Amen. Well, happy Memorial Day weekend if you have tomorrow off. I just want to say as well, this is— we are happy to have so many military families in our church, and we know we want to be mindful of the fact that there are Gold Star families in our city, those who have lost loved ones, those who have lost parents, uncles, aunts. And let's be mindful that many of the freedoms we enjoy this morning, that we are able to gather freely, hear the Word of God preached come through sacrifices those before us have made. And so we are— we are very grateful for them. And it's a joy to be able to say these words in freedom, to please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, be able to open the Word of God together.
As you turn to Ephesians chapter 6, I want to let you know where we're going next after we wrap up Ephesians today. We will be spending the summer on— with the Apostle Paul on his first missionary journey. And I want to tell you why we're doing that. Ephesians, we've really soaked in the grace of God, hopefully. I hope that's the one big theme you've gotten through the entire book of Ephesians. And as a result of being soaked in the grace of God, we saw last week Paul begins to say, listen, the grace of God that's changed me and that's changed us, please pray that I'd be able to share that with others. And so that's what we wanna focus on in the summer, that the gospel that we've soaked in for the last 9 months, we would be able to share with others. And so our— as Alec mentioned, our simple goal is that everyone in the church learn to share their own testimony and, in brief, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so please pray the Lord would inspire us and stir us up this summer as we gather.
In addition, I want to let you know one travel note. Mid-June to mid-July, the elders have very kindly given me a 1-month study sabbatical. So I'll be out of the pulpit for a month or so in the middle of the summer. We're gonna have our team preaching as well as a few guests. I'm excited that our friend and Pastor Tom Wilkins, who's a longtime pastor here, is gonna be coming, bringing the word during that time, as well as our friend Alex Anchondo from Gracia Soberana en Ciudad Juárez. They are gonna be— he's gonna be coming, giving us an update on what's going on in Latin America through their ministry, as well as bringing the word. So I think it's gonna be a wonderful time. We're gonna spend in the summer in God's Word together.
Well, you should be in Ephesians 6:21. And as we wrap up this series, let's remember that every single part of Scripture, even greetings and goodbyes, is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:21, "So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing." Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I've sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. This is God's Word.
Well, this week I was reading an article by Jane Corner in Explore where she describes a harrowing experience she had trail running in the— in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. She recounts that she was making her way down in running shoes from the mountain. She had gotten pretty far separated from the group she originally started with, and she was running as quickly as she could down when, she writes, one second the boulder stood upright and the next second it toppled, pinning my right leg. The shock of the blow threw me on my back and the weight of the boulder registered instantly in a tsunami of pain. My right leg was caught below the knee in a tightening vice. Stifling a scream, I sat up and pushed. The boulder did not budge. I pushed again. Encouraged by a tremor that suggested a lessening of resistance, a possibility of release, but the rebound knocked me flat and the boulder bore down, crushing more. So she describes basically wondering, okay, is anyone gonna even know that she's here? Will anyone be able to hear her screams? But fortunately, somebody who had gone on ahead of her was far out of sight, heard something, came running up back and, uh, through two people pushing, were able to get the boulder off of her. And then she was unable to walk, obviously, so they carried her all the way down the mountain and drove the several, uh, couple hours into a city to go to the ER. And later, uh, after her leg was saved, she asked the orthopedist, "How long could my leg have withstood that much weight?" He replied, "An hour, maybe. Then we'd be amputating." not that there'd be much to amputate at that point. So, she writes this, "Two years later, whenever I hike in shorts, strangers on the trail sometimes ask about the crater in my calf. And if they're from Texas, I tell them I was kicked by a moose," which I think is awesome. "But if they're hiking alone, I recount the real story as a cautionary tale. Do not hike off trail alone."
Now, we all have places in our lives where we default to hike alone, don't we? We have areas of our lives where, where we are like, okay, this, this I'm living by myself. And one of the problems I think is that often we picture the Christian life as a solitary journey. It's almost an Eastern mystic view of spiritual journeys where you're on your spiritual journey and you go to this guru and that mountaintop and then eventually come down with the knowledge that is right for you. You are fulfilled in this journey. But rather, that's not the metaphor that the Bible uses to talk about the Christian life. As we've seen from beginning to end in Ephesians, the Christian life is meant to be lived with others. Now, if you're one of those people that maybe you're a little bit more introverted and a little bit more, you like your alone time, like me, this message is for you too. It's not just for the extroverts. This is part of what it means to live the Christian life. Now, the way that I would sum this up is simply this: the Christian life is meant to be a together life. The Christian life is meant to be a together life, not a solitary life, not a me and Jesus life, but a together life.
