MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG
FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC. CANADA.
I invite you to pray with me, Father God hear our prayer, and we humbly cry to you as it is written in your word, Lucas 11:9:” I tell you Keep asking, and it will given to you, Keep seeking, and you will find, Keep knocking, and it will be open to you)” We are requesting healing for our dear members of our family and also dear friends who are suffering from illnesses in their lives fighting and suffering under a lot of pain, You know them by their names; (Gaby P, Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G, Fega G, Rosy Ch, Patricia L.) Also, some of them are tired of spiritual struggles, losing their faith in you, Strengthening their trust in you with a miracle in their lives, oh! Father God, hear our prayer, and we also pray for all the people around the world, especially the children who are suffering from wars, devastation, hunger, pain, hate and disbelieving in you also, bless the ones who are reading this message and their families. Heal the Land of those Countries at war; you love them so much, oh Father God, hear our prayer, we ask you in the name of Our Lord of Lords and King of Kings, your beloved son Jesus Christ. AMEN!
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God the Father, we thank you for your answer to our prayers with
The good news is the recovery of health for some,
Strengthen them so that they may regain their faith in you
And that they may be witnesses that you love them and
that you respond when we trust and believe in you
Thank you Father God in the name
of Jesus our Lord of Lords and King of Kings
Praise be to your name
always and forever, AMEN.
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RESUMING THE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS
Prior to digging into the passage we are looking at this morning, we need to step back into where we left off in Ephesians before the Advent season rushed in upon us. Previously Paul has spent significant time for us to understand who we are in Christ and in light of who we are, Paul encouraging us, as believers in Jesus, live out our faith as people, Walking worthy of our calling – lives characterized by humility, gentleness, patience and love. As he makes clear, this is far more than being nice people who do nice things rather we are to be people who live under new ownership - people chosen and called by God. Based on that he says, ‘therefore’ live out what lives within. Not from sanitized actions or even right actions but from right hearts.
In other words, not lives speaking God talk, but lives that talk God. Speaking His heart. Acting right and doing right are far different than being right in substance, right in heart. Because acting and doing can be little more than veneers applied to what lies deep within. Threaten our well-being and those veneers are too easily stripped away, revealing attitudes and beliefs that identify sinful hearts. Hearts that justify and excuse; hearts that cover and hide. Proud, self-serving hearts. Selfish hearts - where mine is more important than yours. To be clear – those hearts aren’t what others have - theirs, they are ours - what resides in us.
As Christians we are called to live out a faith that is far more than ‘veneer thin’. A faith where the Holy Spirit is given free rein to transform us at our core, where faith is given life and power to reflect Jesus’ call to, Love our neighbor as ourselves Mk 12:31, to Prefer one another in love Rom 12:10 and Serve one another 1 Pet 5:5. Living as Jesus lived.
Not living larger than, better than, more deserving than rather walking in humility, in love, in gentleness. To the Greeks and Romans to whom Paul wrote, this way of looking at life was ludicrous. They prized power and honor not humility and gentleness. After all, power meant domination and honor – elevation - better than, superior to. Humility was associated with failure and shame, the word meaning ‘crushed’ or ‘debased’. In Christ, God turns this upside down – putting His power in our humility and His presence in our gentleness. Therefore filled with Christ’s power and presence, because of who you are and what you have, Walk worthy. Now beginning in :25 Paul gives his 2nd ‘therefore’, highlighting what walking worthy should mean.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and don’t sin; don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you 4:25-32.
Therefore laying aside falsehood :25. When we think of falsehood, it’s easy to center on the things said that bail us out; leaving impressions of truth just not full truth. Paul’s look at falsehood is more inclusive, calling us to truth not just in what is said but in what is lived. Being honest with ourselves, admitting the falsehood that dwells within - that sees ourselves better than we are; that sees ourselves more worthy than we are. People who just need ‘adjustments’ to our bad habits, to our wrong thoughts, to our questionable behaviours – where we’ll just ‘do better’ next time. That applies makeup to our disease and whitewashes our sin, painting it to look good despite what we know if we really take an honest look, those things that are truly underneath.
