Kevin Dibbley - March 3, 2024
"Walk In Love"
This sermon is called “Walk In Love.” In the city of Ephesus, the idea of love had been severely distorted by the worship that was happening at the Temple of Artemis. The temple was considered to be one of the seven great wonders of the world. It was twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Emperors and travelers came to behold this incredible architectural masterpiece. As Acts 19 revealed, the worship of Artemis was the major economic engine for the city of Ephesus. Artemis was the goddess of fertility so sexual idolatry and promiscuity was promoted and celebrated. It is no wonder that Paul’s instructions on walking in love in Ephesians 5 is set in direct contrast to the sexual immorality that plagued their culture and continues to plague ours. We know that sexual promiscuity has become the sign of one’s freedom today and the clearest marker of one’s identity in our culture. Loving yourself and being yourself is often tied to being open about your personal sexuality. In Ephesians 5, we are called to understand that God’s design in the gospel produces a very different approach to “love”. Love is not giving yourself over to sexual sin. Love is giving yourself to Christ for the purpose of the gospel. Our identity is found in Christ. Love radically transforms how Christians live in a sexually perverse society with the hope that people might be set free not only from sexual sin but from life without Christ. Pray that God might use Ephesians 5:1-14 to bring many people into both the love and the light of Jesus.
Scripture References: Ephesians 5:1-14
From Series: "Ephesians: One In Christ"
We are beginning a sermon series focusing upon the New Testament letter of Ephesians. Our series is called “One in Christ”. In Japan, there is a form of artwork called Kintsugi art. Kin means gold. Tsugi means to mend. In Kintsugi art, an artist will take, for example, a piece of ceramic teaware that has been broken during an earthquake or something like that. Instead of repairing it to make it look like the original plate or teacup, the artist will instead use Japanese lacquer and gold to actually highlight the fractures. Out of the broken vessel comes a brand new piece that is considered more beautiful and more valuable than the original. The apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians that God in Christ has chosen to take our lives broken and alienated from God and each other by sin and make one new community. John Stott writes “Through Christ and in Christ, we are nothing less than God’s new society, the single new humanity which he is creating and includes Jews and Gentiles on equal terms. We are the family of God the Father, the body of Jesus Christ his Son, and the temple and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.” Our hope and prayer is that over the next several months, we would get a vision of the church as God’s new creation, His masterpiece, which is just the beginning of what God intends to do throughout all eternity and throughout the entire heavens and on earth. Out of his brokenness, we become one. Pray that together we would become in real relationships what we are in positionally through the gospel – One in Christ.
