Sealed in Forgiveness

JAY FRAZE

Sealed • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

Ephesians 4:25–5:2

Forgiveness

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Sealed in Forgiveness

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this amazing day that the Lord has blessed us with! This is a day of new beginnings. This is a day that the Lord has made – and we will rejoice and be glad in it! Teachers… I want you to know that you are in our prayers as you head back to school. Thank you for doing what you do. I know it isn’t easy – I am both the husband and father of educators so I see in my home what you face and how you take your work home with you… I see how much you care for those babies – be they 2 or 22. They are yours and you do all you can to make sure they are cared for. So, again, thank you!

And you students! I know you aren’t all that excited about going back to school… but what you do today will prepare you for the future. Trust your teachers… they only want what is best for you. Work with them… and you will be all the better because of it.

Now, we are in our 5thweek journeying through the book of Ephesians. We have been looking at the fact that we are sealed… we are marked… we are identified in, with, and through the Holy Spirit by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You know, there is a difference between being a Christian and being a follower of Jesus.

In Romans 10:9, Paul reminds us “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In my youth, the goal of evangelism was to get someone to pray the prayer. You know the one I mean… The Sinner’s Prayer. First of all, there is nothing wrong with that. It is in line with what Paul was telling the Romans, confess and believe. The Sinner’s Prayer is an act of obedience to that verse.

But if you look in Matthew, you find a different version… Jesus doesn’t ask for anything but this, “follow me.” When Peter, Andrew, James, and John were mending their nets, Jesus simply told them, “follow me, and I’ll make you fish for people.”

In our world, it’s easy to be a Christian… it’s hard to follow Jesus. When I was my farthest from God, if someone asked me “Are you a Christian?” I would have said, “Yeah, I prayed the prayer, I got baptized… I’m a Christian.” But if they asked me if I was a follower of Jesus, if I followed Jesus, I would have probably said no.

We aren’t called to just “be a Christian.” We are called to be a follower of Jesus Christ. That’s why you will hear me say something like, “As fully devoted followers of Jesus we…” We are called to be followers of Jesus.

Sermon Slide

And being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ starts with forgiveness. We have all lived a life shackled by sin, but thanks be to the Cross, we don’t have to be shackled to that old way of life. As a follower of Jesus Christ – you are Sealed in Forgiveness… you are marked, you are identified in, with, and through the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ.

So, we are going to dive into the last half of this 4th chapter of Ephesians… but first, let us pray.

It was that time of year again. The Choir Cantata. The pastor had prepared an abbreviated sermon because the Choir Director had told him that he would have about 10 minutes after the Cantata was finished.

The day came and as the clock struck 11:00, the bass of the organ reverberated through our bones, and the treble pitches cut through the silence. The choir lifted their voices to God in perfect harmony. The songs were strung together to tell the story of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. It was a beautiful morning… but as 11:30, then 11:40. Then 11:50 passed… the pastor began to wonder about what we was going to say in his sermon. As the clock ticked past noon… then close to 12:15, the choir concluded their final piece and the director rested. Applause filled the room in praise to God for the gift of music given… now it was time for the pastor to step into the pulpit for his sermon.

He stepped into the pulpit, opened his Bible and notes, took a breath, looked out into the congregation, and said, “If you’re sinning, stop. If you’re not, don’t start. Our closing hymn is number 177.” His shortest and most memorable sermon ever. This part of Paul’s letter is almost that simple.

I like to call it Paul’s Christian Living for Dummies. Ephesian’s 4 is Paul’s how-to manual for living as a follower of Jesus.

So, for the rest of our time, I want us to look at these verses, but not from the NIV or anything like that. I want us to look at this from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible called the Message. You can follow along in your Bible, whatever the translation, but we are going to be seeing The Message on the screen.

Eph 5:25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

Simply put, untruth hurts. It harms. We as followers of Jesus need to be truthful… all of the truth. Be truthful. Think about that word… truthful… full of truth. To be un-truth-ful means you are not full of the truth… you don’t tell all the truth. Keep in mind, sometimes there is a time and a place for all the truth… but when we only tell part of the truth in order to benefit ourselves, we are still being untruthful. Dishonesty is one of the quickest ways to not only hurt others but to also harm yourself.

So, the first charge Paul gives… the first way he challenges us to be fully devoted followers of Jesus is to be truthful. Next he deals with anger.

Eph 4:26–27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

Anger is not a sin… it is a God-given emotion that is useful when kept in check. But, just like partaking of the fruit of the vine, when it isn’t kept in check it causes problems. It was righteous anger that led Jesus to drive the money changers out of the Temple.

It is anger that leads us to seek justice for wrongs committed against others. But we must be careful that justice and vengeance don’t get confused.

