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­­­­LSB  Ephesians 4:1-6

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Paul has spent 3 chapters laying the foundation for these words.  You are called to safety out of this lost and perishing world.  You are saved from the destruction that is coming to all who dwell here in sin.  You are not just called out of harm and due punishment to safety, you are wildly rich, having been made a joint heir with Christ who owns everything.

You are equals with the jewish christians who preceeded you in this new grace.  God is extending grace to the nations.  You don't need to have been born into God's chosen nation, the jews, God has begun something new and He has chosen to extend free grace to the nations.  The jews have no benefit over you in position in the kingdom of God.  All who are in Christ are equals.  

All have been quickened from the dead in the same exact way.  All have become temples together, equally, of the indwelling Holy Spirit who lives inside every christian.  We are a family together, separated out of this condemned world, equals in our status IN Christ.  Every redeemed purchased person is in unity with every other redeemed person.  We are brothers, sisters, of each other no matter what our old identity was.  

Jews and gentiles, slaves and free, males or female, black or white or any shade in between.  In Christ we are set apart from this world with all of it's categories and identity crisis's and we are equals.  A little child who possesses the Holy Spirit in his little heart is eqaul to the most ancient and wise christian, unless the ancient wise adult has become a little bit proud of his stature, then the child actually surpasses him.

Before his prayer that we would understand our standing and grab hold of it, at the end of chapter 3, Paul tells us we're the hottest commodity in the universes.  All of creation is watching what God is doing, and what God is doing right now, from when Paul wrote it 2000 years ago, to this day, is the church.  We are it.  On stage.  Front and center.  Creation is watching.

The church is IT.  In the unseen drama where Satan has robbed this world and it's glory from God by introducing sin, and then it spread like a gangrene to every human here, and God is in the long process of taking it back, with a redeemed elect people, purchased out of the rebellion, and forgiven at the cost of His own Son's blood, in that ages long process, the church is at the battle front.

In dispensations long past, it was first individual patriarchs chosen by God for His purposes.  Then it was a chosen nation, Israel that was where the fight was taking place, but now, it is the church that is in the heat of battle with Satan who rules here.  Temporarily, I might add.  He knows his time is rapidly winding down.

God is accomplishing His goals, His plan in this long battle, through the church.  How're we doing.  I've thought of this often lately.  Paul says;  
Eph. 3:8-10 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Paul understood he was at the very tip of the spear in the long war of God with Satan.  God had set Israel aside.  And it was just being unveiled, just dawning on the apostles that God would no longer address the battle through the nation of Israel, they would be shelved, benched as it were, and God is going to do battle against evil through His church, and in every nation.

so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

So, how are we doing.  If the church is the tip of the spear in this battle, how is it looking for all the heavenly beings looking on at God's battle front.

I don't want to drift too far from what Paul wants us to understand in chapter 4, but I can't resist saying, to me at least, it looks as if the church has said, psst.  Hey Satan.  Maybe we can find some common ground.  Maybe we're not as far apart as the old book makes it look like.  Let's get together and see if we can't come to some terms of peace.  Church and world together.  We can do the white flag thing.  Maybe we can all just get along.

Someone asked Pope Francis about hell the other day.  And Francis said, if there is a hell, I hope no one is in it.  end quote.  See, we're not so far apart.  Peace with the world should be achievable if we're able to compromise a bit.

OK, back to Paul.  He's spent 3 chapters saying this is who you are.  Now, beginning with the word "therefore" in Chapter 4 Vs. 1 Paul shifts gears.  He's done with this is who you are, now he's going to give us some very practical;  Because of who you are, this is how you act.

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

This is now the third time Paul has referred to himself as a prisoner.  Of Jesus.  This time he states it slightly differently.  I, the prisoner IN Jesus.

How much compromise would it have taken for Paul to stay out of jail instead of in jail?  A tiny bit.  He had ample warning.  Don't go to Jerusalem.  Trouble waiting for you in Jerusalem.  Avoid, avoid avoid.  

But Paul was leading the charge getting the gentiles acknowledged as equals in Christ's church, and Jerusalem was where that fight needed to go.  So, Paul wouldn't make a compromise with the devil, and he ended up thousands of miles away in a prison cell in Rome.

In a sense, all of us are prisoners, IN Christ.  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.  1 Cor. 6:20  We don't own ourselves.  We are slaves, at the beckon call of our Master and Owner.  Paul just adds, he's a slave in jail.  Not really much difference.  

He liked to refer to himself as prisoner.  Such a sweet imprisonment.  To be captured and owned by Christ, in prison or out, makes no difference to Paul.  In prison he could concentrate on these letters that we pore over and study to this day.  He was right where Christ wanted him, and he was satisfied with the ownership arrangement.  

