Ephesians 5:21-6:9 Submit to One Another Out of Reverence for Christ worked out in the con text of the roman household... and today.

 

here is a link to an Audio recording of this message from HopeWhangarei in October 2025.link to HopeWhangarei

When I preached  on this passage in 2023 as part of our One another-ing series I finished that message with an illustration from a book by Gerald Sittser and I want to start with it today…  He and his wife love watching old movies, particularly musicals. They loved watching the mesmerizing, magical ball room dance routines of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Dances that were filled with such grace. Sittser quoted an interview with Ginger Rodgers after Fred death where she said he was so good that he never seemed to be leading and her following. There was a seamlessness, an elegance, as if two people were dancing as one.  You could see the care they had for each other and the love of the dance. I use it because it is a great illustration of the focus on unity and oneness and love of something greater than ourselves which is the focus when Paul says ‘submit to one another out of reverence to Christ’… and applies that basic principle to relationships with in the very hierarchical roman household.

( thought it was good to add this feedback... One women in our church said to me after the service she had heard a comment that while Fred Astaire was a great dancer, that Ginger Rodgers was equally good... and she had to do it all backwards and in high heels.)

The idea of submission does seem to be out of step with our modern 21^st century world. When I grew up dancing even dancing together seemed to be more about individual moves and gyrations than cohesively moving as one.  It was about individual expression. Our western world values individualism… focusing on personal rights, striving for, securing and maintaining our own social status and standing. Dancing to our own tune, thank you very much.

Now, the most common dancing I see is in tic-tok videos.  Where people dance doing the same steps the same routines. No one leading and no one following… it reflects the flatter understanding we have of society than the very hierarchical first century Roman world Paul speaks to. A hierarchy where the husband, father slaveowner was seen as being in the position of power and this was seen as the natural order of things, because men were viewed as superior to women, and freemen superior to slaves. That is the social context Paul is writing to and providing a radically different of relating.

Maybe I’m dancing around the issue because as bible commentator Mark Roberts says there are controversies swirling around this passage. ‘Including the idea of mutual submission,  Submission of wives to husbands, the idea of husband as the head, and the exhortation to slaves to obey their masters, a command that seems to endorse slavery.’ We can’t see slavery without looking through the lens of the north American and European experience that is synonymous with racism. People tend to come to this passage with predetermined ideas about its meaning, embracing ideas of hierarchy or railing against them, which makes it difficult for us to engage the text on its own terms. And hear its radical nature.

Lets view the text in its context in the whole flow of Ephesians

Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians by speaking of Jesus being exalted at the right hand of the father and pouring out every spiritual blessing on his people. Saving us setting us free, giving us new and eternal life, making us a new creation, a new people together, praying that we may grow up into the fullness of Christ. Then he turns and brings that down to earth to show in the light of what God has done for us, who we are in Christ, how we should live and how the church should manifest both unity and purity in all relationships. The section where our bible reading today is situated starts way back in Ephesians 5:1 with Paul saying “Since you are God’s dear children you must try to be like him. Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.” The focus on relationships is reflecting that Christ like love.

Then in the passage that Cath Bremner looked at last week. Paul Talks of walking in wisdom. That we should not be drunk on wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Being drunk on wine may make you happy and cheery but says Paul being filled with the spirit bring us Joy which is expressed in words and songs of praise. In giving thanks for everything to God our Father. And then in also submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ. Whereas drunkenness has a detrimental affect on social cohesion and relationships, being filled with the spirits is to lead to harmony. With all the talk of music and singing in this section it gives us a good metaphor to think about submitting to one another. For songs and music to happen and make sense everyone needs to play their part, to defer to others or to take lead roles, to take direction from a lead or conductor and be willing to step back and play a lesser role for the overall good. It takes discipline and deference. If that does not happen, then instead of music all we have is competing noise. Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 13 without love even all our wonderful words are just like a clanging symbol, a loud obnoxious noise.

It's also important that we put submit to one another in the wider context of the New Testament.

Firstly in most Greek to English lexicons the translation of the Greek word for submission has the sense of ‘voluntary yielding in love’… In society this was seen as only working in one direction down to up…lesser to greater… and often the volunteer element was not stressed or the love part. However in scripture we see a different understanding of how we as believers are to relate. There is mutuality that goes directly against the power structures of the world. In Philippians 2 we hear be humble towards each other, always consider others better than yourselves. And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. Of course Paul goes on there to give us that wonderful attitude of Christ who though equal with God emptied himself became a human, a servant and was obedient even to death. In Galatians 5:13 Paul says ‘ serve one another humbly in love”. Maybe the great example of that is Jesus the rabbi, the Lord stooping to wash his disciples feet. Submit to one another reflects not only Jesus example but Jesus teaching… In Matthew 20 as Jesus disciples spurred on by motherly ambition, want the highest place Jesus tells them ‘ not to be like the gentiles, whose ruler lord it over them (dominate them) rather whoever wants to be great amongst you must learn to be the servant of all. Who wants to be first must be the slave. For even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. As I said before it shows the radical nature of  submitting one to another… out of reverence for Christ, who loved and gave, came and served.

Now let’s turn and look at how that applies in the context of the roman household code. To a church which would have been made up of men and women, children, both free children and salves, and slaves and masters.

Paul does it by addressing three sets of relationships. Husband/wife, children/ parents, slaves/ masters. He does it by applying that principle of mutual submission to each member in that pair. Giving them a reason why they should behave that way. One of the unique things about Paul’s household code is that he speaks to the person in that pairing who in their society would not have any power, and treats them as brothers and sisters in Christ, actually gives them moral agency in that relationship, elevating what was in society a forced lower position dignity. We also don’t probably catch it but in his words to the people with social high status Paul's words would have been even more radical. In Roman society there was the expectation that the power positions would be reinforced in their ruling. But Paul speaks more of service, care and love.

Wives are told to submit to their husbands unto the lord. The first thing I need to say is that this is the exact same word Paul has been using for all believers. The word is in the middle voice in Greek… it’s not an imperative or order rather as Harold Hoehner puts it ‘the submission is to be of her own accord and not the demand of her husband’. It’s also important to note its not women to men, but a wife to her own husband. The New Testament had a radical understanding of women and men’s equality in Christ there was neither male nor female, Greek or barbarian, jew or gentile, slave or free. Which hasn’t always been affirmed in the church or Christian influenced society.  

The reason that is given is as Christ is the head of the church, of which he is the savior. The good news translation uses the word authority over the church which highlights one of the problems we have when we think of the word 'head' as a metaphor. We often see it in terms of authority, but in scripture it can also have the meaning of source, like we use the word headwaters. But also the emphasis of head and body is again the oneness. And connection with the body. Shown in Christ giving himself for the church. Earlier in Ephesians Paul will talk of Christ as the head putting all things under his feet but the church is not one of those things, we are lifted up to be with Christ, growing into the fullness of Christ who is the head. A lifting up and seating with.

Then Paul, addresses the other side of that pair the husbands. In Greek roman times it would be difficult to talk of the husband submitting. But Paul does it by speaking of Husbands loving their wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for them. The word of course is agape which has the sense of seeking the highest good for the other person. A point Paul emphasizes by talking of what Christ has done for the church his bride,  Christ washes them, presents her to himself as blameless and without blemish or wrinkle. Lynne Cohick, comments that in this she sees Paul talking about Christ doing what would have been women’s work in preparing the bride, washing her, making her clothes spotless without wrinkle, ironing in other words. The husband here sees himself as both the groom but also the bride, part of the church. Paul goes on to emphasis the mutuality and unity in loving one’s wife by referring to Genesis where a husband will leave his family and cleave to his wife and the two will become one body. No one does not love their own body, but cares for it.

Then Paul addressed the second pair in the roman household. Children and parents. Again addressing the group in that pair that would not have had power or status. He does give the imperative for children to obey their parents but again gives it n added dynamic by saying in the Lord. Commentators see this both as giving children the agency to do it as part of their Christian disciple but also limiting that obedience. Not to obey in things that go contra to their faith in Christ.  The reason that is given points back to the Old Testament where Paul says that honoring mother and father, not just father, is the first commandment with a promise. That the person will live long in the land. Honoring parents is seen as setting the best platform for a long life. It’s interesting if you watch many Hollywood movies that are designed for older children and tens the prevailing wisdom seems to be that children know more than their parents, but biblically the parents are to be seen as a source of wisdom for life.

Fathers, then are addressed, in Greco roman society fathers had complete control, even life and death, over their children, even married ones. Paul again calls fathers to serve their children by not exacerbating, or angering them, but rather to focus on nurturing them and bringing them up in the way of the Lord. Parents are the primary source of Christian education for their children.

