Ephesians 4:17-24
Notes
Transcript
Handout
A few weeks back I suggested that Ephesians 4:1 is the loudest thing in the entire book. Remember? Loud things echo.
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,
I likened this command to a shout. If this message can via email or text message it would have come in all CAPS.
WALK! - Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Walk in a way that will demonstrate all the theology I just spent three chapters unpacking for you. Hey Ephesians you have to walk the walk.
This is the first time we will hear the echo of Eph. 4:1. And it is going to come back in the negative. Eph. 4:1 says “walk in a manner worthy” and Eph. 4:17 will say “walk no longer like you did before.”
I pray for us today as I have throughout the week, that God would meet us in His word powerfully today.
One time Jesus stood up in a crowd of people and said,
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
My prayer is that we would do just that today.
In this passage, Paul is going to compare and contrast our former and present state. For those who are Christ followers, there has been a fundamental change to our lives. And the change is so drastic that the way it is talked about in Scripture is likened to death and life. It is a former life and a new life…we have, “died to self and we have been made alive in Christ.” There is a whole new thing going on here and Paul is going to compare and contrast those “identities.”
But he won’t just compare and contrast…he is going to indicate that whenever that “old nature” pops up, those who have been given newness of life have been blessed with an opportunity to make choices that can allow them to continue to walk in that newness instead of slowly marching the path of death and destruction.
Today we will see that all of us have the ability at our disposal to be new. Change in your life is possible…it is possible, but we must...
Textual Idea: Renew our minds until we grow past those things we’re formerly known as.
Textual Idea: Renew our minds until we grow past those things we’re formerly known as.
Look at the text:
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.
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 and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 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, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through 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.
Renew our minds until we grow past those things we’re formerly known as.
Renew our minds until we grow past those things we’re formerly known as.
We we prepare to take an expository journey through the text today, we need to brace ourselves for what Paul is about to say…this is not politically correct. This is shocking. It is very abrasive…it is foolishness in the eyes of the natural person and this was all of us at one point in time and Paul is going to tell us that we must grow past those things we are formerly known as.
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.
Paul starts off strong out the gate here. Paul says, I am going to say this, but not only am I saying this, I am willing to μαρτύρομαi. Meaning I am willing to go before a judge…I will testify to this. What I am about to say…I am willing to go on record with and to be martyred for. This is rock bottom truth. Paul is convinced that what he is saying is accurate.
Well what is he going to say? What we hear is the first echo coming back to us, but it is stated in the negative. In 4:1…Paul says, “walk in a manner worthy,” and now 16 verses later he is going to describe how we used to walk and how we should not walk like that anymore. It is brutal.
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.
He says you must “no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” Meaning don’t live your life the way you used to. The term “Gentiles” is kind of an all inclusive term for people who are strangers to God’s special affection and relationship. That is who we all used to be when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but now we are a unique people. We are God’s redeemed people.
A word of caution…for the next few moments, this passage is brazenly immodest, but at the same time it is filled with truth and love. The most important thing we need to know about ourselves is that which is true.
So here we go...
The Unregenerate Mind is…
The Unregenerate Mind is…
...Marked with vanity.
...Marked with vanity.
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.
In the futility of their minds Paul says. Paul says they were walking around in the vanity of their minds. Paul is going to connect the body and the mind here. The physical and the immaterial.
Mind here is more than just a way of thinking…it is referring to all of those things that make up our inner person (our intellect, our emotions our wills). This is a term that refers to the whole person. Our insides are connected to our outsides. Paul is going to say that wherever the mind goes, the body follows. The inner direction of our thoughts will certainly impact they way we walk.
The unregenerate mind is futile…it is the same word we see in Ecclesiastes...Vanity - pertaining to being useless on the basis lacking content—‘useless, empty,.’
That is a bold bold bold statement…no wonder Paul was persecuted so often. How can you testify about this Paul? How can you substantiate that claim? How are they vain?
If you look throughout Ecclesiastics you can construct a definition for vanity. (“vanity”), according to Ecclesiastes is as follows:
“An unsatisfying, endless repetition of old things that nobody will remember; nothing you do will last, and at the end you die. And you can’t fix it.”
This is hebel. This is what you have to gain from all the toil at which you toil for under the sun.
In what way are unregenerate people vain? They don’t know the most important thing in the world. They don’t acknowledge God to be God. They have dethroned the Almighty One, the King of Creation and have made themselves to be God like in Romans 1:21...
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
All people instinctively know God exists, but don’t acknowledge him as God. They declare themselves to be God. I am going to live my life, walk according to my mind…no one can tell me what to do. I make a pretty good God.
