Ephesians 4:17–5:7
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Okay I want to start off the session with a question. What is that sets christianity apart from every other religion? this is one of most common things that I hear about religions. I'm sure you hear it to, actually maybe some of you believe it. all religions basically teach the same things, be nice, be honest, don't steal there is really no difference in them. Paul is going to show us something in that fundamentally and absolutely separates the Christian message from every other religious message in the world. and in fact in many ways it it turns religion upside down we’ll get there but the Paul going to start his discussion on why Christians do good in
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 a little note here whenever Paul says Gentiles in the book of Ephesians is referring to anybody that doesn’t know God.
Gentiles in the Old Testament was the name for for anybody outside of the saving Covenant the God had given to Israel so now pull use that term to describe mean anybody that's outside of faith in God. He says you used to be Gentiles then he gives them a description of what Gentile life, life without God looks like.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Greedy thats the language of craving they're hungry for the sensual Pleasures they feel like that they have to have them in order for life to be worth living so they give themselves entirely to the to the pursuit of these Pleasures he's describing people who feel like they just can't say no to their desires and the guy for example who just can't say no to porn for him it is more than just lust its it's an Escape it's a it's a way to find Comfort relieve stress, add excitement to an otherwise meaningless life. what are the person who runs to drugs and alcohol for refuge if it's more than just a bodily urge or desire to get high. Elsewhere Paul's going to use the word epithumia which we always just translated are English Bibles as lust but it literally means us the hyper craving for something it's something maybe a good thing but if you say about that thing I just got to have that because without that life would not even be worth living should be good things like I'm like money like sex romantic love family the approval of others none of these things are bad things in themselves but the thought of being without these things produces despair in our hearts so that we are greedy for them, thats what Paul is talking about. and where does Paul say these Cravings come from well look at verse 18.
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.
Cravings arise from the absence of God from our lives you see the Bible teaches that we were created for God by God for God and when we were one with God our hearts were we're satisfied and filled up in him but when we were rejected God we lost that essential life-giving soul satisfying relationship
Blaise Pascal famously called it that the god-shaped hole that exists in every human heart we have this void in our heart and we can't figure out where it comes from
it so we spend all of our lives trying to fill that hole we try it you have family we try money we try approval we tried to drugs and alcohol are we know we're missing something we may not even realize what it is or how we got to that till place where we feel like we're missing something but we know that's something in our soul isn't in the right place. What we're searching for Paul is showing us is GOD is his affirmation it's his presence is love so Paul’s solution for our problem is
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
a new knowledge of God that gives us
I renew heart to delight in God and other words we need not to have simply Behavior reform we need a new heart that wants to abaian and love God again that's that that seeks God because it craves got and where does that new heart come from what comes from two places Paul says first verse 21 Hill discuses so good as a sous mean you have heard about him and we're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus in a scholarship that whenever Paul refers to Jesus Christ he almost always uses the term Christ referring to Jesus in his life on Earth the Nazarene baby born in Bethlehem who lived as a carpenter work miracles in the died on the cross so Paula saying that we get this new heart from learning the story that historical story of Jesus's life and death so that's the first place in the story of Jesus we see the beauty of God on display and it seeing the beauty of God we're changed our hearts are changed I got a regular guy in the end in this case Frodo internet drama experiences fundamentally that's what happens when you meet God in the story of Jesus I just getting swept up into it forever changes you it's not behavior modification its Soul transformation at the core level to the first way to change happens in our life as we learn the story of Jesus the second element Paul gives us a birth 23 says we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and other words you need not only new knowledge you need a new spirit this is why Paul prays for them twice in Ephesians he's like God is going to give you the eyes to be able to see this so the second place we get this this new hard as it is by the spirit so here's our definition of a Biblical chain make the beauty of God writing ourselves and The Gospel Four three chapters and only after the spirit of God is renewed our hearts According to which of these prayers or heart be changed what Paul's going to do now is after he explains that she's going to give a couple of examples of what gospel change looks like a couple of test cases if you will the show you whether or not you've actually had the metal of your heart transformed by the gospel pause not trying to give an exhaustive list he just said this is what your life will begin to look like once the gospels transforming here's the first one it's enforced 32 says be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another just like God in Christ forgave you you can't be just commanded to forget ever loved somebody says you do this in light of how God has forgiven you hear she's this way of explaining that she said ten thousand talents now Infinity of money so he falls on his knees in front of this on this guy who's loaning the money to begin should you know just just weeping and say give me just leave if you just give me one more week and I'll pay you back every penny stand-off is as you don't have another week to pay me back because you don't owe me any more money as of right now I absolve your debt entirely I mean the man nobody can believe it. The man everybody's kind of looking around like what just happened in a man stands up and says are you serious and I forgive your dad in Thailand you just got forgiven any type of debt is crossing the street the guy owes him Where's My Money where's my stop we don't have any cash I can't pay you back $2 50 in Jesus the story this guy goes over and grabs him and says you don't have my dollar fifty I'm going to throw you into an into prison you can imagine when Jesus is telling the story that everybody is like kind of shakes her head says that's ridiculous nobody who just been forgiven ten thousand talents somebody else it must be because you've never really experienced forgiven you loving way that is because you know that angers apart of love right when you love something you're you're angry at the thing that is hurting it if I love the person who is dying of cancer I hate and I'm angry at the cancer that is destroying their their body because I love my kids I hate and I'm angry at the femoral cancer like dishonesty a rebellion that I'm icy destroying their souls the problem with our anger Paul says that it's selfish anger we want to smack back at a person because of what they did to us they hit you you hit them back or you punish them for the way that they irritate you through yelling at them or maybe your preferred method is is the silent treatment however it is you're trying to pay them back for how they hurt you were inconvenienced you I'm loving anger instead of angle where you're more concerned with bringing healing to the other person than you are with Vindicated yourself develop such a love that even your anger duranglers overcome by that lost thinking of the story of Jesus Jesus got angry. you look at every situation in your life that transforms all your haters what makes Christianity distinctive from every other religion on Earth one word Grace Christianity put forward morality that is totally different than that of every other every other religion in the world tells you to change and if you change if you become good God will accept you call in the book of Ephesians God is already accepted response to that you should change in Christianity good works don't lie to Salvation like they do in other religions if you see the rules enough you do enough good stuff you would have heaven in Christianity good works Flo from salvation and that makes a huge difference in your heart you see if you do good works in order to be saved then you're not really doing it because you love God right you're only doing that because you want to protect yourself and you're doing it out of self-interest your heart is going to be filled with with fear that God is going to judge you in and Prime emotions don't lead a true righteousness and peace when you're afraid of him Martin Luther the Bible teaches that salvation is not God's reward for a life of good works but it's a free gift that God gives to all who will receive it by faith the church said if you could tell them salvation is just a free gift and it is go around and do whatever they want the replied know if people really see that Christ is removed the fear of punishment from them I take it into himself and we'll go do whatever they want they'll do whatever he wants This is Gospel change and it is absolutely unique in the world
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
a renewed heart to delight in God and other words we need not to have simply Behavior reform we need a new heart that wants to obey him and love God again that's that that seeks God because it craves God and where does that new heart come from well it comes from two places Paul says first verse 21
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
Scholars tell us that whenever Paul refers to Jesus Christ he almost always uses the term Christ whenever paul use the term Jesus by itself he is almost always referring to Jesus in his life on Earth the Nazarene baby born in Bethlehem who lived as a carpenter work miracles in the died on the cross so paul is saying that we get this new heart from learning the story that historical story of Jesus's life and death so that's the first place in the story of Jesus we see the beauty of God on display and it seeing the beauty of God we're changed our hearts are changed. you know if you have ever come a theater and seen an epic movie, the plot of those epic stories is basically the same, take for example Lord of the Rings. You’ve got a regular guy in the end in this case Frodo who gets swept up into this gigantic drama that is so much bigger than he is and in that drama he experiences real danger and he encounters real beauty the likes of which he has never seen in the shire and that experience changes him fundamentally. that's what happens when you meet God in the story of Jesus its a story with such beauty and power and drama in it that just getting swept up into it forever changes you it's not behavior modification its Soul transformation at the core level to the first way to change happens in our life as we learn the story of Jesus the second element Paul gives us in verse 23
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
in other words you need not only new knowledge you need a new spirit this is why Paul prays for them twice in Ephesians he's like God is going to give you the eyes to be able to see this so the second place we get this this new heart is by the spirit. so here's our definition of a Biblical change the type of chains paul is going after. Its when the spirit of god uses the story of god to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts and thats really the whole big Idea of Ephesians. its why these moral instructions come in chapter 4 not in chapter one because its only after saturating ourselves in the Gospel for three chapters and only after the spirit of God is renewed our hearts to these prayers will our heart be changed what Paul's going to do now is after he explains that he's going to give a couple of examples of what gospel change looks like a couple of test cases if you will the show you whether or not you've actually had the metal of your heart transformed by the gospel Paul is not trying to give an exhaustive list he just said this is what your life will begin to look like once the gospels transformed you here's the first one its in verse 32
1.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Paul doesn’t just command us to forgive in many ways you cannot be just commanded to forgive or just love somebody says you do this in light of how God has forgiven you hear is Jesus’ way of explaining. Jesus tells the story of a man that owed another man ten thousand talents 10,000 was the highest number you could count to in Greek so to say 10,000 was to say Infinity of money. a talent was equivalent to a months wages. on the day this mans debt is due he doesn’t have the money, he owes and infinity amount of money so he falls on his knees in front of this this guy who's loaning the money to just weeping and say give me give me one more week and I'll pay you back every penny he looks at this man and shakes his head no. stand-up is as you don't have another week to pay me back because you don't owe me any more money as of right now I absolve your debt entirely I mean the man nobody can believe it. The man everybody's kind of looking around like what just happened in a man stands up and says are you serious and I forgive your debt entirely, the man feels light as air. just got forgiven and eternity of debt, and he walking outside crossing the street the guy owes him a $1.50 from a moutnain dew from the week before. Where's My Money where's my $1.50we don't have any cash I can't pay you back $1.50 in Jesus the story this guy goes over and grabs him and says you don't have my 1.50 I'm going to throw you into an into prison you can imagine when Jesus is telling the story that everybody is like kind of shakes her head says that's ridiculous nobody who just been forgiven ten thousand talents would hold somebody else responsible for a 150 and Jesus’ point was exactly. if you don’t naturally forgive others if your not naturally generous toward others if you’re not forgiving and compassionate and loving it must be because you've never really experienced or have no knowledge of how much Jesus has loved and forgiven you Heres the 2nd one
32 says be kind to one another tenderhearted forgiving one another just like God in Christ forgave you you can't be just commanded to forget ever loved somebody says you do this in light of how God has forgiven you hear she's this way of explaining that she said ten thousand talents now Infinity of money so he falls on his knees in front of this on this guy who's loaning the money to begin should you know just just weeping and say give me just leave if you just give me one more week and I'll pay you back every penny stand-off is as you don't have another week to pay me back because you don't owe me any more money as of right now I absolve your debt entirely I mean the man nobody can believe it. The man everybody's kind of looking around like what just happened in a man stands up and says are you serious and I forgive your dad in Thailand you just got forgiven any type of debt is crossing the street the guy owes him Where's My Money where's my stop we don't have any cash I can't pay you back $2 50 in Jesus the story this guy goes over and grabs him and says you don't have my dollar fifty I'm going to throw you into an into prison you can imagine when Jesus is telling the story that everybody is like kind of shakes her head says that's ridiculous nobody who just been forgiven ten thousand talents somebody else it must be because you've never really experienced forgiven you loving way that is because you know that angers apart of love right when you love something you're you're angry at the thing that is hurting it if I love the person who is dying of cancer I hate and I'm angry at the cancer that is destroying their their body because I love my kids I hate and I'm angry at the femoral cancer like dishonesty a rebellion that I'm icy destroying their souls the problem with our anger Paul says that it's selfish anger we want to smack back at a person because of what they did to us they hit you you hit them