Grace Walk

Introduction

Grateful to be with all of you tonight

We arrive, from whatever the week has held, under the kind providence of God and under the good rulership of God

And we arrive in need of his Spirit to walk alongside of us to form his character and his heart in us

Use that work “walk” intentionally because, as we’ll see shortly, it is the word that frames Ephesians 4 with two different walks depicted for us

Allow me to briefly explain where we are in Ephesians and where are headed

Initially, I had envisioned basically half a chapter each time we gathered

6 chapters * 2 gatherings per chapter = 12 weeks

Part of that was because in an initial timeline, we were looking to go to weekly worship shortly after the new year

But we are not ready for that yet

Excited about this church God is forming

But we have some ways to go to be ready for that

For example, I’m hoping that by time we meet in 2 weeks we will have flags out along the road as a next step to helping people find us

As a result, going to slow down and take a couple extra weeks here especially in Ephesians 4

Paul did a great job a couple of weeks ago in showing us through the first part of the chapter that discipleship is a group process and that we all need to be discipled and to be discipling others in their walk with God

And as he alluded to, this chapter represents a shift in the line of argument from Paul

Named this series Blueprint because Ephesians as as a beautiful blueprint for who we are called to be and who we are striving to be as a new church

Chapters 1-3 ground the church in some of the great truths of the gospel

God is triune - Father, Son, Holy

God alone saves sinners

God is the one who builds his church!

And starting with chapter 4 we see this shift to focus on what the church looks like - what we look like - as God works his grace in us

So tonight overlap a little with text from a couple of weeks ago as we slow down in Ephesians

December 22 will be more of an Advent / Christmas message and then back into Ephesians 4 the first couple of gatherings in January

Growing in Grace

Here’s the other reason to slow down in Ephesians 4

One of my core convictions is that many churches - and this is not directed at any one particular church - but many and maybe even most churches - are weak at actually making disciples

Why? Because they don’t know what a disciple is

For all their good intentions, many churches run a litany of programs hoping that people become mature followers of Jesus along the way

One of our core values is “holistic transformation”

Holistic Transformation: Spiritual formation is empowered by the Holy Spirit and pursues an ever-increasing Biblical maturity that flows from the grace and mercy of Jesus. In the context of relationships, the grace of God transforms all of our heads (knowledge and wisdom), our hearts (affections, and our hands (actions).

If we want to see that formed in each of us - if we desire that each of would experience this type of life-altering holistic transformation that sees the hope of the gospel reach into every part of our lives, then let’s ask what does this type of maturity look like in the Scriptures

And that brings us to Ephesians 4 where Paul is painting a picture of maturity in our walks with God

Scripture Reading: Eph 4:11-24

Ephesians 4:11–24 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Pray

The Walk

Ephesians 4:17 “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.”

Contrast that verse with verse 1

Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”

This kind of contrast is very familiar to Paul in his writings

In Colossians 3 he talks about putting off the old self and putting on the new self with depictions of what that looks like

And in Galatians 5 he contrasts the “works of the flesh” with the “fruit of the Spirit”

And if you want an interesting exercise, go and read Galatians 5, Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 back to back

Galatians was one of first books Paul wrote and Ephesians and Colossians were both written late in his life from prison so it is fascinating to see the development of his thought

As we look here at Ephesians 4, we are going to look at:

The Futile Walk: Living as the old self

The Worthy Walk: Living as the new self

The Grace Walk: Living in light of the cross

The Futile Walk

Ephesians 4:17–19 “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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

Then jump down to vs 22

Ephesians 4:22 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,”

The image: dark and alone

Darkened in understanding

Alienated from the life of God

In your own room, even when pitch black, many of us could make our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night

We have a map of the room in our minds and can usually navigate it pretty well unless a laundry basket or something was left in an unexpected place

You know basically how many steps it should take, how wide the hallway is, etc.

But now imagine you are in a big hotel room and it is pitch black

You have no mental map of the room

You don’t know how many steps it is before the wall

You aren’t quite sure where the light switch is

Oh, and someone poured a pile of Lego bricks on all around you on the floor

That is, I believe, the picture of the futile walk

It’s dark, you’re alone, and you are going to stumble

The marks

Hardness of heart (vs 18)

This is same term - hardness of heart - that is used to describe Pharaoh when he wouldn’t let the Israelites leave Egypt!

Callous (vs 19)

When do callouses form? From repetitive actions

Fingers from playing guitar, palms from swinging a bat or using a tool

Effect: thick, kinda dead skin where you can’t feel the impact

Given to sensuality (vs 19)

So the first two marks here are hardness of heart and callousness

Hardened against feeling weight of actions and callous to their effect on yourself or others

And yet then chasing sensuality!

Thus begins a chase for a hard and callous heart to feel and thus chasing anything that offers the promise of good sensation

Anything that offers the promise of pleasure, no matter how lewd or unchaste it may be, is pursued in this futile walk

Greedy to practice every kind of impurity (vs 19)

Really fascinating language here

Let’s break this down for a moment

Every: given to practicing not just some impurity but every kind of impurity

If it can be imagined, the futile walk will attempt it

Greedy: given not just to practicing every kind of impurity, but greedy to do so

There is an eagerness to try more and more types of evil and impurity

Corrupt (vs 22)

Deceitful desires (vs 22)

The outcome

Well, it’s futile

It won’t - it can’t - offer the level of joy and fullness your heart desires

All it can do is offer one more fleeting, unsatisfactory fling

The futile walk is futile

The Worthy Walk

Contrast that with the worthy walk

Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”

First, notice that is God will makes the walk worthy

With him and called by him

Second, look at the marks of the worthy walk

The marks

Ephesians 4:2–3 “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Humility

Quick thought here: humility is marked by a right understanding both of the dignity of being made in the image of God and of the depravity and sinfulness of my own heart

As we grasp the fullness of both of those, we will be more humble in our walk with God

Gentleness

I have prayed more this week for God to makes me gentle

Patience

Bearing with one another in love

Eager to maintain unity

The outcome

Ephesians 4:13–14 “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

Mature followers of Christ, formed into the likeness of God

The Grace Walk

Ephesians 4:24 “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Friend who wrote a book called Grace Walk

Powerful picture of ever increasing learning the freedom and peace of the grace walk

Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

The great deception of the Serpent was that we would be like God

How? Knowing both good and evil

And we did come to know good and evil, but becoming enemies of God

And now in this walk we are being made into the image of God

How? In true righteousness and holiness

Ephesians 4 pits the futile walk and the worthy walk against one another

But here is the key: on our own, we will only walk the futile walk

We walk ourselves right into death and destruction

And not even realize that is what was happening

But the worthy walk is enabled only by the grace of God

It is God who calls us

It is God pours his grace upon us

It is God who forms us into his image in true righteousness and holiness

It is God who matures us into the fullness of Christ

And it is God who walks the grace walk with us

Conclusion

My friends, we are all walking

Either the futile walk of death and destruction

Or the worthy walk

The invitation is to the grace walk with God that will make that walk so worthy of our desire

Pray