The Normal Christian Life
By Pastor Matt Black
15
April 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 3:7-9
Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The title of this morning’s message is “The Normal Christian Life”. Let’s stand together and read Ephesians chapter 3:7-9.
Ephesians 3:7-9, “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship [administration or stewardship] of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
Paul was a minister—an Apostle, and we think of his life as an extraordinary life. And in many ways he lived a very special and unusual life, but in many ways, the life of an apostle is an example of the normal Christian life. We are all made ministers and servants of Christ. We all experience the grace of God and the working of His Spirit for living. We have redefined the Christian life to a powerless, prayerless, passionless group of religious things we do. That’s not the Christian life at all. As we will see this morning, the normal Christian life is one of power, prayer, and passion!
Christianity in America today is in great need of revival. Every generation must reclaim a true and living walk with Christ, or they are at risk of becoming professing Christians that do not have Christ at all. In fact, over the years, even in our good Fundamental churches have reduced Christianity simply to ascent to certain Fundamentals of the faith. Do you believe in the inspiration of the Bible? Do you believe that the virgin born Son of God who created the universe died for our sins and rose again? And if you can ascent to that with a prayer and a signature on a card, you can be baptized and be a member of the church.
No Paul rejected this kind of “Christianity”. He counted all of it as “dung”.
We are going to find out that Christianity is being filled up and poured out with a person! Paul is such a good example of this, and the Bible specifically tells us that if we want a good example of the Christian life lived out, then we should look at the life of Paul. Paul himself said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
The outline this morning is as follows:
I. As Paul, we need to be Called Out.
II. As Paul, we need to be Filled Up.
III. As Paul, we need to be Sold Out.
IV. As Paul, we need to be Sent Out.
V. As Paul, we need to be Poured Out.
What we are going to describe today is the NORMAL Christian life. Before we get into those points, I want you to know how you can know if you are living the Life that God will have all those who profess Christ to live. How can you know?
Jesus said those who live for him are blessed with something. Look at Luke 6:22, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.”
Does the world hate you? John says in 1 John 3:13, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”
John 15:18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”
You know why the world doesn’t hate us? Because we are living in their comfort zone with them. How about you this morning? Are you a real Christian? Or do you just say words, but your actions contradict your words, and your heart is far from God?
Do you want to live the normal Christian life? Here you go--
I. As Paul, we need to be Called Out. Verse 7, “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power”. Paul says: it wasn’t my idea! “I was made a minister” by a power that was greater than myself! God overcame me! In fact, that is how every believer came to know Christ! God must intervene. God must work in the heart. Until God Himself works in the heart, a person is lost. A person can acknowledge much doctrine, but until he has an encounter with the Risen Christ, he is totally lost. But if he has an encounter with the Risen Christ, he will be changed forever!
Why is this call important? Because in the Bible it is clear that man cannot save himself. God must go after Him. God the Son came down from heaven to call out a people for himself. To send them all into the world to preach the Gospel. So even though Paul’s call to be an apostle was unique because of the scope of his call, there is a definite way in which we are all called out from this world to preach to this world, just like Paul So the normal Christian life begins with being called out by God. It’s an encounter that is unmistakable. There is a line of demarcation, a transformation. You are a “new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17), born again (John 3:3). To become a Christian, a person must be “called out” with the voice of God. The Word of God may be going into His ears, but the sinner hears the voice of God in His heart! That is the calling unto salvation! We all must be “called out”!! In fact the word “church” in the Bible is ekklesia, which means a called out assembly.
A. Examples.
1. Paul: It wasn’t Paul’s idea to serve Jesus Christ. Minister means “servant”—diakonos. Paul was busy persecuting Christians, and one day on the Damascus road, he was “called out”. Jesus appeared to Him, and he was born again. Christ went after him, and if Christ does not go after a sinner, that sinner will not be saved. Paul’s conversion was unique, and at the same time it wasn’t. No one today is going to have a physical encounter with Jesus Christ, but every one who comes to know Jesus Christ will have a personal encounter with Him. The Bible calls this the “drawing” to salvation, or the effectual “call” to salvation.
We see it in John 6:44-45, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”.
2. Adam: The Bible says in Genesis 3:6-9 that Eve “took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myselfU’
But look at verse 21, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
3. Abraham: Abraham was an idol worshipping heathen before God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees!
4. Moses: God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush.
5. Isaiah was taken by vision into heaven and “saw the King”—he was changed! He said, “Mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts”.
6. The Apostles: The apostles were the most unlikely candidates for salvation and apostleship. Here you had a bunch of fisherman, a tax collector (and traitor to his people), and a proud Pharisee. God called them all out and turned the world upside down.
B. Explanation: Yet it wasn’t Paul’s idea to be a minister. Surprised: “I was made” It wasn’t Paul’s idea to seek God. God must fall on a person’s conscience before they will seek God. God has done it all in you.
As Hebrews 12:2 says, we need to be “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”. He is the author of our faith. If He wouldn’t have called us, we would not have come! He must draw us, or we will not be rescued!
Why is that? Because “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11).
You see “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
If God has put a love in your heart for Him, it’s a miracle, just as 1 John 4:19 says, “We love him, because he first loved us.”
C. Application: Paul knew salvation wasn’t of himself. That is why he calls himself “less than the least of all saints” (verse 8). He says there was a power much greater than himself that brought all this about—that he was called “according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”
So what is the normal Christian life? Do you hear the voice of Jesus today? Paul said in Colossians 2:6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Just as you got saved, you need to daily respond to the voice of the Lord! You need to hear His call!
Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” What prompted Isaiah to do great and mighty things for the Lord? He said in Isaiah 6:8, “I heard the voice of the Lord”.
Have you heard from God today? Have you heard the voice of Jesus this morning? If all you hear is me this morning, I feel sorry for you. I can’t help you. I can’t change you! You need to hear the voice of the Lord.
Application to children: By the way, your children need to hear the voice of God. If all they know is doctrine, they are lost. They need to meet the God behind the doctrine. Correct doctrine alone never got any one into heaven. Oh, yes you need to have correct doctrine, but doctrine does not save you! Christ saves you! You children need a personal encounter with Christ!
Are you having that personal encounter every day? As you have received Christ, so walk in Him! It is like getting saved every day!
So we need to be Called Out!! Next…
II. As Paul, we need to be Filled Up. Verse 7, “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power” Paul was filled up with the power of the Spirit of God!
Paul was overcome by the power of God at His salvation, and it didn’t stop his whole life. Do you understand that salvation is not some one time prayer that saves people from hell but leaves people in sin? No!! That is a FALSE GOSPEL. That is what we call “antinomianism”. Antinomianism means “no law”. In other words there does not have to be a rule to test a person’s salvation.
Matthew 7:16, “Ye shall know them by their fruits”.
God is going to make you holy!!
Ephesians 5:25-27, “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” God’s going to make you holy before He takes you to heaven!
God will not leave you in your sin!
Listen, God did not save you from hell to leave you dirty filthy in your sin! He saved you to be holy, and you WILL be made progressively holy if you are a true child of God. Paul said—I was overcome by this power, “this gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power”! (verse 7).
A person who calls himself a Christian, but does not live a holy life is a LIAR! I did not say they lived a perfect life, but a holy life. You see, if a person is a Christian, they are united with Christ. They are we are “raised up together” and “seated in the heavenlies with Christ” (Ephesians 2:6).
Illustration: Imagine flying to the moon without a space shuttle. Try and try their yourself! You are much more likely to fly to the moon with your own two arms than you are to live the Christian life without the power of the Spirit of God! Paul was filled up with the power of the Spirit of God!
Explanation: Knowledge without the power of the Spirit is dangerous! Paul began his life like so many people in our churches. He had knowledge without power. He had knowledge without an encounter with the living God and the risen Christ. No matter how much knowledge you have of God, if you do not have the power of God working in you and through you, you are actually more dangerous than an ignorant heathen or lost person. In world history, the greatest enemies of Christ have been those who had knowledge of God but did not know His presence and power. Remember it was the religious people of the Old Testament that killed the prophets. It was the religious people of the New Testament that crucified the Lord of Glory. It was religious ones, like Paul who killed Stephen, the martyr of the Lord. It was the religious Jews who claimed to know Jehovah who were the Apostles greatest enemies. They opposed and perverted the Gospel.
So Paul was Called Out; he was Filled Up; and next we see…
III. As Paul, we need to be Sold Out. Verse 7-8, “Whereof I was made a minister… 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”.
A. Explanation: Paul was sold out! He was made a “minister”. What is a minister? A minister is a servant of slave of sorts. The word minister is deaconos the word for servant, deacon.
Are you sold out? Is anything worth more to you than the “unsearchable riches of Christ”? (verse 8).
