Faith Community Bible Church

Community: What Is A Healthy Church Community Ephesians 4:1-16 • FCBC • 01/14/24 Good morning church, it is a privilege to be worshipping with you this morning. If you are visiting with us for the first time my name is Ryan and I am a pastor and one of the elders here at FCBC and I have the privilege of continuing in our series this morning entitled “Our church, it’s purpose: who is FCBC and where is she going?” We’ve been answering that question by going word by word through the name of our church, Faith. Community. Bible. Church. Last week Trent introduced this series to us by looking at that first word in our churches name “Faith.” And he anchored that word to the gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans 3:21-26. We looked at the good news that God in Christ saves sinners through His propitiatory death (that is a death or sacrifice that satisfied God’s righteous wrath against our sin rebellion and treason), his glorious resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of the father where he is reigning and ruling as King of Kings and Lord of Lords until he comes back to earth visibly and personally to judge both the living and the dead and establishes his eternal reign on earth in fellowship with His people forever! We are saved by Faith in His name and by no other way! We are a Faith people or to say it another way, we are a gospel people, a redeemed people, a holy people, a people of the king. In other words, as Trent reminded us from our doctrinal statement, we are a people who hold to: • “The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary and propitiatory death as the once for all sacrifice to God for our sins and overcame death by rising again to life. This sacrifice satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice, appeases His holy wrath, demonstrates His mysterious love, and reveals His amazing grace. This free gift of salvation is provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone." But our doctrinal statement goes on to say that we are also: • We are a community of faith (that is to say, a Faith Community). That is, a group of believers that have been saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We are believers who gather. • And we gather to proclaim this glorious hope we call the gospel. So we see that this Faith in Jesus Christ, this belief, this giving ourselves to the gospel that has saved us leads us into community. And our goal this morning is to answer the question what is a healthy church community? If we are going to identify as a community of Faith or again, Faith Community, then what is a healthy church community? This morning we are going to look to the book of Ephesians and the apostle Paul to help us answer that question, so I’d invite you to turn to your bibles to Ephesians 4 and were going to read verses 1-16 together. Let’s read this and see what the apostle Paul has to say to and about a local church Faith Community. (Read passage) This is in part a bit of a distinctives series and part of the purpose of this series is to get you acquainted with who we are, what we believe, what our name actually means to us, what our doctrinal statement says about us. Our doctrinal statement says this about what a church is: • There is one universal Church, composed of all who in every time and place are chosen in Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body with Christ Himself as the all-sustaining and all-authoritative Head. We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God forever. • It is God’s will that the universal Church find expression in local churches in which believers gather to hear the Word of God proclaimed, to engage in corporate worship, to baptize new believers, and partake in Lord’s Supper. Each member of the body is called to exercise his/her spiritual gifts in building one another's faith by encouraging, loving, exhorting, discipling one another, and engaging in evangelism of the lost. Key Texts: Acts 1:8; 2:42; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Eph 2:19-22; Col 1:18; 3:16-17; Heb 10:23-25. And these are the very things Paul helps lay out for us in our text this morning. He gives us the ways in which a healthy church community ought to be defined, established, and maintained. God’s blueprint for the church is beautiful. It reflects the very unity, diversity, and fellowship that happens within the Trinity. Recently we went through the book of Ephesians and saw God’s glorious plan of redemption on display! In Ephesians 1 we see God’s eternal plan is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (1:10), so that “through this triumphant centerpiece called the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (3:10 word for word). The church is a heavenly hope played out in an earthly reality where congregations of God’s people continue gathering people from all nations under the rule of Christ to share in his holiness. So to summarize this thought, Ephesians 1–3 celebrates God’s eternal plan: to gather all things in heaven and on earth together under Christ (chapter 1), through the death and resurrection of Christ, which reconciles us to God and to each other (chapter 2), to manifest the triumphant wisdom of his gospel mystery to the spiritual realms through his church (chapter 3). So we come to chapter 4 and Paul explains how his readers and therefore how we must live as a church or a COMMUNITY committed to gathering people under Christ. He does this by outlining three basic principles for us in our text this morning and those are: 1. In Unity 2. Through Ministry 3. For Maturity You see a healthy church community is going to reflect these things. They’ll be unified in the gospel, promoting a using of gifts which we’re going to talk about here in a bit, for the maturing, holiness, and purity of a church that glorifies God and looks like it’s head, Jesus Christ. We’ll start with this first principle, UNITY, here in verses 1-6 where Paul encourages his readers to walk in manner worthy of the gospel. In other words, if you are a Faith Community then you’ll walk like this. And in verse 2 he gives 3 attitudes crucial for accomplishing this type of unity that supports a healthy church community, and 7 glorious motives for pursuing it. The three attitudes necessary to nourish this sort of community are: 1. Humility 2. Gentleness 3. Patience. If you’re truly eager to maintain a spirit of unity in the bond of peace as he says in verse 3, you’ll only accomplish that by bearing with one another in love with all humility, gentleness, and patience. And he’s saying that ought to be something that you are eager to do. That word eager in the Greek means your zealous for this kind of unity, you hasten to see it happen. It’s not passive, it’s active, it’s a verb it’s something you do. In other words, the eagerness leads to action. But if you’re like me, that feels like a tall order and can quickly become discouraging. You see humility, gentleness, and kindness don’t come easy to us in our sin nature. We by nature are the very opposite of these three attitudes. Instead of humble we are arrogant or self-interested and promoting. Instead of gentle we’re harsh, brash, unkind, brutal, and even violent. And instead of patient we are short fused, easily irritable, demanding, and rude. And there is not a single one of us in this room this morning that escapes that indictment because that’s the indictment levied against us from the Word of God. We just learned from 2 Timothy that people apart from Christ in their natural state are lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, and unholy. You might think to yourself, “Well I’m not really like that. I don’t treat people like that on the outside or to their face at least. I actually tend to be softer, less combative, even conflict averse.” And I wouldn’t deny you that. Certainly, some are more predisposed to being softer than others by nature and therefore maybe more gentle or patient and come off more humble. But there is this tricky little thing called the heart. Remember, God told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, “I don’t see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.” I think we could prove that case if there was a running tape of our head and heart that was accessible at any given moment. Perhaps at rush hour on Eagle Rd, or Ustick rd, or Fairview, or in the In n out line, or in conflict with your spouse or children, or simply in the deep recesses of our hearts and what we actually think of people, and the list goes on and on. What’s on the inside of us IS what is true of us, in any given moment. But, I don’t want to leave you discouraged! You see a healthy church community is really a supernatural community because Paul says it ought to be driven by an eager desire to maintain unity through the very attitudes that we aren’t naturally geared or predisposed towards. Which is why it is a Faith Community. Because, through Faith or through the gospel of Jesus Christ we have obtained new natures. That is part of what takes place in the heart transplant of regeneration, we get new life and therefore completely new natures. And with those new natures comes new desires and therefore new ways of living! So it is possible to actually walk in a manner worthy of the gospel with all humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with one another and even eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace… BUT ONLY IN UNION WITH CHRIST AND THEREFORE THROUGH THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT THAT RESIDES IN YOU AS A RESULT OF RECEIVING THE GOSPEL, OR FAITH. We have 3 chapters of rich doctrine saying this is not of your own doing it is a gift of God not of works so that you cannot boast. That’s not only a power to save but a power to keep and sanctify and eventually complete good work started in us and to bring us home to heaven. So Paul, gives 7 m

Ephesians 6.5-9 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 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. Introduction If you’ve been here for the last few Sundays, you’re probably getting the idea that submission is really important to God. Going back to the start of the context in Ephesians 5:21, we are to submit “to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Wives submit to your own husbands, husbands submit to Christ in how you love your wife and children submit to your parents. And today is bondservants and masters. These commands from God for submission would have been massively disruptive to a first-century church in the Roman Empire. Because as Nate said a few weeks ago, of course wives should submit to husbands, but the shocking message would have been the corresponding command for husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church. And, sure, children obey your parents, but it would have been stunning to hear “fathers don’t provoke your children to anger.” And it’s the same with bondservants and masters. Slaves obeying was a given, but masters commanded to treat bondservants with respect and not threaten them? That was unheard of. There are also some extremes in this passage. At one end of the spectrum, bondservants are to submit to earthly masters as to Christ. And Peter even clarifies with “not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.” At the other end of the spectrum there’s the blessing of God’s pleasure and eternal reward for those who obey. And although there definitely isn’t a one-to-one connection between bondservants and masters compared to workers and bosses since in our country workers have a lot of rights and we can quit when necessary, there are a lot of parallels. This passage will challenge us to submit because the majority of us probably think of jobs as something we do, not a reflection of who we are. Whether you are a worker or a boss or both, this passage calls for authentic submission. When we die, God’s not going to ask to see our resume. He won’t care that you faithfully worked for the same company for 40 years and had continual upward career progression. He won’t care that you finished your big project on time and under budget. God’s delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. 1 God will be pleased if we submitted to the authorities He put in our lives, and if we used the authority He gave us with humility. Too often we derive a sense of worth from our jobs and whether we are successful or not; whether we did something significant or what our title was. For my generation, jobs were mostly a means to an end and a source of social status. You worked hard, got promoted so that you could live the American Dream. My generation tends to be motivated by loyalty to the company, hard work and responsibility. But Millenials and Gen Z want work-life balance, diversity and individuality. “Bringing your authentic self” to work wasn’t a thing when I started working. And “Do what you love,” wasn’t even a consideration. There was no “do what you love” it was “Do what you’re told.” That’s what I grew up with. Our view of jobs and bosses changes from generation to generation, but all of these shifting values are like a honey bee just looking for the next flower to land on. They’re a distraction to what God says is the true purpose of work. Our jobs are a means to serve Jesus because we work directly for Him. The purpose of work whether you are a bondservant or a master is not identity, financial security, power or notoriety. It’s to work with a sincere heart as to the Lord. How many of you have ever had a terrible boss, someone who handled their authority badly? Haven’t we all? I’ve had bosses take credit for my work, or focus an annual review on one thing I did poorly instead of five things I did well, and threaten me with some consequence they dreamed up. Years ago I turned down a job offer and they threatened me with, “I’ll make sure you never get another job in this city!” First, thanks for confirming my decision, and second I was living in LA at the time and found that a little far-fetched. But it’s true that some bosses want to serve up a threat like a perfect mic-drop. There are also times that I have been a poor bondservant, very early in my career I wrote an email to my boss pointing out that they were late on a project, and I CC'd a bunch of other people. One time early in my college days I had a job at Der Wienerschnitzel. My very first shift at the restaurant was six hours and I spent the majority of that time filling soda cups. At the end of my six hours I left the restaurant, went back to my apartment and the next morning called my boss to say I was quitting. Didn’t give any notice, I don’t remember even giving a reason. I just quit. The cringe moments on my resume didn’t stop there. I’m still very much in process with these five verses. As we explore these verses I’d like you to keep a destination in mind, and that is answering the question, “Whose eyes?” Whose eyes are you working for? Whose eyes do you want approval from? Whose eyes assess your “performance?” Who do you really work for? Because, if we get to that destination, then this passage will make a lot more sense and you might even stop dreading Mondays. 2 A brief background on work First, let’s lay some groundwork for work. What is it, what’s its purpose? I don’t think it’s any big revelation that work is hard. Work is something for most people that falls in the category of have to do instead of get to do. And this goes all the way back to Genesis 3 when part of the curse for fallen people is that work will be hard, and not just if you choose a career path in agriculture. Gen 3.17 “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” The curse isn’t that being a farmer will be hard. The curse is that however you provide for yourself and your family, to put food on the table, it will be painful all the days of your life. But notice it’s the ground that’s under the curse, not work itself. Work is good and God Himself works. Work is a blessing and the gift of being able to work allows us to provide for ourselves and our families. And not only for our provision, but as 4.28 says, that we “may have something to share with anyone in need.” Doing work and earning provision allows us to save for times when work is scarce or when we can no longer work. It also helps us avoid idleness. So, work is good, but work is painful. I was googling for job data, and I’m not sure if this indicates everyone who uses Google or my own search history, but when I typed, “how many people hate” the top reply was “their jobs” followed by “school” and “math.” The data suggests that somewhere between 50 and 85% of people hate their jobs. One fairly recent Gallup poll reported that 70% of people in the US hated their job, and the number one reason was that they hated their boss. Other reasons include time spent commuting and the ever-increasing pressure to be available. We have a more difficult time than ever being offline from our work. Work is a painful task. And although a lot of memes on Linked In say that what I really need is to believe in myself, I’m guessing it’s more than that. We have a fundamental problem with how we view jobs and bosses. That’s because jobs and bosses are hard for external and internal reasons. Things that happen outside of us and things that happen inside of us. Some of the external factors line up with Genesis 3. Work itself is just hard sometimes. Things go wrong, deals fall through, equipment breaks or technology fails us. We live in a broken world. There are times when other people in your own company will undermine you. I’ve had multiple times in my career when I was responsible for a project and another team started a competing project and intentionally undermined what I had been doing. I’ve heard multiple stories of employees going out of their way to make someone else look bad. It’s not uncommon. Work is also hard for internal reasons. Things happening in our own hearts, whether we are aware of them or not, cause us to be discontent in our work. Maybe you’ve worked hard on a task, done it well and then someone above you changed their mind and you did all that work 3 for nothing. It can feel demoralizing. Or you work for a large tech company and there’s the constant worry and fear of the next re-org that will put you out of a job. Or maybe your job is just boring and doesn’t provide job satisfaction or growth opportunities. Whatever it is, these five verses will point us to the only true satisfaction in our work and also provide us with hope and peace for the journey. So, let’s jump into this very relevant passage. Bondservants We can understand from this passage that the early church had both bondservants and masters as members of the same body. It’s mentioned in Colossians, Philemon and here in Ephesians. Slavery was pervasive in the first-century Roman Empire. Most bondservants were captured in battle or bought elsewhere and brought to Rome. It was also sadly not uncommon for impoverished parents to sell their own children into slavery. It was a harsh system where slaves were legal property and could be treated in any manner the owner desired. According to Aristotle, a human bondservant was no

Husbands love your wives – Ephesians 5:25-33 Introduction So last week in his introduction Benj told us how he was surprised to be assigned a tiny little portion to preach on. The email only had two verses 22-23. That’s a little short he thought. It takes a long winded preacher to make a long sermon out of a short text. So, he took the liberty to add an extra verse, to at least complete the thought. Before the final song is ended, Steve’s over here, and come to find out the tens digit was off by one. Instead of going one more verse, he should have gone 11 more! And today was already slotted for ______ to do children obey your parents. The husbands almost got off scot-free. Can you imagine the imbalance and injustice if this section had somehow slipped through the cracks? PRAY In the modern world, the shocking and hard statement of this whole section is what Benj addressed last week in v.22, “wives submit to your husband.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some among us still have a hard time with it. But, in the ancient world, verse 22 is nothing. No one would have raised an eyebrow when Paul tells women to be subject to their husbands. Men dominated their homes and a woman lived to the benefit of her man: served his meals, met his needs, and reared his children. The men owned everything, ruled everything, and commanded everything to his benefit and his pleasure. So, imagine some men of the ancient world listening to this section [picture in ppt]. The hard and shocking statement 2000 years ago is not 22. The statement that would have made his ears tingle, is verse 25 “Husbands love your wives.” Paul still keeps the hierarchical model of the day, but revolutionizes the way it should be lived out. I am almost certain that some men would have sneered or taken issue with this. I can give her the love I want, but what you’re saying is ridiculous. So Paul needs to make a pretty good case, and he supports his statement from three sources: 1. The illustration of Christ’s sacrificial love for the church, v.25-27 2. The illustration of a man’s natural care of his own body, v.28-30 3. The illustration of the unbreakable bond found in the creation mandate of Genesis 2, v.31-33 How many of you women thought last week, “we have to submit and be respectful and honor our husbands. Those are visible, tangible, and difficult things to live out. The man on the other hand has this vague command - love. How is he ever held accountable to this? My guess is every man in this room would be able to say, “Well yes, of course I love my wife. (I can prove it – raise your hand if you don’t) We don’t always get along, but I don’t hit her… I work like a dog to provide for her and my family, and we go out to dinner regularly.” From his perspective and everyone else’s perspective, things are normal. And yet, in so many marriages, there is a grand canyon chasm between what the husband thinks he’s giving as love and the reality of what the wife is receiving in her heart and life as love. Let’s start with v.25 The illustration of Christ’s sacrificial love for the church v.25-27 “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her Greek has a richer vocabulary for the word love than English does. You’ll remember in John 21, Jesus asks Peter, do you love me more than these? And Peter says, you know that I love you. [Imagine a frustrated wife asking her husband, do you love me? And he would say, yes, you know that I love you (I told you that when we got married)] But there are two Greek words in this interchange. Jesus has used the verb form agapao and Peter had answered with the verb form phileo. Jesus had asked him, do you love me unconditionally, independent of anything I might do for you? And Peter said, yes of course we’re friends, we do things together, you’re like a brother to me. Greek has another word for Love: Eros (noun form), which refers to the physical touching of sensual love, which we have it in English as erotic. All of that is just wrapped up in our general English term. So we can say, God loves me , She loves her friend and they talk on the phone all the time, Vegas is the city of love, … or I love sushi and corndogs. Can you guess what Paul uses in verse 25 of our passage? Husbands “agapate tais gunaikas (for you Greek nerds)” just like Christ “egapesen ten ekklesian.” So, this word selection is extremely important. This love - is a decision of the will. It’s volitional. It’s something that you choose to give, irrespective of whether the recipient deserves it. It isn’t based on a feeling the giver at the moment, nor on the possibility of it being reciprocated. That is why I imagine this would have been difficult to the original ears. The weight of it is heavy. Incidentally, Peter never does get to the point of being able to say, “I love you lord in this way.” He’s probably gunshy and afraid to commit to this, knowing that he had just denied even knowing Jesus a few weeks before. [PPT] Love is: the intention to seek the highest good in the one loved, regardless of cost to you or the worthiness of the recipient. Re-read it by inserting the word wife. [So now let’s ask the question again without any of us raising our hands, how many of us don’t love our wives?] More than one commentator vouches that this is never asked of a husband anywhere in ancient literature. Hoehner writes in his commentary, “The exhortation to husbands to love their wives is unique. It is not found in the OT1, rabbinic literature, or in the household codes of the Greco-Roman era. Although the hierarchical model of the home is maintained, it is ameliorated by this revolutionary exhortation that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church.” There’s no parallels to this in the ancient world. God, in His wisdom, asks the husband/leader to be the unconditional lover of his wife. The key action of this kind of love is seen when Christ gave himself up for the Church. Philippians expands, “Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant (2:6-7).” Husbands towards wives: give of yourself, empty yourself for her. The main takeaway here is not that husbands should be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. That sounds like macho heroism, or self-martyrdom. All those stupid songs, I’ll take a bullet for you, I’ll step in front of a train for you. No, we need to live for our wives, not die for them. So why not start by something simple. We can fool everyone but God and our wife. What is the hard thing, the self sacrificial thing we need to do in our marriage? It’s not much of a sacrifice for a rich man to buy his wife a new car. He gives a better gift to her than anyone can (and it costs him nothing really). His sacrifice is to say no to work on Saturday because she asked if they could talk through the family summer schedule (he’s like - how pathetic). You remember old DC Talk years ago, “Love is a verb.” You bet it’s a verb, and I would add it’s an action verb. It has to be manifested in deed. Loving our wives is a sacrificial love. Let’s look at a few biblical examples of great husbands. Mmmm... Abraham (man of faith), Ahab, Solomon (man of wisdom) … there really are no model husbands and there’s never been a model marriage. In the end our only example is Jesus’ love for the Church. When a husband begins to show love like Jesus for the benefit of his wife, miracles begin to take place. This is the greatest power a man can wield in his life, marriage, and family. [Purpose clause – why did Jesus do this?] Notice His 3-fold purpose. Read 26-27. Twice in this book Paul uses this exact phrase “holy and blameless (here and 1:4).” In both places, where this phrase is used, we have individuals standing before Jesus who are “holy and blameless.” In chapter one it’s very personal. He knows each and every individual who would someday stand before him holy and blameless. In our chapter we see a corporate picture, the body of Christ, which Jesus presents to himself, holy and blameless. This isn’t just a metaphorical picture of living our lives before Jesus, this is a very specific event in the Bible. Since before creation, this was the great plan of God. Revelation 19 describes this moment, it’s the pinnacle of history. “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” Jesus had in mind the climax of the redemptive story when he chose every individual before the foundations of the world. And again, Jesus had in mind the climax of the redemptive story when he gave himself up on the cross. A radiant bride standing before him in all her glory, sanctified, washed, and cleansed. That’s exactly what our passage teaches us, “That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” His sanctification process is the word washing through us over a lifetime. [Illust] I was walking past the woodpile and noticed an old towel laying in the dirt. It had been there forever drenched in the rain, baked in the sun, full of mud and used many times to wipe off some oil, by this point stiff as a piece of wood. I thought of this. When Christ saves us, he places this dirty thing in the river and sets a stone on one corner of it. Little by little as water washes through the threads, it begins to soften, and little particles start to wash away. That water flowing through the towel is the word of God flowing through our

