Episode 294 - Who's Sitting on the Throne?

The brothers begin Chapter 5 in their study of Ephesians. Verses 1-5 are covered in today's episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

And welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast from New Song Baptist Church, Columbia, Tennessee. How'd you like that?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It's really good, Robin.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Columbia. I kind of put the emphasis on lum. Oh. Columbia. Gotcha. Yeah. You know, there's a a thing downtown that they they want to call it Columbia. Like we're cool. Gotcha. Yeah. I think that's kind of silly. No. Okay. But I don't know why I would call that. But I just thought I would share that with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

They're probably changing it right now. They're not. Just as you speak. They're not changing.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Robert Wakefield's in this.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, so we got. I think they are. You've got more clout than you think. You think so?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Oh, I do. Okay, well, that's very nice of you to say. So let's go ahead and let's introduce ourselves. I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And welcome to this episode. We are going to start Ephesians 5 today. Yeah. What do you think about the how we're just marching through this uh this book?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

I I like the approach. I think uh, you know, one and then go to two. I don't know what we're doing after five, but I'm I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

I I think six might be what we do after five, but again, I I don't know what we'll do. But anyway, uh Ephesians chapter five is kind of uh another one of those chapters that it seems like it's another shift uh from from chapter four. Yeah. And so uh look we're gonna attempt to discuss today uh verses one through five. So Peter, if you've got that in front of you, I sure do.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

All right. So Ephesians chapter five, verses one through five, and I'm in the NIV translation, says, Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people, nor should there be uh obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a person as an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

All right, so that is the word of the Lord, and we start there in verse one, and it talks about following God's example. And and I like the way he says follow ex God's example, dearly loved children. Yeah. Because when we follow God's example, we're following our father.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

And that that's we're mimicking him.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah. And so I think that's what that's extra one of the Greek words. What? I know. Get ready for this. It's a Greek phrase called mimiti oh yeah, it's called something. Mimetase. Mimetase. Mimetase, that's it. And it's imitators of God. Yes. That's where we get the word mimic.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah. Um well mimetase is just the word imitate. Oh, okay, is it? Theos would be the word for God.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Okay. All right. So, you know, so when we think about that, and we he's encouraging us to, you know, mimic God because we're his children, made me think of a funny story that I'll share with you now with.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

With my child mimicking me. Oh. This is so this is really a good one. Okay. So uh Trisha and I were having uh um, let's call it a an intense discussion. Sure. Uh because they happen. And um so to lighten the moment, uh I decided to throw a uh football penalty flag. Okay. Holding offense, 10-yard penalty, repeat second down. And I did the hand motions and everything. Oh wow. Well, that was not the right thing to do with that, but I I regress. So I did I did that and everything, and you know, the the the settlement, we we settled it. It was it was fine. And months later, Lindsay gets in trouble for something. And she goes, those are penalty phase. She does the hand motions and everything. She says, holding offense, 10-yard penalty, repeat, second down. I fall over with laughter. I am crying. I'm having a hard. And that look that I got from Trish, you did this. That's right, yeah. You did you go on? Look what you've done. So so I went up to Lindsay and I took my hands and I put it on her shoulders and I said, Lindsay, that was really, really funny. Yeah. Don't ever do that again. Daddy gets in trouble. So so when we mimic our uh our parents, I mean, that's the kind of thing he's talking about. He's we're watching them and we want to to mimic them just like we want to mimic our father in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

That's exactly right. I you know, there's there's two things that come to mind is one is I I think doing impressions of people is kind of mixed these days where you feel like you're making fun of. Um you know, we we like people who can do impressions, you know, rich little, you know, and it's like it's amazing how they could just sound just like mannerisms and the voice.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

He could do Johnny Carson better than Johnny Carson. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

And so we kind of like that, but then when, like you said, with your daughter doing you, it's like, you know, I don't mock me. Right. Uh however, in Paul's time, the greatest level of flattery would be impersonating someone. Oh, I didn't know that. They thought that was there was a lot of you know Greek dramas and things like that. So getting someone else down was perfect, and that's where Paul's drawing from. In fact, twice in First Corinthians, uh in chapter four, verse six, and then chapter eleven, verse one, he says, Imitate me. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Do what I do. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

You know, and so this whole imitation thing is really high. And then you think about when you have a family reunion, you know, even when a child's born, whose nose does he have?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

You know, who does he look more like? Mom or dad. Mom or dad, yeah. You know, and then you know, as they grow up, oh you you act just like your father. You know, and so there is that, and so this is that same thing. Do people see the father in us and and the way we act, the way we react, the way we talk, the way we respond? Right, all those things. And so this imitation, imitating who God is, is is spot on.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

It's it really is spot on. This guy wrote an illustration that said this a little boy walking with his dad on a snowy day uh tries to step in every footprint his father leaves. And he's not trying to earn his father's approval, he's just simply delighted uh to be walking with him.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

And he said that's what uh Ephesians 5 1 is all about. Exactly. Walking with him.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So in verse 2, it says, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So there Paul seems to really be stuck on walk right now. He's talking a lot. He's talked a lot in this in the last chapter in this chapter too about walking.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And the significance of that is they walked everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

They did, sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

So walking was as daily to their lives as breathing, yeah, in a lot of ways. Yeah. And so he's talking about this walk in the way of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. You know, that's just the pattern uh of Jesus and his sacrificial love he gave us.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah, and I wonder, you know, what what does that look like? I mean, we're commanded to walk in love here. Um how how do we do that? Right. What's it look like? What does it look like when we're not being very loving and kind? You know, I think throughout the day, we have these great opportunities to respond in love or dismissal or disgust or disdain or you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Just ignore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

That's a big one. And it's, you know, how do we do this? And how do we do it consistently? How do we do it well? How do we do it reflecting the the actual love of God?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Right. Exactly. That's a challenge. That it's a very big challenge, and it's something I think that we we all face. You know, one of the things that he talks about too. Well, some this commentary says this, he talks about Christ's love is described as self-giving because he gave up himself. It's costly because it talks about the offering, and it's pleasing to God a fragrant aroma. We're in uh numbers now. Yeah, yeah. And this this and even Leviticus too, we talk we read this a lot about uh a pleasing aroma to God and how how he must feel about that. You know, I love the smell of good steak. Oh, yeah. You know, and and but you know, for for us our lives to be a pleasing aroma for him, that's got to be a thrill for for our father, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't help but to make the contrast to Leviticus and Numbers as well. And and there's so many different offerings. And I love that he says, you know, uh just an offering, which is is something without blood. You know, it'd be like the the flower and the things that they were bringing and then the sacrifice is a sacrifice with blood, okay. And so he brings both of those, and then again, we've got to pay attention to the adjectives, right? He could have just says as an offering and sacrifice, but he said a fragrant one.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

You know, where it's it's pleasing to God, it smells good. He, you know, it gives you that, like you said, that steak. It's like that anticipation. You smell it before you taste it. It's like, oh, this is gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

It's gonna be so good.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And that's the way, because he says, you know, in verse 2, walk in the way of love, and it's like, well, what does that look like? He says, do what Christ did. Love the way he did. Right. And then he talks about being sacrificial, and then that you just give it all as an offering.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Right. And you know, this that offering and sacrifice that he mentions in this verse, that's temple language. Absolutely. That that is temple language because of what we've been reading uh in our year-long reading. Uh, Christ is both priest and offering. Yeah. So if we are like him and mimic him, yeah, we're gonna be this fragrant aroma that that God wants to. We're gonna smell like Jesus. Isn't that something? Yeah. I've never thought of it like that. I'm gonna smell like Jesus. No. Yeah, I've never put those two to together until just done.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

To think the father says, What's that? What's that great aroma?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Oh, that's my child acting like my son. Isn't that great? That's amazing. Yeah, that is absolutely amazing. That verse too is just really just knocked my socks off. It's really full. Oh, it is. So then we jump to verse three. Uh, but among among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or of greed, because they are improper for God's holy people. Boy, here's a good one. Yeah. So we've we've gone, we've gone from smelling like Jesus to smelling like the world. Yeah. And they and there he's he's warning us that we can't even have a hint uh of that. Yeah. So talk about what you think about that that verse there.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

When when I used to do children's sermons, um, you know, you you gotta try to figure out how to keep kids and all the adults listening entertained. So it's it's a bit of a challenge. And I remember I was talking to them, I brought a brownie mix, and I was talking about all the things you do to to make brownies. And so, you know, you're trying to get them to, like we said in verse two, just salvating, just thinking about these delicious brownies and what you would put in them that come out of the oven. And then I said, you know, but you know, I I got distracted, and and I don't know why I used this illustration, but I did. I said, I had to pick up some of the an accident that my dog had. And I picked it up with a paper towel, and I said, honestly, I don't know if any of that got into the brownie mix. But I went ahead and mixed it up anyway.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

And so then I offered them brownies, and they went, Now it could just be a hint. I don't know. I mean, it may not have happened. Just may not have. It was enough, no one would take my brownies. Yeah, and that's what Paul said is it doesn't take much to just ruin the whole thing. Oh, right. Wow You know, and we are so dismissive on our string and our walk. It's no big deal. It's just this once. Yeah. Um it it helps me. Sure. You know, I'm I'm a better person, you know, and so we rationalize, justify, do everything we can to say it's okay. Paul says it it ruins the whole sacrifice.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Oh, it does. Ruins the whole thing. We Paul is going from from verse two to verse three, he is going from the beauty of a Christ-like love to the danger of a distorted love. You're absolutely right. And and he talks about uh sexual uh immorality. Uh any sexual expression outside of God's design is wrong.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

