Christ Church

One of the Central Jewels (Eph. 1)

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Introduction

Considering the book of Ephesians a chapter at a time is a little bit like taking pictures of the Rocky Mountains from outer space. There is no hope of covering everything; there is perhaps some hope of stirring up a desire in you to give yourself to a lifetime of meditating on the themes of this book. As we learn later in this epistle, the Church is the bride of Christ. As she is gloriously adorned for her husband on her wedding day, she wears a golden crown, made up of all the Scriptures. If that image be allowed, the book of Ephesians should be understood as one of the central jewels in it.

The Text

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ . . .” (Eph. 1:1-23).

Ephesus the Great

Ephesus was a harbor city on the west coast of modern Turkey It was the capital city for Proconsular Asia, and contained one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the temple of Artemis (or Diana). It is a ruin today because the harbor silted up. But in Paul’s day, a street called the Arcadian Way ran about half a mile east from the harbor, where it connected with the cross street called Theater Street. The theater itself—where the riot occurred (Acts 19:29) was straight across the street at the intersection. The city had a population of roughly 250,000. The city was a center of great learning, as well as of great superstitions (Acts 19:19). Paul lived there from A.D. 52-54, and this letter is written about ten years later from prison in Rome.

Summary of the Text

Paul identifies himself as an apostle by the will of God, and salutes the Ephesian saints as being faithful in Christ Jesus (v. 1). He blesses them with grace and peace from the Father and the Son (v. 2). The Spirit is not mentioned by name because He is that grace and peace. A blessing is pronounced upon the Father of Jesus Christ, who is Himself the source of all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (v. 3). The first mentioned blessing is the fact that we were chosen in Christ to be holy before the foundation of the world (v. 4). We were chosen to be holy, not because we were holy. He predestined us in love to be adopted by Jesus Christ and brought to God, and He did this because it was what He wanted (v. 5). The result of this is so that the glory of His grace would be praised, not vilified (v. 6). We have redemption through His blood, which means forgiveness for sin, according to His riches of grace (v. 7). This is a mountain of grace, but He did not just dump it on us; He showered with grace in all wisdom and prudence (v. 8). He lavishes with precision. God intended this within His own counsels for a long time past, from before when the world was made, but has now unveiled the mystery to us (v. 9). That mystery was that, when the time was finally right, God would gather everything in heaven and earth up into Christ (v. 10). In Christ, absolutely everything is recapitulated or summed up. God does everything as He wishes, and His wishes included making us His heirs (v. 11). Paul is describing himself here as inundated by the first wave of this grace (v. 12). But Gentile Ephesians not fear that this grace will run out—they also heard and believed and were sealed (v. 13). They were sealed by the Spirit, who is the earnest payment or first installment of their final inheritance (v. 14).

Ever since Paul heard of their faith in Jesus and love for the saints (v. 15), he has not stopped giving thanks for them (v. 16). His prayer for them included some remarkable requests—that the Father of glory would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in their knowledge of Christ (v. 17). He asks further that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened to the extent that they would really “get” the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (v. 18)—a real down-is-up truth. Another thing was the greatness of His power for believers (v. 19), the kind of power that was evidenced in the resurrection and ascension (v. 20). That ascension placed Christ far above all current and future authorities (v. 21). Everything was placed under His feet (v. 22), and He was made head over everything for the Church. That Church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything (v. 23).

The True Nature of Paul’s Prayer

We are told here that Jesus was exalted to the highest imaginable place—it says that He was raised far above every other authority in the cosmos (v. 21). But this is not why Paul asks for the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened. That is not the thing that staggers us; everyone expects God to be “far above” everything. The thing that would require a special anointing from the Spirit to “get” is the coupling of this exaltation of Christ with the honoring of His bride. Consider what Paul is actually saying here. First, before the foundation of the world, God chose us (v. 4), loved us (vv. 4-5), predestined us (v. 5), blessed us (v. 6), lavished grace upon us (v. 8), and so on. Second, Paul specifically says that he is asking that the Spirit would open their eyes so that they might understand how great and glorious Christ’s inheritance is in the saints (v. 18). And third, we are told that Christ fills absolutely everything (v. 23), but in the same breath we are told that we in the Church are His fullness (v. 23). So the issue is not the exaltation of Christ; the issue is the corresponding exaltation of the Church in Christ. If we get just a portion of what Paul is talking about here, we will buckle at the knees. If we are to learn this without collapsing, God will have to do it. Your condition before conversion and your condition now can only be compared to Christ in the tomb and Christ at the right hand of Almighty God.

There are two great themes in Ephesians—the reconciliation of all things in creation to Christ, and the reconciliation of all nations in Christ. All the practical teaching is simply learning how to live as if these two great themes are true.

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Parenting Young People 2

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Introduction

The hardest thing to maintain in this unbalanced world is balance. We react, we pull away, we lurch, and we tumble. We do this in many ways. And, having heard the exhortation that we should teach our children to love the standard and, if they don’t, to lower the standard, what temptation will confront us? The temptation will be to think that laziness and apathy are grace, and that defensiveness when confronted is zeal for the law of God. But loving God with all your mind, soul, heart and strength is a love with balance.

The Text

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:1-4).

Summary of the Text

Here are some of the basics of Christian living within the family. We begin with the duty of obedience (v. 1). When children are young and living at home, honor entails obedience, necessarily. When children are grown and out on their own, the duty of honor remains, but it is rendered differently (Mark 7:10-13). This is obedience rendered by children in the Lord (v. 1). The word for obedience could be rendered literally as listen-under—or, as we might put it, listen up. This attentiveness to what parents say is described here by Paul as a form of honor, and he goes on to describe how much of a blessing it will be to the children who learn how to behave in this way (v. 2). This commandment, to honor parents, is the first commandment with a promise. The promise from God Himself is that things will go well for you throughout your long life on the earth (v. 3). And then fathers are presented with an alternative—one thing is prohibited and another is enjoined. Fathers are told not to exasperate their children to the point of wrath or anger (v. 4), and instead are told to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (v. 4). Note that they are not told to provoke their children to wrath with the nurture and admonition of the Lord —one excludes the other.

Stop Experimenting on Children

In construction work, one of the good things about a concrete pour is that, no matter what, a couple hours later, you’re all done. This is also one of the really bad things about it. You don’t want to start out with a long foundation wall and wind up with a patio.

Kids are a concrete pour. The time they will spend in your home goes past a lot faster than you thought it would. Fathers are tasked with the responsibility of bringing them up in the Lord, which means that fathers are tasked with the responsibility of working in harmony with the nature of the child. It is of course debated what that nature is actually like, and so how are parents to deal with this?

Too many Christian parents are like that old joke about the Harvard man. “You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can’t tell him much.” Because we have successfully established the principle that parents have true authority in the home, many foolish parents have concluded that this means that anything they may happen to think about child-rearing, or education, or training, or courtship standards, is therefore automatically blessed of God. But fathers are told not to provoke their children because, in this fallen world, this is a very easy thing to do. This is a very easy thing for Christian fathers to do. If it had not been an easy temptation for Ephesian fathers, Paul could have saved his advice for somebody who really needed it. Paul does not make the mistake of thinking that authority makes folly impossible—he cautions against authoritative folly.

The hallmark of whether or not a father is experimenting on his kids, as opposed to bringing them up in obedience, is how open he is to the idea of someone else actually measuring what he is doing. How open is he to true accountability? “Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding” (2 Cor. 10:12). Note that phrase “without understanding.” How can you tell if parents have undertaken their solemn responsibilities as parents with a demeanor of humble confidence? “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head” (Ps. 141:5).

A Road and A Way

The Christian faith is a road, sure enough. But it is also a way. This means that how we walk is as important as where we walk. If someone has questions about what you are doing, it does not answer the concern to point at the road. It does not answer to bring out your books and web sites that argue for this particular kind of asphalt. That’s as may be, but there is something else going on.

How do you conjugate the verb firm? Do you say I am firm, you are stubborn, he is pig-headed? If you do this easily, then you have wandered from the way, whatever road you are on.

