WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.120
Introduction: Transforming Culture and the Doctrine of Vocation Please take your Bible and turn with me to Ephesians 6.

2
00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:13.200
The passage that I’d like to direct your attention to begins in verse 5.

3
00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:18.460
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 5.

4
00:00:18.460 --> 00:00:35.460
As we approach this passage today, before I read it, the things I want to focus on, first of all, the power of the gospel to change culture .

5
00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:43.540
I think that we have evidence to that in this passage especially.

6
00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:57.100
It’s relevant to us today because Christianity in the United States and throughout the West has lost a great deal of influence.

7
00:00:57.100 --> 00:01:09.340
Society has moved away towards atheistic nihilism, and you see that taking shape in culture all around us.

8
00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:21.340
Recovering the strength of the New Testament church and the power that it had to change culture is something that is really important to us today.

9
00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:32.240
We need to recognize some of the differences between what characterized the early church and what characterizes us today.

10
00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:43.460
Part of that is the second thing, and that is we need to recover the doctrine of vocation , which we find in this passage.

11
00:01:43.460 --> 00:01:50.920
God’s salvation reaches every part of an individual.

12
00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:59.000
Christ died for the whole person, and so what’s transformed is the whole person’s life.

13
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:08.200
Yet we have, for generations now, compartmentalized Christianity.

14
00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:13.620
That’s the kind of thing I want us to be thinking about as we go through this as well.

15
00:02:13.620 --> 00:02:21.720
We need to be focusing as the early church did on every aspect of life.

16
00:02:21.720 --> 00:02:28.120
We find that in this passage as we come to it in Ephesians chapter 6, beginning in verse 5.

17
00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:31.680
This is God’s holy, inherent word.

18
00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:44.980
Ephesians 6:5-9: Instructions for Slaves and Masters > Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ.

19
00:02:44.980 --> 00:02:57.980
Not by way of eye service, as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill render service, as to the Lord and not to men.

20
00:02:57.980 --> 00:03:05.940
Knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

21
00:03:05.940 --> 00:03:19.580
And masters, do the same thing to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and that there’s no partiality with him.

22
00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:22.980
Let’s pray and ask the Lord’s help with this passage.

23
00:03:22.980 --> 00:03:27.720
Father, we thank you for your truth and your word.

24
00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:40.020
As we come to this passage, complicated in so many ways because of cultural issues, because of our ways of thinking now, we ask Father for your help and blessing.

25
00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:44.040
Guide us into right application from your truth.

26
00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:49.840
Keep us in your truth, we pray, and guide us, we ask in the name of our Savior.

27
00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:50.430
Amen.

28
00:03:50.430 --> 00:04:03.240
The Sinful Institution of Slavery in the Roman World This passage begins with slaves .

29
00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:10.960
The Greek word that’s used here describes a person who is in bondage to another person.

30
00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:14.960
And slavery was a sinful institution.

31
00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:18.320
It was a sinful institution in the first century.

32
00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:21.760
It was a sinful institution through the centuries.

33
00:04:21.760 --> 00:04:33.680
It was sinful certainly in the American expression of it, back in the 1800s and the early part of this nation.

34
00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:41.520
This passage can be a little bit startling if you realize that.

35
00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:45.900
Paul is addressing slaves.

36
00:04:45.900 --> 00:04:53.840
He tells them to be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

37
00:04:53.840 --> 00:04:55.780
Why is that?

38
00:04:55.780 --> 00:05:03.120
Let me underscore this a little bit and describe what slavery was like in the first century Rome.

39
00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:08.320
There were differences from what we know of American history.

40
00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:09.460
There were significant differences.

41
00:05:09.460 --> 00:05:12.700
It wasn’t particularly racially based.

42
00:05:12.700 --> 00:05:15.700
Most of Rome’s slaves came from their conquest.

43
00:05:15.700 --> 00:05:25.740
They would conquer a nation, and they would capture people, and they would bring them back as slaves, and they used them in all sorts of trades.

44
00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:30.520
But it was sinful because it denied the personhood of an individual.

