Seeing Clearly
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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House without the blueprints
A meal without a recipe
Ephesians
Paul describes what is true of the believers
Introduction: Blindfolded Kids
Introduction: Blindfolded Kids
Situations in life...
Situations of joy and celebration
Other kids getting hit in the head by the blindfolded kid.
going out to eat at your favorite restaurants
celebrate an anaversery
Situations where you are to celebrate
you want your kids to be careful of how they walk…
Situations of great anticipation
graduation
sports game or recital
Situations of fear, stress, anxiety
you or someone you love is in danger
There are not many situations in life that bring together so many emotions as a kids birthday party when the pull out the apinyata.
Who here has experienced, either it happened to you or you saw it happen, an injury around apinyata?
There is something about a sugar crazed child, blindfolded, swinging a bat with all his power so that he might destroy something that leads to injury.
All the moms watched their kids as they move closer to the child with the bat
Every parent should teach their kids before going to a birthday party with apinyata
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
We want our children to be careful when they walk around a blindfolded child swinging a bat…
We want our children to walk with wisdom, and not be blind to whats going on around them.
Robert Bragg preached a great sermon a few weeks ago about how Christ should walk.
- For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
- Paul urges us to, “...walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
- Paul tells us to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us”
- Paul says we are to, “Walk as children of light”
- we are to pay close attention to how we walk, “walk as the wise and not the unwise”
We will see in our passage this morning that Paul is likewise warning the Ephesians Christians to walk with wisdom, for there are blinded folded people who are swinging their ideological bats around and can do harm if it connects.
In order to walk in the truth o the gospel, we must know what the truth of the gospel is.
Which is why spent the first 4 and half chapters teaching us the glorious truths of the gospel
before you can build a house you first have to learn the blueprints.
Before you can bake a cake, you have to know the recipe.
before you play the piano, you first have to learn to read music.
Before we can walk as Children of the Light, we must first know what the light is.
House without the blueprints
A meal without a recipe
Ephesians
Paul describes what is true of the believers
Red = Indicative verbs - what is true
Look with me at 17-32
Green = Imperative verbs - what you are to do.
The imperatives really ramp up in 4:25 which we will see in our passage this morning.
When the imperative pick up, Paul is telling us what we should do and what we should not do.
So this morning we move from indicatives to imperatives as we see Paul telling us how to apply what he has already told us.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
The Blindfolded Gentiles
The Blindfolded Gentiles
We see in our passage this morning that Paul wants us to walk not as the gentiles walk, we are not to live as they live
But its much worse than than that, those outside of Christ are so darkened in their understanding that they have become enemies of the light.
Paul describes the gentiles as:
Futile in their minds
Darkened in their understanding
Alienated from the life of God
Ignorant
hard hearted
and calloused.
Look with me at verse 17.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
How are Christians to walk? how are they to live?
- Paul urges us to, “...walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
- Paul tells us to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us”
- Paul says we are to, “Walk as children of light”
- we are to pay close attention to how we walk, “walk as the wise and not the unwise”
So coming back now to 4.17
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
Before we can rightly understand what paul is saying in this passage we first have to make sure we understand who the gentiles are.
How do the nations walk?
The greek word for gentiles is ethnos, where we get our word ethnicity from. The word is most commonly understood to be translated as nations
The greek word for gentiles is ethnos, where we get our word ethnicity from. The word is most commonly understood to be translated as nations
Great commission, “go make disciples of all the nations (ethnos)”
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
When Paul speaks of the gentiles, when he speaks of the nations, he is not talking about different cultures, but rather he is speaking of those who are outside the covenant people of God.
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Do you remember the story of Rehab?
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
She was a Canaanite prostitute who walked, or lived, apart and even opposed to the God - yet, by faith she was converted to YHWH and was no longer a gentile, but part of the covenant people of God
So to speak of gentiles, is to speak of those who are outside of Christ, no matter what your ethnicity is, if you are outside of Christ you are part of the nations that need to be discipled.
So Paul, writing to this young church made up primarily of formal gentiles, and he is telling them to no longer walk, no longer live or be identified with the lives of the gentiles, those outside of Christ.
Paul then describes the way the gentiles walk in vv.17-19.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
In verses 17-19 we see Paul describing the gentiles kind of like a blindfolded kid swinging a stick at a apinyata.
In verses 17-19 we see Paul describing the gentiles kind of like a blindfolded kid swinging a stick at a apinyata.
Darkened in their understanding
But its much worse than than that, those outside of Christ are so darkened in their understanding that they have become enemies of the light.
Alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance
Paul describes the gentiles as:
Futile in their minds
Darkened in their understanding
WHY? - Due to their hardness of heart.
Alienated from the life of God
Ignorant
hard hearted
Due to their hardness of heart.
and calloused.
Look with me at verse 17.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
Futility of their minds
futility is a fun word we don’t often use.
futility speaks of being useless, empty, lacking content.
to live in sin is to live not only in opposition to truth, but to live in ignorance of the truth
and I’m not talking about truth in some esoteric sense - in that you have to reach some spiritual level to understand truth - that is what the gnostic believed.
