From Old To New – Ephesians 4:17-32 — A Christian Growth Message

Transcript

Thank you our Heavenly Father for this day, and we bow in your presence, to pray that your word would be our rule and our guide. That your Holy Spirit would be our teacher this morning. That your great glory would be our first concern, we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.

I don’t need to tell you that for many people, the iPhone is their lifeline, they cannot live without an iPhone. I shouldn’t be too rude because I don’t have a mobile phone, but I do greatly appreciate my wife’s mobile phone, but there are many people for whom their iPhone is really their lifeline and I remember reading a story of a woman who was walking on a beach and kicked a bottle and out came, the proverbial genie and the genie said I’ll grant you one wish, and she said something like this, she said I want my husband to want me all the time.

And I want my husband to want me to be with him all the time, and you can guess she was immediately turned into an iPhone, and that is part of the deal, isn’t it, to be wanted and to be with you all the time.

Now there is something absolutely more wonderful than an iPhone, believe it or not, and that is the presence of the living God.

And I assure you this is true because in this world the presence of the living God is more wonderful and more important.

And of course in the long term, infinitely more important.

And it is a very wonderful thing, some of you come here this morning and you’ve got a lot on your plate and you’ve got some heavy burdens on your mind, and it’s a very wonderful thing to remember that where you go, if you have put your trust in Christ, you have the presence of the living God with you, whatever you’re facing this week, he has said I’ll be with you, he keeps his promises and he has the power.

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And it seems to me that we who are believers ought to be occasionally looking at people with their iPhones glued to their heads, and we ought to be saying to ourselves as we see the iPhone, we have the infinite privilege of having the presence of the living God with us wherever we go, providing what we need and helping us in all our ways.

Now we’ve been looking at Ephesians and the letter of Ephesians in the New Testament talks about how the presence of the living God comes about.

And so God who has this wonderful plan for people has made a way that the vertical barrier between him and us can be fixed and bridged through Christ, and immediately when we come to Christ, the horizontal barrier between us and other people who belong to Christ is mended in a very wonderful way and we find that God is our Father and Jesus is our saviour and the Holy Spirit is our indweller.

And the first half of Ephesians is pretty well describing how God brings us new life and brings his presence to us.

And the second half of the letter is pretty well describing how that life is to be lived out, and we’ve moved now from the first half to the second half, and it’s very typical of the apostle Paul in all his letters to describe in the first half of the letter how God puts a new life inside us.

And then it’s very typical of the apostle Paul in the second half of the letter to show how God causes that life to be lived out of us.

And that’s what we’ve really come to, or if I might put it like this, God does not look at his world and say to a stick on the ground – no, no, no, God will take a stick, and give it life.

God does not look at a uh a disentangled or a disconnected sprinkler. And so water that lawn over there – no, no, no, God will join the sprinkler to the tap in order that it might do what he asks it to do.

And God doesn’t look at people and say, I want you to be holy, I want you to be good, no, no, he gives a new life to us through Christ, in order that we might begin to serve him as he calls us to.

From Ephesians chapter 4, that God calls on his people to keep the unity of the family.

Just as we might say to the Jones family how having lots of squabbles. Listen, you’re the Jones family. You should do what you can to keep the family together.

And God calls on us to keep the unity of the family, but we also discover that he calls on us to pursue the maturity of the family, he doesn’t want the family to be made up of toddlers decade after decade, and the maturity of the family comes through the word of God. God has given us his messengers, apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers so that we can be built up in maturity.

And, and that’s the point really, isn’t it, if you’ve got the spirit of God in your heart, you are part of the united family of God. If you’ve got the word of God in your mind and heart, you’re on the road to maturity.

Which of course is why we need to be people who not only give thanks for the spirit, but give thanks and take advantage of the Word of God.

So this morning there are two quick things from the passage we just had read for us from Ephesians 4:17-32, and the two points go like this, a new life means a new lifestyle and a new life means a new community.

First of all, a new life means a new lifestyle.

You may have come here today, as I say, absolutely swamped with things on your mind.

And you’re thinking to yourself, I don’t really know what this guy is going to be talking about this morning, but I just don’t want to be told one more thing to do.

But I want to say to you from this passage that God is reminding you that you’re not in the dark. And that you’re not lifeless. He’s given you new glasses so that you might see the world as he sees the world, and he’s not absent, he’s very present.

Having given a new life to every believer.

And so we read in chapter 4 verse 17, don’t live, says Paul, as if you’re lifeless and lost.

Don’t live as if you have no heavenly Father, don’t live as if you have no saviour, don’t live as if you have no Holy Spirit.

