Eph 5:21-6:9
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
A New Way of Relating - Mutual Submission audio (5MB)
I hope you’ve picked up as we’ve gone through this letter over the last few weeks that Paul isn’t just giving us lessons in Godly behaviour. He isn’t just telling us how to live lives that will please God. Rather, he’s telling us how to live lives that’ll recommend the gospel to those around us. God wants us to show the world how great is his wisdom and glory.
So how can we do that? So far we’ve seen that we can learn to speak the truth in love. We can learn to put away falsehood, wrath, anger and malice. We can earn a living so we can give money away. We can tame our tongues so that everything we say is gracious, uplifting, life giving. We can live lives that are counter-cultural, in that they shun immorality, obscenity and greed. Instead we can seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that others are blessed by our presence among them. And today we discover how we can do our part in the context of our household and work settings.
Now there’s an issue here that might cause us some trouble. It’s to do with one of the words that we find here. That’s the word ‘head’. You see, in our world the head is most often the one we look to for instruction or leadership. So we have headmasters or occasionally headmistresses. We have heads of government. We have head office. “head” has to do with ruling over someone. As a result I think in the Christian world we’ve accepted, probably unthinkingly, that headship has to do with leadership and rule. But let’s have a quick look at how head is used in Ephesians.
In Eph 1:22-23 we read “22[God] has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” At first glance that sounds like Christ is our head in the sense of the one in charge. That’s true, except that God has made him head over all things for the church. Christ is over everything else for our sake. Why over everything else and not us? Because we’re his body, his fullness. We’re part of him. Now you need to hold that idea for the moment.
Eph 5:3-20
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Darkness into Light audio (7MB)
This is an image from my childhood that has just stuck with me. It’s from one of those movies that we used to watch over and over again, at least every holiday. It’s from the last of the original, and good, Star Wars movies. In my mind, it’s one of the pivotal scenes from the whole trilogy. It captures the moment when the hero, Luke Skywalker, is faced with a decision. I loved the way his face is so perfectly divided, with the light and shadow. It represents the struggle that is going on within him. Which way is he going to go? Will he turn to the Dark side of the Force or stick with the Light?
This scene, this image, is so embedded in my memory, that whenever I see someone in similar lighting, I can’t help but remember it. But regardless of the scene around us, it captures a decision that we all must face. Will we walk in light or darkness? It’s a decision we must all make. How will we live?
Eph 4:17-5:2
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- Written by: George Hemmings
New Clothes audio (6MB)
Over the last three weeks, I’ve been to three weddings. They’ve all been very different, but they’ve all presented the same challenge – What am I going to wear? The first was Ellen and Jamin’s wedding. I thought I was pretty safe and had my outfit all figured out. But then, that morning I realized that the tie I had planned on wearing was gone! I’d forgotten that I’d lent it to someone!
The next wedding, which was later that same afternoon posed the same problem. It was an outdoors wedding, and the invitation said ‘More smart than casual’. Who knows what that means! I decided to wear the same suit, without changing a thing. However, when we arrived it was clear I’d misjudged things. I was clearly overdressed! I think I was even more dressed up than the groom! Slowly over the afternoon the jacket came off, then the tie, then the sleeves went up.
Eph 4:1-16
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Unity & Diversity in the Church audio (5MB)
We come today to the core issue of the letter: If we're to fulfil our destiny as a church, if we're to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God then we must be united in heart and mind.
Here in ch 4, Paul begins to outline how being the new people of God is to be worked out in the down-to-earth, concrete realities of life. As we'll see over the next few weeks, the new society that God has called us into has two major characteristics. First it's one people, composed of both Jew and Gentile, without distinction, and secondly it's a holy people, set apart to belong to God, and showing by its life, a purity and righteousness that suits the people of God.
So today let's think about the unity of the Church. How does that unity arise and how is it to be maintained?
Eph 3:1-21
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Paul’s Prayer for his Converts
Have you noticed how the more you want something the more likely you are to pray for it? And to pray for it consistently. That means if you want to know what someone is really passionate about, see what they pray for regularly.
Well Paul is about to let us in on the great desire of his heart. He’s about to tell us what it is he prays for the church. He begins, “For this reason ...” Then he stops. He’ll continue his prayer in v14, but first he wants to reinforce what he’s been saying. He wants to make sure that they understand the significance of ‘this reason’. Remember last week we read “you were [once] without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” Once there were two nations: Jews and Gentiles, separated by a dividing wall of hostility. But now an amazing thing has happened. Christ has broken down that wall. Christ “has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace.” (Eph 2:12-13 NRSV) And Paul has been given the ministry of the gospel to bring this change to fruition.
Eph 2:11-22
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- Written by: Ian Thomasen
Complete in Christ: A Single, New Humanity audio
Hello.
Has anyone heard the joke about preachers who use those old-fashioned pulpits? How they stand 'three feet above contradiction'? The joke's almost as sad as what it makes fun of, and because no one here (apart from Louise) has ever heard me preach before, I'm going to try very hard this morning to be like the preachers you're used to at St Thom's and St James'. I'm going to try to be someone who talks with you and not at you. Please let me encourage you to think about what I share today, but also to ask questions after the service if I wasn't as clear as I should've been. You see preaching is a bit different to teaching because people often don't feel comfortable sticking their hands in the air half way through a sermon!
Eph 2:1-10
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Saving Grace of God audio (5MB)
Well, the academy awards have been announced. The beautiful people been down the red carpet. And it’s all over. Did you watch it or just catch up on the news the next night? How many of you had seen all the movies that were up for awards? How many of you managed to pick the winners? I know that Di & I had a go at it and maybe got 1 or 2 right but not many. Actually, we haven’t even seen the top movie yet so we didn’t pick that one. But let’s face it, as important as the TV channels try to make it, it won’t actually make a bit of difference to the state of the world who won and who lost.
Still, there’s been lots of excitement and probably a fair bit of disappointment because with something like the Oscars there can be only one winner. The academy awards are meant to choose the actor or the film, etc., with the greatest merit. It’s an award for the best of the best; beyond anyone of us ordinary people simply because we haven’t had the training or the opportunities that you need to get somewhere in Hollywood. But you know there’s an award going around that’s available to anyone, independent of their merit.
In fact that’s a very good thing because the prize I’m talking about is so far beyond our reach that we could never even get close. What’s this prize? It’s life with God. Let’s look at Ephesians ch2.
