Walk in Love: Imitating Christ’s Sacrifice- Eph 5.1-2

Good morning, and welcome to the broadcast service of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and our goal here at DMC is to make disciples of Christ

through the study of God's Word, as we trust in Christ as Lord together.

There is a picture of me when I was about five or six years old wearing a tool

belt and pushing a small wooden wheelbarrow.

What we do not see in the picture is that my dad also was wearing a tool belt

and pushing a wheelbarrow.

My dad made the wheelbarrow for me, and he bought me a little tool belt with

little tools, and my parents didn't dress me up like that.

I wanted to be like my dad because I loved him.

God calls us to imitate God because God loved us, not just as he loves the world,

but deeper, more special.

He loves us as his children and joint heirs of the kingdom in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, we come before you.

We praise you for being Lord and God and creator of all and being our Father.

Thank you for that relationship that we can experience and enjoy in Jesus Christ.

And Lord, as we go to your word today, may you teach us and guide us through your word.

Show us yourself. Show us what you want us to see and understand and hear and know.

Use us for your glory and your honor and your praise. In your precious Son's

name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying through Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The theme of this letter is the unity of God displayed in God's church.

Last week, we learned in the last part of Ephesians chapter 4 that Christians

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

are called to put away and get rid of evil thoughts, settled emotions,

and behaviors of our old lives under the control of Satan, like being bitter, angry,

displaying wrath and shouting at others, abusing others with our slanderous speech,

and having an evil, a perverse attitude towards others.

And secondly, as holy ones of God, we are, by the power of the Holy Spirit,

to put on the core character qualities of Christ.

And thus, Christlike qualities are kindness, having a tender heart towards others,

graciously forgiving others as Christ has graciously forgiven us.

And today, we're going to continue in Ephesians 5, verses 1-2.

Ephesians 5:1–2

Ephesians 5, verses 1-2.

Ephesians 5:1–2

Paul taught, Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love,

just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us as an offering and a

sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

I want you to see three amazing and fantastic truths from our passage today.

The first truth is that as children of God, we are to imitate God as His beloved children.

When our family went back to visit my family in Alberta, we spent a lot of time

with my nephews and nieces.

And I noticed that as more time went past, my nieces and nephews were becoming

more and more like their parents, copying their parents' mannerisms,

the way they said things, and the way their parents acted.

They may not believe that they're acting like their parents,

but they are. I see this same trend with our kids as well.

Paul and Jonathan take on the habits that Abigail and I have or patterns of speech that we use.

And this concept of imitating our parents is similar to what Paul was teaching the Ephesians.

Ephesians 5, verse 1.

Ephesians 5:1

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.

As we begin this new chapter in Ephesians, we must realize that when Paul instructed

the Ephesian Christians to be imitators of God as beloved children,

he was writing this in context of the previous chapter, where Paul commanded

believers in the entire church to live in unity based upon the oneness of God.

But to live in this oneness, Christians were called to put off,

like old clothes to get rid of and never wear again the old way of life that

we were once enslaved to,

and put on the characteristics of the new life that we have been given in God.

And live with the character qualities of Christ Himself.

The big question is, how do we, as Christ followers, put on these character

qualities that belong to Christ?

We do so by imitating God as His beloved children.

The word that Paul used for imitator meant a person who copies the words or behavior of another.

The word that Paul used for beloved referred to one who is dearly loved,

dearly beloved, prized, valued, indicating a close relationship,

especially that between a parent and a child.

And this is important for us to understand because how does a child imitate his or her parents?

Out of the desire to be like us and by being with each other.

Our children want to be like us because we as their parents are the most important

and valued people in their lives.

Children imitate their parents because that is the loving relationship that they are in all the time.

And the more that people are with someone, especially in a relationship of love,

the more they take on the qualities and characteristics of that other person.

And that is why elderly couples often

seem to resemble each other in their mannerisms and the way they act.

When I went back to Canada last year, my family kept teasing me on how funny I spoke.

Now, I don't realize that I talk any different than I used to,

but according to my family, I don't talk like a Canadian anymore.

The longer I live in the United States, the more I tend to take on accents and

sayings that the people around me use.

You see, Paul did not make up this principle of imitation. He got it from Christ Jesus himself.

Let's look at John 5, verse 19. Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to

John 5:19

them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing from himself unless

it is something he sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.

We imitate Christ not only because we're commanded to, but because that is the

natural pattern of abiding love.

Christ imitated his Father because his Father loved him, and even on earth,

the Father was always with Jesus.

Now, we imitate Christ because Christ imitated the Father and exampled to us

what it means to be a true child of God.

John instructed in 1 John 2, verse 6, the one who says he abides in him,

1 John 2:6

meaning Jesus, ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, proclaimed the imitators of me,

1 Corinthians 11:1

just as I also am of Christ.

It's also important for us to recognize that we imitate God because he loves

us as his special children.

I want to point out to you that not only are we as children to want to imitate

our Heavenly Father, but we are to think and act and live like Christ.

And the great truth is that when we imitate Christ, we are imitating the Father.