6 · Exposition of Ephesians 2's redemptive arc: humanity's deadness and alienation from God, followed by God's initiative to reconcile us through grace
Now, first, we're gonna answer 3 questions today as we look at this text. The first is, why a together life? Why do we— why does the force of the Christian walk lend itself to being united and brought together with others rather than just walking individual journeys? Well, first, the Christian life is a together life because we have God as our Father. Now, the most fundamental togetherness Christians enjoy is not even between one another, it's between us and the Lord. Ephesians recounts how he starts with Ephesians 2, it— with us in a pretty bad state. We are dead in our sins. We are cut off from relationship with God, the one that we were made for. We are following the prince of the power of the air. We're listening to our own flesh. We're listening to the devil. We're listening to the world. And we get further and further and more separated from the God who made us and the God that we were made to be close to. And yet Ephesians recounts the amazing grace that God himself, the one that we have estranged ourselves from, actually goes to us to bring us near and reconcile us to himself. That is why the gospel is such good news.
7 · Detailed exposition of the mechanism of reconciliation: Christ's blood, his cry of dereliction on the cross, and the substitutionary atonement—Jesus bore our alienation so we could be brought near to God
In Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians 2:13 says this, "But now in Christ Jesus, you," who were once far off have been brought near. How? By the blood of Christ. For through Him, Christ, we have access in one Spirit to the Father, capital F, Father. So, what we see is because of the blood of Jesus is how this happens, meaning that on the cross, you'll remember that Jesus cries out, "My God, My God, "Why have you forsaken me?" Now, that should not be in any normal sense because the Father and Son had enjoyed eternal fellowship since before time began. But in this moment, God the Father treats Jesus as if he had committed our sins and Jesus bore our estrangement and the justice due to us. And he was cut off and separated from God so that in bearing our estrangement and alienation and justice, we might be brought near.
8 · Analogy of siblings estranged over inheritance, resolved when one sibling offered to give up their portion for reconciliation
I don't know if you've ever experienced this. A number of years ago, I remember talking to a family who— there was a deep rift in their family because of a financial issue. It was related to their inheritance. And so, the parents had died and then the siblings began to fight and quarrel, and siblings that even were pretty close beforehand all of a sudden started to be estranged from one another over wanting pieces of the estate, pieces, you know, wanting more money, wanting this or that. And it wasn't until one of the siblings kind of said, "Listen, you guys matter way more to me than this estate, and I would even give up my portion." if it could reconcile us, right? That is exactly, in a sense, what God has done. We are— the debt is ours, right? It's not just a sibling, like, we're all kind of in the wrong here. No, no, no. We're completely in the wrong. God is completely in the right. Our debt is with him. And yet the one who holds the debt is the one that cancels it and sends Christ that we might be brought near.
9 · Theological claim that vertical reconciliation (us to God) necessarily produces horizontal reconciliation (us to one another)
Now, that is why the Christian life is a relational life, if you could say it that way, a together life. God made us to relate to him, and that relationship in Christ is now restored, that we might be able to call God our Father again. But because of that, then, with God as our Father, we are brought then together with Christians around us to be Rather than strangers or even co-journeyers, we are brought to be brothers and sisters. Paul deals with actually one of the most profound— one of the cases of most profound alienation and separation in the ancient world, that of Jews and Gentiles, who normally and naturally would be separated ethnically, they'd be separated culturally, they'd be separated religiously. They'd be separated by their histories. Every kind of barrier and separation that could be between these two groups is there. And yet, listen to what Paul says about them because of their relationship with God. He says this, "For he himself is our peace," meaning Jew and Gentile, "because he has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances." that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. What happens is that when God reconciles us to himself, he also reconciles us to one another. That's what Paul is saying.
