Preached in Markham Baptist Church, September 18, 2005

BECOME WHAT YOU ARE! PART 1: SAINTS IN CHRIST

Today we begin a series focusing on the New Testament book of Ephesians. It is one of 14 letters attributed to the apostle Paul. These letters were written for instruction, encouragement and correction. It is the word of God. As one scholar has said, “this letter reveals itself as the work of the Holy Spirit as clearly as the stars declare their worker to be God.”¹ (John Stott page 22) Part of the New Testament, if you haven’t found it yet and have difficulty – I sometimes get flustered with the order of the New Testament letters, “Where does Galatians fit – after Ephesians or before?” I have always found the acrostic, “GEPC” to be helpful in remembering the order of those books, The General Electric Power Company.

The letter begins with verse 1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” So the letter is written by Paul, an apostle. In a general sense that means messenger, or one who is sent. In a narrow sense it refers to one who is and sent AND who had seen the resurrected Lord ( 1 Corinthians 9:1). Paul was both - sent and he has seen a vision of the Lord (Acts 9).

So Paul is a messenger of Jesus Christ, not because he wanted to be but because God willed that Paul be his messenger. He is the author of this letter.

Now, the key verse, I believe in Ephesians is found in chapter 4:1: “As a prisoner of the Lord then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

I paraphrase this as “Become what you are!” Become what you are - this is the emphasis of the letter. It is to encourage Christians, you and me, to understand all that God has done for us in Christ, all that God has transformed us into, all that God has given to us – and to encourage us to live up to it. Become what you are.

Well, who are we? What are we? And the first three chapters of the book answers that question. The privileges of the Christian. And the last three chapters of the book outline how we are to live in light of what we have become. The practice of the Christian. Become what you are.

I am really excited about our study of this book. We’ll be examining it together in our worship for the next 10 weeks and I’ve asked the small groups to also study this book with the hopes that you will delve deeper and reflect more personally on what is being said to us in this letter. But I’m excited about studying this letter with you because I pray that you will discover five things:

Who you are in Christ. God has done tremendous, fantastic, great and wonderful things for us all.
A deeper love for God as you discover all the love and grace he has for you.
A great confidence in doing the things that God wants you to do. If you ever felt inadequate or ill equipped to do what God has asked you to do, this book will assure you that you do indeed have what it takes to do the will of God in your life.
A greater confidence in facing the evils of this world. Satan seeks to devour us and that can be frightening, but as this book is read, I think you will discover that we have nothing to be afraid of and in fact we can join the struggle against evil with boldness.
Some practical lessons about how to deepen your relationship with your spouse and your fellow Christians.

I pray that this book will affirm you and God’s love for you and will change you as you allow it to sink into your heart.

Become what you are says the book of Ephesians. So who are we? And we begin at chapter 1 verse 1 – having already discovered the author we discover the audience. “To the saints who are in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

And we discover first that we are saints. Now when we think of saints we think of a special class of Christian who has 3 characteristics – they are especially holy and virtuous, they have performed some kind of miracle and finally, they are dead. We speak of dear old saints in the church – no one every speaks of young strong saints. But this common definition of a saint has nothing to do with what the Bible says is a saint.

The Biblical definition is one who has been set apart, separated. It comes from the same root word as sanctified. In the New Testament it is a standard term used to describe an ordinary Christian. Read the introductory verses of Paul’s letters and see what you find, for example, the letter to the Romans, being rich in theology is not addressed just to leaders or to theological students, but to the rank and file of Roman Christians, “To all God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints.” Or take the very affectionate letter to the Philippians it is addressed “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.”

So, listen. If you are a believer, you are a saint, set apart by God.

So that means that what makes you and me a saint is not what I do, or what you do, but what God has done for me, and has done for you. It is God who has set you apart. It is God who has sanctified you. You are a saint. Do me a favour right now - turn to the person beside you and introduce yourself and say, “Hello my name is Saint …..”

I know it’s hard. We don’t think of ourselves as saints. And our spouse, how many of you when you said that to your spouse – what kind of reaction did you get? Did she roll her eyes?

I know it’s hard, but here’s the truth. When God looks at you, He sees you as a saint. As one separated, dedicated to Him.