Introduction • A few months ago I got an interesting text from Steve Walker. He said, “Hey, we’re going to be going through Ephesians, and we want to know if you’ll be up to preach.” • So I was like, “Yeah!” Texted him back. Absolutely. o I love Ephesians. I’ve been to Ephesus a couple times, maybe I’ll be able to talk about some of the harbor there and the multinational city and the impact that had on the believers there. o Riot in the theater in Acts 19 and tie that into the book. The goddess Artemis. o Or maybe I’ll get to say something about Apollos. I did a really cool study once on Apollos and Alexandria. Favorite.  Acts 18 mentions that he was a Jew who grew up in Egypt and went to Ephesus to preach the gospel.  It’s really cool since that’s where the Jewish philosopher Philo grew up. He was into rhetoric and there were a number of erudite schools in Alexandria.  Apollos may have learned some of his rhetoric from Philo and taken it to Ephesus.  Maybe I’ll get to talk about that a bit! o Or maybe I can talk about Jews and Gentiles. Ephesians is all about unity between the two. My wife is Jewish, I’m not. I lived and taught in Israel for years…maybe I’ll get to talk about that. • I got all excited, went home, turned to my passage in Eph 5:22 to see what I get to preach on. And these are the words I read: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” o OK, there goes Apollos, the theater, Jews/Gentile…“Wait that’s the passage you give me?” o It’s not exactly my first choice. 😊 o Well at least I know Paul talks quite at length about how husbands are to love their wives…so I kept reading Eph 5:23–24. o At this point I look back at my text and I see that this is all I’m supposed to preach on. o Turns out I don’t even get to talk about the men! • It might not have happened exactly like that, but I think you get the point. If I were a guest preacher, this would probably not be the first passage I’d turn to and give a message one. It’s a bit controversial! • In fact, I did a little thought experiment after I read through today’s passage. I asked myself: “If I was selected to appear on ABC’s “The View” to talk about this passage, what would my reception be like?” o How do you think these women would respond to Paul’s command for wives to be submissive to their own husbands in everything? o Do you think you think you would see heads bobbing up and down, and the women on the show saying, “Yes, we totally agree. Paul got that right. One problem that we have today is that women just aren’t submissive to their husbands!” o I mean I haven’t asked them, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what I’d encounter. • I think that this is a good illustration of the fact that our society, does not like to hear this topic. What makes it hard, is there has been abuse throughout history. We don’t condone that or indorse it in any way, but we also can’t ignore God’s commands because of past sin. • So I kind of have to thread the needle on a fairly controversial topic. I was praying that God would give me the right, even tone of voice, as I talk about a topic that in today’s culture just doesn’t fly. • The main idea of what I’m going to say is actually really easy to comprehend, but it’s a topic that our society doesn’t like to hear. So that’s why I titled it: “The Forbidden Word (Submit).” • But here’s my main point: submitting to your husband is an act of submission to God. o I’m going to unpack that. o Guys don’t get a free pass, even in this message. Men have a responsibility. • So let’s roll up our sleeves and have a look at what the verses are actually saying. A. What Are the Verses Actually Saying? • We’ve been calling our series on Ephesians “The Master’s Plan”. • You can see this fairly complicated chart: • Two main parts to Ephesians: (1) Beliefs, and (2) Behavior: o Beliefs: chapters 1–3 focuses on what God did for us through Jesus: “You were dead in your sins...but you were made alive” (2:1,4) o Behavior: chapters 4–6 talk about how to live as believers: “Walk in a manner worth of the calling to which you were called” (4:1) • Only two commands in chapters 1–3, over 60 in chapters 4–6. • In this next section Paul talks about three sets of relationships: wife/husband, children/parents, and slaves/masters. o Martin Luther called these instructions “the household code”, or “rules for the household.” o These commands occur in 4 other places in the NT (chart). • So Paul and Peter both address these in the NT. Our passage unique because Paul spends a lot of time on the men, more than anywhere else by far. o 41 Greek words for the women o 115 Greek words for the men. • So if you feel like the men are getting a free pass––they don’t. Come back next week for your whoopin’. 1) VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION: “WIVES SUBMIT TO YOUR OWN HUSBANDS AS TO THE LORD” • The verb upotasso basically means “to be subject, subordinate.” • Occurs quite a number of times in the NT. o 1 Cor 15:27 all things are subjected to God o Rom 13:1 we are to be subject to the governing authorities. o 1 Peter 5:5 we are to be subject to our elders • Put in simple language, Paul is saying that wives need to obey and listen to their husbands. • The interesting thing about this verb is that it occurs in a form (present middle) that indicates the submission is not a forced submission. o So if you had a dictator, you submit to his rule, but it’s a forced submission. o He raises his hand and says, “Lean back!” and you lean back.  Are you “submitting” in that instance?  In one sense yes, but it’s not voluntary. o Here it is. Look at Eph 5:24 says “As the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”  We don’t begrudgingly obey Jesus. If we do that, then we’ve missed it. You could probably spit off ten verses that say that external “works” are not enough. It’s the heart that counts. • Go to church because you have to. • Give because you have to. • Patient because you have to. • …you’ve missed it.  We submit to Christ with JOY! • Wives, that should be how you submit to your husbands––voluntarily, with joy. • Now submitting to your husband doesn’t mean that you don’t have a voice. o New Car. Let’s say you really want a new car. Work hard, you want it. You can talk to your husband. If you talk and your husband says, “We’re almost there, trying to pay off debt. Not right now.” Loggerheads: someone has to make a decision. Paul would say you have to listen to your husband. o Job. The opposite could happen. Let’s say you’ve been working at a job and it’s just been killing you. You come home exhausted, can’t fulfill your role in the family. Want to get a new job. Husband: we’re saving for a car, don’t quit now. You can explain––look, I’m seriously drained. Husband loves his wife, might realize the loving thing is to put the saving on pause and for your sake, you go get another job. • The point is, do you recognize that God has appointed the husband to be the leader, or are you continually fighting for that position and going off to do as you please? • Does “as to the Lord” mean that the wife submits to her husband to the same degree as she does to Jesus? o No. o The NT never calls for submission to another human being to the same degree as to the Lord.  Everything that Jesus says is perfect and holy.  