If Paul had made a little compromise with the Devil to stay out of jail, we might not be studying Ephesians this morning.

In 2024 we can just imagine the christian twitter feed against Paul.  Paul!  Your "so called" persecution is self inflicted.  You fool.  You didn't need to go there.  In fact by inserting yourself into this predicament, you've limited what Christ can do through you.  Obey the government, stay out of jail, so Christ can use you fully.  Paul has a persecution complex.  Paul likes to stir up trouble where there doesn't really need to be any.  Paul's problems are self inflicted.

We heard it all during Covid.  The righteous and wise church calling out the pastors who decided to stay open for worship, in defiance of health department orders.  Wholly unecessary.  According to the twitterati wise men of the church.  Except for scripture which commands us to meet together.

Paul was a slave of Christ who was willing to go to prison for Christ if need be.  He did.  MacArthur opened up Grace Church during Covid and his fine from the health department added up week upon week, along with threats of prison time if he didn't cease and desist.  

We need this wake up call.  We are slaves, and if our Master wants us to be in prison, we won't be the first faithful slaves that has happened to.  

Does this all sound very far fetched and foreign to our ears?  Slavery; BAD.  Prison; Very VERY BAD.  Untenable.  Right.  Except slavery in Jesus is far better than this world's idol;  absolute personal autonomy, which is actually slavery to Satan when you get to the bottom of it.  Prison with Christ, for obedience to Christ would be far better than being King of the world, without Christ.

We're so far removed, here in America, in 2024.  Talking about these things seems bizarre to us.  Unreal.  It can never happen here.  So say all my democrat friends.  It's funny to have to say that.  None of my republican friends have told me that.  Only my democrat friends declare that persecution over religious beliefs can never happen in America.  I hope they're right.

Paul begins this section about how the church is supposed to live and act, in the presence of all the heavenly beings who are looking on at what God is doing through His battering ram in this battle, which is the church, by reminding us all, that he, at least, is a prisoner, IN Christ.  I don't think it was supposed to be a throw away line.

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

The word exhort here is worth our time and consideration.  Paul didn't say, Christ commands you to walk worthy.  He could have.  Christ did.  We could just go to Christ's command in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:48 and repeat Christ's words.  Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  Our marching orders.

Paul doesn't do that.  I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk   He reminds us that he's in prison for being an obedient slave of Christ, and then he begs us to act in a certain way.  I exhort.  Beg is a good word.  Plead.  Beseech.  Implored.  Entreated.  All are different synonyms for this greek word

All of the synonyms have the idea of bending someone's will to a desired end.  But it's a compound word.  para kaleo.  Kaleo is the asking.  But para is to be drawn in close.  I'm not just asking, detached.  I'm asking from inside me.  I'm pleading from my heart.  I'm begging you with my heart, from my love, I'm asking for this.

Paul is a worthy high pressure salesman.  I'm asking from prison, and I'm here, because of you all, you gentiles are what got me into prison, and I'm opening up my innermost heart in begging you to do something, for me;

That's pretty hard to resist, right.  Mercy sakes Paul!  What is it!  I'll do anything for someone like you.  Anything you want, Paul.  Sitting in jail, because of me.  

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

What does it mean to walk worthy of the calling?

Everything we've talked about already this morning.  We are the Church.  We are the tip of the spear in God's war with Satan over this lost planet.  We are called out of this world.  We are separated from this world, by the one who called us out of it.

We are the ones that God is using to show His wisdom to heavenly creatures who are watching and wondering what God will do next in this battle to re-take this stolen planet.

Think of this battle to regain this stolen planet as a football game, in a stadium, and God's unseen creation, angels and probably demons and Satan himself are watching from the stands.

Israel was the defense on God's team for centuries.  But Israel is benched.  They killed the Messiah.  Now Israel is benched and God has sent in His church to do battle against the enemy.

There's an old joke that goes something like this.  This will be a new twist.  In our football game scenario, a reporter walks up to Jesus and says, OK, Israel is benched, how're you going to win this thing?  What's your plan.  And Jesus points to the 12 apostles and says, I've got these 12 guys.  And the reporter looks at the apostles and sort of chuckles.  Not impressed.  And he says, these guys don't look very powerful, what's plan B if these guys don't get it done.  And Jesus says, there is no plan B.

Well, beloved, the game has gone into overtime, we're in the 21st quarter and the 4rth down.  When you look around you . . . at the church . . . how do you think it's going?

I mean, first quarter, first down, we had Peter and James and John, and those other apostles, and they proved us wrong.  They got it done.  2nd down, Paul comes into the game.  With the gentiles!  Whoa!  They didn't look like much, but they turned the world upside down!

