Third Sunday in Lent

Ephesians 5:1-9

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, here Paul encourages us to not return to the ways of darkness that lead to death, but rather to walk in the light for Christ has rescued us from the domain of darkness and death that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, but rather might be free from that which has enslaved mankind the darkness of sin and death.

Light and Darkness

Christ is the light of the World.

This said again and again throughough the Scripture, John the apostle speaks beautifully on this in the opening of his gospel, saying John 1:4-5 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

What does that mean today?

In a world where we can banish darkness with the flick of a switch, we lose a bit of the appreciation not only of light, but the other thing that the light frees us from. The darkness.

Darkness refers to spiritual matters.

Paul does not at all mean being freed from literal darkness, but rather the darkness of sin, death, and the devil. This darkness clouds the minds of men tries to keep them from the light of their savior lest they be freed by Christ.

The Scriptures describe hell as being dark.

Oftentimes we think of hell as a place of fire, and reason that it must therefore have light, but that is not what the Bible describes. It is called the outer darkness, for you are permanently removed from the light of God. So darkness also means suffering, pain, and anguish.

A “goddess” of light

The city of Ephesus worshipped Artemis.

It may seem odd to say that we need to know who a greek goddess is, but if we are to understand how Paul does not shy away from the truth, then we need to know about the ancient myths. Artemis had a magnificent temple in the city of Ephesus, and she was a goddess of wisdom, the fertility, and the moon, and if that weren’t enough her brother Apollo was god of the sun.

She was praised as a savior.

That women could come to her in their hour or need if they needed help in conceiving or birthing a child, men would approach her to ask her help in winning the hand of a lady. The city was a popular destination for those seeking her aid. This is what led to a mob of 20,000 seeking to put to death christians in Ephesus.

They were promised light, but she was clothing them in darkness.

She wasn’t the moon at all, but was the darkness that was wrapping around the hearts, minds, and souls of people and lulling them to sleep in their sins that they might perish eternally.

What about today?

People may no longer worship Artemis, but idols still exist.

There were idols that existed before Artemis, and even in a modern world that has no time for religious matters, we still have idols that we seek and cling to try and help us, they have just been refined and minimized.

Where do you look when things go wrong?

How do you know you are going to be ok? When a loved one dies? When you hear words from your doctor that radically reorient your life? Here is where you find idols. Common ones are money, family, relationships, work, hobbies, and pleasures. The ancient religions took these desires, gave them a different name and setup a statue, but you don’t have to setup a statute to worship any of these things.

What do you use to justify your sin?

They are also handy ways to be religious and to excuse your sin. People have claimed for years to find god out in nature, they worshipped mother earth, or gaia. Or we try to justify one bad action, by the good we intended, instead of admitting, I was wrong. It was sin. We look instead to earthly rewards and reason God must have desired this. If you skip church to go hunting or fishing, and get a 16 pointer, or pull in a record fish, God must have surely blessed me. Why would God want you away from where He has commanded you to be?

They are just as tempting as they were 2000 years ago.

Because what sits behind these things both today and 2000 years ago is the same tempter, Satan who lives in the darkness, and has hell as his final home, and wants to drag the world there away from Christ.

The True Light

Before Christ we all belonged to the darkness.

We are all born into the darkness, no matter how innocent we may seem, no matter how much good we might do. There is only one light which enlightens men, and is our Savior from this present darkness. This is the light that Paul had brought to Ephesus a land cloaked in darkness, and it the same light that shines forth here in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus called you into His light that you might be God’s Child.

For He came to you in the darkness, He carried you away from the dangers and threats that surrounded you, fighting off the lions, wolves, and all manner of monsters that you might be his own and live with him in his kingdom of light.

He was not just a statue, but flesh and blood.

An amazing statute to be sure crafted by the hands of master artisans in the greek world. But she pales in comparison to Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, knit together in the womb of mary, whose hands gave sight to the blind and cleansed lepers, whose words called forth the dead, and whose blood was shed for you.

We have a living God who loves us, and gave himself up for us.

He heard our cries for help in the darkness, and out of love he descended from the realms of light and brought that light into the world to rescue you from your sins.

Imitators of God

We belong to the day, not the night.

So let us walk in the light of Christ, now what does Paul say here in the epistle? What are we to set aside in our pursuit of Christ? Sexual immorality, we are to set that aside. For God has designed us that man and woman might be united in marriage, and so we ought to uphold and encourage each other to honor that.

To set aside foolish talk, obscenities, and crude jokes but rather gives thanks to God for all that he has done.

Covetousness which Paul says is idolatry, because when we covet we are dissatisifed with what God has given and are convinced that God is wrong, but we know what we need.

So let us not sleep in our sin.

It is tempting to hit the snooze button and put this off, but the light has come and Christ is here for you. So do not let your sins lull you back to sleep, but rather walk with Christ.

You cannot worship idols and God.

Your heart cannot have two masters, if you make room for idols there is no room for God that is why it says those who do these things have no inheritance, do not deceive yourselves and think that you can worship both darkness and light, even today a light cannot be both on and off.

So my brothers and sisters, Christ is your Savior and has rescued you from the powers of darkness. That is a reason to raise our voices in glad songs and praise him above for all eternity for we truly have a good and gracious God who loved us and gave himself up for us, Jesus CHrist our Lord. In His name. Amen.