Sermon Tone Analysis

We have come to the end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

Over the last several weeks we’ve taken a deep look into the distinctiveness of the believer’s walk in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul is writing to the Ephesian Church that the life of citizen of Christ’s Kingdom is unlike anything present in our world’s system.

It is important to remind you that this world is not our home (Hebrews 13:14).

It is important that we be reminded that this world is governed unrighteously with Satan as its current ruler (2 Corinthians 4:4).

And no matter how noble or good we perceive current human efforts, the believer must stand firm under the banner of the Lord Jesus and doing his work (1 Corinthians 15:58).

There is a distinctiveness in the life of the believer that should be evident inwardly, outwardly, and spiritually.

These are the instructions to the Ephesian Church from the Apostle Paul.

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the world today, and certainly in our culture.

A [Dallas] Texas gay bar hosted a "Drag the Kids to Pride" event where drag queen dancers provocatively gyrated in front of children as young as toddlers.

A poster for the "Drag the Kids to Pride" event claims it is the "ultimate family friendly pride experience."

(The Blaze News, June 4, 2022) What is even more concerning than this event being held, is that parents took their children where the kids handed the queens money and were invited to dance on stage with dancers.

This is satanic.

In Idaho, a “Pride in the Park” event is sponsored by the Satanic Temple and is being billed as a “family friendly event.”

(Idaho Tribune, June 7, 2022).

This world is confused because they are worshipping the god of confusion.

Remember when I shared with you the article that outlined an alarming statistic that two-thirds of Evangelical Senior Pastors have a biblical world view?

A person’s worldview is formed in many ways, mainly through: culture, education, religious upbringing, & emotional development.

The Bible, however, is not subject to these developments in our life.

So in order to have a biblical worldview, we must allow God’s Word to shape or reshape our understanding of the world around through the power of the Holy Spirit.

SIX IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

1. God is the Creator of the world and rules this universe.

(Genesis 1:1).

This includes the definition of family and marriage, the sanctity of life, and God’s sovereignty over all of creation.

2. The Bible is God’s Word for mankind and is completely accurate including matters of life and its origin.

(2 Timothy 3:16).

3.

Because of God and His Word, absolute moral truth exists!

(Psalms 102:25–27; Malachi 3:6)

4. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God and He lived a sinless life, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the grave three days later!

(1 Corinthians 15:3–4; 1 John 4:9–10)

5. Satan is a real being (not symbolic) and seeks to defeat God’s plan for man (1 Peter 5:8)

6. Salvation is obtained solely by individual faith in Christ’s work on the Cross and cannot be earned.

(Ephesians 2:8–9) and apart from Christ man is destined for eternal hell.

(Mike Norris)

So many so-called Christians and so-called pastors misrepresent Christ and Christianity.

So how do you tell a true believer?

Not by a profession, but by the production of spiritual fruit.

(Galatians 5:22-23; Luke 6:42-45).

That’s how you know a Christian: not by what they claim but by how they live.

And I don’t think there is a more powerful example of righteous living than the power of forgiveness and this is the heart of Paul’s message for us today.

If you remember, Paul led us through a series of transformations that happens in the believers life as he walks more and more closely with Christ: from lying to truth, from anger to righteousness, from stealing to sharing, from corrupt talk to gracious speech.

Now we come to the fifth transformation: from retaliation to forgiveness.

No greater truth and no greater example of Christ can be found than in Christian forgiveness.

We hear in our society a constant clamor of the word “rights.”

And when we feel that our rights have been violated, we have a notion that we have an opportunity to retaliate against those lost rights.

That’s because the human hearts says, “ you did something to me, I’m going to get you back” Children are notorious for this.

I want to be perfectly clear: retaliation is from Satan.

It is an attitude of Satan, it is a temptation of Satan, it is a construct of Satan.

He was thrown out of heaven by God and ever since that time, he has sought vengeance against God and God’s people.

In today’s world, nearly every social uprising is built in an attempt under Satan to avenge God’s authority; be it gay rights, abortion, mass shootings, climate control, divorce, violence, you name it.

Never are you more like Satan than when you want retaliation.

Conversely, you are never more like God’s character then when you practice forgiveness and that’s the entire point of Ephesians chapter four.

Believers are called to imitate God (Eph 5:1), especially when it comes ot practicing forgiveness.

Paul describes followers of Satan as people who are driven by or full of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice.

Paul uses the word “all” to indicate the presence of emotions and behaviors that are to be absent from the believer’s life: all bitterness, all wrath, all anger, all clamor, all slander, all malice.

Let’s break these down a little more:

First, bitterness, in the Greek, Pikria.

It literally means “inedible.

It describes a continuous and persistant state of a person who is locked into perpetual animosity.

They are harsh in their conduct to others with little grace and forgiveness.

Second, wrath, in the Greek, Thumos.

It means a wild, intense, uncontrolled passion of anger.

It is the opposite of a righteous anger.

Instead it is unbridled, explosive.

It is closely associated with the word “orge” which means “smoldering hate.”

These are repulsive behaviors, ungodly in nature and, according to Jesus, equal to murder

When you come to the next two words Paul uses, you move to the outward emotion.

“Clamor.” in the Greek kraugē, and it means “to shout out loud.”

This is where you voice your hatred and animosity.

You spew out the venom of hostility toward those who have offended you (MacArthur)

The word “slander” in the Greek it is, blasphēmia.

To slander is to blaspheme.

It means “to curse, use words that denigrate and defame.”

It is the manifestation of inner anger and revenge, seeking to tear people down by ruining their reputation, and causing harm to them.

The word “malice” is kakia in the Greek, and it’s a generic term that Paul is using to cover the root behind this kind of behavior.

; it means “badness” or “bad-heartedness.”

This describes the world we live in today.

The world pronounces curses and seeks retaliation on all who offend them.

The world is angery, hostile, vengeful.

The world burns down neighborhoods when they’re upset.

The world seeks retribution for something that happened long ago.

True believers bless people; we don’t slander them.

True believers don’t explode in fury; we exude grace.

We don’t march through streets shouting and cursing vulgarities to be heard.

We don’t seek revenge.

We forgive.

This is the heart of forgiveness.

It’s saying that we voluntarily choose to give up that right for revenge.

The secret of knowing when we’ve forgiven someone is when we begin to pray for them.

But not the kind of prayer that goes like, “Lord, break the teeth in their mouth” Instead, it’s praying for their good and that God would save and bless them.

I read a story by Gordon Kroeker who recalled a time growing up in the Congo as a missionary kid.

He and his family were caught in the middle of the 1964 Communist rebellion.

“I was 8 years old at the time, and remember it well.

When we received word that the rebels, (who were anti-white and anti-missionary) had burned out the bridge on one side of our mission station, we (about 25 missionaries and their families) had a very short time to pack a few things, and get out.”

They only had one Chevy Suburban and they took the seats out of the vehicle to get the women and children to the closest city that was 35 miles away, a 90 minutes to drive.

The men waited for another vehicle to come from that city to get them.

“We all made it out alive, even though we lost all our belongings.

Still, we were very fortunate.

Other missionaries had been tortured and killed in other mission stations near by.

Even though I was young, I never had any feelings of hate for those who destroyed all our things, the place I was born, and the special place I called "home".