Worthy of Your Calling

Hey everyone. My name is Josh and I’m the Adult Ministries Pastor here at Renovation Church. Does it ever happen to you where you are reading the Bible and you get through a section all you can think is “what on Earth is this guy even talking about?!” Well, that happens to me all the time. Especially when I’m reading one of Paul’s letters. Now before you go judging me, even the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 3 that Paul letters can be hard to understand. Today we are starting a study on the second half of the book of Ephesians. Last Fall we studied chapters 1 3 and today we will pick up in chapter 4 with a passage that can be challenging to understand but it’s incredibly important for how we understand what we’re even doing here on Sunday mornings, and can change the way you approach being a part of a church. So, we’re going to really take a hard look at it today. Open up to Ephesians 4:1 16. You can find it on page 800 in the Bibles under your chairs. Chapter 4 is a turning point in the book. In the first three chapters of the book, it goes from teaching deep theological doctrine about how and why God saved the gentiles, that people that aren’t Jewish, and how they now fit into God’s kingdom. And chapter 4,5 & 6 are all about how that theological doctrine should affect your daily life. In fact, in the book of Ephesians there are 41 commands that Paul gives us. Do this, do that, etc. Only one of those comes in the first three chapters and the rest all come in the last three chapters. And here at the start of Chapter 4 is the bridge from doctrine to Deeds. And we’ll see that we must first understand the doctrine of chapters 1 3 for the action of chapters 4 6 to make any since. We see that bridge start right in Verse 1. Let’s read As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.   So, what is this Calling that they have received? While the church at Ephesus is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, this letter is primarily directed at the gentile believers. And when Paul talks about the calling that the gentiles have received, we see from Chapters 1 and 2 that because of his graces, God has called the Gentiles from being dead in their sins and far from him, to life in him, so that they have a place in the inheritance of God’s people. God has called them to himself and saved them. So, everything that he is about to say is based upon the fact the Church is one body of believers, based on Christ’s blood, and that’s it, not on being Jewish, or gentile, or anything else.. And so, in today’s verse he says that we should live lives worthy of that calling. And he goes on to tell us more about what that means in verse 2 6: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.   Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.   There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So, when Paul tells us to live a life worthy of our calling, he’s not saying now go be a good person so that you can say that you were worthy of this salvation. That would be in total contradiction of the first three chapters where he teaches that we only have this gift of salvation because of God’s grace, not because we are worthy of salvation. So no, he’s not saying make sure you measure up and are worthy of this place in God’s family, as if you have to earn it and show that you were worth the cost. No instead he’s acknowledging that just because something is theologically true, does not always make it automatically lived out. He’s telling the value their life of salvation by living it out. The Jewish Christians and the Gentiles had a hard time seeing themselves as one body, so Paul first teaches deep theological doctrine on why it is that they are one body of Christ and now has to encourage them to value that unity through living it out with humility and gentleness. And the same is true for the church today. You still have to make every effort to value your life of freedom from sin, by living it out. And that can be a lot of work. In fact, much of our Christian life takes work. It is God that grows us but we participate with him. After all, it’s a relationship and a relationship takes more than one person. So, we are not nothing to God. You are a partner with God in “working out your salvation with fear and trembling” as the Book of Philippians puts it. And I think what Paul’s getting at when he talks about being humble and gentle and patient and forbearing, he’s acknowledging that it’s hard work to get along, even for God’s people sometimes. Sometime people think that a church should is a bunch of people that always get along. But if that were true, we wouldn’t have the same bible at all. The New Testament is full of the apostles telling the church to get along because getting along is hard work. One of the challenges of the American church is that we so misunderstand what it means to be a church. We think it means a place where a bunch of people who believe in Jesus come together to hear a message, worship God with some singing, and maybe see some friends in the lobby. But so often, as soon as there is any relational strife, argument, discomfort, awkwardness, something embarrassing happens, people just leave and go to another church down the road. And I think that is partially because we’ve lost sight of how Doctrine should lead our deeds. Remember how this whole section is based off the Calling that was the focus of Chapter’s 1 3? The only reason Paul can tell them to work at being unified with any hope of it working out is because of what he has taught us about the nature of the church being one because of Christ’s blood. If it wasn’t for that doctrine, then trying to be unified as a Church wouldn’t have any enduring reason behind it. Let’s be honest, if I’m only valuing being a part of a church because of the fuzzy feelings it gives me, or the intellectual nuggets, then I wouldn’t come. I’m an introvert, I’d be happier hiding in a corner then mingling in a crowd. I could just stay home and I could listen to all my favorite old hymns on pandora and watch my favorite preachers from across the globe on YouTube and sit on the porch and watch birds all morning. So why come here to be with you people? As wonderful as you are … Well, it’s because the Church is much more than that. And God Himself makes it more than that. Let’s read in verse 7 13  But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says: “When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,   to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God  and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. The first thing we see here is that Christ has given us the grace to do the hard work of being a united community. The part in verses 8 10 where he’s talking about ascending and descending? Without going too much in the weeds here, that’s just saying that Christ is God, so the help that he gives us to do this is a big deal. So big in fact that is the church, being the mature church, is the fullness of Christ. This is part of what Paul has been saying this whole letter. In chapter 2 he said: [Ephesians 2:22] “22 And God placed all things under [Christ’s] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” You see, The Church is not just a sermon and some songs! It’s also not just a bunch of likeminded people. We are how Christ fills the universe with his kingdom. Now that may sound weird.. That you… and you… and you… are how God has filled everything in every way, with his power, his authority, his grace, his justice. But I don’t think it’s that much of a surprise if you are familiar with the rest of how scripture teaches about redeemed humanity. Scripture says things like We are united with Christ, we will share in his inheritance with him as God’s Children. We will judge angels. We are temples of the Holy Spirit; we are his ambassadors. These are all things that scripture says about humans that are redeemed by Christ’s blood. But in this section we still see that being the fullness of Christ it is not just an automatic action. No, it takes work, it takes maturing, it takes each other. It says that God gave the Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. Each has a different role in helping the church mature over time. The Apostle gave us both revelation of God’s word, and served as eye witnesses of Christ, the prophets gave us revelation of God’s word at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And we saw in Chapter Two that God’s House (aka. The Church) is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the corner stone. (2:20) But then we also have evangelists to spread the word and pastor and teachers. And all together they show us how it is that the church is the fullness of Christ. It says that they are given to the church “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.” So please don’t come to this Church gathering on a Sunday morning with the expectation of being entertained, or taught self help tricks, or getting good advice for getting through your week. That’s not our job as pastors. Our job is to equip you for service to one another so you can build up the body of Christ in unity of faith (that’s trusting God) and Knowledge of the Son of God (that doctrine). Faith and knowledge. They you would believe in Christ, and that you would understand why you believe in Christ. Our job is to teach you doctrine. So that you live a life worthy of the calling you received. So that you value that salvation accurately. Then you will be equipped to serve, so the church can become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Sadly, many churches shy away from teaching doctrine before action because sometime theology seems less useful, or not as entertaining. But it’s not something to shy away from because it’s technical or complex nature. Sometime, churches often avoid teaching doctrine because it is high stakes! When teaching biblical doctrine, we’re making absolute truth claims that have eternal consequences. Other times we avoid it because it can be offensive to teach this this wrong or that is right. But teaching clear doctrine is foundational to everything. Because it is in our doctrine that we say what is true, and It’s what we know to be true in our deepest heart that decide how to live. Doctrine before deeds. It is the Why before the How. If all you try to live a religious life, with poor doctrine, then you will end up in all kinds of trouble. The passage calls people like that infants – they might mean well but they don’t know any better and they are helpless and vulnerable.. says it like this, in Verse 14: Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.   Let me give you a few practical examples of how this plays out in our culture. You may have heard the statistic about divorce rates in America and how for a long time now, the divorce rate among Christians is the same as the divorce rate for secular people, that’s people who aren’t religious at all. Well researchers have found that there that only true when you just ask “Are you a Christian?” and then lump all those answers together and compare them to secular, non religious people. But when you split that out into three groups – Nominal Christians (that people that say they are Christian but don’t actually engage the Christian faith at all), secular non religious people, and active church members, it tells a very different story. Those that are active church members have by far the lowest divorce rate of any demographic they surveyed and are up to 50% less likely than a secular non religious person to get a divorce. Not only are they least likely to get a divorce but they are actually the happiest in their marriages and they spend the most time with their kids. However, those that are nominal Christians, are 20% More likely to get a divorce then secular people. They are also the least happy in their marriages, they spend the least amount of time with their kids, and they even have the highest rates of domestic abuse and violence in their marriages. The reason is that nominal Christians have a weak doctrine behind their actions. They get a little bit of Christian culture and because they like that culture, they find what they think is religious backing to their poor actions. They may say they are Christians but they have no church body to equip them in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. They think they can live a religious life, but they don’t know the theological motivations for that life. They lack training in doctrine. They try to control their outward actions, without any inward formation. Now, all that to say, just going to church doesn’t make it all go perfectly either. The passage says it like this, in Verses 15 16: Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. So, it still takes work on our part with one another. One of the best ways to implement this at our church is in your small groups. When you are in your groups, you have to learn to ask each other “Why?” so that we examine our motivations for our Christian life. Because the truth no matter where you are at in life, your actions are based on your doctrine. What you believe is true, dictate, how you behave, and how you make meaning out of your experiences. This is already true for everyone. You Already do this! The challenge is that your doctrine might be wrong! So, you can really be a great small group member by just asking people “Why?” How is your relationship with God Good right now? Bad? Why do you think that? Are you engaging in a certain Christian discipline? Why are you doing that? Are you coming to Encounter on Tuesday? Why? To see friends? To hear music you like? Or because it’s one of the ways we gather as his body in reverence and thankfulness and joy for the calling that we’ve received? We’re going to learn a lot about how we should live over the next 7 weeks, but if you really want to prepare for getting the most out our study of Chapters 4,5 & 6, you should go back and keep reading chapters 1, 2 & 3 so that we are able to mature not just in our outward actions, but in our doctrine. Then we will know our calling more clearly, and be able to live a life, worthy of it. Of course, To live a life worthy of the Calling, first you have to know what the calling is. The calling is the Gospel. It’s God calling you out of a life of sin. It’s the good news that Jesus died on the Cross to pay for our sins to make a way for us to have a relationship with him. Not because we were worthy of such love, but just because of his grace. If you want to learn more about that or you have questions about how you can start follow Jesus, our follow up team will be down hear on the right during the last song and after the service. Copyright: Josh Pollard Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! We only ask that you do not charge a fee and that you quote the source and not say it is your own.