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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall we're studying the book of Ephesians,  learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching.  Ephesians 4, 17 through 24, it is on page 18 in the scripture journals and page 1161 in the Bibles in front of you. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life  of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy. to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned in Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God. in true righteousness and holiness. This is the word of the Lord. What is  your only hope  in life and in death? That you  are not your own  but belong body and soul  to Christ  and to God.  That's question number one of the New City Catechism.  It's modeled after a very old catechism actually from the 1500s the Heidelberg Catechism. It's question number one in a lot of catechetical traditions  because it is foundational to its  seminal to what it means to be a Christian. It's question number one.  And  for that matter so is catechism  even though we don't  talk about that a lot. Maybe you don't use that word in your daily  vocabulary but catechism even though it sounds like a starchy old English word it just comes from the Greek word to mean  to teach or instruct. And I wanted to start right there  because our text today is all about how we  learned Christ.  Our key verse that we're going to center around is about the way that you learned Christ starting with the ways that you definitely did not learn Christ and then  the ways that you did learn Christ. We're continuing our series in  Ephesians,  Paul's letter to Ephesus. So if you brought your Bible you'll want to have it open. uh We're going to be in chapter four verses 17 to 24. If you did not bring a Bible there are Bibles ah in the seat backs in front of you and in that Bible it's going to be found on page 1161  and I do encourage you to have a Bible open in front of you because I'm going to be pointing you to look at texts with me.  So I want you to be able to follow along and to start with  actually I want you to turn there and look with me at what is going to be our key verse for this study together. It's verse 20 right in the middle. I'm going to read it. You can follow along  but that is not the way you learned Christ. That's what we're going to be revolving around today. That is not the way you learned Christ. And already I kind of have to pause because some of you are looking side to side like  which chapter did he say? He said first he said 20 right. Yeah.  And that's because you might have an NIV translation  which says that is not the way of life you learned in Christ. And so I want to comment on that real briefly. um The NIV doesn't get it wrong. I that's an accurate sentence. It's just that the ESV and other modern translations get it more right. So  this is a difficult sentence to translate, kind of because it's a really weird statement. We don't often use the verb learn, and then the object, a person.  And that's exactly how it is in Greek. And so the NIV translation team, they kind of looked ahead. If you look at verse 22,  Paul is speaking about your former manner of life. And so they  import that idea into verse 20 and say, that's not. the way of life that you learned in Christ. And you may  think that I'm like picking fly poop out of pepper here, but it matters.  That's an expression, I promise.  Just think about it, it'll connect. uh It matters how the ESV renders this. The ESV and many other modern English translations leave the sentence exactly as it is in Greek. Clunky though it is to say that is not the way you learned Christ, because there's a difference between  the manner of life you learned in Christ. That's post salvation, discipleship, maturity, sanctification. The difference between that and the way  you learned Christ.  Not just  about Him,  facts about Him,  but  who He is, what He's done for you, and what it means to belong to Him. And so follow me on this. That's what we're going to be talking about today, the way you learned Christ.  And  no matter which translation you have, you have some version of But that wasn't right.  Your verse 20 will say,  that  wasn't it. So I want you to  back up a little bit and we're gonna look at verse 17 where this section begins and we're gonna look at what Paul says was not it.  So he opens this section by saying,  actually  not saying, uh testifying in the Lord that you are not to walk as the Gentiles do. And then he calls them stupid. That's not an elaborate Greek translation, that's just my paraphrase. But you probably see that too. mean,  futility, look at verse 17, futility of their minds,  darkened in their understanding. And then in verse 18, the ignorance  that is in them. Those aren't gentle words. And most jarring of all is probably they are alienated from the life of God. I want you to recall how much ink Paul has spilled on the idea that the Gentiles are grafted into the people of God. Right, throughout the first half of this letter, chapter two, he talks about how the dividing walls of hostility have been brought down and that now in Christ, those who had once been enemies of God, the Gentiles, are now grafted in. And then in chapter three,  we read, Paul's telling us like his whole calling his life is to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and that God's manifold wisdom  can be found in the mysteriously  wonderful plan to actually welcome Gentiles into his people. Through the power of the Jewish Messiah who up until about two decades before this letter, everyone thought was just going to show up to wipe out the Gentiles. OK, so after all that, after the amazing grace, the wisdom and mercy that God put on display and grafting the Gentiles into his people,  if there is still something that can keep people alienated from a God of that kind of mercy and grace, we had better pay attention to what Paul's talking about here, right? First question of the catechism says, what's your only hope in life and in death? That you are not your own, that you belong to Christ. And  prior to Jesus, very few people ever thought that a Gentile,  kind of icky to the Jews, right, that they could belong to God, but God's  mercy and grace was bigger  than anybody imagined. Some of you  might have felt and believed in your life that you  could not even belong to God, but God's... Grace is bigger than your sin. So  if God's grace can cover his former enemies and can cover the biggest of sinners. What could possibly keep Gentiles alienated from the life of God? Well, to be clear,  Paul is not referring to their race here. It's not talking about their lineage or lack thereof, right, that they're not descended of Abraham. And he's also  not talking about their customs  or lack thereof, right,  no sabbath, or sorry,  no Sabbath keeping,  that they don't follow the same dietary laws,  circumcision, some of these customs.  