Ephesians 4

Ephesians 4

We have been looking at what it means to be “Easter people”. Easter People are those who are are together encountering Jesus. We are people who in that encounter are moved from confusion, fear, and uncertainty, to peace, the power of the Spirit and to engage in God's mission. I want to look again at what the Risen Jesus wants to do in us by his Spirit, with a look at Ephesians 4.

It is difficult to tell the story of the letter to the Ephesians: Romans has a historical setting: Paul was planning to visit Rome; But there’s no such story for Ephesians: rather we have to try and imagine the kind of conversation that Ephesians is part of. And I can kind of imagine a conversation like this: “Paul, remind us about Jesus; tell us how Jesus affects our lives today, what difference he makes here in Ephesus.”

So Paul writes back, with two aims in mind: Firstly, to strengthen their commitment to the truth about Jesus, and secondly, to stir them to action that is consistent with what they believe. He will answer the question and fire back another question: “What are you going to do about it?”

Maybe there were specific questions: “Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! Gods power to us is the same as the power he used to raise Jesus from the dead! In Mph 1.19 Paul refers to Gods hyperbolical - extreme - power towards us who believe. Four different "powers" in this verse...dynamis, energies, Kratos, lschos.” Paul piles word upon word to show how extreme and pwoerful God's power is. Andrew Lincoln says that the point is not the difference but  the similarity between these words. In v 20 - which he energised (accomplished seems a weak translation) when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand...   The extent of the power is seen the resurrection of Jesus. Paul, it seems, is not too much bothered about the "gap" between the resurrection and The ascension. For him, what matters is that the Risen Jesus is exalted at the Father's right hand, and has everything under his feet.

“Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! Hallelujah! All things are under Jesus feet, he is head over all things for the church which is his body... So the So Paul is pressing on from the truth about Jesus, to the practise of life together in him.. The Church, the ekklesia: Paul mentions it 9 times in Ephesians. It's Christ's body (1. 22f); it's there to show God's wisdom and carry Jesus' glory (3. 10, 21); It's Jesus' bride, his girl, under his authority (5. 23f); object of his love (5. 25), focus of his plan (5. 27) and his care (5. 29). Being the Church – the real Church, alive, beautiful, glorious, united, global – is part of what it means to be Easter people.

And I believe that as Christians in Rosyth, as a Church in Rosyth, part of the outworking of what it means to be Easter people, is to be a local expression of that global reality – alive, beautiful glorious, united. The Vision of Jesus is in no sense to build a building or even an institution: it is to build a COMMUNITY! - It is "organic". It is about a "body" in a living connexion with the Head! (Eph 1:22). Throughout Ephesians Paul uses the language of the organic. "Joined"". "bodily growth" ...joints and ligaments.... So Paul teaches about Christian living- growing up into Christ...

“Where is Jesus?” Seated at the Father’s right hand in glory! He descended to the lowest parts of the earth – and has now ascended far above all. From there he has poured out his gifts. (verse 8-11) The gifts God gives to men, come from the risen and ascended Jesus. Paul quotes Ps 68. 18 which was a Pentecost psalm; so he links the exaltation and victory fo Jesus with the coming of the spirit. There is in the Bible a direct time-line, a direct link of cause and effect, running from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, through the ascension to the coming of the Spirit and receiving his gifts.

The NIV gives a good translation of 4. 11 is “Christ himself gave the Apostles the  prophets,  the Evangelists, the Pastors and Teachers.” 

Does that mean that the rest of us are none of the above, but maybe hewers of wood and drawers of water? That is the trouble with the traditional interpretation of this passage: it identifies a select list of people with “ministry gifts” – one (or more) of which became redundant shortly after the letter was written – while the rest of us just get on and use our ordinary gifts?

There is a strong connexion between what this passage says about gifts and Romans 12. and 1 Cor 12 The language used is very similar. Unity and diversity in the Church are shared themes of all three passages. To each grace was given (v. 7) The idea of a group of people who are "God's gift to the Church", called to equip the saints and do the work of ministry makes sense if Ephesians was written by someone else a generation after Paul, when the church was beginning to fossilize into an"institution" with a structured hierarchy. But it doesn't make sense if the letter was written by Paul or someone close to Paul - who had (as Jesus did) a vision of a "flat", non-hierarchical structure in an organic church. Apostates, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are expressions of the grace we are all given. God's gift to the church: but not necessarily office-holders or leaders. So, YOU can build up the body.

