An Intro to Ephesians 5:21-6:9 - SERMON NOTES

Below are Pastor Ben's sermon notes from this past Sunday, in case they may be helpful for further study.

Intro: (1) overview of past two sermon series (2) themes around spiritual birth in ch.1-3 (3) themes around spiritual growth in ch.4:1-5:21 (4) the third big section (5:21-6:9) applies these truths to real world relational contexts (5) big three of marriage, parenting, work — define/frame each of these (6) address who are not married, don’t have kids, and/or don’t “work”

Embracing Reality (5:15): (1) each of these areas come under the heading “look carefully then how you walk”  followed by reference to wisdom (cf. Proverbs) (2) wisdom also connected to being “filled with the Spirit” (cf. 1:17) — what does wisdom (i.e. being filled with the Spirit) look like in marriage, parenting, and work? (3) Proverbs verses — 5:18, 21:9, 22:6, 29:15, 14:4, 14:35 (4) v.17  wisdom is understanding “what the will of the Lord is” — applying this to marriage, parenting, and work

Embracing Humility (5:21a): (1) “submitting” connected to “be filled” — a general sense of living humbly toward one another (2) “to be arranged under” (cf. military, sports team) — not a “value” word or connected to oppression (3) app to marriage, parenting, work (cf. church, government) (4) “reverence for Christ” — other NT usages point to day of judgment (5) danger of rejecting authority — traffic laws (6) rejecting the world’s dismissal of authority, accepting God’s authority and earthly manifestations of it

Embracing Messy (5:16): (1) these three categories ground us in the reality of normal everyday life (2) importance of embracing place — Ezekiel 1-2, Jonah, John 1:14 (3) temptation to sensationalize Christianity — camps/conferences, Eph. 1:1-4 vs. Eph. 5:21-6:9 (cf. Mrs. Jellyby) (4) premarital counseling categories —lifestyle expectations, friends/hobbies, personality, personal struggles, communication, decision-making, spiritual practices, extended family, sex, money (5) is in these that m/p/w gets messy

Embracing Mutuality (5:21b): (1) spiritual growth can’t happen in isolation (cf. “one another’s”) —group projects in school (2) what prevents us from reducing others is “reverence for Christ” (cf. Genesis 1:27) — otherwise we reduce others (4) old man, nagging wife, ankle-biter, boss — words without intimacy (cf. relationship of body parts in 4:15-16) (5) “I-It” (objectifying — technology) vs. “Us vs. Them” (competition —politics) vs. “I-You” (relationship — m/p/w) (6) church teaches us how to redeem relationships

Conclusion: prayer exercise