Ephesians 5:6-17
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Keep Walking (Topical)
This message is going to be a little different than most messages. What I plan on doing is preaching two messages on this big passage. This morning we will identify the main idea of this passage, but not teach expositionally through the text…we will do that next week. This week, we will identify the main idea of the passage and teach on it topically through the Scriptures. The reason for this, is that what we talk about today is Christianity 101 and sometimes we need to be reminded of the basics of our faith. And so this message will be topical in nature as we talk about the biblical concept of “Progressive Sanctification.”
The reason we will take a whole sermon to teach on this topic is because the whole second half of Ephesians 4-6, can be summed up with the words, “Christian living” or an even better term would be “progressive sanctification.” This is a fancy way of saying once you become a follower Christ your life should begin and continue to drastically change over time. We have seen this already for the last few weeks as we have talked about some very practical things.
Look at the stuff we have talked about throughout this series. Chapters 1-3 helped us see how we were saved. We took a whole week a few months back to review and respond to the first nine messages of this series. It was said that this epistle is about God and His grace and what happens to people on whom that grace is lavished. This epistle is about Him and what He has done to span the chasm that our rebellion made between we the creatures and He the Creator. This is the Gospel. We never move on past the Gospel…it is the Gospel that has saved us, it is the Gospel that currently saves us and it will be the Gospel (our belief in the finished work of the Good News of Jesus Christ on our behalf) that will ultimately save us. We must hold firm to the Gospel.
That is why Paul says,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
We must continued to believe the apostolic message of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus on our behalf.
Our belief in the Gospel changed us initially, but we must we believe it every day for it to change us continually. That is what Chapters 4-6 are all about. Because of our initially belief in the Gospel, we were set on a straight and narrow road and told to walk. But in order to stay on that straight and narrow we have to walk with purpose and direction. That is why Paul starts off this second half of the book with this insistent demand...
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,
When God saved us from our sins, He created us after His own likeness. He gave us a true righteousness and a true holiness. We who were once sinners are now saints. We are the holy ones of God. By His mercy and sacrifice, we are in right standing with Him. This is our reality and because it is our reality, we need to make every effort to put off our old ways of thinking and behaving and strive to live out our new reality in a functional way.
Over the last few weeks, we have listed the ways in which our lives ought to look different because we have believe the Gospel. It is nitty gritty stuff.
We need to tell the truth and control our anger.
We must stop stealing and work with our hands to make an honest living so that we can share with others the wealth that God has given us.
We need to change our patterns of speech and let nothing rotten come out of our mouth but only that which is passes a threefold test. 1) Will this build up those who hear it? 2) Is this the appropriate time to share this information? Does it fit the occasion? 3) When the person who hears what I am about to say, walk away from this conversation and think, “Man I just got a whole bunch of grace dumped on me.” Did it give grace to those who hear? How you doing with that? Do we need to go back and preach that message again???
We must be people who are kind, tenderhearted and extending forgiveness to others because that is what God has done for us and we are to imitate Hm.
Oh and by way…maybe one of the most powerful aspects of our humanity needs to be under control. The aspect that really makes us God-like in a sense because we have male and female parts that allow us to pleasurably bring about new life in this world…ya that part of us need to be harnessed for God glory.
Talk about a functional righteousness This Gospel should effect every part of our lives and that is why before we go any further in our series in Ephesians, I would like to take an entire week to prepare us for what we will see in the remaining messages as we work through the rest of chapters 5 and 6. So, let’s read our passage and discover the main idea of the passage, but then look at the main idea as it presents itself in the rest of Scripture and next week look specifically at the ramifications of this specific passage.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Let’s pray
Textual Idea: We must progressively walk out of the darkness and into the light.
Textual Idea: We must progressively walk out of the darkness and into the light.
Sounds like something Yoda would say. What do you mean by that? That sounds cool but what do you mean? Actually he would say, “Walk out of darkness and into the light we progressively must.”
This is message 22 in the series…probably 12 more to go. This textual idea is really the name of the series. It is the logo. Let’s look at the logo for a moment and notice a few things.
Notice what sticks out the most. There is an orangish yellow guy that is walking in a different way that all the other smaller gray figures. Something has captivated the colorized character in such a way that he has turned and is walking in a different direction than all the others characters who are still dwelling in the darkness. If you look closely at the forward facing side of the man, you will notice that the frontside is brighter than the backside. He is walking toward a light source and we can assume the closer he gets too whatever is illuminating his frontside, that the closer he gets to it the brighter he himself will become.
Another thing we can notice is that he is much larger than his grayish counterparts. He looms large on the page. He has become much larger in his turning. He has essentially become more of what it means to be himself. This true for us as well.
We were once dwelling in the smallness of our dark little sin filled worlds, but when God graciously saved us and turned us around and brought color to our lives, and we started walking in the good works that we were created for to walk in, and as we do, we image Him rightly and have become a bigger, better version of the imago dei we were born with. We have been re-created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. This is massive.
Okay here we go with message one.
There are some MAJOR biblical words that are crammed into a 12 word sentence and the first two words are “We must.”
If it is true that “we must” do the other 10 words of this sentence we better understand what we mean by the other 10 words.
