Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We looked last week at verses 17-19 of chapter 4 where Paul describes the pagan mindset and we were warned not to fall into those ways of thinking; those mindsets.

The Nine Mindsets were:

Nine mindsets

Our Old Mindset

Our Old Mindset

Ray Arnett / General

 

Introduction

Pagan Life

Nine mindsets

Vanity - Empty, futile thinking

Vanity

Darkened Understanding - cannot perceive truth

Darkened Understanding

Alienated - spiritually dead - alien from God

Alienated

Ignorance - not knowing God nor His ways

Ignorance

Blindness - hard hearted - not willing to see truth

Blindness

Hardened (past feeling) - sinning so much that you are calloused toward sin and its effects

Hardened (past feeling)

Lasciviousness - behavior that is shameful in normal society

Lasciviousness

Uncleanness - all types of moral impurity

Uncleanness

Greediness - unrestrained greed for more and more sin - regardless of who I hurt

Greediness

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:27 PM April 19, 2018.

Verse 20 reminded the Ephesian believers not to think that way -

Verses 20–24 make up one sentence that stands in sharp contrast to the preceding, indicating the basis for a new life that is totally different from that of the unconverted Gentiles.

So, how are we to think?

Paul encourages the Ephesian believers to transform their thinking in three actions - we could call them mind-shifts

Mindshift 1 - remove the old thinking of corrupt desires

Learned (Greek manthano) is the very word that is the root of “disciple.”

We might therefore paraphrase Paul as saying, When you became disciples (literally, learners), this is not the way you learned.

To “learn Christ” is to come to know Him and the way He both exemplified and taught

The importance of teaching in the church:

Teaching is at the heart of church life, and this is a proof-text for Christian education.

In the “pillars of the church” listed in Acts 2:42 (apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer), teaching appears first because of its importance for the Christian walk.

Today this is neglected in all too many churches, whose leaders seem to think that one sermon on Sunday morning is sufficient to educate their people.

Too many Christians are woefully and even willingly ignorant of the doctrines of the faith.

No wonder secularism flourishes!

The word if there is better rendered “since” because it is known as a first class condition in the Greek - the argument is known to be a fact.

Paul wants his readers to realize that if they have received Christ and taken up His teaching, His way is totally different from the old way they once knew.

A completely new way is called for

Once we recognize the emptiness and hopelessness of the old ways (as seen in vv.

17–19), we should be filled with horror at our terrible choices and throw them far away.

Clothes would rarely be thrown away unless they had become virtually unwearable, and that is the picture here.

The old ways are so damaged that they can only be thrown into the trash

had reminded the church that their conversion was a result of the truth that they had heard about Christ:

A similar idea is stated by Paul in his epistle to the Colossians

Wrong desires: Paul is not calling for them to be Stoics without feeling or desire - rather to place that desire upon the proper object - Christ!

It is important to recognize that the mere act of desiring is not a problem.

Desiring is but one form of loving.

If we were to extinguish all desires we would not be in a position to love God or our neighbor; we would not be able to know God’s love for us.

Nevertheless, given the description of the Gentiles’ habits of mind and heart in vv.

17–19, it is not surprising that their desires are generated and driven by deceit rather than the truth that is in Jesus.

It is no longer an internal force working on us - but an external influence

Which we can have victory over -

but only if we do all three steps!

Mindshift 2 - renew your thinking in light of Christ

The input is the key:

You move in the direction of what you put into your mind and what you allow your mind to dwell on.

So if you are not what you want to be, then you must begin to think differently.

If you are to think differently, you must put into your mind that which you want to become.

If you do, the Holy Spirit will use it to change you to become what you want to be.

If you don’t, you will never be what you want to be.

It all depends on what you put into your mind.

This is what it means to be made new in the attitude of your mind

life.

Romans 12:2 speaks of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind,” which clearly intimates that the transforming power is the Holy Spirit, who changes us into a harbinger of the new being that will be ours for all eternity.

This is a lifelong process in which the Spirit enables us to gain control of our thoughts and proclivities, allowing us to take incremental steps in the direction of curbing our desire to seek earthly pleasures and turning more and more to God.

It is in the mind that spiritual growth occurs, and we must embrace the Christlike mindset

Mindshift 3 - replace your thinking with righteousness and true holiness

But there is another sense in which the Christian puts off the old man and puts on the new man in the present.

Doing this is not mere history, then, that can be looked back to.

In Paul, it is also exhortation and obligation.

We both have put off the old man and must put him off.

We do this every time we deny that former life by refusing to live that way.

True Righteousness

Right conduct - not just a position of righteousness, but the practical day to day right living.

True Holiness

This is different than the normal word for holy meaning set apart — instead this carries the idea of devout living - that of personal piety toward God.

Zacharias’s song: