Sermon: "Intentionality"

1st in the "Relationship Builders" series.
Delivered January 28, 2007 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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Good morning. If you have been here every Sunday in January so far that's a good thing, but besides being a good thing, you have understood that we have selected a certain verse for our theme verse for 2007 and it's: "Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." John has done a great job unpacking that and helping us to understand what that means. But today as we shift in to the New Testament for our preaching, not just today, but over the next three weeks, we will learn that consecrating ourselves before God not only involves our vertical relationship with God and being holy before God, but it involves intentionality in our relationships with each other. It's why we kept this light strand out of the attic for just one more week. Now, I know that the sight of these things, especially when they are jumbled like this can make grown men shutter, but try to bear with me.

First of all, this looks very very different from this. See this looks very different from this. Now I want to ask you about the lit ones; just in what way are these lights representative of Christian community? Anyone? We are all different, okay. We are connected. Good. What else? Working together to provide beauty and light. There you go. All those answers are correct. All of them are correct, but in order for something to be bright and beautiful and to show itself to the world as unique, it's got to be connected to the power source. That's what the apostle is advocating in his letter to the Ephesians. For three chapters he has taught his listeners about one who is the source of all light and life and power. Why? To the end that we might draw from that power, to show something beautiful to the world when Jesus is working through each one of us for God's glory. You see, what Paul is trying teach his friends in Ephesus, and trying to teach us today is that these lights are not about each one looking individually pretty, as nice as each one of these is. Today's text is not teaching simply about each Saint growing in maturity, although that's very important. But he is teaching about all of us growing toward him who is the power source; the head, learning to live as part of a great whole, so that all of us together can create something that none of us can create on our own.

I am reading from Ephesians 4:17 to 5:2 because these verses are going to guide us today and for the next three weeks. I am going to read the whole text, but I am only going to preach on Verses 17 to 24. In some ways I feel a little bit like a paratrooper coming in to a jungle and not really knowing where we are, but again Paul has been talking about connecting with Jesus and doing some amazing things, walls being knocked down between people and because of this power something beautiful can happen. So listen to what he talks about as living as children of the light together. First, let's pray.

Lord, we ask that you would guide our thoughts as we look at your scriptures, suit a message to each one of us as we need to hear and to all of us together, we ask it in your name. Amen.

"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

If we are going to burn brightly and beautifully for God then there are certain ways of living, thinking, relating and behaving that have got to stop. That is where this passage begins. If the body of Christ, the church, we who confess our need for Jesus and follow him, if the church is to be built up as Paul describes in the context just before Verse 17, then certain ways of living and relating have got to stop. It's not uncommon for faith communities to speak of the necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus and then neglect relationships between and among those who are God's family because of their relationship with Jesus. Our Lord made it very clear what our defining form of witness would be; not our building, not our programs, not even our service, as important as all those things are. He said it very clearly in John 13:34 and 35. He said,

"Love one another as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another."

It's a singular, defining focus of Jesus' teaching that impacts what the church is supposed to be. Our healthy relational functioning is as much as part of God's grand plan as each individual's relationship to Jesus. So just as Paul in the context speaks of the church being built up, to build properly sometimes things must stop before progress can be made.

We have a wonderful illustration of this in the past week out on the West lot where our new sanctuary, multipurpose center is going to be. This past week construction, digging, and excavation came to a stop because a drainpipe has to come out for a proper foundation to be laid. Right now we are not sure if it needs to be dug out or pulverized and packed down, but ignoring it is simply not an option if we are going to build something sound. Healthy structures require solid foundations and so all through this text that I have read for you today we have seen that Paul is talking about things that have to go or have to stop. He says, "Strip this off, get rid of that, don't do this, don't talk like this" and that sounds all very negative, but the point is that stuff has to go in order for healthy relating and something beautiful to be shown forth to the world.

But today we are looking at foundational matters. We are looking at Intentionality in relationship building. So let's see what a solid foundation looks like. And the rest of my time is simple. What needs to stop? Why does it need to stop? And how can it stop? is essentially the rest of what I am sharing with you today.

What needs to stop? Well, just like the old drainpipe in the back lot, listen to Verse 17. "So I tell you this friends, if love is to be built well among us, I insist on this in the Lord" Paul said. It's almost like he is saying, I am telling you this and I am insisting on it in the Lord and it is like the Lord is really saying this right now, not just me. Old behaviors, godless, self-oriented, pre-Jesus behaviors have got to stop. They've got to stop because that means living in a way that produces death. No one ever planted weeds in their garden, but that's how silly it sounds to uproot old ways and then replant them. No one ever takes in the trash. Paul then names the weeds and the trash. He says, and let me just say this, if you said these things to someone they would be insulted. Just listen a minute. "You are a foolish thinker. You are intellectually blacked out. You are disconnected from God's life. You are ignorant on purpose. You have a petrified heart. You have no feeling or sensitivity whatsoever and you are an indiscriminate glutton that doesn't care who you hurt to get what you want." Wouldn't you be insulted if someone said that to you? Now I bet there is not one of us that looks at this list in the first few verses of this text and asks "Is it I Lord?"

But Paul was talking to Christians in Ephesus, a place that was filled with idols. If you want to check that out read Acts 19 sometime and you will get some of the historical background of his interactions in Ephesus. And so he is talking in to this culture and they may have been wondering if idolatry could be graded on a curve. See, I look at this and I look at all of these things and I wonder, I think, can I do these things a little and still live well within myself and in my relationships with others? Unless you think I am preaching to everybody, okay, cut it out, this is all about being good moral people, I am not. I am asking have you ever felt like two different people at times? When it comes to things that have to stop haven't you said to yourself like you are one person here and another person here, "okay now, let's stop eating Twinkies" right, haven't you done that? Okay, let's watch how much you are indulging in and then you just fill in the blank; eating, drinking, angering, voyering, controlling, haven't you done that? Haven't you stood next to yourself and said, "Okay, now you just need to stop this." You see to build well we can't take out three-quarters of that old drainpipe. It's all got to go. There is no idolatry on a curve. In Verse 22 says it clearly, you were taught to put off this old self, this old person, strip it off, tear it out, pulverize it, extract it, because it's being corrupted, this old nature inside of us is being corrupted and it will be hardened and you will be hardened to God if you don't get rid of it all. The verb tense is very clear. It's a once-for-all definitive action of putting off like death. It's like dying for something; to a former way of living and conducting yourself. That's what needs to stop; all that old self-stuff.

Now, why does it need to stop? Because it is producing death and not life as Jesus taught. It's not the truth that we have discovered in Jesus. It betrays life as God intended it to become. It will kill you and it will kill your relationships if you don't put off the old self. If you think you can live like a buzzard; buzzards are attracted to dead things. Why stop being fooled by deceitful desires? Think about those two words. Desires that deceive you. Why stop that? Because it ends in death. Speaking of buzzards, one was flying over the Niagara River. About this time of year it was bitterly cold for weeks and it spied a carcass floating down the river, a pretty large carcass. It looked really really good, big enough to lock on to and feast on and float on for miles. And that buzzard fed well, but as it headed toward the Niagara Falls and tried to fly away, it found that its claws were frozen in to the very thing that seemed so appetizing and plummeted to its death. So Paul says, "Put it off." When he was talking about this stuff to the Romans he said, "Don't yield to the buzzard nature." He didn't use that word, but that's what he was saying, because to yield means to lend yourself, to present yourself, to offer yourself, to put yourself at one's disposal, you are putting yourself all to these old things that produce death. So he is saying, "Don't yield your body, don't yield your eyes, don't yield the members of your body, your hands, your mind, your will, don't yield to that which seems inviting but ends in death.

That's why it needs stop and of course the best question of all is; how can it stop? By sticking to the truth that's found in Jesus. One commentator believed that Verses 20 through 22 was using purposefully a school metaphor because Paul never preached to this group of Ephesians. And he was talking about a school of Jesus and the motto of the school was Truth is in Jesus. That is what would be written over the doorway of the main hall of this school; Truth is in Jesus. And he is saying to them that when you enrolled in Jesus school you had a course in overcoming spiritual stupidity, which is what we described in Verse 17 to 19, and you knew from that class that you would never go higher with Jesus by all those old things. That is like a derelict finding himself on the top of Mt. Everest; it's crazy and it would never happen. No, you went to Jesus school and you graduated with a degree in the truth and here is the truth; holy fruits come from holy roots.

So not only is it necessary to put off the old stuff and the dead life, but now listen there is three infinitives in here. You were taught to put off your old self, to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God. Now listen carefully; the first one is about dying once and for all. The second one about being renewed in the attitude of your minds is a continuous sense. It's right from Romans 12, "Don't be conformed to the world. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds." And the last one, putting on a new self is again an act of repentance, of putting on Jesus.

Listen, it is a new creation that we need, not renovation. It is rebirth that we need, not repair. The real us in Jesus requires a repentant lifestyle continuously through a transformed mind in scripture putting on the new you in Jesus; not a new and improved version of the old you, a totally new you in Christ. The old has passed away. The new has come. It's a new creation that Paul is talking about; living in to a transformational life that more and more looks like Jesus. See this new self is not manufactured from within. It's created by God's spirit and it's placed in us by God. It's Jesus himself. And Paul says that that new creation is like God, created like God, the image of God in righteousness, how we value each other, how we live out right relationships and holiness how we live in every respect to honor God.

I want to just peek at Ephesians 5:3, it's the very next verse after the whole text that I read and I want you to see something about the word holiness. It says,

"Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed" and listen carefully to this last phrase "because these are improper for God's holy people."

See, holiness has to do with what is proper. Dirt is proper outside in the garden, but dirt is improper on your rug. Right? That is what holiness has to do with. It has to do with what belongs where. That is why we say things are dirty, because they are improper; they are not aligned with the new creation in Jesus Christ. Certain behaviors and relationships are proper and others are unholy and improper and we are going to look at those over the next few weeks: what those are. But for now, today, foundationally we are reminded to put on Jesus, to walk in his power, to be more like eagles than buzzards. You know that verse, "Those who wait upon the Lord will exchange their strength" that is what it really means. They will exchange their strength. Eagles don't fly only on their own strength; they fly on the infinite power of the wind. As an eagle soars it rests and exchanges its strength for the power of the wind. The flight ceases; the eagles flight actually ceases and becomes upheld and dependent on something much more powerful than it. The mystery of the eagle's flight is that it rests on the power of the wind and the union occurs. Eagle becomes a visible expression of the invisible power of the wind. Solid, beautiful, powerful, witnessing relationships are empowered by God in Christ. With that power and strength as foundational we will learn how to relate better and we will rise upward together in him.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would seal this word to our hearts, that you would help us to see that in order for us to relate well to one another and with one another and together as a witness to the world that certain things have to go, because they produce death and they get in the way of each other in our relationship with you. Lord, only your holy spirit can help us with these things, this is not about remorse and renovation Lord, its about death and rebirth. Be born in us again today Lord, for we ask it in your name. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org