Message of scripture at this point of the service comes to us from the book of Acts chapter 20.
Of Paul's travels on his way to Jerusalem just prior to his capture and imprisonment
and the section we're reading from chapter 20 concerns his day at Ephesus
and what he shared with the leaders of the Ephesian church.
We take up the account in verse 17 Acts chapter 20 from verse 17.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. When they came to
him he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day
that I set foot in Asia serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which
befell me through the plots of the Jews how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was
profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house testifying both to Jews and to
Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold I'm going to
Jerusalem bound in the spirit not knowing what shall befall me there except that the Holy Spirit
testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me but I do not account
my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God and now behold
I know that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more
therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you
for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of God take heed to yourselves
and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians to feed the church of the Lord
which he obtained with his own blood I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come among
you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things
to draw away the disciples after them therefore be alert remembering that for three years
I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears and now I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those
who are sanctified I covet it no one silver or gold or apparel you yourselves know that these
hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me in all things I have shown you that
by so toiling one must help the weak remembering the words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is more
blessed to give than to receive when he had spoken thus he knelt down and prayed with them all
they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him sorrowing most of all because of the word he
had spoken that they should see his face no more and they brought him to the ship amen
we read again from the word of God and this time from Paul's letter
to those same Ephesians the Ephesian church
Ephesians chapter 1 and we're going to read from verse 3 to 14
we had the record there in that 20th chapter of Acts of him
giving his parting advice to the leaders and now he is writing to that church
reminding them of their position in Christ and in the plan of God
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and blameless before him he destined us in love to be his sons through
Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace which
he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness
of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us for he has made
known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set
forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven
and things on earth in him according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things
according to the counsel of his will we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed
to live for the praise of his glory in him you also who have heard the word of truth the gospel
of your salvation and have believed in him were sealed with the promised holy spirit which is the
guarantee of our inherit our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory
let us ask god to lead us in our thoughts together as we seek to discern his voice
speaking to us this morning let us pray
our god and our father there are so many influences
so many voices which press upon us
we seek that you might yourself break through in truth and in clarity
make us each one willing to respond to listen to hear not to discern intellectually
but to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened and opened in order that we might discern the wisdom
the spiritual wisdom you have for us in your word we seek it in jesus name
this morning is actually the second installment of last sunday morning's message
part of our general consideration to see what the bible reveals to us concerning training nurturing maturing
the context of our consideration is of course that
we are considering the implications of each of us primarily for our children and younger people
but of course we need to see what the bible has to teach about the whole subject of nurturing
and education in order to see our responsibility and privileges to our children in the overall
setting of the purposes of god last week i tried to show from the word of god emphatically and
strongly that the starting point for our consideration must not be as so often is the case
making man the focal point and his need and his problem but that rather we must come to the place
to see that even the way in which the whole of the word of god is presented is that we are to
see as the focal point and as the starting point the plan and the purposes of god
that is from there that we must begin and work our way down as it were to the place of the individual
not to place the individual at the center of things and to see how everything around him
fits into his needs or his problems so much of our problem and our development as christian
comes exactly from that approach we have difficulty in seeing god at the center of all
things and ourselves as one among many on the circumference
at the disposal of god
placed according to his design and to his purposes
too often we want to get into the center
we want to manipulate the world as we see it we see the center of the world
at the point where we stand and we look around and ask the question what will this do for me
how can i benefit how can i manipulate or change this situation for my advantage
but the message of the word of god is that to find through life is to lose life to find your
true position is to find god at the center of all things and yourself at the circumference
in his purposes now i've emphasized that again because that is very much
an important part of the foundation that needs to be laid before we look at specific details
you may remember also that we spoke in the light of this concerning
the place of the christian community
and how when we come to realize that we are to see ourselves in the light of god working at
his purposes that it was part of his design to establish the christian community even before the
foundation of the world and you may recall how i pointed to the example in the book of acts
how i expressed that in some sense those people were had a tremendous advantage
