(uplifting theme music)
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(music ends)
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>>Welcome to "Sabbath School,"
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brought to you by It Is Written.
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We're glad that you
could join us again this week
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as we continue our journey
through the book of Ephesians,
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Paul's letter to
the church in Ephesus.
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This week we are
looking at lesson number 9,
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which is "Living Wisely."
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How can we live
wisely in this present day?
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We wanna see what we
can learn about that.
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And before we
delve into this lesson,
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let's do what we always do,
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and that's spend
a moment in prayer
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to ask the Lord to bless us.
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Father, we ask
that You will bless us
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as we are digging
into the book of Ephesians.
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Help us to
understand the significance
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of the themes
that are found there
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and how these themes and
teachings apply to us today
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so that our lives can
be improved as a result.
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We ask that You'll bless our
time together again this week,
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and we thank You
in Jesus' name, amen.
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Well, we're happy to
have back with us again
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the author of this
quarter's Sabbath school lesson,
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Dr. John McVay.
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He's the president of
Walla Walla University.
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John, welcome back once again.
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>>Thank you, Eric,
for sharing this journey
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through Ephesians with me.
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>>It's really exciting,
and we've learned a lot.
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We're on week number 9 now;
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we've still got
a few more to go;
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we've got 14 total-- >>Right.
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>>...this quarter, which
is interesting for a quarter,
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usually we think
of a quarter with 13,
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but we're blessed
with an extra lesson--
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>>Sure. >>...this go round.
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But this week we're looking
at lesson 9: "Living Wisely."
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And we're gonna
be spending some time
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in Ephesians,
chapter 5 this week.
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And Ephesians, chapter 5 is
a rather interesting chapter.
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Well, they're all interesting,
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but Ephesians 5, sometimes
people read it and they go,
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"What's the point?
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This doesn't seem to
kind of fit together."
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The first part of
Ephesians, chapter 5
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could seem like just a set
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of jumbled
miscellaneous ideas or commands.
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How does this all fit together?
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Paul sometimes thinks
on a little higher level
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than we give him credit for,
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(Dr McVay
laughs) and some things--
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>>Sure. >>...I think Peter said,
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some things, he says,
are a little confusing,
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so we don't wanna
be confused by this.
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>>Sure. >>We
wanna make sense of it.
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What do we makes sense--how
do we make sense of this
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apparently
jumbled list of commands?
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>>It's a great question.
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Now, we're in the second
half of the letter, right?
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And we know now
that we're expecting Paul
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to give us nitty-gritty
advice on the Christian life,
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because that's
what he tends to do
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in the second
half of his letter.
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And this gets pretty
nitty-gritty here, doesn't it?
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But how does it hang together?
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I think maybe what
helps us would be two things.
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We want to know, first of all,
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what is his perspective?
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What is his perspective, okay?
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So what helps me
here is verses 15 and 16,
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to jump down there,
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"Look carefully
then how you walk,
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"not as unwise but as wise,
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"making the
best use of the time,
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because the days are evil."
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So his perspective
here, it seems to me,
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is of the end time.
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That is, he believes
Christ is coming very soon;
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he wants, he's
encouraging Christian believers
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to live in the light of
Christ's soon return, right?
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And he uses a very,
very interesting word here,
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a Greek word that means
"to snap up the bargains,"
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"to snap up the bargains."
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So I was once at one
of these big conventions
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in the convention hall
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shopping for
books about the Bible.
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And I'm poking around the books,
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and I hear the two
clerks talking to each other,
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and one says, "Shall
we do it for $1 or $2?"
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And I knew we were getting
to the end of the convention,
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they didn't wanna
take those books home,
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they're gonna
sell all the books off,
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but I had an
advanced message, see?
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So I chose the books I wanted,
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and when they
announced all the books were $1,
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I stepped up to
the cash register
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with my big
stack of books, right?
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You're probably
a book lover, too,
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and you can understand the--
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>>My wife doesn't appreciate it,
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but yes, I am. (laughs)
>>Yeah, you can understand
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that moment.
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So Paul is
saying, as Christians,
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the perspective of this
passage that he's taking
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is that we're
living in the end time,
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and we're using that
time to snap up the bargains
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that are on offer as we
look toward Christ's return.
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That's a neat
perspective, isn't it?
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>>It really is, you know,
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so there's
something of value here
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that Paul is referring to, then.
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>>So that's the perspective,
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and then there's the
tone that I'd point out.
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Paul here is reusing
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some well-worn themes
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that I would call
battlefield themes:
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Stay awake, don't be
involved in darkness,
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and all these kinds of things
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are things that he has
used earlier in his epistles
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to talk about
Christian discipleship
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under the imagery of battle
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and being a good soldier.
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Now, he's gonna
really come to that
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in chapter 6,
verses 10 through 20,
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but he's already
preparing the way.
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And so his
perspective is of the end time;
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his tone is the urgent
one of the battlefield.
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So rather than
seeing chapter 5, verse 1-20
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as just a
jumbled set of commands,
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it's not a random
list of exhortations,
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but it's Paul's
end-time urgent instructions
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to combatants in
the great controversy.
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So if I come to this list of
commands from that perspective,
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I'm able to appreciate
what Paul is doing here.
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>>So all of those
commands then become important;
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they become practical;
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they become marching
orders, preparatory commands,
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as it were, to go into this
battle that we're in right now.
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>>Exactly, he's
trying to prepare us
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with some concrete exhortations,
commands-- (laughs)
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do this; don't
do this; do this--
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and we should
accept them as combatants
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in the cosmic conflict.
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These are instructions for us,
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urgent end-time
battlefield instructions.
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That helps me listen.
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>>So that makes these 20 verses
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make a whole lot more sense.
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Let's kinda go
through these 20 verses,
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maybe not individual each
one, we'll see how it goes,
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but what are some of the
major themes that we find
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outlined in Ephesians,
chapter 5, verses 1-20?
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What are the major
themes we find there?
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>>Well, there is
this battlefield motif
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in Revelation and
here, so that--yeah.
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He starts off in
chapter 5, verses 1-2,
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with what might be
called an overarching call.
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He invites the believers in
Ephesus and invites us today
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to imitate God.
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Now, that's quite
a mouthful, isn't it?
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Really? I'm
supposed to imitate God?
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In what way should I imitate God
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as a disciple? >>That seems like
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a rather high bar
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for us to aspire to. >>It does.
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But then he gives the
phrase "as beloved children."
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So as children
would admire a parent
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and try to
behave like that parent,
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this is a
relational image, then.
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We're not trying to
match God's resources
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or the scope of the salvation
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He offers the
world or any of that,
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but we're
admiring His character.
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And in our own sphere,
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we're wishing to
imitate the wondrous grace
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that we see God
granting humankind
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and to do that in our
relationships with others.
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And then he says in
verse 2, "And walk in love."
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"Walk," of course, is a
good Hebrew metaphor for "live,"
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so, live, but live as a journey.
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"Walk in love,
as Christ loved us
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"and gave Himself up for us
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a fragrant offering
and sacrifice to God."
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So, in our
relationships with others,
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we are not to be egotists;
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we are not to
say, "It's me, me, me."
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We are to be
self-sacrificing as Christ was.
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Imitate God,
follow on, track on,
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live into the
self-sacrifice of Jesus Himself.
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Now, before we move on
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to the three major
segments of our passage,
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it's probably good
to pause there, Eric,
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and remember
we've been talking about
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the great theme
of Ephesians, right?
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Ephesians,
chapter 1, verses 9-10,
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God's plan for
the fullness of time
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to unite everything in Christ,
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to unite everything.
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So now he's talking here
about the kind of behaviors
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that will foster
disunity--don't do those--
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and the kind of behaviors
that will foster unity--
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do these instead. You
see what he's trying to do?
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>>Makes a lot of sense.
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So that's the
first little bit here.
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What about as we keep
working down through this?
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Verses 3-6
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kind of--he addresses
a different theme here.
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What do we see there?
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>>He has some really
tart, forthright words
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about sexual immorality here.
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And I think we need
to read these verses
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in the light of the whole.
00:09:42.44\00:09:44.21
In verses 18-20 at
the end of our passage,
00:09:44.21\00:09:47.68
we'll come to his description
of the church in worship.
00:09:47.68\00:09:50.99
I think he has the church,
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particularly the
church assembled together
00:09:52.35\00:09:55.59
in worship, in mind here,
00:09:55.59\00:09:58.23
and he is discussing
00:09:58.23\00:10:02.00
something that
many of us have seen
00:10:02.00\00:10:04.30
far too active in
Christian congregations,
00:10:04.30\00:10:07.00
and that is that
sexual immorality
00:10:07.00\00:10:09.37
within the Christian community
00:10:10.41\00:10:12.84
can truly damage
if not totally destroy
00:10:12.84\00:10:15.94
the unity of a congregation.
