Ephesians...Pastor Phil Strong

“Growing Up Into Love”

A Study in Ephesians: Prologue

Text: Ephesians 1:1-14

1-22-12

Review…

Ephesians is a book about “growing up”; about the development and formation that is necessary to realize the fullest experience of life with God.

            Everyone is born, but not everyone matures. Birth presupposes growth. It’s the objective of all human life: the “becoming” IS the point.

The process of growth/development always has this way of moving us from simplicity to complexity and back again.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said,…

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

● It’s realizing that in this life, no one gets the benefit of total comprehension. We are prone to quickly make definitive statements from a posture of arrogance and over-confidence. We lack the humility that truth requires.

►Our journey of faith typically begins in a very ‘rudimentary’ fashion.

          It’s like learning the math tables: you just memorize the answers; you don’t have to show your work.           

At the early stages in our development, God seems so close; so self-evident. We seem to really be really “getting the hang” of this whole faith thing!

● There are no hesitations about life or God based on disappointment (e.g. your kids are ready to accept that you really did pull that quarter out of their ear, or that you really do have their nose in your hand).

● There’s one major challenge to this aspect of the journey: sometimes there are exceptions to the equations (“i” comes before “e” except after “c”).

            If the journey is to continue, there must be ample room for simple faith and doubt.

● Granted, doubt can be detrimental to faith. If left unchecked, it can lead to what the Bible describes as a “hard heart”… one bent on finding reasons not to believe. (Ephesians 4:18).

But, doubt isn’t refusing to believe, it’s merely searching for “better” belief: jettisoning all that’s not authentic and being more confident about what’s left.

►As we leave the elementary stage, we now want answers. We want to ‘know what makes God tick’.

The apparent failure of our simplistic notions has caused us to conclude that the issue is not with our belief, but our technique.

● So, we utilize the A.C.T.S. prayer formula, we pray the Prayer of Jabez, we read “The Purpose Driven Life”… we are determined to figure this thing out!

With all of our methods failing, we begin to wonder if we can really know any of this for sure: we’re steady and regimented, but we are bored out of our minds!

● We hear things like, “John is in prison”, “In this world you will have trouble”; “Lazarus is dead”… statements that don’t seem to fit with our presumptions, but statements made to prepare us for the often messy and complex context of reality.

Important: You need someone with you who’s been on this particular stretch of road before; they’re not panicked by your struggle and confident of your ability to recover.

►As a result, your faith usually becomes argumentative and a bit cynical.

            Everything is now called into question, because nothing seems to work! You’re just looking to “go off” on the first person to suggest that you read you the “Footprints” poem from their keychain prayer-card.

            Recollections, at times, seem to simply embitter us rather than offer any form of nostalgic comfort.

● It’s like being stuck in a really bad relationship. You stick around because you’ve got so much time invested in it, but you’ve chosen to live separate lives.

►We’ve groaned, we’ve inquired; we’ve been angry ‘with’ God and ‘at’ God; we’ve vehemently objected. Now, with no more illusions of control, no demands for explanations and no more fight left in us… we are “silent”. That silence is the beginning of surrender [‘succumbing to grace’]

We often assume that once our ‘faith skills’ are fully honed, we will no longer need such a naïve approach; we will have outgrown that ‘childlikeness’ that Jesus insisted was essential for initiating relationship with God.

● Instead, every day (multiple times a day) we return to the epicenter of our faith… God IS and he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

● It’s like learning the musical scales, you realize that it was not an end in itself, but simply a means to something more fully developed--- playing music. The simplicity has allowed you to engage the complexity of the music, one note at a time.

● Have you ever taken notice of how many events in the gospels involved this type of simplicity? The centurion and the sick servant, “Just say the word…”; the paralyzed man through the roof; “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water” (Peter).

It is here that God extends the invitation to “behold”.               

“behold” – ‘to notice, to discover; to turn the mind and the attention to anything, to experience, to long’.

This is “God-language”; “God-vocabulary”.

Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.

Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid ; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people ;”

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

It’s not just to re-focus our gaze, but to re-train our hearts. Maybe there’s more going on here than you’ve been able to see before.

(e.g. during the construction in the Tumwater Canyon, I intentionally took that route on the motorcycle so I would have to stop and sit in traffic).

The humility you have gained makes you less demanding of others; less judgmental and more relational.

We no longer have an opinion about everything; we’re more comfortable with the “unknowing”.

● Before coming to this season, we would have been the ones with the rocks in our hands, ready to pelt the woman caught in adultery. Sinner.

            Now, we stand with Christ- beholding as Christ, not just someone who is “shameful”, but someone’s daughter who has yet to allow herself to be loved well. Someone who could use a healthy dose of grace.

When we look at others, we are now beholding glory (worth, value, significance); trace-evidence of God to be found in all of humanity and resident glory—God at work, to soften, to heal, to transform: to offer something ‘new’. I see myself; I see you!

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding (contemplating) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit [‘beholding’, here, is an ambiguous verb. Some think Paul utilized it intentionally].

Do you ever think when you are looking in the mirror that you are beholding the glory of God?

● Remember, when Moses was present with God (‘face to face’), his actual countenance was so altered that his face ‘radiated’. Exodus 34 says, “he was not aware of it…” [the humility of holiness]

● Interestingly, Moses didn’t wear the veil when he was face-to-face (presence) with God; only when he was with other people (?)

I realize that God always has this way of ‘bringing out the best in me’ [that I am my best self when I am with God].  And, this is not just some amateur attempt at improving your self-esteem, but about establishing your identity.

My sins aren’t minimized, they just aren’t really the point--- they are absorbed in love and forgiveness. My weaknesses and my failures are not covered up, they are exposed--- I am exposed, without fear because I am beholding ‘with’ God: I’m seeing God seeing me!

In community, we are not unaware of one another’s continued brokenness, but we simply believe that those things no longer define you.

In community, we are eager to share of the life within us in order to assist your journey. And, we refuse to attempt to ‘change’ you, because the motivation and empowerment to change already resides in you by the Spirit of God.