The Second Story

 

The second story

Ephesians 1:1-12

 

 

 

               When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

 

              

               Last week I asked two homework questions, the first was “How many wise men came to see Jesus?”, and the second was, “Where was Jesus when they found Him?”  Now, those of you who did your homework know that the Gospel of Matthew, where the account of the wise men is found in chapter two, doesn’t tell us how many there were.  However, it does tell us that when they found Jesus that they found Him in a house…and when we take into consideration some other information that Matthew supplies us with it seems fairly clear that Jesus was not a newborn when the wise men encountered Him.  Yet, were we to take a poll of the average man on the street and ask how many wise men there were, the likely answer we would get (from those who have an inkling of what we’re talking about) would be three, and the follow up would be that they found Him in a manger.

               Now you may wonder what we’re doing talking about the birth of Jesus and wise men as we begin our adventure in Ephesians…before I share that with you I need to make as certain as I can that you please understand that seeing three wise men in a nativity scene is perfectly fine with me…it doesn’t bother me one bit…I think a nativity scene would be lacking something without them…so please don’t leave here and tell folks that I’m against having three wise men at nativity scenes…

               In 1977 or 78, I can’t quite remember which year, I was teaching a Sunday School class of young adults and older teenagers.  I think that without exception all of these students had been raised in the church…and had therefore been exposed to preaching, teaching and the Bible all of their lives…it was my first class with these young people…though I knew them all pretty well…and I asked them these same two questions…and the answer I got, without exception…was that there were three wise men and that they found Jesus in a manger…and by the way…my point in doing so then was my same point in doing so this morning…

               So I had a student read the second chapter of Matthew aloud, and I asked my same questions and got the same answers.  So we read it again…and had an instant reply…same answers…and this went on for a few minutes…until the light dawned on Rachel Turnage and she excitedly said, “The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men there were…and it says they found Jesus in a house.”  The power of inherited and taught image was so great in those students that even though they were reading the words of Scripture…the images that they had within them of the passage overrode their understanding of the passage.  Let me repeat that, the power of inherited and taught image was so great in those students that even though they were reading the words of Scripture…the images that they had within them of the passage overrode their understanding and reading of the passage.

               And my point is that if this is so when it comes to material things…concerning how many men and what location the passage is referring to…how much more can this be true when it comes to the way we view ourselves, the way we view each other, and the way we view God?  Does our image of who we are in Christ measure up to what Jesus Himself taught, does it measure up to what the Bible teaches?  Does our image of the Church match that of the Bible?

               Could it be that we have taken negative images, received from family, other people, perhaps even religion, and superimposed them onto our reading of the Scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  What does the Bible really say about who we are when we believe in Jesus Christ?

               When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

               Let’s do a quick survey of our passage.

               Verse one, Paul calls the people he is writing to “saints”.  Well, there’s a roadblock isn’t there?  The fact that most of us have an image that a saint is a spiritual Michael Jordan, in a place unattainable by most of us, demonstrates how far removed the original idea of saint has become from what it is today.  It also demonstrates how self-centered we’ve become in our approach to the Scriptures.  For being a saint has nothing whatsoever to do with our ability…but it has everything to do with what Jesus Christ has done for us…and you see…that’s the Gospel…the Gospel is not about us…as we saw in our journey through the Gospel of Mark…but it’s about Jesus Christ.  Well, let’s keep going…

               Verse 3 – we’ve been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ.

               Verse 4 – we’ve been chosen in Him that we should be holy and blameless.

               Verse 5 – we’ve been adopted as His children.

               Verse 6 – God has freely given us grace in Christ.  Please notice…that nowhere in the Bible do we earn mercy or grace…it is always…always…without exception…a gift of God.

               Verse 7 – in Christ we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

               Verse 8 – God has lavished His grace upon us.

               Verse 9 – God made His will known to us.

               Verse 10 – our destiny is in Christ…we’re not accidents looking for a place to happen…but we are people of purpose and destiny.

 

When we have the big picture, when we know Christ, and know who we are in Christ, we can live life confident of His love and acceptance and can be a blessing to others.

A couple of weeks ago I was over at Dave Mitchell’s house, and Dave and the kids showed me a gallon jar…and in it was a Monarch butterfly in the process of metamorphous…when I first saw it that morning there was a thin membrane surrounding the butterfly…but when we looked at it about an hour later the butterfly had spread its wings and would be released from the jar as soon as its wings dried…

Now just suppose when I looked at that butterfly with its wings unfolded I had said to Dave and the kids…”That’s a nice looking caterpillar.”…what do you think their response would have been?  Maybe Dave’s daughter Marley would have tried to explain to me that what was once a land bound creepy crawly thing called a caterpillar had been changed…and that the new thing is called a butterfly.  Maybe Dave would have wondered how soon he could get me out of his house.

Maybe after hearing Marley’s explanation I would have revised my opinion, and called the thing a “converted caterpillar” or a “good looking worm”. I still don’t think that would have cut it with the Mitchell family…for the butterfly is a new creature…

Notice that Paul never addresses his letters to sinners…or even to converted sinners…he addresses them to butterflies…to saints…to new creatures in Christ…not on account of anything that they’ve done…but because of what Christ has done…we’ve had a change of identity when we believe in Jesus Christ…

Sure there may be times when we forget who we are…and we may imitate caterpillars now and then…but that doesn’t change our identity…we may be butterflies acting like caterpillars…or saints acting like sinners…or new creatures acting like old creatures…but it doesn’t change our identity in Christ…

When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

The thing is…many of us live on the first floor of a two-story house…those of you this morning…who live in a two-story house…how would you feel if…when you got home today…you found that someone had come into your house and taken away your stairs?  Would you simply accept the loss of your stairs…and of your ability to access the second floor of your home…and learn to live solely on the first floor?