45
00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:39.660
Slavery in the first century, just like in our practice, denied the personhood of the individual, as if the person was not a person at all.

46
00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:47.880
Here’s William Barclay, who gives us a great deal of the cultural background.

47
00:05:47.880 --> 00:05:56.520
He says, according to Roman law, he was not a person, but was a thing .

48
00:05:56.520 --> 00:05:58.880
He paraphrases Aristotle.

49
00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:06.900
Aristotle says that there can never be a friendship between a master and a slave, for they have nothing in common.

50
00:06:06.900 --> 00:06:16.340
For a slave is a living tool , just as a tool is an inanimate tool.

51
00:06:16.340 --> 00:06:32.500
Another Roman writer, a Latin writer, writing on agriculture, divides agricultural instruments into three classes: tools that converse, which are slaves—they can speak language.

52
00:06:32.500 --> 00:06:37.720
Then you have beasts, which can make noises, but they don’t communicate anything.

53
00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:48.060
And then you have carts and tools like that, which were mobile but inanimate objects basically.

54
00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:55.220
That was the categories that they placed people into: the articulate, the inarticulate, and the mute.

55
00:06:55.220 --> 00:06:58.040
That was the idea.

56
00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:03.460
They’re not recognizing these people to be people.

57
00:07:03.460 --> 00:07:18.080
One of the Roman lawyers says, we may note that it’s universally accepted over a slave that if a slave ran away, it was usually death.

58
00:07:18.080 --> 00:07:32.080
But maybe, if a slave runs away, they would just brand his forehead with the letter F, which stood for fugitivus , which means a runaway.

59
00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:35.420
They either killed them or he was branded.

60
00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:38.860
It was a terrible situation.

61
00:07:38.860 --> 00:07:47.000
The slave, if you can imagine, you’re in the control of another person.

62
00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:55.400
The work that you did, you might profit from, but your master profited the most.

63
00:07:55.400 --> 00:07:59.810
In the Roman world, you did all kinds of different types of work.

64
00:07:59.810 --> 00:08:03.540
It wasn’t just physical labor.

65
00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:11.360
Slaves in the Roman world did things like, most accountants and most physicians were slaves in the Roman world.

66
00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:17.660
More than half the population in the first century Rome was slaves.

67
00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:18.880
They did all sorts of things.

68
00:08:18.880 --> 00:08:25.660
But the terror was that you lived at the caprice of your master.

69
00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:31.620
Whatever your master decided, that would be your fate.

70
00:08:31.620 --> 00:08:36.280
There’s lots of terrible examples.

71
00:08:36.280 --> 00:08:42.260
Augustus crucified a slave because he killed a pet quail.

72
00:08:42.260 --> 00:08:48.440
Juvenal tells of a Roman matron who ordered a slave to be killed for no other reason than she lost her temper with him.

73
00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:54.060
Her husband protested, and she said, “You call a slave a man, do you?

74
00:08:54.060 --> 00:08:56.780
He has done no wrong, you say?

75
00:08:56.780 --> 00:08:57.680
Be it so.

76
00:08:57.680 --> 00:09:00.200
It is my will and my command.

77
00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:06.460
Let my will be the voucher for the deed.”

78
00:09:06.460 --> 00:09:07.060
It was terrible.

79
00:09:07.060 --> 00:09:21.820
It was a terrible place to be because no matter what might happen, you had no security, you had no rights, you’re not recognized as a human being.

80
00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.560
It was an evil institution.

81
00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:30.980
People who were slaves had no right as a citizen certainly.

82
00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:40.140
They didn’t have rights of being as a human being.

83
00:09:40.140 --> 00:10:09.160
One Roman writer said, whatever a master does to a slave, undeservedly, in anger, unwillingly, in forgetfulness, after careful thought, knowingly, unknowingly, whatever he does is judgment, justice, and law.

84
00:10:09.160 --> 00:10:12.080
That’s first century Rome.

85
00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:15.000
It was a sinful institution.

86
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:23.120
Yet, you have this commandment: Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

87
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.020
Be obedient.

88
00:10:25.020 --> 00:10:27.360
Why is that?