Overtime.  21st quarter.  4rth down.  Look around you at the players.  Are you impressed?  Or better question;  Is the world impressed?  With the church?  The angels and demons looking at the game from the stadium, are they impressed with the church in 2024?

Honestly, it's like the teams called a time out and the coaches got everybody from both teams together and said, we're tired of fighting you guys.  We just want to get along.  Can't we all just get along.  Let's call a truce.  

We've got these red jerseys and blue jerseys.  Let's take them off and all put on some purple jerseys so the folks in the stand will understand, we've called a truce.  We can all just get along.  There's no distinct church any more.  We're all on the same team now.  Game over.  Everybody wins.  Both teams forfeit.  Call it a tie.  

What about the guys who were willing to go to prison at the start?  Think they'll be happy with a forfeit?  What about Jesus who shed His precious blood to purchase the church.  He may have something to say about the church making a deal with the Devil.  

Paul says, I'm begging here.  Get in this game and play to win.  1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

Walk worthy of the calling.  We know that Paul uses the term walk to mean, life.  Day to day life.  We might say, how you roll.  Or something like that.  It's the day to day normal walk of your life.  

And then he says worthy, and that's a very interesting word.  It came from their word for scales.  Like a balance scale

You've got two trays dangling on chains from a common fulcrum, and for both to float at equal heights the weight in one tray must be equal to the weight in the other tray.  Equal weight, equal value.

On one side of the scale is the calling with which you have been called and the thing that is supposed to measure up to the value of that, on the other side, is;  walk

My walk, as a christian, should somehow reflect the value of the calling.  What does that mean?  A walk in equal measure to the calling.

It means I was purchased by blood, out of this current world, and I am now owned by Jesus.  John the apostle helps us to picture what Paul is saying here.  1 Jn. 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

We walk through a world that is a dichotomy.  A dualism.  The world that Satan runs.  And the world set apart by those who have been called out of Satan's kingdom.  Satan's authority to reign.

Christians are separated.  That's what called means.  We were called from something . . . TO something.  19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.  

Having been called out of Satan's perishing lost condemned world into God's ownership, but still physically in this world, what does that look like?

A walk that reflects the fact that I no longer am a citizen of this condemned and perishing world, I am a citizen of God's kingdom, God's authority to reign, and not just a citizen, I am an adopted son, an heir who will inherit all of the glories of God's kingdom on this earth, after Satan is vanquished.

That's pretty lofty stuff.  But how do I walk in the nasty now and now, while I walk in this world, but under new ownership.  I am of God.  I belong to God . . . NOW . . . in this world that is slated for destruction . . . in this world where Satan has the authority to reign, currently.  What does that look like?

Well, first of all, if no one can tell the difference . . . I'm probably doing it wrong.  Don't mis-understand me.  We aren't supposed to be so set apart that it alienates everyone.  He's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good.  We've heard that.  The pharisee's lived in such a way that their religiosity was in everyone's faces.

They managed to freeze everybody out, including God.  Jesus couldn't stand those guys.  Joyless religiousness for the sake of being noticed is polar opposite of walking worthy of our calling.  It's nothing but a weird version of the world's pride.

Christians should have infectious joy that comes from inner peace.  I'd bet that Jesus was fun to be around.  Unless you were a pharisee.  We love studying the gospels, because that's the Jesus that we find.  Infectious joy.

Paul gives us just a handful of things that separate us from Satan's world and kingdom.  A little list of things that are missing in the world, but present in God's people.

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, love.

Have you driven down highway 95 lately?  These five traits are . . . gone.  Or, have you looked at YouTube lately?  

In the last month or maybe a little longer, there has been a christian dust up on You Tube and twitter.  I don't have a twitter account so am forced to ignore and miss most of the conversation there, but You Tube knows which titles to shove in my face.  

A respected pastor, who has taught the Word of God faithfully and well, for over 40 years, Alistair Begg, went on You Tube and gave a grandmother some bad advice.  Oh my goodness.

All these self important little you tube want-a-be experts are spouting endlessly about this error, this mis-step, and it's pretty obvious what's going on.  If you can glom onto Alistair Begg's perceived mis step, or glom onto something John MacArthur said, or glom onto what this important christian is saying about that important christian and get it in your you tube title, you can get your view count up and someone somewhere will begin to understand how important you are.

You Tube is the last frontier where someone who isn't anybody can be somebody.  Right.  All you gotta do is figure out how to go viral.  Then bam!  You're somebody!  You're important!  