He’s God in the flesh and sinless. o You’ve probably realized by now that your husband is not. • What Paul is talking about here are the roles of marriage in a normal household. o And in that context, the idea is that when the wife submits to her husband, she is actually submitting to the Lord. o “In submitting to my husband, I’m submitting to the Lord.” o Because you love the Lord, you submit to your husband. Submitting to the Lord and submitting to your husband are inseparable. • Time out: abuse? Husband making you do something illegal? Sinful? Say something! Call the police? Do so. Talk to the elders? Do so. If you want to do it confidentially, please email me, any of the elders, anybody up here. We love women, we value women, and we do not condone abuse in any way. Paul is not saying you submit if you are in an abusive relationship. So if that is the situation you are in right now, please tell someone. • Women are mentioned the Greek and Roman literature as well in Paul’s day. o In Greek literature the woman is said to be inferior in all things (Arius Didymus 149.7). o That’s also what Josephus says: “The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man. Let her accordingly be submissive…that she may be directed” (Contra Apion 2.201) o Other literature in Paul’s day says that slaves have no thinking capacity and are stupid • That’s not what the Bible says. Having been married 20 years (this year), I certainly know that there are lot of things that my wife is better than me at. • The NT does not criticize or demean those who are being submissive. In the NT it’s a voluntary submission, out of love. Objection: What if the shoe were on the other foot? • Objection: yeah, easy for Paul to say that––he’s a man in a patriarchal society! • So when I went back and reviewed the events surrounding the book of Ephesians I found something that I though was kind of interesting. • Paul is writing to the believers in Ephesus (cf. 1:1), even though many scholars today don’t believe this. o Here’s where Ephesus is. o Paul spent three years here on his third missionary journey: Acts 20:31  Rents a lecture hall (Tyrannus) there and reasons boldly and daily with the Ephesian Jews and Greeks  Thers’s a riot there eventually. Everybody gathers into the theater and for two hours call out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”. Paul wants to go in, but they tell him not to since they’ll lynch him if he does.  Paul continues on to Macedonia, then down to Corinth, then retraces his steps through Greece toward Jerusalem.  On his way back to Jerusalem, and he has one final meeting with the elders of Ephes

So, if Paul is commanding us to walk in wisdom, how do we do that? The answer to our question is that the Spirit empowers us to walk in wisdom. In verses 15-17, Paul lifts up “making the best use of the time” and “understanding the will of the Lord” as examples of wise, Spirit empowered living. To me, both of these things sound nearly impossible. How in the world am I supposed to make the best use of the time in such an evil day, and how does one know the will of the Lord? Here’s what we need to understand about this passage. As Paul is contrasting wise living with foolish living, he is giving us specific examples of what it looks like to live wisely - making the best use of the time and understanding the will of the Lord. To do those things, is wise. To not do those things is foolish. So to understand Paul’s commands here, we need to understand some of Paul’s thoughts about true wisdom. I think that it is abundantly clear that Paul teaches that true wisdom is found in Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:3 says that, “Christ, (is the one) 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In the Son are hidden ALL of the treasures of wisdom. True wisdom is seeing all of life from God’s perspective, and we know the Father through the Son. In Ephesians 1, Paul prays earnestly to God that those reading his letter would be given “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of (God the Father).” It is through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ - God the Son incarnate - by the power of the Spirit, that we can know true wisdom. In contrast to the true wisdom revealed in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit, foolishness is revealed in the fleshly living of those who do not know Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 says, “18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 4 These verses reveal that the wisdom of all the earth is not sufficient on its own to cause anyone to truly see God, and because of this the wisdom of the world is really no wisdom at all. As people, we either have wisdom in Christ or we do not have true wisdom. This walk in true wisdom that Paul calls us to in verses 15-17 is only possible for those who are sealed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. For those of us who are followers of Christ, we used to walk in this world as those who were blind to the wisdom of Christ. Though we could see with our earthly eyes, our spiritual eyes were unenlightened by the powerfully, piercing light of the gospel. But, through faith in Jesus Christ our eyes have been opened to the glories of gospel truth, and we can now walk in true wisdom. If you are here today, and you do not know Christ, our collective prayer is that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to the true hope that we have in Jesus. Please believe in the Christ who died on the cross, defeated sin and death in His resurrection from the dead, and ascended on high in order to carry out this glorious exchange - blindness for sight, foolishness for wisdom. Application: To those of us who believe, how do we make the best use of our time in this evil day? We, in the power of the Spirit, continue to drink more deeply of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How do we know the will of the Lord? We, in the power of the Spirit, follow the way of Christ. How do we walk wisely? We walk wisely in the power of the Spirit who unites us to Jesus Christ. For some of us, walking wisely will look like taking opportunities to evangelize at the playground with the other moms. For others, walking wisely will look like mowing the grass of a widow in our church. Boys and girls who are in here, what do you think it could mean for you to walk wisely? Maybe for you, it would be something as simple as putting away your toys the first time that your parents ask. 5 For all of us, though, walking wisely will look like obeying the commands of Christ through the power of the Spirit in whatever opportunities lie before us. As we move to verse 18, we’re going to see that not only is the believer’s walk in wisdom empowered by the Spirit but we will also see that the believer’s walk is empowered by the fullness of the Spirit. In verse 18, Paul lays out one of the most crucial commands of the book of Ephesians when he says, “be filled with the Spirit.” Because the fullness of the Spirit empowers our growth in holiness, we dare not live the Christian life without dwelling deeply on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. As we seek to follow all of the commands of Scripture, it is the fullness of the Spirit that enables us to grow in obedience. As we examine this command in verse 18 to be filled with the Spirit, I’m not going to spend much time on the prohibition of drunkenness. While it’s a sin to be drunk, and I