89
00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:28.470
Why the Command?

90
00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:38.600
The Goodness of Work and the Doctrine of Vocation There’s something here that we need to focus on that goes beyond the institution of slavery.

91
00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:43.660
That’s what God is focusing on in this word.

92
00:10:43.660 --> 00:10:48.660
That is the work that the slave is doing .

93
00:10:48.660 --> 00:10:59.980
Not the institution of slavery itself, but first of all, the work that the slave is doing is a good work .

94
00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:03.280
It’s a good work.

95
00:11:03.280 --> 00:11:09.380
Back in Genesis, work is part of God’s good design.

96
00:11:09.380 --> 00:11:14.860
It’s a blessing, and it’s enjoyed by Adam and Eve in the garden.

97
00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:22.700
Before sin ever took place, they were told to work and to keep the garden.

98
00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:32.920
It’s instituted as a blessing from God, and a means by which we can receive blessings.

99
00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:52.760
And so the work that the slave does, if he did physical labor, if he served as an accountant or a physician, or whatever the work was, there’s a means of grace, there’s a means of blessing that is coming about because of the work done.

100
00:11:52.760 --> 00:11:54.780
It’s a calling.

101
00:11:54.780 --> 00:11:56.180
It’s a vocation .

102
00:11:56.180 --> 00:12:01.980
The work itself is a vocation, and it is good.

103
00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:07.000
So the institution is wrong, but the work they’re doing is good.

104
00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.660
The work they’re doing is a vocation.

105
00:12:09.660 --> 00:12:15.420
It’s God’s work that the slave is doing.

106
00:12:15.420 --> 00:12:19.240
What I’ve just described is the doctrine of vocation .

107
00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:24.740
It’s the teaching of vocation, and it’s a doctrine that’s been lost.

108
00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:35.020
It’s a doctrine that’s been poorly communicated for some time, and certainly not practiced much in many of our churches.

109
00:12:35.020 --> 00:12:57.410
I think that one of the reasons we failed to impact our culture in the way that the first century radically impacted the Western world, the Roman world, it certainly is because we’ve lost some of these things, especially the doctrine of vocation.

110
00:12:57.410 --> 00:13:08.500
The Reformation and the Recovery of Vocation Back during the Middle Ages, the doctrine was lost.

111
00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.020
It was recovered for a time.

112
00:13:10.020 --> 00:13:17.840
It was recovered during the time of the Reformation.

113
00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:26.820
During the Middle Ages, the church in the Middle Ages began to, there was a syncretism.

114
00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:34.660
There was a mixing of the Christian faith with Greek philosophy.

115
00:13:34.660 --> 00:13:41.960
Greek philosophy taught that material things are bad, and that the spirit is good.

116
00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:49.140
But physical things like work, for instance, there’s no value in any of the physical things.

117
00:13:49.140 --> 00:13:55.220
The church adopted some of that mentality, and people began to think that way.

118
00:13:55.220 --> 00:14:02.060
As a result, they had a doctrine of vocation.

119
00:14:02.060 --> 00:14:16.880
Part of that was that if you felt like you had a call, then that meant that you were called into the church in some way.

120
00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:26.080
That meant that you’re going to be a priest or a nun or work as a cleric in the church.

121
00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.220
You’re going to maybe be part of a monastery.

122
00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:35.960
You’re going to separate yourselves from the rest of the world to do the real, true, holy work.

123
00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:44.960
And the rest of the people, you could be saved, of course, but you’re mired in the work.

124
00:14:44.960 --> 00:15:05.080
The work you’re doing is necessary for life, but you’re mired in the world, and that’s sort of a thing that is not, it’s obviously not as good as being able to receive a true call.

125
00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:24.600
When the gospel was recovered, one of the things that people realized as they were studying the scriptures again, opening up the word of God, is that God didn’t view it like that at all.

126
00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:34.100
God didn’t have a separation between physical things and saying that that was bad and spiritual things being the true good.

127
00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:35.200
Not at all.

128
00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:40.540
When God created the world, he created the world and declared it good, so the material thing is good.