The word Paul uses for falsehood is “pseudos” which has about it the sense of showing what is wanted to be seen but hiding, sometimes not admitting what is there to be seen. Covered up living. And Paul’s warning? ‘Don’t live that way.’ Don’t live by impressions of truth. Instead live by authentic truth - indwelling truth. People held to the light. Transparently sincere.
The type of living that reflects Christ to a watching world. Holy Spirit empowered living with one another as authentic people - living out our calling as Paul captures in 1 Cor 13:3-7, Love is patient, kind and not jealous; it doesn’t brag and isn’t arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly; does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
A reflection of the character of Christ not a reflection of my wants, my demands, my image.
Challenging? – can be. Confusing? - there will be moments. Stretching? – at times. God honouring? - without doubt. Reflecting Christ in how we talk and how we live.
Laying aside falsehood :25 is the image of someone taking off a coat and leaving it behind because the coat no longer fits – but more than that, it’s seeing the coat for what it is – stained, ripped, and putrid. There is no better image of this than the Prodigal Son’s father who removes the tattered rags of his wayward son, replacing those with his festal robe. In that act, declared a forgiven son – offenses of the past - gone. Wrongs remembered no more.
The old laid aside because it no longer fits with the new identity. But there is also a sense Paul calls us to not forget, where we are to look closely at the discard pile of the things left behind, a reminder of who we were. :17 Yours was a futile mind – what you thought, what you believed, those things on which you built your life. Your chase after money and reputation. Your chase after pleasure and conquest. FUTILE. And :18, You were darkened in your understanding, callous – excluded from the life of God.
For some, the idea of being excluded from the life of God is disturbing. After all, how does that fit with the view of God so many choose to believe – that He is all love, accepting, forgiving, turning the other cheek? Believing that only sincerity should count. So a God who excludes?
But as Paul points out, what excludes us from God isn’t what our head believes. It’s not in what our actions are, whether they be good or bad. What keeps us from God is an unchanged heart a heart that says we can do life without the forgiveness of God. His diagnosis of our hearts clear, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer 17:9 or There is none righteous, no not one Rom 3:10 or All our righteousness is like filthy rags Is 64:6.
Excluded by our wickedly sick hearts. Excluded by God who requires the absence of everything wicked. That means absolute perfection – that’s the bad news but the good news is that Jesus is our perfection, our righteousness and in Him, we are given a new heart, You are in Christ, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness and redemption. I Cor 1:30
That is positional righteousness – forgiven, declared ‘Not Guilty’ in Christ but Paul is saying that it isn’t enough just to stand in righteousness; we are to be people who live out that righteousness. So when Paul says, Lay aside falsehood, he is saying, take off the grave-clothes you once wore. Lay aside every mark of possession of the one to whom you once belonged - the deceit that corrupts; the deceit that justifies, the deceit that destroys. Instead, Paul says, Put on the new.
That means changed behavior from a changed heart. The new given us in :15 like, Speaking the truth in love. Being people of authenticity who live and speak truth. Love wrapped truth, never a tool for battle; never intended to wound. In short, truth that heals; that doesn’t hide or deceive but instead, restores and gives hope. Along with putting on truth, Paul points us to a few things of note we’re to lay aside where the old tends to ‘stick’, specifically regarding our anger, our stealing (things, time, credit, and reputation – note 2022 US retailers lost $120 billion due to shoplifting), and our tongue.
BE ANGRY AND DO NOT SIN :26
Be angry. The Greek word Paul uses is orgismos “provoked to anger, swelling- like the rise of blood pressure”.
Paul is speaking to the realities of what life brings – that things will come upon us that provoke, that get our blood pressure going. There’s the anger that’s justifiable - when injustices are done, when the weak are oppressed, when the innocent are denied life, when evil goes unchecked.