In chapter 4 verse 17 and following, Paul paints a picture of the person without Christ and says this is a tragedy. And this is not the way you ought to think or live.

These verses incidentally, which were read for us about the person who’s without Christ and not pretending that non-Christians are terrible people, we know perfectly well that non-Christians can be the most lovely and delightful people, sometimes we find people outside the church more pleasant than we find people inside the church.

But what Paul is saying is that when a person is resistant to Christ, it’s more serious and it’s more sinister than most people realise.

You think of the sweet neighbour in your street. And you go to them and you say I’d like to tell you the wonderful news about Jesus Christ, I know this would hardly ever happen, but just imagine it did, and your neighbour says I don’t really want to know, please don’t tell me anything.

And you see in these verses of chapter 4:17, Paul X-rays the opposition to Christ. He says in verse 18, you need to know the person who’s opposed to Christ has a heart that’s resistant to him, a hard, resistant heart, and then the mind, he says, is in the dark, they just can’t see.

They’re absolutely spiritually blind, and then he says in verse 18, their soul is alienated from God, you must feel for that person.

They’re cut-off from God, they may consider God somebody they know about, but they don’t have God as somebody they know.

And then verse 19, the will, their will is committed to self.

Now we see this kind of person very graphically sometimes on the television, you know, we see somebody who has just behaved appallingly and let’s remember that we are capable of behaving appallingly, but we sometimes see that person whose heart is hard and whose mind is dark and whose will is indulgent, we see them very graphically on the television, but we can also see these people very subtly in the best of people.

Because you just have to lift the lid on the people who we live amongst and you’ll discover that underneath the apathy, just lift the lid on the average unbeliever, who looks as though they’re not interested in the things of Christ and you’ll find that they’re absolutely resistant to the things of Christ, up comes the volcano.

But when God changes the heart, and that’s what he does and brings a person to Christ, they become very different.

And you see this difference in verse 20 where Paul says this person’s got a new heart and a new hunger, and they’ve entered what I will call the school of Christ. Now my friends, has it ever occurred to you if you’re a believer that you have entered the school of Christ?

Cause that’s what Paul says here, he says in chapter 4 verse 20, you, if you’re a believer, learned of Christ, and actually the original language says you learned Christ.

Just like I might say you learned Italian or you learned French or you learned engineering.

He says you learn Christ.

And so when we come by faith to Christ, it’s as if we come into the school called Christ. And we come to the syllabus called Christ. And the subject of Christ and the teacher called Christ.

And we find ourselves walking as it were, in this new school or university, learning the saviour, learning the King.

Now I know this language is very strange, but I just want to say simply to you that when you become a Christian, according to Paul you don’t just get informed of Christ, you get transformed by Christ.

I wonder if it’s true for you, I wonder if you can say this morning, you know, there was a day where I came to faith in Christ. And when I came to faith in Christ, I found myself wanting to learn him. I wanted to know him, I wanted to learn what he thinks and says and does, and plans and promises, and I entered into the syllabus of Christ.

And of course that goes on and on and on all through our life as we get to know him better because his dimensions are beyond us. And I presume even in glory we’ll continue to learn the greatness and the grace of Christ.

So Paul says, since we have come to Christ, since we’ve got a new life and since the lights have gone on, we need to live like it, that’s the point of chapter 4, and he uses a very famous illustration of changing your clothes.

Chapter 4 verse 22, he says put off or we might say take off the clothes which are the old life of being a non-Christian.

And verse 24, put on or dress yourself in the new clothes of being a Christian. God you see does the inward part, he changes the heart that’s beyond us, we couldn’t possibly change our hearts, but he is able to change our hearts. He’s able to make us new.

We do the outward part of saying well now I have the new life, how am I today, going to put off that old dress which was the old life and how am I going to pursue or practise or dress myself in the new life which Christ has given me, it’s an ongoing thing, we are to be putting off and putting on every day if not every hour.

That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

I mean, the day I got married, I played squash in the morning. Was it a good idea to get changed? It was a good idea to get changed. And I went and I found a rented suit that made me look like an escapee from an ABBA movie and there I was. Or think of the person who’s been playing football and they’ve got a dinner that evening, is it a good idea for them to have a wash and a change of clothes, it is.

Or think of the prisoner who’s been released and puts away his green uniform or orange uniform or whatever it is and starts to dress as a civilian.

And the next morning when he gets up, he’s got to say to himself, I’m not putting on the green uniform, I’m putting on my civilian clothes, I’ve been released.