Do you have an orientation towards mission? You want to keep bringing us back to this: there's a world out there that needs Jesus; how can we reach the unreached, unchurched? I'm not talking about being an apostle like Paul or Peter. I'm talking about a heart for new ground among the lost.

Do you have a passion to speak out God's word? A heart to know what God is saying to us today, a conviction that God speaks, applies his eternal truth, specifically to each generation.

Do you have a passion to share the good news? Do you have a burning desire to be part of a Church where everyone can articulate what the Good news is, and is irrepressible about sharing that Good news?

Do you have a passion for the sheep? Do you long to see people cared for, led clear of the pitfalls, healed in their times of brokenness, and growing safely into the image of Jesus?

Do you have a heart for teaching? Do have a desire to wrestle with, and to see people knowing and applying the teachings of Scripture?

And the big purpose “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”. To understand verses 9 onwards, we need the first part of the chapter. Paul is talking about “living a life worthy of our calling, with humility, patience, bearing with one another, love unity and peace.” It's about how we live our lives.

So the gifts are given so that we can be enabled to live holy lives and to be united. They are about life-change!  And that – holy living, effective mission, spiritual power – is what it means to be an Easter people. That kind of Church life, that kind of mission, that kind of anointing and gifting is the direct result on earth, of the resurrection, exaltation, and victory of Jesus.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2016

John 20. 19-23

Easter 2 - More on encountering the Risen Jesus
Last week we looked at the puzzle at the end of mark's Gospel, and learned that it is in encountering Jesus that we are set free from confusion, fear and uncertainty. Being Easter people, believing in the Resurrection means encountering Jesus today.  And it means being transformed by that encounter.  We are going to look at one of these encounters this morning.  We will try to learn how an encounter with Jesus will transform our lives.

1. Community... They were together (verse 19).  Behind closed doors, but all in the one place.  Jesus loves to reveal himself to us. He reveals himself to us when we are on our own, but he loves to reveal himself to us when we are together (See John 21. 2) to pour out his Spirit when we are together (See Acts 2. 1, 4 24ff), united in prayer, and to join us ever closer by giving us his spirit (Acts 2. 44).

2. Evidence... We see his hands and side (verse 20).  This is not a ghost.  This is the real Jesus, the lamb of God, different yet the same, bearing the wounds of crucifixion, yet fully alive!  A physical body yet able to pass through walls.   Jesus gives evidence that he is really alive, that it is really him, and that God cares about the physical world.

3. Peace... (verse 19, 21) “Shalom” is Jesus' response to their confusion, fear and uncertainty. Our English word peace is more about the absence of conflict.   “Shalom” is bigger than than that. It is about total well-being.  On the Cross he said “it is finished!”, so now he is able to say “Shalom!” and really to impart peace.    Jesus is our peace, so his creative word bestows peace.  We need to hear the word of God, and to receive what he wants to bestow on us  through his word.  What he speaks about, he speaks into our lives.  Shalom.  Total well-being. And shalom is the springboard for mission.  

4. Mission...(verse 21) As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.  How does the Father send us?

• It starts with God.  Not a double mission but an extension of the mission of Jesus.  “One single action, the great movement of the missionary heart of God.”(Milne)  
• it is incarnational.  Jesus was sent physically.  The word became flesh.  As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.  We are sent incarnationally.  Not just to talk about Jesus as a nice person or a good idea.  But to demonstrate the father’s love and to introduce Jesus as a  real person. 
• It combines submission and authority.  Matthew 28.  18-20 tells us “All authority is given to me..therefore go...” As his messengers we have the authority and dignity of the One who sent us.  But in order to exercise that authority we must live in full submission to him.  The authority to ask “in my Name” (John 16. 23f) is for those who remain joined to Jesus and bear fruit (John 15. 5-8) 
• It is sacrificial.  For Jesus, it was the sacrifice of the cross.  It was being despised and rejected.  In being lifted up form the earth on the cross, people were drawn to him.  We all want to be respected; we all dislike being looked upon as idiots for what we believe.  Now, sometimes we are idiots.  We talk in archaic language and expect people to understand it.  We live in our little religious ghetto that is designed for us, and complain because nobody else wants to come in and join us.  We need to do the best we can in terms of communication, and in terms of understanding and responding to what is going on out there in society.  But once we have sorted that out, we will still find that we are looked on as idiots.   We will still be called narrow-minded, bigoted, out-dated, superstitious. 
  