So let’s look at the words: progressively walk and later on in message two, we will look at darkness and light.
First, what do we mean by “progressively walk.”
The Christian life is a progressive walk.
The Christian life is a progressive walk.
This is a one foot in front of the other type of thing. One of the analogies the NT authors give us concerning the born again life that we have entered into is the idea of a “RACE.”
When we trusted in Jesus and started following Him…we toed the line and heard a gunshot and came out of the blocks strong.
Paul tells the Corinthians.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
He then goes on to say:
25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
And apparently he did this throughout the remainder of his days on earth because some of his last recorded words in Scripture are too Timothy the young pastor at Ephesus. To Timothy he says,
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Paul, from the time of his entrance into the faith, to his exit from the earth, ran a race.
The unknown author of Hebrews writes...
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
The biblical authors describe the “Christian life” as a “race.” What do we know about races that connects to our Christian walk?
Not sure if you know this but in order to win a race…there must be a continue placement of one foot in front of the other. Jesus said, “follow me.” not “take one step closer to me.” And the race isn’t a hundred meter dash that is over in 10-11 seconds...it is more like the steeple chase. What a crazy event that is...
A 3,000 meters steeplechase is defined in the rulebook as having 28 barriers and seven water jumps. This is so crazy…that is the Christian life…run, jump, get wet, get hurt, for a long period of time and then you collapse with exhaustion.
If and when you fall down, don’t blame the terrain…it’s part of the race, but you get back up and because the Spirit revives you even though you are weary and tired, you persevere so that you can receive the “imperishable crown” that Paul talked about.
Although the Christian walk is a gauntlet that takes place in a fallen world, that has a fallen angelic being shooting flaming arrows at you and you are continually plagued by your old nature tugging within you, who although dead, still manages to seductively whispers for you to slow the pace a little....for you, to see the Kings face is the prize at the end and you say, “it’s worth it.”
How motivating is it to you to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant.”?
And one day you will see that it has been. And you will say, “It was worth it” as you hear Him says to you “Well done!” enter into the joy of your master.
The Christian life is a progressive walk. There is a progression to our sanctification. Progressive sanctification is the process of becoming what you are. This is one of the many “Already, but not yet’s” that we experience as we follow hard after Christ. For Christian’s...
We are positionally righteous.
We are positionally righteous.
It has taken place in the past. We are already sanctified...
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
But we are also, not yet sanctified.
We progressively become righteous.
We progressively become righteous.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
There is a progression to our holiness.
How is progressive sanctification like Elijah practicing his yo yo skills while on an escalator?
We were down in California a few weeks a back and I went for a walk around the block with the boys one morning and we came across a garage sale. There was some pretty cool stuff there, (guitars, ukeleles, accordions, a paw patrol toddler bed), but the things that we ended up walking away with were a bit more affordable (water balloons and a yo yo).
Elijah had seen yo yo’s before but never had one of his own…so we spend the dollar to get it. You get what you pay for people. A 1 dollar yo yo is not really the one you should get when you are learning to yo yo…but anyway. I want you give you an illustration of what progressive sanctification looks like.
I want you to imagine Elijah working on his yo yo skills while ascending an elevator. There are ups and downs but there is a continual rise or escalation that is taking place.
Some of you have heard me share this before that one of the most compelling things I have ever heard in my was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. It’s crazy because how can one sentence be both encouraging and discouraging at the same time…here is why.
I was sitting with one of my former pastoral colleagues at a Red Robin and we were eating burgers and here he was, a pastor in his 50’s who was one of the most Godlike man I knew saying to me,
“Shawn, what I am surprised by is how slow the process of sanctification is.”
It just froze me with burger in hand. I was stunned because I considered him holy, and he considered himself as someone who had a million miles to go. And there I was in my early 30’s thinking…this guy is so holy and he thinks he is so far away from holiness. If he is far away, how far away am I? How discouraging. And then I thought, “that guy is so holiness and he is about 20 years older than me…so I have time to grow. How encouraging.
There was a common denominator in both scenarios, whether what I heard was discouraging or encouraging, one truth remained constant…I needed to grow.
It seems that to the degree you begin to cherish Christ more, the more sinful you realize you are.
Are you ever aware of how “painfully slow the process of sanctification” is going?
Progressive sanctification is that slow painful process of dying a thousand deaths. And not just dying a thousand deaths, but dying a thousand deaths daily as I seek to put to death therefore whatever remains earthly in me (Col. 3:5).
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The Christian life is suicidal. We present our bodies as a sacrifice of worship in view of His mercy. There is no fast pass here. You can’t pay more to skip the line. Progressive sanctification is the daily grind of leaving the City of Destruction and making our way to the Celestial City where we will see and be satisfied by the King of Glory. We walk out of the darkness and into the light.
Before we transition to celebrate the most sacred of all meals together, let’s encourage one another through our singing…
You are Worthy of My Praise / Step by Step
The only way we can even aspire to achieve any level of functional purity is by means of theincredible offering of the pure spotless lamb of God. Jesus, our ultimate Passover Lamb who was without spot or wrinkle.
Come and lay your eyes on the one whose Body was broken for you.
Come and behold the spotless one who leaked His crimson, so that we could be white as snow.
Communion