in that when the spirit of god came to take control of their lives at pentecost
they did not have the problem of preconditioning there's that word again for you
they didn't have the rails already established on which the train
of churchianity has for so long been running
they were free they were able to be released to express this new identity which they had found
in a new community which was subsequent subsequently established
i pointed out last week that even from what we have revealed concerning the
development of the church in the time of the new testament
that it is quite apparent that it was not god's plan to establish exactly the same type of communal
living of having all things in common selling all things and supplying for each other in that
distinctive way which they experienced at jerusalem but that the principle of this special
society of this special community is everywhere emphasized the idea of the body being members
one of another and i challenged us to reflect on how far we as god's people today know something
of that christian community in some ways to find an example of people who are truly committed
to each other even unto death we almost have to look to our lord societies secret brotherhoods
to give us a better grasp of the principle that's involved that god is pointing to in his word when
he speaks about the christian community now i want to take up from that at this point
but point us back first again to the underlying principle of beginning with god
let's look at this passage in first in the first chapter of eph
we have three deliberate references
to the purpose of god's plan for his people the purpose of god's plan for his people
in verse 6 to the praise of his glorious grace
in verse 12 we who first hoped in christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of
his glory in verse 14 which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it
to the praise of his glory to the praise of his glory
you and i cannot help the fact that we live in an ungodly society governed by principles of human
wisdom but we can help the fact that if we refuse to move out of that society in our thinking and
in our thinking and in our approach to adopt god's perspective
god's view of how man ought to live and here it is summed up in those few words
man's aim in life is to live to the praise of the glory of god that's his purpose his whole
existence now perhaps it's not so strange and yet perhaps it does seem strange in some ways
everything else in our experience must be made subject to that
but not in order that we might thereby be placed in a narrow restricted position
but in order that we might find ourselves released to the potential that god has for us
it isn't taking that focal point and taking that as our motivation that is the goal of
living that we discover true humanity true living
now paul in particular emphasized very strongly two things concerning the christian community
and not paul alone but the testimony of the whole of the new testament in fact
bears out the same emphasis
last week we focused particularly on one this week we want to focus a little more on the other
the two key words are the words truth and love truth and love and you'll come across them
and love and you'll come across them again and again francis shafer
has referred to the two concepts as orthodoxy in doctrine and orthodoxy in community
and he points us to the fact which i believe is a very valid point
that it is possible in the energy of the flesh to produce one or the other
but that it is impossible in the energy of the flesh to have both working together
now you reflect on that but first let me explain a little more
the two areas and what i specifically mean by them
love being the expression of that fellowship that oneness which is to be found amongst god's people
there has been a new resurgence of emphasis on the body functioning as the body of christ
the church as the body of christ there has been a resurgence of interest in rediscovering
what it means to be committed to each other to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill
the law of christ as paul says in galatians chapter 6 to begin to take care for each other
to begin to have true fellowship of understanding with each other to listen what the other person
has to say to walk in their shoes to identify to have empathy key concepts which have been
reiterated and a concept which has so often been lost in the churches that have prided themselves
on orthodoxy in their doctrine has been this concept of orthodoxy in their living together
putting into practice the implications of what it means to have god's love flowing through us
the implications of what the first letter of john is all about the impossibility of claiming
to have a love relationship with god and at the same time harbouring resentment or indifference
to what our fellow believers now this has been a good and a right emphasis
but the tragedy has been so often
that where people have concentrated on that aspect of christian experience
they have based it purely on subjective feeling they have based it purely on what they thought
would be a nice thing to do for another person how do i express my love let me look at the world
and see how this love is expressed and there is an imitation to show how much i love my fellow
my fellow christians and it is possible to outwardly establish communities of close bonds
simply in the energy of the flesh
last week at the door when we retired from the service someone drew my attention to the fact
that we can learn so much from the community spirit of the communists
and i'll be very surprised that there'll be one person here who would suggest
that their oneness and their closeness is based on truth and yet to varying degrees
christians in seeing the problem of this love not being truly expressed
have sought to express that community that love
at the price of sacrificing
the other aspect of what the bible teaches for the body of christ and that is
the importance of truth the importance of truth
again it's heartening to see a resurgence of interest in the bible as the word of god
nobody wants heresies to come into the church
nobody who really believes in god and his purposes
wants to see this book discredited and yet almost one of the benefits of the attacks
which this book has suffered over the last few decades by what has often been referred to as
modern scholarship and to be one of those things that i have to put into inverted commas
one of the outcomes of this is that it has made christians much more aware of the importance
of going back to the word and having another look
the speaker we recently had here at our church commented to me
at our church commented to me
that perhaps two or three years ago he would have been inclined to take