Another way of measuring this is by whether or not you require obedience of your children for their sake or not. If you don’t require it, that is selfish. If you demand it for your own reasons, that is selfish. If you require it as a gift to them, then you are modeling the same kind of obedience you are asking for.

And God is Our Father

There is no way for any parent to hear these words without conviction. And conviction is good. But always remember there is a hard-riding guilt that is from the enemy of our souls, and not from the Holy Spirit. Remember that as God is teaching us not to provoke others with impossible standards, He models this for us. He is not provoking us with impossible standards either. Our Father in Heaven requires nothing in this that He does not do Himself. He is the Father of all grace. The one thing to remember about this grace is that He—because He is a loving Father—requires us to freely extend what we have freely received (Matt. 10:8; Col. 3:13).

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Gratitude and its Alternative

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Introduction

This Lord’s Day is the first after our Thanksgiving holiday, and is also the first Sunday in Advent. Because we want to stand against what might be called morbid penitentialism, we want this season to be suffused with a glad anticipation. The only conviction we want to awaken would be a spirit of penitence for things we should be repentant for at any time of year. At the same time, if you hear His voice today, do not harden your hearts.

The Text

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14).

Background to the Text

For many evangelicals the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, and wedding preparedness, is related to the doctrine of the Second Coming. But some of you may have noticed that in our Cantus, this seems to be an image that is often used in the context of Advent. For example, consider Behold the Bridegroom Cometh (p. 218), How Lovely Shines the Morning Star (pp. 220-223), and Wake, Awake for Night is Flying (pp. 228-229). Why do we do this? Why think about the Wedding Feast of the Lamb during our preparations for Christmas? The reason is that wisdom can be described as having the end in mind at the very beginning. When Mary was holding Jesus as a baby in her arms, she was told about the crucifixion (Luke 2:35). When she was pregnant and visiting Elizabeth, she exulted in the end of the matter, in the fact that the mighty would in fact be pulled out of their seats (Luke 1:52). She anticipated the end at the beginning. And this is what we want to do in the course of Advent. We know the whole story, and we should live and act as those who know the whole story.

Summary of the Text

The text is an invitation to the unbeliever, closed up in sleep of his sins, to wake up. When he wakes up it is from a condition of spiritual death, and the light of Christ will shine upon him. In the surrounding verses, we have a description of the nature of that death, as well as a series of exhortations to Christians on how to relate to it. Christians are told first that fornication and other forms of uncleanness should not even be named among them (v. 3). He then says that they should not be crude in their joking either (v. 4), but instead they should give thanks. That kind of unclean living is not a trifle; those who live that way will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God (vv. 5-6). Christians are then told not to be “partakers” with them (v. 7), just as they will be told not to have fellowship with those works (v. 11). That this partaking has to do with speech is clear (v. 12). Believers used to be that way (vv. 8–10), and should not long for the old ways. That is darkness, and they are now in the light. We are supposed to reprove such works (v. 11), and the reproof is supposed to consist of the light that we shine (v. 13). So this is how unbelievers have the light of Christ shine on them—through us (vv. 13-14). Because of the evil of the surrounding darkness, we should be careful to walk carefully, as those who are wise (v. 15). Time is limited, the days are evil, and so the time should be wisely used (v. 16). We should be wise enough to understand what the Lord’s will is (v. 17). We should not drink to excess, even at Christmas parties, but instead be filled by the Spirit’s work (v. 18). We can tell this has happened because of how we speak (v. 19), and the speaking of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is the way that we give thanks for all things to God in the name of Jesus (v. 20).

This, Not That

It is really interesting to note how Paul reasons here. For another example of it, Paul says that a thief should quit stealing, and should work with his hands instead (Eph. 4:28). This tells us that Paul thinks that this is a basic alternative.

Hard work drives out dishonesty with property and dishonesty with property drives out hard work.

