second half of the book, and we're looking at chapter 5, verses 1 to 14. Let me read these
verses for us. Paul's words to the Ephesians and God's words to us.
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. But sexual immorality and
all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place,
but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually
immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of
God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them. For at one time
you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of
light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the
Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful
even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes
visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from
the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Let's pray. God of love and light, we thank you that you have
shown your love to us in your son Jesus Christ in his death on the cross, and you've shined your light
upon us through his resurrection. We pray that you would help us as we look into this passage tonight.
Teach us. Lord, speak to each one of our hearts as with what you alone know that we need. Remind us of
who you are. Pray that you would, I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our
hearts would be pleasing in your sight. For you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
So a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the theme of transformation.
And I started with three examples, and I'm going to start with them again tonight.
So the first example of transformation is, I want you to think of an ugly gray caterpillar
crawling on the ground, slowly moving forward with its, I don't know how many legs. And then it
crawls into this gray cocoon that doesn't really look like anything worth noticing. And then it emerges
as a beautiful butterfly soaring through the air, spreading its wings.
Second example, think of a child who's alone and hungry and afraid because they have no family to care for them.
They've been left all alone in the world to fend for themselves.
And then that child is brought into a loving and stable home where all their needs are met.
Or think about an athlete.
Traded from a losing team where everyone's miserable and everyone's arguing with each other
and everyone's lazy and blaming each other all the time. Traded to a team that's unified and hardworking
and everyone has each other's back. And because of that, they're a winning team.
Now here's a problem, right? When a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, it's a pretty clean transformation.
It's once and done. Right? The butterfly doesn't fly around with a caterpillar's cocoon on its back.
Doesn't pretend to be a caterpillar again. Right? It's transformed. And that's, it's a new creature.
But when we human beings experience transformation, it's never quite so clean and simple. Right?
We carry our past with us. We carry those cocoons and that caterpillar skin on our shoulders.
Right? We carry our memories, our habits, our fears, our burdens, guilt and shame.
Sometimes we go back. Often very quickly we go back to our old mindsets and our old habits and our old attitudes.
Now what the apostle Paul has been saying in this book of Ephesians is that spiritual transformation is possible
and it's a reality for everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Paul says you become a new person like a caterpillar that's been transformed into a butterfly.
You become a new creature. You have a new self, a new identity.
You're also part of a new family.
You're a child in the family of God.
Jesus Christ is your brother.
You can call God Father and know that you have a heavenly Father who is looking out for you,
who loves you and who will never leave you.
And finally, you're on a new team.
Right? Like the athlete.
You're on a mission to the world.
And Paul says this transformation that Christ can give is as real and complete and deep and life-changing.
It's almost as if you've been reborn.
But it takes time for us to grow up into that transformation, right?
To live out and live into that transformation that God has given us in Christ.
Just like it takes time for a newborn child to develop into a full-grown adult.
I mean, think about a newborn child for a minute.
What can a newborn child do?
It can lay down and maybe flail, right?
Do a little bit of this.
It can't even sit up, right?
If you try to put the newborn child and just sit them up right next to you,
I wouldn't do that, right?
They're going to fall over.
Right?
But eventually, after a few months,
the child learns to sit up.
And sit up without just tumbling over.
And then they start to sort of move around and crawl around and pull themselves up.
And one day, they take their first step.
You know, my wife and I had a friend come visit us in town this weekend.
And we remembered that it was at her house that our daughter took her first step, right?
It's something that you notice and you remember as a parent when that happened.
When your child took their first step.
And after that, they learned to stand firm on their own two feet and grow up into an adult.
Right?
Now, that's the progression that you see in the book of Ephesians.
Okay?
The Apostle Paul is using this as an image for how God has made us new creatures in Christ.
He says, first we learn to sit.
Then we learn to walk.
And finally, we learn to stand.
So chapter 2 of Ephesians says,
We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
God has raised us up with Christ.
He's given us new life.
He's welcomed us into his family.
He's called us not just temporary guests or visitors, but beloved children.
Who belong to him forever.
And that's what chapters 1 to 3 of Ephesians are all about.
It's about being seated in your identity in Christ.
Learning to rest in what Christ has done for you.
And know that you have a solid foundation to rest on.
And you can praise God for all that he's done for you.
You can pray to him with confidence.
Then Paul goes on.
He doesn't just talk about being seated in Christ.
He also talks about learning to walk in Christ.
And that word walk appears five times in chapters 4 and 5.
Chapter 4 verse 1 says,
Walk according to the calling you have received.
Chapter 4 verse 17, he says,
You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
That is, as people who don't know God.
And then in our passage today, verse 2,
Walk in love as Christ loved us.
And verse 8, walk as children of light.
And finally verse 15, which we'll get to next week,
Walk not as unwise but as wise.
Right?
So what Paul's doing is he's taught us what it means to sit,
to rest in our identity in Christ.
Now he's teaching us to walk.
And finally, he's going to get us in chapter 6,
he's going to say stand.
And that doesn't just mean sort of stand there.
But stand firm and fight the spiritual battle
that is waging in and around us every day
and fight it with spiritual weapons,
the armor of God.
The resources that God has given us
to fight the spiritual battles and stand firm.
So sit, walk, stand.
That's the book of Ephesians in three words.
I didn't make it up.
It was a Chinese Christian pastor who pointed that out.
So I'm just stealing his outline of Ephesians.
Right?
But today we're talking about the Christian walk.
How to walk as people who have been made new in Christ.
And Paul is a bit like a proud parent.
Right?
Teaching your children to walk.
And wanting to guard them from dangers.
And wanting to point them in the right direction.
Now, before we jump into this passage,
what it means to walk in Christ,
let me just point out,
Paul's speaking to people who have been made alive in Christ,
who would say,
I believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord,
and I belong to him.
Now, some of you,
some of you might say,
you know,
honestly, I'm not quite sure about that.
I'm not quite sure.
You know,
maybe you're skeptical.
Maybe you have a lot of questions.
Is God real?
Why should I trust the Bible?
Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?
Maybe there's questions.
And those questions,
you'd say,
you know,
I don't know about trusting Jesus.
I have a lot of questions.
I need to deal with those.
Maybe you're curious.
You just want to learn more.
Maybe you're seeking.
Maybe you feel like,
I really need some spiritual change,
some spiritual transformation in my life.
And that's why I've come here.
But I don't even quite know how to get it.
Right?
I'm not quite there yet.
But I want it.
And so if that's you,
if you're in any of those categories,
what we'll see tonight in this passage
is really a picture of what your life could become
through faith in Jesus Christ.
And we'll talk about how you can make that first step
towards faith in Christ.
But wherever you are,
yeah, wherever you are,
we're glad you're here tonight.
So two main points in this passage.
How we are to walk.
All right, first of all,
in verse one to seven,
we'll see we're to walk in love
because Christ loved us
and laid down his life for us on the cross.
And second, verse eight to 14,
we're to walk in the light,
the light that Christ has shined on us
through his resurrection.
So if you notice,
this passage begins with the cross of Christ.
Christ gave himself up for us
and it ends with the resurrection.
And really that's the heart of
how we experience that transformation
is by looking to Jesus
and seeing what he did when he died on the cross
and saying,
I believe in you that you died on the cross for my sins
and believing that he rose again
and that he's alive today.
And so that's the heart of it all.
So walk in love and walk in the light.
We're gonna look at those points tonight.
That's what we're gonna focus on.
So first, verse one and two,
therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.
Walk in love as Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us.
A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
All right, so we see both the love of God the Father
and the love of God the Son
here just in these two verses.
It is, but Paul has already prayed in Ephesians
that we would know the love of Christ.
That we'd know how high and how wide
and how deep and how long is his love.
He prayed that in chapter three.
You know, knowing the love of Christ
makes all the difference.
All right, I mean, doesn't it make all the difference
if you know that there is one person in the world
who loves you
and who would even give up their life for you?
It makes all the difference in the world,
whether that person's a parent
or a close friend
or a spouse
or whoever they might be.
It makes all the difference in the world
to know that you are loved
securely and completely.
And Paul says,
ultimately, Jesus Christ
is the one that you can be secure
in his love for you.
And we can see Christ's love in a lot of ways.
You can read the Gospels
and see Christ's love
in his healing ministry
and how he interacted with people
on the margins of society
and how he treated little children
who were sort of despised and ignored in his day.
How he treated lepers, tax collectors,
all kinds of people.
You can see his love in his relationships
and his interactions with them.
You can see his love in his humble service,
how he washed his disciples' feet.
He did the thing that nobody wanted to do.
He did the task that was a servant's job,
to get out a bucket of water and a towel
and wash some people's feet
who had been walking through streets
where horses and cows
and whatever other animals
just left their stuff
in the middle of the street, right?
It wasn't pleasant to wash people's feet back then.
There could be all kinds of stuff on them.
They weren't protected by sneakers.
It was sandals, right?
You can see Christ's love in all these ways,
that he gets down and dirty
to love and serve his disciples,
but the ultimate way we see Christ's love
is in his death on the cross,
that he gave his life for us,
that he was willing to go to that extent
to show the fullness of his love.
And thinking about where he came from,
that he came from heaven and glory
and honor and freedom,
and he chose to limit himself,
to come down and take on a human body
and be crucified in a place of,
and receive shame and pain and rejection,
and to do all that as a sacrifice for us
so that we could be reconciled to God
and so that we could be accepted
into God's family forever.
So knowing the love of Christ,
knowing that it's for you,
Paul says it's for us.
In Galatians he says,
Christ loved me and gave himself for me.
You can say both, right?
To know the love of Christ is for you,
personally, individually,
and to know that it's for all of us,
for the whole family of God.
Knowing the love of Christ
makes all the difference.
And so Paul says, walk in love.
The cross of Christ defines true love.
It's self-giving for the good of another.
And then Paul goes on,
in verse three to seven,
to give some very strong warnings.
Verse three, he warns against sexual immorality,
impurity, and covetousness.
That just means greed.
Verse four, he warns against filthiness,
foolish talk, and crude joking.
All right, so we see outward actions,
inward desires, and speech.
All those different categories.
And Paul says,
these things must not even be named among you.
Another translation says,
there must be not even a hint of these things.
And the reason that Paul would give,
is Paul would say,
none of these behaviors reflect Christ's self-giving love.
Instead, they're self-gratifying
and self-indulgent ways of life.
Living at the expense of others,
instead of for the good of another.
So Paul warns,
so we need to,
let's look at,
we need to look at these warnings.
Paul warns against sexual immorality
and all impurity.
Now, the Christian teaching
is that in God's design,
sexual intimacy
is exclusively reserved for married couples.
Now,
when I say that sentence,
you might think,
or most people,
right, most people today would think,
right,
maybe some of you,
and especially anybody who's,
who's not in church today,
would think,
what?
Right?
80 to,
you know,
what is it?
Like 80 to 90% of college students
have sex before they graduate.
You know,
I won't go into statistics,
right?
The question today is,
do you go for a one-night stand?
Do you do the more respectable thing
and practice serial monogamy?
Or do you have an open relationship
by mutual agreement?
Okay,
so,
and many people assume to be a,
especially to be a young,
healthy adult,
and to choose not to have sex,
because you're not married
means you're repressive
or afraid
or really socially awkward.
Right?
So,
I just want to acknowledge up front,
this teaching sounds crazy
to many people.
But here's the reason
for the Christian teaching
about sex.
Christian teaching is basically this,
that sex is not just a form
of mutual entertainment.
Sex is when you give your body
completely
and without reservation
to someone else
in the most intimate
and vulnerable way.
And sexual intercourse
bonds two people together.
And that's exactly what you do
when you make a vow,
a promise
to someone else in marriage.
For better,
for worse,
for richer,
for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
till death do us part,
I pledge to you
my faithfulness.
That's what you're doing.
You're giving yourself
to someone else
without reservations,
without holding anything back,
in the moment,
you're being,
you're saying,
here I am,
all of me,
for you.
And that is self-giving love.
And in that context,
sex makes sense.
It means I would marry you
all over again tonight.
It's a good and joyful thing.
It's pleasing to God.
In fact,
God commands married couples
to take delight in one another,
including one another's bodies.
You can read Song of Solomon
or read Proverbs chapter five.
But if you haven't made
that marriage promise,
I promise to be with you
and for you,
for better,
for worse,
for richer,
for poorer,
then having sex with someone else
is telling them a lie.
Because you're saying
one thing with your body,
I'm giving you everything I have.
I'm not holding anything back.
But actually,
you haven't done that.
Because you're holding back
your independence,
your freedom,
to break up anytime you want.
You're probably holding back
your money.
Probably haven't merged
your bank accounts.
And so Paul says,
sex outside that bond of marriage
is not really self-giving
for the good of another.
It's self-gratifying.
It's taking
when you haven't fully given
to someone else.
It's looking at someone
and wanting them,
but not fully giving yourself
to them.
It may be exciting.
It may feel life-giving.
But Paul says,
that is not God's design.
And so Paul warns about that.
Paul says,
there must not be even a hint.
So whether it's adultery,
or fornication,
pornography,
lusting,
self-gratifying,
none of these practices,
Paul says,
express the self-giving
love of Christ.
And so Paul warns against them.
Paul also warns against greed,
covetousness.
Now some people think
Christians are only concerned
about sex.
Right?
And occasionally,
right,
you can find some Christian
who gets quoted
by some person in the media
who seems like
all they care about
is sexual morality
in America.
And that's the cause
of our nation's decline.
And it's the only thing
we need to change.
But the Bible is not
myopic like that.
The Bible is equally
concerned about money.
Now greed,
it's a little harder
to define
than sexual immorality,
but it's just as pervasive.
A couple of examples,
or some statistics.
American Christians
who attend church
at least
twice a month
give on average
6%
of their after-tax
income
away.
More generally,
just people who call
themselves Christians
generally,
regardless of church attendance,
give an average of 3%.
The non-religious
give away even less.
But,
so Christians do
give a little bit more
than average,
it seems like,
especially if you say
your faith is important to you
when you go to church.
But still,
the Bibles
in the Old Testament,
the standard for giving
was give away 10%
as a sign of
thankfulness to God,
recognizing everything
you have comes from God
and saying,
God,
I'm going to give you
the first fruits
of what you have given me.
And it's interesting
because this study
is of American Christians,
right?
One of the wealthiest nations
in the history of the world.
And yet we give less
percentage-wise
than people
in many other times
and periods of history.
I think the percentage
of giving was higher
in the Great Depression
than it is today.
And more broadly,
not just about
what percentage
of your income
you give away,
don't we all tend
to compare ourselves
to the people
around us?
Right?
Most of us tend
to hang out with people,
at least some people,
who are sort of
in the roughly
the same income bracket
as us.
And you can easily think,
oh, well,
I don't spend
as much as they do.
I mean,
they've got to,
you know,
their car
is two levels
more expensive
than mine.
You know,
surely,
surely I'm not greedy
because look at them.
Most,
so,
along these lines,
most Americans
think of themselves
as middle class.
Only 2% of Americans
call themselves
upper class.
Now,
if there's lower,
middle,
and upper,
a third,
right,
then it doesn't make sense
that only 2% of Americans
would say,
I'm in the upper third.
Right?
We can easily deceive
ourselves about money
in all kinds of ways,
how we think about ourselves,
how we compare ourselves
to other people,
how we justify ourselves.
And so,
Tim Keller writes
in his book,
Counterfeit Gods,
he says,
we should all begin
with a working hypothesis.