129
00:15:40.540 --> 00:15:52.120
The Lord Jesus, when he came, he entered into this Earth as a physical human being.

130
00:15:52.120 --> 00:16:02.620
The fact that God entered into this world as a human being, the material world, shows that the material things are something that’s valued by God.

131
00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:07.000
The fact that he brings about the resurrection shows that he’s valued by God.

132
00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:14.140
The Lord Jesus grew up in a family, in a family that had an occupation.

133
00:16:14.140 --> 00:16:18.820
His dad was a carpenter, and he grew up working with his hands.

134
00:16:18.820 --> 00:16:19.830
And it was a good work.

135
00:16:19.830 --> 00:16:37.040
God’s Provision Through Human Work Martin Luther had a lot to say about the doctrine of vocation.

136
00:16:37.040 --> 00:16:44.460
He said when we pray the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread.

137
00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:48.280
He gives us our daily bread.

138
00:16:48.280 --> 00:17:01.280
He gives us our daily bread by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, and the baker who made the flour into the bread, and the person who prepared our meal.

139
00:17:01.280 --> 00:17:05.060
You can add a lot of other people to that list today.

140
00:17:05.060 --> 00:17:28.120
The truck driver who drove those goods to the market, the lady at the checkout counter who helped you with your purchase, or even the advertisers who called your attention to where to go in order to find the thing that you need, the part of the food that you’re looking for.

141
00:17:28.120 --> 00:17:31.740
The Bible says that he provides food for those who fear him.

142
00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:36.140
We read that a few moments ago in Psalms 111.

143
00:17:36.140 --> 00:17:44.080
But he also provides food for those who do not fear him, to all flesh, it tells us in Psalms 136.

144
00:17:44.080 --> 00:17:46.160
And how does he do that?

145
00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:51.720
He does it in part by using other human beings.

146
00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:53.500
It’s God who’s responsible.

147
00:17:53.500 --> 00:18:00.480
It’s God’s goodness that is being used in order to give us these good things.

148
00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:14.240
God could give us food by raining manna down as he did to the children in the wilderness, the Israelites in the wilderness.

149
00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:18.700
He could give us bread in a direct way.

150
00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:20.920
But he uses people.

151
00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:33.800
He does it through the work of human beings who in the capacities that he gives them, are able to be used to serve other people.

152
00:18:33.800 --> 00:18:35.700
And this is people at large.

153
00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:40.140
This is people in general.

154
00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:49.660
It goes along with two things: the idea that God is the source of all goodness, and he’s sovereign over all his creation.

155
00:18:49.660 --> 00:18:56.580
He’s sovereign over all people.

156
00:18:56.580 --> 00:18:58.440
And it’s true for all things.

157
00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:06.680
Every way that you’re blessed, it comes to us through means usually.

158
00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.940
That’s the hand of God at work.

159
00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:12.560
That’s not something that we should take for granted.

160
00:19:12.560 --> 00:19:19.180
It is the work of God.

161
00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:27.000
We get beauty and meaning through artists who give us beautiful things.

162
00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:39.220
We can travel and see things through the people who make automobiles and airplanes and tend to service stations.

163
00:19:39.220 --> 00:19:57.320
We have reasonable health because of people who collect our garbage every week and sanitation workers and all sorts of capacities like that.

164
00:19:57.320 --> 00:20:03.960
These are things that we take for granted, but this is the work of God’s blessing in the world.

165
00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:06.520
Every good and perfect gift comes from his hand.

166
00:20:06.520 --> 00:20:09.520
Every good and perfect gift comes from God’s hand.

167
00:20:09.520 --> 00:20:15.720
When we pray, he uses means to satisfy our prayers.

168
00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:24.220
We get to where we’re thinking that God’s work is mysterious and mystical all the time.

169
00:20:24.220 --> 00:20:27.640
We’re not grateful for the good things that he gives us in the physical world.

170
00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:29.830
We divide it all up into two ways.

171
00:20:29.830 --> 00:20:37.720
We say, “Here’s the physical world and here’s all the physical properties that determine how things happen.”

