IMITATORS OF GOD

August 15, 2021

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; 1 Kings 19:3-8

Psalm of the Day; Psalm 34

Gospel Lesson; John 6:41-51

Sermon Text; Ephesians 4:30-5:2

The text we will look at today is taken from Ephesians chapter four, verse thirty through chapter five verse two. This is in our Savior's name.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of every kind of bitterness, rage, anger, quarreling, and slander, along with every kind of malice. Instead, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us.

Therefore, be imitators of God as His dearly loved children. And walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

These are your words. Heavenly Father, sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

Back in the late 1800's there was a German professor who made a statement that had a huge impact on the world, at that time. I want to talk about the statement he made. It was not a good one. But, let me tell you a little bit about him, first.

When he was born, his dad was a Lutheran pastor. His dad died, when he was pretty young. This young guy was really smart. He went to school, and did great in school. He loved studying. He loved studying, particularly languages. He became an expert in different languages. He was what is known as a philologist. The word philologist, 'philos' means 'love' and 'logos' means 'word'. He was a lover of words. He was a lover of language. And, he became a master in knowing classical languages. So, he could read Greek. He could read Hebrew. He could read Latin. And, he became a professor of these foreign, ancient languages. He loved them. He could read The Old Testament in the original language. He knew what every word meant, and he knew the context. He could read The New Testament in Greek. He knew each word, the context, and how to interpret it.

However, smart as he was, he had a group of friends who did not believe this Book (The Bible) was the Word of God. They thought it was just another human book, just like any other human book. And, that is what this professor thought, too. He looked at this Book, and he knew how to read the words in it. But, he thought the stories in here (The Bible), were just made up stories. He thought the fact that it says God took on human flesh and went, and died on the cross to pay for our sins, he thought that was a made up story. He did not believe it. In fact, he became what we know as an Atheist. (An Atheist is somebody who believes there is no God.) He made the famous statement, “God is dead”. His name was Frederic Nitzsche. He was one of the first people who boldly, unashamedly said, “I believe there is no God, and God is dead”. And so, Atheism became somewhat popular back in his day, back in the 1800's.

But, he also once made a statement to Christians, and this is what I want to dwell on. Here is the statement he made to Christians.

“If you want me to believe there is a Redeemer,

live like you are redeemed.”

I want to say that again.

“If you want me to believe there is a Redeemer,

live like you are redeemed.”

I bring that up, because there are studies being done today on young people, poles that have been done, about the religious preferences of young people. Do you know what the biggest growing preference for young people, religious preference for young people, is right now? It is Atheism. There is a growing number of young people who believe there is no God. And so, that statement Nietzche made is a very important statement for us to ponder, as there is a growing number of young people who say, “I don't believe there is a God”.

What if they would look at you, and say, “If you want me to believe there is a Redeemer, then live like you are redeemed.”?
That is what our scripture reading really is focusing on. Are you living like you are redeemed? Look at how our scripture reading starts out.

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,

with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

So, when were you sealed by the Holy Spirit? The Bible tells us in the book of Ephesians, chapter one,

“In Him you were sealed,

(that means He put His stamp of ownership on you)

with the promise to the Holy Spirit,

when you heard the Word of truth,

the Gospel of your salvation,

and when you believed.”

So, when the Holy Spirit worked through this Book (The Bible), (and this is not just words, it is the Word of God) and you heard it, and through this Word, the Holy Spirit caused you to know you have a Savior. You are redeemed. That caused you, not just to know that, but to believe that you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. You became His. And, He gave you the promise that someday you will be in Heaven.

“...you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Now, this passage says,

“Don't grieve, don't grieve the Holy Spirit...”

What does that mean? That means don't live in such a way that the Holy Spirit would look at you, and say, “Oh no! Don't do that! Don't say that. Don't act like that. Don't live like that. People are watching you. They are watching you to see what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be a Christian.”

So, it says,

“Don't grieve the Spirit of God...”

So, how would someone grieve the Spirit of God? What grieves the Spirit of God?

Look at what it says next.

“Get rid of every kind of bitterness, rage, anger, quarreling,

and slander, along with every kind of malice.”

You know, if there is one place where maybe Christianity is on display, or not on display, it is when you get into a personal conflict. Conflict is very difficult. And, it is easy to act one way, when you are in a conflict, and it is very difficult to act a different way, a loving way.

And, we do face conflict, as Christians. We live in a tough world. There are people who irritate us. There are people who vex us. There are people who get on our nerves. There are people who say things that hurt us, and harm us.

And, the question is, “How do you react to that? How does a Christian react to that kind of irritation, when somebody is treating me that way?”

Whether it is somebody at home, (It could be my children. It could be my spouse. It could be my mom and dad.), or it could be somebody at work. But, how do I act, when somebody is vexing me? It says,

“Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God...”

Here it gives a list of the natural way to act. It says,

“Get rid of every kind of bitterness...”

Bitterness is what happens in the heart. It is the opposite of love. It is when somebody says or does something that irritates me, or hurts me, I can get bitter toward them in my heart, and have this taste in my mouth, or my heart, “I don't like you. I don't like what you did.” Then, it just gives this list. Actually, if you read it in Greek it is a growing list that just gets bigger, and bigger, because out of the mouth comes the overflow of the heart. It says,

“Get rid of every kind of bitterness, rage, anger,

quarreling, slander,

along with every kind of malice.”

So, it is easy when I am in a conflict, and am bitter toward you, to let words start flying out of my mouth. Here, it is describing words that are hurtful, and harmful, words that can really crush somebody. And boy, is it easy to do that, isn't it? It is easy to say things that are sarcastic. It is easy to say things that bring up past mistakes. It is easy to call people names. It is easy to make difficult, terrible accusations about somebody. When words like that start coming out of our mouth, it is grieving the Holy Spirit. Do you remember what Nietzche said? He said,

“If you believe in a redeemer,

then live like you are redeemed.”

But, if cruel, hurtful, harmful things are coming out of my mouth, that grieves the Holy Spirit. Is anybody going to look at me, and say, “Do I want to be a Christian?” They are not going to look at me and say, “Boy, I do want to be a Christian.”

In fact, it goes on, and says,

“Get rid of every kind of bitterness...”

What does it say?

“Get rid of...”

How do I get rid of all of those things – bitterness, rage, anger, quarreling, slander, and every kind of malice?

It goes on, and says,

“Instead, be kind and compassionate to one another,

forgiving one another,

just as God in Christ has forgiven us.”

So, how do I get rid of all of those bad ways of conflict? The way we do it, as Christians, is simple on one level. It is what we call 'repentance'. One of the most powerful things a Christian can do, is look at somebody who they have hurt, because they have said mean, or cruel things to them, and say, “I am sorry. I should not have said that.” “I should not have done that.” “I should not have acted that way. I know it hurt you, and it was harmful. That is the last thing I wanted to do.”

But especially, a Christian repents to the Lord.

I want to read out of our Large Catechism. I love this, because it really gets to this whole issue. You know, we pray. Jesus taught us to pray,

“Forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

That is the Fifth Petition. Listen to what our Large Catechism says about that, when I wrong somebody, when I blow up, when I say hurtful words, when I bring up past mistakes.

“This petition, 'Forgive us our trespasses', has to do with our poor, miserable life. Although we have God's Word, and we believe, nevertheless, we are not without sin.”

Now, listen to this.

“We still stumble daily, and transgress, because (listen to why) we live in a world among people who sorely vex us, and give us occasions for impatience, wrath, and vengeance.”

(We live in a world where people give me reason to get really upset.)

“So, it is not always possible to stand firm in such ceaseless conflict. Here again, there is a great need to call upon God and pray, 'Dear Father, forgive us our sins', thus our conscience become restless. It fears God's wrath, and displeasure, so it loses the comfort and confidence of the Gospel. Therefore, it is necessary constantly to turn to this petition, 'Forgive us our trespasses' for the comfort that will restore our conscience. Let no one think that he will ever in this life reach the point where he does not need this forgiveness. In short, unless God constantly forgives us, we are lost. (Now listen to this.) Thus, this petition, 'Forgive us our trespasses', is really an appeal to God, not to regard our sins, not to punish us, as we daily deserve, but to deal graciously with us. Forgive us, as He has promised. Thus, grant us a happy and cheerful conscience to stand before Him. Where the heart is not right with God, it can't achieve such confidence. It will never dare to come before God. But, such a confident and joyful heart can only come from a knowledge that our sins are forgiven.” So, when I know my sins are forgiven, my sins, cruel things I have done to other people, I can stand before God, with a confident, cheerful heart. He is not going to hold that against me.