This could easily
be a problem for me.
Jesus warned people
far more often
about greed
than about sex,
yet almost no one
thinks they're guilty of it.
If greed hides itself
so deeply,
no one should be confident
that this is not
a problem for them.
So,
Paul warns us.
He says,
beware of greed.
Jesus said,
your life doesn't consist
in the abundance
of your possessions.
Don't measure your life
by how much stuff you have
or don't have.
That's not ultimately
what makes you truly rich.
Finally,
Paul warns against
certain kinds of speech
in verse 4.
Filthiness,
foolish talk,
and crude joking.
Right?
Some types of conversation
are just not profitable
to engage in.
Paul says,
just don't go there.
That kind of speech
is not edifying.
It doesn't build anyone up.
You're just tearing people down.
Again,
it doesn't show
the self-giving love of Christ
for the good of others.
It's tearing people down.
So,
we should exercise discernment
in how we speak
and also what we listen to.
Say,
what movies you watch?
What TV shows you watch?
Now,
I don't think there's
a hard and fast rule.
Some people are like,
Christians should not watch
R-rated movies.
Well,
there's a lot of R-rated movies
that actually
have a lot of good,
have a lot of very
thought-provoking messages.
And in fact,
if you put the Old Testament
to a movie,
there are some episodes
that would give it
an R-rating.
But I think we have to ask,
is there a,
what is the redeeming value
to this TV show
or this movie?
Or is it just
filthiness,
foolish talk,
and crude joking?
And is that what I want
to be filling my head with?
Right?
Paul says,
try to discern
what pleases the Lord.
Right?
You've been loved,
Paul says.
That's where he starts.
You've been loved.
You are loved by Christ.
He gave his life for you.
And so walk in that love.
You know,
he gives us one thing.
He says,
you know,
avoid all these things.
Avoid all these dangers,
these traps.
But instead,
let there be thanksgiving.
You know,
Paul says,
start there.
Because gratitude
fosters contentment.
And gratitude
helps us become wise.
And gratitude
helps us notice
other people
outside ourselves.
Paul says,
start with thanksgiving.
Think about what
you can be thankful for.
That's how Paul started
the book of Ephesians.
Right?
The first half of chapter one
is just thanking God
for all the blessings,
all the spiritual blessings
we have in Christ.
And Paul says,
think about that
and thank God.
And that'll change
your attitude.
And it'll make you
not feel like
I need all this stuff
that I don't have.
And that maybe
isn't mine to take.
Paul says,
start with thankfulness.
Because you are loved.
So that's the first thing.
Walk in love
because of the cross
of Christ.
Second,
Paul calls us
to walk in the light
because of the resurrection
of Christ.
Paul warns,
again,
in verse five to seven,
I'll just go through
these very briefly.
He warns that people
whose life is defined
or governed by
those habitual practices
have no inheritance
in God's kingdom
and the wrath of God
is coming.
Now,
that doesn't mean
that if you're a believer
in Christ
and you struggle
with some of these sins
or you fall into
some of these sins,
that doesn't mean
that you're excluded
from God's kingdom forever.
Right?
The Bible says,
if we confess our sins,
God is faithful
and just to forgive
our sins
and purify us
from all unrighteousness.
But Paul calls us
to walk in the light.
And part of walking
in the light
is just being open
and honest
and being truthful.
So let's look at
walking in the light,
verse eight to 14.
Paul begins by saying,
at one time you were darkness,
but now you're light
in the Lord.
Right?
He reminds us
of the transformation
that we've already experienced.
You know,
it's sort of like
he's saying
to the athlete
who's been traded
to this new team,
he's like,
remember,
remember the team
you used to be on
and remember
the habits you developed
while you were on that team.
And he's like,
that's not you anymore.
You're on a new team now.
Think about
the fear
that you had.
Right?
As a,
think about the child
and think about
how you were afraid
and alone
and hungry
and you didn't know.
You couldn't rely on anyone.
