Calling Beyond Imagination

We are in our second-to-last sermon in our series “Church Beyond Imagination”...

And our vision for this series has been to “pursue God’s unimaginable vision for his church so that he might receive much glory.”

Ephesians is so clear that the Church is God’s plan A for the present age and there is no plan B.

The Church is how God is demonstrating his wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places… we’re going to talk more about them in the next couple weeks.

The church is the FOCAL POINT of God’s work on earth.

But maybe for some of you, that vision causes some angst…

You hear the pastor say that, and it sounds like he is elevating the thing that he spends all his time on...

But to you, church is just a small part of your life.

Maybe to you, church is an event (or series of events) on the calendar when you go to a certain place and meet with certain people.

For many people “Church” is one compartment of their life that takes up 2, 3, maybe 5 hours each week if they are REALLY devoted...

And the the other compartments of their life take up FAR more than time and energy than that… they even feel more important that that to many people.

Things like working to make a living and taking care of your house and your family and spending time with your friends or neighbors or volunteering at different organizations…

And maybe to some, this “church” thing seems like an “ok” topic (we want to have a good church)… but it also feels somewhat disconnected or irrelevant to where you live each day as a worker.

It makes sense that the pastor would be fired up about this vision, but the rest of us have more to our lives than “church.”

But I hope that you’ve been seeing through this study of Ephesians...

The “church” isn’t just part of the schedule of a believer… it’s not something on our “to do list”… it’s part of our identity.

It’s a part of our calling… who we are.

We don’t go TO church… we ARE Christ’s church...

We are parts of his body and citizens of his kingdom and members of his family and building blocks in his temple.

And I want to encourage you with THIS today: we don’t stop BEING the church when we end our gathering time here and go home.

We don’t stop being the church when we say our goodbyes after our Gospel Community meets.

Being together is important for sure, and we have responsibilities to one another…

Ephesians makes clear that there is no biblical vision for the Christian life without a meaningful commitment to an identifiable body of believers.

But we are still the church even when we are not physically in the same space.

You have to realize that if you are going to grasp God’s cosmic vision for the church.

Some theologians refer to this as “the church gathered” and “the church scattered.”

The “church assembled” and “the church sent.”

And we need to maintain our identity as God’s called out CHURCH even when we are not here in this building… or physically together with the rest of the body.

Today we are going to finish studying the household text that runs from Ephesians 5:22-6:9, which is really all about how we live as “the church scattered” or “the church sent.”

How do we live Monday through Saturday as members of Christ’s household, even though we are dispersed into our homes and workplaces?

How does our identity “in Christ” transform the way we live out our calling in our mid-week relationships?

We’ve already looked at Marriage and family… today we are going to see how our calling as God’s people transforms our work.

Big Idea: Work hard because you have been given a greater calling as God's people.

Your day-to-day work is about more than the work itself… it’s about about more than you typically imagine… it’s about your CALLING as part of Christ’s church…

It’s about how the people of God create a counter-culture in this world that reveals the glory of God.

[Read Eph. 6:5-9]

Work hard because you have been given a greater calling as God's people.

Now maybe you are thinking, “I don’t see the word CALLING in there at all… are you saying that God CALLED some of these church members to be slaves and some to be masters?

To which I would say… sort of.

God CALLED them to Christ… and that changes the way they work in whatever station of life they were in WHEN they were called.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” (1 Corinthians 7:24, ESV)

I want you to see this idea of “‘calling” by stepping back and considering the whole LITERARY context of the book of Ephesians before jumping into the verses we are studying today:

Remember that the first half of Ephesians was all about the theology of what God has done in CREATING his church: how and why God called us out as his people.

In Ephesians 2:10 we read, ““For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

God called us FROM death and TO life… into good works that he prepared before the foundation of the world... that we should WALK in them.

And the second half of the book is identifying what that walk looks like… what those good works are.

It starts with 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,” (Ephesians 4:1, ESV)

That word “calling” is really important.

Paul knew HE was called…

He was called as an Apostle of the Lord and a Prisoner of the Lord…

At other times he calls himself a “bondservant” of the Lord.

And Paul is saying, “Just like I am called, YOU were called too.” Walk in a manner WORTHY of the calling to which you have been called.

Did you know that You are CALLED? You have a CALLING on your life.

Typically think of “calling” as something that’s reserved for pastors or missionaries… they need to be “CALLED.”

But the biblical view of “calling” is bigger than that.

For some of you, it might help to use the Latin word, “Vocation” which means calling.

But even if you’re familiar with that word “vocation,” your mind might jump to your paid work… what you do for a “job.”

… or maybe if you’re a student, you view your studies as your vocation...

But I want you to understand that you’re vocation… your calling… INCLUDES that, but it is much bigger than your “job” if you have one.

The biblical vision for “CALLING” or “VOCATION” is about how you live your ENTIRE life in UNION with Christ… as a member of his body...

At Oak Hill, we sometimes talk about the 5 spheres of life: individual, family, church, community, and world.

Your “calling” is about how the gospel transforms you as you live within your family… and in relationship to others in Christ’s church… and as you do your job at your workplace… and as you live as a good citizen contributing to society...

You are CALLED into Christ… and then IN CHRIST, you embrace the GOOD WORKS that he has for you on the earth.

The Christian walk is NOT about pursuing our own agenda and then squeezing a little Jesus and church in on the side…

It’s about making our entire lives about HIM and HIS agenda.

Every single one of us is called by a Sovereign God… who loves us and saves us and equips us...

And that CALLING includes our marriages, our families, and our work.

(to use Abraham Kuyper’s phrase) God gets glory when every square inch of our lives is brought into submission to Christ and begins to reflect his beauty.

In fact, that’s the very reason WHY Paul is writing in the style of a Roman Household Code:

Remember the purpose of household codes: as goes the household, so goes the society. As goes the household, so goes the church.

The household doesn’t belong to Rome, it belongs to Christ. It was his idea… his creation.

And it is the major place where “the church” lives out our our countercultural identity…

In the first century church, they had a unique PART of their household that we don’t really think about today: they had bondservants... or some of your translations might say “slaves”... and masters.

And that was an important… and COMMON… part of the household in Roman society...

But in Ephesians 6, we see that it needed to look VERY DIFFERENT than other households who had slaves because Jesus changes everything.

Now this might seem really foreign to us… and so we’ve looked at some LITERARY CONTEXT… now we need to do look at some HISTORICAL CONTEXT...

Raise your hand if there are any “slaves” of earthly masters here today???

No… slavery is something we don’t want ANYTHING to do with!

In fact, it might seem odd to read about slavery in the Bible and realize that Paul is not calling for it to be abolished!

So what’s up with slavery in Rome… and in the first century church... and how do we relate to this today?

Well first, we have to define what we are talking about: slavery occurs anytime one person is understood to “own” another person.

Sometimes this includes treating them as less than human…

Obviously in America the evils of slavery included depersonalizing the slave so that they were seen as half of a person.

Today we have the slave trade of human trafficking...

And I want you to know… there is NO WAY to redeem those views of slavery.

But that was not the typical concept of slavery in Rome.

Slaves still lacked basic human rights… and it’s not like we should whitewash this and say life was always good for the slave...

But in the Christian household, Paul is expecting that life should be VERY GOOD for the slave.

And that was very possible within the Roman system and Roman economy.

Alistair Begg notes from his research that 35% of the population were slaves.

And as they lived within the Roman households, they often were well clothed, sheltered, and fed.

They were considered part of the household itself.

They could build wealth… build families… and even become free.

Slaves in Rome were considered persons...

And even though they still were not free… they could BECOME free.

They often voluntarily entered into slavery under a contract for a certain amount of years to pay off a debt and then go free...

or to work long enough that they could prove their abilities and rise to a new social status… (sort of like an intern in a company)

Sometimes they went into slavery or stayed in slavery just to get off the streets and get a roof over their head and food in their belly.

It may seem foreign to us, but slavery was embedded into the economy of Rome… and therefore even was part of the wellbeing of the slave....

To abolish the institution of slavery for Christians could actually mean something WORSE-OFF for the slave

Christianity didn’t have any political sway to change the economy of Rome....

But Christians COULD change the way THEY VIEWED and EXPRESSED slavery.

What I’m trying to say is that Paul is not condoning slavery in all of its forms…

Instead he’s changing the fundamental nature of the relationship so that all of the benefits remain, but all of the evil atrocities are forsaken.

Paul dignifies the slave and humbles the master, reminding them that there is no slave or free in Christ.

He shows us that humans cannot actually OWN each other… we are all created by God in his image and he ALONE owns the Copyright… he alone controls the CALLING of our lives.

And at the same time, Paul teaches believers how to live out their calling in Christ in whatever station they find themselves.

I like what commentator Howard Hoehner said,

“Christianity’s emphasis has always been on the transformation of individuals who will in turn influence society, not the transformation of society which will then transform individuals.” (Hoehner, Ephesians, p. 804).

That’s what Paul is doing here: he’s teaching slaves and masters how their calling as individual believers changes their relationship to one another… and therefore transforms the societal structure itself.

And the result of what he writes is something very close to what we might consider a GOOD employer/employee relationship in the modern world.

It’s not a 1 to 1 correlation…

We don’t need to adopt all the cultural baggage of slavery…

Paul is NOT calling us to become slaves.

But THERE ARE timeless principles that God wants us to apply to our daily work and relationships: whether it be paid work, volunteer work, work as a citizen, serving at church, or working in our homes.

3 Principles for Working within our Calling

1) Serve with a greater motive. (6:5-6)

Ephesians 6:5-6 “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,”

Bondservants… which is the form of slavery in the Roman context… were to OBEY their earthly masters.

That word for “obey” means to hear and then do.

It recognizes that there is an order of authority in our relationships that is necessary for the flourishing of the work.

In today’s culture, we hate that word “obey,” don’t we?

We don’t like the idea of ANYONE telling us what to do...

We want to be independent thinkers… autonomous...

That’s why a lot of people go out and start their own businesses… because they don’t want to obey someone else’s orders...

Only to find that they still have customers and contractors and others telling them what to do.

The truth is we can’t escape the word “obey” if we are going to interact with others.

Often, we think that obedience means “blind following.”

Shut off your mind… don’t question anything… just shut your mouth and do what they say.

But really, obedience is about knowing our place in the order of things, and using our skills and intellect to serve the needs of the people God has put around us.

In our culture, we don’t have slaves and masters… but we do have employment contracts.

And those contracts define a certain binding relationship with the other people we work with…

There are many places in scripture where God tells us he wants to keep our word and uphold our contracts.

While the employer might not have absolute control of our lives (and should NOT have absolute control as if they owned us), we still are responsible before the Lord to obey within the parameters that we have committed to…

As long as it does not cause us to violate God’s command or neglect some other aspect of our calling as believers.

And that is GOOD… it’s part of the good works to which God has called us.

It’s part of demonstrating his superior wisdom on display in the church.

The Christian understanding of vocation makes us valuable contributors to the world around us.

Imagine two employees at a construction company:

We’ll call them Lax Larry and Faithful Fred.

The boss assigns them BOTH to the same work site… they leave at the same time…

But Lax Larry stops at Turkey Hill for an hour, while Faithful Fred goes straight to the job site.

Lax Larry does the job like he was trained at his last company, while Faithful Fred honors the way the foreman has requested it to be done, even though it’s not the “fastest” way.

Which employee is the boss going to keep around?

FAITHFUL FRED… because he OBEYED the agreed-upon parameters of the job.

He SERVED the needs of the company by understanding their role in it.

Living within God’s calling makes us valuable contributors to the world around us.

There are other parts of our vocation too in which we find ourselves needing to obey… and where our obedience SERVES the people around us.

Students… your teacher is given to you by God to keep order and to help you and the students around you flourish in learning (that’s true if you are in Public, Christian, or Home School).

