Via Church

Today the Christian church enjoys its annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, here at Red Mountain, we join countless millions of other like-minded followers of Christ around the world in celebrating one of the most profound miracles in history and of our faith. He is risen! He is alive! Death could not keep Him! Death has been defeated; not only for our Savior, but for all mankind who believe. Easter always leaves us with great faith and belief in our loving God, wonderful Savior, and powerful Holy Spirit. Here are some realities about Jesus Christ today...

As we have studied Ephesians, we’ve noticed that Paul has taken great care to point our attention and affection to the author of our faith. He is wanting his readers to grasp the great and awesome power of God to save us and the grace that is supplied to us–giving us what we require to have life in Christ. Paul explodes will exultation towards God for who He is and what He’s done in us, for us and through us. We see very clearly that Paul’s deepest joy is found in Christ alone.

Made New to Live New. This is what we have been looking at as we walk through the book of Ephesians together verse by verse. In the first 3 chapters, Paul continually reminds us who we are in Christ. He wants us to understand that the Holy Spirit is changing us, transforming us, from the inside out. And in chapter 4 a transition is made from “you are made new in Christ” to “now live new in Christ”. As we move forward in this book, prepare yourself to continually go back and remind yourself of what God has done in you, what He has prepared you for, and what He is doing through you.

Since we have received salvation and every spiritual blessing in Christ, and since we have been made new and our identity is now first and foremost in Christ, therefore we must “walk in a manner worthy of the calling…bearing with one another in love”…and we must have unity as one body (Ephesians 4:1-6). All of those that now trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and follow His life and teachings are now considered the “Body of Christ”. You and I now make up the Body of Christ and represent Him on planet earth and do His work. The Spirit of Jesus now indwells in His followers so that His works of love, healing, proclamation, compassion, and teachings continue. His work is not over!

Anyone struggle with sin? Sin is a struggle for anyone trying to follow the life and teachings of Jesus and committed to a relationship with Him. Paul was no exception. In Romans 7:15, he wrote, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”. Sin is so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives there is no way we can fix ourselves. God’s wrath towards us was a reality. Thankfully, in addition to God’s justice and wrath against sin, there is his incredible mercy and love for us.

In our text last week, Paul gave us powerful imagery of taking off the old clothes of our old self and putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God” (verse 24). This willful changing of clothes represents a great exchange of behavior: old self behavior and new self behavior. These general principles are now broken down into specific principles in today’s text. These five specific areas of exchange should mark how we relate to others.

Paul’s points last week culminate with the breathtaking command in chapter 5 verse 1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” This command has its reasoning within those last words “as beloved children”. This follows the strong theme of our adoption as children and “heirs” of the promise (the Holy Spirit). Gentiles, through faith, can now gain full adoption equal with that of the Jews – this is even more developed in Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians. This adoption means that we as children must live in a new way. We must take on the identity of our new family. In our text, Paul now talks about behavior that is characteristic of God and Christ and contrasts that with what is not.

Adoption theology, established more completely in Galatians and Romans, establishes that the believer both enjoys the blessings of adoption and fights to walk in the obligations of adoption. Having experienced the blessing of adoption, the child now must live in a new way - it is both obligation and natural out-flowing of a new life. Paul characterizes this behavior all throughout Ephesians 5. Our text today includes imagery of light and darkness representing truth and deception.

For the last few weeks, Paul focused on contrasting between right living and wrong living. Today, we transition to the grays. We are not talking about right and wrong living but wise and foolish living. In life, not all choices are matters of right and wrong. Some choices are foolish even though they aren’t sinful. Paul addresses these Gentile (non-Jew) early believers that lived in an affluent, artsy, and pagan saturated city called Ephesus. He told them: walk in love, walk in truth, and now, walk as wise. The first verse (15) of our text says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise” This is a very clear indicator that God wants me to take time to reflect on my life as well as plan my steps.

Guest speaker Scott Young delivers a special message.

Toward the end of his letter to the Ephesians Paul addresses six groups and pairs them off: wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters. These were common groupings of relationships in households in the ancient world. Women were viewed differently in ancient Judaism and the Greco-Roman world which made the relation of Christian wives to their husband was a source of scandal to non-Christians. In Christ, there was neither Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, nor female (Galatians 3:28). This was revolutionary! When God is given control of our lives individually, we can experience harmony at home, in the workplace, and in the church. The thought of our text starts in verse 21: “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Paul now gives examples of how people in various life situations can submit to one another.

Last week, our passage focused on the relationship between a husband and wife and how this marriage relationship should paint a vivid picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church. This week, our passage deals with two primary pieces of any person’s life: their family structure/dynamic and the workplace and/or authority system they live within.

Throughout Ephesians Paul has described the privilege, the wonder, and the responsibilities of life in Christ. Since chapter 4, he has been urging his readers to stand against the pagan lifestyle around them. This last chapter is a summary and challenge. Those in Christ need to be prepared for battle, for right living does not just happen and opposition is certain. Paul wants to arouse the believers in Ephesus to action. He does this with the stirring use of battle language. He uses this metaphor to illustrate the aspect of the Christian life that resembles battle. Drawing from Isaiah 59, Paul motivates the believer for the battle with evil.

As we close out this book, Paul wants to make sure and remind us one last time. He uses words that he loves. In fact, he uses words that open or close almost every letter that he writes. They are that important. He wants them to understand in the midst of a metropolis, successful, high-standing, extremely tolerant city and society, that Christ has come to make them new and that the Holy Spirit is changing them, transforming them, from the inside out. He still wants to remind us that Christ has come to make us new, that because of what Christ has accomplished through His life, death and resurrection, we should live differently and that our lives should reflect this hope that we find in Christ to the world around us.

Everyone faces moments in life when they need some help. Sometimes we humbly accept a hand from someone else. At other times, we stubbornly insist on doing things ourselves. Like the man or woman driving late at night who is hopelessly lost, we refuse to stop and ask for directions. We would rather stay lost than admit we need help. We have the strangest ability to live in the worst of situations and pretend everything is under control. Life goes so much better when we admit that we need help. All of us face moments when we need a deliverer.

In the book of Exodus, God begins giving laws to His people after He delivered them. He started with the Ten Commandments but then continued through the book of Leviticus – which means simply – The Law. Today we will look at some of these Old Testament laws, the character and heart of our God who gave them, what these laws were intended to do, how they apply to our lives today, and the process of holiness in our lives as we follow Christ.

We can grow as we walk through the wilderness experiences of our lives. God kept His people in the wilderness because there were certain lessons they needed to learn. In the wilderness there are not a lot of distractions; people are a lot more likely to pay attention to God. It is like a furnace where God can refine, melt, purify, and shape His people. It's where many of God’s most important people have spent time. God still invites those He loves to His wilderness school!

In our text today we find God’s chosen people, the Israelites, ready to cross over the Jordan River. They have wandered for forty years. An entire generation died in the desert as God tried to make sure that as a nation of people they would be ready for this moment. God’s people had difficulty trusting Him. Let’s look at the Israelites' long-awaited entrance into the promise land and what that pinnacle moment in history tells us today about God, generations, and our actions.

It has often been said that Jesus is in the Old Testament concealed and Jesus is in the New Testament revealed. From Genesis to Malachi, Jesus is present in the Old Testament. It is clear that the Father wanted the world to know that His Son, the Messiah, would be coming to this earth. Thus, throughout the Old Testament we get glimpses and pictures of what this anointed Savior will look like. As these messianic passages unfold throughout the Old Testament.

When we consider the day that we live, it is important for us to realize that God has us where He does for a purpose. Sometimes, we can be misguided in our thinking when we don’t accept the reality of God’s placement of us in time and location. Where you are (in vocation, location, life-stage, etc.) is not accident and God has purpose for all seasons of your life–the valley-filled seasons and the mountain top moments. If we’ve learned one thing from this series, it is that God doesn’t change. God’s plans do not change. His plan has always been to do what he has done in human history. This is sometimes a difficult reality to grapple with because of the finite nature of our thinking to learn new information. God doesn’t learn new information. He knows all. Our plans shift and adjust and change. His plans remain.