00:10:15.94\00:10:18.45
And so he's
warning them against that.
00:10:18.45\00:10:21.88
His standards are very high,
00:10:21.88\00:10:24.05
"But sexual immorality and
all impurity or covetousness
00:10:24.05\00:10:28.79
"must not even
be named among you,
00:10:28.79\00:10:31.89
as is proper among saints."
00:10:31.89\00:10:34.20
Something he seems to
come back to down in verse 12:
00:10:34.20\00:10:37.00
"For it is shameful even to
speak of the things that they"--
00:10:37.00\00:10:41.24
pagan Gentiles--"do in secret."
00:10:41.24\00:10:44.41
These kinds of things
ought not to even be named,
00:10:44.41\00:10:47.38
whispered, named,
uttered among you.
00:10:47.38\00:10:49.98
That'd be absent from the
Christian fellowship, you see?
00:10:49.98\00:10:53.58
>>So this is a very
powerful passage here.
00:10:53.58\00:10:57.29
And he doesn't stop
there; he continues going on.
00:10:57.29\00:11:00.49
>>Yeah, "No filthiness,"
00:11:00.49\00:11:02.52
no "foolish talk,"
no "crude joking"--
00:11:02.52\00:11:04.56
all of that is out of place,
00:11:04.56\00:11:06.59
and he wants to
offer a substitute,
00:11:06.59\00:11:08.90
and that's the
substitute of thanksgiving.
00:11:08.90\00:11:11.90
>>So this is a much
preferred alternative.
00:11:11.90\00:11:15.27
And we wanna dig
into this-- >>Yes.
00:11:15.27\00:11:17.67
>>...a little bit more, too.
00:11:17.67\00:11:19.57
What else do we see
here in these themes
00:11:19.57\00:11:23.85
that we're looking at?
00:11:23.85\00:11:25.05
>>Well, there are
two additional themes.
00:11:25.05\00:11:26.55
And in verses 7-14,
00:11:26.55\00:11:30.15
Paul is interested
here on Christian witness,
00:11:30.15\00:11:34.32
the witness of Christians
to the wider community.
00:11:34.32\00:11:37.43
And so he'll spend
a good deal of time
00:11:37.43\00:11:39.76
under some interesting
imagery talking about that.
00:11:39.76\00:11:42.70
And then he
concludes the passage
00:11:42.70\00:11:44.73
with those verses I referred
to a moment ago, verses 18-20,
00:11:44.73\00:11:48.80
and he calls for
strategic worship in evil days.
00:11:48.80\00:11:52.04
So one way to summarize
these three big themes:
00:11:52.04\00:11:55.21
verses 3-6, a call for
sexual purity in immoral days;
00:11:55.21\00:11:59.95
verses 7-14, a call for
Christian witness in dark days;
00:11:59.95\00:12:04.69
and verses 15-20,
00:12:04.69\00:12:06.65
a call for strategic
worship in the last days.
00:12:06.65\00:12:10.29
And if we organize that
and recall his perspective,
00:12:10.29\00:12:14.56
which is the Second
Coming, and his tone,
00:12:14.56\00:12:18.27
urgent battlefield instructions,
00:12:18.27\00:12:20.60
that comes together to help us
00:12:20.60\00:12:22.47
see rich meaning in our passage.
00:12:22.47\00:12:25.41
>>So what we're seeing
here are clear instructions
00:12:25.41\00:12:28.51
for not just people in
Paul's day but our day,
00:12:28.51\00:12:32.48
those "upon whom the
ends of the world are come."
00:12:32.48\00:12:36.18
That's you and me living today.
00:12:36.18\00:12:38.72
And so Paul is giving
us some very clear advice--
00:12:38.72\00:12:42.39
"some advice" is probably
not even strong enough--
00:12:42.39\00:12:45.23
(Dr. McVay
laughing) some commands,
00:12:45.23\00:12:46.93
exhortations of how to live
00:12:46.93\00:12:50.10
in the last days
of earth's history.
00:12:50.10\00:12:52.57
So if you wanted a
list of dos and do-nots,
00:12:52.57\00:12:55.84
well, here's one
list of dos and do-nots,
00:12:55.84\00:12:58.24
and the reasons why
are so very important.
00:12:58.24\00:13:01.81
If you want to dig more deeply
00:13:01.81\00:13:03.81
into this quarter's lesson,
00:13:03.81\00:13:05.31
understand it more thoroughly,
00:13:05.31\00:13:08.58
make sure that you
pick up the companion book
00:13:08.58\00:13:11.29
to this quarter's
Sabbath school lesson.
00:13:11.29\00:13:12.92
It is called "Ephesians"
00:13:12.92\00:13:14.92
by Dr. John McVay.
00:13:14.92\00:13:17.23
You will find this
at itiswritten.shop.
00:13:17.23\00:13:20.50
Again, that's itiswritten.shop.
00:13:20.50\00:13:22.50
Just look for the companion book
00:13:22.50\00:13:24.20
to this quarter's
Sabbath school lesson,
00:13:24.20\00:13:25.87
and you will find so much more
00:13:25.87\00:13:28.27
than was able to be fit
into the study guide itself.
00:13:28.27\00:13:32.31
You don't wanna
miss an opportunity
00:13:32.31\00:13:34.34
to learn more about Christ
00:13:34.34\00:13:35.68
and His plan for
you in these last days
00:13:35.68\00:13:38.01
by picking up that book.
00:13:38.01\00:13:39.45
In just a moment,
we're going to come back
00:13:39.45\00:13:41.02
as we continue
looking here at chapter 5
00:13:41.02\00:13:44.02
in living wisely in the
last days of earth's history.
00:13:44.02\00:13:47.89
We'll be right back.
00:13:47.89\00:13:48.89
(uplifting
music swells and ends)
00:13:48.89\00:13:51.33
(melancholy music)
00:13:52.79\00:13:54.13
>>[John Bradshaw]
It was home to some of
00:13:54.13\00:13:55.60
the most magnificent
temples in the ancient world,
00:13:55.60\00:13:58.37
temples built to honor
Artemis, Hadrian, Serapis,
00:13:58.37\00:14:02.77
and the Roman emperor Domitian.
00:14:02.77\00:14:05.47
And surrounded by rampant
idol and emperor worship,
00:14:05.47\00:14:09.31
a small band of Christians
formed their own church
00:14:09.31\00:14:12.81
in the city of Ephesus.
00:14:12.81\00:14:15.25
Maintaining their faith in
the midst of this pagan culture
00:14:15.25\00:14:18.99
was anything but easy.
00:14:18.99\00:14:20.66
Today, only ruins remain
00:14:21.49\00:14:23.26
of those
once-spectacular structures.
00:14:23.26\00:14:26.23
But the story of
Ephesus lives on,
00:14:26.23\00:14:28.40
continuing to
hold both historical
00:14:28.40\00:14:30.23
and spiritual significance.
00:14:30.23\00:14:32.73
Join us as we
explore the messages of Jesus
00:14:32.73\00:14:35.50
to the seven
churches of Revelation,
00:14:35.50\00:14:37.81
and discover God's messages
to the church of the past
00:14:37.81\00:14:41.38
and the church of today.
00:14:41.38\00:14:43.58
"The Seven Churches
of Revelation: Ephesus,"
00:14:43.58\00:14:47.52
brought to you
by It Is Written TV.
00:14:47.52\00:14:50.55
(uplifting theme music)
00:14:53.12\00:14:55.76
>>[Eric] Welcome
back to "Sabbath School,"
00:14:57.93\00:14:59.39
brought to you by It Is Written.
00:14:59.39\00:15:01.16
We are looking at
lesson number 9 this week,
00:15:01.16\00:15:04.23
looking at how we can
live wisely in our days.
00:15:04.23\00:15:08.30
John, I wanna
come back to something
00:15:08.30\00:15:10.14
we were just
talking about a moment ago,
00:15:10.14\00:15:11.71
and that is about how we
can be more effective witnesses
00:15:11.71\00:15:16.71
in the days in which we live,
00:15:16.71\00:15:18.75
the lives that we
are living right now.
00:15:18.75\00:15:20.42
Paul talks about that a
fair bit here in chapter 5.
00:15:20.42\00:15:24.29
What can we learn from that?
00:15:24.29\00:15:25.65
And especially, I
wanna kind of delve
00:15:25.65\00:15:27.62
into this very short
hymn that Paul talks about
00:15:27.62\00:15:30.63
in verse number 14,
00:15:30.63\00:15:32.59
where he says,
"Awake, you who sleep,
00:15:32.59\00:15:34.46
arise from the dead, and
Christ will give you light."
00:15:34.46\00:15:37.10
So how can we be these witnesses
00:15:37.10\00:15:39.07
that God is calling us to be
through the writings of Paul?
00:15:39.07\00:15:43.51
And what about that
short hymn right there?
00:15:43.51\00:15:46.41
>>So as we learned earlier,
00:15:46.41\00:15:48.21
Paul is giving us urgent,
00:15:48.21\00:15:50.55
end-time
battlefield counsel here,
00:15:50.55\00:15:53.31
and it's kind of
rapid-fire: (snapping fingers)
00:15:53.31\00:15:54.88
Do this; don't do this.
00:15:54.88\00:15:56.52
And so we come here
to an interesting segment
00:15:58.05\00:16:00.79
in verses 7-14.
00:16:00.79\00:16:02.96
It's quite detailed;
00:16:02.96\00:16:03.89
it has some very poetic imagery
00:16:03.89\00:16:05.93
that can be a little
bit difficult to understand.
00:16:05.93\00:16:08.36
But, in essence,
what Paul is saying is
00:16:08.36\00:16:11.27
there is no time like
the present, (chuckles)
00:16:11.27\00:16:14.24
the end-time battlefield,
cosmic conflict context.
00:16:14.24\00:16:18.51
There is no time like this
one to let your light shine,
00:16:18.51\00:16:22.44
to let people know
what God's grand plan is
00:16:22.44\00:16:26.72
to unite everything in Christ.
You're part of that plan,
00:16:26.72\00:16:30.19
and you need to
let that idea out
00:16:30.19\00:16:32.92
and let it go into your
community and share it with
00:16:32.92\00:16:37.19
others. That's essentially
what he's doing here.
00:16:37.19\00:16:39.76
>>And that's pretty powerful,
00:16:39.76\00:16:40.96
because, again, he's
using this light imagery
00:16:40.96\00:16:45.23
of what he wants us to be,
00:16:45.23\00:16:46.70
what he calls us
to be in this passage,
00:16:46.70\00:16:51.51
so, very, very powerful.
00:16:51.51\00:16:52.77
>>Believers are
to walk in the light;
00:16:52.77\00:16:55.18
they're to "walk as
children of [the] light."
00:16:55.18\00:16:57.48
They're to "try to discern
what is pleasing to the Lord."
00:16:58.81\00:17:02.05
Verse 11 can be a
little troubling, Eric,
00:17:02.05\00:17:04.72
"Take no part in the
unfruitful works of darkness,
00:17:05.95\00:17:08.99
but instead expose them."
00:17:08.99\00:17:11.19
And that can give the idea
00:17:11.19\00:17:13.16
that we're supposed to
move around our communities
00:17:13.16\00:17:16.13
pointing out evil
and accusing people
00:17:16.13\00:17:19.07
of foolishness and sin.
00:17:19.07\00:17:21.07
If you study
carefully what he's doing,
00:17:22.10\00:17:24.44
he talks about,
"For the fruit of light
00:17:24.44\00:17:26.91
is found in all that is
good and right and true."
00:17:26.91\00:17:30.55
And he's very
interested, again, verse 10,
00:17:30.55\00:17:33.28
in us finding
out what pleases God.
00:17:33.28\00:17:36.75
So rather than
a kind of--what?--
00:17:36.75\00:17:40.82
ill-mannered,
accusatory means of witness,
00:17:40.82\00:17:45.53
it's probably better for us
00:17:45.53\00:17:47.03
to see him doing something
rather different than that.
00:17:47.03\00:17:51.60
He instead
imagines Christian believers
00:17:51.60\00:17:56.67
employing what I would call
00:17:57.47\00:17:58.74
a "show forth
God's goodness" strategy,
00:17:58.74\00:18:01.51
exhibiting a God-honoring
lifestyle for all to see.
00:18:01.51\00:18:05.88
And he argues here
that such a strategy
00:18:05.88\00:18:10.15
holds promise of
light-bathed transformat