And the temptation maybe to go back to the old clothes, but those clothes have got to be rejected. It’s time to put on the new clothes which fits the new status. So you see, Paul is not calling on us just to pull up our socks and to be good and to be better and all that sort of thing. He’s calling on us to live out the life that God has given us.

Now why is this important? Well it’s important my friends because Christ didn’t die on the cross just so that we would live as if we had no new life. Christ didn’t die and give us a new life so that we would turn around and say well that doesn’t matter at all. I’m just going to live like I want.

No, Christ should be lived for in much gratitude.

The world needs to see the new life which Christ puts into us, the church needs to see the new life as well. And we should be delighted to live it.

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at a church home house party and it was it was a very big home house party, maybe 300 or 400 people, and they had an interview with a boy, a tradie who’d become a Christian.

And the person who was interviewing him said you know what was your position before you came to the little Christian course and became a Christian, he said I was a bit of a fan of Christ. But I wasn’t a follower. You know, I kind of sort of admired him from a distance, but there was no following.

And then he said there came the moment in the little course where we looked at the claims of Christ, the kingship of Christ, the saving work of Christ, and I realised that it was time for me to surrender and start following and then the interviewer said, how’s everything changed and he said well my language has changed.

And he said it’s not an easy thing in the tradie world to clean up your language, but that language has had to be cleaned up.

So he’s moved from being a distant fan to a close follower.

And that’s what Paul is talking about, a new life means a new lifestyle, that’s the first thing this morning.

Second thing is a new life means a new community.

This is verses 25 to 32.

So it’s the genius of God to create a new community and one of the reasons we gather together is because believe it or not, we have been brought to Christ and we’re going to be with Christ for eternity and we will be together for eternity. And so we might as well get used to one another.

When I drove a car a long time ago, I had one of those fish stickers on the window, some of you will be old enough to remember those things, the fish sticker to say that I was a Christian. I remember being at the lights on one occasion.

And there was a car beside me and he honked the horn and I wound my window down and I said, do I know you? and he said no, but we’re going to be together for a very long time and I thought I’d just say hello and he drove off.

Well it’s perfect, isn’t it, it’s exactly right. God has brought us into a family which is bigger and better than we could imagine.

And God uses, you see, the church to help other people believe.

When I was on beach mission many years ago, there was a guy camping near us. We were camping in the camping ground, about 35 of us, and we were running activities for children and youth and adults, and one of the guys came over, he was a policeman, absolutely massive, must have been 25 stone, and his name was Fred Gardner, and he said, you know, I’ve been running police activities for years and years, and I’ve never been able to get the kind of cooperation or harmony that you seem to have in your team. Could you tell me the secret?

Now it sounds very cheesy doesn’t it, but actually you know he had no idea of the gospel of Christ, how Jesus changes the heart.

And he became a believer, and he gave his testimony the next year at the beach mission dinner.

Or I think of a lady in the previous church who brought her husband to church and he had always hated church.

And after a few weeks, he said to me, he said, Where are the fights?

Where are the fights in the church?

I said I’m not really aware of any fights in the church, he was so affected by this.

And it helped his understanding, his listening, his growing. It was as if he’d come into something that the world couldn’t organise.

So Paul gets very practical.

And he says there are 4 things that we can work on, there’s probably about 20, but he mentions 4 of them from verse 25. Just have a quick look and as Marcello reminded me through the week very helpfully, these verses are not just for the individual, they’re for us as a church, this should be the policy of all saints.

Not just each of us.

First of all, he says in verse 25, here’s something that you can put off and put on, take off the clothes of lies, verse 25, replace the lies with truth. Because he says we’re members of one another.

So you see we’re not just a club, a Rotary Club or the Roosters rugby league club or something like that, we’re members and we’re actually members of the body of Christ. If we believe in Christ, we’re members of Christ.

And you can imagine, can’t you, if you’re a member of the body, let’s imagine you’re the eye of the body, you don’t want to mislead the foot, so the foot steps on a snake.

And you don’t want if you’re the eye to mislead the hand so that the hand leans on the stove. You’re not going to play games on the rest of the body. Because we’re members of one another.

Well last week I was in Melbourne and somebody asked me a question and I answered way too quickly in a way which was sort of partly helpful and partly helpful to me but it wasn’t honest and responsible.

And I just thought afterwards, I’ve weakened the fellowship.

And we need to be very careful, don’t we, in the way we speak, saying the things that are true because trust is built on truth.

The second thing Paul says in verse 26 and 27 is remove grudges, take them off, take those clothes off and replace with fix-ups, for want of a better word.

