Ephesians 4:17-24: "What is the Good News?"

If we don't understand, or remember, these verses, we're not going to be able to really hear today's passage right. So I want to start by reminding us of the overall flow of Paul's argument.

Paul had one main point in 4:1-6, it's right here in verse 1. How should we walk, given what we know about God's plan for the entire world and for us? If we know how much God loves us, and what he did for us by sending Jesus... If we know that God's plan was to make one people for himself, living in peace with him and with each other. What should we do? What is our response?

(Read 4:1).

Therefore , I exhort you, I, the prisoner of the Lord, worthily to walk of the calling with which you were called,

If we really understand what God did, and we are thankful, we will walk worthily of our calling.

Paul then explains what this means in verses 2-6:

with all humility and meekness,

with patience,

putting up with one another in love,

hurrying to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,

one body and one spirit,

just as also you were called in one hope of your calling,

one Lord,

one faith,

one baptism,

one God and Father of all,

who (is) over all and through all and in all.

Most of us tend to think about what it means to be a Christian in an individualistic way. And what I mean is, most us say something like, "God saved me from my sins, so I can have a personal relationship with God." If this is right, we'd assume that walking worthily of our calling means living obediently vertically, in my relationship with God. I obey him (pointing up).

But God's plan for the world was not to save you as an individual. God is creating a people for himself, a single family, to live in peace with him and with each other. And we, as a church, are supposed to live in peace with each other. We walk (1) with patience, (2) putting up with one another in love, (3) hurrying to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There are going to be times when we don't want to do this. Every family has its fights. But when families fight, they usually understand that at the end of the day, we are brothers and sisters, and we have to forgive each other, and show grace to each other. I know a guy whose sister did a terrible thing to him, and he refused to forgive her. She felt terrible about what she'd done. Truly terrible. And he wouldn't forgive her. I tried telling him, "But she's your little sister. At the end of the day, no matter what she did, she's your little sister." I thought for sure that'd work. I felt dirty saying it, like I was using a cheap shot. It's cheating, saying that, right? My sister will forever by my little sister, no matter what she could possibly do to me. We are family, and we will make it work.

The people of this congregation are your brothers and sisters. They are your family. Walking worthily of your calling means living in peace with God, and with them.

This brought us to Ephesians 4:7-16.

God has a plan for the church. He's creating a family that is holy-- set apart-- to live together with him in peace. But look at us. What a mess, right? What a disaster we are. And so we read:

Now to each one of us was given this grace/ministry according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore , it says,

"Rising into the height, he captured captives,

he gave gifts to people."

Now the "he rose"-- what/who is (it) except that he also descended to the lower part of the earth?

The one descending-- he is also the one ascending above all the heavens,

in order that he might fill/fulfill all things.

And he gave, on the one hand, apostles,

on the other hand prophets,

on the other hand evangelists,

on the other hand pastors and teachers

for the fixing/equipping of the holy ones,

(1) for the work of service/ministry,

(2) for the building of Christ's body

until we all reach

for the unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God,

for a perfect/mature man,

for the measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ,

in order that no longer we may be infants,

being tossed by waves and being carried by every wind of teaching

in the trickery of people,

in cunning for the scheming of error/deceit.

Now speaking the truth in love, we must grow into him into/for him with reference to all,

who is the head, Christ,

from whom the whole body,

being joined together and being held together through every supporting ligament according to the working by measure of each part,

makes the growth of the body

for the building of itself in love.

We as a church don't look like God's vision. We struggle to love each other, and live in peace. Part of the reason we struggle is that we don't understand God's big plan, or what he did for us through Jesus.

How do we get from where we are, to where God wants us to be? How do we grow in unity, in love, in the depth of our understanding?

It was for this reason that Jesus gave each of us a ministry for this church. We build the church. We help it grow. And to a few people in each church, Jesus gave some type of leadership ministry. The reason the church has pastors, and teachers, and evangelists, and apostles, and prophets, isn't because that's just what churches are supposed to do. The reason we have these people is because Jesus gave them to us, to fix us. We all have a job to do. This job is a responsibility, and a privilege. But we find ourselves unable to really do it. We don't really understand our faith. Or we are caught in sin. We need help. Your leaders fix you, like a mechanic or a doctor, so that you can do the job Jesus gave you. What this should lead to, verse 16, is the growth of the body, for the building of itself in love.

This brings us to Ephesians 4:17. What our church leaders do is fix us, right? Paul is an apostle, a pastor, a teacher. If anyone is a leader in the church, it's Paul. And because Paul is a leader, his job is to fix the church. And the Ephesians are broken.

They aren't living in peace with each other; they aren't living as a holy family set apart for God. And if they are broken, they won't be able to do the different ministries Jesus gave them to do. And so Paul says this:

Therefore , this I say and I testify in the Lord, no longer walk

just as also the Gentiles/nations walk in the futility of their mind,

God has this plan for the Ephesians, just like he does for us. He wants them to live in peace with him, and with each other, in holiness. But there is the incredible gap between God's vision for them, and who the Ephesians actually are. The Ephesians are living terrible lives. They are still living like they used to, before they gave their allegiance to Jesus.

And so Paul tells them here, "You have to stop walking as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds." In Ephesians 2, Paul said that all of you, before you were saved, were dead in your wrongdoing and sins in which you walked. And now, look at you. You're doing the same sins. How? Why?

When Paul says, don't walk as the nations walk, this should sound weird. We should stop, and say to ourselves, "Wait. The Ephesians are Gentiles. They're not Jews." Paul is saying, you were Gentiles. Now, you are God's people. That is your identity.

So how do the Gentiles walk? Verses 18-20 expand on this. First of all, Gentiles are darkened in their understanding. There was one vacation we went on as kids, where my parents drove out of their way so that we could go through this scenic bypass. It's a place with stunning beauty. We got there right as the sun set. I'm sure if we could've seen it, we'd have understood its beauty. We'd have marveled at what God had created. But we were darkened in our understanding. We couldn't see reality as it was. Gentiles are darkened in their understanding. They don't see God, and the world, how they actually are.

Second, Gentiles are alienated from the life of God. God has a single family, a single family who serve him and worship him. Imagine that family living in a house, celebrating, enjoying each other's company. Gentiles are on the outside of the house. They are excluded.

Why are Gentiles excluded?

Paul gives two reasons:

(1) because of the lack of knowledge being in them

(2) because of the hardness of their heart.

First, Gentiles, lack knowledge. They don't know the truth about God and what he wants, and what Jesus did. Second, their hearts are hard.

This is a terrible combination. If someone just lacks knowledge of right and wrong, or what God wants, but their heart is soft and open to instruction, you can help them, right? You can teach them. If someone knows right and wrong, but they are stubborn, that's harder. But there's always the chance that this knowledge will work its way into them. If you truly know that God wants you to live at peace with everyone in this church, and you are hard-hearted about it, what happens next? My hope would be that this knowledge will make you miserable. I don't see how you can know something like this, and keep your hearts hard.

But if you lack knowledge AND you're hard-hearted? That's brutal. What can you do for someone like that? And that's the situation Gentiles are in.

In verse 19, Paul reminds them what all of this leads to.

who, having become calloused, themselves they gave over to self-abandonment

for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.

If you don't know about God's life, and you're stubborn, you become calloused. Normally, I like having callouses. They protect my hands and feet; they are like a badge of honor that I work hard. But when your heart is calloused-- not good. When your heart is calloused, there is no reason to ever say "no" to sin. You give yourselves over to self-abandonment to chase unclean things. Will these things make you happy? Meh? Maybe, for a moment. But it's more like, there's no reason NOT to do these things. There's no reason not to live it up. If you are offered a chance to sin, why say no?

So we understand why the Gentiles live this way. Their minds are all messed up. They don't see the world, and God, for how they are. And they are hard-hearted. We look at people living this way, and we ache for them. We know they aren't happy. We know these things are ruining them. But we also get it. We know why people live this way.

But you? You Ephesians?

Verse 20-24

Now you did not in this way learn Christ--

if indeed him you heard (about),

and in him you were taught,

just as is truth in Jesus,

that you take off according to the former behavior,

the old person being ruined by deceitful desires.

now you are being renewed in your spiritual mind,

and you put on the new person-- the one in accordance with God being created in/with/by righteousness and holiness from the truth.

We all understand why the Gentiles live like they do. They don't know the truth; their hearts are hardened; and they go through life saying to themselves, "Why not?"

You, though? When you were taught the good news about Jesus and about God's plan to make peace with all people, what exactly did people say to you? What is it that God requires of people who want to come to him? What were you taught about Jesus?

There are many ways to tell people the good news, but the core content of the gospel doesn't really change. And one of my greatest fears is that you have never really heard the full gospel. Echoing Paul, "You heard something, but it wasn't really Jesus." You were taught something, but it wasn't in Jesus." And the reason I get panicky about this is because in my own church, growing up, the good news wasn't really taught.

So what I want to do this morning is explain the good news to you. There are many ways to explain it, and different approaches you can take to it, but the heart of the good news doesn't change. I want to share this with you, for my own peace of mind. Then I'll know, at least one time, you heard the good news about Jesus.

If I base the gospel message on Ephesians, it sounds something like this:

(1) What God wants most, is to have a single family that is holy, and set apart, for him. This family is supposed to live in obedience toward him, living in peace with God and with each other.

(2) There is a huge obstacle to God's vision for the world, and that obstacle is sin. All of us were dead in our wrongdoing and sins. We didn't understand who God was, or what he wants. We were ignorant, and we were hard-hearted. We chased sin, not God.

(3) God responded to this by sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, to make peace between himself and us. This is the good news-- that God loved us, despite our sin and rebellion, and God made a way for us to live in peace with him and with each other.

So when you hear this, does it sound like good news? Do you want to be part of God's family? Do you want to have your sins forgiven, and live in peace with God and his family?

If you hear this as good news, then the Bible teaches you do three things in response.

(1) Repent from your sins (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 1 Thess. 1:9). You are walking on a road of sin and wrongdoing, right? Repenting means turning from that road, and turning toward God in commitment to him.

(2) Submit to Jesus as King. Christians usually call this placing your "faith" or "belief" in Jesus, and these aren't wrong, but these are misunderstood so often I've started to avoid this. What "faith" means is allegiance. You come to Jesus, you fall on your knees, and you submit to Jesus as King (Mark 1:40; 5:22, 32-34).

(3) And the third thing you do is get baptized. Baptism is how you tell God you giving yourself to him, that you are dying to yourself, and to sin, and you want to live for God (Gal. 2:19-20; Rom. 6).

1 Peter 3:21-22:

21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as a pledge to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Baptism is your pledge to God. Many Christians don't like this verse (or Acts 2:38-41). They don't like the idea that baptism does anything, or that it's even necessary. They want to say all we need is faith, and that baptism is a public declaration of faith. They don't have any verses supporting this. Baptism is your pledge to God. It's how you tell God you desperately want him to save you. It's how you are joined to Christ, and die to yourself, to Sin, and how you give yourself to God and his messiah (Rom 6). I want to be clear. I'm not saying baptism does anything apart from repentance and allegiance to Jesus. I think baptism is how you tell God you want to repent and how you give allegiance, confessing Jesus as Lord.

So the three things you do, again, are this: (1) You repent from your sins. This means, you turn from them, and commit yourself to God. (2) You submit to Jesus as King. (3) You get baptized, as your pledge to God.

And the reason you do this is because you want to have your sins forgiven, and be part of God's family, set apart as holy for him.

It's possible that some of you were never really taught Jesus. You were taught something, you heard some version of the gospel, but it wasn't really Jesus. You heard something, but it wasn't Jesus.

And if it wasn't really JESUS you heard, it's almost certainly because you were taught a watered-down version of the gospel. Were you taught you have to simply confess your sins, and admit you've sinned, or were you taught you have to repent? Were you taught that you confess Jesus as Savior? Or were also taught you confess him as Lord, Master, King? Salvation is not free; it costs you everything. You give Jesus your allegiance; you give your life to him.

Was it HIM you heard? Was it IN HIM that you were taught? If you've never made this commitment, come talk to me.

So, monster rabbit trail concluded, where were we in Ephesians? Chapter 4, verse 20:

Now you did not in this way learn Christ--

if indeed him you heard (about),

and in him you were taught,

just as is truth in Jesus,

that you take off the old person being ruined by deceitful desires-- the one in accordance with the prior way of life,

now to being renewed in your spiritual mind,

and you put on the new person -- the one in accordance with God being created in/with/by righteousness and holiness from the truth.

Picture who you were apart from Jesus as an old shirt. You were being ruined by your deceitful desires. They were destroying you. When you give your allegiance to Jesus-- when you come to him in faith-- you take off that old clothing. You take off the old person. You are being renewed in your spiritual mind, and you put on the new person. What is this new person? The one being created how God wants, in righteousness and holiness, whose starting point is the truth.

As new parts of Jesus' body-- as new parts of the church-- you can't walk like you used to walk. You have to stop walking on the road of sin and wrongdoing. You take off your old way of life, and put on the new one being created in righteousness and holiness.

All of us have felt the pull of sin. These desires are like a magnet, drawing us in. They offer us lies-- these sins will make you happy, they will give you pleasure, they will give you security. These desires are deceitful.

If you were still Gentiles, I would understand living in sin. I'd understand giving into these deceitful desires. You're minds are messed up; your hearts are hardened. But you are not like the Gentiles. You know what God's life looks like. You are not excluded from his family. You are not darkened in your understanding. Your hearts are not still calloused (Rom. 2:29).

So don't live like the Gentiles. Live as people who are thankful to God for the ways he has blessed you in Jesus. Live as people who have taken off your old self, the one being ruined by sin, and who have put on the new self. You are clean; you are holy. So live that way.

Why is this so important? Paul is going to answer this question in chapter 5, but for now, know this: Jesus has given each of you a ministry for this church, to build it up and help it grow. If you are walking in sin, unrepentant, you can't walk worthily of your calling. You can't do the job Jesus gave you to do. You have to start walking rightly, if for no other reason than that this church needs you. We need you to do the job Jesus gave you, so that we grow in unity, in spiritual insight, and in peace.

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