172
00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:39.480
No, God is behind it.

173
00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:43.100
He’s behind the laws of nature.

174
00:20:43.100 --> 00:20:45.840
He’s behind the people.

175
00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:58.720
He gives the vocations to the people and the giftedness that enables them to do the things that they do in order that people can be blessed through them.

176
00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:01.720
It’s the idea of vocation.

177
00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:04.760
That word vocation has been co-opted.

178
00:21:04.760 --> 00:21:11.200
We talk about vocational training or vocational education.

179
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.900
But it’s a theological word.

180
00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:20.500
The word vocation comes from a Latin word that means calling .

181
00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:24.060
This tells us something about what this is and how it differs.

182
00:21:24.060 --> 00:21:41.640
If you have a vocation, that means someone’s called you to it, and you’re working not for yourself, but to benefit someone else.

183
00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:45.580
It transforms the way you think.

184
00:21:45.580 --> 00:22:02.620
We get caught up—and I have in the past, growing up especially in the church and early on in my Christian experience as an adult—you think, you look at the church and the people there, and who are the spiritual people in your church?

185
00:22:02.620 --> 00:22:09.860
You think, “Look at all the things this person does in the church.

186
00:22:09.860 --> 00:22:12.000
There’s a spiritual, godly person.

187
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:16.340
What would we do without that person?”

188
00:22:16.340 --> 00:22:24.660
But you see, we can compartmentalize our life, and we have.

189
00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:32.140
We’re Christian on Sunday mornings, and on the things that we do, and if something counts, it has to be in the church.

190
00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:37.580
It has to be structured by the church and part of a church responsibility and job.

191
00:22:37.580 --> 00:22:40.320
But you see, this transforms that.

192
00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:44.800
God’s calling reaches every part of your life.

193
00:22:44.800 --> 00:23:03.540
Your work that you are called to, your occupation where you spend most of your life, your vocation as a student, or your vocation in the job that you work—that’s where you’re to be a Christian.

194
00:23:03.540 --> 00:23:10.200
That’s where you’re to live out your Christian life in obedience to the Lord.

195
00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:11.980
That transforms everything.

196
00:23:11.980 --> 00:23:13.960
It transforms the way you think.

197
00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:28.310
It takes the mundane thing that you’re struggling with at work, and the thing that, I said work is good and it was ordained in the garden, but you remember the sin that came and then there is toil.

198
00:23:28.310 --> 00:23:35.680
There are the thorns that came about as a result of the sin.

199
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:36.560
It’s difficult.

200
00:23:36.560 --> 00:23:39.480
We live in a sinful world.

201
00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:49.020
God’s operative in the world through good things, but Satan’s operative as well.

202
00:23:49.020 --> 00:23:55.240
You do a job, and sometimes it feels like it’s pointless.

203
00:23:55.240 --> 00:24:01.660
Sometimes it’s painful.

204
00:24:01.660 --> 00:24:15.900
But when we get beyond that, we see that the work that God calls us to is a good work, where we’re able to bless people, be part of the blessing and the answer to prayer for people.

205
00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:27.340
No Menial Work with the Lord We are, Peter tells us, a holy priesthood.

206
00:24:27.340 --> 00:24:33.220
Martin Luther said the word priest should become as common as the word Christian .

207
00:24:33.220 --> 00:24:35.030
That’s what we all are.

208
00:24:35.030 --> 00:24:38.220
There are not two classes of people.

209
00:24:38.220 --> 00:24:43.140
There’s not the person who is the pastor of the church, the clergy, and the laity.

210
00:24:43.140 --> 00:24:47.540
No, if you’re in Jesus Christ, you belong to him.

211
00:24:47.540 --> 00:24:52.780
We’re all called to his service.

212
00:24:52.780 --> 00:25:01.600
It isn’t that the work that the pastor does has great spiritual value and the work that you do has none or little.

213
00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:03.500
It’s not that way at all.

214
00:25:03.500 --> 00:25:23.620
All are serving the Lord and all will be valued equally.

215
00:25:23.620 --> 00:25:28.980
There is no menial work.