We don’t feel like we can call ourselves saints because we’ve grown up with the wrong definition – but listen, saint and sinner are not incompatible terms, they refer to the same person! You and me!

Now here is the application. Listen carefully, because this is great news - we are saints not because we have achieved a high level of virtue – “she’s such a saint for living with that man for all these years!” – but we are saints because of what God has done for us. Because of the riches that Christ has given to you. You start to look at yourself in a whole different way.

Tom Holladay points out that the Christian life isn’t trying to achieve sainthood, you try to be the best person you can and maybe at old age you achieve sainthood. That’s not what the Christ life is. The Christian life isn’t a life of achieving in that sense. The book of Ephesians teaches us that God has already given us everything and all we are doing is possessing what is rightfully ours through faith in Christ. It is living in the power of what God has achieved for you and for me.²

That takes the pressure off. The Christian life is not about trying to be good. It’s realizing that God has separated us and now called us to possess what he has for us.

So you may have made some stupid mistake this past week. And you may have committed what you think is some big sin in your life, but the truth is you are a saint. That’s who Jesus Christ has made you to be. And often we don’t feel worthy, but we are worthy because that’s who Jesus Christ has made us in his love for us. That is good news!

To the saints in Ephesus. Now you should know that some early manuscripts don’t include the phrase “in Ephesus”. There is a blank so it could be filled in. So in a sense it is a general letter. But I don’t agree that this letter was written for anybody and everybody. It was written for the Ephesian church and surrounding area. The situations and problems Paul addresses are particular to the Ephesian church so in my opinion it can’t be a general letter.

Let me tell you a little about Ephesus. In many ways it is a very modern city. Ephesus is a capital city, a capital for Asia. It’s location made it a natural transportation link with the rest of the Roman world. It had a great harbour and was a key intersection for the Ancient Roman Highway. As a result of this it became a popular place for commerce and trade. William Barclay calls it the Market of Asia Minor.

It was also boasted a large tourist trade! It was home of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the temple of Artemis. This was a magnificent temple, it was built by the best architects of the time, to be sure there were lots of temples around but this one was made of all marble, except the roof which was tile. It was supported by more than 100 pillars each 60 feet high and it was filled with wonderful works of art, bronze statues and all sorts of ancient works of art and I have it on good authority that it boasted a pretty good gift shop.

You think I’m kidding. But in Acts 19 and 20 we read of how Paul was in Ephesus and preaching the death and resurrection of Christ and how people’s lives were transformed. They were turning away from the worship of Artemis and living for Jesus Christ and the people who were making the small silver images of Artemis and selling them in the gift shop were losing money. So they organize a rally in the amphitheatre – and it still stands today - you could fit about 35 to 40 thousand people here and its filled and they have a huge riot and people are shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And Paul says this is great – let me go down and proclaim Christ to them, but his friends talk him out of it. But the gospel of Christ causes this huge riot.

So you can appreciate that it’s not the easiest place to be a Christian. And I also have to mention that the worship of Artemis was basically a fertility cult so Ephesus was a sex-saturated society. They had in this temple not only great works of art and a nifty gift shop but they had temple priestesses, who were really prostitutes. When you went to the temple to worship you went to the prostitute. So this is the environment that the Ephesian Christians are living.

It was a tough place to be a Christian. And I tell you all this because it is remarkable how close Ephesus is to our own society. The things the Christians were facing then are very similar to the challenges today. And I’m not sure that I have to convince you of this, but we live in an idol-filled society. This week I could not pick up the Toronto Star without reading about some celebrity that was in town flogging their movie. And I look in vain for a critical assessment of the whole thing – every gala is wonderful, every star is beautiful, every thing is great – because it brings millions into our economy. It’s the idol of the celebrity. And we live in a sex-saturated society, in all the advertising we are constantly bombarded by sexuality. We live in society filled with idols and saturated with sexuality.

So what is the Christian to do? And Paul’s answer is remember who you are!

We are saints, called by God and yes, we live in this world filled with idolatry and temptation and difficulty but know this, says our text - you also are in Christ! We live in two worlds. We live in the world of commerce and trade, and idolatry and anger and war and sin, but our citizenship is in Christ.

