Extreme Makeover Christ Edition Eph 4:17-24

Transcription

1 Extreme Makeover Christ Edition Eph 4:17-24 Tease: A quick glance through the cable or satellite channels will reveal several shows dedicated to fixing up homes, cars, even your own personal look. Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop, Extreme Makeover, just to name a few. The thought of taking an old house and fixing it up to a beautiful new residence or rebuilding that classic car to run down the road appeals to a great many people. The same thing happens in the spiritual world as well. This Sunday Pastor Rich will be exploring Ephesians 4:17-24 where the Apostle Paul talks about our Extreme Makeover, Christ Edition: Worship 10am Sunday School 9am Extreme makeover: Christ Edition Ephesians 4:17-24 One of the shows that we like to watch in our house is Fixer Upper. This show follows a Christian couple in Waco Texas as the show houses to people looking to purchase a new house. The look at run down and miserable houses and get the people to see their dreams for the property. The show then follows the remodel culminating in a great reveal. The people are not allowed on the property during the process and are brought to the property but between them and the house is a big screen that separates them from the remodeled house. On the screen is the 58 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

2 house as it was when they bought it. They then reveal the remodeled house and they take a tour of their new home. The show closes with the family and their friends in the new home. It is a fun show. I also like to watch Overhaulin where the great care designer Chip Foose takes failed projects from deserving people and reworks them to make them great vehicles. Very often classic cars, sometimes newer cars or trucks. It is all about taking what is there and making it better. Who remembers Tye Pennington and the show Extreme Make over Home Edition? Tye leads a crew in surprising a family who house is falling apart. Then over the next week the remodel the house while the family is away on vacation. They come home to a fully remodeled house. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul is talking about in our text this morning. Taking what is there and making it better. Not Extreme Makover: Home Edition but Extreme Makeover: Christ Edition. Let s dig into the text and see how we are to have this new better life. 59 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

3 Ephesians 4:17 (ESV) 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. Just as they do on Fixer Upper Paul begins by showing us where we were. In order to do the before and after comparison we have to see the before. That what Paul is doing here. This is the before shot. Paul begins by reiterating his apostolic authority. But it is not just apostolic authority he is also invoking the authority of the Lord. I think Paul begins this way with the double authority he is speaking with so that we pay attention and do not miss what he is saying. He then gives a command that we MUST no longer walk as the gentiles do. But in reality most of us are gentiles so what does Paul mean here not walk as the gentiles do. Paul gives us a clue in the next phrase in the futility of their minds. Remember that Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, a city in Modern Turkey where one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world was, the temple to Artemis, also known as Diana as depicted in this modern model. The worship of Diana/Artemis was one of the primary religious events in the region and in many ways dominated Ephesus and the region. 60 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

4 As with all of these religious systems they are products of the mind of man and not given to us by God. So when Paul speaks of the futility of their minds this is exactly what he is talking about. He is talking about the worldly religious systems. We need to no longer walk in manmade worldly religious systems. We have no hope, no potential no way to reach God through our own process and procedures. It cannot be done. Paul goes on in the next verse to describe the worldly religious systems. Ephesians 4:18 (ESV) 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. This verse clearly illustrates the worldly religious systems. Paul refers to this same thing in the book of Romans: Romans 1:21 (ESV) 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Paul I speaking here about the reason that the world has basically rejected God. The world has rejected God and His 61 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

5 authority and replaced it with their own thinking and their own systems which results in futility. The rejecting of God results in the hardening of the heart which means they have become insensitive to the work of God. It is much like calluses. When I began to play the guitar I had no calluses on my fingers. But as I played more I built up calluses and it did not hurt as much. My finger became less sensitive to the sharpness of the strings. As man walks away from God they become less sensitive to God, less responsive to His work and direction. As I was studying this verse I was really intrigued by the phrase alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Most people I think want to live and do not really want to die. There is always the hope for life after death but the more people turn from God that hope fades. To the point where one of the predominate views in the world today is that when you die you are done, nothing continues on you become dirt again. Alienated from the life of God. In this case not even really God Himself but simply His life, or really our life after death or eternal life. It has become a non-existent possibility for much of the world. Ephesians 4:19 (ESV) 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 62 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