216
00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:36.920
The work that you do as a believer, the work that you do in faith, God calls you to a task.

217
00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:39.260
Raising a family is a vocation.

218
00:25:39.260 --> 00:25:44.840
If you’re a mother in a family and you show care to your children, that’s a vocation.

219
00:25:44.840 --> 00:25:51.160
If you clean up your house, that’s one of the things we have to do.

220
00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:55.150
It’s a menial task that we don’t think much about.

221
00:25:55.150 --> 00:26:01.000
That’s a task that’s very valuable.

222
00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:08.280
Over the past few years, we’ve had several experiences where we spent some time in the hospital.

223
00:26:08.280 --> 00:26:15.260
Once with Justin with the rhabdomyolysis thing that he did for about a week in Cleveland.

224
00:26:15.260 --> 00:26:18.380
And a couple of times for me.

225
00:26:18.380 --> 00:26:29.500
One of the things that I paid attention to, I’m not sure exactly why, is the people who came in the rooms to clean.

226
00:26:29.500 --> 00:26:34.900
Those are people who are often not respected.

227
00:26:34.900 --> 00:26:48.400
Do you think of the person who comes in and mops the floor and cleans the walls in a hospital room the same way you think of the doctor?

228
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:50.560
What if they didn’t?

229
00:26:50.560 --> 00:26:54.460
What if they didn’t do their job?

230
00:26:54.460 --> 00:26:59.160
Those people save more lives than the doctors do.

231
00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:01.680
What if you didn’t clean your house?

232
00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:03.840
What if you didn’t hire anyone to do it?

233
00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:07.420
What if it was never cleaned?

234
00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:10.140
You wouldn’t live very long.

235
00:27:10.140 --> 00:27:12.460
It’s a necessary job.

236
00:27:12.460 --> 00:27:16.060
And it’s a job through which you are blessed.

237
00:27:16.060 --> 00:27:18.620
People are blessed through those menial things.

238
00:27:18.620 --> 00:27:24.880
There is no menial work with the Lord.

239
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:36.200
God uses people who are faithful in their work.

240
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:42.120
Somebody is gifted with a really wonderful gift, a great musician.

241
00:27:42.120 --> 00:27:59.620
They go to do the work in the world, and if they are a Christian, you’ll hear somebody say often, in most churches, not so often around here anymore, but you hear, “They should dedicate that to the Lord.

242
00:27:59.620 --> 00:28:01.020
Just imagine what they could do.”

243
00:28:01.020 --> 00:28:10.500
What they mean by that is, they should do all of their work and music in the church.

244
00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:14.140
The idea of vocation is not that.

245
00:28:14.140 --> 00:28:18.560
No, they’re to do the work in the world.

246
00:28:18.560 --> 00:28:22.800
We’re to be in the world, not of the world, but in the world.

247
00:28:22.800 --> 00:28:24.980
We’re to impact the world with Christianity.

248
00:28:24.980 --> 00:28:34.460
The Transforming Power of Vocation: The Example of Onesimus Here you have slaves.

249
00:28:34.460 --> 00:28:37.340
They’re not respected.

250
00:28:37.340 --> 00:28:41.640
They have no rights.

251
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:47.120
You have believers coming from the outside, Jewish people like the Apostle Paul.

252
00:28:47.120 --> 00:28:47.860
They come in.

253
00:28:47.860 --> 00:28:52.830
Do they say, “When you gain your freedom, come and talk to me.”?

254
00:28:52.830 --> 00:29:01.020
No, they come and bring the message of the gospel to these people who have some of the lowest positions in society.

255
00:29:01.020 --> 00:29:12.280
They take truth to them and they say, “God loves you so much that he sent his son the Lord Jesus to change your life.

256
00:29:12.280 --> 00:29:18.200
He took upon himself the sin burden that you owe to God.”

257
00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:25.240
And he lived a righteous life which he freely gives to you if you receive it in faith.

258
00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:29.200
He says, “You’re not a person, just a thing.

259
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:33.080
You’re not just a thing, but you’re a person that God values.

260
00:29:33.080 --> 00:29:38.560
God values you, and you’re precious before God.”

