Posts

Posted on

Off With the Soiled Clothes – Ephesians 4:17-24

This passage matches up well with Colossians 3,hitting many of the same themes likely around the same time in Paul’s life. Both passages call the members of the church first to stop behaving as nonbelievers – referred to as “Gentiles” which is notable since the church itself was full of Gentiles! But as he makes clear elsewhere the gentiles of the church have been “grafted in” – and the Jews in the church are certainly not exempt from behaving like those in the culture around them.

What does that look like? A hardened heart, calloused to sin, but instead seeking the impure and wicked. Even greedy for it!

Paul specifically is serving against antinomianism, the idea that one we are saved we no longer have to worry about following the law. There were those in the church at Ephesus and other congregations who pushed the idea, and Paul here and elsewhere objects to it emphatically.

“That is not how you learned Christ” – not just “about” Christ, but Christ Himself in relationship. There is a difference between learning about someone, and learning them themselves. Though Paul does not assume that this is true of everyone there.

They learned to put off the old self, through Paul’s teaching in person and his letter to the Romans that would likely have circulated by now. The language is the same as changing out of old clothes, from soiled or otherwise dirty clothing into the clothes that are worthy and appropriate for their status as children of God. You can reference the letter to Sardis in Revelation, where some have soiled their white garments – or you can look to Lazarus, raised from the dead and taking off the old grave clothes right away.

Or you can look at the prodigal son – and like the prodigal son, we have to recognize when we are at the pig sty that life is better in our father’s house – where he will put a new robe on us and celebrate.

We are all called to this kind of repentance, and the more we become like Christ, the more we see in our lives that does not line up and needs repentance.

We also need to change ourselves at the mental level – not just responding to a feeling of guilt, but a fundamental renewing of how we think about ourselves, others and God.

This conviction of sin may feel like a heavy load, but it is a part of God’s grace, showing us the path to oneness with Him.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, November 8, 2020

Posted on

Truthing in Love – Ephesians 4:15-16

Paul here is wrapping up a section on unity. It’s actually a continuation of the earlier discussion of spiritual warfare, because the unity of the church is both one of our strongest weapons against and the greatest targets of the spiritual forces of darkness Paul warned about.

The big idea here is that God has placed every person here at Seed Church and every person He’s going to put here in the future, so that we come together with all of these diverse gifts in order to function properly. Just like our body is designed to work when all the parts are functioning properly.

The most well known part of these verses is “speak the truth in love.” This is often said just before someone speaks something that may or may not be truth, but almost certainly is not in love. The word in Greek itself is actually a verb form of the word that means truth. So the language here its more like “truthing”. We should be truthing in love – this goes fast beyond the words we speak.

This discussion of truth may remind us of the conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, when the latter famously asked “what is truth?” Jesus himself, though embodies the truth – as he said to Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Elsewhere he asserts “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

We reject, or should reject, the world’s notion that truth is relative, and that we seek “my truth.” We are given other believers, teachers, who are there to help us towards the truth. The challenges of truth, though, are twofold: we don’t know it, and we don’t believe it.

Our response to the first of those must be to immerse ourselves in the truth of the scriptures. As John MacArthur wrote “Make sure Satan has to climb over a lot of scripture to get to you.” And it is important to do this both corporately and individually. This is a team sport. And it is vital that we know the truth of God in order to have a relationship with Him. As Amy Hartley writes, “The modern church is producing passionate people with empty heads who love the Jesus they don’t know very well.”

But we also have to believe it. How do we even pin that down? Feelings can be a good indicator. Feelings are not a good indicator of truth, but they are often a good indicator of what we actually believe. Often what they tell us we believe in is ourselves. It is very difficult to give up control, even to God.

Augustine wrote “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” This is what we want, but there is a part of us that does not believe this, that fights against it and will leave us ineffective. This is why we must constantly go back to the scriptures to bolster our belief. As the father with a dying child said to Jesus – “I believe; help my unbelief!”