Paul then addresses the pairing that we probably struggle with the most. Well maybe if your married its that first one. But its also one we can catch the radical nature of Christ’s transforming love. Slaves had no status and very little protection in Greek roman society. Up to about 30% of the population would be slaves… either through debt, war and conquest or being born into it. You’d kind of hope that Paul would speak here of emancipation for slaves. The seeds of the abolition movement are in passages like this. However as one commentator said for Paul to imagine a world without slavery was like for us to imagine a world without electricity.

The first radical thing is Paul addresses the slaves as equals. He talks of reward and inheritance which they will receive in Christ, which was totally the opposite of roman Greek society. Where slaves were seldom rewarded and did not inherit in the family. Rather were passed on as property. But Paul calls them not to just obey their master’s because they have to, but in a way that shows their Christian faith. He turns their service into worship. Not because of socially mandated servitude but out of reverence for the one who rewards all such service by free or slave. Not just when they are being watched or to get ahead but out of genuine love for Jesus.

Then Paul addresses masters, and calls them to treat their salves in the same way to serve and care for them as a way of serving the Lord. He puts in a negative encouraging them not to threaten or mistreat their slaves. The reason is we remember we have the same master in heaven who shows no favoritism. We have something of how that would be worked out in Paul’s letter to Philemon, whose slave Onesimus had run away, but had been saved and came to work with Paul. Paul calls Philemon to treat Onesimus as a beloved brother in Christ.

Lastly, we need to look at submit to one another out of reverence to Christ in our context. How do we walk the difficult bridge between the then and there and the here and now.

Modern leadership theory talks of leading where you are or 360 degrees leadership. Where you show leadership and excellence in what ever position you are in. the mail room, on the end of  shovel, right through to the board room.  Here wives, children and slaves, husbands, fathers and masters are called to show their Christian faith in the situations they find themselves in. By the way they show Christ like love to one another. Seek the highest Good of the other person. Submit to one another out of reverence of Christ is still the key for us today.

When it come to marriage… Some people want to bring the hierarchy across that bridge and emphasis the headship of husbands in a household. If that is the case then along with that we need to bring the radical teaching of submit one to another. That it is a call to love and serve one another in a Christlike manor not a dogmatic insistence on a particular order.

Equally, for those who want to hold to our culture’s idea of a marriage more as a partnership between equally this radical teaching needs to be heard and lived out. The call for mutual submission and love, for wives and husbands to give this relationship priority in life. To seek the best for the other, not simply to follow our own desires and wants.

Children, in showing their Christian faith in how they treat their parents. In our fatherless generation, by being parents who invest time and care into our children, and are prepared in deed and word to instruct and show the Christian faith. The great thing is even when we get it wrong, we can teach about honest repentance and forgiveness.  Also I know many of you are still wrestling with honoring your parents and it is a life long thing, as you are now taking up the role of caring for them in their old age. Many of you parents are having to learn a new way of submitting by allowing them to make decisions and help care for you.

Slavery is still a scourge in our own time. It does challenge us in our places of work, to not be slavish about how we work but to se work as worship and service to Christ. Employees it opens up a real challenge on fairness and care for workers.

I just want to finish with a quote from Darryl Bock  “when Love, care and service abound, the presence of the Holy Spirit can shine in the relationships God gives to us.”

Ephesians 5:1-14 walk in love... the parable of Taumanu reserve.

here is a link to an audio version of this message preached at HopeWhangarei in October 2025.

 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/hope-whangarei/episodes/Walk-In-Love---what-it-is--what-it-isnt-and-the-enlightening-process-of-change-e38g9ni/a-ac5t4ao  

When we lived in Onehunga I used to go for walks along the Taumanu reserve on the Manukau harbor. That is the beach at the end of Onehunga that was reclaimed with the dirt and rocks from the excavation of the Waterview tunnels. It was a great place for doing bird photography.

One day I was walking along and saw what I thought was a white-faced heron out on the mudflats. They are the common heron you get in New Zealand. Except it didn’t move or walk like that heron. It’s behavior was different. It was squatter and walked with its neck pulled in. When I looked through my telephoto lens I realized it was a totally different bird. One I’d never seen before.

I took a photo, went home and put it through a google image search and found out it was a Pacific Reef Heron. Its totally grey, has a thicker bill and neck and shorter green legs. While common in the tropics it is  rare in New Zealand, with only between 300-500 birds. As it’s more at home in the tropics there is a larger population in Te tai Tokerau Northland. I’ve seen a few of them since we moved up here. This one was at Onerahi… Now! just because of their stance and movement the way they walk, I can spot them right away even from a distance, and differentiate them from a white faced heron even before I can see their coloring. They walk different.

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The series is called ‘every spiritual blessing/new life in Christ’. Paul spends the first half of his letter ( what we call chapters 1-3) talking about the fact that we have received every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have been chosen, adopted into God’s family, saved, filled with the Holy spirit, we were dead but now we are alive in Christ. Made into a new people in Christ from across societal divides, jew and gentile. He finishes that with a prayer that the believers, that we, may know this reality more and more in our lives.

Then the second half of the book focuses on how we are to live that new life in Christ. Ethics following on from theology. You are this therefore. He does it by talking about that being a new person in Christ, we should walk like it, walk different. He uses walk as a metaphor for live. Just like the Pacific Reef Heron was a different bird and walked in a different way so we who are new creations in Christ, are to walk, to live differently. Not to earn God’s favor but because we have been made new in Christ. He does that five times... In 4:1 he says we are to ‘walk or live up to the calling we have received… walk in unity. In 4:17 to no longer live as the gentiles live, no longer walk in their ways. Billy and Cath talked about that over the last couple of weeks. Then in the passage today in 5;2 Paul gives the alternative way to walk or live… we are to walk in love. Then in 5:8 we have live or walk as children of Light. And finally in Ephesians 5:15 to walk in wisdom.

In the passage we had read out to us today Paul explains what it means to walk in love. He puts it in a positive way, like the track we should be on. Then he explains that in a negative way by listing actions and speech that are direct opposites to the way of love and should not part of our Christian walk. Final he uses the idea of light and darkness to reinforce that and I believe gives an enlightening process for us to deal with the darkness in our lives. To change.

Firstly the positive.

Paul starts by exhorting us to imitate God. elsewhere in his letters Paul will talk about becoming imitators of him and by that becoming imitators of Christ. But its more challenging to think of imitating God. How this idea is used elsewhere in scripture helps us to understand what Paul is talking about. In our Old Testament reading from Leviticus 19, the people of Israel are told to be Holy just as I the Lord am Holy. In Leviticus it acts as the introduction to the retelling of the ten commandments with some other laws around ritual cleanliness. It is a call to reflect God’s nature in how we treat each other. In the Sermon on the mount Jesus commands u to love our enemies and says in this we reflect the nature of our heavenly father, who makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous alike. We are to walk in the ways that reflect God’s righteous nature.

Paul goes on to say that we do this as beloved children. In Roman society an adopted child was expected to reflect the character and values of the family and in particular of the father who had adopted them. So we who are adopted into God’s family are called to reflect the family likeness.  I took the photo behind me at Taumanu reserve in 2018 and loved the way the son seems to reflect, imitate, the movements of his father. There is an expectation of a family likeness. I love the term beloved as it reminds us of 1 John 4:11 beloved because God first loved us let us love one another.

Paul then commands his readers to walk in the way of love, and expands on that by pointing to the example of Jesus Christ. As beloved children we emulate the love of the beloved son. Our example is Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. It is the kind of love that places the good of the other person before even our own. That gives sacrificially.  Paul says this is a fragrant offering to God and acceptable offering. In the preceding verses we see this lived out in forgiving one another, not letting anger lead us into sin, how we speak the truth to one another. In verse 9 Paul will list the fruit of walking in the light as goodness, righteousness and truth.

Then in verses,3-7, Paul gives us a negative, he zeroes in on vices that should not be part of the Christian Walk and community.  

The first is Sexual immorality. God’s design for the expression of human sexuality is within the confines of a faithful loving mutual marriage between a man and a woman. The word for sexual immorality here covers everything outside of that, as biblical commentator Darryl Bock says ‘it’s a wider term than adultery. It deals with any sex outside of marriage, consensual of not.” In fact the Greek word here is pornia from which we get the modern word pornography.  Pornography with the internet has become pervasive and is destructive and harmful to society. It exploits women and promotes sexual gratification without the need for that loving mutual relationship. It predominantly promotes and glorifies all the expressions of sexual immorality that stand outside God’s standards and purposes. The other thing that makes it dangerous is that it is a very private vice, or sin.

