New Year, New You

6 · The pastor expounds on verses 17-18, establishing Paul's diagnosis of the human condition: futile minds, darkened understanding, and willful ignorance rooted in hardness of heart toward God

So first section today is same old, same old, same old, same old. Why are we stuck in the same cycle as humanity where Paul diagnoses why we end up stuck? He explains it this way in verse 17: This I say and testify in the Lord, that you must— this is the problem— no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding. Now, this is a radical statement to make to the group of Ephesians that are listening to this letter, right? The Roman culture of which Ephesus was a colony prized learning and understanding and philosophy.

I mean, they're the offshoot of the Greek philosophers, the Roman orators. And so they would feel like, listen, all those barbarians over in Germany or over, over here, you know, in the North Mediterranean, all of those people, they don't understand anything, but we understand things. We're the people that see. And Paul here has the audacity to say, yeah, all of them, even the best of their philosophers, their minds are futile. They're darkened in their understanding.

They only think they see, when in reality they're just stumbling around in the dark. I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but I don't wanna say how recently this was. It was a time ago where I was rocking one of my kids to sleep a few years ago. And you know, you're kind of walking around the room rocking them and they're getting sleepy. And so I kind of know the crib's over here.

And so what I do every night is I get the crib, you know, I take the kid and I put them in the crib and I kind of back away slowly. And then, you know, you leave. Except this time, you know, I got distracted and it was a little dark in there 'cause my eyes hadn't gotten used to turning the light off. I've got the kid and I begin to lower the kid and I begin to lower him past where normally he stops. And so finally I like, oh, I stumble over, catch the kid and realize, yeah, that's not where the crib is.

And I was pretty sure, like if somebody had paused the tape right there and said, do you know where the crib is? I would have said, absolutely, it's right there, right? And Paul is saying that's all of the worldly philosophy. All those people like Plato and Aristotle, all of them are like, yep, I know exactly where it is. And he's like, nah, you're about to drop the gravy, bro.

Like, you're— this is not good. Well, why is that? Why are they in the dark? We'll continue. Paul says that apart from God, they're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness to their hardness of heart, right?

This is the source of that darkness. The word ignorance here really means willful ignorance. It's not ignorance like, well, I didn't know that. Oh, that's good to know. It's more, I don't wanna know that, right?

It's not just happenstance ignorance. It is decided and determined ignorance. And ultimately that hardness of heart in the context of Ephesians 2:4 war, that hardness of heart is toward God. It's them saying, I refuse to know God, I refuse to acknowledge God. And when you do that over and over and over, darkness becomes all you can see.

7 · The pastor constructs an extended hypothetical scenario about a man who refuses to believe in the sun, then maps this analogy onto humanity's refusal to acknowledge God

Think of it this way. Imagine you have a friend, we'll call him Gary. If your name's Gary, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to say anything about you. Love you, brother. But imagine you have a friend named Gary.

And the thing about Gary is he doesn't believe in the sun. Like, he doesn't believe, like, in the sun existing. And so when you look up in the sky, we're like, Gary, look, it's the sun. He's like, I don't see anything. And it's right there, Gary.

Like, well, why do you think it's so light? I don't know. It's just light. Why do you think it's dark at nighttime? It's just magic, you know?

And so Gary has had a hard time throughout life. And so you can't tell Gary to wear sunscreen because he doesn't believe there is a sun. He ends up red and burned every summer, and he doesn't understand why. Gary doesn't believe in solar panels. Some guy came and tried to sell him solar panels, and he's like, "Ha, ha, ha, yeah right.

I bet the world's flat too, huh?" You know, and he goes back into his house. He tries to study science, but he doesn't understand seasons, he doesn't understand gravity, he doesn't understand almost anything because the sun is the defining reality. The Earth is rotating around and shapes everything we do, but he refuses to acknowledge that, right? Now, that'd be crazy, right? Right?

Well, that's exactly what Paul is saying humanity does. Humanity sees the mountain in the distance but cannot see that it's designed and made. It sees a sunset in the afternoon but cannot see that it's been painted by an artist. We, as humanity, we see that human beings should make their own choices and have dignity and value, but we can't see why euthanasia is wrong. And we can't see it because we don't see the image of God in each and every life.

Or we can see sex and its beauty and power, but we can't see why sex outside of marriage is wrong because we can't see God's design embedded in it. Or we can see the dignity of work and the desire to be creative with our jobs and industry, but we can't see why exploiting others in pursuit of those work goals is wrong. We can't see it because we don't see the one who made work and defined work and governs work. All of this, right, is because we don't, we refuse to acknowledge the defining reality of the universe, which is that God, a good, loving, just, holy, powerful, awe-inspiring God created all and governs all.