6 This sounds like our world today right? It is also the world of the Ephesians and Paul. The religious system in the temple to Diana included temple prostitutes and temple drug dealers so that worship could take place which often included orgies in the temple. All sorts of illicit sexual activities occurred in the name of religious activities which often included illicit drugs. With it being legal and part of the religious culture of the region people were anxious or greedy to participate in these events. All of this in rebellion to God and His sensibilities. But now we move into Extreme Makeover Christ Edition: Ephesians 4:20 22 (ESV) 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ! 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, Paul moves on to remind the Ephesians that the way of the gentiles is not what they learned about Christ, their savior. He makes a rhetorical statement in verse 22. That is not what you 63 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

7 learned, assuming that you did learn about Christ. He then goes through the fixer upper process. We take what was there and we tear down our old sinful selfish self, that self that is alienated from God with hard heart, the way of the gentiles he referred to earlier. That corrupt life the is simply full of deceitful desires. Which means we think we are desiring good things but they really in the long run are not good for us. This verse is one of the verses that make me really wonder about those that teach free grace. We have talked about this before the battle between those who teach that salvation is just praying a prayer, walking an isles etc. and does not require a change of life. No change of life is required to get saved but this verse certainly illustrates that a change of life is the result of salvation. We are to put off our old life. That means change in any way that you look at it. I have to conclude that if there is no change of life there is no change of heart, no salvation, only words. Ephesians 4:23 24 (ESV) 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So we are to take off our previous life, our sinful ways we lived before. With sinful, alienated, hardened minds that are following man s ideas and renew our minds through the spirit. Renew here has the idea of causing something to be new, not fixed up but 64 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

8 changed. The difference between Extreme Makeover Home edition and Extreme makeover Christ edition is in home edition they fix up in Christ edition they make new. Look what Extreme Makeover Christ Edition does. Ephesians 4:24 (ESV) 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Old self is taken off and a new self is put on. The new self is patterned in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. When you become saved your sensibilities change. Things you used to practice and enjoy, but that are sinful eventually become an issue for you. You begin to think in a manner following the character of God. Not right away, it is a process, a maturation process. With the indwelling Holy Spirit communicating directly to our hearts we slowly learn the direction He wants us to go in. We sometimes fight that direction and even reject it. But then comes along correction and we again move in the direction He wants us to go it. We are physically born babies who have to be cared for and led everywhere and we eventually grow to be adults knowing which way to go. But it takes years and our spiritual maturation process is much the same, it sometimes takes years to mature. 65 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

9 My desire for you is that you see the reality of these verses. Salvation is very easy to receive, it is a free gift from God. But so many preachers have made it something else. They have made it an emotional response in the moment that they say pays dividends for eternity. But it is not an emotional response. It is conscious cognitive response to the Word of God powered by the Holy Spirit which results in our taking off our old life and putting on a new life. A change of life. Extreme Makeover: Christ Edition. I want you to think about it this way. Ty Pennington, the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and his crew surprise you and tell you they are going to fix up your run down house. They send you away on a weeks vacation and bring you back. Remember how they would have the bus blocking the view of the house. What would happen if while the people were away on vacation they did nothing to the house, only saying things and pledging thing but not doing anything. Nothing changes in the house. The move that bus all excited to see their old house still looking like their run down old house. There is no makeover there. There are just words there. That is also true about salvation. If in our Extreme Makeover there is no change there is no makeover just words. Word that will be met with words from Jesus, get away from me, I never knew you. 66 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,

10 We cannot put on a new self and look like our old self. We cannot claim to be a follower of Jesus and still walk in the mind of the gentiles, with a worldly mind. Real true salvation requires a change of heart and a change of mind. Next week, Lord willing, Pastor matt get to pick up the theme as the Apostle Paul reminds his readers that they need to put away the falseness of the worldly system and speak truth to our neighbors. Let s Pray! 67 Page 2016 Dr. Rich Schnieders,