The next word is impurity and covers other moral areas of behavior outside the sexual realm. As an example comes from classic Greek literature where the same word used in Ephesians is used to describe the actions of a character in the story who commits perjury with the intent of injuring another person. You hear echoes of the ten commandments in this passage as It talks of not stealing, or  killing and Jesus teaching in the sermon on the mount of how that goes to our very heart attitudes.

The third word is greed. Wanting things wealth money etc for our own gratification. Again the tenth commandment against converting our neighbors property comes to mind.

Paul sums these three areas up by saying they are idolatry. Idols are things that compete with God for  first place in our lives. They revolve around us and our wants and desires rather than the walk of love which emulating Jesus seeks the common good, the highest good for each other. It is that love not these vices that should characterize the Christian walk.

Then Paul covers speech that goes along with these vices. Obscenity, foolish or empty talk, and course jokes or as another translation puts it destructive sarcasm. Our talk  should reflect our new creation just as our walk does. James chapter 3 draws the connection between taming the tongue and Christian maturity, he says that what comes out of our mouths reflects the nature of our hearts. We can not praise God and curse other humans who are made in God’s likeness. Paul says something similar by saying our words are to be for thanksgiving, can we worship God and use our language in these other ways that go against God’s nature?

We are called to express our new life in words and deeds. The list Paul makes reflects those who are sons of disobedience, not sons and daughter of the Lord most high, through faith in Christ. Sadly in our society like the first century Christians we find ourselves compromising with our prevailing culture. The royal commission to abuse in care is an example of that, as it uncovered so much abuse in society and sadly in the church. Bible commentator Andrew Lincoln talks of Paul's list being like the big three that trip Christians up… sex, power and money. Our headlines are full of high-profile Christian leaders who have fallen in these areas, and that reflects a wider problem within the church. We need to repent and cry out to God for him to renew us.

The portion of scripture from this morning finishes with Paul reiterating what he has been talking about using the metaphor of light and darkness and also leaving us with hope, for change to become what we are new creation in Christ. He sums it up by saying, we are to walk in the light, walk as light. The fruit of that is Goodness, righteousness and truth. The opposite virtues to the vices he has been talking about. Some see this as a summary of the fruit of the Holy spirit in Galatians 5:22-23…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These qualities reflect God's character, imitating God, and grow as individuals live in relationship with God. It is finding the things that please God and doing them. Paul then tells his readers to have nothing to do with the works of darkness. Not to partner with people who do these things. Note its not that we isolate ourselves from those outside the faith in fact we are called to be a light for them, rather we need to be in the world, as Jesus said, and not of it. To walk and talk differently.

Then Paul speaks of the fact that what light does is that it exposes darkness. It is easy for us to see this exposing of darkness to do with uncovering what is happening out there. That is what the church kind of gets a reputation for doing pointing the finger… one of the reasons we are to walk differently is that it does show the difference between light and darkness, it shows people that following Christ provides a more wholistic and healthy way to live. Jo Aldrich in his book life style evangelism says the gospel is like a song, the gospel itself is the lyrics and how we live and love is the music that goes with it and makes it catchy. But here Paul is speaking to a church that like us is wrestling with living this new creation out in their lives. Who may not have changed their walk in certain areas, or who find themselves drawn in to sin.

Paul here gives them and us a way out a way to change. Often sin is able to exist in our lives because it is done in secret… we are good at covering it up. Putting on a good face… a mask… But the thing about light is that it exposes those things brings them out into the open reveals them for what they are. Gunna Raman says that too often do Christian make friends with sin in their lives. When it is revealed by the light, by Christ, either as we expose ourselves to God’s word or we are challenged about it by a brother or sister. We then need to acknowledge it as sin and ask for repentance and sometimes it’s a process of working out how to disentangle ourselves for it. Paul’s direction to not partner with it anymore speaks to with the help of the Holy Spirit to stop doing it.

An area in my life that has come to light recently through reflection and through the loving challenge of people who love me is my tenancy to speak down about myself. Now there is an element of self-deprecating kiwi humor. But when faced with stress and difficult situation I find myself denigrating myself… calling myself useless… I’ve wrestled with it a lot in my life. I come from childhood and internalizing paternal disapproval. I’ve had to confess it as speaking in a way that James talks of ‘cursing someone made in the image of God’. It stops me from recognizing what God has given me and just leaves me battered and exhausted. In a conversation with my supervisor, in a way that fits in which Paul's talk of walking, he said its like the stone in your shoe… I’m working through healing that and repenting from. From how I see me to how Christ views me.

We all have sin and areas in our life that as God shines his light on we need to do that as well. To confess it and repent and work through the process of learning to walk a new in the light.  Maybe Taumanu reserve is a great parable for that. Simply the rocky side of the south eastern motorway that cut across the bay like a constantly humming scar… and the leftover rubble from massive excavation. That has been turned into something new and beautify.

As we open ourselves to the light we will know the hope of  the hymn that Paul finishes this portion of scripture with

Wake up sleeper

Rise from the dead.

And Christ will shine on you.’

Christ death and resurrection allows us to be free from sin and live that new life we have received from him.

Ephesians 5:11 The five fold Gift for building up the Church

here is a link to an audio version of this sermon    https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/hope-whangarei/episodes/The-Five-Fold-Gift---Howard-Carter-e377q2l/a-ac49qfb 

If you were here last week you may be suffering a bit of de Ja Vu with the portion of Ephesians we had read to us this morning… yes..it is the same ? and No it’s not a glitch… We are doing a two part mini series on this passage. Specifically on the list of gifts Christ gives for the building up of the Church in Ephesians 4:11.

Last week Roland looked at the purpose of the gifts. That they are to be used for the building up of the body of Christ for us to function and minister together. To grow in our grounding in the gospel, our unity, into maturity, and the fulness of Christ… that we can function as the body of Christ with everyone doing their part, And embody Christ in the world.  We all belong and we all have a part to play…

Roland emphasized that we are all called to use our gifts to build one another up. We are blessed to bless others. That being the body is a team sport, with everyone playing their part. Using their gifts in unison. That God may be glorified in the church and in Jesus Christ.

Today, we want to focus in on the five-fold gift of grace that is given to the Church… some to be apostles, some to be prophets… some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers. It seems strange to start that by making a disclaimer, but there are many ways this passage and this list has been interpreted and applied down through Church history. Some have tried to confine at least apostles and prophets to the early stages of the church, Paul in Ephesians 3;20 says that the church is founded on the apostles and the prophets, some even equate the evangelists with those who gave us the written gospels. On the other hand, there are those in the words of bible commentator Mark Roberts who have tried to make elaborate missional models based on the five-fold schema in Ephesians 4:11. It also has been used almost like a personality test for believers  to find themselves in one of these ministry areas… Mark Roberts points out that the passage does not give us information on each of these gifts, rather its emphasis was on what they have in common, namely their source and their purpose.

Having said that I want to have a look at these grace gifts and what that has to say to us today. We’ll do that by looking at how they are used in scripture and making some reflections.

But first I want to make some opening remarks.

The first is that we have several lists of holy spirit given gifts in Paul’s writing. Apostles, prophets and teachers appear also in the list in 1 Corinthians 12, and prophecy and teaching appear in Romans 12. These lists are not designed to be exclusive or exhaustive… if you don’t see yourself in this list… it is not that God has not given you gifts to use to build up the church… nor are they less valuable or important. The Holy Spirit is poured out on all who believe, it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to serve and minister to and with one another and provides us what we need by God’s great grace. We all belong, share the one spirit one lord, one baptism, one father we all have a part to play as God gives us gifts by his grace.

Secondly, these gifts, or gifted people are given to the church and such roles are always to be seen as servant roles. The Christian ideal of leadership or gifts is that Christ gives them by grace and they are to used for the good of all as it says in 1 Corinthians 12:7 . Paul acknowledges that he is an apostle but his favourite way of introducing himself is as a servant or a salve to Christ. They are given to build up the church not to build up the person. We do tend to in our culture to admire and almost put on a pedestal the gifted person. The gifted athlete, speaker, musician Where as these gifts are by grace, not merit…

 Following on from that. These are gifts and not offices in the Church, not positions. Yes people can be acknowledged as apostles, or prophets or evangelists or teachers and we use pastor now as a title for people set aside for a leadership role… however in the pastorals where Paul writes about establishing leadership in churches. It is not these roles that are looked to be filled but rather elders, and overseers. Our church the presbyterian church, comes from the Greek word for elders, our leadership is based on group decision making, overseer is where we get the word bishop, or Episcopalian, as the Anglican church is called in America.  The other role is Deacons, who oversee the practical running of the church. The criteria for these roles is more to do with depth of faith and character than giftedness. Remember  God gives us the gifts we need. However one of the criteria for an elder is apt to teach… in our system what we call ministers are in actual fact teaching elders people called and set aside and trained  for the ministry of word and sacrament.