I’m talking about the truth of reality.
What is true about
the world
creation or evolution
marriage
education
ethics and morality
morals
sexuality
eating and drinking
pregnancy
Knowing God, the gospel of God (what God has done in Christ), and all things in relation to God and the gospel is to know reality. It is to know the world as it really is.
However sin make us futile, empty, useless in our thinking
Gentile thinking, thinking apart from God, suffers from the consequences of having lost touch with reality and is left fumbling with its own insanity
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians B. Live according to the New Humanity, Not the Old, 4:17–24
Because it lacks a true relationship with God, Gentile thinking suffers from the consequences of having lost touch with reality and is left fumbling with inane trivialities and worthless side issues
Because it lacks a true relationship with God, Gentile thinking suffers from the consequences of having lost touch with reality and is left fumbling with inane trivialities and worthless side issues
This is a grim description of life apart from Christ, but Paul doesn’t stop here.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Darkened in their understand
the word “Darkened” means unable to perceive.
Like a child blindfolded swinging a stick at apinyata, so the world swings for purpose, meaning, values and virtue.
and when they connect they think they have arrived, they think they have found understanding, but in fact they only harm the people around them.
So they swing again…
The reason they are darkened in their understanding, unable to perceive the truth, is because they are alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance.
To be alienated from the life of God is to be alienated from reality.
To be ignorant of God, is to be ignorant of truth
and this alienation and ignorance of God and reality is due to their hardness of heart.
Not only do they not want to KNOW God, and thus KNOW reality. But they also don’t LOVE God nor LOVE reality because they their hearts are hard.
I
Sin numbs humanity to the truth, goodness, and beauty of God and his revelation.
Every time we indulge in sinful habits we actively seek to alienate ourselves from the life of God
When we gossip and slander other people, we speak as if we are ignorant to the truth of God’s word.
When our affections long for that which God despises, we harden our hearts to the worship of Christ.
And apart from God’s renewing grace continually feel the pull to wander away from the presence of the living God.
And when we continue to harden our hearts toward God we become calloused toward his steadfast love for us.
Look at verse 19
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
They have become Callous
literally dead to feeling
The vibrant beauty of God’s created order becomes dull to the eyes of those apart from God.
They have become dead to feeling, thus they go deeper and deeper into depravity.
They give themselves up to the enticements of satan, and long for greater degrees of sin hoping that they will be able to feel something again.
This is how the gentiles walk - this is how they live.
Futile in their minds
Darkened in their understanding
Alienated from the life of God
given themselves up to sensuality
Ignorant
hard hearted
and calloused.
Do we believe this?
Greedy (covetous) to practice every kind of impurity
How do we balance such a strong description of those outside of Christ with our every day experiences?
Good people who love so well that do not know Jesus.
The interesting thing about Paul’s description of the life of those outside of Christ is that they lack understanding.
Most people desire and are motivated by what is good.
The arguments surrounding same-sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism, critical theory and so on are all based off of people wanting to do the right thing.
So many people are kind, selfless, generous, and caring.
The problem is they are blinded, unable to perceive what is truly good.
Satan has blind folded the nations so they cannot perceive reality.
Paul talks about this in 2 cor. 4
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
You see, Christ has come to redeem the nations, he wants to free them from the blinding power of Satan.
When we look at the insanity of our world, if we look clearly as illuminated by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will see that there is a serious spiritual war going on all around us.
Then gentiles, those apart from Christ, have been deceived, tricked, by the god of this world
They have not alienated themselves -
They have been alienated by demonic power
Paul says this explicitly in chapter 2
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Rather than following Jesus, they follow the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience.
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
The spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience is blinding, numbing, and cultivating ignorance toward God, thus ignorance to reality.
Church, this is why our mission, our marching orders, is to be about the redeeming, renewing and restoring of all things to Christ!
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We are to go into this dark world with a clear vision of reality and shine the light of the gospel into the darkness of peoples thinking.
1-
We are not to walk like the gentiles, we are to take hold of the lost and lead them to the throne of King Jesus where the blind can receive sight.
For only in the presence of the living God can we see reality for what it truly is!
By the power of the Spirit, we are to teach them Christ, disciple them in the truth, open their eyes to reality by renewing their minds in the truth of God.
To disciple the nations is to teach them Christ.
And Paul is reminding the ephesian Christians that though they once walked like the gentiles, that is not the life they have been called too.
Look at v. 20-21
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
We did not learn Christ by being:
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Christians, you know the truth, that is if you have been taught in him, as it is only in Christ that the truth is found.
futile in our minds nor darkened in our understanding. So don’t live that way!
Paul is charging these young Christians to walk in the manner in which they were called
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
We are not taught Christ by following the gentiles
you were taught about Christ, not in the world, but in church!
We cannot learn the truth by those who are blind to it.
rather, Christ himself has given us Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors to teach us Christ. thus open our eyes to the truth
you were taught by the Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors.
To learn Christ is to follow Christ, to be shaped by Christ, to submit to his rule of righteousness and respond to his call by obeying his words.
So having been taught Christ what are we to do?
If yo
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul uses the analogy of clothing to illustrate how we are to respond having learned Christ.
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
22
We are to put off your old self
Like a robe we are to take off our old life and everything that goes with it.
This old robe has the stains of guilt and shame
it has the stench of corruption and deceitful desires
It contains the numbing and blinding effects of sin.
We are to take off that old self
And when we take it off we are to be renewed in our minds -
be taught, discipled, transformed by the truth of Christ.
And put on the new self
the new life that is in Christ we are to put on like a robe
this new self is a life that is created after the likeness of God
It looks like God, it smells like God, it feels like God
it is a life of true righteousness and holiness -
Righteousness and holiness put together describes virtuous living
You see, the old life, the old robe, promises you righteousness and holiness - it promises you virtuous living
It advertises happiness and joy
It says it will bring your peace and love
It claims to be true and glorious
But in reality it offers nothing more than ignorance and numbness
For TRUE righteousness and holiness are found only in the presence of the true king, Jesus Christ.
So take off the old self in all of its lies and deceptions, and put on the New self with its righteousness and holiness.
So what does it look like to live having put on the new self in Christ?
To live in the new self is to live in the reality of what God has done in Christ.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
We have been given a new life because Jesus took our old life and nailed it to the cross.
2
in chapter 5 to tell us to walk in love
When Jesus rose from the dead he likewise rose us up with him in the newness of life (romans 6)
to walk in wisdom
So this new life we have is a new life IN Christ.
to not fall in to various sins
apart from Christ, there is no life, apart from Christ we are alienated from God and thus have not access to this new life.
he tells how husbands and wives are to treat each other
And now, in vv.25 through the rest of the book Paul is going to discuss what it looks like to live in this new life. And he does so by quoting an OT prophecy that likewise describes the new life we have when God dwells with his people.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
he talks about children and how they are to honor their parents
In verses 25-32 Paul strings together 10 imperative verbs, meaning they are not suggestions, but commands. However, Paul is not calling us toi
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
When Paul says, “let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” he is quoting the Prophet Zechariah from
and don’t say things that are not true.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
To steal is practically to work against what God has called us to do.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
talks about the coming peace to the people of God, and mainly that this peace comes when God himself returns to Jerusalem to dwell with his people.
3 Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.
In God says he will gather his people from the east and from the west and bring them together, and they shall be his people and he would be their God.
And when all the people are gathered in the presence of God this is what God says to them,
he goes on in verses 7-8
16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;
7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”
16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;
Paul is saying that this day Zechariah has prophesied about has come in Christ.
When you steal, you breakdown and destroy what God has called us to build up.
The new creation has begun in the resurrected and ascended Christ,
and now we are to live, not as gentiles, walking in the ways of the old creation, but we are to put on the robes of the new creation and walk in righteousness and holiness.
So Paul begins his call to faithful living in the new life in Christ in verse 25.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Paul is saying as members of this new life in Christ we are to speak rightly.
We are to put away falsehood, but instead speak the truth with our neighbors, for we are members one of another.
Not only are we to speak truth, but we must also know when to speak and when to remain silent.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
This is often a verse we look at and say that anger is not always a sin.
that is true. Anger is an emotion that God has given us. God himself gets angry
But anger is an emotion that can very quickly lead to sin -
Anger can turn into sin when we don’t know how to process it
As members of Christ we should be angry about the things that make God angry,
We can keep it in and it can turn to rot inside of us, causing us to become bitter or despise one another. Which is why we are to not let the sun go down on our anger.
We are to deal with it as soon as possible.
Another way Anger can turn to sin is when we speak out of anger.
Paul is quoting
4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Take your anger to God, and be silent.
As soon as we start verbalizing our anger - yelling, gossip, slander, etc. we then open the door for satan to come in and tear the unity of the body apart.
This is why in Paul says,
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
Paul goes on to describe walking as members of Christ
28
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
Stealing tears down the community, it weakens it, it destorys.
Paul calls the thief to no longer steal, but rather to work hard, in honest work, with his own two hands.
So that rather than tearing down the body by stealing, he can build it up by being generous with anyone in need.
29-
In verse 29 he continues speaks of how our speech is not to tear down, but to build up.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
let not “rotten, decayed” talk come out of your mouth.
Our words are to be used for building up the body, not tearing it down.
When rotten talk, or anger, or gossip comes from our mouths we do harm to the body of Christ. And we do harm to the witness of the church.
Our words are to give grace to all those who hear them.
Paul summarizes this whole section in vv. 30-32
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
30-
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Church this is who we are called to be and what we are called to do.
We are not to walk the way the world walks, we must put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and shouting and slanderous speech.
Not only this sort of speech, but ALL malice which is wickedness, should be put away from us.
Rather, we are to be kind and compassionate to one another, and we are to forgive one another fully.
Just as God, in Christ, has forgiven you.
Lets Pray