Here he says that our language should not be characterized by coarse jesting, but instead by thanksgiving (v. 4). Gravitation toward dirty jokes, foul movies, crude entertainment, and so forth is a principal indicator of an ungrateful and discontented soul. Further, a soul that is overflowing with thanksgiving in the way described in this passage (vv. 4, 20) will naturally recoil from filth. If your nose works, no one has to “make a rule” requiring you stop smelling putrid things. And if you consistently gravitate toward putrid things, this means that your sense of smell is shot. What must you do instead? You must give yourself to the giving of thanks. And if this is something you cannot do, then wake up, oh, sleeper, and Christ will shine on you. If thanksgiving arrives, then crudity is gone.

Evangelistic Confusion

More than a few Christians think that in order to be effective evangelistically, they have to minimize differences between themselves and the unbelievers. They have to fit in, they have to share entertainment standards, they have to go along to show that they don’t think “they are better than other folks.” But the end of this strategy is that you are telling an unbeliever to wake up because the room you are asleep in is just as dark as his.

Sing the Story

In Romans 1, Paul tells us that the unbelieving man hates two things above everything else. He does not want to honor God as God, and he does not want to give Him thanks. Our task, in this dark and sinful generation, should therefore be to honor God as God as much as we can, and to thank Him as much as we can.

And so here is the glorious thing. During the Christmas season, because of our Christian heritage (which the secularists are busy trying to eradicate and outlaw, see above), we still have an open invitation to honor God as God, and to give Him thanks. We can shine the light of the whole story. The sovereign God who arranged for the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem is obviously in control of everything—stars, wicked kings, pagan astrologers, shepherds, and all the rest of history. Tell the story. And He is also the one who did this for us men, and for our salvation. With thanksgiving, sing the story.

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Unity

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What Is Unity?

  • The Triune God. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; (John 14:11) 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:20-21)
  • Imitating the Trinity.
  • “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” (I Corinthians 12:12-14)
  • “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6).
  • We are rooted in Christ. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Col. 2:6-7 ) Are we separate potted plants?
  • We are the body of Christ. “…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head —Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Eph. 4:15-16) Are we separate organs in tissue culture trays?

What Destroys Unity?

  • Unconfessed sin in the church.
  • Exalting leaders and distinctive doctrines over love for all the brothers. “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” (1 Cor. 3:4-7)
  • Being wrong in our rightness. Our views on church liturgy, music, architecture, preaching style, childrearing, educational pedagogy, food, medicine, etc., etc. give us occasion to despise or judge our brothers. (review the last two sermons)
  • Lack of love for other Christians in different denominations. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”. (John 13:34-35). “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil…” (I Corinthians 13:4-5).

Benefits of Unity

  • God blesses us.
  • It is good and pleasant. 1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)
  • “The world will know we are His disciples! A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
  • Evangelism will be much more effective. When we are living in unity, we are presenting to the unbelieving world a better picture of the Gospel and the Trinity. If not, they see an unattractive & dismembered body of Christ.

Bringing About Unity

  • Confess our sins. We must be made pure, holy, and righteous? How? (1 John 1: 9). What sins? All kinds of sin hinder unity to some extent, but some sins overtly cause disunity. Bitterness (lack of forgiveness), divisiveness, looking down our nose at other denominations (doctrinal pride: knowledge puffs up), and stubbornness. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
  • We must cultivate humility, gentleness, patience, and love. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Eph. 4:1-6)
  • Practice hospitality (Romans 12:13). Make close friendships with other believers outside your denominational tradition. This should be a delight (Romans 12:9). It shouldn’t be contrived or forced. Friendship builds trust and brotherly love. Once a loving friendship is established, you can talk about your doctrinal differences graciously without becoming contentious.
  • Seek to work with other churches in evangelism & mercy ministries (as far as you are able). 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. (Phil. 2:2).
  • Don’t be possessive or territorial. What are we trying to build? Our denomination’s local or national presence or God’s Kingdom?

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

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The Pentecostal Gift

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Introduction

As we celebrate the various holidays of the church year, we generally know what they are about. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and Easter His resurrection. And even if you didn’t know what Ascension Day was about, you could probably guess from the name—in a “who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” sort of way. But what is Pentecost about? Even if we know the reason for the name, what is it we are celebrating?

