Sit, Walk, Stand

SIT, WALK, STAND

Ephesians

Introduction

Watchman Nee was a leader in the indigenous church movement in China, establishing local churches in the 1930s. He was arrested in 1952 and found guilty of a large number of false charges. Nee was imprisoned until his death in 1972. He wrote hundreds of books to help believers in their faith. Among them, Sit, Walk, Stand, an exploration of three major themes in the book of Ephesians.

Sit - our position in Christ (Ephesians 2:6)

Walk - our life in the world (Ephesians 4:1)

Stand - our attitude to the Enemy (Ephesians 6:11)

This is our Christian biography. The development and ongoing experience of our spiritual life with Christ, with Others, and against Sin. It is a reality for us as we start our life with Christ, and as we live it out every day.

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is like most of his letters, divided into two sections. 1-3 doctrinal, 4-6 practical. He begins his letter with the gifts of grace that God gives believers: adoption, redemption, forgiveness, Holy Spirit, inheritance, “every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3-14). He follows this with a prayer that Christians would have the eyes of their hearts opened to know the hope to which we are called in Christ (Ephesians 1:15-23). Paul is leading us to his main message - and that is we have the power to live the life to which God calls us! In Chapter 2 he begins at the beginning and encourages us that the first place we find strength for the Jesus Life is by sitting with him.

1. SIT - Receive the Gift of God’s Grace (2:5-10)

Ephesians 2:5-10 ESV

...even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Stott: “…Only ‘mercy’ could reach the helpless, for ‘mercy’ is love for the down and out. We were under God’s wrath: only ‘love’ could triumph over wrath. We deserved nothing at God’s hand but judgment, on account of our trespasses and sins: only ‘grace’ could rescue us…for grace is undeserved favor. Why then did God act? Out of his sheer mercy, love, grace, and kindness.”

We begin our Christian life by receiving this grace. When we are seated with Christ, we are not making an effort to get him to love us or save us - He already has enacted that plan. Nee “The secret of deliverance from sin is not to do something but to rest on what God has done.” Even when we are baptized, it is an act of submission, not an act of the will. God is the only one who is working!

The same is true in our daily lives - in our frantic pace, we lose touch with God because we do not remember we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. When we SIT with Christ and allow the grace of Christ to transform our hearts and thinking. This is the foundation of our Christian life. Being seated with Christ enables us to WALK.

2. WALK - through this world with Christ (4:1-3)

Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

In Ephesians Paul issues seven instructions about the Christian walk / how to Conduct your life / Live your life. When we are seated with Christ, we are then able to walk with Him every day.

The Jesus life is empowered by God’s grace. It is a daily walk. Paul here gives five basic words of the Christian Walk.

Humility - “the virtue on which all the other virtues depend and from which they come.” (Barclay)

Gentleness - “Every instinct and every passion, every motion of his mind and heart and tongue and desire, under perfect control.” (Barclay)

Patience - two aspects (Barclay)

Endurance: The spirit that will never give in.

Longsuffering: Has the power to take revenge, but which never does so; refuses to retaliate.