How then do I live that out? It starts with how we see those around us. God is love, and so we should look at everyone around us as someone God loves. This is the truth that is in love. To remove the love from this is to remove the truth itself.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul warns that any speech or worship without love is functionally meaningless. No one can hear your truth unless it is soaked, immersed in love. And he also tells us what that love looks like: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Here in Ephesians, this truth-in-love concept leads directly to the metaphor of the church as a body, with every part having a distinct function, the diversity of its members all necessary for the body to function at intended.

We are fortunate to go to a church where people are doing this, in many ways, in service, in prayer, in giving. Be encouraged by this.

We are to embody truth in love. We need to know it, believe it, proclaim it and express it in our service.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, November 1, 2020

Posted on

Giving Gifts to the Captives – Ephesians 4:4-14

To review: in chapter 1, Paul describes the greatness of the gift of salvation the Ephesians had been given. In chapter 2, he applies this to the reconciliation between peoples. Then in chapter 3, it is applied to the spiritual realm. Now in chapter 4 we are moving into the imperatives that come with this salvation.

Specifically, the imperatives revolve around the unity Christ creates for us within the diversity of the gifts he has given us.

We are given gifts in the same way that the talents were given in the parable of the talents – they are given so that we can invest them in order for a return for the kingdom. This is true of both our spiritual gifts, as Paul discusses elsewhere

One of the trickiest parts of this passage is the reference to Psalm 68, which originally was about the Lord’s anointed king ascending the mountain of Zion and taking captives and receiving gifts, though Paul changes that there to giving gifts. It then goes into a complicated discussion of Jesus ascending and descending – possibly just to the earth, possibly into the grave, and possibly to hell itself, though the term here used is not “gehenna”.

Then he goes into roles of people specifically given gifts, including the apostles and prophets who speak to us through the scriptures, and the evangelists, pastors and teachers who speak to us today. (Or you can see them all as current roles, either way is fine.) All of this comes together to “equip the saints” and build up the church, corporately, into a body capable of impacting the world as Christ’s hands and feet.

And individually it means building the members of the church into spiritual maturity, the “stature of the fullness of Christ,” not tossed around like kids in a ship deck when storms hit the church – storms that often come from people actively harming the church whether just from faulty doctrine or purposefully scheming against the church.

We need to be discipling each other, both seeking out more mature Christians to learn from and giving our time to disciple others when appropriate. We need to be seeking and using our spiritual gifts. Those online gift tests are fine, but the real way to learn what your gifts are is to jump in and serve, learning from experience and the voice of others what gifts you have been given that you can then give back in turn.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, October 25, 2020

Posted on

Unity – Ephesians 4:1-6

Last week we talked about the prayer of Paul for the Ephesians, that they would be strengthened in their faith and better know the love of God. Today, we look at what Paul specifically called the Ephesians to do and be.

It begins with a “therefore,” which calls back to all the context Paul created in chapters 1-3.

“Walk in a manner worthy of the grace you received,” Paul urges – though we know that we are not ourselves worthy of that grace, but our walk should put effort towards being so.

Paul uses forms of the word “call” numerous times in this passage – and that word is also the root of the Greek word for “church” – “the called out ones.”

The word walk here means “going about” suggesting everyday life, going here and there. The word worthy here means either “of equal weight” or corresponding appropriately.

So how do we do this, walk in a worthy manner? Paul spells it out in the next verse: humility, gentleness and patience. Note that there is nothing here about agreeing with each other – in some ways, that would actually be easier.

Humility is considering others before ourselves, following in the way of Christ in how he went to the cross for us. It also means recognizing that we are not as smart, holy or strong as we think we are. We aren’t even as humble as we think we are.

Gentleness is being mild and temperate, living in a way that only uses anger when and where appropriate.

Patience is “long suffering” with a long view of birth the world around us and even our own desires. It ties perhaps the most directly to the next phrase “bearing with one another.” That’s not something we have to worry about doing if there was nothing to bear with, but in real life something always comes up.

We will always have disagreements and conflicts and frustrations with each other. When we do, though, we are called to approach each other in a way that builds each other up – the Greek word suggests holding someone up physically.

That bearing up is itself supposed to be a reflection of our eagerness to maintain our unity in the spirit. This narrows our unity – we can’t have unity in the spirit with those who do not have the same spirit.

What does that unity mean? We are united in one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism – but that does not mean we are all in agreement over the secondary issues of the faith.

We are unified in one church, one body of Christ across all racial, ethnic, linguistic even denominational lines. There is one spirit that ministers to all of us. There is one Lord we all serve. There is one baptism, the baptism of the heart that is the salvation offered by that Lord who gave up his life for us.

We should be praying for this sort of unity, and for the humility, gentleness and patience, because it is through this unity that we stand against the powers and principalities, both our spiritual and physical enemies. Because it is beautiful to God. In Psalm 133 we read…

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Psalm 133

Unity is the blessing of God, while disunity is the goal of the devil. Unity will build us corporately up into a mighty force for God in our community and world, while disunity will destroy our church. Let us seek it diligently.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, October 18, 2020

Posted on

Prayer for the Impossible – Ephesians 3:14-21

This is the second time in the book of Ephesians that Paul just breaks in the middle of a passage and prays for people.

As a church, we are praying for opportunities to share the gospel as well as for wisdom and direction. We take cues from Paul in that we should be ready to drop everything and enter into prayer.

In that first prayer, in chapter 1, he prays that the Ephesians will experience the wisdom, knowledge, hope, presence and power of God. It often does not feel like we have access to any of these, but that’s part of why Paul is praying that they would grow in all of it.

In this part, Paul is after something similar. Paul opens with very universal language. He goes to his knees in prayer, rather than following Jewish tradition and standing. He speaks of the father, Pater, giving his name to the family, patria, and to every family in the world, not only the family of Abraham.

He asks that Christ would dwell in their hearts, much like the language from earlier in the letter when he wrote that believers are being built together as a dwelling place for God.

And that dwelling of Christ, his being deeply rooted in us, is what gives us the strength to comprehend the “breadth and length and height and depth” – something so vast that it surpasses our knowledge and understanding. The love of God is bigger than we or the world could possibly understand.

It also means that we can’t look to the world for its understanding of love. When we love in our marriages, family, friendships, we have to look to the example of Christ and be powered by the strength of Christ. It is for this, and for some dim understanding of Christ’s love, that Paul prays for here. Knowledge of that which is beyond knowledge.

And Paul prays to the one with power beyond power, able to do the impossible, and so worthy of being asked for the impossible.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, October 11, 2020

Posted on

The Gospel & Manifold Wisdom – Ephesians 3:7-13

Paul ended the passage we looked at last week talking about the mystery of the gospel, and that’s where he picks up in today’s passage. The mystery means that it was not something that could be reasoned out alone, but requires revelation, which Paul received from Christ.

But what is “this gospel” that Paul is talking about. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul gives his most succinct recounting of the gospel: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

If this is true, it means that we owe Christ everything – it crashes into how we approach our finances, career, family, politics, identity, everything about us. What he did for us means that we owe him everything.

And the gospel is not something we ever outgrow. No matter how long we have been Christians, the gospel is relevant – it is the fuel for our ongoing sanctification, and it is the core of the mission we have been given to reach the nations. This is what Paul is talking about here.

He goes on to put himself into this context, as the “most least” of all the saints – if “leaster” was a word, he would have used that. This is the context through which we are to communicate the gospel – deeply felt humility. It is in that humility that he brings the “unsearchable riches of Christ” and manifold wisdom of God” to the world and even to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”

Paul is talking about the evil, supernatural forces arrayed against him, us and the gospel. As the church, we are how God’s manifold wisdom is reflected to those forces.

