Sermon for MHBC (19 June 2022). You can watch on our website or on Facebook or YouTube. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
I’ve been tasked with the final sermon of our series in Ephesians. This sermon is meant to cover the practical sections of chapters 4–6. If that seems challenging, it’s because it is.
Over the last two months, we’ve been digging into the mysteries of our faith and the way this universe works. We’ve talked about the church, specifically how God has positioned the church on the frontlines of a cosmic and spiritual war. We’ve talked about the significance of worship and our witness not just to people but to powers and principalities.
Two weeks ago, I described the process of formation, where God transforms our thoughts, our affections, and our behaviors, forming Christ in us.
And last week Jon showed us how practical these truths are for our church. God has given the gift of diversity to his people, and he has called us into community to be shaped and formed into Christlikeness within that community. And Jon described what that looks like here at MHBC as we continue to ask God for next steps and to move forward into the good things God has for us.
And now, in this final sermon, we see that the Christian life is about the transformation of our lives.
Look at 4:1 with me. This is the beginning of the practical section. Look what Paul says: I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Notice the key part of the sentence. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy.” You may notice that some translations have live instead of walk. That’s because the word walk in Scripture is often used for how one lives their life.
Picture life as a series of paths. There is the way of Jesus. We are invited by Jesus on a journey to become fully human, becoming increasingly like the God in whose image we are made. That is the way before us, and it is a practical way that concerns what we do every day.
Jump down to v. 17 with me: Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. Notice the contrast. There’s another way we could walk, namely, the way we were walking before, the way our culture dictates.
But Christianity, the way of Jesus, teaches us a different path—one of love and forgiveness and grace, one of praying for and blessing our enemies, one of faith and trust in our heavenly Father, one of controlling and restraining our desires, one of service and kindness, and on and on.
Notice what the verse says. They live this way in the futility of their minds. Change begins by changing our thoughts—the stories we tell ourselves and the things we think.
In fact, look at v. 18: They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Their understanding is darkened. They are ignorant. These are strong terms, but they highlight the importance of fixing our mind on the God whom Jesus reveals.
Christian philosopher Dallas Willard once wrote: “The deepest revelation of our character is what we choose to dwell on in thought, what constantly occupies our mind.”[1] What we fix our minds on will largely determine the direction of our lives.
Notice that in v. 18 darkened understanding is linked to being alienated from the life of God. And in the next verse, Paul sketches a picture of what kind of life the darkened mind leads to. It leads to a destructive life.
We need to change the way we see things, the way we understand the world, and what is true. That’s largely the project of Ephesians 1–3. Remember it pulls back the curtain to reveal God’s working in the universe. The first step to a transformed life is changing how we see the world—changing our minds. Do you know that the most basic and fundamental idea of repentance is to change one’s mind?[2] Repenting is ultimately about changing how we think.
So we start with changing our thoughts. We do that by making sure we are feeding our mind good content. Or, to use Paul’s words from Philippians: Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Think on these things.
Look at the language Paul uses in v. 20 to contrast the way of the world and the way of Jesus: But that is not the way you learned Christ. Now Paul isn’t merely concerned with information gathering. He’s concerned with applying that information.
Look at vv. 21–24: assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
So this new way of thinking has to get out in our lives and bring practical, day-to-day transformation in how we conduct ourselves, how we handle our relationships, how we parent, how we relate to our spouse, even how we spend our time.
This is the vision and the goal. Over the last few months, we’ve been describing the church as a place where we can train so that our lives are increasingly conformed to the way of Jesus.
More than anything else my prayer is that this would be true. I really believe if we are going to muddle through this life, following Jesus is the only way to do it. And I believe he is the answer to so many of our common problems—our anxieties and fears and anger and pride.
And yes, Christianity really is that practical. Look at vv. 25–26 for one example: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. And so the next chapter as well.
My point is that Christianity is interested in changing our lives, changing our behaviors. Christ being formed in us. Now think for a second. You are walking along a path this morning. All of us are. The thoughts we have, the choices we make, our behaviors, all of those indicate our path. I would really like to do the things Jesus taught. I would really like to live in a way that reflects the beauty of the gospel. I would like to be able to focus on the day and not worry about tomorrow. I would like to love my enemies. I would like my first responses to be kindness and grace not suspicion and cynicism.
But let’s be honest. It’s really difficult isn’t it? So the question is this: How is this possible? How can we live the way Paul describes here? The way Jesus teaches?
And it must be possible to make progress because this is the calling. “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Look at 5:1: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
There’s a concept in psychology known as mirroring. Often, in those discussions it refers to an unconscious copying, like we see in babies. We have a three-month-old in my house and we see this every day. If we smile, Nolan smiles back. And, of course, younger kids and even adults do this.
Take that concept and apply it to your spiritual life. Look what Paul says, “Be imitators of God like children.” And “walk in love like Jesus.” Elsewhere, Paul says it this way, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).
So there’s a clear target. Be imitators of God. Jesus shows us perfectly what that looks like and those who follow Jesus show us what that looks like. This is why it’s so important to grasp the significance of the language Scripture uses for followers of Jesus. One of the most common words is disciples. A disciple is someone who learns. You might find it helpful to think of students or apprentices.
Quite literally, we are to follow Jesus and learn how to do the things he taught. We often overlook this in the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19–20a: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
How does that happen?
Let me make a two comments. You can think of these as general observations as to how we might become the type of people described in Ephesians 4–6.
First, think of the difference between trying and training.[3] Leland recently got a skateboard. Now I’ve never been comfortable on wheels without my hands. Obviously, riding a skateboard is possible, so we could watch a video and then go try to skate like that. I can tell you how that ends. Something gets broken. Learning to skate isn’t about trying really hard to skate. That’s how you get killed. It’s about training. It’s about engaging in the right practices, deliberately spending time doing those things that make skating well possible.
Think about the spiritual life now. Have you ever set out to be a more patient person? You commit to try really hard to be patient. But at some point, when you’re tired, and you’ve given all your mental and emotional energy to everyone else, the motivation runs out, the dam of your self-restraint breaks, and all that impatience floods your life.
The hall-of-fame quarterback Peyton Manning played for the Colts most of his career. The Colts played in the RCA Dome, so half of Manning’s games were in a dome where weather wasn’t an issue. Yet, like clockwork, every few weeks, Manning would take his center to practice wet ball drills. One day the center said to Manning, “Why are we doing this? We’re playing in the RCA Dome this week. There’s no chance of it being wet.” Manning said, “You never know. There might be a leak in the dome. We can’t take any chances. We’ve got to keep doing this drill.”[4]
That’s a great picture of the Christian path of formation. It’s the difference between trying and training. Christians have long known that in order to become imitators of Jesus, training is necessary. We training language sprinkled throughout the NT. In order to become the type of people described in these chapters, we must enter an intentional course of training by learning to believe the things Jesus believed and taught and by preparing ourselves in the way that Jesus and his followers prepared themselves.
Christian thinkers usually call this sort of training “spiritual disciplines.” Disciplines are just habits. They are like boxers doing footwork drills or football players lifting weights. Disciplines are the Christian means of training.
Consider just one from Jesus’s life that pops up several times. Here’s one example from Mark 1:36: And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Notice what Jesus is doing. He’s getting alone. He’s silent. He’s praying. These are core spiritual disciplines—the disciplines of silence and solitude and prayer.
And they are just as important as ever in our world that is so full of constant stimulation. How can we ever attend to the voice of God if we are never silent or alone? Other critical disciplines are fasting, study, and worship. These disciplines are training for our soul. They are drills that train us to live the way Jesus teaches. Manning drilled with wet footballs so that when he found himself in the middle of a game and the rain started, he wouldn’t have to try really hard to do it right. No, he trained so that he would be able to perform exceptionally when the rain started.
Second, as Jon pointed out so well last week, we need community. The community is the place where we test our training, where we push each other, and even where we train together. It is simply indispensable to the Christian life. I think we’ve all taken to the line Jon quoted, “Those who grow alone grow weird.” The combination of training and community are like the engine and the car. An engine without a car doesn’t have any way to test itself. A car without an engine won’t ever go anywhere[5].
Let me sum all that up. Transformation begins with our thoughts and applying those thoughts through spiritual training and through community.
Lately, I’ve been having some informal conversations with our staff and our lay leaders about inviting people to our church. These leaders have heard me ask and wrestle with this question: What are we inviting people to? It seems important to answer that question. What are we inviting people to? Why don’t you take just a second and consider how you might answer that question?
Here’s what I would hope our answer could be. We are inviting people into a group whose primary intention is to see Christ formed in us. We are inviting people to what Paul speaks of as the life of God in Eph 4:18. We are inviting people to the way of Jesus, to actually have their lives radically changed.
And my dream is that we would be a place where this sort of training and community is just what we do.
[1] The Divine Conspiracy, p. 324.
[2] See BDAG s.v. μετανοἐω and μετάνοια.
[3] I’ve heard this in multiple places, but I’m not sure where it originates. I know it appears in John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, pp. 45ff.
[4] https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2022/01/20/peyton-manning-wet-ball-drills-colts-home-games/6599315001/
[5] Another analogy: training without community is like a boxer who never signs up for a real fight; community without training is like getting into the ring with a heavyweight after sitting on the couch for six months.