Sit, Walk, Stand. [Eph. 1]
Ephesians 1: 1-2, 3-8,20-21; 2: 4-6; 4: 1-3,17; 6: 10-13
By letting go and letting God we get everything – wow!
Many of you will remember the days of the radio with its round dials, which we twiddled and twisted to tune in to the station. Some old films included scenes of crucial moments of getting tuned in to call for help. Today with digital connectivity we just turn on, but today’s connectivity and communication are dependent upon the right settings and passwords.
Getting tuned in or setting the correct parameters for our computers and digital gear is like tuning in. Otherwise things don’t go well. In some cases they just don’t work. Getting the order right is important. Getting the order right with God is equally important. Without the right connection or being ‘tuned in’ our communication with God in Christ will be fuzzy, weak if not unhelpful.
For me one of the most important things for us Christians is to enjoy the blessing and the power of God in our lives. We are meant to be strong and powerful in our love. That is why I find the epistle or letter to the Ephesian Church so helpful.
Today I am commencing a series of sermons on Ephesians that address the getting of things in the right order so our life with God is well connected and meaningful. I hope that in this series of sermons and week-day studies of the Epistle to the Ephesian Christians we see more clearly the way God works with us; what God has done for us in Christ Jesus; and, the purpose of the Christian life. It is a gem of a letter. The writer, I take it to be Paul, provides a wonderful explanation of our life in Christ and what the Church is. That is what I want to share with you. I studied the epistle in some depth while on leave. I want us to focus on living the Christ orientated Cross-shaped life rather than gathering information to either support our belief system or tickle our fancy.
This first sermon in the series is an overview and takes us to the key framework for our Christian life. Paul uses three verbs, to sit, to walk and to stand to describe the Christian life.
In chapters 1verse 20 and 2 verse 6 we are told that the Christian life begins with us being seated with Christ. Paul wrote of the immeasurable greatness of his (God’s) power for us who believe when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Then God, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [2: 4-6].
This is an amazing picture, but this is not the only place where we find it. There are a number of places in Scripture where we are told that Jesus was raised from the dead and he ascended to the throne room of God in heaven and was seated at the right hand of God the Father. This thinking is grounded in the prophetic word in Psalm 110:1 [cf. 8:6], and expressed in Acts [2:34], Romans [8:34], and Hebrews [1: 3, 13; 10:12]. Christ Jesus is one with God the Father and reigns with God. This is easy for us to understand, but Paul goes on to say that we will be seated with Christ Jesus when we come to Jesus. That image is also expressed in Revelation [3:21] and implied in Colossians [2:12].
This is an is amazing concept that we, through the loving grace of God extended to us in Christ Jesus, are incorporated into the God-head and sit on the throne with Jesus. The first thing this tells us is that we sit with Christ, not because we have achieved something, but God has graciously received us and adopted us. The second important thing this tells us is that we share the victory of Christ over evil. The throne of God depicts God’s rule over all. Christ Jesus by his side tells us that Christ rules over all as well. The image of being seated with his enemies under his feet, demonstrates that Christ Jesus through his death and resurrection has destroyed the power of evil. Again and again we read in the NT that Jesus has destroyed the power of evil through his sacrificial love on the Cross. And our being seated with him demonstrates that truth. Jesus taught his disciples this truth. Recall John 15 and Jesus saying he is the vine and we are the branches. That picture tells us that when we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour we are incorporated into the being of Christ: we are included through Christ as the family of God.
Ephesians tells us that the first thing that happens in our incorporation into Christ Jesus is that we sit down with him. The Christian life begins with sitting down. Now we may have a problem with this sequence. First we are to sit and then we are to walk. In our world, in our way of doing things, we think of walking first and then sitting. We think of earning the right to sit. But with God we can never earn that right. Rather it is a free gift.
We might understand this notion of sitting first and then walking the faith if we look to other Biblical passages. In the first Creation story in Genesis we are told that God created the world in six days and on the 7th God rested. Note that God created humankind on the sixth day. That means that the first day for humankind was a rest day! After humanity is created humanity rested. Humanity sat down and rested. We can’t build too much on this, but turn to John 3 and listen to what Jesus said to Nicodemus about entering the Kingdom of God. Jesus said one must be born again [3:3] to enter the Kingdom of God. Being born again implies that we become small children who are dependent upon the ‘heavenly parent’. In other words we don’t turn to Christ and become workers for Christ: we turn to Christ Jesus to become learners. We must sit with Christ first before we walk in his service.
The spiritual journey begins with sitting with Christ to learn and understand. Every time we reverse this divine order of sitting first and then walking the result is disastrous for us. When we insist on being in control our journey with God becomes fuzzy, sterile and regimented. Our reversal of the order denies us the joy of sitting with God.
‘Sitting describes our position with Christ in heaven. Walking is the practical out-working of that heavenly position here on earth.’ [Watchman Nee, Sit Walk Stand (1957) p 22]
After sitting with Christ we walk the faith. The Greek word is peripatéo, which means ‘to walk around’ or ‘to walk at large’. Modern translations translate the verb to walk as ‘to live’. Paul uses the verb ‘to walk’ five times [4:1,17; 5:2,8] to describe the way the Christian should live out the faith in their daily lives. We are to walk with humility and gentleness, walk in the Spirit and in the likeness of God, and walk in love and in the light of Christ.
Our ‘walking’ the Faith is about doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, as the Lord’s Prayer says. We walk with gentleness and humility reflecting what God has done for us. We ‘walk’ not as our culture lives but in the Spirit and Light of Christ [4:1,2, 17, 23; 5:2,8, 23].
The Christian life begins with sitting which leads to walking, but it doesn’t end there. We are to stand. We need also learn how to stand against the forces, both spiritual and material, that undermine the Faith. The Christian life involves struggle. Our own nature often defaults to selfish acts and an unforgiving spirit. Those two personal forces of selfishness and un-forgiveness create conflict and disorder. There are spiritual forces that we face, which our silence about them foolishly leaves us exposed to their influence. No wonder the final sentences of the letter remind us by saying.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [6: 10-12]
This understanding of the life with Christ Jesus may contain imagery that is either new to us or strange. The notion that we come to God first through Christ Jesus and first sit with him, before we walk and then finally mature and stand firm in the faith can be expressed in other ways. There is that old saying in the faith, ‘let go and let God’. It approximates the pattern of the spiritual life found in Ephesians. Sitting down first means we stop striving. We learn to let go of the need to be independent, in control, and instead listen to God. Sit before you walk is just a wise move. Walk before you stand your ground leads to a deeper maturity. Thank God that by grace we are saved from ourselves. Thank God that by grace we are the children of God. All praise to Christ Jesus for being our Lord and Saviour.
*******
Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 09/09/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
