Walking the Walk
From time to time, most of us have heard someone say, “I don’t believe in church, those people are just hypocrites.” This really bothers me, not just because it hurts, which it does and not just because it’s embarrassing, which it is, but because the church has one clear, specific mission which is being a light to the world around us. That’s why the passage I was preaching this week, Ephesians 4:1, is so important. It’s a turning point. Paul has a lot to say in chapters 1-3, that is incredibly encouraging and inspiring things about what God has done for us in Christ. However, he now turns to the implications of those things on our living. Preaching can spend all of its time in chapters 1-3 and just live in the uplifting and inspiring but lack substance and likewise, some preaching can live in 4-6 and just be instructional without giving the correct foundation for christian living. Paul however, gives them the whole counsel of God.
Why Things Go Wrong: Instructions and Purpose
As we shared on this passage, I gave two possible reasons why the Christian life sometimes goes off course and leaves the world unimpressed.
The first reason was that we just don’t understand the instructions. I compared this to the habits sometimes associated with men of refusing to read the manual or refusing to read the instructions before putting together something like flat pack furniture. However, this sometimes can get us into trouble, when the final result doesn’t turn out quite as we expected and we’re wondering where all these extra screws came from, God has given us guidance in His word and when we are unfamiliar with it, we might miss exactly how this Christian life all goes together.
Second, we can misunderstand the purpose. I shared a story from Colonial Era Delhi: The government were offering a bounty for every cobra’s head, hoping that this would solve the problem they were having with a booming number of cobras. The general public, however, saw a different opportunity: if they could breed as many cobras as possible, they would be able to collect a lot more cash. This was precisely the same exercise, with completely different understandings of the purpose and completely different results. In the same way, if we misunderstand the very purpose of the gospel, we might find ourselves breeding more problems rather than bringing transformation.
a story from Colonial Era Delhi: The government were offering a bounty for every cobra’s head, hoping that this would solve the problem they were having with a booming number of cobras. The general public, however, saw a different opportunity: if they could breed as many cobras as possible, they would be able to collect a lot more cash. This was precisely the same exercise, with completely different understandings of the purpose and completely different results. In the same way, if we misunderstand the very purpose of the gospel, we might find ourselves breeding more problems rather than bringing transformation.
The Whole Counsel of God
This is why I mentioned something that theologians call the whole counsel of God. This is the reason that more often than not I like to work through scripture book by book, or at least chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I find that when I do that, we don’t just hear a one-sided story. We don’t just hear about blessing or prosperity. We also hear about the reality of struggle and even persecution. We don’t just hear about all the things that God will do for us, but we also hear the ways in which we are to live for him and for his gospel. We hear about resurrection, but we also hear about crucifixion. We also hear about things like Old Testament law as well as grace and mercy.
We are a generation that craves quick and immediate inspiration, reinforced by a stream of short videos via our favourite social media channels. There is nothing wrong with celebration, and there is definitely nothing wrong with joy, but we also need to get on board with the full journey that scripture wants to take us through, so we understand where we are and where we have come from, and where we are going and what the plan of God actually is.
So my encouragement is very simple: expose yourself to the whole counsel of God, not just on a Sunday, but in your everyday life as you take time daily to open your Bible. Otherwise, we might find ourselves standing there with a screwdriver in hand and wondering why all these pieces don’t fit together.
“Therefore” Is Where Blessing Leads
Ephesians 4:1 says:
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
That word therefore carries a lot of weight, as it reaches back all the way across the first three chapters of Ephesians, chapters in which Paul has told the church such things as:
- they are chosen and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
- they are seated with Christ
- they have been brought from death to life and called with a purpose
So Paul says, because of all this, something has to happen.
We sometimes like to put inspirational quotes where we can see them. Some people frame them and put them on the wall, and there’s nothing wrong with this, but you might notice that the quotes we choose are necessarily the inspirational and inspiring ones. Paul shows us that after chapters 1-3 we must inevitably arrive at chapter 4, and this chapter is where we find out what everyday life actually looks like when we live with the implications of chapters 1-3.
Prison Is A Sign That It’s Working
Paul is a prisoner for the Lord, so he says. In the ancient world, imprisonment was a mark of shame and failure, but Paul turns that whole narrative on its head because he understands purpose. His suffering isn’t a sign that things have gone wrong. It is a sign that the Gospel is making an impact, hitting the powers and the principalities right between the eyes. Through Paul’s chains, people were turning to Christ, and others were emboldened to preach.
On Sunday I tried to be honest about the pressure that many of us feel, especially in this Pentecostal and Charismatic space where there is often an expectation that life can only go in an upward direction. Whilst I fully believe in the power of God for today, I believe in miracles, I believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the ongoing reality of the Pentecostal experience. I must also be honest and say that sometimes our expectations need recalibrating. Difficulties are not always signs of failure. Sometimes, like Paul in the prison cell, they are evidence that God is at work.
A personal invitation to you
Whether you are with us on Sunday or not, I’d encourage you to take a look at the whole sermon from Sunday. If you’re looking for a church that believes in the power of Pentecost but also believes in walking through the whole counsel of God, we’d love for you join us this weekend