See the first part of verse 4 chapter 4 verse 26, he says, be angry, yep that’s fine, you can be angry, there’s lots to be angry about. There’s a place for more anger, Stott says we could do with more anger, righteous anger in the church, but don’t sin.

In fact, it’s not a bad idea to be angry at sin.

And then there’ll be less sin, and we’ve gotta help, we’ve gotta seek God’s help with this, haven’t we? So easy to get angry in an unrighteous way.

You know, it flares up so quickly. When our goal gets blocked, we get angry.

Someone threatens our position, someone threatens our pride, someone threatens our behaviour, we get angry.

And the Lord Jesus who came into the world full of power, humbled himself. Placed himself basically at the service of the world. And he’s the one that we can look to help us. And especially to subdue unrighteous anger.

And we must make sure that we don’t give the devil a door in the church, you can just imagine the devil seeing a silly fight going on in the church and rubbing his hands and saying this is great. May it spread all through the church.

Paul says no get rid of the unrighteous anger and replace it with fix-ups wherever you can.

Thirdly, he says, remove the stealing, take off the stealing clothes, remove that with serving.

This may of course strike us as being specially relevant unless you have found ways to do some stealing, I don’t know, but you can imagine in Paul’s day where there were no charities or social service things, people had to find ways to basically get what they didn’t have.

And Paul’s wisdom here is very wonderful cos he says look, stop stealing, but throw your energy into some work where you can in the prospect of helping somebody else.

It’s a brand new revolutionary thought, don’t just think what can I get for myself, but what can I work for. In order to give somebody what they need.

And it maybe that there are some of us here today in this building who need to resolve to stop abusing our privileges, what we’re receiving, or the paymaster who’s providing for us, and serve the Lord with proper zeal.

And then some generosity.

And the 4th thing he says to remove is remove the poison of speech, and replace it with the grace of speech.

You see that in verse 29 and 30.

He says speech of course comes out of our mouth so quickly.

And sometimes we just say things that we want to and that we think we’re entitled to say, and it actually puts the knife into people and it poisons the friendship.

And so Paul says, try, by the grace of God – to speak the things that will build the person up, ask yourself just before you say something. Is this likely to build them up?

We’re very thankful, aren’t we, for those people who speak carefully.

I myself am rebuked occasionally when I’m just about to speak negatively and someone will just turn the conversation to something more positive and edifying.

We’re grateful for those people, and Paul again I want to say he’s not asking the impossible. He’s basically saying you’ve got the resources from Christ. So live them out.

Finally, you’ll see in the last 3 verses as we come to an end that it’s very God-centered, he says in chapter 4 verse 30, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit, you’ve been given the Holy Spirit in your heart. Don’t grieve him, he will help you.

Verse 30 again, don’t forget your redemption that Christ has rescued you.

He’s brought you out of darkness into light and he’s brought you out of death into life, you’ve got a new life, he will help you.

And verse 32, copy the Father, he is a forgiving God, be a forgiving believer, he will help you.

So we’re sealed by the spirit, that’s the privilege, we’re redeemed by Christ, that’s our privilege, we’re forgiven by the Father, that’s our privilege, we have such help available.

You must never think like the Israelites who are being told by the Egyptians, you’ve got to produce a million bricks and we’re not going to give you the resources. You must never think like that.

God has given us massive resources in order that we might be able to put into practise what he asks us to. One of the people at this conference yesterday who was also interviewed had become a Christian by reading the Bible on her own.

And she then began to read the Bible regularly every day until she got herself right through the Bible at least a couple of times.

And she then said to herself, you know, I really need to go to a church, I need to find a church.

So she went along to the church that I was giving these talks at yesterday.

And she said this, she said, I came into the church. And she said, I didn’t know what to expect. But I knew enough of the Bible to know that these people were living what they said they were meant to believe, they were living it.

And so I said I’ll stay.

That’s a lovely thing, isn’t it, that somebody would come in and say the people are living what they say and God is able to help us and that’s what Paul says here, a new life, new lifestyle by the grace of God, new life, new community by the grace of God.

Let’s pray, let’s bow our heads.

We give you our thanks, our heavenly Father, that because of the death of Christ, we are able to have a new life, a new and eternal and wonderful life, and we thank you that you are able to work in and through us, to live out that life, we pray that you would help us to do it.

In the way we speak.

In the way we deal with anger.

The day, the day we, the way we deal with our property and resources.

And the way we deal with everyday speech.

We pray that you, the Trinitarian God, our Father, our saviour, the Holy Spirit, would work in and through us to your honour and to the good of many, we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.

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