The Second Best Day of My Life
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December 31, 1994
After 5 years of on and off dating, nearly 2 years of engagement Danielle and I got married.
We assembled at her home church with close to 300 guests, 10 attendants, a few musicians, many family members, a Bible teacher, and a pastor
We got dressed up
?We sang songs
?Read scripture
?Listened to challenges from a pastor and a Bible teacher
?Received blessings from our parents.
?We worshiped
?We said vows. While we had been preparing for a while with counseling, books, and audios, we committed to something that we knew was serious, but I don’t think we fully understood.
?You see, on that day, Danielle and I made 2 decisions.
?We decided to put off being single
-? actions
?- thoughts
?- motivations
?- commitments
?we decided put on being married to each other
?- actions - making decisions together, realizing that so many decisions would impact more than just ourselves individually, but now as a family
?- thoughts - we get to consider someone else
?- motivations
?Both of those decisions happened at one time on the same day.
?But in the 10,467 days since that initial decision, we both have been in the process of being renewed or transformed. This is in part because neither of us are the same person we were on that first date - as one person has famously said - my wife has been married to five different men, and all of them me. You see we’ve learned new things, experienced new things, matured, grown, failed, added children into the mix, changed jobs and careers, moved, added pets, buried family members, etc. We’re being renewed by each other and renewed by God.
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In the passage that we’re considering today, we’ll find that the decisions and transformation of marriage mirror our life in Christ and the decisions and transformation that happens there.
Open your Bibles to Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 17.
Leading up to this Paul has been challenging these Gentile Christians to begin acting like Christians. As we saw last week, we were challenged to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called - to live as though we earned it - all the while recognizing that we are saved by the gracious and loving gift of God alone. He then went on to talk about the unity of the church - how God called us into one body and provided gifts for us in the church in order to foster unity and growth.
Here, as we read a few minutes ago, Paul takes a similar approach to that which he has done before - providing some contrasting comments - you were once this way, now you are this way, so live accordingly.
So as Paul continues to encourage these Ephesian Christians to live out the life that they’ve been called into - he transitions to their minds by pointing out...
The futility of our old ways of thinking (17-19)
Tim Keller has noted that so often when people begin to investigate Christianity - they begin by asking about morality - asking about making changes in their lives. They might ask if they have to give up sleeping with their boyfriend or girlfriend or adjust how they give/spend their money and time or modulate how they interact with people in the office or school. For so many people, Christianity looks like a performance-based religion. If it seems that way because of something that is coming from the pulpit, if I communicate that primarily, then I’m not communicating correctly.
Paul notes here that the difference isn’t so much the morality, but the mentality.
Ephesians 4:17 ESV
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
Even though Paul is talking to Gentile Christians, he’s not referring to their ethnicity, but their worldview - their faith system, their religion, their way of thinking. Before Christ, we were stuck in a futile way of thinking - mired by selfish motivations proud notions of superiority.
Paul continues...
Ephesians 4:18–19 ESV
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
While Paul does begin to address their morality - notice that he says the root of their problem is their “darkened understanding” - they don’t know what they don’t know.
For example - people who might have a concept of God - they believe he exists and is generally good - they might think God wants them to be happy. So as a result, they begin making decisions and actions based on that world view - I will be happy if I do “x” and God will be happy with me. As a result, they pursue all of the things that we read about in verse 19.
Or, another way of thinking is that they might assume that God is a judgmental God. That he is only happy if we do certain things - if we act a certain way. So, in that line of thinking, they ask things like the rich young ruler...
Luke 18:18 ESV
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
So we hope that the answer revolves around...
going to church or any religious assembly or faith system (which is why some people might say, it doesn’t matter what you believe, but that you believe something), or
treating people a certain way
saying certain prayers
or simply being nice
or even superstitious rituals and omens.
Their thinking, their disconnectedness from God, deceives them into believing that it’s all about actions. Now, don’t get me wrong - actions do matter - but that’s not the starting point.
Let me illustrate this another way. I’ve been reading a book entitled Created to Draw Near by Edward Welch. His underlying premise is that we are created to be priests to God - people who are set apart for Him - intended to be in an intimate relationship with him. Welch illustrates this with the garden of Eden, the Tabernacle and even the Temple.
Regarding the tabernacle/temple and the sacrifices and artifacts that surrounded those places of worship, the OT law generally described things in two ways:
Holy
Common
The things that are common, were also divided into two categories
clean
unclean
If the holiest place of the tabernacle/temple was the “holy of holies” - that was the most restrictive - only a certain priest could go there at a certain time of year and a certain day and consecrating himself.
Just outside of that was the place where all of the priests could be.
Then there was the place where the ritual sacrifices could take place - of course those required clean animals - animals that we were without blemish, certain kinds of animals, offered by people who were clean - people who hadn’t been defiled by certain things.
Then, furthest away from the place of God is the place of the common-unclean things. These were people with certain diseases or who had touched something dead. These were animals with blemishes or animals that ate other unclean things - crabs, shrimp, pigs, etc.
Now, here’s where I’m going with this.
I think the “darkened” understanding - the old way of thinking that Paul is getting at is really a mentality that moves from unclean to clean. If I simply do certain things, then I’ll be clean. Or if I simply make amends for the bad things I’ve done (which made me unclean), then I’ll be clean again. So that old way of thinking is only a movement in action or activity - and not a movement in being.
We were intended to be in fellowship/communion with God - we were created to be near him - but our movement from unclean to clean is like passing through traffic pylons around the white house or the ellipse - but it doesn’t get us inside the gate and certainly doesn’t get us inside the residence.
The only way to pass from common to holy was/is through sacrifice.
We need a new way of thinking a new perspective - not a new thing to do. In other words, as we see in the next few verses...
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The fundamental difference of a new mind (20-24)
These next five verses are really one long sentence in Greek and Paul uses some language and wording that is unique here - both in the New Testament and in all of Greek literature.
Ephesians 4:20 ESV
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
Normally, when we learn - we are learning something or we learn about someone. It is strange then, in any language, for Paul to state that we learn someone - Christ.
Peter O’Brien states that this phrase...
The Letter to the Ephesians (B. Live according to the New Humanity, Not the Old, 4:17–24)
is without parallel. The phrase ‘to learn a person’ appears nowhere else in the Greek Bible, and to date it has not been traced in any prebiblical Greek document.
O’Brien continues...
"Just as he is the subject of the apostolic preaching and teaching (1 Cor. 1:23; 15:12; 2 Cor. 1:19; 4:5; 11:4; Phil. 1:15; cf. Acts 5:42), so he is the one whom the hearers ‘learn’ and ‘receive’. This formulation signifies that when the readers accepted Christ as Lord, they not only welcomed him into their lives but also received traditional instruction about him..."
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"Learning Christ means welcoming him as a living person and being shaped by his teaching. This involves submitting to his rule of righteousness and responding to his summons to standards and values completely different from what they have known."
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This learning Christ is so much more than the old WWJD (what would Jesus do) bracelets of 25 years ago. It’s not an outward obedience to some moral or religious standard, but rather a transformation that takes place.
It begins with an understanding that “truth is in Jesus.”
Paul continues...
Ephesians 4:21 ESV
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
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This is not “a” truth or even the truth, but rather truth itself. English editors add the direct article “the” so that it reads more understandably in our language - but in Greek, there is no “the” - truth is in Jesus. He is the source of truth because He is fully God.
Jesus said
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
So what, how does this apply to a new way of thinking?
Well, I’m glad you asked. When we learn Christ, we learn that he not only was fully God - but fully human. He completely fulfilled the requirements of the law- thereby making a way for us to gain access to God - entrance to the
- holy place (the place of priests) and
?- the most holy place - the place of God.
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Let’s continue through the text, and this might begin to make a bit more sense.
Paul stated...
Ephesians 4:20–21 ESV
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
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He then continues by helping us understand what we should have learned in Jesus, in Christ, in the gospel...
Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
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Two decisions:
- Put off
?- Put on
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Bracket one on going process that continues happening to us - renewal
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These decisions to “put off” and “put on” are in a certain form in Greek that we don’t really have in English. Keller notes that this form (the aorist form) refers to something that was a “single, past, finished action.”
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In other words, when we first learned Christ...
We put off our old self
?...never to take it up again
?This involved that old futile thinking that ...
?produced actions which simply moved from unclean to clean and back - but didn’t really get into God’s space
?viewed pleasure as worship.
??
We put on the new self (Christ)
...which can never be removed
This involves taking up thinking/believing that
Jesus Christ gives me access to the holy place and the most holy place - which is why at the crucifixion that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom.
Jesus’ righteousness fulfills all of our obligations for the law
Putting on Christ - is not a performance - but a new position. Only priests can enter into the holy areas - his holiness and righteousness gives us access. They only gain that access by being consecrated, which happens through sacrifice.
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Notice in verse 24 that this new self recognizes that we were “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
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You see, common things can’t get into the holy place - only holy things can. Holy things have to be purified - often with fire. Dirty things are cleaned - washed - only to be made dirty again. Holy things are purified - removing the impurities from within. For a person to enter the holy place they had to be atoned for. This is where the sacrifices came in.
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Again - the only way to go from clean to holy was through sacrifice.
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That’s essentially what Jesus did on the cross. He didn’t simply wash us like we wash a garment - he purified us from within like we might purify a precious metal.
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His action and our response (putting off/putting on) by faith essentially moved us from being common to holy.
?
You see, normally we think about putting off and putting on something - like an article of clothing - but as O’Brien states...
"However, neither the Old Testament nor the extrabiblical Greek writings refer to putting on a ‘person’.
The Pauline expression, then, is without exact literal parallel."
Nestled between those two decisions is ...
One long process of Renewal.
Paul states that we are “to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.” This too, as with other phrases that Paul uses in this paragraph, is quite odd. It seems strange that it would be the “spirit of [our] minds.” This renewal - which is happening to us by God is something that is happening in our “inmost being.” (O’Brien ) It’s a transformation from within.
We’ve put off our common old-self and put on the holy life of Jesus . Now, for the rest of our lives, we are being purified in such a way that we begin to fully represent and live out the holy life we’ve put on.
O’Brien states...
"the implication is that ‘the pattern, motivation and direction of our thinking needs to be changed’"
Whereas in the past we might have performed in order to appease God or in an attempt to gain access to God, now, we perform/act because Jesus has given us access to God. As we progressively are renewed we resemble more and more the “true righteousness and holiness” God created us for.
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Closing thoughts
Put off your old self
- stop trying to play a religious game
- stop trying to gain access to God’s space by performance
Put on Christ
- gain access to God’s because of Jesus Christ - receive His free gift
- Perform - because you’ve gained access.
Let God renew/transform you. Yield to his leading/prompting. Allow him to so change you that the actions you exhibit become a natural outworking of your life in him.
at school - thinking not so much about what a Christian should do (actions that are moral, loving, generous) but what Jesus has saved you for - he is doing something new - it may look the same on the outside but the motivation is from within
at home - asking God to guide you to be the mother or father or son or daughter that he made you to be - letting the Word and the Spirit convict, not the expectations of a certain person or church
at work - doing your best for Gods glory and not worrying as much about the credit -
What does this have to do with commU.N.I.T.Y.?
?In community we get to ...
?- share how God is reforming/transforming us
?- show how we see God reforming/transforming each other
live out the fruit of that transforming life - in speech, life, love, forgiveness, service (in fact, the next several verses Paul gets quite practical regarding how we interact with one another - which we will touch on next week.
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I began talking about the second best day of my life. Let me close by sharing a bit about…
?The Best Day of My Life
?1978
?Put off old self - repented of my sin
?Put on Christ - asked Jesus into my heart
?Gradual transforming renewal by God
?some immediate change
?some progress
?some falling
some succeesses
But thankfully...?
Philippians 1:6 ESV
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Benediction:
Romans 12:2 ESV
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Sources:
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Hoehner, Harold W. “Ephesians.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.
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Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
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O’Brien, Peter Thomas. The Letter to the Ephesians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999.