If you are volunteering within an organization… or serving within the local church… and the coordinator says, “This is what we should do… this is what we need...”

It disrupts the whole thing if we are just like, “I’d rather do it this way.”

Or if we are just like, “Someone else can do it… I’m out.”

Again, I’m not calling for blind obedience or obedience without dialog or obedience when God’s command is violated...

But we maintain the order of God and therefore honor him when we obey those in authority.

God is calling us to SERVE by obeying… by understanding our place within the structures of society and living as those who have been called by GOD to serve.

But WHO are we ultimately obeying when we do this?

Notice the motivation that needs to undergird this obedience: “obey… with fear and trembling.”

Now this begs the question: who are these bondservants fearing?

Is it the earthly masters?

That doesn’t seem likely because Paul tells the masters in just a few verses to “stop their threatening”...

God doesn’t want our relationships to be governed by the fear of man...

If we study the phrase “fear and trembling,” it most often is used of fearing and trembling before God.

That fits the context of the whole passage… we are obeying as we would Christ… doing the will of God… knowing that he is our greater master.

We’ll come back to that characteristic of God in point 3…

But for now, let’s focus on the motive:

Fear and Trembling…

We KNOW that we serve a HOLY GOD… and he has GRACIOUSLY SAVED US… and made us part of his NEW CREATION… and he has GOOD WORKS for us to accomplish...

And it is out of a holy reverence and true obedience to THAT GOD that we are to serve those around us.

Paul goes on to describe this motive as...

A Sincere Heart… as you would Christ.

The King James translates that word, “With a SINGLENESS of heart.”

We have ONE GOAL… that that is to please God.

It’s doing the will of God FROM THE HEART.

God doesn’t just want us to get the job done… he wants us to SERVE out of a greater motive… out of OBEDIENCE to HIM.

As we go about our daily work, we need to check our hearts:

Are we serving GOD by serving the people around us...

Are we embracing our God-given calling in whatever station we find ourselves?

Here’s one heart check we can do: is the quality of our service the same whether it’s recognized or not?

Paul says, “obey… not by the way of eye service.”

How do you work when no one is looking?

Do you cut corners?

Do you waste time?

If you work on a computer, do you ever have to close a window really fast when your boss walks into the room so he doesn’t see how much time you were spending shopping on Amazon for your last-minute Christmas items?

If you know that no one is going to come by and inspect what you’ve done, do you do your work with excellence… or is it shoddy?

Students, if you weren’t getting graded, would you produce the same result?

If you are serving in a ministry at church, are you working as diligently as you would in your paid work?

Is your primary motivation the praise of others, or the honoring of God?

That’s really at the heart of all this: we don’t ultimately work for our boss or our teacher or even for the recognition of others around us...

We work for God.

It’s about a heart that is so caught up in God that we deny ourselves and serve the people around us.

It’s about knowing that because God is Sovereign… he has put me right here… in this moment… to serve those around me.

THIS MOMENT is part of the good work that he has set before me.

I want you to know: God sees your work.

And your work might not FEEL very spiritual.

You might be doing something that is mundane… or temporary… or “secular.”

But I want to assure you: God SEES your work. That makes ALL OF IT spiritual.

If you’re an electrician, fastening two wires together might not FEEL like much… but it’s spiritual.

There’s a way to do that task UNTO THE LORD.

Because you KNOW that you can fasten those wires in a way that just doesn’t care...

Or you can fasten those wires with excellence with a heart to SERVE your customer well because they are your neighbors whom God has called you to love.

Serve so that when you interact with your clients, you can look them in them in the eyes and say, “I did the best that I can do because I have a God who CALLED me.”

If you’re a stay-at-home mom, wiping your kid’s nose might not FEEL spiritual… but it can be.

There’s a way to do it UNTO THE LORD.

To thank God for the gift of your child and the responsibility to care for them.

To wipe their nose with patience and tenderness…

To add a hug afterwards so they know your love as they return to play.

God sees your work.

SERVE with a greater motivation.

God has called you to this good work… he has prepared it for you.

And your work is an overflow of your identity in Christ.