Or the evil when people are denied rights because of the colour of their skin. People treated despicably in ways most of us will never know. For us, life is ‘safe’, but our experience is not universally shared. Some come under scrutiny and suspicion simply because of their look. Some denied what we would never be denied. But because that’s not been our experience, we haven’t been angry when we should - angry for injustice, oppression; angry for abuse and violence.
And then there’s the anger we are much more familiar with. The anger that comes when we are denied what we want. Anger when something that offends is said. Anger when something is taken from us or when someone plays by a different set of rules.
But in our response to things that anger, Paul says, ‘Do not sin.’ Protest the wrong? Yes when our silence contributes and gives permission for the wrong. Correct? – imperative. Yet don’t sin. Use your fire to illuminate and bring heat but don’t let your fire scorch and destroy. But be careful, God’s warning, do not sin is not our invitation to look at others and so easily judge their response as sin, rather it’s to see our sin – our words of abuse, our actions of payback, our ways to ‘power over’, our attitudes that judge, our actions that injure and wound, our silence - as sin.
So be angry but sin not. Why? Because we are to be controlled by a different Master. Anger for what is wrong – yes but use that anger for good. That means: • don’t plant anger • don’t fertilize it • don’t spread it • don’t seed it • don’t dump it. Tear it up by the roots. Look at the soil of our heart and throw away everything that serves as a seedbed where sin is allowed to grow.
Some of us need to take this much closer to home. Literally, closer to home. In our relating of husband and wife, parents to kids, kids to parents. Will there be issues on which we disagree? Actions done that upset? – sure but even in those, God’s command – Love one another even as I have loved you Jn 13:34 – meaning: affirming, HONORING, ATTITUDE-CHANGING, TONGUE-CONTROLLING, BEHAVIOUR-SHAPING LOVE.
To repeat: there are times when anger will be present and won’t be wrong but the presence of anger does NOT validate sinful expressions of anger. Quite the contrary. Expressions that demean, create fear, wound, power over, destroy, lose control or speak wrongly are sin.
INSTEAD Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. :26b parorgismos - indignation, wrath, exasperation - coming out of jealousy and a sense of violation. This anger is especially relevant to anger that wants to put down roots. Those roots are a lot like the clover that keeps invading my lawn. Spreading and establishing more roots – choking out what is good and stealing the light and water that produces what is desired.
God’s solution is clear - give this anger the shelf life it deserves. Stepping into our personal lives - deal with hurts quickly – before the sun goes down, before roots become established and quickly spread. Make things right. Keep short accounts. Don’t lash out and don’t play the silent withdrawal game.
So what do we do with that anger that wells up? Well first, be honest about it, seeing it for what it is, then in confession, give it to God asking Him for His strength to deal with that fire within. Tell Him out loud because it’s not as if it’s a surprise to Him. He’s not shocked, not alarmed, not put off. He just wants to be invited in to give you His strength to change what you can’t do on your own. See it for the sin it is and if it is sin, it’s not going to be overcome by will power or resolutions to do better. Understand, His heart is to forgive and make new. Understanding God’s amazing, never failing, always reaching love for you is probably the greatest strength He wants you to know. It’s that love that gives the victory you so want and need.
This issue of anger is so important that Paul speaks to it repeatedly in this chapter. No doubt he does so because he knows of its power to corrupt. He also knows that anger, in its many forms, are manifestations of the enemy who wants to set up home and establish spiritual strongholds. It’s power to destroy individuals, relationships and churches is also why he instructs, guard your tongues, Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouths :29. Word used is sapros - rotten, putrid .
