1. The first step to walking Jesus’ call is a worthy walk.
2. The second step to walking Jesus’ call is a well-disciplined walk (4:2-3)
3. The third step to walking Jesus’ call is a worshipping walk (4:4-6)
EPHESIANS 4:1-6
One of the most memorable moments in a parent’s life is when your children take their first steps. You start by bouncing them on your lap while they’re standing up. You bicycle their fat little legs. Then they get enough strength in their legs where they can stand as long as you’re holding their hands. Their tiny little hands wrap around your fingers as they wobble and wiggle and finally drop to their bottom. Then they begin to hold on to other things like coffee tables and stand up. Well, at least with any child other than the first one. With my oldest, I think we took out every piece of furniture that might have possibly had a corner on it. We were scared to death we were going to break her. By the time the third child came along, I don’t even think we put gates up anymore. If he falls down, pick him up, dust him off and patch the holes. He’ll be alright. But when their legs finally get strong enough and they finally decide to let go and take those first steps, it’s a day you never forget. What a blessing it is to be able to walk. If you’ve ever been unable to walk for whatever reason, you realize what a special gift it is. Have you ever thought about what it takes to be able to walk? Did you know that it takes over 200 muscles in your body working in harmony to take one step? Dozens of muscles relax as dozens more contract at the same time. Scientists describe walking as nothing more than falling forward and catching yourself over and over and over again. The body’s weight shifts forward to the point that it is getting ready to fall. Then your foot goes forward, makes contact with the ground and catches you. And then you do it again. When you look at the way God put your body together, it’s amazing. The way your feet are shaped, the way your legs work, the way the joints in your knees and hips work. The cartilage, tendons and muscles. God shaped them and built them the way they are because He built your body for walking. Even though He put all that padding on our posteriors, He built us for walking—not sitting around. And that’s the way He built His church as well. He didn’t build us for us just to sit around. He built us for walking. Just like with our little babies, one of the first things we have to learn how to do is to walk. That’s what Paul is talking to these Ephesian Christians about. He begins this practical living section of his letter by teaching them how to walk. I want us to learn to walk this morning. I want us to wrap our hands around Jesus’ fingers this morning and learn how to walk the way He wants us to. In order to do that, we’re going to look at three steps to walking the way Jesus calls us to. The first step to walking Jesus’ call is a worthy walk.
EPHESIANS 4:1
Jesus calls us to a worthy walk. Paul reminds us of where he was when he wrote this letter. He was a prisoner in Rome at the time. Now, I’ve never been in prison, but one of the worst things about being in prison would have to be the fact that you can’t freely move around. You can’t go where you want. You have to go when the guards tell you to go, and stop when they tell you to stop. As we read in Acts, there were times when Paul was even put in stocks. Stocks were painful devices that made it completely impossible to even move, much less walk around. There is no indication that Paul was placed in stocks in Rome. But, even if he wasn’t, he couldn’t just get up and walk around wherever he wanted. He might have even been physically chained to a guard. But even though he can’t physically get up and walk around like he would like, he tells his readers to have a worthy walk. He tells them to walk worthy of the calling they had been called to. The King James says, “that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” Literally, in the original it says, “walk worthy of the calling you’ve been called to.” That word vocation is the same word for called at the end of the verse. Well, that begs the question, what is the calling we’ve been called to? That’s what Paul talked about in the first 3 chapters. We’re called to recognize Jesus Christ for who He is and what He’s done for us. We’re called to recognize our sin as an offence to Him and turn from that sin and call on Him to forgive us. We’re to turn to Him in faith believing that He is who He said He is and has done what He said He did. We’re to unite with a local body of believers in order to strengthen one another and love one another. That’s what we’re called to. That’s our calling that he’s already spent 3 chapters talking about. But now Paul is telling us to walk worthy of that calling. Did you ever get that lecture when you were a kid? You know the one. You usually got it before you went over to someone’s house or out with your friends. It usually sounded something like this, “Remember who you are.” What that was supposed to mean was that however we acted was a direct reflection on who we are and where we came from. That’s kind of what Paul is saying. Except instead of saying, “remember who you are,” he’s saying “remember whose you are.” Well, as Christians, we need to remember Whose we are. We carry His name. That means that He called us, we didn’t call Him. He called us for His use. He called us to bring Him glory. He called us to do His works. He called us to live like Him. To be like Him. To walk worthy of carrying His name. Don’t get me wrong—we can never be worthy of what Christ has given us. But that isn’t what Paul is telling us. He isn’t telling us to be worthy. He’s telling us to walk worthy. Walking is one step at a time. It’s falling forward and catching yourself over and over again. It’s a process—a journey—not a destination. It’s a day-to-day struggle of becoming more and more like the person whose name we bear. Are the things we do as a church worthy of carrying the name of Jesus? Are the things we do as individuals worthy of carrying the name of Jesus? Are you walking worthy of the name you hold? Are you walking worthy of your call? The first step to walking Jesus’ call is a worthy walk. The second step is a well-disciplined walk.