Notice the identity words Paul uses in verses 6-8: Eph. 6:6-8 “[Obey]... as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”

Here’s our second principle for working within our calling...

2) Do good out of a greater identity.(6:6-8)

In Roman society, slave and master were “identities”… they defined you…

It wasn’t just about activity… it as about VALUE… WORTH.

The same was true of men and women… men were WORTH more because of the POWER they held in society.

But in God’s economy, your vocation or position does not define your VALUE… your value is secured by your identity in Christ.

Paul wrote to the Galatians:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus...” (Galatians 3:28–29a, ESV)

He is saying the same thing… whether someone is a slave or free, Christ rewards his people the same according to the work they have done according to his will.

The truth is, we are ALL both free AND bondservants in Christ.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:

“For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 7:22, ESV)

In other words: we are all both free AND bondservants in Christ.

Your identity is not defined by being slave or free according to the world’s standards… it’s about being “called in the Lord”…

In Christ, we experience his freedom from the world’s value system… and we become servants of a FAR GREATER MASTER.

It is out of that secured identity that we “do whatever good” we are called to do.

If we seek our identity in our work, we will use others to secure our identity.

If we seek our identity in the Lord, we will serve others out of an identity that is already secure.

We WORK… we “do GOOD”… because we know that our Good Master has our ultimate reward.

Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.

Too many people measure the VALUE of their work and even their own personal value by the PAY and PRAISE they receive among people… they put their identity in the work itself.

They consider themselves “successful” and “valuable” if they get a make good money or have a job that others count as “important.”

Some people will only serve others in the church if they are given a title first...

“Make me a deacon and I’ll start taking care of the people around me.”

Some parents only discipline their kids so that they are well-behaved in public and make others see that they are good parents...

Some workers will only step up and do a good job if they receive a pay raise or a promotion...

Others feel like a failure if they don’t get the raise or can’t get a certain job they want... or if their work is obscure and doesn’t come with much recognition.

They think that if someone didn’t notice their effort, their work must not be worth much…

There are some people here today who are physically unable to work… and a sermon like this can feel like a source of shame.

I want you to hear this clearly: your identity is not found in your ability OR inability to work and get a job done. It is found in Christ alone.

And he knows what abilities he has given you… and what limitations are in your life… and he has sovereignly factored that into the good works that he has prepared for you.

Often our limitations help to define our calling.

Our limitations remind us that we are ALL in need of God… and that only HE is fully abled.

They help us see what we SHOULD spend our abilities on and what we can’t spend our abilities on.

But your calling comes from your identity in Christ… not from the work you are able to do.

But when our identity is secure in Christ, and we understand that HE SEES and that HE REWARDS… then we are FREE to SERVE HIM by DOING GOOD.

Our identity is not in the work that we do, but in the one we do it for.

For six years, while this church was getting started, I was the worship director here part time, and then I worked full time at a nursing home in Lancaster City.

And I despised that job most of the time...

I was shoved into a corner of the building… my office had no windows… it literally used to be a room where they kept the trash compactor...

And someone said, “Let’s take the trash compactor out and put a PERSON in there.”

I was often treated poorly by other staff… I did boring, mundane work when what I really wanted to do was serve the church full-time… my title was “administrative assistant.”

I felt frustrated… worthless… angry at my obscurity...

But God used that time in profound ways in my life… to stop putting my identity in my work or my title… and to start putting my identity in Christ.

And out of that, I was able to serve our company in greater ways.

I kept my same title and same office the whole time.

I didn’t ever enjoy the work more.

But I tried to do good with the skills God had given me.

By the end of my time there, I was the go-to tech support on site… and I was leading a team to implement a new piece of software to create safe and healthy menus for the residents of 5 different homes.

Our identity must not in the work that we do, but in the one we do it for.

Is your identity secure in Christ?

Do you use your work… and therefore use others to secure your identity?

Or do you serve others out of a secure identity in Christ?

But the scriptures are clear: whatever work you do… no matter what value the work assigns to it… DO GOOD out of your identity as a bondservant of Christ.