Now,  there are customs that are amoral,  meaning that they're neither right nor wrong and in Christ. how you eat or even how you wash is amoral. It doesn't impact your relationship with God. There are customs that are not neutral. There are customs that the world approves or even celebrates that are not neutral in your relationship with God. And we are gonna circle back to that in a minute. So I wanted to mention it and set it aside because first, before Paul talks about behavior,  actions, what they're doing, their customs as Gentiles, I want you to notice what he says in verse 18. Let's look at this. They are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. What's at issue here is what they will acknowledge about God, the ignorance that's in them, and what they will allow themselves to feel or sense when they're in the presence of the transcendent, the hardness of heart. So it was this ignorance and hardness that was keeping some Gentiles alienated from God, which means Listen closely if you want closeness with God on your terms if you're  there are things that you won't allow yourself to feel in the presence  of God if there are things  you won't allow yourself to believe from the revealed word of God. There are things that you have decided because of how they make you feel  whether or not they affirm or uplift you  because they may convict you or discomfort you that you will reject those things. Paul says that is ignorance. He says that is a hard heart.  It's keeping some Gentiles  alienated, but that is not the way you learned Christ. That is not the way you learn Christ. These Gentiles, they might not have said that they had a hard heart. They would have disagreed. They would have said, no, no, no, listen, I'm open to God's stuff.  I believe there's a higher power. They were very committed to connecting to a  metaphysical realm, spirituality. And we can relate to that same thing, right? Oh, I know there's a higher power. I'm sensitive to the spiritual world. So I want you to look at verse 19 with me. They have become callous and have given themselves up. to sensuality, given themselves up to it.  They were immersed in it, committed themselves fully, wrapped up in it, they pursued it  fervently. How can you say I have a hard heart? I am pursuing  these things, they're consuming me, but what though? Their desires, their pleasure, sensuality. That is the oldest of errors. Okay, all the way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. They saw that the fruit  was pleasing to the eyes and it was to be desired  to make one wise. And so it appealed to  their want, their need to reach out,  to touch, to unlock and somehow  reach  the divine. Right? You will not surely die.  You will be  like God. That. That is the temptation that the serpent used to drag them away.  So our first ancestors thinking that that was  a good thing  that they deserved and that would that would meet the kind of desire that we all have right to reach  into the transcendent they gave into those desires. And as the Romans class  across the mezzanine and first hour learned they were studying in chapter five Romans chapter five Paul makes the  case that. Because of that one man's sin, and by the way, side note, that is what the Hebrew name means.  Adama is the Hebrew atom. It just means man.  It's as if to say that after that man, after Adam, that same pattern of sin follows to all of us. That through one man's sin, that Adam's sin, that man's sin spread to us all and we all, just like Adam, we are drawn away by our passions and our desires. We are inclined toward them, we are driven by them,  sometimes defined by them. So it appeals, it appeals to our basic instincts to turn  inward toward those desires, to  ask ourselves, well, what are those desires teaching me? Where are those desires leading me? And then we allow our desires to define us. Perhaps even to define a God for us. So listen again to how Paul describes this for the Ephesians.  gave themselves up to their desires. We let our passions and desires tell us who we are.  We call it finding  our true selves. And then we will surround ourselves with people who affirm our true selves.  And then we will cut off anybody. who wants to call us  to something beyond ourselves. That is not the way you learned Christ. Curious, isn't it how  giving themselves up to their desires, to sensuality, also made them callous? The NIV does a great job here. Having lost all sensitivity is how the NIV renders this. It's if  by giving yourself wholly  to the most sensual of pleasures, the extremes of feelings, which we think is a pursuit of the divine, we actually end up unable to really feel anything. So the ESV translation uses callous. Some of you have a picture of that, I certainly do.  My dad has even more.  