back or you punish them for the way that they irritate you through yelling at them or maybe your preferred method is is the silent treatment however it is you're trying to pay them back for how they hurt you were inconvenienced you I'm loving anger instead of angle where you're more concerned with bringing healing to the other person than you are with Vindicated yourself develop such a love that even your anger duranglers overcome by that lost thinking of the story of Jesus Jesus got angry. you look at every situation in your life that transforms all your haters what makes Christianity distinctive from every other religion on Earth one word Grace Christianity put forward morality that is totally different than that of every other every other religion in the world tells you to change and if you change if you become good God will accept you call in the book of Ephesians God is already accepted response to that you should change in Christianity good works don't lie to Salvation like they do in other religions if you see the rules enough you do enough good stuff you would have heaven in Christianity good works Flo from salvation and that makes a huge difference in your heart you see if you do good works in order to be saved then you're not really doing it because you love God right you're only doing that because you want to protect yourself and you're doing it out of self-interest your heart is going to be filled with with fear that God is going to judge you in and Prime emotions don't lead a true righteousness and peace when you're afraid of him Martin Luther the Bible teaches that salvation is not God's reward for a life of good works but it's a free gift that God gives to all who will receive it by faith the church said if you could tell them salvation is just a free gift and it is go around and do whatever they want the replied know if people really see that Christ is removed the fear of punishment from them I take it into himself and we'll go do whatever they want they'll do whatever he wants This is Gospel change and it is absolutely unique in the world
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
it doesn’t just say, don’t be angry, it says be angry, and don’t sin. to be angry in a loving way that is because you know that angers apart of love right when you love something you're you're angry at the thing that is hurting it if I love the person who is dying of cancer I hate and I'm angry at the cancer that is destroying their their body because I love my son I hate and I'm angry at the moral cancer like dishonesty a rebellion that I see destroying their souls. the problem with our anger Paul says that it's selfish anger we want to smack back at a person because of what they did to us they hit you you hit them back or you punish them for the way that they irritate you through yelling at them or maybe your preferred method is is the silent treatment. however it is you're trying to pay them back for how they hurt you were inconvenienced you Paul says don’t be selfishly angry, thats sinful anger have loving anger instead of anger where you're more concerned with bringing healing to the other person than you are with Vindicating yourself. how do you develop such a love that even your anger bathed in that love that your anger is overcome by that love? Paul says think of the story of jesus and let the spirit of God change your heart through that story. Jesus got angry at our sin and rebuked it but when it came time to deal with it jesus took it on himself. Paul says thats how you should be angry not simply ceasing to loose your temper. He is talking about God’s grace in every way totally restructure the way you look at every situation in your life. in a way that transforms all your behaviors. so remember this question we started with, what makes christianity distinctive from every other religion on earth? one word Grace. Christianity put forward morality that is totally different than that of every other every other religion in history, in the world tells you to change and if you change if you become good God will accept you Paul in the book of Ephesians is the opposite of that its the announcement that God is already accepted you as a free gift because of what Christ did and in response to that you should change in Christianity good works don't lead to salvation like they do in other religions if you keep the rules enough you do enough good stuff you would have heaven in Christianity good works flow from salvation and that makes a huge difference in your heart you see if you do good works in order to be saved then you're not really doing it because you love God right you're only doing that because you want to protect yourself and you're doing it out of self-interest your heart is going to be filled with with fear that God is going to judge you in and pride when you feel like you are doing well and despair when you are not doing well and those emotions don't lead a true righteousness and peace they don’t lead you to love God you cannot grow in your love for God when you're afraid of him.
Martin Luther was the catholic monk that rediscovered this great truth the Bible teaches that salvation is not God's reward for a life of good works but it's a free gift that God gives to all who will receive it by faith the church said if you could tell them salvation is just a free gift and it is go around and do whatever they want Luther replied no if people really see that Christ is removed the fear of punishment from them I take it into himself and we'll go do whatever they want they'll do whatever he wants This is Gospel change and it is absolutely unique in the world