How then can we apply this truth of imitating God as His beloved children?

First off, we need to be around Him all the time. And what this entails is praying

continually to the Lord, reading and studying the Word, memorizing the Word,

meditating on the Word as the Lord in Joshua 1 commanded His people.

Biblical meditating is not like Eastern mysticism with chanting and focusing

on emptying our minds of everything.

Rather, meditation from the Bible that God commands is the prayerful remembering

of the truths of God's Word, especially on who God is, what he's done in Christ,

and will do in the future upon his return.

And then we think deeply on God's truth all day, letting God's truth of God

set us free from the lies that enslave us all the time and rebuild us into Christ's image.

Secondly, as we trust in the truth of God's love,

we, you and I, must surrender ourselves to be convinced by God's word that God

is our heavenly Father, that He in Christ loves us as His beloved children and

believe that we are indeed God's children.

Third, in response to trust in God's love and our identity as God's children,

we then love our Father and demonstrate that love by thinking and acting the way Christ acted.

But the huge question we need to ask is, how do we imitate God?

What kinds of things should we be imitating? Paul answered this question by

instructing Christ's believers.

To walk in love as Christ has loved us.

Paul went on in Ephesians 5, verse 1-2, Walk in love just as Christ also loved

Ephesians 5:1–2

us and gave Himself up for us.

I want you to see that Paul's instruction to the Ephesians gave us the example of how to imitate God.

The word that Paul used for walk referred to the sphere in which one lives or

ought to live so as to be characterized by that sphere.

And what is that sphere that we ought to live in? Paul's command to walk is qualified by in love.

The sphere in which we are to walk in and be identified in is the love of Christ.

Not only did Paul instruct believers to walk in love like Christ,

but he also included how we were to imitate Christ.

Just as Christ also loved us, and here it is, gave himself up for us.

The word gave is a sacrifice word, and thus the defining characteristic of

God's love demonstrated in Christ is sacrifice.

Peter instructed in 1 Peter 2, verse 21-24, For to this you have been called,

1 Peter 2:21–24

since Christ also suffered for you,

leaving an example that you should follow in his steps, who did no sin,

nor was any deceit found in his mouth, who, being reviled, was not reviling in return.

While suffering, he was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges you.

Righteously, who himself bore our sins in his body on the trees,

so that having died the sin, we might live to righteousness.

By his wounds you are healed.

Christ suffered out of sacrificial love for us, paying the debt of blood that

we owed God on our behalf, and therefore healing the relationship between us and God.

Christ did this for us out of the undeserved favor of God as He considered us

as more important than Himself.

Christ was crucified for us, not just to give us salvation, but to leave us

an example of how to live.

Paul in Philippians 2, verse 3-8 broke down what the love meant and then gave

Philippians 2:3–8

the example of Christ demonstrating His love for God's people.

Here it is, verse 3. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,

but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests

of others. And here's Christ's example, verse 5.

Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus,

who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God

a thing to be grasped, meaning that Christ did not feel as if he needed to prove himself.

Christ was secure in his identity already.

In verse 7, but he emptied himself, meaning Christ lowered himself,

taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men,

being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself.

Becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

There are at least two ways here that we can demonstrate the imitating of Christ's

love to others. And there may be more.

In response to Christ's love for us, we are to view Christ as our infinite treasure.

And then in his love, we value others as more important or more significant than ourselves.

We cannot love others unless we lower or humble ourselves in our own perspective

and raise others up as greater than us.

And others really see.

That you value them, when you are viewing them as greater than yourself.

Secondly, we are to practically show that we value others.

And this works out in listening to others, keeping eye contact with them when

they're speaking, making sure that others are welcomed when we are around.

This also includes in church functions, where I've noticed that some people

can be sitting on their own and no one is talking to them.

One of the pastor's roles is to facilitate fellowship.

We pastors are only one person, and people often sneak out on us.

Many people come to church to find the love and value that they're missing in their lives.

Welcoming others helps people know that they're valued, to know that they are

loved, which then leads them to the love of God.

People also know they are loved when we sacrificially give of our time for them.

This part of love is huge because in a society that is exponentially busier

than society was a hundred years ago,

giving our time for others, even when we're tired or have to interrupt our schedule

and remove some activity to help someone, really demonstrates that we value

that person as Christ valued us.

Involved in giving up our time for others is serving others and just being with

them, living life with them.

The first place to start in giving of our time for others, serving and living

life with others, is to our families.

Now, trust me, as a pastor with a servant's heart, it is so easy to overcommit

to help others, to neglect our families.

And that does not yet even include school and sport activities.

Also remember that loving our families is not the only place we are to love

others, but is definitely the place where we base from an example Christ's love

to our spouses and our children.

And then we train our children in love of God so that we and our families together

can reach out with the love of God in Christ to our churches,

our neighbors, and to our communities and to missions abroad.

Thirdly, as we example love in our church families, as we sacrificially love

others in the church family, our example encourages others in the church to love others more.

And that strengthens the bond of unity.

Remember, the entire letter of Ephesians is an instruction on the unity of God

and how God's unity is practically proven in the church of God.