Following on from that, when we think of the body of Christ, in this passage we have to be careful to realise that Paul can be talking about the church universal or the local expression of the church. Remember Ephesians could be written to a whole network of churches in Asia minor. We do need to be aware of that as it maybe that we have to distinguish where and how these gifts were and are to be used. Some seem bitinerary and other fixed in a local.

The final opening point, and they seem to take up half my message is that a key part of each of these gifts listed here has to do with the proclamation of the gospel. In Ephesians 3:7 as Paul is talking about what God has sent him to do, his role as an apostle to the gentiles he declares that he is a servant of the gospel. It the gospel and the word of God that ultimately by God’s holy spirit builds up the church, that brings us to maturity  and unity and which causes us to function as a body in the fullness of Christ. In writing to Timothy Paul speaks of the scriptures as being good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Almost the same as what he says of these gifting here in Ephesus. ” Apostles, prophets, evangelists pastors and teachers kind of fit in there as the way the scriptures and the gospel are conveyed to do there work.

Ok lets look at these five gifts. How they are used in scripture and what they are.

Apostle: Apostle literally means a sent one… some one who is sent by a king to represent him and tell his message. A herald…

It’s used in three different ways in scripture. Firstly it is a word that is used for the twelve, those who were with Jesus that he called and set aside, and who were witnesses of the resurrection. We normally refer to these as the Apostles with a capital A… The number twelve of course relates to the tribes of Israel and the establishment of a new people of God. So after Judas killed himself, in Acts 1 the believers get together and chose another to take judas’ place.

Secondly it is used of those who have a specific calling and ministry to take the gospel to new regions and places. Paul is called an apostle to the gentiles, which he would say he received from seeing the risen Jesus, as he puts it in 1 Corinthians 15 as one untimely born… but in the category you also have Barnabas, who was Paul’s mentor, and like Paul set aside to be an apostle to the gentiles by the church in Antioch. Which he had gone to help and build up when he heard of the gentiles there coming to faith, remember he went and got Paul from Tarsus.

There are a third group known as apostles that we know little about… James the brother of Jesus, Apollos, salvinias,  Epaphrodities possibly Andrionius and Junia… mentioned in Romans 16. Junia by the way is most probably a women’s name.

They are authoritative representatives of the Gospel charged and called to go into new areas with the gospel, plant and build up Churches in those places and spaces.  Some equate them with Missionaries today, or pioneers who plant and grow churches in new environments. They were in scripture itinerant sent to go and pioneer. Today some would say they provide entrepreneurial leadership.

I love the way Elaine Holwell talks of pioneer missionaries, as those who hack a path through the jungle with the gospel which others will walk and follow on with. Be it new places or fresh people groups in our own society.

Prophets: There is a great tradition in the Old Testament of Prophets people who receive revelation from God… in a way that uses the covenant Israel has with Yahweh with God, to critic and encourage and comfort the people. In the new testament we have  mention of people as prophets on several occasions. In Acts Agabus is called a prophet, he predicts a famine in the roman empire, which facilitates a collection for the care of the church in Judea, he also predicts Paul’s captivity as Paul heads to Jerusalem.  The people with Paul see it as a warning and try and tell Paul not to go, Paul sees it as God letting him know that even though this is going to happen it is in God’s plans so he goes, trusting God. In Acts 10 at Antioch, the leadership there is said to be made up of prophets and teachers, and they believe Paul and Barnabas are to be set aside for their mission to the gentiles and commission them to Go. In each of these occasions the prophecy is weighed by the community of faith. In Pauls list of gifts in Corinthians 12 Gordon fee sees gifts given in pairs, discernment of spirits is paired with prophecy, to test what the Spirit maybe saying.

 The four daughters of Philip the evangelist are also called prophets. Women seen as prophets.

We do tend to think of prophets as having fresh revelation from God, seeing visions, and they can do that. However in the pagan temples people would come to get a word from the oracle, in the Greek a Mantis, from which we get the word manaic, but a prophet is the one who would take what has been given, and interpret it and apply it to the person who had come to consult the oracle. Harold Hoehner defines it as one who is gifted by the Holy Spirit for the sake of edification, comfort, encouragement further understanding and communicating the mysteries and revelations of God the Church. This may include a predictive element. We talk of taking the timeless word of God and applying it in a timely manner. To the situation here and now. You may have noted how a bible verse or something that someone says hits home, and its as if God is Speaking. That is prophetic…  Paul wishes all would prophecy, tell forth god’s word… and some who are more used in that way are seen as prophets. Although there is no office of prophets in early church history.

Evangelists: Literally good new people. People who proclaim the gospel effectively in a way that brings people to faith in Christ. The word only appears in scripture three time. Here in this list, in 2 Timothy where Paul encourages Timothy to do the work of an evangelist and in Acts where we have Phillip the evangelist. Who God transports to places and people to share the gospel with them. On a one on one  like the Ethiopian eunuch which has amazing ripple effects as he goes back to his country, and various towns around Judea.  There are people who are gifted at sharing the faith, but we are all called to be good news people and share our faith. Maybe with Julie Anne laird’s visit recently you can see how a gifted evangelist can inspire all of us in that role.

Pastors and teachers, In the Greek these two seem to be bracketed together. There is no definite article before teacher like the other four. Pastors are shepherd leaders who look after the flock, probably more on a local level. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd and in the way he walks with his disciples and leads them to grow in their knowledge of who he is and his teaching, you can get a picture of pastoring. By the way no one in the New Testament is called a pastor. A key function of pastoral leadership is feeding the sheep and so it is appropriate that pastors and teachers are bracketed together here. One commentator puts it that  all pastors are to be teachers, but not all teachers are to be pastors. A pastor is one who focuses on the wellbeing of the flock, who is able to lead them to green pastures and still waters. It is both a caring for role and a moving people together role. Again its both a roll of feeding from the gospel but also moving people to maturity in the gospel.

Teachers Is used 59 times in Pauls letters and depicts instruction… in factual matters, the essence of the gospel… also skills and moral education. How to live out the gospel together as God’s new people. An interesting example of teachers is in acts 18  where  Pricilla and Aquila, hear Apollos preach, he’s a gifted speaker, and they, a woman and a man,  take him aside and  give him a better understanding of the way of God… Apollos then goes and establishes churches in other places, he is an apostle.  It may be seen today as discipling people today, teaching our children the basics of the faith. We are blessed at the moment to have Geoff New and Seb Murrihy involved with lay preachers in northland, equipping people to preach and minister the word.

That is a quick look at these gifts and I just want to make some comments on the implications for us.

Again the key focus of this whole passage is what these gifts have in common, their source… from Christ by grace through the Holy Spirit and their purpose for building up the body of Christ. It is important for that to remain central. I’ve encountered many harmful situations where the focus comes on to the gifts and the person who uses the gifts and the focus moves away from Christ and it becomes about building up the person or a cult of personality rather than about service and building up one another.  One of the keys of using gifts of the Holy Spirit is a willingness to be open to accountability to one another. Realising they are given for the good of all.

Secondly, it is important that we all realise we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit draws us together as the body of Christ and is the one that gives us gifts to use to minister to one another and together to the world around us. We need each other connected and held together. We all have a place to belong and a part to play. So I would encourage you to look nd see how you can serve in the church and as a church how we can serve and share our faith with our wider community, using the gifts God has given us. connect groups are a great place to learn about using our gifts together, as we encourage and build one another up. If you are not in a connect group I’d encourage you to join one.

Lastly, can I encourage you to seek God as to how he has gifted you and how you can use those gifts to encourage and build each other up.

Ephesians 3:14-21 More than we could imagine: growing in the powerful love of God

 

here is a link to an audio recording of this sermon from August 2025at HopeWhangarei. 

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/hope-whangarei/episodes/Sermon-3rd-August---Howard-Carter--Eph-3-14-21-More-Than-We-Could-Imagine-e36cavv/a-ac3nr12 

J A Robinson says of Paul’s prayer for the church in the portion of scripture we had read out today ‘That no Prayer that has ever been framed has uttered a bolder request’…we’ve maybe become used to the words, we’ve domesticated them, but when you think of what is being prayed its pretty amazing… that we may be strengthened through the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our inner most being, that Christ may dwell in our hearts that we may know the vastness of God’s love for us in Christ and that we may be filled with the fullness of God. That's radical beyond comprehension right… But says Paul the great thing that makes it possible is we have a God who is not limited by our ability to ask or even our ability to imagine, but can do immeasurably more than that.  It’s a prayer made possible because of the love and power of God.