A servant is not high minded. A person who has had an encounter with the living God has been humbled. They know 1 Peter 5:5, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble”. Paul said he was “less than the least of all saints” (verse 8).
A Christian in other words is a humble slave or a servant. If you are a Christian, you have lost your agenda completely.
A servant is under a lord. Paul says something similar in Romans 1:1, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God”.
It takes sacrifice! In fact, it’ll cost you everything! Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
The normal Christian sells all that he has and buys the field! Look at Matthew 13:44 Jesus says that, “the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” He exchanges his life for the “unsearchable riches of Christ”? (verse 8).
B. Application: You must sell out to God!!!!!! Hold nothing back!!!! If you love anything more than Christ, how can you claim the name Christian? Remember Annanias and Saphirra who held back and called themselves Christians. We dare not name the name of Christ and hold anything back!
You see, the Christian life is not what you’re going to get out of God. It’s what He is going to get out of you. God is not a means for your happiness—you are a means to His glory. Oh, you will be happy if you glorify God, but your motive is God and your happiness is totally secondary!!!
Let’s come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail-pierced Son of God and tell Him that we’re going to obey Him, and love Him and serve Him as long as we live not for any selfish motives, but because He is worthy.
C. Illustration of the Moravian missionaries: The Moravians were the followers of John Huss in Hungary and Germany a hundred years before the Reformation. Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies, where an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves. And the owner had said, “No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he’s shipwrecked, we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave but he’s never going talk to any of us about God. I’m through with all that nonsense.”
Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa were brought to an island in the Atlantic and left there to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the very same British planter and then used the money they received from the sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island because he wouldn’t even transport them.
And as the ship left its pier at the river at Hamburg and was going out to the North Sea, they were carried with the tide. The Moravians had come from Herrnhut to see these two young men off, in their early twenties, never to return again. For this wasn’t a four-year term, they’d sold themselves into lifetime of slavery. Simply that as slaves they could be as Christians for these others were. The families were there weeping for they knew they’d never see them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. And as the gap widened and the houses had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier. And the young boys saw the widening gap, one of the young men, with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. They were these: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”. And this became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, that the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering. That He might get glory from you!!
Have you sold yourself into slavery for Christ so that “the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”?
D. Application: Every moment counts! Every moment, souls are entering eternity. Time is short. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time! You can’t be a time waster! Turn your radio off and pray on the way home! If you can’t pray, you are not right with the Lord. There is much to pray for. Clear your favorites out from your Internet Explorer! Stop wasting time! We need to be “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).There is too much God has for us to do to waste time. We have just enough time, but no time to waste!
IV. As Paul, we need to be Sent Out. Verses 7-8, “Whereof I was made a minister… 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”.
If you are living the normal Christian life, you are going to be sent out by the Lord to reach people. We read in Matthew 28:18-20, that “Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Friend, you are either a babe in Christ, or you are mentoring and discipling someone. Everyone of you out to be having spiritual children and grandchildren. The greatest burden for a husband and wife is if they cannot have children. Many adopt and it is a blessing! But how about you? Are you a believer? Are you still a babe? Do you still need that men teach you, or are you being equipped “to do the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:12)?
You are either preaching the Gospel and eventually discipling someone along in the faith or you are a BABE in Christ!!
Even someone newly saved does this.
(Promote Spring Evangelism Training): Do you think a doctor would go to school? What would you do if I said I want to operate on you? You need to be sent out!
V. As Paul, we need to be Poured Out. Verses 8-9, “that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship [administration or stewardship] of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
What is this mystery? Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Paul poured out Christ upon people. He said he wanted all men to see. Are you that serious about your Christianity? Do you have something that you could sit down in a room with any lost person on the face of the earth and persuade them that their only hope of eternal life is to be forgiven by and filled with the Christ who conquered death and rose again? You see Christianity is more than knowledge. It is power. You must have knowledge first, but you must know not just facts. Jesus Christ did not come and die to be dissected; He came that people would know Him and walk with Him.
Sold out: Paul was a minister. He called himself a slave of Jesus Christ. He was totally abandoned to the will and purposes of God in His life. Until a man abandons himself to God, he cannot be used of God.
Conclusion: You may ask if this “normal Christian life” is possible for the every day Christian. Listen if you’ve been saved by the grace of God, you will live out of that grace every day.
“If you think you can walk in holiness without keeping up perpetual fellowship with Christ, you have made a great mistake. If you would be holy, you must live close to Jesus.”
--C.H. Spurgeon
Closing Hymn: 478 It is Well with my Soul