10 · Alcantar explains Paul's use of 'brothers' as gender-inclusive (hermanos), then offers a vivid personal illustration: his parents' adoption of a Russian daughter automatically made her his sister—he cannot relate to his parents without relating to her as family
That's why he says in chapter 6:23, he calls them brothers or brothers and sisters. If you're wondering why it just says brothers, it's because Koine Greek is like Spanish and it's just hermanos, right, or amigos, right? It's not like— it covers— but listen, if you don't speak Spanish, that's going to be lost on you. But just trust me on that. Brothers and sisters, hermanos, right? And I have a vivid experience of this in my own life. A number of years ago, my parents adopted a daughter from a country far away, from Russia. And so they traveled thousands of miles halfway across the world to Siberia, literally to Siberia, to meet this little girl and to go before a judge and ask for permission to adopt her. And it was a literal courtroom. And so they go before this judge and make their case about why they would be a good family and, And over, you know, a series of conversations, the judge finally says, "Okay, sure. I'll," you know, I think it's just because my dad won her over in some ways. And they said, "Okay, this is what I think would be best for this child, to go back with you to America to become your daughter." And so the gavel rings, and in that instant, they gained a daughter. She gained a mother and father. But when that happened in their relationship, my sisters and I were thousands of miles away, but something fundamental changed between us and this girl that we'd never even met before. In that instant, when she became their daughter, she also became my sister. There's no way for then me to relate to my parents as my parents and not relate to her as my sister, right? It's not as though I could go like, "Oh yeah, you're not my sister." Of course she is. "No, those are my parents." Well, those are my parents too. "But you're not my si—" You can't do that. You can't parse it out like that. This is what Paul is saying in Ephesians. He's saying, listen, for those of you who are in church with you, those who call themselves Christians, those who are following Jesus, if they have had their relationship to God restored and he is now their Father, they are your siblings in Christ, your brothers and sisters in Jesus.
11 · Addresses the objection 'I don't need people' with pastoral transparency about his own introversion, then applies Paul's body metaphor: a body part separated from the body cannot survive
Now, a few objections may be raised here. First objection, what if I don't need people? Now, if you're there, that's where I live, right? I don't particularly like people. I was sharing the first service, And when somebody got concerned, because I said, if we have a dinner appointment, I'm looking forward to that with genuineness. But if you cancel and say you can't make it, I'm like, ah, so nice. Like, I just, you know, I get a home evening, just get to be there by myself. If we have a meeting on the calendar and somebody emails and says, I actually don't need that meeting, I'm like, yes, right? I know other guys on staff that are like, oh, please, do you want to meet about something else? Can we just hang out? Can we do something? That's not me. So maybe you're there. Maybe you're a rugged, self-made individualist American Texan, right? You're just, you're like, "Yes!" You want to be alone on the plains with a horse overlooking your 100 acres. Like, if that's you, okay. But Ephesians would say you still need others. You still need your brothers and sisters. In fact, Paul uses this metaphor of the body. Meaning that for a Christian to try to say, "Okay, I don't need the rest of the body," is like a body part to pop off and just try to make it on its own, right? You're like— your spleen's not going to do well by itself. Your ear's not going to do well by itself. And Paul is saying that that's what it's like to— for a Christian to separate themselves. Instead, he says, "When every joint and every part works together," the body is healthy and grows. So, we all need one another to grow.
12 · Addresses the objection 'I've been hurt by the church in the past' with pastoral empathy, then argues via analogy that avoiding the church after being hurt is like avoiding hospitals after a botched surgery—you need the very context you're avoiding in order to heal
Second, what if I've been hurt in the past? What if you've been hurt in the past? Now, sadly, this is common. In fact, I feel like I hear more and more stories of those who have been hurt by other Christians or by the church, and I grieve every time I hear one of these stories. Sometimes it's a small thing, sometimes it's a deep long-standing, painful, very sensitive thing. And it's hard to be— but one of the things that can happen though when that hurt happens is you begin to sort of withdraw from the body and from the church and from other brothers and sisters or begin to hold people at arm's length. And this is where I think Ephesians can be helpful. The first way Ephesians is helpful is to remind us that the church is where you grow and heal. It may be in a church context that you were hurt, but avoiding that context, avoiding the church is not gonna help you heal. I remember talking to somebody years ago that they said they had had a botched surgery or bad experience in the hospital. And so they just told me, "That's why I'll never go to a hospital again, never." And you're thinking, "I don't know if that's real workable," you know? I mean, think at some point in your life you're going to end up back in the hospital. In fact, it became clear that they actually probably would want to talk to another surgeon to fix the surgery they had that went bad. And it's like saying, "Okay, well, listen, I don't trust surgeons anymore. No more surgeries." But you actually need a surgeon to fix what's wrong. And in a similar way, sometimes that happens in the church where we're like, "Listen, I don't trust— I don't trust Christians anymore. I don't trust church leaders. I don't trust churches anymore." You're like, "Well, that seems like that's a pretty deep wound. You know what would help? Probably talking to some Christians or getting involved in a church." Right? That's where you're going to begin to heal.