In the first half of his letter to the church at Ephesus Paul has laid out the gospel, the riches of God’s mercy. That in Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, chosen, adopted, sealed, reconciled with God, we were dead but now are alive, objects of God’s wrath but now adopted children welcomed at his table,  he has talked of the amazing fact that, through Christ, Jew and Gentile have been bought together to form a new people a new creation, a new temple in which God resides, and Paul had even taken a bit of an aside and talked of the amazing fact that God had graciously called him to unveil this amazing mystery to the gentiles. Before he goes on to talk about how this new life in Christ is to be lived out in the second half of his letter, he concludes this section with that prayer. That the church, this new group of believers, may know the reality of what he has talking about, know the one who has given us these blessings,  and grow in that. Be strengthened, have the power to grasp and be filled… the three main verbs in this prayer.

As I was thinking about how to illustrate this I couldn’t help but think that it is forty years this year, back in February… since I was first surprised by the smiley-est grey blue eyes I have seen. I had been at Bible College (now Laidlaw) for about a week and came round into the main courtyard and there was Kris, barefoot splashing about in a puddle, with those wonderful smiley eyes…. Over a three year period we got to be friends and a romance bloomed as we spent time together. We got engaged sitting on a broken trailer on a pile of weeds down the back of the bible college orchard, we’d been talking about weddings and I asked kris to marry me only after checking out that if I did she’d say yes. Who says romance is dead. We’ve been married for thirty seven years and our love for each other has grown deeper and deeper year by year. I’ve been greeted by Kris smiley eyes in a hospital bed a she has had each of our four children, and we’ve worked at parenting them together as well as we could… Like all marriages we’ve been through rocky times… ups and downs… We are still learning and growing to love one another. To work and make decisions and act as a couple… out of our love for each other… There are many of you who are further along that track than we are… and I know some of you when I speak of this feel that ache of sorrow as you have had to face the death of a spouse. Paul’s prayer is inviting the new believers, inviting us, to go together on that same journey of growing in intimacy and love with God and allowing that to bring transformation and change… to strengthen, give the power for them to grasp and be filled…

Ok, lets unpack this prayer a bit, or more technically a prayer report, Paul tells us what he prays, and then I want to draw out some applications and implications for us.

The portion starts off ‘for this reason, it ties us back to Ephesians 3:1. The gospel had made the two people, jew and gentile one people, and Paul had been part of that as God had called him to be an apostle to the gentiles. Because of these two things he now Prays. He describes his prayer by the posture of kneeling. For Jewish men the usual praying position was standing. We have instances of kneeling to prayer in scripture, for example in Daniel and Jesus in he garden of gethsemane… to knee denotes both a fervency in prayer and also a posture of reverence acknowledging the sovereignty of God. In Philippians 2 Paul talks of Christ’s self-emptying and humbling himself and then God’s exaltation of him and in that Paul says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Paul kneels to pray.

Paul addresses his prayers to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name. It seems an appropriate way of speaking of God as the God of all the nations of the world, the clans, tribes, people groups, Whanau, hapu and iwi when they are being bought together as a new people in Christ. Isn’t that a challenge for us as a church in New Zealand…maori/pakeha… and this new multicultural nation we have become in the 21^st century.

 God is the father by right of being the creator of every being in heaven, and families in heaven here is best understood as the different ranks of angels, and on earth. AS God is our creator we are all on one level God’s children, human dignity comes from being made in the image of God. In Christ it becomes a greater reality.  Also in the ancient world the right to name something is seen as having authority over it, here God as the sovereign father and creator has that power. Paul is praying to the sovereign God of all nations all people all family groupings, in Christ making it possible for all to come to be part of God’s new family and people.  

Then Paul’s prays that God out of his glorious riches, which he just spent the last three chapters explaining, might strengthen the believers by filling them with the power of his Spirit in their innermost being. In Ephesians 1 Paul had talked of God giving us his spirit as a seal of belonging. Paul is asking for that we may have more and more of that. That the presence of God would strengthen us, again he’d been talking of the new people of God as the new temple. I hate to bring up the idea of earthquake strengthening, but it’s like Paul is praying that the spirits presence in us would strengthen, not just the individual but the whole temple, the whole body of Christ, tying these different people groups together… That we may stand strong and be this new people together. If you think of a bouncey castle, its filled with compressed air and it stands up to the constant pounding of children joyfully jumping up and down.

So that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith. The way that we experience the presence of the risen Jesus in our lives is through the spirits indwelling. Here Paul prays that we may know that. We are used to speaking of receiving Jesus in our heart, but this is the only place in the New Testament where Christ is said to dwell our hearts… In our western world we think of the heart as the seat of emotions, however in Jewish and Greek thought the heart is the centre of reason, and decision making of the will. I have real feelings for those smiley eyes, but marriage is based on making decisions to live for and with each other… So Paul is saying as we are filled with the Spirit his prayer is that Christ would be the centre of all we do individually and as a church. This is shown in the fact that right after this prayer we have the therefore moment in this epistle where Paul turns from theology to talk of ethics, how we live out that new life.

Paul had spoken of the fact that the church was built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the corner stone… now in his prayer he picks that up again by talking of the fact that the church has been rooted, an agricultural term and established, a construction term, in love… That the Church is this new people of God because of what Jesus Christ has done in the cross and his resurrection and that it was in fulfilment of the scriptures and proclaimed by the apostles. With that base Paul now prays that the spirit would give us the power to grasp the dimensions of God love for us in Christ.  

I couldn’t help but have a New Zealand music moment and remember the band Supergrooves song ‘can’t get enough’ which used the old spiritual refrain… ‘so high can’t get over it, so low can’t get under it so wide can’t get round it O rock my soul.’ We need the spirit’s power to understand the dimensions of what God has done for us in Christ. The height, the breath, the depth and the length of God love in Christ. Some commentators see here a cruciform shape, the shape of the cross, when we think Of God’s love we cannot move away from the cross. Praying for a church that is multi cultural from across the various barriers of the world, it invites us to see God’s love stretching out beyond those barriers we put up to all people.. It gives us hope as the amazing thing is God’s love reaches down enough to gather me and you up and raise us to life in Christ. After coming to Christ Australian musicians Robert Harkness and C.Bishop penned the hymn such love in 1929..

That God should love a sinner such as I,

should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss,

nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh—

how wonderful is love like this!

 

This love that surpasses all knowledge… does not mean that we down play intellect but rather as that hymn expresses, it is so incomprehensible to think of all the love God has for us. We can know of it know it but we also need to experience it.

Paul's final request is perhaps the most bold… that we may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God. this prayer is a trinitarian prayer, did you note that we may know and be filled with the whole of the God head, the Spirit, the son Jesus Christ and with the whole of God. Again Paul thinks back to the idea of a new temple, being the place where God dwells… Just like with the old temple as Solomon dedicated the temple the cloud of glory came and settled on it, Paul is praying for us, and again the you throughout this prayer is plural it’s talking about the Church might be the dwelling place of God. The reality of ‘God with us’… Immanuel.

Paul finishes his prayer with a doxology by giving glory to God. Glory to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power at work in us. Again we are reminder of every spiritual blessing that Paul has been speaking about. The fact that the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us, we have been made alive again in Christ, all adopted into his family and forged into this new people this new creation together in Christ, and God dwells in our midst. That is the work of the spirit and we can trust that this God is not limited by our ability to ask or dream or imagine, God has done so much and will do so much more… sometimes I’ve sort of heard this used in a way that makes God to thin… that tries to turn God into a cosmic credit card. For Paul it gives him the ability to pray that God might be glorified in the Church and in Jesus Christ, throughout all generations forever and ever. The amazing thing is that at the end of this prayer we come into view. The dimensions of God’s love the power of God’s spirit the fullness of God dwelling with his people is for us as well, as we are drawn into relationship with God, from across the barriers of our own world and time. Paul is praying for us. Praying that God would be praised and exalted and given glory in the church this church today. God is glorified in the church as we glorify Christ when empowered by the spirit we live it out in a way that reflects his life and love. In the therefore that Paul now talks of after his amen.

Ok that’s a lot of unpacking, so I just want to finish with two implications and applications for us.

Firstly, Paul gives a model here of how to Pray. For the church and for one another. Our prayer for one another can simply become what one commentator calls hospital prayer. We pray for each other as people find themselves in difficult situations. There is nothing wrong with that, it is an amazing way in which we can care and for and love one another. There have been times when I’ve been in hospital, and I know people are praying for me… I love how our connect group and men’s pray group pray for each other’s needs. God answers those prayers.

But when you see Paul’s prayers you see time praying for the growth of the church and the growth of our knowing and being known by God. That the gospel would become more and more a reality in our lives and in our actions and words. That God would be glorified through us. Paul’s prayers echo Christ’s. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven… Father make them one as I am in the father and you are in me… These are what that same commentator called ‘frontline prayers’. Kingdom edge prayers. I remember my mentor Jim Wallace gave a sermon on Spiritual warfare one time and he said that we can spend an awful lot of energy and effort praying against things, but in the end what makes the difference is pray for the gospel to spread, for God to be at work, for the spirit to do its work in and through us. Not to focus on the negative but to be good news people… of course we are going to look at spiritual warfare later in this series when we come to the armour of God in Ephesians 6.

One of our city to city 90 day goals is that as a church we might be come more unified as we pray for one another. That we are held together by a web of prayer. That we not only pray for each others needs but also for each others growth…strengthening, ability to grasp the dimensions of Gods love  and be filled with the fullness of God…

The second is just as Paul prayed for those first believers to know the reality of every spiritual blessing in Christ that is our hope for this church as well… that we would grow in our knowing of God and help others connect with God… As a group our leadership did a revisioning workshop with City to City we saw at the core of our church were two desires. The first was that people might welcome and experience the presence of God’s anticipating ripple effects far beyond the life of your congregation from this. The second was spiritual formation that changes people and takes them along a significant pathway towards spiritual maturity. In a cyclic manner the growth in maturity would facilitate an ongoing desire to experience God more.  

Maybe talking of my relationship with Kris may have romanticized this idea a bit. But we don’t want Paul's pray to be domesticated words and nice sentiments… we want people to know the strengthening of the Spirits presence, we want you to have the power to grasp just how high and wide, and deep and long is the love of God in Christ for you. That you are beloved beyond your wildest dreams. To embark or to continue and take the next step on that life journey eternal journey of growing in intimacy and love with God allowing it to flow out of you in word and action. That you may be filled with the fullness of God in Christ. That this boldest of requests might be a reality.

Ephesians 2:1-10 But God…The Human Condition and Divine Compassion

 

here is a link to an audio recording of this message from July 2025... It was school holidays so for the children in the service we included sermon bingo... So you'll note the sermon gets interrupted towards the end. As the kids call out bingo as they have marked off all the selection of key words on a card that appear in the sermon... 

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/hope-whangarei/episodes/Ephesians-2-1-10-Howard-Carter-Sermon-6th-July-2025-e3558tb 

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The series is called  every spiritual blessing and new life in Christ. We’ve worked our way over the last three weeks through the first chapter of the epistle.

Paul's greeting, then in a wonderful exuberant paragraph long sentence Paul speaks of God blessing us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Choosing us before creation, planning to have us reconciled with God through his son, adopting us through Jesus Christ. Redeeming us, by Christ’s death for our sins, lavishing his grace upon us, including us as we hear the gospel truth, and marking us as belonging to God by filling us with the presence of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God. This causes Paul to break out into an equally exuberant prayer for his readers. That that mind-blowing list of every spiritual blessing would be a growing reality in their/our lives.

Then Paul begins to speak about how those spiritual blessings  are worked out in the lives of the church, he will speak of the Church being this new creation in Christ, a new people from across the main dividing lines of society in their day, and how we live that out in practical everyday terms. But before that in the passage we had read today Paul speaks of how we have been impacted by God’s grace as individuals. Again in a paragraph long sentence, we have a concise, poignant expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul does it in a way that we are probably quite used to from the advertising world. Maybe in a way that they stole from us. He gives us the before picture, I’m used to looking like the before picture when it comes to weight loss programs or hair replacement therapy. Paul paints a stark picture of the human condition without Christ. Then we have the product that changes everything… After the first three verses we hear these amazing words…But God…because of God’s grace. Then in the last three verses of this passage we have the after picture, alive again in Christ, a life full of meaning and purpose. 

So lets look at this passage, the before picture (saved from) the product (saved By) the after picture (saved for).

Saved from… Paul uses three ways of painting the before picture (the human condition).

The first is that you were dead in your transgressions and sins. In Greek there are two words for life bios, which means physical life, it’s the root of words such as biology, and the word Zoe, from which we get the words zoo and zoology, zoe speaks of a more spiritual vitality, that real spark within us, being alive to God.  Paul is talking primarily of that spiritual deadness. Caused by our sin and transgression. We may still have that bios life, but it too will end, but that zoe life has died. Some people might speak of that as that aching lack at the core of life… the God shaped hole. You were dead in your sins and transgressions, separate from God, the source of zoe life.

The second way is slavery, We do not walk or live in the ways of God, that please and reflect God rather we are dominated by this unholy trinity…  we walked in the ways of the spirit of this age, in Greek roman times, Paul is peaking to his gentile audience, that would mean things like pagan religion, relying on their wisdom in our own time it maybe something like secular humanism or philosophical materialism, that deny the presence and even existence of God. That allows us simply to do our own thing, some good and some bad.

Paul goes on to talk of being under the ruler of the kingdom of the air. First century Greeks and romans believed that the space between heaven and earth was a place where spirits ruled, and they lived a lot of theirs live oppressed by these spirits, trying to appease them or manipulate them to do their bidding, by ritual and magic. Paul here ties it into the Jewish understanding that Satan is the ruler of that dominion. He is saying people find themselves living under the domination of these evil forces, that are at work in the disobedient.  Those who do not acknowledge and know God find as they disobey God they are open to these evil forces enslaving them.  I couldn’t help but think of that bob Dylan song of his gospel album ‘Slow train coming’ “you gonna have to serve somebody’… it may be the devil it may be the LORD but you gonna have to serve somebody…”

Then you may notice that Paul moves from speaking of you to speaking of we as he moves to the final member of this unholy trinity. He says we follow the desires of our flesh. As a Jew he would not have been so caught up in the spiritual world of Greek roman times, he would have known God and looked to follow the law. However here he acknowledging as  in romans that all have fallen short all have sinned. This final thing is being driven or ruled by our human desires. When we think of the word flesh we do often think of sexual desires, but it is wider than that. It could be a desire for comfort, being perfect by keeping the rules, for wellbeing and significance or prestige, self-actualization. These things of themselves they are Ok. But when the become the very focus of our existence, they become idols that we worship.   We use them to justify the wrong things we do to achieve them and they can end up ruling us.

Finally,  Paul uses a judicial term, to express our condition… we were condemned worthy of God’s wrath. We can’t blame it on the devil or on our environment, we have done things that are wrong and against God. We are not comfortable with thinking of God’s wrath because we have this image of wrath as being this unpredictable outburst of anger and rage, a thirst for revenge. But in the judicial sense it has to do with a righteous judgment…  We’ve done the crime we deserve the time… the wages of sin are death Paul says in Romans.

I wondered how to illustrate this human condition and Mark Roberts makes this comment that he wonders if Paul was writing in the 21^st century he might be tempted to use the idea of the zombies to express what he is saying. I know most of you are not in the demographic of being into Zombie movies. But please bear with me.

Zombie in Haitian folklore were people who by some evil magic were killed and then reanimated. They have no soul no life no spark and are doomed to always work unceasingly on their plantation, doing their masters bidding, with no hope of  freedom. They are the walking dead. In modern  pop culture they are again walking undead, people with no soul who are driven by their appetite, mainly for eating human brains. Dead enslaved driven by the flesh…  academics have wondered why Zombies have become the monster de jeur, the popular monster in film and books and comics and TV shows. In one article on the internet, which ironically I had to prove I was human before I could access…they speculated that it is being used as a metaphor for many aspects of modern life. One theory is that it speaks to the spiritual numbness that comes from our industrialized consumerism capitalist western society. That simply treats us as producers and consumers. The famous 1973 film dawn of the dead is set in an American mall, the cathedral of consumerism.

Lets move on to look at saved by… In some recent zombie movies the narrative is that humans can solve the zombie apocalypse. They can save themselves from this walking death. In  the 2009 film World War Z…(spoiler alert) the zombie problem is seen as being due to a virus and is able to be overcome somewhat by the World Health Organization developing a vaccine.  Woe, think COVID pandemic narrative. We are saved by our science. In the 2013 movie Warm Bodies a zombie starts to regain his humanity through an act of kindness and romantic love. Psychotherapist Travis Robinson even offers some sage advice about resisting the zombification of consumerism and technological overload he calls for  “ a conscious movement toward calming our nerves, relaxing our minds, caring for our bodies, reconnecting to natural landscapes, re-visioning work schedules, recreation and leisure.”