And now,
you're loved
and you're accepted
and you're wanted.
Paul says,
remember who you were
before you came
to know Christ.
All right?
Even,
remember,
remember
that at one time
you were living
in the darkness
but now
you're light
in the Lord.
Right?
We were all born
in the darkness of sin.
Right?
Whether you grew up
in the church,
if there's never,
maybe there's never a time
that you didn't know Christ
that you can remember.
But we all have
a sinful nature
inside us.
Right?
So we're,
there's,
this is true for all of us,
not just people
who have sort of
a dramatic experience
at one point in their life.
So he says,
remember what you were.
You were darkness,
now you're light.
So walk as children
of the light.
He talks about
exposing
the unfruitful words
of darkness,
bringing them
into the light.
You know,
sometimes transformation
doesn't look
as dazzling
as a caterpillar
turning into a butterfly.
Right?
If you take the example
of a child,
a newborn child,
it takes time
for a child
to grow up.
It takes time
for a child
to learn to sit up
and to walk
and then to stand firm.
And you know,
it takes time
for us to grow
as Christians.
Right?
Paul's,
Paul's saying,
you know,
this isn't all
going to happen
all at once.
It's a process.
But we're together
in that process.
And Paul
ends
with this
verse
which is
adapted from
the book of Isaiah
where he says,
Awake,
O sleeper,
rise from the dead
and Christ
will shine
on you.
The verse is
from Isaiah.
Isaiah 60
says,
Arise and shine
for your light
has come
and the glory
of the Lord
rises upon you.
See,
darkness covers
the earth
and thick darkness
is over the peoples
but the Lord
rises upon you.
His glory
appears
over you.
If you look
from verse 11
to verse 14,
it starts
with the unfruful
words of darkness
and then being
exposed by the light
and then verse 14
becoming light.
So it's a picture.
Paul says,
remember what you were.
You were darkness
and now you're light
in the Lord.
And then he says,
you know what?
If you walk
in the light
and if you walk
in the love of Christ,
other people
may see.
The transformation
that God is doing
in you
and they may also
come into that light.
Some who are now
in the darkness
might be attracted
to the light
and might enter
the kingdom of God.
I mean,
think about it.
If all you saw
every day
was caterpillars
walking around
on the ground
and you'd never seen
a butterfly in your life,
you would never believe
that that caterpillar
could turn into
a butterfly.
but Paul says,
as we walk
in the light,
right,
as God continues
his work in us,
even though it's slow
and takes time
like a child
growing up
and learning to sit
and learning to stand
and learning to walk
and learning to run
and learning
and finally growing up
to be an adult.
Paul says,
as we grow in Christ
and gradually grow
into the full-grown people
that he's called us to be,
our prayer is that,
our prayer can be
that others would see
the light of Christ
shining upon us
and shining out
through us
and see his love
and see his light.
So walk in love
because of the cross
of Christ,
walk in the light
because of the resurrection
of Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we thank you
for these foundational truths,
Lord,
that you have loved us
and given yourself
up for us.
Lord,
that in you
we are loved.
In you we are known.
In you we are accepted.
Lord,
you see everything
including our,
Lord,
our deepest secrets
and yet you know us
and you love us.
And Lord,
you have shined
your light upon us
through your resurrection
from the dead.
Lord,
in your resurrection
from the dead
we see that
you are alive
and you will reign
forevermore
and you have the power
Lord,
to take us
from death to life,
from darkness to light,
from despair to hope.
Lord,
from being self-focused
and self-gratifying
to being self-giving
and loving.
Lord,
we pray that you
would continue your work
in each of us.
We pray that we would
be rooted in the cross
and the resurrection
of Christ.
Lord,
that your love
and your light
would dwell in us
and shine through us
and Lord,
that we would extend
those mercies
to others.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well,
now we're going to
celebrate the Lord's Supper
and share the bread
and the cup
that Jesus gave to us
to remember.
To remember his death
until he comes.
To remember that he
loved us
and gave his life
for us on the cross.