9. Being Real

Introduction

Video Clip: Made New

Reader: Graham Black

Ephesians 4:25–32 ESV

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.

Thank you so much Graham for stepping up like this. So last week we talked about how God gave leaders to the Church to equip the saints for ministry as it says in the first half of Ephesians chapter 4, and we asked the kids in our Sunday School class what kinds of ministry they specifically can do here at the Church. And there were a lot of great answers like giving hugs and being good examples to our younger siblings. And it was also brought up that they could read the text in front of the whole Church.

So thank you Graham for setting a good example and doing the work of ministry this morning and reading to us from the Word of God. There are still a couple spots left this year for readers if you would be so inclined.

Tension

So we are are continuing in our series from the book of Ephesians entitled God’s Plan. Our place in it. And we have already looked at how God is the creator, or maybe better said, the author of the entire story of humanity. From beginning to end He has already written the story. His plan is in place, and our lives consist of finding our place in His glorious plan.

At least, that is the message that we find here in the book of Ephesians, but do we really live life as if that is true?

Much of what we might call “Christianity” here in the west has somehow morphed into a set of prescribed practices that we limit to our Sunday Morning experience. And this time is then dimly connected or completely disconnected from what we would call our “real life”. The “real life” that we will resume this morning when we walk out the doors of this building. So we sit here, we listen we learn, we get lost in the sense of worship and community and then we leave this experience to get back to our “real life”. It is a nice rest. A nice respite till we come back next week.

But what if we have our understanding of those two experiences reversed? What if our gathering together with the body of Christ is meant to give us a taste of the Kingdom of God in such a way that we recognize that as our “real life”? What if this experiences is actually what is really real and the life that we seem to drop into when we leave this place... is actually a counterfeit life?

One of the things that we have been learning in our apologetics class on Wednesday nights is that “Truth is that which corresponds to reality”. So what we believe to be “reality” matters, especially in light of the fact that Jesus said...“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6a)

You see I think that this is something of what Paul was trying to teach the Church in and around Ephesus in the second half of chapter 4, and I think it is what God wants us to grapple with today.

So open up your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4, it is on page _____ in the Bibles in the chairs. I will pray and we will search for “real life” together.

Truth

In this part of the letter Paul has moved from the principles to the practical, from doctrine to duty and so the first thing that we see is a command to...

Put off the corrupted “you” that leads to death (Eph 4:17-23)

Starting with verse 17 were read...

Ephesians 4:17(ESV)

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.

Now if you have been following along with us through the book of Ephesians then you might find this as a rather strange comment seeing that Paul has spent much of the letter up to this point talking about how “In Christ” the difference between Jews and Gentiles is inconsequential. But that was a call to unity for those who are “In Christ”.

What he is describing here with the label of “Gentiles” is those outside of the Christian Church who are not “In Christ”. Instead they live their lives without knowledge of the one true God or the fact that He is working His plan in this world.

Of course the "Gentiles” in Ephesus would not say that they lacked knowledge. Their Greek roots gave birth to the minds of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato. And their claim to fame was the great Temple of Artimis, one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World. This brought many great minds into public square for debates in the style of their day. Walking through the streets of Ephesus the ears of these new Christians would have been filled with voices that certainly sounded wise, enlightened and informed. But Paul is telling them that it is all futile, useless because it isn’t based on the reality of God’s plan.

It would be like if you were planning a trip through Minneapolis and someone gave you a detailed map with all the highways, exits and overpasses clearly marked out. If you didn’t really know how to navigate in those areas you would be really appreciative. So you are driving through Minneapolis and look down at your impressive map hoping to find your way and see a ball stadium marked… “Wrigley Field” and there is the “Sears tower” and the “Navy Pier”…and all of the sudden you realize that you are downtown Minneapolis with just this map for Chicago.

It is still an impressive map with a lot of clear instructions on where to go but because it does not describe the reality of the world you are in...it is useless! As the famed poet Thoreau said, “They are but improved means to an unimproved end...” That is the idea that Paul is trying to move his readers to here.

He continues this description in verse 18. He says...

Ephesians 4:18-19a(ESV)

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 ...

Don’t miss the deeply disturbing connection here between the phrase “hardness of heart” and the idea of becoming callous. Most of us have experienced a callus in one way or another and I could liken it to breaking in a new pair of running shoes or hiking boots but I like to think about it from the perspective of playing the guitar.

Many aspiring guitar players never make it past the first few weeks because their fingers hurt so bad. People like __________ make it look so painless but when you first press your fingers deep into those steel wound strings you feel it. It hurts. It literally leaves an impression in you soft skin. That impression is followed up by prolonged redness, stinging pain, blisters and sometimes bleeding.

But if you are committed to playing the guitar, you stick with it and eventually it becomes easier to ignore the pain. Not because you are doing anything differently, but because you have formed hard calluses where there was soft skin and now the damage that the string is doing to your finger doesn’t even register.

That is the condition of these Gentiles. They are committed to walking far from God, in the dark with no understanding. Like someone who is wholeheartedly committed to playing the guitar, they have spent so much time ignoring the conscious that God gave them that the corrections no longer register. They don’t feel it. They have become callus. And the end result...

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

In our Table Talk groups today we will unpack more of this idea from passages like Romans 1, but the big idea is that those things that should throw our conscious into overwhelming alarm yelling “whatch out! warning! danger!” they hardly even bump the needle for them. Worse than that, they are “geedy” or anxious to practice them.

This doesn’t excuse their behavior, because like the guitar player they committed themselves to the course that got them here, but it does teach us that “In Christ” we have to put off that corrupted way of thinking and being because it leads to death.

Instead...

In Christ, put on the “renewed” you that leads to real life. (Eph 4:20-24)

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,

The way that we “learn Christ” is about more than just learning about Him. Like the difference between learning football or learning about football. One is a part of your “real life” experience, the other is just about knowing some information about the topic. To be “In Christ” is not the same as being in possession of some information about Jesus.

James chapter 2 tells us that believing in God’s is a good thing, but even demons do that. They know God exists and they know His plan and it makes them tremble in fear.

To be “In Christ” is not the same as being in possession of some information about Him, it is...

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

This means that we recognized our sin and rebelling against Him and His good plan for this world. This is our “old self” the way we used to be, but now, In Christ, we have repented - made a change in our mind is what the word means - and now we have taken off that old corrupted manner of life and we align oursleves with God’s plan for HIs world. This is what “real life” looks like, finding our place in God’ plan.

I was reading a book by Chuck Colson this week where he said that in our lives “We are either advancing the rule of Satan or establishing the reign of God.” - and the thing to remember is that eventually the clash between those two kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of darkness is going to come to a final battle - if you can even call it that it will be so lopsided. Jesus will just say the word and it will all be over. And this is so real to Satan and his demons that they tremble at the thought of it.

How “real” is that to you? That is all a part of God’s plan. He has revealed it to us and every moment of our life is walking us to this end. That is why Proverbs tells us where true wisdom and knowledge begins.

Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Making your life decisions according to any other “reality” is just futile. Useless. Like have a really great map to the wrong city.

Did you see what makes our old manner of life so corrupt? deceitful desires. God’s instructions for us are not just arbitrary hoops for us to jump through. God gives us his commands because they are best way to be what He has made us to be. As our creator, He would know.

But the desires of our old self are lying to us. They make great claims that seem to be “wise” and “enlightened” but they are not a road to the good things they promise. They are empty wells. Broken cisterns. What they promise they can not deliver. They promise to satisfy but they only leave us more thirsty.

But “In Christ” we are to put off the old self, with those 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.

This is what being a Christian is. It is becoming more and more like Jesus Christ which means becoming more holy and more righteous. Jesus came to die for us but he also came to live for us. The “God-man” came to demonstrate to us what our “real life” is supposed to look like.