The Text

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Eph. 4:7-8)

Summary of the Text

After Christ ascended into Heaven, where He received all power and authority, as well as being given every nation of the earth, His first regal act was to disperse gifts among His people. This is what a king does upon his coronation. Paul says here that among believers “every one of us” has received something, in accordance with the measure of the gift of Christ (v. 7). So the Lord ascended on high (v. 8). He led captivity captive, meaning that all the Old Testament saints who had been waiting for release from Sheol, followed Him to Heaven (v. 8). And once He was established there in Heaven, He began the glorious work of establishing His rule on earth. He rules in principle, and is the only legitimate ruler of the nations of men. He has commanded us to go out and proclaim this reality to all nations (Matt. 28: ), and so that we would not be powerless as we undertook the task, He gave us gifts to equip us (v. 8). Pentecost is therefore a celebration of evangelism. It is a celebration of harvest, and of the workers who have been fitted out to labor in that harvest. It is the answer to the prayer that Jesus suggested, that God would send laborers into the harvest (Luke 10:2; John 4:25).

The Old Testament Pentecost

Our name for this festival comes from the Greek name for the Old Testament festival that was called the Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23:15; Dt. 16:9). The name means “fifty” and refers to the fifty days that began with the wave offering of Passover. The thing being celebrated by Pentecost was the conclusion of the grain harvest. Although it is a spring festival, it is a harvest home festival. This imagery is not altered in the New Testament Pentecost, but is rather picked up and expanded. It is still all about the harvest, but it is the inauguration of the harvest, not the conclusion of it. The original band of workers has gathered, and God gives out the gifts that will enable them to work—He hands out the scythes, and He bestows the power to wield them. He does not give us Pentecostal power so that we might enjoy a buzz in our heads, but rather bestows power so that we might work (Col. 1:28-29).

Puzzled By the Gifts

But we still need to be checked out on our gear. Many Christians have been distracted by the biblical description of some of these gifts, instead of feeling equipped by them. The first thing to note in our passage is that God gave four basic gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers (Eph. 4:11). Here the metaphor is one of building, not harvesting. Apostles and prophets are foundational. Evangelists bring in the materials, and pastor/teachers assemble it into the building. Apostles and prophets pour the concrete. Evangelists are the loggers and sawmill operators. Pastor/teachers are the contractors.

Signs of an Apostle

What gave the apostles and prophets the right to pour the foundation? Since their work set the boundaries for all subsequent work, we need to be sure that they are from God. “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds” (2 Cor. 12:12). The foundational work that we are building on is the foundation work of Scripture. The sign gifts were, among other things, a sign that the person who had that gift, or was a source of it, was someone authorized to do foundation work—which is to say, someone authorized to write Scripture. And remember that the other fundamental sign that tongues provided was a sign of judgment against the Jews (1 Cor. 14: 22). It meant, in essence, that they were no longer the authorized builders. The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone.

Real Tongues

But if this is true, then what are we to make of the “ecstatic utterances” that accompany the worship of many modern Christians? The biblical gift of tongues is a gift of languages. This means two things. First, it has to be a coherent language, and not a jumbling of syllables with way too many a’s. Second, it needs to be a gift, and not acquired the normal way—which would be by growing up in a culture, or by arduous study.

On the first point, it shouldn’t be babababababra-ann, for some Beach Boys tongues, and it shouldn’t be shambala shambala, for some Three Dog Night tongues. It needs to be a language—In principio Deus creavit caelum et terram, for Latin, or Feallen sceolan hæÞene æt hilde, for Anglo Saxon, and tres biens, mademoiselle is French . . . or so I am told. At Pentecost:, the words given to the believers on that day were words of other tongues (Acts 2:4), which were then called dialects (Acts 2:6). And men from many different nations understood them. And the second point is that a real language has to be given, just like that.

What Non-Christians Are For

The celebration of Pentecost reminds us of what we should see when we look out at the unbelieving world. What are non-Christians for, exactly? We should have the same feeling about that as a farmer has when he is looking at a field that is “white unto harvest.” When we call non-believers to repentance, we are not meddling or interfering. When we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to men, we have come to our place in the story. Christ was born, lived, died, rose, and ascended. And He gave gifts to men.

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