relationship with God.

God’s uniqueness:

Sometimes when you go to the movies they have quiz questions on the screen before the movie plays. Here’s a movie trivia question for you.

Which 1986 film, starring Sean Connery, is famous for the line: ‘There can be only one’?  Is it A.) Jerry Maguire B.) The Empire Strikes Back, C.) The Breakfast Club or D.) Highlander?

If you answered D.) Highlander, then well done. Highlander is a cult classic.

Now, to be clear, the movie Highlander has nothing to do with Deuteronomy. But, when it comes to God, there can be only one. This is what the first commandment is getting at. In verses 7-9 the Lord says…

You shall have no other gods before me. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Wait a second. Don’t verses 7-9 cover the first two commandments?’ Well, yes and no.

Traditionally, there are two main ways of numbering the commandments. The more ancient way, which goes back thousands of years and is used by the Jews, Catholics and Lutherans, is to categorize verses 7-9 as the first commandment and to treat verse 21 (about not coveting) as two separate commandments.

The more recent tradition, which dates back only 500 years to the reformation, thinks of verse 7 as the first commandment and verses 8-9 as the second commandment. While verse 21 is treated as a single commandment. 

The Jewish and Catholic tradition (the more ancient tradition) is better, in my view. It makes more sense. But it’s not a deal breaker. If you want to follow the reformed numbering, then we will still serve you communion next week.

The more important thought to grasp here is that the first commandment (as written in verses 7-9) points to the uniqueness of God. The Lord God Almighty is one of a kind. There is no other. There can be only one.

The command, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’,is stated positively in Deuteronomy 6 which reads…

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

As we heard three weeks ago, loyalty and voluntary obedience is at the heart of loving God. The Lord God wants an exclusive relationship with his people, like a warm faithful marriage. God Almighty will not share us with any other god.

Returning to Deuteronomy 5, verses 8-9 explain what the Lord means when he says, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.  Basically, you should not make or bow down to any graven image.

In the ancient world, pagans made little statues out of wood or stone as a tangible representation of the gods they worshipped. Psychologically, these idols held a kind of superstitious influence over people. In reality though, idols have no actual power. They are dead.

God does not want to be associated with pagan religious practices. He is unique, one of kind. God is unlike anything in all of creation. God is holy, set apart.

There is a mystery to God. We cannot know all there is to know about the Lord. We can only know what he chooses to reveal about himself. Any image we human beings come up with (no matter how well intentioned) is always going to fall short of a true representation of God. God is not defined by us.

Another reason God forbids the making of images for worship is that the Lord himself has made human beings in his own image. Unlike statutes of wood or stone, we human beings are living breathing creatures, capable of feeling joy and pain. Able to think and act and make decisions.

God’s intention, his ideal, is for creation to see the image of the divine in the way human beings care for each other and the environment.

It would be fair to say humanity has fallen a long way short of accurately representing the image of God throughout history. But there is one man who shows us very clearly what God is like and that is Jesus.

As the apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1…

15 The Son [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.   

God does not want us to make an image of him because Jesus is the perfect image of God and we can’t improve on that.

If you look around the inside of our church auditorium you will notice, we don’t have a lot of images. Just the crosses and the fish symbol. You would not expect to find statues of Mary or Jesus or the saints in a Baptist church, although you might in a Catholic Church.

Interpretation of the command to not make a graven image or bow down to it has been a point of division among Christians throughout the centuries. At various times in church history people have taken offense at the images displayed in churches and destroyed them in a mood of holy indignation.

The Eastern Church got around this issue by not making 3D statutes but simply painting two dimensional icons instead.

To be fair to our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sister, the images in their church buildings (whether they be two dimensional or three dimensional) were not intended to be objects of worship. They are simply a visual way of telling the gospel story.

Most people, at that time, could not read but they could still get the gist of the gospel by looking at the images. We might think of these images as a form of evangelism.

Rather than criticizing the way other people worship God, we would be better to take the plank out of own eye first. God expects our exclusive worship. That means he wants us to put him first in everything.

God wants us to put him first, not because he needs our praise, but because he loves us and wants the best for us. You see, to worship anything other than the one true God is to diminish ourselves. When we worship the Lord Almighty, we uphold our God given dignity and value as human beings.   

In the gospels, Jesus called people to put God first in ways which seem quite shocking to us. He once said to a rich young ruler: ‘Sell all you have, give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me’.

The rich man went away sad. He did not bow down to idols as such, but Jesus’ challenge put a spot light on the fact that he worshipped his wealth alongside God.

It’s not that money is bad. But if we love money more than God, then we have a problem.

Perhaps the biggest idol of our time is what some call the ‘sovereign self’. We might also describe this idol as personal freedom or hyper-individualism. It is the idea that we must discover our deepest desires and longings and then do all we can to realize them, whatever the cost. [1]

There is nothing wrong with having desires or longings or a dream to pursue in life. These things are natural and may give us a certain joy or energy for a time. The problem comes when we enthrone what we want, and put it first, ahead of what God wants.

Most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, don’t always know what we want. We might think we want to be a movie star or a rock god or the owner of a winning Lotto ticket. We might think we want this girl or that boy to love us or to get that promotion at work or to score a century at Lord’s, but then (with the passing of time) we find we actually want something else. We never seem to find what we are looking for. 

The sovereign self is a false god. It is an illusion, a mirage. The sovereign-self fosters false hope. It misleads us. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus dethroned the idol of sovereign self on our behalf, when he said: ‘Not my will Father, but your will be done’. Jesus did not want to go the cross and suffer separation from God, but he put aside what he wanted in a spirit of loving obedience to God the Father. And God gave Jesus his life back, only better than before.

To become a Christian is to topple the idol of self and let Jesus sit on the throne of our heart. To let Jesus be in charge. To let Jesus define who we are. To let Jesus bestow dignity and honour on us. And to find meaning in serving Jesus’ purpose.

What things in your own life compete with the worship of God? What needs to change for God to take first place?  If you are not sure, ask God to show you.  Sometimes our idols are hidden in our shadow side (our blind spot) where we can’t see them. We may not be aware.    

The ten words of Yahweh reveal something of God’s soul or Spirit. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 5, reminds us of God’s grace. Verses 7-9a point to the uniqueness of God and verses 9b-10 shine a light on God’s character. 

God’s character:

Many centuries ago, after the time of Moses but before the time of Jesus, during the reign of the Persian Empire, there lived a philosopher named Heraclitus. Heraclitus influenced Plato who in turn influenced the Western way of thinking.

Not much of Heraclitus’ work has survived but one of his quotes, which made it to the internet age, reads: Character is destiny.

Character has to do with the way someone thinks, feels and behaves. Character describes the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. To say that ‘character is destiny’ implies a belief that the choices a person makes have an influence over the course their life takes.

Reality, as we know, is never that simple. Life is complex. There is much which is outside of our control. But we usually have some say over how we respond to our circumstances and that’s where character comes in.  

In verses 9-10 Yahweh tells us why we must worship him and him alone.

He says: for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The Lord describes himself here as a jealous God. You may remember from recent sermons that jealousy is different from envy. Envy is when we want something that does not belong to us. Jealousy, on the other hand, is that urge or that intense feeling to protect what rightfully does belong to us.

So envy is a bad thing and jealousy is a good thing.

Because God is wholly unique, because he is one of a kind, the only true God, he will not share the worship that rightfully belongs to him with anyone or anything else. There can be only one.

Following this train of thought, God will not share his image with anything else either. We human beings are made in God’s image. So God will not share us with an idol or a graven image.

On the face of it, those words about ‘punishing the children for the sins of the fathers’ sound grossly unfair. These verses need to be understood in the wider context of Scripture. The prophet Ezekiel clarifies any misunderstanding when he says…

20 The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Heraclitus may well have been reading this verse from Ezekiel when he said ‘character is destiny’. Heraclitus and Ezekiel are in agreement here.

Ezekiel’s point is that God’s character is just and fair. And it is primarily God’s character that influences our destiny more than anything else. But the moral choices we make still matter. God takes our character into account.

Returning to Deuteronomy 5; verses 9 and 10 (when read together) seem to be saying: children and grandchildren may suffer in the short term because of the choices of their parents, but ultimately God’s character is heavily weighted toward love and mercy. For God shows steadfast love (hesed) to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. In other words, God’s love far outweighs his anger.  

As we read in Psalm 30: For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Conclusion:

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for your grace which enables us to obey you in faith and love. We thank you too for your uniqueness. There is no one like you. You alone are God. Forgive us for the times we enthrone ourselves. Keep us open to the work of your Spirit in developing our character, that we would better reflect your image. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

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?

  • What is the relationship between God’s grace and obedience to God’s commandments? Why does grace need to come first? Can you think of times in the Bible (and/or in your own life) when God’s grace came first? What happened and what followed?
  • In what ways does the first commandment point to the uniqueness of God?
  • Why is it important to give our worship exclusively to the one true God? What things in your own life compete with the worship of God? What needs to change for God to take first place?      
  • Discuss / reflect on the statement, ‘Character is destiny’. What do you think this means? Does this statement resonate with Scripture &/or your own experience? 
  • Keeping in mind the wider context of Scripture, how are we to understand/interpret Deuteronomy 5:9-10? What do these verses reveal about the character of God?
  • What aspects of your character has God’s Spirit been working on lately? What are the next steps of character development for you?

[1] Refer Timothy Keller’s book ‘Preaching’, page 133ff.

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.