Do you see the connection to the beginning of God’s plan back in Genesis?

Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God designed us to bear His image in holiness and righteousness. This rightly brings Him the glory that He deserves but instead of giving Him his glory we took it for ourselves. We corrupted God design in this world with our sin and rebellion and there was nothing that we could do to change that. So God sent Jesus. He lived the perfect life that we could not live and died the death that we deserved to die but then He conquered death in order to give us new life.

This new life is our “real life”. It is the one that we put on now and live by the power of the Spirit - because we have already proven that we can’t do it on our own. So we

Put off the corrupted self that leads to death and In Christ, put on the renewed self that leads to real life and then

Our “real life” is when we walk together like Jesus

Starting in verse 25...the text that Graham read for us...we find Paul getting to some very practical application. Each one of these instructions could be used as the theme for a separate message in and of itself, so for time sake I am going to walk us through them looking at how they each present a direct assault on some of the most deceitful desires that we face.

The big lie is to believe that verses like this are all fine and good when your talking about them in a Church setting…but they don’t work out there in the “real world”. Well that depends on how you define the “real world”. In Christ, the Christian sees the “real world” differently.

Paul starts with how we are to live in the truth...

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

This is about more than not telling an outright lie. It is about living a life consistent with the truth, as the truth is in Jesus as it says back in verse 21.

The deceitful desire is that in the “real world” sometimes you have to lay it on a little thick, build it up better than it is even make promises you know you won’t keep.

Christian, that is not living in the real world.

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.

I have always find this verse a little curious because it seems like it is commanding us to be angry, but it is more like a response to the fact that in this life there will be times when we are angry. More than that, it gives us permission to do so. The Bible gives us many examples when God was angry, so it isn’t wrong in and of itself. It is just what you do with your anger. Do you let it fester for days and then control you or do you express it in a healthy way aimed at reconciliation with the one you are angry with.

The deceitful desire here is when you think: “They made me angry so I have a right to do this to them…that is how it works in the “real world”.

Christian, that is not the “real world”

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.

There is little to indicate that Paul is talking here about a career criminal, but more those who would compromise or cut corners to save themselves the extra work to do it right. That is always a pressure today. Whatever it takes to make it faster, cheaper and easier, what the customer doesn’t know won’t hurt them.

That is just the way it works in the “real world”, even my boss and coworkers are counting on me to look the other way…

Christian that is not the way it works in the “real world”.

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.

That is just the way that everyone talks here, we don’t really mean anything by it. If you want to fit in you have to speak the language. We always ride each other and sometimes it gets a little tense but that is just the way it works in the “real world”. “If you can’t run with the big dogs stay of the porch”

Christian, that is not the way it works in the “real world”

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Christian...if that is who you are, I am not making that claim for you, but if you are making that claim for yourself…then the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit’s role is to point to Jesus. So when you “wear” the name of Jesus but live the life of the world that hates him, then there is a problem.

And lastly

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.

Come on…do these kind of things really work in the real world? Kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness…that might be fine for Church folk but out in the real world...

Christian, our real world looks like Jesus.

Application

The reason that deciding about our “real life” is such an important message for us right now is because the Christian Church in our culture is being pushed inside it’s doors. We have allowed the right idea of pursing a “personal relationship with Jesus” to bring us to the wrong conclusion that it is a private relationship. In other words, believe what you want when you are practicing you religion inside the walls of your Church but don’t bring it into the public square.

This is the propaganda that Satan has been working into the western thinking for decades now. He is the father of lies and every good lie has at least a kernel of truth and we have largely missed the impact of the great lie because we were distracted by the kernel of truth.

But the Church is God’s plan. Jesus is building it and He has commissioned it to go into all the world and preach the good news about Him. This is our “real life”. This is our part in God’s plan.

Landing / Next Steps

And so we seek to be like Jesus in every area of our lives and pray that God would soften hard and calus hearts so that others can join with us in the “Real Life”.

Let’s pray into that together.