We sort of expect that from the world.  Take any cheap short cut to fame.  Get noticed.  Be somebody important.  480,000 views baby.  I'm important.  I expect that from the world, but it's troubling me that christians are jumping into this game using all of the world's best strategies.  

We had 111 views at our little web site this week.  That's more believable.  I think it was just you guys showing up to make me feel better about only 4 people in church last week, but that's OK.  

My point is this word humility.  Paul says the first clue that God's people are different from the world's people is humility.  The polar opposite of pride.  Satan's world, pride reigns.  God's kingdom, humility reigns.

And the reason is because only one person is really important.  Jesus.  What exactly do you have that you need to be proud about?  Paul says,  What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?  1 Cor. 4:7

We christians don't get to take credit for whatever fruit God graciously brings to us.  

The world boasts constantly about everything they've accomplished.  And it's all going to burn up.  Boast boast boast . . . fire . . . it gone.

We christians actually do have the ability to bring change that will last forever.  That's our goal.  To see God do things in people's lives that will glorify God forever.  We have that potential that the world doesn't have.  All of their big accomplishments will be ashes under our feet in God's kingdom according to the book of Malachi.  All gone.  Burnt up.  Forgotten.

We have the potential to accomplish something lasting for all eternity.  But then, when it does happen, it isn't us that did it.  God did the thing, we just got to come along and be a useful vessel for Him to do the lasting miracle.  So where is pride in that.  There is none.  He's the one who gets the glory, because He's the one who accomplished the impossible.

Ultimately it is Him who deserves all glory.  All belongs to Him and we look on stunned at His wisdom in all that is happening around us, under His total sovereign control.  Worship Him for the 25,900 breaths of fresh air you enjoyed in the last day.  Or the 115,000 times your heart beat.

How many of those breaths can you brag about, or how many of them did God graciously grant to you.  The more we know and understand about our Creator Redeemer, the easier it is to have humility.

Humility immediately sets us apart from the world we live in.  True humility is uniquely christian.  Fallen sinful man cannot be humble because he is under the spell of Satan, whose original sin was pride.  I will be like the most High.  No, Satan, you will be cast down to the pit.  Isa. 14

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Humility is the vertical relationship when we understand that we are, in ourselves, nothing, and God is everything.  He created us to shine glory back upon Him.  We have no reason in ourselves for pride.  Whatever lasting thing is accomplished for God's glory, He did it.  So the vertical relationship is humility and thankfulness.

Gentleness likewise can describe our horizontal relationships with each other.  Meekness.  Jesus had something to say about both of these words in the Beatitudes that began His sermon on the mount.

Blessed are the who?  Poor in spirit.  Mt. 5:1  Blessed are the humble.  It's built into who God is.  James 4:6  God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Then Jesus said;  Blessed are the meek.  It's the same word translated gentle.  Humility and gentleness are the marks of God's people.

Now our world looks with disdain on weak people.  And the world incorrectly lumps meek and weak as interchangeable synonyms.  But God doesn't.  God hates weak people but He loves meek people.  Let me explain.

To be weak is to refuse to make the connection to God's supply.  Biblically, weakness is often correllated with dis-obedience.  Faithlessness.  It's a choice.  The faithless, the timid, the cowardly, the weak, are so by choice.  They refused God's gracious supply.  Revelation 21:8 includes this kind of cowardice in a list who will perish forever in the lake of fire.

Christians are NOT weak.  We have the power that spoke the worlds into existence available to us for whatever our God asks us to do.  Unlimited power from the source of all things.

But christians are meek.  Paul uses the same word Jesus did in the Beatitudes.  Gentleness is a mark of christians that separates us from this world.  Gentleness is power under control.

Jesus is the very picture of power under control.  In the garden, on the night of His death, when the combined temple gaurd and Roman cohort of soldiers came with swords to take Him into captivity, Peter, not quite up to speed on gentleness yet, cuts off the ear of Malchus who was slave to the high priest.  Jesus picks it up and puts it back on.  Gentleness.

He tells Peter, I could have called 10,000 angels to help me if I wanted to.

But then John gives us just a little snippet of the amount of power that is restrained.  The same soldiers are asking for Jesus to identify Himself, and when Jesus said, I AM He, the whole roman legion, plus the temple gaurds, plus whoever else was tagging along, all the fire truck chasers, everybody fell to the ground when Jesus said those words.  Knocked down.  By words, from the Word.

Gentleness is power under control.  And it comes from the humility of knowing who we are, in Christ, with unlimited powers, for His purposes, not ours.  

Humility and gentleness.  We are nobodies in this world, worthless slaves, but our Master owns the whole world and gives us what it pleases Him to give.  We are powerless but we are owned by Him who has absolute limitless power, to use according to His pleasure, through us.