The issue of our speech is bigger than the words that shouldn’t be said though that is incredibly important. Far too many marriages are destroyed by words. Too many lives have been wounded by words spoken by a parent, a teacher, a supposed friend. Because those words tear down, they make small, they plant doubt. It’s not merely words we shouldn’t say, it’s also reminds of the words we should say – words good for building up, building into the lives of others so they can see Christ :29. In some ways this is part of what we’ve needed to learn from the outcries against injustice. The sin many of us need to own is not in the things we’ve said; it’s in the things we’ve left unsaid. Where we’ve failed to build up, where we’ve failed to speak grace, where we’ve failed to speak love, where we failed to demonstrate equality. Where Christ hasn’t been spoken into things that needed to be heard.
It’s easy to leave this section of Ephesians and see it as a list of prohibitions that are to be absent from our lives. But Paul writes that God’s standard is higher than right belief. It is about right living, right relating. And Paul ends this portion of what he has been saying with an appropriate image of grief.
In verse 30 he warns, Don’t grieve the Spirit. Grieve is a relationship word that hits the core of our being. Interestingly Paul doesn’t say, when you’re wrongly angry, you grieve the Spirit or when you steal, you grieve the Spirit or when you speak in rotten ways, you grieve the Spirit.
What he says is, IF our lives aren’t lived out expressions of grace – in attitudes, in words, in actions, we grieve the Spirit of God. Grace seen that is different. Because when bitterness and clamor and judgement are in view, we are living as if we are strangers to the Grace we’ve been given. What that is saying is that it isn’t enough to be known for the things that are merely absent from our lives; we are also to be known by the things that are present in our lives – kindness, forgiveness, compassion, the love of Christ - which brings us back to where we began that we are to be people who are right of heart.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice :31 Face facts – there will be times when we have been treated badly – offenses done when we’ve been wronged; things said that have misrepresented, actions taken where you’ve been used. And just in case, you can only see yourself on the receiving end of all this junk, guess what, you and I have delivered some of this ourselves. Okay, maybe some of these not by intent but that doesn’t give us a ‘get out of jail’ card. The truth is, we judge ourselves by our INTENTIONS – what we MEANT while judging others by their ACTIONS – what they DID. And so by that minimizing our actions; maximizing theirs - somehow thinking that gets us off the hook. It doesn’t.
The truth is as long as you and I are drawing breath there will be times of hurt and wrong done.
That leaves us with what are we going to do about it? Do we nurse the offense, keeping it alive, allowing it to grow? Do we bring others around us so they can hear our story and support us in the ugliness of that offense? Boy that feels good, to hear their understanding voices reinforcing my hold on the wrong done. Truth is, that is something we ‘can’ do and all too often, do ‘do’ or we obey what God tells us, To put it away. Choosing to actively deciding to forgive and move on and in that, honouring God - that act, also setting us free from the bitterness that holds us captive. Make no mistake, holding onto bitterness and anger is hanging around in Satan’s playfield :27 and that is a playfield you and I don’t want to be in. One more observation, Hurting people, hurt people – the damage from that well-nourished hurt almost always doing its wreckage within before spewing that wreckage on others.
Frederick Buechner captures it well: Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is YOU.
This anger coming from hell itself.
One last observation – these descriptors Paul writes in :31 as bitterness, wrath and anger to be put away. Anger (thumos - boiling fury. Clamor (brawling - like voices raised in quarrel) and slander (blasphemy), malice (kakia – desire to injure, wickedness not ashamed to break laws.)
What KJV renders as clamour and slander, we also know by a more common name that writer Morgan Blake describes this way, I am more deadly than the screaming shell of a cannon, I win without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts and wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, mercy for the defenceless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and ofter as innocent. I never forget and I seldom forgive. My name is gossip. Enough said. Anger, bitterness, gossip, slander.
Putting away those things but far more importantly putting on the love of Jesus that changes everything. Getting to know Him and with that, getting to know ourselves – loved, valued, wanted - people Jesus loved enough that He would die so we could become His children, What manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called His children 1 Jn 3:1
The Holy Spirit chiseling away the things that distort and destroy as He forms and shapes us as God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for His good works. God’s chisel working Christ’s life in us so the world may see a love that is entirely different.
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