Calluses, they  build up. It's as if being overexposed to  ecstatic feelings eventually renders us unable to really feel anything, and particularly anything  that would come meek and gentle, like a small voice or a prod of the spirit. Their hearts are hard. Their senses are dulled to things like conviction of sin. And that gets us to the more particular expression of this that Paul had in mind  from his immediate culture where the Ephesian church was situated. From the immediate culture  out of which God's amazing gospel was calling people into his glorious grace. From this immediate culture around there in the Greco-Roman world for the  world where Paul  was writing this letter. The pursuit of desire took on  a notable flair. And I'm not going to go into a lot of detail. I don't need to be  salacious. But at a high level, I'll just say that they had,  in the Greco-Roman world, a custom. Okay, back to that word. They had a custom of gathering in parties. Wine would flow freely,  inhibitions would be  lowered. And the very pursuit  of pleasure became a kind of spiritual. ritual. Specifically in Ephesus actually there was Artemis of the Ephesians. She was a famous goddess and her  worship involved ritual  ecstasy. They were creative in their worship arts. So Paul says they gave themselves up to it. That's what he has in mind in that phrase. They unleashed their passions and lusts in an effort to push the boundaries of or possibly even escape altogether the limitations of their fleshly bodies. seeking something beyond this realm in their desires. It was the spirit of the age that freedom and fulfillment was found inside in the desires and having given themselves to the pursuit of every desire, trying desperately to find something in them, something divine. Pleasure's a drug, they became  callous. Eventually it takes more and more to get the high that you first felt. You push further,  deeper, desperately trying to connect with the transcendent like pleasure junkies looking for their next fix. And Paul continues to look at verse 19 saying that out of this they became  greedy  to practice every kind of impurity. There is a pull so strong, Paul describes it as  greed. It's the sense that they simply must have it. They must feel it. They must sense it. I must find the experience somehow. It's a greed that pulls them in, but they're looking for it in every kind of  impurity.  That's a word Paul chose because it connects with the  Old Testament idea of uncleanliness, right? Of being unclean that would then render somebody  cut off from the community of God. They try to find it in the very things. that rather than drawing them close to God, actually push them away, just like the first man, just like our first ancestor, Adam, right, who let his passion and desire for that forbidden fruit draw him away and he ended up cut off from the presence of God. So we might think we are too refined for those old pagan practices. But guys, we  chase the same false transcendence in more respectable ways. A couple examples. Maybe you have  come infatuated with  New Age spirituality. Crystals,  horoscopes, maybe some manifesting talk, sending out good vibes. Maybe you didn't know that was called New Age spirituality.  But here's the diagnostic question. If you have become  enthralled with the idea that there's a mystical power deep inside you and that your job is to connect to that, unlock that, unleash that. That is not the way you learned Christ. Maybe your  pleasure pursuits are cloaked more in the language of self-improvement. We look for meaning and wellness and balance, like the right combination of  yoga, journaling, and smoothies is gonna heal your soul. Okay?  I mean, we do. We look for  the perfect morning routine, the next life hack, that book or podcast that promises to  unlock your best life. And we might find some  drips of wisdom there that sounds tantalizing, right? Like self-discipline and positivity,  even things like  rest and renewal that seem to connect to the idea of Sabbath. Well, these are Christian ideas, right? Well, let me challenge you. Have you structured these habits in your life in such a way  where both the source  and the purpose  is  self? Self-improvement, self-confidence, self-expression, self-discovery. That is not the way you learned Christ. And then sadly for some it's even the search for identity itself, right? We are redefining what it means to be human. We are unfettering ourselves from  the body and its constraints, believing that if we could just find or create our true self, that we could  discover the transcendent, connect with the divine, at least the God that we want to connect with. Have you tried filling a sense of emptiness inside you by by connecting to your true  or authentic  identity. That is not the way you learned Christ. We can call it mindfulness, self-care, optimization,  identity, authenticity, but beneath it all, it's the same hunger that Paul saw in Ephesus.  It's  this draw to feel something transcendent, anything to feel something real, something beyond this realm, something that  would be quote unquote authentic, that would show us that there's something beyond this life, something that proves that it can be more. But that is not the way you learn Christ.  When we try to experience God  by  throwing ourselves after our desires,  we become greedy for every kind of impurity. You did not find Christ hidden within you. You didn't unlock it through meditation. You didn't feel it in sensuality. That is not the way you learn Christ. So, how did you? So, let's go on with Paul  in verse 21. He continues, assuming that you have heard about him. and we're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus to put  off your old self. Put off your old self. Some of you have a footnote in your Bible for self and it says  somewhere down in your footnotes, man.  That Greek word there that gets translated self is anthropos. It's just the Greek word for man. And I think Paul uses that word here because he's connecting to that same idea,  right? That human nature and our sinful nature we pattern ourselves after Adam, Adam the first man. Like the Gentiles in Ephesus or like the self fulfillment culture around us mankind continues to cut itself off from God by following the deceitful desires in them. That is the person who you were  in Adam  when you were pursuing your desires as your highest goals your highest calling and Paul says that you were taught in him to put it off. So a lot of time in sermons, we try to come up with illustrations to make deep ideas more relatable. And I didn't have to, because Paul did it for me. He speaks of it like changing an outfit. Take off the one, put on another. And that metaphor was pretty profound for Paul. It had some meaning in that culture. It's not really hard for us to understand it, though, right? mean, the  clothing that you wear, certainly in his day, the clothing that you wear is a profound symbol of your identity. I mean, for those of you who know me, know, often I'm found in like cowboy boots, jeans, and a large print plaid, right? It's a, I don't know, personal brand. It's Farmer Nick. But  today I'm preaching, so I put off that outfit, and I put on whatever my wife told me to.  