November 10, 2024 Ephesians 4 Spiraling

Listening carefully to our spiritual heartbeat, let us intentionally live our new life in Christ. (Ephesians 4:17-24). God created humankind in His image to manifest His glory. Adam & Eve fell, & creation was subjected to futility (Romans 8:20). “the whole creation has been groaning…UNTIL NOW”. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ & the gift of the Spirit, God has NOW put into effect His plan to bring everything together. There were 3 great obstacles to overcome (the power of darkness, the spiritual death of individuals, the alienation of humanity), & Christ has overcome them. It is not yet complete, God has begun to express this triumph in the life of the church (“the multi-dimensional wisdom of God has been put on display” - Ephesians 3:10). That’s why the church’s unity & growth to maturity are important. Paul turns to the practical outworking of this & shows how the gospel transforms the life of the community. Paul unfolds what it means for us to be “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). We are no longer to live as we once did as the “old person”, because we no longer are the “old person” we once were, but we are to become in practical expression the “new person” we now are in Christ. Paul begins by putting a spiritual stethoscope to our hearts & offers us a sobering, conscious-probing analysis of the true nature of the world apart from Christ. Here’s the flow of his logic: Hardness of heart leads to Ignorance which involves being Alienated from the life of God which leads to our being Darkened in our understanding with the result that we become Callous & Given up to sensuality & thus Greedy to practice every kind of impurity (vs 18-19). This is a descending spiral that all begins with: “HARDNESS OF HEART” (vs. 18). The Greek word is porosis, which describes marble. One deliberately refuses the moral light available to them, a direction is undertaken, & a negative momentum begins to unfold. This is where it starts (at a “Y” in the road). We as a community raise our children, our goal is the heart. We are deliberately, lovingly working to impact our kid’s hearts (more than corralling their behavior) because this dictates the direction of their life. If the heart is softened & warmed to the Love of God & person of Jesus, they are set on the way of Life. Psalm 1 lays this out beautifully. Conversely, hardness of heart leads to…“IGNORANCE” (vs. 18). “to not have information about; to not know”. As we’ve said many times, the heart is where we make our life’s decisions & set our life’s directions. To make big decisions & set life directions ignorant of the One who made you & the only One who knows what is really real (true) is a disaster! This involves being…“ALIENATED FROM THE LIFE OF GOD” (vs. 18). Psalm 1 describes our living in the Life of God as being like a tree planted by streams of water, bearing its fruit in its season, its leaves not withering, in all it does it prospers: apart from the Life of God is to be one who is like “chaff that the wind drives away”. The Psalm ends by saying that “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” This alienation leads to…“DARKENED IN OUR UNDERSTANDING” (vs. 18). Verse 17 adds, “in the futility of their minds.” Those who are apart from the Life of God fail to attain the true purpose of the mind, which is, to receive God’s revelation which would guide them in their conduct which would be ultimately focused on “glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.” The mind, apart from God becomes…“CALLOUSED, GIVEN UP TO SENSUALITY & GREEDY TO PRACTICE EVERY KIND OF IMPURITY” (vs. 19). “to lose all ability to feel shame”. The drive for happiness, fulfillment, pleasure are operating in full force but there’s no grounding for “right vs. wrong”. We chase fulfillment with no moral restraint - a way in the end “will perish”. This is a spiritual stethoscope he’s pressing upon the hearts of the Christians as some are struggling to break with the old to take on the new. We should then also listen to our heartbeat & watch the course of our life carefully to see if we do the same. “That is not the way you learned Christ!” (vs. 20). The sense of “learning Christ” is more like how a baby learns his mom. It’s a living, active, loving, sustaining, explorative, secure discipling!” “You were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus” (vs. 21). When you’ve lived in the light of the sun, felt its warmth, eaten the fruit of what the sun brings to life - don’t climb back into the cave from which you came! You’ve experienced the “eternal kind of life”, put away for good “your former way of life, your old self, corrupt. deluded by its lusts” (vs. 22). The “new self” is way more than a changed life, it means we belong to a new era inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus. This “new self” created according to the likeness of God will be what we are growing into for the rest of this life. (Psalm 1 tree)