Thoughts on Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5 

1 Be followers [who imitate] God, therefore, as dearly loved children [who are led by the Spirit of God and are closely related to God] ² and live a life of love [and affection], just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us [in life and death] as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity [such as lust and wrong motives, or of greed [and coveting of the things that do not belong to you], because these are improper for God’s holy people [who are called to stand out as saints among the culture you live in]. 

⁴ Nor should there be obscenity [in actions], foolish talk [such as gossip and slander] or coarse joking [about matters that do not please our Holy God], these things are out of place, but rather give thanksgiving to The Lord. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure [or unclean—in thought or life] or greedy person [who covets and lusts after things in this world] —such a man is an idolater —has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

I want to receive the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. I want to receive all that God has in store for me. I want to receive all that Jesus is preparing for me. Likewise, I want a lot of things in this world; money is tempting, power and prestige sure sound good to me. However I will not inherit any of this if I do not do away with the desires in this life and the idols of this world. 

This leaves me with a choice. I can cling to the desires that come in this world —sex, money, power —I can continue to lust after the things in our culture, valuing them above my commitment to God. Or I can pass up on the idols of this world, completely focusing and committing to God —in doing this I am looking to the inheritance of the Kingdom of God and to all that God has in store for me.  

See, we will all receive an inheritance —we can demand our inheritance now or we can wait for the one that Our Heavenly Father has in store for us. 

God's Time Clock

Weeks ago I talked with our church family about the great dangers of "playing church". I don't believe that our church is any more guilty, any more at fault than the modern church is of this tragedy.

You see, if the hour or two that we spend at church on Sunday morning becomes just another hour in our week, we miss out. If we allow our time with God to become just something that we have to do to be a Christian, we miss out.

If we allow worshiping Christ on Sunday morning to become an unexciting, mundane activity and if we walk out of the church unchanged and untouched by the Spirit of God, then there is no reason to come come  into His presence at all.

I think that many people have this idea, whether they realize it or not, of God honoring our worship and devotion to Him on the basis of a time clock. As if when we stand before Him on the day of judgement we are going to be able to show Him our years of devotion and service in the form of time stamps on our Spiritual time card.

BUT, IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!

I think Dr. John Vernon McGee said it best;

"I am of the opinion that the Lord could stop many church services today and say, 'Listen, let's cut this out. Why are you going through this form? You are not getting close to Me. You are not pleasing Me. When you leave this service, you gossip, you have bitterness in your heart, you are not moral in your conduct, and you are living loose lives. You think you are pleasing Me by your religious form. I want you to know that you are not pleasing Me."

The Acts 2 Church: the progression then and now

I started reading Acts 2 this morning and then set out to determine what the Acts 2 Church really looked like, or rather, what the progression looked like on and around the day of Pentecost into the first days of the Christian church. Below is what I observed:

1. The 12 Apostles were gathered together waiting for the Spirit of God. (vs. 1)
2. The Holy Spirit fulfills Christ's promise and fills the 12 Apostles. (vs. 2-4)
3. A crowd is drawn to the group of leaders because they recognize and experience something different. (vs. 5-13)
4. Peter addresses the crowd that has gathered around them. (vs. 14-36)
• Explaining (vs. 14-21)
• Teaching (vs. 22-35)
• Response/Call (vs. 36)
5. The crowd respond in question to Peter's message. (vs. 37)
6. Peter further explains and clarifies the needed response. (vs. 38-40)
7. 3,000 people accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are baptized into His family. (vs. 41)
8. The people became devoted followers. (vs. 42)
• They were devoted to the teaching of the Apostles.
• They were devoted to fellowship with one another.
• They were devoted to prayer.
9. The people were filled with awe and experience many miracles. (vs. 43)
10. The people developed Spiritual disciplines. (vs. 44-47)
• They were together and shared commonalities. (vs. 44)
• They gave to anyone as they had a need. (vs. 45)
• They met together every day. (vs. 46)
• They ate together with gladness and sincerity. (vs. 46)
• They praised God. (vs. 47)
11. God added to their number every day. (vs. 47)

Now, if you take Acts 2 as "prescriptive", than you believe that we, as a church, should follow the words and direction of the Acts 2 church to the letter and that the church today should look exactly like the Acts 2 church in order to be successful and reach others for Christ. On the other hand, if you believe that this passage is "descriptive" than you believe that it is merely describing a model of the church and that as times and society changes, we as Christians and as a church need to adapt in order to reach others for Christ. Further, if you believe that it is merely descriptive than you must decide how the church should adjust and adapt our methods so that we can reach more people for Christ and therefore fulfill the great commission as found in Matthew 28:18-20.

I take this passage as descriptive and therefore I feel it necessary to determine how our church must adjust and adapt to reach more people in our culture for Jesus Christ. Some of these listed below are foundational and must not be changed, others can be changed based upon the local church body and local culture. This is what I believe God is calling us to:

1. The church leadership must continue to gather together waiting for the Spirit of God.
2. The church leadership must not move forward until they are filled with the Spirit of God.
3. People will be drawn in to the church (attractional) but they also must be invited in (missional).
4. Through the explaining and teaching of the Scripture and the needed response, people will respond. 
5. The response is to be an acceptance, repentance, and baptism - nothing less.
6. As believers, we are to become devoted followers.
• We are to be devoted to teaching.
• We are to be devoted to fellowship.
• We are to be devoted to prayer.
7. As followers, we are to develop Spiritual disciplines.
• We are to give of ourselves and of our blessing as we see a need. (James 4:17)
• We are to praise God with glad and sincere hearts. (John 4:23-24)
8. God will add to our numbers regularly. (Matthew 21:43)