So we need to understand the gospel – both as our shield, in understanding the love Christ has for us, and as our sword, the power of God for salvation.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, October 4, 2020

Posted on

Renewal for Paul and for Us – Ephesians 3:1-6

In the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul goes on depth on what it means for us to be “in Christ,” reconciled to God. In the second chapter, he talks about us as a church, unified within Christ together and reconciled to one another. Now we come to the third chapter, where Paul starts taking about… himself?

He begins by identifying himself as a prisoner – not of Nero, even though he is in a Roman prison, but rather if Christ. In fact, he portrays his imprisonment as a positive thing for his readers.

Paul’s imprisonment is a story that started in Ephesians 21, when he was arrested, ostensibly for bringing a gentile into the temple, though in reality for teaching Christ. Paul is living out Jesus’ blessing in the beatitudes, “blessed are those who are persecuted.”

Then, Paul talks about himself as a steward or manager of God’s grace that was given him for the Ephesians. This is something we can ask ourselves – what have we been given to steward? Our resources, our relationship, our location – God has given all of us things, just as he gave Paul. “Follow me as I follow Christ,” as he wrote to the Corinthians.

He goes on in verses 3 and 4 to talk about the mystery and insight he was given by God. The word for insight implies synthesis, the combining of two rivers running together. This story goes back to Paul’s “origin story” as one of those who disputed with Stephen and held the coats of his murderers. In Philippians, he described his old self in detail:

…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

Paul got the mandate to go round up Christians in Damascus, and on the road there was met directly by Christ and set on the path of preaching to the gentiles. This is what he is talking about in being a steward, and of the insight and mystery.

“Mystery” here means a truth that cannot be reached by reason or observation, but must be shared by revelation. The insight is a running together of the rivers of revelation by the Holy Spirit and God’s word, which promised that gentiles would somehow, someday meet God. That was the mission God gave Paul, and it’s a mission that reverberates down through the ages to his church full of Gentiles today.

To come to this place, Paul had to go through several steps. First, he needed to establish a spiritual renewal through his encounter with Christ. Second, he had to go through relational renewal with his fellow Christians, which enabled him to go through a missional renewal – loving God, loving others, loving the world.

Do we need to go through this? Even if we have been going to church for a long time, we may need it. Paul is one example himself. So were the Ephesians themselves, called to this renewal by Christ Himself in His letter recounted in Revelation – they had forsaken their first love, and He beseeched them to repent and be renewed.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 27, 2020

Posted on

Building the Church – Ephesians 2:19-22

Paul here is taking about the church, moving from a metaphor of the family of God, into a metaphor of a building, and the construction of a building.

But to understand what Paul is saying hehe, it is important to understand the methods of construction that Paul is referencing, which are different than those that are used today. He is using the language of stonecutters and masons. The terms he is using, “joined” and “built together” are trade terms that are not used elsewhere in the bible.

“Joined” in particular means to fit or pile together – the stones had to be worked significantly, by hand, to make them as smooth as possible, with as much surface area as possible between any two stones.

The “cornerstone” also is a specific thing, not the decorative stones you’ll see today, but the first stone of a foundation – every stone placed afterwards are placed in alignment with the cornerstone. Jesus is called a cornerstone also in 1 Peter, which quotes the prophecy of Isaiah 28. Isaiah is warning those who had rejected his own teaching that God was going to play a stone that they would have to come in alignment with. God goes on to say, “And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” In 1 Peter, Peter warns that, for those who reject him that cornerstone will be a “stone of stumbling.”

Paul calls the structure being built a temple, or a “naos”. In his letter to the Corinthians, he also refers to the church, corporately, as a temple. As we gather in Christ’s name to worship him and hear his word, that itself is a holy place, separate from the walls and floors and ceiling of the actual church.

God is in a building process here at Seed. Just as if we were building a new sanctuary or remodeling a parsonage, we worked need everyone involved, so too do we all need to be involved in this building process. God is the one who builds the church, but he does it through people like Paul, like Lydia, like the Ephesian jailer. Elsewhere, Paul call us all to “build with care” upon the foundation he has given us.