8 · The pastor expounds on verse 19, showing how willful ignorance of God leads to moral callousing through repeated sin

And when we refuse to acknowledge again and again and again Well, verse 19 says the effect that it has on us. Verse 19: They have become callous, have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. So Paul uses the example here of sexuality to illustrate his point, right? There were lots of horrible practices in the ancient world that the Christians and the Jewish people in the church would have gone like, oh, that's abhorrent. Why would you even practice those things? Well, Paul is trying to show them, listen, the way you get there is by being callous, that there were things in the ancient world in the first century like temple prostitution.

I mean, people that were even married would still just go to temple prostitutes multiple times a year. Or in the Greek world, and by some accounts was still happening in the Roman world, was this practice of pederasty where male teachers would have their way with young boy students, which is just abhorrent, right? And so Paul is saying, well, how do you get there? Well, you get there through this callousing, right, by choosing sin over and over and over, by refusing to acknowledge who God is, you get to the point where, well, exploiting workers feels normal, or euthanasia feels normal, or sex outside of marriage feels normal.

9 · The pastor narrates a memory from children's ministry where a teacher explained the danger of losing the ability to feel guilt over sin

I remember years ago in kids' ministry, one of the teachers, I can't remember who this was, I wish I could give them credit, but they were sharing how, you know, when you sin, God's made you with a conscience, so you feel some level of guilt for that. And one of the kids was just, you know, made some silly comment like, well, I don't always feel bad when I sin, so what about that, you know? And the teacher kind of leaned in. I still remember this, kind of leaned in and said, oh, when you keep sinning and then don't feel bad anymore, that's the most dangerous place to be. Because it means you can't feel it anymore. And then you'll just continue.

And everybody in the class was like, oh. And we're looking at that guy like, yeah, he's going to be— he's going to jail someday. You know, like, that's his trajectory. He can't— he doesn't even feel bad anymore. He's no conscience, a psychopath here, you know.

10 · The pastor unpacks the language of verse 19 to show how sin creates an insatiable appetite that requires increasing levels of transgression to produce the same effect, while simultaneously alienating us from the God who alone can fulfill our deepest longings

And that is what Paul is saying, this callousness by choosing to acknowledge the sun, choosing to give ourselves to sin. So often that sin becomes or feels normal.

And this is the effect on it, that some of these words embedded in here I wanna pick out. There's this giving themselves, greedy to practice, that language. What that means is there's this longing to practice more and more and more evil or to give yourself more and more and more to sin. Because what happens is give yourself a little bit of sin, there's a thrill, there's an excitement. But it wears quickly off.

So you have to go further to get the thrill and excitement, right? Every addict is familiar with this. Took this amount of alcohol to make you drunk, now it takes this, now it takes this, now it takes this, or this level of drug use. This happens in every area of our lives, right? This kind of pornography, all of a sudden, you're all the way down into some perverse and twisted stuff because you're trying to almost, like, excite your heart again, and yet it becomes more and more and more.

Callous, that constant longing that is all the way unfulfilled. And Paul says it's futile. This philosophy is futile. You're just spinning your wheels over and over. And it's accompanied by alienation from God.

This is the perverse irony. By us saying, I don't wanna acknowledge the Son, I don't wanna see the Son, what happens is by the effect of this, we alienate ourselves from God when God is the one that we were made for. Right? Our longings were made to be fulfilled in God. Our peace was meant to be found in God, right?

Our joy and hope and satisfaction were meant to reside in God. And so we keep going further and further into the world hoping to find something to replace what we've lost and just get further and further away from it.

11 · The pastor cites Brian Chapell's illustration of WWII sailors who died drinking saltwater because they couldn't discern that what seemed to promise relief would actually kill them

Brian Chapell uses illustration of pursuing sin in the hopes that eventually it will because it seems like it will save us only to have it kill us. He talks about this World War II Navy ship that goes down in the middle of, I think it was the Pacific Ocean, and it left hundreds of men in the water. And they knew that eventually, perhaps if they could survive a number of days at the open sea, somebody would get to them and rescue them. But it was extremely hot. In the water, right? And they had no water to drink. And so one of the things that kept happening is that men who were dying of thirst would look around themselves and they're floating on a piece of driftwood or whatever. And so they're not going to sink, but they were so thirsty, they began to drink the water around them, the saltwater around them.

And the tragic irony is every single sailor who drank the saltwater died before they could be rescued. Because everything in them was like, this is it, you need this water, you need this water. And a few of the guys are trying to stop everyone from going crazy and saying, guys, don't drink the water, you're going to die. But it felt in the moment like the right thing to do. Such a day.