And this mirrors Paul's command in Colossians 3, verse 14.

Colossians 3:14

Above all, these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

There is another way that we can imitate the love of Christ to others,

and that is by praying for people and exampling prayer for others,

especially our children.

Why is prayer loving others? Because we have to truly love God and love people

to sacrifice the time to intentionally and continually pray for them.

However, we cannot just pray for

others and then not physically and sacrificially act on others' behalf.

One of the purposes of prayer is that God uses prayer to involve us in the lives

of others and motivate us to love and share the gospel with them.

I personally have learned from Paul's example to tell others that I've been praying for them.

Whenever I can to pray right there for them.

And this is very helpful in demonstrating that we love others and that love

is directing them and connecting them to God.

With regards to our children and others, it's very helpful to pray out loud.

It was a habit of the Jews to pray out loud in great part as an example and witness to others.

Now, I know Jesus commanded his people to go into a closet and pray alone,

but his command was in the context of the Pharisees being conceited and drawing

attention to their so-called holiness.

Praying to ourselves or praying in secret is not the only way to pray.

It also helps to be able to pray out loud as a witness to others.

So far, we have learned from Paul that Christ believers are to imitate God as

beloved children by imitating the self-sacrificial love of Christ.

And as we love self-sacrificially as Christ did, our lives become offerings

to God with a fragrant aroma.

A few weeks ago, I had a moose roast in the crockpot, and I went out to do some

work at the church, and I came back a number of hours later,

and when I opened the door, the smell of the roast hit me like a tidal wave.

I was not hungry before I entered the house, but when I smelled that wonderful

smell, I began to salivate and became hungry for that roast.

For days, the aroma of the roast clung to the house. And I share this story

to explain that like the tasty aroma of delicious food that is pleasing to our sense of smell,

so also our sacrificial love is pleasing to God.

Paul continued in Ephesians 5, verse 2, An offering and a sacrifice to God is a fragrant aroma.

Ephesians 5:2

Paul went on to explain to the Ephesian Christ followers words,

that as they imitate God as a child imitates his or her beloved father and loves

sacrificially as Christ loved them,

then their lives will be a fragrant aroma, not just to other people, but to God himself.

It is said that the highest form of flattery is imitation.

But I will go much farther to say that nothing pleases God the Father so much

as us imitating His only begotten Son.

Christ, through his sacrificial love, has replaced the Old Testament sacrificial system to please God.

And thus, when we as God's children, in our limited fashion,

empowered by God himself, imitate Christ in his sacrificial love,

the Father receives our sacrificial giving of ourselves as pleasing others.

Gone are the days of bringing our harvests or animals as offerings to please God.

We, you and I, are the offerings to God. Our sacrificial love as we imitate

Christ is pleasing to God Almighty.

If we love as Christ loves us and imitate Christ as a child imitates his Father,

then we will be fragrant offerings to God.

Moreover, a natural outflow of our love sacrifice to God, everyone around us

will smell the aroma of Christ's love in us, and they will hunger for the life of Christ within us.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14 to 16, proclaimed,

2 Corinthians 2:14–16

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in a triumphal procession in Christ,

and manifests through us the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

For we are fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among

those who are perishing to the one an aroma from death to death and to the other

an aroma from life to life.

I want you to notice that we are the fragrance of Christ to God amongst those

who are being saved and amongst those who are perishing.

But we are not alone, nor are we the offering under our own power.

It is Christ who is leading us in the procession. And look at this.

Christ is leading us triumphantly, meaning that Christ has already won the war.

In human understanding, wars are won by a series of battles,

and then the king or the country conquers.

But in Christ's upside-down kingdom, Christ has already won the war.

The future is already secure.

Christ has conquered death. He has broken sin's power over his saints.

Satan is on a leash, and his power is under God's control.

Satan knows this. All Satan can do is try to hinder the inevitable outcome by trying to win battles.

But it will not work. Christ is leading us, and he is victorious.

What have we learned from our passage today.

We as Christ's disciples are called to imitate God as beloved children of God,

meaning that we're to imitate God our Father as a child would imitate his or her father.

Secondly, we have been taught that we are to imitate God is by

imitating Christ's sacrificial love.

And lastly, we imitate Christ's love by being living sacrificial offerings up

to God that are pleasing to God.

And I want to encourage us all today that although the Christian life can be

hard and filled with challenges, our sacrifices of love as we imitate Christ is not in vain. Why?

Because Christ leads us, and he is already victorious.

And our invitation of God in Christ's power is pleasing to God most high.

Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful

for the merciful love that you've bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ.

Thank you that you have chosen us to be your fragrant offerings to you,

but also examples to the world around us of Christ working and living in us.

Use us, Lord. May we trust you. May we live by faith in the Son of God who loved

us and gave himself up for us so that we can surrender and allow you,

your Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and operate us. Thank you, Lord.

Use us for your glory and for your honor. In your precious Son's name,

Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Let me leave you with this benediction. From Ephesians 3, verses 17 and 19.

Ephesians 3:17

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded

in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth

and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.