Now underline that phrase in your Bible because we are going to see it again and again in this letter. We studied what it means to be in Christ just a few months ago when we studied Romans 6 (to see sermon text, click here). But to be in Christ is one of the great truths of Christianity. It refers to the fact that when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ God placed you in Christ so that whatever is true of Christ is now true for you. Did Christ die? Yes, then so did you. You died to sin and death. Did Christ rise again? Yes He did, then so did you. You rose to newness of life you are a new creation, sin no longer has its hold on you. Does Christ live forever at God’s right hand? Yes, then you too have eternal life now and forever. I compare it to flying in an airplane. When you enter that plane you are being flown from one destination to another and whatever is true of that plane is true of you – if the plane goes u,p you go up; if the plane goes down, you go down. So, to live in Christ is to share in His risen life, His continual presence, and His victory over sin even as we live in the midst of the world.

Now let me give you three words of application here.

First, understand that life in Christ and life in the world are not alternatives. This needs to be stressed because there is always the temptation to pull them apart and to either totally escape from this world and not have anything to do with it or to totally immerse ourselves in this world.

And neither response is satisfactory or Biblical. We are not to be conformed to this world but to transform it through the power of Christ in us. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ. And that is a great picture of who we are. We are ambassadors, with our citizenship papers in God’s Kingdom, but living in a land that we are seeking to influence on behalf of our King.

Become who you are! Who are we? We are saints called by God to infiltrate this world with the great news of Jesus Christ. My friends, you are missionaries working quietly in the schools, in the universities, walking the halls of IBM, infiltrating the neighbourhoods, influencing hospitals, the insurance industry, the television industry, the computer industry, sales and marketing, you are on the front lines as citizens of the Kingdom of God – in Christ influencing this world.

Second, application. We live in Ephesus and in Christ! It means that we live in an alien environment. This past summer we watched as astronauts walked out into space and fixed the shuttle. Everyone was on pins and needles because they were going out into an alien environment and if their lifeline to the ship was to be cut off, that astronaut was dead. It is vitally important for you and for me to keep our lifeline to our primary environment. Since we live in the world we need to keep our lifelines of prayer and Bible reading open. If in this alien environment we pinch off our lifeline by not spending time with God, in prayer and reading His word, in worship if we pinch off that lifeline we are going to be suffocated by this world. 2. But if you keep that lifeline open it’s like a breath of spiritual fresh air in your lungs. That’s why a daily quiet time is as important as breathing for a Christian. – without it you will suffocate and the world will drown you.

Third application. You are in Christ! Realize that when God looks at you he sees you as being in Christ. You may not look at yourself that way. You may think of yourself as stained by sin, tainted by the world in which we live, crushed by the heartbreaking situations of life but know that when God looks at you he sees you as in Christ.

One preacher pictures it this way³ – here is a piece of paper, it represents your life when you were born. But then you struggle with the things of this world, something crunches you here, some real tragedy tears you apart here. Life can be a struggle. Some of those crunches are caused by others and some are caused by your own choices. Life can get tough. And we can’t straighten ourselves out. But the Bible says that when you became saved, God put you in Christ Jesus (put paper into the middle of the Bible). When God looks at you, He sees Christ Jesus. How does the paper look now?

I can’t see it. Does that mean that its not there? No. Like the paper in this book, you’re in Christ. And when God looks at you He has a totally different view of you and I than we do. He decided that when we got saved this is how we look.

Some of you may think He takes a peek once in a while but He doesn’t. He won’t - He decided that when we accepted Christ as our own this is how we look.

That can be tough to believe, but it’s true. It’s the good news of the Christian life. When you became saved, not only did God save you for heaven but He changed the way He looks at you from that point on to eternity. Wow! I don’t look at myself like that, and I don’t think others look at me like that. I see my faults, remember my mistakes. But not God. When He looks at me, when He looks at you He sees a reflection of Jesus Christ, His beloved child so that you too are His child.

Become what you are! Who are we? This is an exciting letter, with great truths addressed to the saints of Markham Baptist Church in Markham in Christ. Thanks be to God for what He has done for us!

ENDNOTES:

Charles Hodge, quoted by John Stott in The Message of Ephesians, (Inter-Varsity Press Leicester, England 1979) page 22
Tom Holladay in a sermon delivered September 22, 1994 Purpose Driven Publishing. Copyright 2004.
Ibid.