At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled
living on mission. During this series our hope and
our prayer is that we would be equipped and empowered to live our day to day
lives as a follower of Jesus on mission as a missionary to those that God has
already placed in our spheres of influence who are far from God in a way that
reveals and reflects Jesus to them.
And if you do not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church
thing, let alone whether you should follow Him or live for Him, here’s the
thing. What you will discover is that there is a way that those who are
followers of Jesus are supposed to live. And there is a way that followers of
Jesus are supposed to talk about the claims that Jesus made about who He was
and what He came to earth to do.
And my hope for you is that you would see what Jesus
calls His followers to so that you can see how He feels about you and what He
calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you. That way, you can cut
through the bad experiences that you have had with Jesus followers to see the
truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to be truly about as they
live around you.
This week, as we come to the conclusion of this
series, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of
a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the
book of Ephesians. Before we look at this section of this letter that Paul
wrote to the church at Ephesus, we first need to understand the context in
which Paul’s wrote these comments.
The first three chapters of the book of Ephesians
describe all that God has done in order to bring us into the relationship with
Him that we were created for. God the Father chose us and adopted us as His
children; Jesus Christ rescued and redeemed us from our selfish rebellion and
sin so that we could receive the forgiveness of our sin and enter into the
relationship with God that we were created for. And as followers of Jesus, God
gives us the Holy Spirit as a down payment and a seal that reveals the security
that we have for all eternity.
Paul then begins Ephesians chapter four by imploring
followers of Jesus, in light of all that God has done for us, to walk in a
manner worthy of our calling. Paul then unpacks this statement throughout the
remainder of his letter to this church about how our relationship with Jesus
should influence and impact our relationships with those around us. And it is
in this context that we read the following in Ephesians 5:15:
Therefore be
careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your
time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what
the will of the Lord is.
Paul begins this section of his letter by commanding the
members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history to
“be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise”. If Paul was here this
morning and was to give this command to us in the language and culture we use
today, this command would sound something like this: “carefully consider and
take note about how you are conducting your life. Carefully consider how you
are living your life”.
Paul then makes a contrast between someone who conducts
their life in an unwise manner as opposed to someone who conducts their life in
a wise manner. An unwise person here is the person who does not exercise the
proper discernment or wisdom when it comes to how they live their lives. The
wise person here refers to someone who lives their life by applying the
understanding and knowledge that comes from God in a way that reveals a
developed skill for living life that produces positive results.
Paul’s point here is that there is divine knowledge and
understanding that is available to you, so make sure that you are living your
life in a way that is exercising that divine knowledge and understanding in
order to produce positive results in your life.
Paul then provides the reason why we are to access and
exercise this divine wisdom in verse 16. The phrase making the most of your
time literally means to gain an advantage or opportunity. In other words,
followers of Jesus are to take every advantage and opportunity to avoid what
would be unwise. We are to take advantage of every opportunity to live wisely
because the days are evil.
The harsh reality is that life on earth is filled with
plenty of activities and relationships that are morally and socially damaging
and destructive. I mean, it is not hard to get involved in relationships or
activities that are unwise, is it? As parents is that not one of our greatest
fears when it comes to our children? And students, is that not one of your
greatest fears when it comes to the relationships that you have with your
friends?
So, in verse 17, because of the timeless danger of
relationships and activities that are damaging and destructive, Paul commands
the members of the church at Ephesus and us here today to “do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.” When Paul uses the word fool
here, it refers to someone who lacks good judgment. This word also conveys the
sense of disregarding reality.
In the Bible, a fool is a person who knows something is
true, yet proceeds to live life as though it is not true. A fool is a person
who says “I know the law of gravity is true” then proceeds to step off a ten
story building. Instead of living life in a way that consistently disregards
reality, Paul states that we are to understand what the will of the Lord is.
When you see the word will in our Bibles, this word refers to God’s desires for
our lives.
You see, God has a desire for
how he would like me to live my life in relationship with Him and one another.
And God has a desire for how he would like you to live your life in
relationship with Him and one another. And as we have seen in this series, God
has a desire for how we are to live and engage those who are far from God. God
desires that we live on mission as a missionary that loves and serves those
that God has placed around us who are far from Him in a way that reveals and
reflects Jesus to them.
God desires that we humbly and the passionately to go to those who are far
from God. God desires that we lovingly engage those who are far from God and far from
us. God desires that we share God’s message of rescue to
those around us who are far from God. God desires that we remove our excuses. God
desires that we invite those who are watching us to experience Jesus with us. God
desires that we live lives of
integrity.
Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave,
that sounds great in theory, but I have a hard time putting into practice what
we have talked about during this series.
I just really struggle to live on mission as a missionary. What you are
talking about seems beyond my ability, so how do I get to the place where I can
live on mission?” If I have described you, I have good news for you. And that
good news is that in the very next verse that we are going to look at, we see
Paul reveal for us the answer to these questions.
Tomorrow, we will discover the answer together…
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