EPHESIANS 4:2-3
Jesus calls us to a well-disciplined walk. Discipline isn’t a very popular subject these days. As a matter of fact, if you discipline your kids, you have a pretty good shot of either being in a police line-up or being on Oprah for child abuse. Of course I’m not advocating child abuse. Any reasonable person knows the difference between discipline and abuse. A story is told that a man took his new bride for a carriage ride on their honeymoon. Apparently they got a nervous horse, because a piece of paper flew across the road and the horse bolted. The man regained control over the horse and said, “that’s one.” Later on in the ride, a rabbit jumped out and the horse bolted again. When he regained control the second time, he said, “that’s two.” A few minutes later, there was a loud noise and the horse bolted again. The man said, “that’s three” and pulled out a gun and shot the horse dead. His new bride was appalled. She said, “Honey, I can’t believe you just shot that horse. That’s awful.” Her husband looked at her and said, “that’s one.” Like I said, any reasonable person knows the difference between discipline and abuse. But the reason we discipline our children is so they will grow up to have self-discipline. Paul is calling these believers to have self-discipline. To have a well-disciplined walk. And then he tells them what that looks like. He tells them five areas they are supposed to be disciplined in. First, they are to be lowly. Lowly is the old King James word that simply means to be humble. Humility isn’t something you just have or don’t have. It’s something you have to work at—something you have to discipline yourself to have. When you’re humble, you’ll seek other people’s wants and needs ahead of your own. You’ll have your own opinions and your own desires, but you will willingly give them up in the spirit of unity and love. We’re not only to be lowly, we’re also to be gentle. Another word for that is meek. Meekness is always evident when we’re truly humble. Now, don’t get confused, meekness isn’t weakness. It is strength under control. The word was used to describe the training of wild animals. A saddle horse has every bit as much strength and power as a wild mustang. It’s just that the saddle horse’s power is useful. Because he is meek, his strength and power can be effectively used to accomplish the will of his master. The strength and power of the wild mustang is wasted on nothing. Just like that useful saddle horse, meekness doesn’t come easily. Some of us are harder to break than others. But it takes discipline and work. The third area of discipline is longsuffering. I love that King James word. Most of the newer translations use the word patience, but that just doesn’t quite get it. We have to discipline ourselves to be longsuffering. The idea behind longsuffering is exactly what it sounds like. We should be able to suffer a long time without it affecting our demeanor. I can whine about getting a cold. But when I see people like Margaret, and Jack, and Mary Sue physically suffering the way they are and praising God anyway, it shows me what longsuffering really is. Longsuffering is praising God no matter what your circumstances. Whether you’re healthy and wealthy, or whether you’ve lost everything like Job. And that doesn’t come automatically. It takes work. It takes a conscious effort. It takes discipline. The fourth area of discipline is bearing with one another in love. That should be easy, right? Well, it would if we were all humble and meek and had longsuffering. But we don’t. Sometimes my pride breaks through. That’s when you have to bear me up in love with your longsuffering and humility. Sometimes we might give in to our circumstances and lose our longsuffering. Or, worse yet, we might stumble in sin. That’s when we bear each other up with our humility. Instead of condemning one another with gossip and idle talk, we realize that we’re susceptible to the same things. We bear them up and build them up by holding them accountable. The word that’s used for bearing with brings to mind words like patience, perseverance, and understanding. It’s not mere tolerance for one another. It’s not just being friendly with one another. It has the idea of carrying one another. In areas that you’re weak, I’m supposed to pick you up and carry you. Not as the pastor, but as your Christian brother. And we can’t pick each other up if we’re busy putting one another down. If we’re focused on each other’s faults and shortcomings, we aren’t bearing with one another in love. We aren’t carrying each other. And the thing about it is, if I’m carrying you, who am I thinking about? I’m