Suppose when Vickie and I were doing our house hunting…and we found a two story house that looked great from the outside…but upon entering found that it didn’t come with stairs…that zoning laws prohibited stairs…and that we’d have to confine our living to the first floor… would we have gone along with that deal and purchased the house…would you have purchased the house?

Yet…we think nothing…as a society…and all too often as God’s people…of living in a two story house without stairs…we are conditioned to live with a consumer mentality in which he who dies with the most toys win…we are conditioned to view life economically…we are conditioned…as a society…to believe that there is no absolute truth…no absolute right or wrong…we are conditioned to be caterpillars…things crawling around on the ground…

And when we get a peek of what’s on the second story of life…maybe a glimpse of unselfish love…or of hope…perhaps of comfort…maybe of God…well…we’re told that all of that is conditioning of one type or another…that there’s nothing really up there on the second floor…

When I have the big picture, when I know Christ, and know who I am in Christ, I can live life confident of His love and acceptance and I can be a blessing to others.

Christ is our ladder to the second floor…Christ has restored the image of God in us that sin fractured…Christ has restored us to fellowship with our heavenly Father…

Did Dave Mitchell have to give that butterfly a lesson in how to fly?  Did he have to enroll it in a course to teach it how to be a butterfly?  Was Dave afraid that when he let the butterfly out of the jar that it would crawl around on the ground and act like a caterpillar?  I don’t think so. 

What do you say to the idea that when we look at each other this week that we see new creatures in Christ Jesus…and that when we look in our mirrors…that we see ourselves in Christ…as new creatures…transformed to worship Him and love others?  What do you say to the idea that we venture up on the second story of our house and live life in the perspective of the big picture?

A Holy Charge (14)

 

 

“Be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5:14).

 

Let’s look at the flow surrounding “be patient with everyone,” what do you see?

 

“Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thess. 5:13 – 15).

 

Peace is married to patience; patience is married to peace. Without peace we have no patience and without patience we have no peace – and without Jesus Christ we have no true peace or patience. The patience and peace of which the Scriptures speak flow from the Person of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father.

 

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…” (Gal. 5:22).

 

“Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).

 

To “admonish, encourage, and help” requires both peace and patience.

 

Paul writes to Timothy, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting…” (2 Tim. 2:24 – 25).

 

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2).

 

We can be an agenda-driven people and miss the Presence, Person, and Character of Jesus Christ. We can “do things” without the Holy Spirit. We can pressure one another, manipulate one another, and “convince” one another that we should do this or that, without loving one another, finding joy in one another, having peace with one another, being patient with one another.

 

Paul writes that we are to have “all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing longsuffering for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2).

 

What do you think? Is our tendency to look at what we “do” as a people, or is it to consider who we are as a people? That is, do we tend to look at our actions and not so much at our character in Jesus Christ? Do we look at the outward and not at the inward?

 

Is our admonishing done in peace and patience?

 

I have included, “See that no one repays another evil for evil” in our reflection because if we are not living in the peace and patience of Christ the possibility of responding to evil with evil is greatly increased – our tendency is often to strike back at others when we are hurt, to give others the evil they have given us.

 

The life of the Body of Christ which Paul describes in our extended passage (1 Thess. 5:12 – 28), is only possible as we are at peace with one another and are patient with one another; this peace and patience must be the peace and patience of Christ.

 

Perhaps, in some ways, we are all in too much of a hurry to know peace and patience. Perhaps we are so agenda driven, so insistent on producing programs, increasing membership, raising money, becoming “bigger and better” that we have no patience with patience and can’t be still long enough to know the peace of Jesus Christ. What do you think?

 

Should Mary come into our gatherings and wish to sit at the feet of Jesus, or should the woman who “wasted” the precious ointment on our Lord appear in our mist, would we have patience with them?

 

For myself, as much as I honor those who practice the Presence, peace, and patience of Christ, I admit that I have not only often fallen short of the command and ideal, but I have grievously erred and done damage by violating the peace and patience of Jesus Christ. My foolishness and sinfulness have caused much pain from time to time. My decisions outside the patience and peace of Christ have been terrible and I live with their consequences.

 

Why, O why do we violate the patience and peace of Christ? Why do we pollute our relationships?

 

For myself, I think fear and anxiety and insecurity play a large part. If something or someone is a threat to me, do I rest in Jesus? Do I seek to bless the other person? Am I willing to offer myself on the altar of the Cross of Christ? Do I believe that Jesus will always be with me and care for me?

 

If you have ever been through hard times, really hard times, then you may know the temptation to fear that it will happen again in some way, shape, or form. Whether those hard times are emotional, mental, material, spiritual, or all wrapped together, the scar tissue often remains and when similar situations arise we may indeed fear what lies ahead. But once again, Jesus is not only with us, but He has also gone before us and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

 

If our security is based on our production, on us measuring up to standards by what we do, by being useful and necessary, then things that threaten our “value” can elicit anger and defensiveness and we can soon find ourselves outside the Presence, peace, and patience of Christ Jesus.

 

Perhaps at the entrance to our church buildings we ought to have a sign that says, “Be patient with everyone.”

 

Perhaps as I begin each day, I ought to remind myself, “Be patient with everyone.”

 

What do you think?