Ephesians: Chapter 4, Growing - 09-27-26 - Pastor John Authenreith

Oh my, what a beautiful day today, huh?

Glad to see everybody here.

You at home, wherever you may happen to be watching, glad you're uh joining us as well.

And you probably noticed there's some things up here.

We're gonna have a wedding today, all right?

How about that?

Wanna have a wedding?

How many of you have seen one of these before?

The Unity Candle.

Have you seen those?

Yes, some of you, some of you have not.

Well, I did uh officiated a wedding a couple weeks ago, last weekend, and I officiated a wedding yesterday, and both of those had unity candles in their services.

And what this is is the two outside candles are usually lit when the service starts.

And uh, this represents the bride, and this represents the groom, and this represents their unity together, their life together.

So at some point in the ceremony, after they say their vows, they they come up to the candle, the groom takes one, the bride takes one, and they jointly light the center candle, and then they blow their outside individual candles out, and it's saying, What God has joined together, let no man separate.

So this right there gives them uh it makes the unity of becoming one in that day of their wedding.

So it's very popular to use those in weddings, and we also see them, they they do stuff now called the joining of the sand, where you pour different colors of sand into a bottle.

And so they do different things like that in the ceremony of uh the wedding, um, just to represent becoming one instead of their two separate lives becoming one.

And so turn with me to the, we're gonna learn a little bit more about this as we go along.

But first, turn with me to the book of Ephesians.

You know that we're gonna be there.

Chapter four.

Chapter four.

We'll have the scripture on the screen for you, and we'll have it um at home as well.

We'll have it on the screen for you at home, too.

So uh we talked about the unity candle there.

And here we are in in now, we're in chapter four today, in week three of our series, and chapters one through three that we covered so far are primarily about Christian doctrine, the nuts and bolts of salvation.

That's what we've talked about the last few weeks.

Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.

And we find uh in the remaining chapters in this letter is that Paul shifts gears a little bit, and we'll see that to tell us what this all means.

He writes that about the quality and kind of life that is demanded of believers individually, right?

Individually, and the fellowship we must have as believers corporately.

One author said that Paul, this is so, I love this right here.

One author said that Paul's greatest concern in life has become to present every man and woman mature in Christ.

What a burden.

See, every man and woman mature in Christ.

We call that being fully devoted followers around here.

Fully devoted followers.

So turn to Ephesians again, chapter one.

We're gonna start, uh verse four, I'm sorry.

Chapter four, starting in verse one, it says this.

Paul talking to the church in Ephesus.

He says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

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.

He says, There was 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 was over all and through all and in all.

What's he talking about here?

What's he talking about?

It's a lot of stuff in those six verses.

First of all, he reminds his readers he's in prison, right?

Paul's writing this letter to the church in Ephesus while he's in prison for the sake of the gospel.

And he urges them.

This whole chapter and what we're going to talk about all day today is about living a life worthy of the calling they have received.

So when we look at calling, what's calling mean?

Is that that like, oh, I'm called to pastor a church, or I'm called to ministry, or I'm called to be a missionary in a foreign land.

Well, that's part of it, but it's it's it's actually more than that.

The calling, then, is for all of us, is what Paul is talking about here.

Uh Paul, God has called them, one author put it this way: God has called us to know his grace through Christ, okay?

To be to be saved, and then to live as his children and to serve him by sharing the good news of the God, and while sharing the good news of the gospel.

That's our calling.

So if you are a believer, you have a calling.

You have a calling, and your calling is to live as children of God and to serve him and to share the good news of the gospel.

That calling, then, should change every part of our lives, every part.

Because we belong to Jesus.

We are called to live in a way that honors his name and reflects the Savior that we profess.

Now, if you're going to claim to be a Christian, in other words, we're gonna it's gonna be a theme all day today.

If you're gonna claim to be a Christian, you should live like it because you represent Christ.

Have you ever heard anyone say and they call themselves Christians?

Have you ever heard that before?

And they call themselves Christians and they put their hands on their hips like that.