SERVE HIM.

Work for HIS REWARD, not just the paycheck or the promotion or the praise.

Now this greater motivation and this greater identity all acknowledges this last point that becomes even more clear in v. 9 - we all have a greater boss.

“Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”

3) Humble yourself under a greater Master. (6:9)

Masters, do the same to them.

In other words, “Everything I just told the slaves applies to you too.”

“You are supposed to “do good” to your slaves… they are under your care… a part of your household.

Remember how we defined biblical authority a few weeks ago: Authority is the responsibility to lead by serving.

That’s what Masters are being called to here.

Yes they are in authority, but they are to use that authority for the GOOD of their bondservants.

This meant that they were going to need to abandon the Roman way of treating your slaves: threatening.

In First Century slavery, the Master could do just about anything that they wanted to do to their slaves...

They could have them whipped...

They could withhold their provisions...

They could release them from slavery so that they would be out on the street and homeless...

And so they would THREATEN these things in order to show supreme control over them and to get them to do what they wanted.

That practice had to stop in the church… because THE CHRISTIAN Master KNOWS that they BOTH answer to a greater boss...

They BOTH serve a master who is in heaven...

And there is no partiality with him...

He doesn’t love the Master more… or the slave more...

They are both created in the image of God...

And if they are both believers, they are IN CHRIST...

They are children of God... brothers and sisters in Christ…

Members of the same body…

And therefore they are to be treated with FULL dignity and honor.

So Masters needed to humble themselves… knowing that they are bondservants too… they serve a Greater Master.

And the same is true today for ANYONE whose work puts them in a position of authority or control.

Do you supervise employees? Humble yourself. You are of no more and no less value than them.

Don’t threaten them as if they are just cogs in your machine who only exist to do your will.

Treat them with dignity and respect.

Take care of their needs, and don’t use fear to manipulate and control.

Do you own a company where it’s within your power to determine the pay and benefits of your employees?

Be generous. These are people, not just machines.

Show the generosity of your Master in Heaven in the way you are generous with them.

Do you have a measure of authority in your household as a parent?

Use that authority to honor your kids.

Do you have authority as a teacher in a school?

See your students as people made in the image of God… see them as opportunities to serve your Master in heaven.

Do you have authority as an elder or deacon?

Don’t just see the ministry servants under your care as a means to getting a job done, but as people to disciple.

Every single person in this room here today is under the authority of another: we are under the authority of God.

And I want you to know that he is the GREATER MASTER… in fact he is the GREATEST BOSS.

He is the Lord of Heaven and Earth…

There is none higher than him. Everything in all creation… whether angels or demons or people or the forces of nature answer to him.

And to not obey him is called sin.

It’s the cause of all chaos and disorder on the earth.

Sin is the very reason we war against the idea of authority.

It’s the reason we seek our identity in anything but Christ.

In our sin, we think that we are ultimate and that our way is best and that God doesn’t know what he’s doing in his creation.

And so we disobey… we throw off his order… his authority.

But because God is such a great Master, he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ into the very work field where everything was going TOTALLY WRONG.

And he showed us how the work was supposed to be done...

He showed us the Master’s perfect will...

But we didn’t like that… we wanted to do it our own way...

and so all of us other laborers killed him in our sin.

But here’s what we didn’t understand: his death was the ultimate WORK.

His death accomplished what our work could never accomplish: it gave us the opportunity to restore the relationship with the Greater Master.

And that work was declared FINISHED on the cross… and it was APPROVED by God in the resurrection...

And we receive salvation and become servants… members of the household of the Greater Master when we FORSAKE our own way of doing things...

When we BELIEVE in the finished work of Jesus...

And when we EMBRACE the work to which he has called us.

Have you done that? Is your faith in the finished work of Jesus? Do you live for his glory under his Lordship?

That calling extends to every part of our lives… he has GOOD WORKS prepared for us in our homes and churches and workplaces and communities.

He’s given you a greater motivation… he’s given you a greater identity… because HE is a Greater Master...

Work hard because you have been given a greater calling as God's people.