13 · Continues addressing the hurt-by-church objection by arguing that Ephesians requires honesty about our own sin—we come to church as forgiven sinners, not sinless judges
And the other thing that we need to be honest that we see in Ephesians, we need to be honest about this, Jesus paid for our sins and anyone who is a Christian has admitted that they are a sinner in need of help. Therefore, when we come together, we come together not as sinless judgers of one another, But forgiven sinners, meaning we can't come and say like, "Okay, well, I'm just going to be the sinless evaluator of what goes on here." No, no, no, we all bring our own issues into the church. Charles Spurgeon said famously a number of years ago, a century ago, that if you as a Christian ever find a perfect church, don't join it. He wouldn't join it if he found a perfect church because he would spoil it as soon as he joined it. Meaning that we all, when we come to the church, we may want to— we all want a perfect church, but we all, as soon as we join a church, make the church imperfect because of our own faults and failures. And therefore, we have to remember to try to give grace to one another. One other thing, Mark Dever has this great story where he's a pastor in Washington, D.C., and somebody said to him, you know, "I don't go to church anymore." And he's like, "Okay, wow, you know, why not? Why is that?" And he goes, "Ah, because the church is just a pit of vipers down there. I don't want anything to do with that." And he goes, "Well, I actually agree with you that the church is a pit of vipers, and you're welcome to slither on down anytime." Meaning, like, that, yeah, it's true that we are a bunch of We are sinners, but the difference is that we are sinners who know we need the grace of God and by God's grace are hopefully changing because of the grace of God to look more like Him.
14 · Addresses the objection 'I don't have any friends here' by reframing the problem: Ephesians calls us to love, serve, and help the saints—community is built when everyone takes up that call
Third objection then, "What if I don't have any friends here?" Listen, I hate the feeling of being in a room and not having, like, somebody you know. Have you ever ended up in that social situation where you just get plopped in and you're like, "I don't know any of these people." I inwardly— outwardly I'm smiling and kind of going like this, you know. Inwardly I'm going, "Ahh!" like it's freaking out. And maybe that's you. Maybe you're new to church. Ephesians would give you some counsel. Ephesians would say, "Listen, your call is to love the saints, to serve the saints, to help the saints." In fact, it is only by each of us heeding and hearing that call that we begin to Grow closer together, meaning this: if you want to be known, then seek to know others. If you want to be loved, then love others. If you want others to serve you and pray for you, then serve others and pray for them. It's only as we all do that, as we take up that call, that we begin to grow. That's why life, the Christian life, is together life.
15 · Signals structural shift from 'why together life?' to 'what does together life look like?' Points the congregation to the text for the next major section
Second, what does together life look like? Well, I think we get a window into this in verses 21 and 22.
16 · Extended exposition of verses 21-22, focusing on Paul's sending of Tychicus not just as a letter carrier but as a person to encourage hearts
Where Paul says this, "So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I've sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts." So, right here at the end of the letter, we just get this wonderful little glimpse into the life of the Apostle Paul and the relationships between him and Tychicus and this local church. Now, side note, if you're having a baby soon, Tikicus— I know that millennials and Gen Zers really want baby names that nobody has, unique, specific, amazing, beautiful, um, special star names for their baby. Nobody's using Tikicus, so that's for free right now if you are expecting. Uh, so what do we learn from this little window? Well, first we learned that Christian life live together is meant to be a life where our hearts are open to one another and together. Notice the goal that Paul sends Tychicus for, "That he may encourage your hearts." That this letter and this man sent with the letter are aimed at encouraging the hearts of the Ephesians. And this is the reality, Paul could have just sent a letter with a letter carrier that would have delivered it, you know, and said, dropped it off and then moved on. Instead, he sends Tychicus. Now, Tychicus is likely from this region of the world. He may have been, he well may have been known by this church in Ephesus. He was a fellow worker, a pastor who helped other churches and other pastors with the Apostle Paul. And so when Tychicus arrives with Paul's letter, he arrives to, you know, if you ever have one of those old family friends that suddenly they show up at Thanksgiving or Christmas and they come in the door and you're like, "Oh, it's so-and-so," right? That's what Tychicus arriving would have been like. Paul sends this man with this letter that he may encourage their hearts, meaning this, Christian life and Christian ministry is not just a series of business transactions. It's not just, "What are my duties as a Christian? Okay, my duty is to serve in kids' ministry, my duty is to go to a small group, my duty is to pray for one person a day. I fulfilled my duties, now I get to do what I want to do." That's not— that's not it at all. In fact, Paul is aimed at the hearts of the Ephesians. And in a similar way, our life together means our hearts are united together.
17 · Personal illustration of Alcantar's coffee meeting with Tom Wilkins, a former pastor at the church
I experienced this recently when Tom Wilkins and I met for coffee. Now, if you don't— you know, you're new to the church, the history is that Tom was a pastor at this church for many years where I grew up with. He was my youth group leader. He was my singles leader. He was my pastor. He served on staff with me. The whole time I was sitting across from Tom because he had— he's not an El Paso anymore because the Lord called him to serve as a pastor at a church in Tucson. And the whole time I'm having coffee with Tom, I'm thinking simultaneously, this is the best and this is the worst. Because it's the best because all of a sudden these references and stories from 10 years ago are coming out and I'm bearing burdens with Tom and he's bearing some of my burdens with me. And I'm thinking, this is amazing. But also part of me is going, ah, I can't believe he doesn't live here. I can't believe we can't do this every week. Why does he, you know, why did the Lord have to call him over here? But it felt that way. It felt like the best and felt like the worst because our hearts were involved with Christian life together. It wasn't just, "Good evening, Tom." It was like, "Man, I cannot wait to catch up with you." That is the way the Christian life is meant to be lived. And so, ask yourself, is your heart open as you live the Christian life? And let me just say that there is a great temptation, especially when you've been hurt, to begin to close your heart off, to begin to say, "Listen, I'm going to retreat to just doing what is required." But I don't think that's the way to live the Christian life. As we'll see even in our series on Paul's first missionary journey, he experienced conflict and alienation and disagreement, but it did not mean that he began to close his heart off from those he ministered with. Is your heart open?
18 · Second characteristic of together life: mission together
As you minister together. Second, second thing that we learn about life together is that it means mission together. It means mission together. Now, Tychicus is unique because he pops up all over the New Testament. He's mentioned at the end of Colossians, he's mentioned in 2 Timothy, he's mentioned in Titus. And so, evidently Timothy and Titus and Tychicus are— I don't know what— just Paul liked guys with the T names, but that was a requirement to be on Paul's team. But these guys were men that he had trained for ministry and then sent out to minister to others. And they were constantly— and if you look at the letters of the New Testament, Paul is moving and traveling and strengthening, and Tychicus is going here, and now he's in Rome, and now he's on Crete, and Timothy is over here, and he's pastoring for a while here, and then he's encouraging people over there. And what you see is their relationships were built by being on mission together. It wasn't as though they just sat around and kind of shot the breeze for, you know, every time they were together. No, they were on a mission together. Our relationships are forged as we pursue the mission that Jesus has given us, to make disciples of one another and of all nations. And that's what you see, these relationships are forged and strengthened by the the mission, and that mission and the team that's on mission can't be separated from one another.
19 · Applies the 'mission together' principle: even Paul, the most brilliant and trained man of his era, never ministered alone—he always built teams, recruited people, and worked with plural elderships
So you notice that Paul the Apostle, probably the most brilliant man in the first century, even by most secular scholars' definitions, he's probably the most influential thinker in the first century AD. And that man was highly trained. He had Roman citizenship. He was trained by some of the top Jewish scholars. Was a great speaker, a great writer. He could have been a Lone Ranger if anyone could have, right? He could have just done it himself. And anybody that Paul brought onto his team probably would not do as well as he could at things. And yet Paul, you will watch his example in Acts, he always ministers with a team. He's always recruiting people. He's always building teams. He's always sending people. He's always speaking to plural elderships. In other words, not the elder in Crete, but the elders over there. And so our team together and our mission together can't be separated. And that's the way we want to build at Cross of Grace. That's why we don't want to have a pastor just by himself, but a pastoral team. That's why we want community groups to have folks that are helping in different ways. That's why we don't have a hospitality person, but a hospitality team, right? No kids ministry. Like 5 people, but a kids ministry team. This is, this is what the model of the New Testament is, that we build with one another on mission together as a team.
20 · Third characteristic of together life: growth together
Third, growth together. Life together looks like growth together. Now, interesting thing about Tychicus is he didn't come from nowhere. We first see him in Acts 20 as being from the Asia Minor region. And so the implication from what we can tell is that he was one of the believers that Paul preached the gospel to on his missionary journeys and And he believed, and Paul began to disciple him, and he began to grow, and Paul began to train him to be a leader locally, and he led. And Paul began to bring him on some of these journeys or send him places because he found him faithful, and he grew further. Meaning, the Christian life, as we minister with one another, as our hearts are open, we should be growing together. It's not as though we just— We arrive and, okay, we're good, you know. I'm okay, you're okay, everybody's okay. We don't need anybody to work on anything. No, we begin to work together on the mission and we grow together. Ephesians 4 again has that wonderful picture of any leaders in the church aren't given so that they do the ministry and the people— it's not as though the church is divided between ministers and minister— ministeries. Is that right? Yeah, ministers and ministeries. Uh, my language failed me there for a minute. And the— those that are saved, we kind of sort into like, well, would this guy seem like a minister or just somebody that's going to be ministered to? You know, that's not the Christian life. Instead, Ephesians 4 says those who lead in different areas, in evangelism and in teaching and in care, they lead by equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry, meaning that everyone is growing in being able to minister and care. They grow as they serve. They grow as they build relationships.
21 · Illustration of a group of longtime friends at the church who decided to go through the church's discipleship curriculum together—and in doing so, began asking questions they'd never asked and growing in ways they'd never grown
And I was so encouraged by— recently I was hearing about a group of friends in the church that they'd been friends for a long time, they knew each other well, but one of them kind of brought, "Well, what if we go through the discipleship curriculum the church kind of came up with and just, you know, do that for a season as we hang out. And so they began to do that. And the testimony was that they began to ask each other questions that they had never asked one another. They began to grow in ways that they had never grown, even in their long years as friends. And that, I think, is what Paul is after. He's that we grow together as our hearts are bound together, as we're on mission together.
22 · Signals shift to third major section: what creates the culture of our life together, both internally and in outward ministry
All right, third section then, third question. What creates the culture of our life together. What does it look like for us inside the church? And what does the church look like then as it ministers to the outside world? Well, this is where we find the benediction in verses 23 and 24.
23 · Full reading of verses 23-24, then extended introduction to the Fred Rogers illustration
"Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love." incorruptible. Now, recently I was reading a biography of Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers. Everybody knows who Mr. Rogers is, right? Does anybody not know who Mr. Rogers is? Put your hand up and then we'll shame you. No, I'm just kidding. We're not going to do that. It was a trick. One person was like, "Oh." He's that very kind man in a cardigan that you see sometimes and that was on public television. And I just thought, "Okay, where did Mr. Rogers come from?" And one of the surprising things as you begin the biography is discovering that this man, Fred Rogers, who was loving and kind and quiet and caring, he had actually a relatively difficult childhood. His parents were relatively wealthy and he should have enjoyed a lot of things, but he was pretty sickly for almost his entire childhood. He had very severe asthma and he lived in an area where there was a lot of smog, and so it limited his ability to even go outdoors. He was made fun of for being overweight in school, and there was a memorable instance where the kids at school began to make fun of him and began to nickname him Fat Freddie and began chasing him after school until he could run into a neighbor's home. And so you think, how do you get a Mr. Rogers out of that kind of environment? That's the kind of person that would want to not have anything to do with people, right? Why did he spend all of his time helping and serving others after all of that? Well, you find out actually that amidst all that stuff going on around him, the love of his family is sort of what anchored him. His family was his refuge. And his relationship with his family then began to change the way— the trajectory of his life and what he did. And in the same way, in the church, our relationship with God and being part of God's family then begins to change the way that we relate to the people around us. And you see these— this in 4 specific areas.
24 · First element of church culture: peace
First, you see that peace, the peace that we have with God, then overflows in our relationships. Ephesians 2 reminds us that he himself is our peace. Because of the cross, we have peace with God, no enmity but peace. And then Ephesians 4 calls us to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, meaning the peace we enjoy in our relationship with God should, should spread out from us and define our church culture and even kind of spill over into the community around us. I think of this vivid illustration where at one point Fred Rogers had very, very severe asthma to the point that his parents, who were relatively wealthy, as I said, bought a newfangled contraption called an air conditioner for him, meaning it would filter the air and cool the air to kind of help him. And so, he couldn't go outside very much at all, otherwise he would start hacking and coughing and have an asthma attack. But as soon as he was inside, he could be at peace. And in a similar way, we live in a world where there's just conflict and anxiety and fear everywhere. But we have the ability to come inside the house of the Lord, come inside to that relationship with God we have and be at peace. And then that peace begins to overflow to those around us.
25 · Second element of church culture: love
We also see love. Paul reminds them that they are loved by God. He asks that love be given to the church. He has spoken about love throughout the whole letter. He prays in Ephesians 3 that the church would know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, and then calls the church to walk in light of that love in Ephesians 5:1, and calls us to bear with one another in love, meaning that the love that we experience in our relationship with God should then spill out into the church and to the community around us. That's Paul's prayer. Now, I don't know if you remember Fred Rogers' famous phrase that he said to millions of kids, that somehow I felt like he was saying it to me, where he says, he would say, "I like you just the way you are." And I was like, "Even me? I mean, I'm too skinny, I have weird freckles, you know, my knees aren't put on right." And to have this very kind man say, "I like—" And, of course, I didn't realize he had no idea who I was, but it was very meaningful to me. And I found out that actually that phrase wasn't something Fred came up with, It was something his grandfather would tell him growing up. You know, "I like you, Fred. I like you just the way you are." Not saying Fred was never disobedient, but who God made him to be, that the grandfather affirmed and loved him. And that love then he, well, he gave to many, many others.
26 · Third element of church culture: faith
Third, faith. Faith, love with faith, meaning this, that our love for the Lord must be accompanied with a faith in the Lord, that we make the Lord the object of our faith in life, that that's the thing we put our faith in, that's the thing we rest on. And we see faith itself in Ephesians 2, even that is a gift from the Lord, but Paul encourages us to more and more put our faith in Jesus in every area of life. And similarly in the church, the faith that we have in the Lord is what strengthens of the church, right? The church is only healthy in proportion to how much it makes the Lord the object of its faith. Now, the biographer I'm reading in this particular biography of Fred Rogers apparently did not like Presbyterians. So, if you were or are a Presbyterian, we want you to know we like you, but this biographer does not like you. And he kept saying things like, "Despite being involved in the Presbyterian Presbyterian church, Fred Rogers appeared to have a genuine relationship with the Lord, you know. And, um, despite the angry theology he may have heard on Sundays, Fred Rogers' family was very genuine in their care for others. You know, it was just like, wow, man, this is— you know, something happened to you, buddy. And, and yet the thing the biography could not do is remove the importance of Fred Rogers' family's faith or his faith. Meaning it was at the center to the point that it couldn't just be like, you know, sliced out of the biography. Similarly, the church, our faith in the Lord should be at the center of everything we do in the church such that it can't be removed. We can't just become a good social do-gooder group. Our faith in the Lord is the center of our life.
27 · Fourth element of church culture: grace
And last, grace. Grace, man, I could— We could do a whole nother sermon on grace. We've done so many sermons on grace because grace has been from the beginning to the end of the book of Ephesians. Paul greets them with grace. He says God has lavished them with grace. He says they've been saved by grace. He ends with wishing for God's grace to be with them. The grace of God is on every page of this letter. And as a result, the church should show grace to others, even in their speech, Ephesians 4:29, It says we are to— every single interaction we have, every word we speak should give grace to those who hear. Meaning the grace we experience, we share with others. And a wonderful illustration of this is the Rogers family Christmas. So they had a large home, and Fred Rogers' family's pattern was they would make a massive Christmas feast, and they would invite anyone who didn't have a family or who didn't have a whole lot to eat. And they would invite their friends and kind of immediate family over. And there would just be this big, raucous party with full tables set with food that people in the community knew that they could come to and not have to bring anything, just come and be blessed. And that's the atmosphere that Fred was raised in. And it's funny, later it came into play when many people tried to get Fred to commercialize Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and make money. You know, sell things and have a whole, you know, kind of Disney empire of Fred Rogers. And he was like, "No, I still want to give this away. We're giving this thing away."
28 · Concluding synthesis and application
So in summary, Fred Rogers had sickness and illness and mockery throughout his childhood, but he did have one thing that anchored him, the love of his family. The love of his family, in a sense, was the core of who he was. And then that spilled out and over into everything. Else he did. And I've discovered, last detail about Mr. Rogers, and then I'll shut up about him because I think he's just awesome. His cardigans, which I thought even as a kid, they're like, those are pretty good-looking cardigans. I was that kind of a kid at like age 6. I was like, that's a nice cardigan. And he always would take a long time putting the cardigan on and taking it off and all that stuff. And I discovered that his trademark cardigans were almost all knit by his mother. And so, you have this wonderful picture that this man who, you know, America loves, he's literally clothed in the affection of his family. He's clothed in his family's love, and then wearing that, he shows love to other people. And I thought, man, that is what Paul is doing in Ephesians. He is, in a sense, clothing us with God's love for us, with God's grace toward us, with the peace of God for us. And then he's saying, "Now you show that peace to others. Now you love others. Now show grace to others." And Crossville Grace, let me just encourage you as we finish this book, this is what our city longs for. I don't know anyone in El Paso that would walk around saying, "You know what? Yeah, I think I'm at peace enough, I'm loved enough, and I have enough grace in my life." Right? No. There's so many in our community that are fighting fears or have practical needs or are not at peace or have broken relationships with family and don't feel loved or think they have to do things to deserve people's affection. And yet the beauty of the Christian gospel that we have heard and received and experienced is that in Christ we find love we do not deserve. In Christ we find peace. Peace we do not earn. In Christ we find grace. None of us have done something to merit. And that's what our— that's what our community needs more than anything. And I— what I pray is, I— as I was preparing this message, my prayer is just this: May the Lord make Cross of Grace that Rogers family Christmas where our doors are always open, where there's always plenty of food, and I mean that literally, there's always plenty of food and there's always plenty of affection and kindness and peace for anyone who needs it. And listen, if you're here today and you may not be a Christian, you— maybe you don't even know if you're a Christian, maybe it's been years since you've been in church, that's okay. We're grateful that you are here and I hope you hear in this the heartbeat of our church, our church Our church is not here to tell the city around us, "You're not as good as we are." Our church is here to testify to the grace of God that we've been shown. And so, listen, if you long for peace, if you long for love, if you long for grace, you're not going to find it out there in that next relationship. You're only going to find it in the God who made you, who sent Christ for you, for God so loved the world. That he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And I think you could add with Ephesians, an everlasting family. So if that's you today, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
29 · Closing pastoral prayer with two movements: first, an evangelistic prayer for anyone who longs for love, peace, and grace but feels held back—that they would see Jesus as the only way in, not their merit; second, a prayer for the church that they would be sent out clothed in God's grace, with hearts open to one another and the mission, showing grace to others because they have been shown grace
And would you stand as we pray these things over our church as we end? And Lord, I first pray for anyone today that longs to be welcomed into that Rogers Family Christmas, that wants to experience love and peace and grace but feels held back by their sin or by their past, Lord, I pray that they would see Jesus as the only way in to the family of God. Not their merit, not going out and doing 1,000 good deeds, but rather coming in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" That they could be called children of God. I want to pray if anyone is there that they would admit that they're a sinner, admit that they need a Savior, and commit to follow you today. And, Lord, I pray as we end this book together, this book that's all about the grace of God, Lord, may we be sent out today clothed in the grace of God that we have experienced. And may we be linked together as brothers and sisters who have this common Father, and may we have our hearts opened to one another and the mission set out before us, and may we, as we've been clothed with these truths, then turn and minister to others. May we be the people whose doors are always open, whose Christmas table always has an extra seat. May we be those who are first to show grace to others because we have been shown the grace of God. And I pray that as we end and as we sing, you would anchor us yet again in the truths of the gospel that we might go and live those truths out in everyday life. In your name we pray, amen.