You know, it's funny because uh right or wrong, people have an expectation of how a Christian should behave.

And Paul says, check that.

He says, There's something to that.

There is a way that Christians are to behave.

So when people question your behavior, maybe they have a right to do so.

There's a guy named Mahatma Gandhi.

Have you ever heard of Gandhi?

Sure you have.

They don't know if it's true or not, but he's quoted as saying that I like your Jesus, but I do not like your Christians.

That's my Gandhi imitation.

It wasn't very good.

I know.

I need to work on that, right?

I like your Jesus, but I do not like your Christians.

And I know you probably have heard that before.

Then we look at our text, Paul goes on and he starts quoting, he starts uh listing adjectives concerning our behavior, concerning this behavior.

It's practical.

He says, be humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another.

What's that?

Put up with each other in love.

And he says there's one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.

This is about unity.

One God.

One resource said that.

Believers don't manufacture.

Listen, believers don't manufacture unity, they preserve what God has already created.

Man, that's good.

We don't manufacture unity, we preserve what God has already created.

Makes me think of the three Johns in Cochrane.

Three different churches, and all the pastors are named John.

I'm one of them.

There's John 1, John 2, and John 3.

I'm John 2, by the way, 2 John, whatever it is.

So there's John McGarvey and John Amy and myself.

And the thing about that is the three Johns is we have different denominational backgrounds, and our beliefs and practices don't always line up, but we agree on the essentials.

Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.

The unifying truth of the gospel of Jesus allows us to do things together, like church in the park.

That's why we can do that with each other.

The Easter sunrise service, the Thanksgiving service, the baccalaureate service at graduation over at the high school, you see, and we meet once a month to discuss these kinds of things.

And the thing is about the three Johns and the three churches right here in this little town, there's more, there's four churches in this little town, is that we're not in competition with, there's more than that, we're not in competition with each other.

Right?

I always like to say that when everybody in Crawford County becomes a believer, then we can start worrying about who's going to whose church.

We got a long way to go before that happens.

We're not in competition with each other in any way.

We're friends.

And we pray for each other's churches and we want them to do well, and we're excited when somebody has a win.

And Paul says it's about one God, Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all, as Paul tells us here.

One of my resources said this those who have been blessed by God to sit with Christ in the heavenly places should remember, that's being a believer, should remember that the honor of Christ must be represented in their daily lives on earth.

Represented in our daily lives on earth.

In unity, believers must walk worthy of our calling.

Walk worthy of our calling.

Have you ever heard Jesus said the words?

They will know you are Christians by your love for one another.

It's about unity, isn't it?

Look at this, go to verse 7.

Paul goes on.

But, okay, he talked about unity.

Now he says, but to each one of us, uh oh, okay.

It's going singular here.

Grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

This is why it says, when he ascended on high, talking about Jesus, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.

What does he Paul then goes off on a little side note here, and this is in parentheses in my Bible here.

Paul goes off on a little side note.

What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended?

Okay, so you can't ascend if you haven't descended to the lower earthly regions.

He who has descended, talking about Jesus, is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.

Okay, so he gets that little side note out of the way there.

Then he says, because let's see, because he had quoted Psalm 68, 18 when he says he is when he ascended on high.

That was a quotation from Psalms.

Then he goes back to verse 11, he says, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers for what?

To equip his people for works of service.

Why?

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.

Then we will no longer be infants, look at this, 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 and their deceitful scheming.

Instead, instead of all that, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every aspect the mature body of him who is the head.

That is Christ.

And he says, From him the whole body, the whole body of believers, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.

What's all that about?

Don't you love these big chunks of scripture?

It's like, oh my gosh, there's so much information in these.

There's so much information.

What is all of this, right?

What's he talking about?

Verse 7 reminds us that unity, what's he say?

Each one of us, unity doesn't mean uniformity.

We are one body.

But Christ gives believers different gifts and different roles to play.

And this whole section here really references the fulfillment of God's plan.

What did I say?

The maturity of believers.

The unity God has already given us is strengthened and protected as individual believers grow toward spiritual maturity.

What is spiritual maturity?

All right, that's a Christian thing that we say all the time.

Spiritual maturity, you must be a spiritually mature disciple of Jesus.

What is that?

Here's a good definition I found.

Spiritual maturity is a continuous lifelong process of inner growth where a person's beliefs, values, and relationships with Jesus deeply shape, this is it, their character, daily actions, and mindset.

You are a new creation if you are a believer.

Paul says God put people in these leadership positions, such as pastors and teachers, to do what?

To do all the work?

No, to equip others for works of service.

As we all strive together for spiritual maturity.

The idea of spiritual maturity then circles back to verses two and three.

Let me read that again.

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.

It circles back to that.

And Paul further defines this in verses 14 and following.

No longer infants pulled away by every passing fat.

So when you work towards full devotion, you're no longer swayed by stupid teaching, in other words, right?

Or you're not pulled away.

He says, now speaking the truth in love, which references the change in our life that represents the nature of God that we're growing into.

It's of course about becoming mature believers.

Again, he's still talking about that.

Fully devoted followers of Jesus.

It's a process, right?

It's a process.

Let me ask you something.

Has anybody, have you ever had a job where the learning curve was just crazy?

Raise your hand.

You ever started a job where the learning curve is crazy?

Do you ever like how about did you start an educational pursuit where you were just awash in stuff you had no idea what it was doing, what you were doing, right?

Sure.

We have.

Maybe you're a novice or a newbie or an apprentice, right?

I had that happen to me.

I started working at uh uh an office supply warehouse.

Now, maybe you know or maybe you don't know, there are millions of office supplies, hundreds, thousands of office supplies.

Let me give you an example.

This right here is a black bic crystal pen.

It's called a crystal pen, okay?

This particular pen has a model number.

If you work in an office supply warehouse, somebody would say, Hey John, I need a dozen MSBP241.

And that would be this.

Now, if somebody asked me for an MSB P242, it might be a red BIC crystal.

There are 16 different BIC crystal pens.

Okay?

There are 60 different models of BIC pens.

So think of that in the context of an office supply warehouse.

When you're talking about post-it notes and binder clips and staples and staplers and uh the you know folders and file folders and the lit and pencils and pens and and markers and whiteboard.

The list goes on and on and on.

So when I started working at this office supply place, they didn't have a system.

It was like I need they okay, so I would pull the orders.

You know what an order picker is?

I was an order picker.

I'd get a list, have 10 things on it that uh that a business needed filled that I needed to fill for a business.

Had 10 things on it, let's say.

One of those items might be a dozen MSBP241s.

So when I first started working there, I said, I need the MSB P241s.

Does anybody know where that is?

And they would say, Yeah, they're over there in the corner.

That was just one thing.

Yeah, they're over there in the corner.

There was no system, there was no racks, no numbering, no anything.

So for weeks I had to keep asking fellow employees, where is the binder clips?

Where are the markers?

Where are the uh, you know, where are the erasers?

Where are uh because I knew nothing and there was no system in place.

And I was a newbie and an apprentice.

And I finally got it.

I finally knew where this stuff was, and I became a journeyman office supply person.

So when the new guy came in and he said, I need an MSBP 241.

Do you know where those at?

I could say, yes, they're over there in the corner.

That's where they would be.

But it took a long time for me to get the hang of it, right?

It took a long time.

And Paul says, You gotta, you know, you're no longer infants.

You know where the crystal black big pens are.

So stop acting like you don't.

Paul says, at some point, you gotta learn the ropes.

You gotta learn the gig, you gotta mature.

For me, it was a painful process, and I was embarrassed to keep walking up to the same people and say, can you tell me where this is?

Can you tell me where that is?

Eventually they hired a professional that came in and actually put a numbering system in so that you would know that a uh BSP, BSBP 241 would be row four, section three on the fourth shelf.

And you could go find it real easy then, right?

But the process was painful, and in Christianity, that process is called sanctification, a big churchy word, as Paul's talking about us growing in our faith, little by little becoming more and more and more like Jesus as we mature in our faith.

You see, and I said earlier, I'll say it again.

The unity God has already given us, the unity right here in the middle, is it is strengthened and protected as individual believers grow toward spiritual maturity.

Number two, I individually must grow into spiritual maturity.

It's a both end.

Now, if we were doing a wedding, the bride and the groom would blow out these side candles, but we're not gonna do that.

Right?

Because it takes each one of us individually doing our part.

Spiritual growth is both individual and it's corporate.

It's both.

Look at Ephesians 17, 4, 17.

Paul says, So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.

And aren't the Gentiles in his audience?

I think they are, so that's kind of embarrassing.

Don't live like the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance, the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Man, Paul's got it going on here, doesn't he?

This is good stuff.

If we're going to be walk, if we're going to walk worthy of our calling, our old way of living must be replaced by a new way of living.

This then further encapsulates what we've been talking about all along here and doesn't require a whole lot of explaining.

What I just read doesn't require a whole lot of explaining because that's practical.

And this is again about becoming a different person because of your relationship with Jesus and the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in.

In you, if you are a believer.

Now, I told you last week that I walked away from church for many years.

And when I came back, I had to put off the old self, which had been corrupted.

And I had to be made new in the attitude of my mind.

What's that?

Just churchy.

What's that mean?

Made new in the attitude.

That's about replacing a self-centered, worldly worldview, which is what I had with a truth-governed, Christ-like way of perceiving reality and living my life.

One author said that this is not a human self-help trick.

It's not about a self-help trick.

It's not about going to a seminar.

It's not about reading a book.

It's a spiritual transformation enabled by God.

And when I was when I was away from the Lord, you've heard the story before.

I wanted to be a rock star.

That's what I was going to be.

I was going to make millions and tour the world.

I got in bands and played music all over the place.

But when the Lord got a hold of me, I had to step away from that.

I had to step away from that life, that pursuit.

That was my identity at the time.

My identity was that of a musician.

And that was my identity.

And it was something that I loved.

And I had to walk away from the band scene.

And it was going quite well.

It was hard.

I changed the music that I listened to.

I changed the people that I hung around with and the places that I went.

And I immersed myself in all things having to do with my refound faith in Jesus.

Man, it was hard.

But by the grace of God, here I am.

By the grace of God.

Number three, as I follow Christ, I must put off the old self.

And put on the new.

Put off the old self and put on the new.

What's that look like to you?

Think about it for a minute.

Is there anything in your life that might be standing in the way of your pursuit of full devotion?

Think about it.

One author said that Paul is saying that we must replace our pre-Christian sin-driven identity and habits with a Christ-centered character of righteousness, holiness, and truth.

And he went on to say, it's like taking changing a stained shirt for a clean one.

It's that.

Changing a stained shirt for a clean one.

We must put off the old self, who we once were, and put on the new.

Finally, verse 25.

Therefore, okay, so Paul's saying, therefore, in other words, he's wrapping all this up because of all that stuff I just said, therefore, each of you must put off falsehood.

He goes on talking about behaviors.

Put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

In your anger, do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and don't give the devil a foothold.

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen, that it may benefit those who listen.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

He says, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Another great this uh chapter is one that all of us should have in our skull.

We really should.

There's so much good stuff in here.

He's continuing the idea about radical behavior change.

Again, most of this is self-explanatory, right?

As he shares a bunch of do-nots.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, do not give the devil a foothold, do not steal, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

What's that?

What's that talking about?

Let's look at this one.

This is not some stray element that he throws in there.

It actually points back to the do-nots.

Basically, Paul's point is that our behavior matters because the Holy Spirit of God lives in us.

Right?

So, of course, our behavior matters.

Part of God lives in us.

How we treat one another isn't merely about like being nice and good manners.

It's not merely about that.

It affects our relationship with God.

It affects our relationship with the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

Don't grieve him.

When we act inappropriately, the Holy Spirit's like going, ooh, what'd you do that for, right?

Like grieving the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is where I got the word yikes from.

Yikes, what'd you do that for?

It affects our relationship with the Holy Spirit, who has sealed us as God's people.

Paul says, if we do those do-nots.

If we tear others down by our speech and by the attitudes betrayed by our speech, we're grieving the Spirit who lives in us, by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption.

Well, Christ returns, or where we go home first, whichever it is.

God marks believers with the Holy Spirit.

We learn that in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

It's a sign of divine ownership, security, and as Paul says earlier, a down payment until we're finally with Jesus in eternity.

Look at verse 32 one more time.

Says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

What a great way to end this talk.

Paul brings it full circle.

Verse 1, he says, live a life worthy of the calling you have received, right?

In verse 1.

And by verse 32, we just went through the whole chapter.

By verse 32, he shows us what that worthy life looks like: kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and Christ like love.

I love how he just brings it all back around.

This is what I've been talking about, he says.

Here it is.

And his bottom line here, right, is if Jesus Christ can forgive me for all the stuff I've done and continue to do in my life, how can I not forgive others?

And we struggle with forgiveness.

All of us struggle with forgiveness.

Right?

Forgiveness is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ, isn't it?

Paul says that we forgive because we have been forgiven.

Colossians 3 13 says this make allowance for each other's faults.

Look at this.

And forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember, the Lord forgave you.

So you also must forgive others.

I know some of your wheels are turning right now, right?

Maybe you're being convicted about some areas in your life.

Number four, because of Christ in me.

I can do this.

I can live out my new identity.

All those things that Paul just said.

Do this, do this, don't do that, do this, don't do that.

All those things I can do, I can live out my new identity because of Christ in me.

That makes it all that brings the point home.

Here's our bottom line.

Because we are made new in Christ, when he becomes our Savior, we should live differently.

Walk in unity, growing in maturity, putting off our old ways, and putting on a Christ-like way of living.

Don't just believe differently because you follow Jesus.

Live differently.

Live differently.

Ask yourself, what is one attitude, one habit, or one relationship that God is asking me to work on?

What is it for you?

And then it says, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you have the help of the Holy Spirit, take one specific step toward becoming more like Christ.

We are made new in Christ.

And so we gotta live like it.

We've got to live like it.

You can only do that when the Holy Spirit lives in you, because of the Holy Spirit living in you.

And you only have the Holy Spirit living in you when Jesus becomes your Savior.

So if you're not sure about that, yeah, then today is the day that the Lord is speaking to you, that Jesus needs to be your Savior.

Jesus says, I have come to bring you life and give it, bring it to the full.

Because we are sinners.

We are born separated from God, and only Jesus Christ bridges that gap.

When we acknowledge the fact that we are separated from God and that Jesus is the only way to make our relationship right, we can be saved.

And the Holy Spirit will come and live in us.

If you're not sure about that, let's talk.

You can talk to me, you can drop us a line on Facebook or wherever you're watching.

You can talk to anybody up here, any of the leaders in our church.

We want to make sure that you know that should your life end today, you know exactly where you're going.

I know where I'm going.

Pray with me.

Your word is truth, your word is active and alive.

The words of Paul in this book are so amazing.

They're amazing.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you that we can learn and study together.

But I pray we can learn and listen and hear this all we want, but we've got to put it into practice, Lord, and that's the charge.

I pray for every single one of us to take this seriously.

The words of Paul, take this seriously.

Take the words of Paul seriously and put them into practice.

Lord, we can live our lives as you have called us to live because of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Lord, others can see our behavior, and others can see that there's something different about us because of the work that you are doing in us.

Lord, I pray that we all take this seriously.

Just think of families being healed and relationships being healed and marriages being healed and work going better and school going better, and all of those things, because you are in the middle of it all in our life.

We think about individually, how we how we pursue you individually, but we also pursue you corporately.

Like meeting together here on Sunday morning, like being in a life group, Lord.

All of that.

All of that.

So that we can become fully devoted followers and point others to the saving work of Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.