To do that, first we must work internally to conform to the alignment of the cornerstone. That is an individual task but it prepares us for the next, corporate tasks. We must “grow together” by letting the prophets and apostles speak into our lives, building connections and settling us into the wall like well-hewn rocks. And third, to serve one another, both by calling people into the body and by doing the practical work of teaching, operations and administration.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians, notes that all the gifts God gives us, are there for the building up of God’s church. What is God calling you to do to build up His church?

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 20, 2020

Posted on

Unity in Christ – Ephesians 2:11-19

Paul is writing to a community that was made up of two very different groups. Many Jews in the time and region hated gentiles. Gentiles were “made to fuel the fires of hell,” it was written. If a Jew married a gentile, they would hold a funeral. There was significant hatred between the groups.

It had its root in God’s command to Israel to be separate from the peoples around them, though obviously taken too far.

Similarly, God Himself was set apart, within the Holy of Holies, within the inner court, set apart from the outer court, itself set apart from the Court of Women, itself set apart from the Court of Gentiles by a dividing wall and threat of death.

When Solomon built the temple, neither the court of women or gentiles existed. In fact, when he dedicated the temple, Solomon asked God that “when a foreigner comes and prays towards this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel.”

Paul himself is writing this letter from prison specifically because he was accused of bringing a Ephesian man into the temple grounds.

So that is the context of this letter. Paul here talks directly to the gentiles, slurred by the Jewish community around them. And Paul acknowledges that they indeed were separated from God alienated from God and his people.

But Christ broke down that separation explicitly, breaking it “in his flesh.” The reformed preacher Richard Baxter wrote “Every time we look upon our congregations, let us believingly remember that they are the purchase of Christ’s blood”.

We are born again and made new creations, beyond any other distinctive – in Galatians, Paul writes that it goes beyond ethnicity, gender, social status and every other division. What he has done in us is eternal – all the rest is temporal.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes that “the love of Christ compels us.” Is that true for us? In our interactions with each other, are we controlled by Christ’s love? Are we seeking the unity Paul writes about here, that Jesus prayed for in the Garden of Gethsemane? Are we engaging in the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given?

Of course we will have conflict, but we have instructions for how to deal with those. Mainly, we need to deal with it and move on, and to work with all people in love. We need to walk in reconciliation so that when the world looks at us they see the love and unity of Christ in our midst.

We should examine ourselves today for any bitterness, any divisiveness, anything that is keeping us from the unity that Christ died to bring to us.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 13, 2020

Posted on

Not of Works, but For Them – Ephesians – 2:8-10

This is one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament, but it is also calling us to something. It’s confrontational, it gets into your face.

There is a gift being offered to us, freely, but it’s a stark choice. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters,” says Jesus in Matthew.

We need to understand that God is not like us. Evil cannot stand in His presence. He is a righteous judge and we are a criminal standing before him. But he offers us life instead of death, freedom instead of bondage.

But that offer is, as Paul writes here, a gift, with nothing that we can do to earn or deserve it. We have no way to point to our own deeds or our own goodness. If we are going to boast, Paul writes elsewhere, we should boast about Christ.

We receive the gift by faith, and that faith is impossible outside of the revelation of God. One of our jobs is bringing that revelation – Paul writes in Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

But when we respond in faith, we are re-created by the creator and united with Christ. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus, we must be reborn to enter the kingdom of God.

And what that rebirth means is explained in verse 10. You can’t detach verses 8 & 9 with their beautiful message of grace and faith from verse 10. We can’t use the truth of grace as an excuse to do whatever we want. We are a new creation, “God’s workmanship,” specifically outfitted to do good works. Salvation is by faith alone, but faith itself is never alone.

In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us that we will be assessed by the fruit, the result, of Christ in us. Good works do not lead to Christianity, but Christianity leads to good works, says Martin Lloyd Jones.

We can’t mistake this for legalism, but we also can’t miss the truth that we are called to works. But the works prepared for us are not for ourselves, but for others and for Christ.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 6, 2020