So God designed it, he's the r ruler of it, he can make the rules on it. Outside of that, uh the marriage, you know, that it's wrong. Right. Okay. Uh the impurity part is just the the moral uncleanliness, or it's and most of the time that's often in internal. And that's uh a lot of times that's secretive in a way.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, I wrote the word lust. Lust. It's so those appetites, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Things I have to have. Yeah. And then greed is the desire to take more than is yours. Yes. And it's a it's taking that extra brownie.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah. It's uh my slice of the pie is just a tad bigger than mine.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

A little bit bigger. That's right. And so so he's telling us uh and as the church body that we don't even need to have a hint, right? Not even a morsel of any of this, like your your example. Yeah. And so I think that's a a powerful thing for us as Christians to realize that it's so easy for us to it's not hard to get into any of those things.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

No, and and we know this. Um but the problem is we know it for everybody else, we dismiss it for ourselves. Exactly. So I mean it's it's just everywhere. You hear about a pastor who's who's made some some of these mistakes that Paul talks about. Right. And so what do we say? Well, they're not fit to be in the in the pulpit anymore. Exactly. There's no difference in a in a minister and a Christian. We're all to be ministers, right? And so how is it that that a Christian can have the the same misstep and and now this guy's lost his in a career? And I understand that. Right. Uh but you know, when he tells us in verse three, that's improper for God's holy people, right? A Christian is a person who's representing a holy God.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

That's a great point, Peter, because what Paul is he's not just policing the behavior that we're talking about, he's protecting the community of the church. That's exactly right. And and so I think that's an important thing. Verse 4 goes on to say that um well it goes on to say, well, do you have first four questions?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yeah, nor should there be any obscenity foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather than that is uh Wow, I tell you no, foolish talk, coarse joking.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah um you know, Paul I don't think is is is banning humor, but he's banning the humor that cheapens the holiness of the church. Yeah. Because if you're involved in something like that and somebody's looking at you and says, Well, oh, they go to New Saint Baptist Church. I don't think I want to be a part of that group. Right. Or you're spreading some kind of gossip or or whatever the situation is. When other people see that, that cheapens the body.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

And I think that's the whole message of of verse four.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, you know, I I like humor, I'm sarcastic, and and uh you are too. Merry Christmas. Yeah, yeah. But you know, and I guess it's part of being more mature, is you realize there's some places it's just not funny. You can take the cheap shot, you can make fun of someone's outfit or their nose or something, and and and everyone's gonna be a good laugh, but you've hurt that person. Exactly. You know, and they they may shrug it off and laugh too. And then, you know, when I see the course joking, Christians are just they like these little innuendos. You know, so they're not going far, but they're going far enough to make a little offhand code.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah, just far enough to make a difference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

What Paul's saying is don't even do it. Yeah, don't go there. Yeah, you know, keep it clean, keep it wholesome, keep it healthy, keep it centered on God.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Right. Um, so that takes us to to verse five, which mentions that for this you can be sure no immoral, impure, or greedy person, you know, has any inheritance uh of the of the uh kingdom of Christ, which that's a that's a scary thought.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, he's kind of sums up you know the first part of verse five in the middle there, such a person is an idolater. And so I I really focused that it because he that's what he says, that's what you are. So it's like, what is that person? Well, simply it's someone who's worshiping something else other than God. Right. And so then I I started thinking, well, what what kind of things are we prone to worship? And I came up with a few things possessions, yeah. You know, I've got this nice house, or I've got this car, or I've got this boat. So you know, a lot of times we worship that. Oh, I gotta, you know, uh, or sometimes it's wealth or our status or our image or technology. I get the latest gadget and the doodad. Sometimes it's just ourselves, you know, how we look and getting this surgery and that surgery. Oh, yeah, I've seen it. We we idolize who we are, sure. To the point where we're not worshiping God. The other thing I want to point out in here is is you know, in the NIV it says kingdom of Christ and of God. In the Greek, there's just of Christ and God. And I think that's important. Okay. Because it reflects the Trinity. Oh, it's because when you put two of's, of Christ and of God, it makes them so look read like separate entities. Right. But they're not. They're not. And Paul didn't write that. And so I think what these five verses do, it leads us to the conclusion of who is sitting on the throne of our life. Oh. This is good. Is it someone or something other than God? Then we need to make some adjustments.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

We've got to make those adjustments. Great, great way to end today's uh podcast, Peter. So uh thank you so much for listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Twakefield. I'm Peter Sears. And we're going to begin in verse six. Wow. Wow, yeah. Just like you like order. Yeah. You just seem to enjoy. I do. I really do. Thank you for doing that for me. It's all it's all for you, Peter. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.