thinking about you. I’m no longer focused on my selfish wants and desires and I’m beginning to care about your needs. That’s love. That’s the kind of love that brings honor and glory to God. It brings honor and glory to God because that’s the kind of love He shows to us. Selfless love. Self-emptying love. Self-sacrificing love. The love that Jesus showed when He took on the form of a servant, emptied Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We’re to discipline ourselves to be humble, meek, longsuffering, and bear with one another in love. The final part of our well-disciplined walk is that we are to endeavor to keep unity. The word that’s translated endeavor is the exact same word that Paul uses when he tells Timothy to study to show himself approved. A lot of meaning is packed into that one word. It means to eagerly, earnestly and diligently work at something. It is a hard working word. In other words, Paul is telling us that we need to eagerly, earnestly and diligently work hard at keeping unity. It’s not something that we just pray for and it happens. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the unity of the Spirit, so we have to pray for it. But, although it won’t happen without prayer, it requires work. Hard work. Hard work that only the Holy Spirit can enable us to do. But hard work that He expects us to do. It requires His empowerment of us, but it requires our initiative with each other. You and I can’t just sit back and hope unity happens. It will only happen if we eagerly, earnestly and diligently take the Holy Spirit empowered initiative with each other and work at it. It takes work. It takes discipline. But discipline is what Jesus calls us to. He calls us to a well-disciplined walk. He calls us to a worthy walk, a well-disciplined walk, and finally, he calls us to a worshipping walk.
EPHESIANS 4:4-6
Jesus calls us to a worshipping walk. Back in the early ‘70’s, a group called Three Dog Night had a song called “One is the loneliest number.” I don’t think Paul would agree with them. He might say, “One is the only-est number.” In these three verses, Paul uses the word “one” 7 times. Do you think he’s trying to make a point here? Do you think unity is important to him? It’s very important to him. But, as I’ve said before, everybody wants unity. Even pagans and atheists don’t like chaos and bickering. But why was it so important to Paul that these Ephesian Christians be unified? Because everything about the Christian faith is about One. One Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear o Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” And because He is one God, He gave us one calling into His salvation. He called us into His salvation, gave us one faith, and baptized us by His Holy Spirit into one body—the church. If we, as His body—the church. If we aren’t unified. If there is discord and strife, it drags God’s unified nature through the dirt. And I don’t have to tell you that God doesn’t take kindly to His nature being drug through the dirt. He is one and by virtue of His Son’s shed blood, we are made one. Remember, the middle wall of partition that we talked about a few weeks ago? It’s gone. Our natural enmity for one another is gone when we’re saved. It’s washed away by the blood of the Lamb—our one Lord. By grace through one faith. That is the one hope of our calling. The calling to a worthy walk. The calling to a well-disciplined walk. And the calling to a worshipping walk. We were made for walking. What is your walk like this morning? Are you walking worthy of Jesus’ call on your life? Maybe you haven’t recognized Jesus’ call. Maybe you haven’t surrendered your life to Him in the first place. If you haven’t, the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. When the music sounds in a few minutes, come forward and surrender your life to Him. Maybe you know you’re saved this morning, but you know you’re not walking worthy of your salvation. Maybe you’re harboring bitterness, or anger, or hurt. Maybe you’ve not shown discipline in your walk with Jesus. Maybe you’ve been prideful instead of humble. Arrogant instead of meek. Short tempered instead of longsuffering. Putting others down instead of bearing them up in love. Sowing discord instead of earnestly cultivating unity. If you’re not walking worthy of your salvation, it’s a bright new day. And our One Lord is in charge of it. Repent before Him this morning. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The only thing that’s standing between you and a worthy walk with Christ is your pride. Don’t let your pride keep us from the wonderful hope of unity He’s given us.