would sternly condemn drunkenness, Paul’s main priority in this prohibition is to contrast drunkenness with the filling of the Spirit as his central command. So, unlike the hyper fundamentalist churches that I grew up in, who usually only focused on condemning alcohol with this passage, I’m going to spend the majority of my time with this passage focusing on what it means to be filled with the Spirit. There are thousands of things that we should not be filled with, but the emphasis here is that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we come to the command to be filled with the Spirit, there are several questions to answer to grasp the topic of filling with the Spirit. The first question that we must answer is “what is fullness with the Spirit?” Because every believer is indwelled by the Spirit at conversion, we must first understand that the fullness of the Spirit is not the initial indwelling of the Spirit. While the Spirit certainly intends to fill the vessel that he indwells, the command to continue to seek the fullness of the Spirit indicates that we are speaking of further growth in the Spirit beyond the initial indwelling of the Spirit. 6 Along the same lines, we must realize that Paul is assuming that the believers he is writing to in Ephesians already have the Spirit, and that they are sealed by the same Spirit. Paul’s use of the phrase “filled with the Spirit” is different from the sealing or indwelling of the Spirit. Throughout Scripture, the filling of the Spirit can be explained in three broad categories. I’m drawing from John Stott’s wonderful little booklet, Baptism and Fullness as I explain this to you. If you can, get this booklet to help as you seek to engage more thoroughly with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Of the three broad Scriptural categories for the filling of the Spirit, the first is that, in Scripture, the fullness of the Spirit is used to refer to the normal characteristic of every dedicated Christian. We see one example of this in Acts 6:3 as the Apostles were choosing deacons. It says, “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.” It’s clear here that these men were to be characterized as being full of the Spirit before they were ever chosen for service as deacons. Certainly, fullness of the Spirit should be normal for the growing, faithful Christian. Secondly, the fullness of the Spirit refers to a special foundation for a particular ministry or office. An example of this would be in reference to John the Baptist from Luke 1:15 which says, “15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” Even in the womb, John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit for his special ministry of being the forerunner of Christ. Thirdly, there are occasions when the fullness of the Spirit is given to equip people not so much for special, lifelong ministry as for an immediate task. An example for this comes from the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7:55 which says, “55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” As Stephen was martyred, the Spirit filled him to be able to boldly proclaim Christ and to endure suffering. So, what is the fullness of the Spirit? I believe that in the context of this passage and the broader categories of Scripture that fullness of the Spirit refers to the characteristic pattern of the believer’s walk being strongly influenced by the Spirit rather than being strongly influenced by the flesh. 7 In contrast to the way that being drunk causes one to be so influenced by the alcohol that they turn to all kinds of uncontrollable actions, being filled with the Spirit means that a believer is so strongly influenced by the Spirit that their life results in the controlled actions of the fruit of the Spirit. The second question that we must answer when it comes to the filling of the Spirit is “how can I be filled with the Spirit?” To answer this question, in the clearest way, I think that we must turn to the teachings of Jesus. In Luke 11:13, Jesus says, “13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Fullness of the Holy Spirit is something that we must relentlessly and humbly ask the Father for. The Father’s desire is for His children to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit, yet so often we do not ask our Father for the fullness of the Spirit. Why don’t we ask the Father for the fullness of the Spirit? For some it's because we’ve never understood what the fullness of the Spirit even is.

IMITATORS OF GOD: LOVE, SEX, AND THE GLORY OF CHRIST Ephesians 5:1-14 • FCBC • 07/23/23 Good morning church, it is a privilege to be worshipping with you this morning. If you are visiting with us for the first time my name is Ryan and I am the pastor for worship and counseling and one of the elders here at FCBC and I have the privilege of opening up the Word to us this morning. I want to start by simply reading our passage and then we’ll jump right in. This morning we’re going to be looking at Paul’s exhortation to us to be imitators of God in love, sexual integrity. And the temptation I fought this week was just jumping right into what that might look like for us as believers this practically (to just go right for the implications and applications of this text). But I want to pause pretty significantly to unpack that term “Be imitators of God.” What in the world does it even mean to be imitators of God? I wrestled with this exhortation from Paul all week and I think if you can read right over that and go directly to the application and the “how” behind this call to imitate God without even a second thought (or a small mental breakdown), I want to gently but honestly tell you, you have WAY TO HIGH A VIEW OF YOUR SPIRITUAL CAPACITIES AND ABILITIES. Let’s go backwards for a bit. We’ve spent the last five weeks going through the imperatives of chapter 4. As Steve mentioned at the beginning of the book, Ephesians is really broken up into two parts; chapters 1-3 where Paul puts on display the glorious realities of the of the gospel. This is what we’ve referred to as the indicatives (declarations) that are so predominate in the first 3 chapters of Ephesians. And chapters 4-6 are what a life lived under those glorious realities looks like. We’ve referred to these as the imperatives or the commands that are so predominate in the last 3 chapters of the book. And so, before we move on, I just want to jog our memory for a moment and go backwards because I think that will serve us well as we get into the 5th chapter of this book. In chapter 1 Paul breaks down the fact that it takes a work of the entire trinity to bring us to God. The Father chooses a people for himself before the foundation of the world according to the good purpose of His will which brings Him glory and promises that remnant of people to the Son. He then commissions the Son on a rescue mission to save and redeem those people through His own blood giving us the forgiveness of our trespasses and the riches of His grace as an inheritance which Paul says He lavishes upon us (in other words he’s not stingy with His blessing of salvation). And then the son commissions the Spirit which we see in Ephesians 1:13-14 as promised in John 14:16 and John 15:26 to seal or secure this promised hope of a people that will one day live with their God forever. The Father makes the promise, the Son makes the provision, and the Spirit guarantees our hope until redemptions done until we join in endless praise to God the three in one… and why does Paul say He does this!? It’s as we sing “to the praise of His glory, to the praise of His mercy and grace, to the praise of His glory YOU are the God that saves!” If you’ve come in here this morning and are wondering, “Why am I here? Why have I come? I am overwhelmed by my sin and have grown weary of doing good, what could possibly happen this morning that would change my life, my outlook, or my circumstances?” It’s this, you are beloved! In love he predestined you to adoption as sons and daughters through the blood of Jesus Christ, in love he has called you and given you the forgiveness of your sins and the lavish riches of His grace, in love he has blessed you and called you beloved, in love he is making known to you the mystery of His will which is this great gospel that is making all thing new and right again, in love he has sealed you for the day of redemption despite your ever challenging growth and sanctification he will PERSONALLY see it through!!! That’s why you’re here this morning because Christ loves you and has called you to Himself! And that’s just chapter 1 of the book. Chapter 2 Paul goes on to describe our condition and what we’ve been called from and called to. We who were sons of disobedience walking according to the passions of our flesh have been saved by grace. Not saved by our own hard work but saved by grace having been given faith as a gift to believe in God. This is not a result of our own doing rather as Paul says it is a gift of God, not of works so that our only boast is in Christ ALONE! This gospel of grace that levels the playing field for all of us, gives us a unity as one body so that you can’t look over to your neighbor and say I was more acceptable than you were, more lovable, less dirty, just flat out better. It’s so that in Paul’s day the Jews couldn’t look at the gentiles whom they despised and say “You have no place in this family” rather “this same gift of grace we’ve received as God’s special people has been extended to you through the blood of Jesus, so that you are now as Ephesians 3:6 says, ‘fellow heirs, members of this same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel’.” Over and over and over Paul is hammering away at this simple truth, you were saved by God, for God, and to God. To put it another way from one of Paul’s other New Testament letter’s “to live is Christ and to die is gain!” This is the most important thing about you, your identity in Christ, because that is what you were created for; to dwell with, fellowship with, and worship your creator! So why do I bring all this up again? Well, as we said at the beginning, we've spent the last five weeks going through these imperatives or these commands that Paul is totally unapologetic about. He's saying if your life has truly been transformed by the gospel it should look like this: 1. Don’t lie rather tell the truth 2. Don’t sin with anger rather be angry and don’t sin 3. Don’t steal rather labor with honest work so you have something to share 4. Don’t speak corruptly rather use your words for building up and giving grace These are all good things and should definitely characterize the life and living of a Christian! I mean who doesn’t want an honest, gentle, hardworking, generous, and encouraging person in their life? I’d even say even non-Christians would consider this type of person to be generally good for their communities, businesses, and society in general. But I want us to consider something before moving on to our passage which contains another (what feels like) weightier imperative waiting for us in the very first verse of Ephesians 5. Consider this: • There are plenty of honest, gentle, hardworking, generous, and encouraging people in the world who haven't been transformed by the power of the gospel. This begs the question, “What’s the difference between a non Christian who’s life can be characterized by these virtues, values, and imperatives and a Christian who obeys these commands from Paul and bears fruit?” o The power by which you accomplish these good works and… o The purpose for which you accomplish these good works § And that’s going to be so important as we look at this next imperative • You see the power by which the unregenerate person seeks to be a decent person ultimately rests in and relies on SELF and the ultimate purpose for which they seek to accomplish these virtues is FOR SELF • But the power by which the Christian can bear fruit of this nature is his/her UNION in CHRIST and the purpose for which the Christian bears fruit is FOR the GLORY of CHRIST The reason why this distinction is SO important is because we get to Ephesians 5:1 and we see this command “Therefore be imitators of God.” That’s almost seems like an incredulous statement. “Really Paul, imitate God!? You might as well ask me to swim across the Pacific Ocean or jump to mars.” God is holy, God is perfect in wisdom, love knowledge, and power. He does all things well. He is perfect in justice; he upholds the universe with the Word of His power. He never sins. And yet Paul seems still to implore us to this anyway and I think this is why he can do this Paul summarizes three chapters of indicatives (or declarations regarding your identity) and it’s in the three words in the rest of that verse, “As Beloved Children!” You see, if we aren’t saturated in the gospel realities of Ephesians 1-3, if we don’t have a robust view of our identity in Christ, then we’re going to read right over the phrase “As beloved Children” and not believe that imitating God, as Paul is understanding it, is possible. You see this is why Paul spends so much time unpacking the glorious realities of the gospel for us in Ephesians 1-3. He realizes the only power by which someone can imitate God is by the power of the gospel. And we throw that word around here a lot; the gospel, the power of the gospel, applying the gospel to our lives, gospel, gospel, gospel. It can almost become white noise. So, when I say that Paul realizes the only power by which someone can imitate God is by the power of the gospel what I am saying is “Christ’s life and righteousness working in and through you, applied to you through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross, and working in you by the power of the Holy Spirit!” • You see the Greek word for “imitator” of God in verse 1 comes from the root word: μιμεομαι (mimeomai) this is a verb and noun form from where we get our word mimic. • But the actual word used here specifically in Ephesians 5:1 is the word: μιμητής (mimites) which is actually primarily a noun form. • You might be wondering, “Why does that matter, and it matters because if we’re going to stay consistent with Paul’s line of thought through this whole book, we have to understand that being an imitator of God is not some impossible thing to be accomplished but rather a position in Christ to be assumed that yields fruit! I love how Calvin put it, he said: o This p