But Paul would say that the human condition is beyond that, we are all infected, we are all the walking dead, our capacity to love is not going to save us, nor will our science, or simply slowing down and opting out, the dead cannot save themselves…

In verse 4 of the passage this morning we have this intervention. We are saved… By… and the subject of this long sentence, comes … But God… the answer to the human condition is divine compassion. We are saved because of God’s very nature and character, God’s great love for us and the riches of God’s mercy. Love and mercy put into action through the sending of God’s son Jesus Christ. This is spelled out in three verbs in verse 5 we were made alive with Christ. The focus for salvation is often on the death of Jesus on the cross, taking on himself our sins, and dying for us. But the emphasis for Paul here is just as Jesus raised to life again we have become alive in him, even when we were dead in our sins and transgression, we have received Christ’s resurrection life. In John’s gospel in chapter 10 Jesus says he came that we might have zoe life in all its abundance, a life reconnected with God. A life so abundant that the end of our Bios life cannot stop it rather it will be lived in eternity with Christ. Our bodies will not be reanimated but resurrected in Christ.

The second verb is that we are raised with Christ, just as Jesus ascended into heaven we are raised with him. It speaks to the fact that in Jesus death and resurrection he won a victory over both sin and death, and a victory over the evil forces in the spiritual world. We share in that victory, we are raised out of that slavery Paul talked of, set free and now raised above in Christ above the dominion of the air, our identity our life is lived in freedom in Christ.

The third verb Seated with Christ in the heavenlies is bit hard for us to comprehend. I think our Old Testament reading this morning, Psalm 113, helps us to picture it. You have the picture of God as the king of the cosmos seated on the throne in heaven. But stopping down and looking and seeing the state of humanity and reaching down drawing near, then raising up and seating at the table of his princes. In Christ we are welcomed in and included and seated as God’s family, his sons and daughters. No longer separated, no longer sons of wrath and disobedience but welcomed in his son Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1 Paul uses the idea of adoption, being made part of God’s family. It is a present reality that will have a future fulfilment.

Paul sums it up by then saying that we are saved by grace, through faith. The heart of the gospel. It is because of God’s undeserved love shown in the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something we can not do for ourselves or earn, but a gift freely given.  We do tend to think that by faith picks up our part but again in Greek it is a passive voice which means more that it is to do with the one that we put our trust in, it is the faithfulness of Christ.  We trust Jesus. Paul reiterates this by saying again we are saved by grace, it is not by our endeavors or work.

Maybe we are more used to thinking of being saved by applying to the idea of Jesus dying in our place … Paul uses the word kindness and again we are used to thinking in terms of sentiment or attitude when it comes to kindness, but here Paul uses it to offset the idea of being condemned of being objects of God’s wrath, as again it is used as a judicial term. Kindness has the idea of clemency. Being declared not guilty. We are accepted and welcomed into God’s family because we have received God’s clemency. By Grace Jesus Christ made it possible for us to be forgiven and receive his righteousness.  

Let’s move on to look at saved for the after picture. We are saved by grace Paul here gives us something of God’s purpose for saving us.

Firstly, God does it to show the great richness of his mercy. Just as in Genesis one we hear as God creates everything we hear it is good, and when he creates humans, it is very good, is a way of saying it gives praise to its creator. It shows the craftmanship of God, now this new creation this new being given life in Christ shows again God’s greatness and goodness.

In fact that word used in verse ten is that we are God’s handiwork, God makes us his masterpieces, it’s a Greek word we get the English word poem from. God displays his goodness through us, through blessing us. John Stott tells the story of a university administrator who has a portrait done when he retires and when it is unveiled says ‘no one will ask who the man in the painting is, they will ask who painted it”. The desire is that this new life we have in Christ will shine so much that people will see the brush strokes of God’s grace.

How is this to be accomplished, well says Paul we are not saved by works, by our own effort, but God has saved us for good works, which God prepared before in advance for us to do. In the scriptures of the Old Testament you have this picture of God’s preferred future, of a world which can only be described as the Kingdom of God, that reflects God’s goodness and character, God invites us to live in that new way that that is expressed in everything we do. One commentator used the example of  jean Val jean from Victor Hugo's le Misérables. Who is forgive for stealing a silver candlesticks from a catholic priest and is told by the priest that he has brough Val Jean's life and he should go and live his redeemed life well. Val jean becomes a good man caring for others, more than that he builds a factory that treats its workers justly and fairly in a age of exploitation of the poor. The town he is a paradigm of compassion and care for all people. That life he has been given spreads out and impacts all areas around him. The goodness flows from having been saved by grace…  Paul in Ephesians will go on to talk of a new people of God where jew and gentile live together in harmony, a hope that the Church in Christ can offer to a world split and divided. That the Spirit is at work for the church to be built up into unity and maturity and will speak of ways of putting that into practice. We are saved so we might show the wonder and grace of our heavenly Father.

How to finish… Once we were dead, enslaved, condemned, it is the human condition according to Paul… but God… because of God’s great love shown to us in Jesus life, death and resurrection we are made alive again, set free in Christ and welcomed in and seated with Christ. It’s not through anything we could do, it is a gift of God’s kindness. God then has good works for us to do, things that express this wonderful new life in Christ, that paint a picture for the world in this age and the age to come of God’s rich mercy. Today you may feel like that zombie. You may know you are lost in that spiritual deadness and need God’s grace. Don’t leave here without speaking with someone and asking them to help you to connect with the life giving power and love of Jesus Christ. Maybe you’ve found yourself slipping into a sleep state and have forgotten the wonder of God’s grace and love. I know as I get older that I forget things more readily. You need to again remember and experience afresh alive again of Jesus. Lets us all give God praise and thanks for this wonderful gift of new life by grace in Christ, and live it well.

Ephesians 1:1-2 Identifying with Paul's introduction to Ephesians

 

here is a link to a Spotify recording of this message preached at HopeWhangarei  June 15th 2025

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PxsF5337MgdqqRhxJg1Zq?si=rQJ0NhkaRpKybHpPar24vQ

Over the next six months we are going to be immersing ourselves in the letter to the Ephesians.

A letter that has been called the high point of Paul’s writing and theology, the queen of the epistles.

There are many people who have been bought to faith by reading Ephesians. If it were  presented in a paperback with endorsements printed on the back, you might have the words of prominent twentieth century Presbyterian minister, educator and missionary John A Mackey printed there.

“… this book saved my life…” he said after reading Ephesians as a boy amidst the rocks and stars of the Scottish Highlands …“I saw a new world… everything was new… I had a new outlook, new experiences, new attitudes to other people. I loved God. Jesus Christ became the centre of everything… I had been ‘quickened’; I was really alive.” 

It might be a bit of an insider joke, but I couldn’t help but think of the 1986 scifi film ‘The Highlander’ when Mackey spoke of being in the Scottish highlands and experiencing the quickening.

Ephesians continued to inspire and motivate him all his life. Mackey believed that Ephesians was for today, the most contemporary book in the bible. "As the apostle proclaimed God’s order in a time of social disintegration, so it offers us today community in a world of disunity, reconciliation in place of alienation and peace instead of war."

Likewise as I read it I see it offering hope and a way forward in a world that is wrestling with identity. Where people define themselves by gender, sexuality and racial grouping, and ideas like critical theory pit groups against each other in terms of power, in terms of oppressors and the oppressed, colonizer and the colonized, allies and haters, often with only a dim hope of resolution. Ephesians offers a new way  a new identity that gives real hope…being ‘in Christ’ a term used with several variants approximately 35 times in the letter. Karl Marx’s hope was in the new man and the new society but Ephesians gives us the hope of a new creation in Christ.

This morning, we are looking at the opening two verses. On one level they present us with a simple generic introduction to a letter in first century roman culture.  They tell us who it is from, the sender, who it is to, the recipient , and brings a greeting… Kia Ora, gidday. But really its so much more than that as Paul takes what is necessary, a social convention and nicety and transforms it into an introduction for the whole book. He transforms the identity of the sender and recipient and introduces to his message…

While it would be easy to start with the sender and the recipient, Paul’s introduction and greeting identify for us the central characters of this letter and its story. The main thing you notice about these introductory verses is the repetition of the mention of God and Jesus Christ. Each of the three lines focuses on God and Jesus. They and their work are going to be the center of what Paul is writing about. One commentator speaks of the enthusiasm and passion that comes through that repetition. If its not too disrespectful, Paul comes across almost like an excited Labrador pup. Yet behind that you catch a glimpse of the prominence and importance of this for us: The sender and recipient are identified in relationship to  them, and the sender and recipient are related to each other through God and Jesus Christ. His greeting is bought and is an extension of the work and ministry of God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace are not just sentiments and hopes for Paul’s readers they are concrete certain realities coming from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve used that same repetition for effect.