5. Holy Spirit...(verse 2,2)  Mission is a call to the impossible!  But Jesus breathed on his disciples and said “Receive Holy Spirit!”   Who is the Holy Spirit and what does he come to do in our lives?  Jesus gives an object lesson. The Holy Spirit is breathed into the disciples, just as the breadth of God was breathed into man at the creation.

• The Father's work.  The coming of the Spirit is the beginning of the New creation.  “The ruach – wind, Spirit or breath – of God was moving on the face of the deep” Genesis 1. 2.  In breathing the Spirit into them, Jesus was saying that a new beginning was happening, as the the Spirit comes from the Father to make a new creation.  
• The Son's Presence  In breathing on the disciples "Jesus communicates and commits himself to the disciples" (Wm. Temple). When the Spirit comes, Jesus comes! 
• The Spirit's power.  Alive, pulsing with the life of his resurrected humanity, vibrant with his God-life –he breathes on them.  His life, his God-life, imparted to them,breathed into their lungs, entering their bloodstream, energising every muscle in their bodies and every synapse in their brains. That's what the Holy Spirit comes to do.  To distinguish between what happens here and what happens in Acts 2,  is to miss the point. The Holy Spirit wants to fill our lungs and energise of lives.  If you are not experiencing that respiratory work of the Spirit in the whole of your being, then be assured that is what he wants to do. You need to have Jesus breathe upon you afresh and receive Holy Spirit afresh today.
  

6. Grace... (verse  23)  Jesus says “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  It's tempting to tie that in with mission: those to whom we preach the Gospel are those to whom we give forgiveness. Yes, to withhold the Gospel is to withhold divine forgiveness.  But this ministry is a Holy Spirit ministry, and it is a ministry "given to the body” (William Temple).  The whole of life is about forgiveness and grace – in our dealing with one another as well as in our mission in the world.  Loving one another is not a distraction from mission – it is the essential preparation for mission.  The Spirit comes to make us grace givers.  

"Jesus vision is not of a multitude of inspired individuals" but "a community bound together by...the Spirit, sent forth to gather his 'other sheep'"(Milne)

© Gilmour Lilly April 2016

Mark 16:

So the three women found the stone rolled away from the tomb, met an angel who told them Jesus had risen, and that they were to tell his friends to go to Galilee where they would meet him.  The women ran off in panic and said nothing to anyone – because they were afraid. 

Isn't that a strange way to end a “Gospel”?    After all, a “gospel” is not just a biography: it is “good News” written so that people may believe.  There are four possibilities...

1. Mark didn't know, or wasn't bothered, about what happened next.   That is highly unlikely. Mark gives us a bit of a spoiler in v. 7: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”  There's obviously something else to follow.  Mark had spent time with Peter (we think Peter told the story to Mark and Mark wrote it down) and with Paul.  Peter knew the story and paul was clear hom important that story was (1 C0r 15.1)  So Mark's Gospel needs what the other Gospels have – the actual meeting with Jesus promised in verse 7.
2. Mark wrote more but what he wrote has been lost, perhaps torn off the end of the scroll.  I don't believe that answer either: the first thing you would do if you knew the last page of the book had been damaged, would be to re-write it from memory.
3. Mark wrote the next section that we call verses 9-20.   There is in the AV and in small print in many other Bibles, a “Longer ending” to the Gospel.  It is a good ending in its way – but it's not Mark's original ending. One old manuscript names an author, an elder called Antipas.  I believe it was written by someone – to sum up what the different Gospels say about the resurrection – and then used to fill the obvious gap. Because there is an obvious gap.
4. Mark was prevented from finishing the work fully: wither by sudden death, murder, arrest and imprisonment.  Maybe he was getting the story from Peter, stopped for a break, and Peter was arrested.   That requires a wee bit of imagination. 

There are problems with every possibility suggested. Whatever the reason,  I believe Mark wanted to write more but was prevented for some reason.   And I believe that the ending we have in our footnotes, although not from Mark, is “Scripture”. 

Mark, then, as it stands,  tells a story that ends – yes, ends – with confusion, fear, and uncertainty, and with an uneasy silence about the whole resurrection message.... He knows it has happened. He has heard that from Peter.  He knows it is important – he has learned that from Paul.  But he also knows about doubt and fear.... he has been there.  So it's OK to take a break, stop for the night, have a meal, with the words “For they were afraid” freshly written on the page.  It's OK to pause there and recognise the reality of “Confusion,  Fear, Uncertainty”. These are as much part of an honest telling of the Resurrection story, as are victory, joy, and hope. 