what prominent christian leaders had to say about certain teachings of scripture
but he now finds himself in the position where he has to continually go back
to look and see what the bible is really saying to re-examine to see in what context it's
appearing whether someone has done a swifty as is so often the case by taking a text here a text
there another text here weaving it all neatly together to come up with a system that looks
lovely but has no resemblance to the full message and the balance of the word of god
that's where we have the origin of so many of our sects and cults exactly based on that men weaving
together things that they would like to be that way ignoring those things which need to be taken
and balanced what a contrast with paul i want to refer you back now to that passage we looked at
in acts chapter 20 acts chapter 20
paul speaks about his ministry in emphasis
we take it up from verse 20 how i did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable
and teaching you in public and from house to house then down to verse 27
for i did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of god
anything that was profitable to you you cannot accuse me of neglecting i made you aware of
everything god wants you to know concerning his purposes i declared to you the whole council of god
now if you see that the background
of paul's own example in his teaching program
you may begin to understand the way in which he almost seems to have forgotten
that he has so much love for his churches and i use his in a sense that the churches that god
used him to establish the churches of which he regarded himself as spiritual father
it almost seems that in writing to those churches that he has forgotten momentarily that he is
that he is supposed to love them because he says so many harsh things he insists that those who
deviate from the truth are to be excluded to be dealt with harshly to be opposed to be withstood
when inconsistencies are found with the truth of god as it is declared in his word
the church is to take drastic action
i want to turn now in our closing moments to the love chapter
that should be all the direction you need
i want to take up only a few verses from that chapter verses four
and five
love is patient and kind love is not jealous or boastful it is not arrogant or rude
love does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful
we read those verses and the rest that surround them and we say how wonderful it would be if we
knew that love and it's true and we read those verses again and we say well what is needed
by me no doubt is to withdraw and not to be quite so aggressive
for after all we're supposed to be patient and kind not arrogant or rude not to insist
on our own way not irritable or resentful but even in this we misinterpret
the emphasis that paul gives the emphasis here is that on a personal level for personal gain
for our own opinions for our own viewpoint we are to bring those to insignificance
we are to think nothing of what we think not for one moment does he suggest that we are to be
not insistent on what is true
now we don't have time for me to lay out before you the way that paul emphasizes this again and
again you will find it particularly in his pastoral letters those addressed to first well
that those are two addressed to timothy i was going to say the first and second timothy actually
there's only one timothy but he got two letters he was lucky titus only got one and it was shorter
but the pastoral letters those addressed to timothy those two and the one addressed to titus
he stresses even to the point of almost being ridiculous the importance of insisting on true
doctrine on true teaching on the truth as once delivered to the saints he insists that they must
stand up that he must withstand those who would tamper with the word those who would spend their
time dabbling in speculation he insists that he must stand for the truth love does insist on the
truth love does not insist on man's own way love does insist on the truth
now again i have to tie together the loose ends to bring together
these things in relation to what we're looking for god's perspective
before the foundation of the world
god determined to set up a community of his people set apart quite different and quite distinctive
from the world
that community was to be governed by two things
love and truth true love and true truth
and yet in establishing that community god made it very clear that it is not possible
for us as individuals to establish in the energy of the flesh that which he has designed
from all eternity
it is god at work in us to do and to work of his good pleasure it is god at work in us who needs
to produce that sort of a community we must begin to see our place in the purposes of god
our place as paul also in speaking to these ephision elders emphasizes
he says he doesn't count his own life of any worth all he wants to see is the ministry that
christ has given him to be worked out to be fulfilled you and i are to see ourselves not
as important individually as to what happens to us but is important in how we fed into the
purposes and the plan of god in that community god wants us to focus on his purposes on his plan
on his goal to live to the praise of his glory now what that means is that we have no right
to call love love which is not based on true truth
and it ought to be a challenge to us to be sure that when we express love that it is true love
love which is an outflowing of the understanding of god's purposes
and some of the things that we do supposedly in love are terribly terribly damaging
because we do them because we feel guilty we haven't expressed enough love let's go
and find something to do quick to show that we do love
true love will be expressed consistently on the basis of the word of god i said earlier
that francis schaeffer said that individually you can have truth or orthodoxy of doctrine
in the energy of the flesh because it can be an intellectual exercise
you can have love at least an external expression of love in the energy of the flesh because
man is capable of going through the actions that look like love but if we want to be in line with
the purposes of god and to put into practice the pattern that he has revealed for us
then we need a moment by moment dependence on the spirit of god in us
and we need a determination to give ourselves to do exactly what the psalmist said as we read
earlier in the service and i go back to the king james for this one thy word have i hid in my heart
that i might not sin against thee thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin
against thee and now i commend you to god and to the word of his grace which is able to build you
up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified