Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.54LIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.51LIKELY
Sadness
0.48UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.73LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.24UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.62LIKELY
Extraversion
0.07UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.58LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.55LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Ephesians 4:17- 5:4
! Introduction
The other day I was at the city wide prayer gathering and a man came and sat beside and I knew immediately that he was a police officer.
How did I know that?
The clothing he wore identified him as such.
Have you ever been to a mall and tried to identify people?
Have you ever wondered who they are or what they do?
Most people look pretty much the same by what they wear, but sometimes you can tell things about some people.
If you would be familiar with gang colors, you could identify gang members.
If people from certain religious groups walked by, you could know that they identified with that religion.
Would you be able to identify every Christian who came by? Probably not, which is interesting because the Bible tells us that we should be identifiable as Christians by what we wear.
Of course, it isn't talking about the physical clothing we wear, but another kind of clothing.
God has done amazing things for us and if the message of change which the gospel proclaims is real, then it should be noticeable in our life.
How is the change that God has made in our lives evident to the people around us?
This is the theme of Ephesians 4-6 and over the next few weeks, I would like to direct our attention to this challenge.
The change which God has made in our lives sets us on a path to be like Jesus and if we are followers of Jesus, we must be like Him.
We must imitate Him in our holiness, our love and our submission.
!
I. Live in the Light 4:17-24
!! A. No Longer Live As You Did
I read somewhere that in the days of the early church it is possible that when people were baptized, they took off old clothes as they went into the water and put on new clothes after they came out of the water.
Can you imagine how powerful such an image would be at a baptism?
If people went into the waters of baptism wearing old dirty clothing, which they would then throw away after the baptism and if they changed into new clean clothes after they were baptized?
That is one of the images which we find in this passage, along with a number of others, which provide us with a picture of the change that takes place when we come to Christ.
In this passage, we are told in 4:17 that we must "no longer live as the Gentiles live…" In place of such a lifestyle we are called to be followers of Christ.
Ephesians 4:22 talks about the old self which we are called to put away or to take off.
This is the clothing imagery, which I just mentioned.
In place of the old self we are called to put on the new self.
The other imagery is that of darkness and light.
Ephesians 5:8 says "once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light."
We are to leave the darkness and all the deeds of darkness and walk in the light.
What is true in all of these images is that there is a way of living that no longer fits with who we are.
When the text tells us that we should no longer live as the Gentiles, it is not a cultural identity that is to be shed.
Rather, it is a particular way of thinking and living that no longer makes sense.
It is well described in this passage.
At one time our minds were empty.
Not empty of everything, but empty of the life giving knowledge of God.
Barth describes that emptiness this way, they are "…aiming with silly methods at a meaningless goal!"
When you look around at the world you can certainly see this played out.
So much of media and many other aspects of life are filled with intense, diligent and costly pursuit of things that in the end matter very little.
We are no longer to pursue such emptiness.
Have you ever listened to two medical people discussing someone's health?
It isn't very long before you have no idea what they are talking about.
They understand concepts that are foreign to you and use language you don't understand.
Your understanding is darkened about those subjects.
The same is true of those who do not follow God.
The text says "They are darkened in their understanding."
The life of God and the truth of God is a foreign subject or perhaps even a foreign language to them.
Yet this lack of understanding is not innocent.
If we haven't studied medicine, we can't be expected to understand the concepts or the language.
But the darkened understanding regarding spiritual things was not because of a lack of knowledge for which we had no responsibility, but rather a lack of knowledge that was ours because of a refusal to believe in God.
The text tells us that this ignorance is because of hardness of heart.
Romans 1:18-23 tells us that God has shown us all that needs to be known about God, but people suppress the truth by their wickedness.
So the ignorance is a culpable ignorance.
We didn't know, but we were responsible for not knowing.
We cannot return to such ignorance brought on by hardness of heart.
As a consequence of this rejection which makes the life of God like a foreign language there is also a moral distance which results in insensitivity to sin and abandonment to all kinds of evil.
I have often wondered how people can be so evil and do such terrible things as we so often hear on the news.
Wood answers this way, "They can no longer respond to moral stimuli.
Their consciences are so atrophied that sin registers no stab of pain."
We cannot allow our consciences to become dulled so that we sin without feeling guilty.
Before we became Christians, we were pursuing emptiness, ignorant of God because of hardness of heart and sinning without feeling guilty.
We must not live in that way any more.
We must not live in disobedience nor with a foggy mind about the things of God.
!! B. Instead, Imitate Christ
When people want to quit smoking, one of the strategies they use to overcome the addiction is something called "Replacement Therapy."
In order to help overcome the craving for a cigarette, they need to replace the desire for nicotine with something else and so they use gum or nicotine patches or sprays or something like that to take away the desire.
God has given us something very good to replace the darkened understanding, foggy mindedness and hardness of heart.
Jesus has come into our lives and softened our hearts.
In place of freedom to sin, we have received freedom and power to follow Jesus.
It isn't enough to just to repent of our sins, we must also give our lives to Jesus who helps us live in a new way.
The text reminds us that in place of futility, darkness, alienation from God, ignorance and hard heartedness, we have learned Christ.
Christianity is not just another religion which gives us another way of living.
Christianity gives us the power of the presence of God who has created us in a new way.
Ephesians 4:24 tells us that the new self was "created according to the likeness of God."
We have been recreated to be like Jesus and we have learned that the new life is a life of being like Jesus.
We have been taught that in Jesus we have been renewed into those who can live in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore as Christians we must imitate the holiness of Jesus.
In place of the ignorance and the darkened understanding we live according to the truth that is in Jesus.
A truth that includes power and righteousness and holiness.
Learning Jesus is not just learning about a person, but learning to know a person.
You have heard the saying.
"you are what you wear."
This is true for those who are in Christ.
We must not wear the old clothes, but we must wear Jesus.
Why does Paul have to include this in Ephesians?
The temptation to continue to live in the way they had lived must still have been a temptation for them, as it is still for us.
The thinking of the world is still in our hearts.
We live among people who live like that and so observe their example.
Therefore, we need to be reminded not to live according to what we were but rather according to what we have been made.
!
II.
Life in the Light 4:25- 30; 5:3-4
So what does that look like?
What are the details of putting on the new clothing of Jesus?
!! A. Truth In Place Of Lying
One part of new living has to do with how we handle truth.
In place of falsehood we are called to be people who speak truth.
Putting away falsehood is more than just not lying to one another.
In fact, lying never begins with deceptive words spoken.
It begins with a heart that is not true to itself.
If we have an inauthentic existence, it is no wonder that we also communicate that inauthentic existence in words of deception.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9