Mark knew it.  He may well have been the young man who ran away naked, leaving his cloak in the hands of the soldier who made a grab at him, in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He certainly ran away again, later, when the going got tough in Pamphylia (Acts 13. 13).

Peter knew it.  Mark records that the angel said to the women “Go and tell my disciples – and Peter...”  Peter had failed so badly by denying Jesus, that he only felt fit to be a fisherman, not a disciple.  He knew about uncertainty, fear, and confusion.  

The Gospel writers all admit the first witnesses to the resurrection didn't believe their eyes and the first people to hear the report didn't believe what they were hearing!  John tells us about Mary crying in the garden, and then he tells us about Thomas.  Matthew tells us the women were “Afraid yet filled with joy”, and that even after meeting with Jesus “”Some doubted”.  Luke tells us the women’s “words seemed to them like nonsense and gives us the story of the two on the road to Emmaus. 

We are like that too. “Confusion,  Fear, Uncertainty”  all too often reflects where the Church is at – resurrection or not.  We are afraid: afraid of being too supernatural; afraid for our reputation; afraid of the future; afraid of change; afraid of our culture.   We are confused: we hear voices questioning what we believe.  Are we sure we believe it? How do we answer?  What does this resurrection imply in our lives?  We want certainty, but “faith is the evidence of things unseen....”  And all so often, our uncertainty, our fear, our confusion, mean we don't feel able to talk about what is really important.  We are silent about the resurrection, about the supernatural, about the power of Jesus to change lives today.   We fail.  We let Jesus down.  Or am I the only one?

I believe we need to face the uncertainty, to face the mess inside. It's OK, with Mark, to pause, to put the pen down and reflect, at this point of failure and uncertainty.  Someone very wisely said during Holy Week “You have to mourn to celebrate!”   I don't believe in “re-enacting” the death and resurrection – but I do believe it is hugely helpful to be able to pause, reflect on the two sides to the Passion-tide coin – the death of Christ for our sins and his resurrection – and to “Experience Easter” on the back of having solemnly remembered – called to mind – the suffering of Christ for us. 

And you have to mourn your own sin and failure, to celebrate fully the victory and power of Jesus. 

But you have to move on from there.  Just as it is a mystery why Mark left his Gospel unfinished, is really is a mystery  why we get stuck in our confusion, fear and uncertainty. There are lots of possible answers to do with hurt, lack of knowledge, deliberate disobedience, enemy attack and the fallen state of the world.    How can we get out of that place?

Mark gives the spoiler in verse 7.  The disciples were meant to meet up with Jesus in Galilee.  Antipas's (if that was who wrote verses 9-20) summary of the resurrection appearances points us to the other Gospels, and they are united in this:  it was in meeting with Jesus, in encountering Jesus, that confidence, hope, joy and victory replaced  uncertainty, fear, and confusion.  It was in meeting with Jesus – and in the coming of his Spirit – that John and Peter and Mark and Paul. were transformed.  It was in meeting Jesus that the disciples became a movement, a community, something life-changing. 

 And it is in meeting Jesus, in an encounter with Jesus and a touch from his holy Spirit (which is an encounter with Jesus!) that we are set free from  uncertainty, fear, and confusion today.  We need to seek that encounter at the Lord’s table, in the word, in prayer including silent waiting on God, and in praise and worship.  

Someone recently said “Resurrection is the Christian term for defiance”.  Resurrection was the way Jesus defied death.  Imagine death as a great big hand: all of that hand held Jesus – physically, emotionally, spiritually Jesus as in the grip of death.  But Jesus showed he is bigger, stronger than death itself.  “Death could not keep his prey. He tore the bars away!”  In his resurrection Jesus defied all the powers, political and religious – that had opposed him.

Because of the resurrection, we can be victorious over our sins, over our habits, over our fears.  Because of the resurrection, we can defy the powers that say “the church is finished!”   We can defy the sneering intellectualism that says “there is no god, man is the master of all things, glory to man in the highest.” ut that comes not just from knowign about the resurrection. It come as we meet Jesus.  We need to encounter him today.  

We need to do what Mark clearly intended to do.  We need to return to the narrative, where we are in confusion, fear, uncertainty, pick up the pen,  and write up the truth of our encounter with Jesus. 

© Gilmour Lilly April 2016