Renee and I have been watching a show called White Collar. If you know, you know…. But the point is I heard a quote in one of the episodes where Peter, the FBI Agent, is trying to convince Neal, the con-man CI, not to seek revenge for the death of his girlfriend. Peter tells him, “Vengeance leads to chaos… but justice leads to order.”

It stuck out for me… Our God is a God of order, not chaos… at creation, God swept over the chaos and brought order. God is about order, not chaos. And when we let our anger push us to vengeance we are bringing chaos… we aren’t bringing order… we are living anti-Christ… we are giving the devil a foothold in our lives that does the opposite of what we prayed a moment ago. Instead of seeking God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, anger that leads to sin thwarts God’s will on earth and in heaven.

You and I cannot let anger control us!

So, his second charge for us is to be angry, but don’t sin. Then, he moved on to another area of how we treat one another.

Eph 4:28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.

In Cuba, it is against the law to live as a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Now, it isn’t a law that you are likely to get thrown in jail for, at least not a churchgoer, but there is a definite cost. When you walk away from the government-sanctioned version of religion, you give up certain benefits, like food subsidies and things like that. What people make in their jobs is usually enough to get them through about 2-3 weeks of the month, but then the way you get by is through subsidies, the black-market, and theft.

But when you give your life to Jesus, you give up these dishonest ways of living… so, what did they do as followers of Jesus in Cuba? They worked more… they shared what they had with one another. They became the Body of Christ, each part supporting the other, being held together, marked… sealed by the Holy Spirit.

You know, grand theft isn’t the only kind of stealing… when we withhold what should be given to another… is it not theft?

When we take away another person’s rights… is it not theft?

When we take credit for something that someone else did… is it not theft?

When we broaden the meaning like this, I think we all have parts of our lives we need to look at carefully.

And I love that last comment… why do we work? So we are in a position to better help others.

Challenge #3… Don’t take what isn’t yours. Then we get into not only what we do, but what we say.

Eph 4:29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

Eph 4:30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.

When I was at a certain point in my growth as a follower of Jesus, I was kinda like the T-shirt that says… “I love Jesus, but I cuss a little.” I was trying to be bad, but I really wasn’t very good at it, then I read this verse and it changed my life. I memorized it. I let it dwell in me richly. I let the Word of God change me.

I initially only understood it to be about cursing, but later I realized that it wasn’t just about cursing or dirty jokes or things like that… it was about saying only what helps and builds and encourages others.

Do the words that come out of your mouth build-up each other? Do the things you say encourage each other? Are the things you say and do constructive or destructive? These verses are tied together.

When we say things that harm one another, we grieve the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that unites us as the Body of Christ… and when we use our words to tear that body apart, we are doing harm… we are taking the gift of the Holy Spirit for granted.

Stop it, Paul says… he charges us, he challenges us to stop using unwholesome and destructive language.

Then he wraps up this section with these words…

Eph 4:31–32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

Turn away from all that was, and turn to who God called us to be. Forgive each other… just as Jesus forgave you.

Is there someone in here… is there someone in one of the other services… is there someone in your family… is there someone that no longer comes to this church that you need to go to… gently and with sensitivity? Is there someone that you need to forgive?

Forgiveness isn’t dependent upon what the other person does. If that was the case, Jesus would have never died on the Cross for you.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is the example. That is who we follow.

In fact, those are the final words of today’s passage…

Eph 5:1–2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Do you want to know how to live as a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ? Look to Jesus and do what he did… Love. Spend time in prayer and study to get to know Jesus.

Look at how Jesus loved.

It is that simple… Love like Jesus.

Jesus, God in the flesh, came and walked among the people… God put on flesh and lived the life we live as Jesus. Jesus, God in the flesh, had a job… he took over his father’s business as a carpenter for a while… he dealt with customers… he dealt with brothers and sisters, moms and dads… he was acquainted with grief as he saw his own earthly dad die.

He led a group of rowdy disciples… you Middle School teachers – Jesus gets you.… Jesus knows what you go through… just read about his goofy disciples all through the Gospels.

Jesus had people discredit him… but what did he do? Love. He loved them.

Jesus heard people yell that they wanted him executed, but what did he do? He loved them.

Jesus knew that you and I would fall short of God’s glory… and yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

You can be forgiven. Like we said earlier… if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved… but it doesn’t end with just the confess and believe part. Jesus calls us to a new life, a life we were created for.

Maybe you are one that has said “Yes” to Jesus, but you never followed him.

Maybe you are one that said “Yes” but then you have walked away from Jesus… and you feel that tugging of your heart right now to return to Jesus.

Friends, there is not a single one of us in this room that Jesus doesn’t love. Friends, God has a wonderful plan for your life… it is the life you were created for.