The Christian message and faith provides us with a starting point and a source for meaning and identify that is beyond our selves, our situation and how we are defined as an individual or as a group. It invites us to see our story in relation not to history and place, but a larger reality, God’s redemptive story. God working out God’s plans and purposes through Jesus Christ, in the world.

Look I should also add for those of you who are concerned about the trinity and wondering where the spirit is in this. In Ephesians the Spirit is mentioned and seen as at work. In his list of every spiritual blessing Paul talks of being marked with  a seal, showing we belong to God, that seal is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. In his prayers he prays we may know the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and identifies that power with the holy Spirit. The holy spirit gives gifts to the Church to grow us up into unity and maturity lacking nothing.    

Let’s identify the sender and recipient.

The sender we are told in Paul, there is some debate amongst scholars if it is Paul or student of Paul’s using him as a pseudepigrapha, claiming his authority. It’s a technical discussion, and there is enough evidence to see this letter being written by Paul. But Paul identifies himself in relationship to Jesus and to God. In Ephesians 4 Paul speaks of being a prisoner for the Lord so it is quite possible he is writing from prison.

Firstly, Paul calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. Apostle means a send one, and in the first century it indicated someone who was a sent official representative. Another word you might think of is the word herald. Apostle is used in several different ways in the New Testament, it applies to the twelve who were with Jesus in his ministry and met Jesus risen from the dead. It can also mean someone who has meet the risen Jesus outside that twelve, and in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul talks of being a witness to the risen Jesus as one untimely born. Later it comes to mean a missionary someone who has the authority of the gospel message.  Paul’s other favorite title for himself is that of a servant or slave of Christ, and he is not trying to obtain status through using apostle. Rather as a servant of Jesus he is acting on his masters’ orders. Paul here does not see being an apostle as an occupation he had chosen or earned, rather it is by the will of God.

We are reminded how Saul was a religious Jew, a pharisee amongst the Pharisees who had persecuted the church, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Paul’s life was changed, he now knew Jesus was the Messiah and God then chose him to be an apostle to the gentiles. In Ephesians Paul will talk of the mystery that the gospel was for the gentiles as well as the Jews that’s God’s plan all along was for the two to be one people in Christ.  We see Paul’s identity formed by God through meeting Jesus Christ, by grace. Paul shows us how that change of identity changes our attitudes and how we relate to others.  He is a totally different person in Christ.

Likewise the recipients of the letter are identified in relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. This letter from an early age has always been associated with the church in Ephesus but in the earliest manuscripts we have there there is no mention of Ephesus. It simply says to the saints in God, the faithful in Jesus Christ. This has lead some to see this epistle as a circular written to a group of churches. Possibly the churches of Asia Minor of which Ephesus is the major city. In Acts 19 we have a record of Paul’s three years of ministry in Ephesus and we are told that the gospel became know throughout Asia Minor by his ministry, so it would fit that Paul would write to those churches. Churches that were predominantly gentile which fits the emphasis of the message of the book.

Again we see that Paul identified his recipients in relationship to God and to Jesus. He calls them the saints in God. We normally associate the term Saint with people who are special who are morally superior people, who in the catholic tradition preformed miracles and worth of canonization. In protestant circles saint was a title from Celtic Christianity to denote the founder of a church, or a missionary. But in scripture saint is never used singularly of a person. It is always the saints, and it comes from the Greek word hagios which means being set aside and holy. Paul is saying the people that he is writing to have been set aside by god for his purposes. They are a holy people, as it says in 1 Peter 2:10. Like the instruments in the temple in the old testament were sent aside for God’s use. The te paipera tapu the maori bible uses the term te hunga tapu. Hunga means a group of people and of course Tapu means set aside from everyday mundane use for the sacred. Again its not because they were good enough it is because of God’s choosing. We can’t separate this word saints from the second identification Paul uses ‘the faithful in Christ. Again we might think of faithful as an attribute, a virtue we have. However it has more the sense that we have put our faith in Jesus Christ. It is because we have trusted in Jesus that we have been set aside for God, become his holy people. By grace as we confess our sin and turn to God, Jesus imparts his righteousness to us, and we are holy…Our identity comes from God by grace through Jesus Christ.

In the later manuscripts it does say in Ephesus. Ephesus was a spiritual heavy place, the center of the worship of the Greek Godess Artemis, we know that during Paul’s time the goldsmiths who made their living making idols to sell rioted because they feared that the gospel was making such inroads that it was cutting off their income source.  It was a city and region where jew and gentile would have lived very separate lives almost been at odds with each other. But now they equally have this new identity as God’s holy people through belief in Christ, and it changes how they relate and live in the world. It breaks down that enmity and calls them to live as family together in Christ. It calls them to love & follow Jesus ethics and way not the way of their pagan world. We too share this dual Identity in our time and setting, in Whangarei, in New Zealand in our twenty first century world with its challenges and difficulties, and  in Christ which we are given by grace and that calls us to live in a new way, that reflects God’s purposes and plans and God’s mission.

That is a good segue to look at the greeting that Paul uses for his readers. Grace to you and peace through God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve become used to Paul’s greeting that we don’t realize how radical it was for its original hearers. The traditional Greek greeting was charin which means rejoice or joyous greeting. But Paul uses a play on words and uses charis which sounds similar but means grace. So to Paul’s original listeners it would sound familiar but they would think ‘hold on there is something slightly different and new here’. But also Paul ties that together with the traditional Jewish greeting as well ‘Shalom’ peace. Writing to a church hat was working out how to be this new people of God together that was important. It is like in New Zealand it is becoming more and more common for people to greet one in te reo and English, and depending on the circumstance other languages as well. It is a way of articulating the hope of unity.  

But they are also not just pleasantries again they are made concrete and real as they come from God through Jesus Christ. It is by grace that we are bought into relationship with god, and here Paul emphasizes that new relationship by affirming that God is ‘our’ father. In Christ we are being bought together as children of God. AS john says in the prologue to his gospel to all who believed in him he gave the right to become the sons and daughters of the Lord most high. Later in Ephesians Paul will emphasis the universality of God’s saving grace by prefacing his prayer in chapter 3 by saying we bow the knee to the father from whom all families in heaven and earth takes their name. the book starts with Paul speaking of the grace of God as he recounts the spiritual blessing God has bestowed on those who believe. He will speak of how that has made it possible for diverse people to become one and that God ha given gifts to build the church up into maturity and unity. It is by grace, through Jesus Christ.

Peace shalom has the idea not of that feeling you might have sitting beside a calm lake or with the absence of conflict or stress, but rather it has to do with wellness, or as Leonard Sweet puts it right relationship. Peace with God, with one another, with the create world around us, with our possessions and with the spiritual realm. In the second half of the letter of Ephesians Paul will speak of how our new identity in Christ is worked out in those relationships, how we treat each other, how we relate in the power structures of the day… submit to one another… and how we deal with the spiritual forces arrayed against us… put on the whole armor of God. That peace comes though God’s grace but it is the work that we need to do putting that into practice in our lives, with the help of the Holy Spirit. In the beatitudes Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. We are called to be peace makers. Work at peace in our lives and world. Share the gospel so people can have peace with God, love one another, work at being one, that means dealing with injustices and conflicts, for the original readers it meant dealing with the divide between Jew and gentile.

We’ve brought those things together in the title of our series on Ephesians grace ‘every spirit blessing and peace ‘new life in Christ’

I just want to finish by inviting us to identify with Ephesians. Maybe as Ephesus wasn’t mentioned in those earliest of manuscripts it’s easy for us to slide our own address in there in Whangarei in New Zealand, in our twenty-first century home, hear yourself addressed as the saints in God, people set aside for the purposes the mission and glory of God, a hunga tapu. Hear that you are that because you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That it is by grace and hear the call for peace to live out of that new identity in a new way that reflects that wholeness, right relationships that God calls us into.  My Prayer is that as we work our way through Ephesians that you too may feel a quickening… and feel fully alive in Christ. That you may you know ‘Every spiritual blessing and new life in Christ'. 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.