When you think that way…that is pretty dark. In fact that is what Paul says next...
…Darkened in their understanding
…Darkened in their understanding
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.
We all know how difficulty it is to navigate a course in the dark. The youth group last week was playing a game in the dark…they blacked out the room and you had to make your way to the other side of the room and grab a set of keys on a chair without getting tagged by someone on the other team.
Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how freaky it feels to take steps into the darkness knowing that they next one my get you caught? Well Paul says…the unregenerate mind is “darkened in their understanding.”
They have no light in their understanding to illuminate the most important thing in the universe and they are aimlessly walking in the dark.
And that is a very vulnerable place to be…they have aimlessly walked so far that they are...
...Alienated from the life of God.
...Alienated from the life of God.
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.
Alienated means to be cut off and to have no share in the life of God. It is what Paul has already said in Eph. 2:12
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
When you are estranged from the life of God…you have no hope. These verses are loaded with quite the indictment and that leads us to ask the question.
Q. Why is the unregenerate person vain, darkened and alienated?
Q. Why is the unregenerate person vain, darkened and alienated?
Let’s continue on our expository journey.
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.
Paul says they are vain, darkened and alienated because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Ignorance - A-gnosis – no knowledge…and the knowledge they had that is made plain to them through creation itself has been exchanged. (Romans 1:21)
They have a MAKER who formed their hearts, but those hearts are hardened toward Him.
Think about your physical heart for a moment. I’m pretty sure that your physical heart needs to be flexible and soft in order to function properly and squeeze and contract in order to pump blood. Paul isn’t talking about physical hearts…he is talking about the inner man, the causal core, the thing that makes you do what you do, love what you love and hate what you hate. Paul says, the unregenerate person is hardened at that level. That’s not good.
Q. What happens when your mind is vain, darkened and alienated?
Q. What happens when your mind is vain, darkened and alienated?
There is a logical progression here and it isn’t pretty.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
You become calloused. A callous is formed over time from rubbing up against something. The problem with callouses is that callouses are a collection of deadness. Callous don’t feel things and having the ability to feel is important to your overall health.
If your hands are so calloused that you cease to feel pain you have a much bigger potential problem. Paul says, this isn’t just a part of the physical body that has become calloused…rather Paul says “They have become calloused.” Like every part of them. In a sense they have become less human.
When you become less human you are willing to give yourself over to anything that promises relief even though it fails to deliver on the goods.
This is so sad.
Q. What are the calloused ones handing themselves over too?
Q. What are the calloused ones handing themselves over too?
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
They are giving themselves over to sensuality. They are just trying to feel something, anything. Then want something, anything to break through their callousness. So they give themselves over to that pursuit.
That is what happens when you sin. You believe a lie and commit a sin, but it fails to deliver…but then you do it again and it fails to deliver…and the downward cycle begins. That’s why the author of Hebrews describes it as the “fleeting pleasures of sin.”
Sin always keeps us longer than we wanted to say and it always takes us further than we wanted to go...
This word “sensuality” is an interesting word as it was used to characterize the sin commited in Sodom and Gomorrah.
7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked
What was their sensual conduct? – raping tourists. If it feels good do it irregardless of how it might effect someone else.
They were given up to these things. It was their continual practice and around the clock pursuit. And they had an unquenchable desire for more.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
All this pursuit and yet they are still greedy. They still have the cravings for impurity because greed only happens to us when we are not satisfied.
I need more of this impurity, and more, and more…it basically goes from bad to worse to eventual judgment.
In Summary - The Unregenerate are futile, darkened, alienated, plagued with ignorance, hardness, they are calloused, and given over to endless pursuits of satisfaction that never deliver.
How sad is this condition? This should make us weep. This description should lead us to have compassion…when the blind lead the blind, both fall in a pit. I don’t want anyone to fall in a pit. People need to be told the Good News that although this is their reality…it doesn’t have to remain that way…the bridge that they need to cross over is the one the Christ provides...
and that is what Paul says next on our expository journey.
As you read Paul’s summary of the “unregenerate mind” what emotions/feelings are stirred in you? (Eph. 4:17-19).
Paul claims that those with a regenerate mind have been fundamentally changed. How so? (Eph. 4:20).
In Eph. 4:21, Paul assumes that they “heard about Christ and were taught in Him” in an accurate way (Acts 18:25). The culture has a bunch of false understandings of Jesus. With your group identify some of those “false understandings” of Jesus.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
He is going to compare the unregenerate heathen with the Ephesians who used to be unregenerate heathen. They used to be unregenerate heathen but they “learned” something.
They have come to understand something about Jesus Christ. He has made all the difference.
Paul is saying because of your belief in the Gospel that came to you, you are the exact opposite of what I just described. The very suggestion that you might still live life in this way after experiencing the Gospel is utterly impossible and ludicrous.
Paul continues on...
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
We read this line and say wait a minute…I thought Paul brought the Gospel to Ephesus…and if Paul brought the Gospel to Ephesus why would he have to assume they heard the truth about who Jesus is?
Paul did bring the Gospel to Ephesus, but so did a man named Apollos.
24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
Luke, the author of Acts, says Apollos was competent, he was someone who had been instructed in the way of the Lord…and he taught accurately the things about Jesus.
Q. How do you know if what you have been told about Jesus is accurate?
Q. How do you know if what you have been told about Jesus is accurate?
There are a lot of different takes on Jesus in the culture. Which one is accurate? Which one is authentic and how do you know? Does Jesus want unity more than anything so everyone no matter what they believe or practice is invited to the table. Sort of an all-inclusive Jesus? That is probably the most popular version of Jesus in our society...the “no judgement here” Jesus. Is that the real deal? How do I know?
Paul will tell you at the next stop on our expository journey.
The way you can tell if you have been accurately taught about Jesus is to observe the major arch of Jesus life.
How can you tell if you have “learned” the authentic version of Jesus?
Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus lived again as the firstborn from among the dead.
So what does the Gospel look like in action in your life? What does “learning Jesus accurately” look like?
Well, we live, we die and we live again in newness of life. Look at what Paul says.
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
When we learn Jesus accurately we die to self and and we grow past those things we are formerly known as. We are new people. We are new creations.
We still have an OLD SELF, but we put it off, we crucify it daily, we cast it away, we put it aside we lay it down as an act of our will. We say, “I’m not going to do this anymore because that way of thinking and behaving is my “former” life. It is corrupt.” If something is corrupt it doesn’t work. That way of living doesn’t work for me anymore. Those desires that I used to have, I might still have, but I recognize them for what they are…they are deceitful…but since the Gospel has come to me I, like Jesus, have lived, have died, and now I live again and I am going to Romans 6:11 this thing.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
And as I consider this to be my new reality…I get busy with the work of “renewing the Spirit of my mind.”
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
The spirit of my mind used to be vain and empty, but now I am going to fill it up with that which is true and fulfilling.
Now this is very interesting language Paul uses here. Paul claims that the “mind” has a “spirit.” This is very interesting.
In other words, our mind has what we call a “mindset.” It doesn’t just have a view, it has a viewpoint. Our mind has a posture, a demeanor, a bent. Paul says we need to, “Be renewed in the spirit of our minds.”
What he means by this is that we are in need of complete restoration. Our whole way of processing information has to change…the bent of your mind has to change.
Paul claims that the “mind” has a “spirit” in Ephesians 4:23. What do you think he means by that?
People, that takes consistent effort over a long period of time.
Take someone addicted to pornography…or take someone who is given over to anxiety, these addictions begin with a choice, whether we choose to click or we choose to dwell on something we value too much or that is outside our control.
These things can become idols. Idols exist in our lives because we invite them in…and we are predisposed to open the doors wide! (we just looked at the unregenerate mind.)
When we repeatedly choose to do evil, these decisions can also be accompanied by changes in our physical brains activity. The brain hasn’t caused the decision, the brain simple renders the desires of the heart. It’s as if the heart has left its footprints on the brain.
This explains the differences we can observe when looking at the brain of an addict and the brain of a “normal” person. What has been going on in the heart, month after month, year after year, is being represented physically, with changes in the way the brain operates.
This is all of us…we need to “put off” our old self and we need to “put on the new self.”
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
When we put on this new man…we identify with a new reality. We have been “created after the likeness of God.” Something happened to us when we heard the Good News of Jesus. This text says that there was something new created.
God did this creating.
The ability to create also implies intentions and purposes…it implies design. Why did God create us new in Christ? Why did He make us new creations?
Well He wanted the image of God that is in us to be restored. It was damaged and tarnished by the fall and God decided to make a way for it to be restore for those of us who are in Christ. We have been created after the likeness of God.
We were formerly under the tutelage of Satan and were rivals of God, but now we are new creations of God and are ambassadors for God.
When you learn Christ accurately, you put off your old self with its practices and you make choice to live in your new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator in true righteousness and holiness. This comes from being connected to the vine.
As we do this over time, we begin to love what He loves, and hate what He hates, think what He thinks, behave the way He behaved until we grow past those things we are formerly known as.
To God be the glory!
We have been thoroughly equipped to “put off” our old nature…what areas of life (thinking or behaving) do you need to grow past those things you were formerly known as?