Right? You get the idea. I put off the one, I put on another. In the Greco-Roman world, man, that was a real deal. There was a certain, every tunic and toga symbolized who you were and the status that you held. So like for example,  for children in a coming of age, children wore a certain tunic. And at a coming of age ceremony, they would  take that off and they would put on  an adult toga, okay?  Say they've come of age. There was also a particular style  of tunic that marked somebody as a slave, as a servant. But if you were able to purchase or earn your freedom in some way, You didn't just go to the thrift store and pick up a new toga. There was a public ceremony before a magistrate. They would tell  the culture, they would tell em your community by taking off the servant's toga,  putting on the freed man's Roman citizen toga. That's the metaphor that Paul's using. He says, take off the first Adam,  the pattern of mankind that you lived in and put on  the second Adam. Christ, the firstborn of many brothers. And that should invite us to think about what kind of  toga,  speaking just of your clothes, what kind of tunic we wear out into the world and what does it say about us? Are you  wearing  a persona  in the world? that tells people about the deeply true authentic self that you've discovered or created. I mean, be honest, does your  Christian walk  in the world  look an awful lot like you instead of Jesus? Is it about your talents and your abilities? The balance that your life enjoys and the ways that you are thriving? Paul invites us here to think about. entering the world wearing a toga that looks like Christ.  And you guys know what? That's a servant's toga. Servant's tunic, sorry. That's a servant's tunic. It would be a tunic that says not  so much about what you've accomplished, but how you serve, what you've surrendered. how you give. In Rome,  that freed man's toga said, I belong to no one. What's our only hope in life and death? We belong to God. The world, guys, the world praises the person  who says, I have found myself. Yay. Heaven, the angels in heaven rejoice  at the man who says,  I am not my own. The way you learned Christ was not by pulling yourself out of slavery and dawning a new toga that told the world that you had arrived. It was by putting off the self that you thought was free,  but that actually never could satisfy. It's ironically you do need a new identity, but it's not found by looking within and chasing the passions within you and letting those define you.  Oh, it is definitely not by changing the outer to match the inner. It is by changing the inner. to match the model, the true humanity. Christ and his life, that is authentic humanity. A life that is defined. by how we serve a life that is defined by surrender and meeting others needs. That is, look at verse 24, that is created after God in true  righteousness and holiness. Look,  as we try to apply this, there are times when the Bible says,  and we're familiar with this kind of pattern, the Bible will say, hey, don't act like that, that's wrong. That's pretty familiar. There are other times, and this is an example, when the Bible says, hey, don't act like that, because that is not who you are. Look again at how Paul transitions  to this section. Verse 21,  assuming. that you have heard about him. And we're taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Other translations say things like  since you have heard  or if indeed. It's Paul's way of saying that he knows that they know. He knows that they know who they are. He's about to remind them of who they are. So church,  I know that you know that Christ died for you. I know that you know that he did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but that he gave it up. Taking on, taking on the tunic of a servant, right? I know that you know the truth is in Jesus. I know that you know that you are his.  I know that you know that when God looks on you, he no longer sees  the rebel tunic, the rebel toga that Adam wore when Adam said. I will become like God, will attain to God by reaching out to the forbidden fruit. He looks on you and he sees a tunic that marks you as belonging  to Christ. The one who said it is finished. Because I know you know,  I'm reminding you that you know and I say and I testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk according to those desires that drew Adam away. That is not the way you learn Christ and it is no longer who you are in Christ. You will not find your true identity hidden somewhere inside that you have to unlock that identity and that pursuit belongs to your old man. Put it off. Look at verse 22. That man is corrupted by deceitful desires to find your true identity. Put on the new man Christ. I know that you know and have heard and were taught in him. So the words Paul uses I know. that you have heard and were taught in him  as the truth is in Jesus to die to self. Take up your cross. Follow him. Come to the end of yourself. Repent of your pleasure pursuits. Cry out for rescue from the  real you. Cast your hope entirely on his shed blood and depend on his power  to make you truly alive. Because what is your only hope? And life. and in death that you  are not your own but you belong body and soul to God and your Savior Jesus Christ. That is how you learned Christ and that is how he will keep you. Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you for your word. God, I thank you that you have preserved for us in your word a reminder of who we are, a reminder of what God has done for us, what your son has done for us. God, I pray that you would  transform our hearts  as we are reminded of who you have made us in your son. Let's pray this in Jesus' name,  amen. Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  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