So it is with humanity. We've gotten to the point where we're like, well, maybe this water is what we need and we drink it and die.

12 · The pastor draws the applicational conclusion from the exposition: the world's methodology of looking inward leads only to a futile cycle of death and callousing

So the application is this, that all the world can offer us, Paul is trying to show us all the world can offer us is the same old, same old, the path to death and futility and loss and callousness.

13 · The pastor signals a major structural shift from diagnosis to solution, from the problem (futility) to the answer (Christ's genuine newness)

So what does the Bible offer? Well, it offers something far better. Jesus offers something far better. Point number 2: new, new, new you. What I mean by new, new, you'll see in a second. New, new.

14 · The pastor expounds on verses 20-21, identifying Paul's metaphor of school to contrast the catechisms of worldly philosophy with the curriculum of Christ

Paul interrupts himself, as it were, in verse 20 and says, but that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Paul uses here this metaphor, in a sense, of school, of saying, listen, listen, you are going to a different school now. You're not going to that old school, you're going to this school, the school of Christ. And I think it illustrates how really everything, every worldly philosophy, everything going on in the world has its own school, has its own catechism, if you could say it that way. A series of questions and answers that it drills into all of us.

15 · The pastor creates a satirical catechism to illustrate how consumerism catechizes us with its own set of questions and answers that we absorb through advertising

I think of the American consumer Christmas catechism, it goes like this. Question, what do you need? Answer, stuff.

Question, how much stuff do you need? Answer, more.

Right, and we just keep repeating that catechism over and over. It's every Walmart ad, it's every TV ad, right? How much do we need? We need more. When do we know when we have enough?

We won't, we just will keep getting it. And the problem is when you buy more stuff, you have to keep buying more stuff. And the stuff you buy has to keep getting more and more grandiose, right? And this is the catechisms that we live in. We live in catechisms about modern liberal sexuality or family or all that stuff.

16 · The pastor provides extended exposition of verses 20-24, unpacking the curriculum (Christ), the instructor (Jesus himself), the transformation (putting off the old self and putting on the new), and connecting this to Ephesians 2 and Genesis 1-2

And Paul says, no, no, no, stop, stop. Put your pencils down. You are going to a new school. Look at what it says about this school. You in this school learned a different curriculum.

Christ. This is a brand new curriculum, right? Instead of the same thing being taught in all these other schools, all in different forms around the world, no, this is Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus as Lord and Savior, right? Something absolutely new.

God himself in human form coming to the world to seek and save. That, that's the new curriculum. And in fact, the instructor is Jesus. Himself, assuming that you have heard about him. Literally, the wording is assuming that you have heard him, meaning Jesus himself, as he says, comes to seek and save the lost.

And through his word, he speaks to us. And the context— we're taught in him, meaning that he, in a sense, takes us from the caves down underneath of the darkness and leads us out into the fresh open air and light. And says, here, here is where you're able to see and learn and understand for the first time. Paul is shouting at us, don't you see the difference? You know Jesus, you've heard from Jesus, so think differently and live differently.

This is a, if I could say it this way, a new new, right? Every time a product is trying to sell more units, they always come out with new and improved, but they should put the new in quotes, right? 'Cause it's basically the same, right? Like, they did this one of the cereals recently that we eat, and it was like, new and improved, and I tried it, and I'm like, it's the same, right? This is everything in the world except for the Son of God himself come in human form to seek and save the lost, right?

That is new. That's what we celebrate every Christmas, every Advent season, that that has come into the world. He has come into the world, and look at the radical difference that he makes in our lives. Verse 22, he teaches us 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. So in the context of Ephesians, here's what I want you to see.

So this happens decisively when God comes to us and makes us alive, right? Ephesians 2, it talks about we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but in Christ we have been made alive, right? That's not something we can do. That's something that only Jesus can do. And thank God and praise God in the context of Ephesians that Jesus does come to us and do what we cannot do.

Look, if it was up to us to kind of finally have enough willpower and strength to put off the old self, we'd be waiting forever. That's why new year, new you— you said this last year— has an effect on us, because we know it's not going to work if I have to do it. But Jesus comes, and we believe in him. When united with him in faith, we go into the tomb with him, and our old way of life is crucified. Our old way of life is decisively dealt a death blow.

And when we're united with Christ, we rise to new life with him, and decisively the Holy Spirit Christ comes into our lives and hearts so that we can want new things and think new ways and desire new things and begin to truly change, right? That's only possible because of what Jesus has done for us. But then Paul says, in light of that, continue in that vein. Don't go back to crazy American consumer Christmas school, right? Don't take, don't audit those classes again.

Get out of that school. Put off your old self, continue this work, put on the new self. Look at these elements. Put off your old self. Now look, this is where this is so radical in our American environment, right?

Where we often believe that the arbiter of truth is ourselves and our most inward desires, right? Think about Rousseau and these philosophers that have shaped Western civilization. Their philosophy is, okay, all the bad stuff is out there around you making you bad. You gotta delve so deeply deeply inside you, you become the most authentic version of yourself and follow your heart most purely, and then you'll be happy and pure. But the reality is the Bible says, I wouldn't do that if I were you, right?

Where the world is like, follow your heart. And Ephesians 4 is like, I wouldn't do that if I were you. This is not, that's how you got to where you are. That's how you got dead in the first place, okay? So don't do that.

Okay, put off that old self and put on the new self, right? We have a new life in Christ Jesus. Look, the simple choice is, would you rather be like the old you or like Jesus? I think I'd rather be like Jesus. Would you rather be in futility and loss and unfulfilled cravings forever, or would you rather be like Jesus who is joyful and glorious and in communion with the Father and enjoys his people, right?

That's the version of humanity that God is creating us to be like. And I wanna be like that, right? That's all of our Hallmark movie longings are pointed there. And so Paul is saying, put on that new self, put on Christ. And when he says that, really, he's going all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis.

Where Genesis 1 and 2 is, in a sense, that Hallmark movie that we long for, where we live in God's place under God's rule, enjoying God, enjoying what he's made, enjoying one another. But in humanity, what we just— we chose to sin, and all of it's marred, all of it's destroyed, all of our relationships are broken, the place we live, we were exiled from. And so what Paul is saying is so radical. He's saying you can go back to the garden. Little by little, more and more, you can become, you can look more and more like the image of God you were created to be back in the garden.

And this will be fulfilled and complete one day in heaven. But for now, more and more, year over year, Christian, put off the old, put on the new, put on Christ, put on who you were made to be.

17 · The pastor expounds on verse 23's call to be renewed in the spirit of the mind, directly connecting this to Bible reading as the primary means of renewing the mind and enabling spiritual growth

So how do we do that? We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Right, this is where, let me just say this, the Bible is so critical for our growth as Christians. If you've ever been frustrated, man, I don't feel like I'm growing a lot as a Christian these days, are you reading your Bible? That's one of my first questions, are you reading your Bible? That is what renews us, helps us see again. It turns on the lights in a sense, right? Where we're like, we're taking the baby and we're gonna drop him on the floor and God's like, no, no, turn the lights on first, right?

That's the Bible. Turn the lights on. Be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

18 · The pastor provides a concrete ratio principle for Bible engagement: two looks at Scripture for every one look at the world

So how do we do this? Well, let me just say this. I would take 2 looks at the Bible for every 1 look out into the world. Because otherwise, you're letting the— if you take 2 looks at the world for every 1 look at the Bible, you're in the school of the world, most fundamentally. You're learning and being catechized by that. But if you take 2 looks at the Bible for every look at the world, right, you're being catechized and grown by God. Christ.

19 · The pastor signals the shift from exposition to concluding applications, preparing listeners for the final section of practical implications

And so a couple ways to do this as we wrap up here.

20 · The pastor applies the text to how Christians should view their need for ongoing transformation, challenging a complacent maintenance mindset and calling for intentional, urgent pursuit of Christlikeness

First, first thing that I think this changes for us is, first, this changes the way we think about our need for change, meaning that the Christian life is a pattern of constant change to look more and more like Jesus. And I, I'm a little concerned in some ways that over the last 10, 20 years in the Christian church that we've lost some of this, lost some of this intensity and desire to look actively more and more like Jesus, where I think sometimes we can go like, I think I'm fine. You know, if there's not any big problems, I think we're good to go. Almost treat Christianity like kind of a dentist visit, like, every once in a while I got to go in there and see if I have any cavities.

But okay, cool. As long as I don't, we'll keep going. No, no, no. Versus like, man, no, no, we're on a process where this is life or death at stake in our lives.

21 · The pastor introduces C

C.S. Lewis has this great illustration seeking to speak to why We must actively put off the old and put on the new. And so he encapsulated it in his novel The Great Divorce with this lizard that's sitting on a man's shoulder. And the lizard is sort of seeping the life out of this man, right? It's sucking the life out of him. And the lizard, in the context of the story, represents lust. And so this angel comes and says, let me kill the lizard for you.