Then, our Catechism goes on, and says this:

One of the signs that you are forgiven, that you really believe you are forgiven is, 'What did Jesus teach us to pray? Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.' One of the signs that you really believe you are forgiven is that you are forgiving. You want to be forgiving, because you know what that means.

So, our passage says,

“...be kind and compassionate to one another,

forgiving one another,

just as God in Christ has forgiven us.”

When somebody does something that makes me upset, or irritates me, or vexes me, or hurts me, I know that when I do that to God, He forgives me, every single day. Our hearts should be hearts that say, “I want to be forgiving. I want to be kind, and compassionate.”
And, how do I do that? Verse one of chapter five says,

“Therefore, be imitators of God, as His dearly loved children.”

Some of the most endearing pictures I look at are pictures where there is a dad. Maybe he is mowing a lawn. And, behind him is a little son who is pushing a little lawn mower, looking up at his dad. Or, maybe there is a dad who is looking in the mirror, and he is shaving. There is a little guy next to him, looking up at Dad, who has shaving cream on his face.

What is that a picture of? It is a picture of a dad, who obviously loves his little boy so much that the little boy wants to be like Dad. The little boy loves Dad, and wants to be like him.

Here it says, as imitators,

“...be imitators of God as His dearly loved children.”

You are a dearly loved child of God. You are a forgiven child of God. You are a redeemed child of God. As loved children of God, we want to be like Him. We want to be forgiving like He is forgiving.

It goes on, and says,

“And walk in love,

just as Christ loved us

and gave Himself for us,

as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

That phrase “to walk in love” is a picture that whatever you do, where ever you go, you are living a lifestyle of love. The Greek word 'love' is 'agape', which is an unconditional, no strings attached, love. That is the love God has for us, that we try to imitate. The no strings attached love God has for us is - He looks at us, and says, “I love you, no matter what. There are no strings attached. It does not matter what you look like. I still love you. It doesn't matter how you dress, I love you. It doesn't matter if you can cook, or not. I love you. It doesn't matter if you are fun to be around, or not, I love you. It doesn't matter if you are fast, or slow. It doesn't matter what color you are. I love you. No strings attached, unconditionally. And, it doesn't matter if you have sinned a thousand times, or ten thousand times. I love you. There are no strings attached.”

God loves us unconditionally. It is this unconditional, no strings attached love. So much so that it says,

“And walk in love,

just as Christ loved us

and gave Himself up for us,

as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

God's love for us, His unconditional love for us is so great that He looks at us, and says about you and me, “Even though there is no reason why I should love you, none whatsoever, the way you have treated other people, the way you have acted, the things you have done, I love you. There are no strings attached. And, I want you to be with me in Heaven. The only way that can happen, the only way that can happen, is if I go to the cross, and I suffer for you, and I die for your sins. And, I am going to do that for you. No strings attached, even though you don't deserve it in any way.”

That is what Jesus did for us.

The Bible says it is “a fragrant offering...to God.”

It is like this sacrifice that is offered. God smells it, and says, “Oh that is so good! That type of love is so awesome!”

And, you know it. That is the type of love we want to imitate. This unconditional, no strings attached, “I am going to make the choice, with God's help, to put your needs so important that I will sacrifice whatever it takes to meet those needs.”

So, when there is somebody who looks at you, and says, “If you want me to believe there is a redeemer, live like you are redeemed”, may God give us hearts that want to imitate our Savior, so that we display that faith, and make that faith attractive to others, so they listen to The Word, and want to hear The Word.

God grant that to us, for Christ's sake.

Amen.

Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts, and our minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen