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There's a quote that's been attributed to Confucius, but its origins we really don't know. And it's that the hardest thing of all, he said, is for a blind man to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat.
And so it's an image of futility, reaching about, trying to find this cat that doesn't exist. But I think that we actually need to make a corollary to that. So I'm going to call this the Ebendroff Corollary to the Black Cat Maxim.
And this would be that the hardest thing is for a blind man to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat, and especially if you don't actually like cats and have no interest in finding them in the first place.
And I say this because I'm going to be talking about futility today. And I think the only thing more futile than that is the futility of the world. You see, the futility of the world is like a blind man in a dark world trying to find meaning and purpose, especially because meaning and purpose aren't there in the world apart from God.
And the person doesn't really like God and has no interest in finding them, and especially if the person is dead. That is the futility of the world, utter futility. And we're going to be looking at that in today's text.
Paul is writing to the Ephesian church, and they live in a darkened, perverse world full of futile thinking. The Greeks prided themselves in their intellectual achievements, but lacked true wisdom and understanding.
And their futile minds only led to futile living. Paul wanted them to see this futility and to change their thinking. And in the same way, our world is a very dark world. You only have to turn on the news or read a newspaper to see the darkness, the futility, the flawed thinking, the perversion, and we need to see this world for how it is.
And we need to live in a different way because we are called to be part of one body in Christ. And so today we're going to be looking at Ephesians 4, and like a lot of Paul's letters, Paul starts in Ephesians with theology and then moves on to practical living.
Paul speaks about the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
He teaches them about the gift of salvation in chapter 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
And then Paul talks about the mystery of this good news, that Gentiles too are called to be part of one body, joined and co-heirs in Christ. And in the end of chapter 3, he puts a prayer in where he prays specifically that they might be filled with a deep knowledge of the height and width and breadth and depth to know God's love.
And so then in chapter 4, we start practical theology and Paul talks them in chapter 4 to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called, specifically to live as one, to live in unity, and tells them about the various gifts that God has given the church, different gifts to different people, but also that we could be one healthy glorious body of Christ.
And that leads us to today's passage, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 to 24. Now I say this and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given themselves to up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you have learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
And so today we're going to look at the three main sections of this text and we're going to see that you need to see the world clearly. Secondly, you need to know Christ deeply. And thirdly, you need to change yourself completely.
And so this first section, you need to see the world clearly, is in verses 17 through 19. And Paul goes through a very detailed analysis of the human condition. And he does this because he wants us to understand that there's a root problem that needs to be addressed.
Now in a few months, hopefully it'll be spring, and if I go out and see a couple little yellow flowers popping up from my lawn and I just tear them off and say, all right, job done. In a few days, they're going to be right back up and right back up because I haven't addressed the root.
There's a root down there that needs to be addressed. And if I just pluck off the top stuff, I'm not going to get anywhere. Likewise, Paul is going to go on later in this letter and talk about how to deal with anger, money, sexuality, our time, our tongue.
But if you don't understand the real root cause, none of these fixes are going to address the disease. And we need to go to the physician and hear the truth about our disease. If you have a cough, you don't want to just take a cough drop if it's cancer.
You want to know where that disease is, and you've got to get it cured. And so Paul is going to go very thoroughly to make sure that the Ephesians understand the nature of the disease in this world. And so there's six subpoints.
So we're talking about the fact that you need to see the world clearly. And he goes through six points. They are darkened in their understanding. There's a darkness, a cloud over their understanding. Their minds cannot understand the things of God.
They're incapable of doing it. They're alienated from the life of God. Secondly, the things pertaining to God, they have no part of. And I'm going to come back to these a little bit more because these first two are passive things.
These are effects of the condition they're in. They're darkened and they're alienated from the life of God. Paul goes on to start looking at why this condition exists. And he says it's because of their ignorance.
And here, Paul starts using some active tense verbs instead of the passive. So they were darkened, they were alienated, but actively, it's ignorance is the start of their problems. And Paul wants to see them that ignorance is not just a lack of knowledge.
In the Bible, it's a willful suppression of the truth, that the things of God can be plainly seen, but the world suppresses that truth. So they are ignorant. Thirdly, he says it's because of a hardness of heart.
They have actively hardened their hearts to the things of God. Paul goes on and says that they have made themselves callous. That's a word that describes making themselves numb. The things that should break our hearts, the things that should turn our hearts to love our God and Creator have just become hard.
They're callous, they're numb. And Paul says they've given themselves over to sensuality, greedy for impure gain. And Paul tells us, no more. He says, no more walk this way. This is not, if there's any boxing fans, no mas was the cry of Roberto Clemente when he was in a fight with Sugar Ray Lemon and he gave up.
He said, no mas. That's not the way Paul's using this. This is no more I give up. This is no more. No more live this way. This is we don't have to live the way the world is living. God has prepared much greater things for us.
We were once in darkness, Ephesians 5, 8 says, but now you are in the light. Walk as children of the light. Without the Lord, there is no light in my life. I, in fact, would fear the light. I would run from it.
I would be a child of the darkness. I would hate the light. But because of what Christ has done, I don't have to live that way anymore. And so Paul wanted us to see clearly the world with its darkened, callous, futile thinking.
Secondly, Paul wants us to know Christ deeply. Look with me at verses 20 and 21. But this is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.
You see the words that he's using learned, heard, taught truth. The Ephesians were living in a world where their problem was their thinking. Their thinking was futile. And the solution has to come into our minds.
Likewise, Paul says, this is not the way you've learned Christ. Maybe you learned Artemis this way. There was a great temple to Artemis Diana there with all its licentious practices. But this is not the way you learned Christ.
And then in verse 21, he has a little aside. He says, assuming or if indeed you have heard him. Now, the ESV and NIV translate this as heard about him or heard of him. But that about or of really isn't in there.
I think the New American Standard and the King James are a little truer to the Greek, which simply says, if indeed you have heard him. Now, what's Paul getting at? They, people of Ephesus hadn't seen Jesus.
They hadn't heard him literally. But if Christ has called you. And made you his disciple, you have heard his voice. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And in Hebrews, we hear if today you hear his voice hard, not your heart.
And so I ask you today, have you heard his voice? This is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself. Have you heard his voice? Have you heard his voice calling you to follow? To turn your back on everything else and become his follower, his disciple.
And secondly, are you taught in him? Paul says, we are taught in him, not merely taught about him. Certainly, we need to be taught about Christ. And we need to fill our minds with his, who Christ is, his birth, his perfect life, his sacrificial death, his resurrection.
But our training needs to be in Christ. It needs to be steeped in Christ. I think of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, just wanting to absorb him, his words. We need to set our mind on knowing, on more than just knowing about him.
We need to know him, his words, what he said. We need to know his love, his character. The fact that he's loved us and chosen us and loves us above all else. And so, we need to see the world clearly. We need to know Christ deeply.
And thirdly, you need to change yourself completely. This is in verse 22 to 24, where we read that we are to put off our old self. We are going to be renewed in our mind, and we are to put on the new self.
Now, this thinking can be kind of, it's hard to grasp. Okay, what exactly is he getting at? What do we mean by putting off your old self, putting on a new self? Well, I think there's a couple of things that Jesus said that can kind of bear some light on this and kind of flesh this out a little bit.
In John chapter 11, we read Jesus was giving a parable about a ruler who gave a big wedding party, and he called all kinds of people, and his guests didn't show up. And then so he told the servants, go out again, go to the highways and byways, and go all over the place and just invite people.
I want my wedding hall to be full. And when the king came in and looked at the guests, he saw that there was a man with no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?
And he was speechless. Then he said to his attendants, bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.
And I think it's a dangerous thinking to believe that a change is optional for Christians. To think that I just have to think about something intellectually in my head and agree to certain theological standards, certain doctrine, certain teachings of the church.
And if I just believe that, then I'm all set. And if there's no change in my life, that's fine. Changing your life, really handing your life over to Christ, well, that's for the super Christians. That's an optional thing that only a special group of Christians do.
Most Christians really don't have to do that thing about, you know, sacrificing yourself, picking up your cross and following him. That's just for, you know, missionaries and stuff. That's not what Jesus says.
This section in Matthew 22 should be shocking. It should be scary that there are people who fill our churches who will be shocked that though many were called, few were chosen. Those that are chosen will change and will follow Christ.
We need to take off our old self. We need to be renewed in our minds and we need to put on our new self. This is not just for super Christians. The other passage that this brought to mind was in John chapter 11, when John raises Lazarus from the dead and Jesus calls out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
The dead man came out, his hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go. You see, it wasn't appropriate for him to be wearing grave clothes because he's not dead anymore.
He's alive. He shouldn't be wearing the clothes of the dead because he's alive. It's common sense. And in the same way, you are no longer dead in your unrighteousness, no longer dead in your sins. You've been made alive.
You need to be putting on the wedding garments. Now, sometimes this can make us think that somehow we're under the school of legalism again. Legalism says you got to do this, do this, do this to earn your position with God.
Take this moral self-improvement class. But the school of Christ is different. The school of Christ is sitting under his feet and you see what it says in the verse 21. I'm sorry, verse 24, that we're to put on this new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
This new self isn't something that we create. It's been created. We are not creators. God is the only creator. The new self is something that God has created for you. And he calls you to put it on. And so how do you do this?
Verse 23 says we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. And being renewed in the spirit of our minds involves what our minds are full of. What are your thoughts full of? Where do you meditate? What do you think about?
Are you filling your mind with the things that are seen, the things of futility in this world? Or are you filling your mind with the things that are unseen where Christ is? Because where your thoughts are affects how you see everything else.
This makes me think about Paul's prayer at the end of chapter three that I had alluded to earlier, where Paul prays that they would, with all the saints, recognize what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that suppresses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If your mind is filled and meditating on the love of Christ, you will see the world differently. I have a rather poor example of this because there aren't really humanly examples that do it justice. But about, well, it's almost four or five years ago, I was newly married, had been married a little over a year, and I was also applying for a promotion at work, and it was really well aligned with exactly what my experience was.
It was a great next step for me, and I prepared for it, and I didn't get the job. And when I came home, my wife asked me, you know, how are you feeling? And I said, I'm honestly fine. I was a newlywed.
I was, like, immensely happy, and I felt that love. And job, no job, I just didn't really care. Like, I was just immensely happy in my life. And that changed the way I saw the world, and I saw promotions and saw job opportunities.
And what do I care where my job is going? You know, I was happy. And in the same way, if your mind is filled with the love of Christ, the things of this world will, you'll see them for what they are, darkened, futile, and worthless.
And so, as we go forth, I would just like to encourage you to see the world as it really is, because it is, it creeps into your thoughts. It creeps into my thoughts and the way I think about so many things.
And I need to keep reminding myself how futile and worthless those things are. So, I would encourage you to see the world as it is, and to focus on knowing Christ deeply, and to recognize that you need to change yourself completely.
Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for your grace and your love that surpasses all our understanding of what love could possibly be. That, though we are sinners, though we've done nothing to deserve it, you have just bestowed on us just such incredible love.
Help us to flee from the futile thinking of this world, and to set our minds upon you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.