261
00:29:38.560 --> 00:29:46.100
“You’re not just a person, but you’re a brother, you’re a sister in Jesus Christ.

262
00:29:46.100 --> 00:29:50.300
You belong to us.”

263
00:29:50.300 --> 00:29:53.820
Then they tell them something extraordinary.

264
00:29:53.820 --> 00:30:02.120
It’s this passage: “What should you do about your slavery?”

265
00:30:02.120 --> 00:30:05.140
“Do a good job in your work.”

266
00:30:05.140 --> 00:30:06.860
That’s what he says.

267
00:30:06.860 --> 00:30:11.080
Be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

268
00:30:11.080 --> 00:30:12.480
Show them respect.

269
00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:17.700
That’s what that phrase “with fear and trembling” means.

270
00:30:17.700 --> 00:30:22.920
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

271
00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:31.720
In the sincerity of your heart, do your work as if you’re serving Christ, not this person.

272
00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:33.600
And that’s the point.

273
00:30:33.600 --> 00:30:38.520
The work that they are doing is a good work that God is in.

274
00:30:38.520 --> 00:30:55.580
People are being blessed by the physician who does his work to heal the sick, by the accountant who keeps track of all the things, by the laborer who tills the earth, who digs the foundation for the new building, the carpenter who does that work.

275
00:30:55.580 --> 00:31:03.980
The work that they do brings benefit to mankind, and God is using that to bring blessing to people, and their work has value.

276
00:31:03.980 --> 00:31:10.440
It’s purposeful.

277
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:21.940
This advice is amazing because it changes the relationship of this institution of slavery.

278
00:31:21.940 --> 00:31:30.680
It does so for all believers, and ultimately, by the way, it took about 300 years, but it began to wane.

279
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:36.440
Within 100 years, slaves started getting more recognition and rights.

280
00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:43.400
They were allowed to start reporting their masters if they were being cruel to them.

281
00:31:43.400 --> 00:31:47.360
That’s a radical change.

282
00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:53.760
And within 300 years, you began to see some decline in slavery in Rome.

283
00:31:53.760 --> 00:31:55.700
But the relationship changed.

284
00:31:55.700 --> 00:32:04.340
For those people who were Christians, it changed radically in each relationship.

285
00:32:04.340 --> 00:32:10.000
He addresses both the slave and the master as Christians.

286
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:20.840
He calls attention here to the fact that the master is to give up threatening because he has to answer to his Master.

287
00:32:20.840 --> 00:32:24.130
And so the relationship begins to change.

288
00:32:24.130 --> 00:32:34.060
It changed culture, changed that culture.

289
00:32:34.060 --> 00:32:40.120
I’ve got a lot to say about this thing of vocation, but I’m not going to try to do it all today.

290
00:32:40.120 --> 00:32:54.760
Let me explain how this change worked, at least with one slave in this particular context, right here, in the book of Ephesians.

291
00:32:54.760 --> 00:33:09.480
If you look down towards the end of this book, in verse 21: The Apostle Paul had sent a man, his name was Tychicus.

292
00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:15.520
He was the one that carried this letter to the Ephesian church.

293
00:33:15.520 --> 00:33:27.580
Paul says, “ So that you know what’s going on with me and how I’m doing, Tychicus, my beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you.

294
00:33:27.580 --> 00:33:33.700
” So Tychicus is carrying this letter that Paul writes to the Ephesians.

295
00:33:33.700 --> 00:33:35.300
He’s doing something else too.

296
00:33:35.300 --> 00:33:38.860
He’s carrying two more letters.

297
00:33:38.860 --> 00:33:50.660
The other letter that he carried was to the church at Colossae.

298
00:33:50.660 --> 00:34:07.280
In Colossians chapter 4 and verse 7, it says, “ As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord, will bring you information.

299
00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:14.260
For I’ve sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know about our circumstances that he may encourage your hearts.

300
00:34:14.260 --> 00:34:22.570
And with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number, they will inform you about the whole situation here.

301
00:34:22.570 --> 00:34:32.000
” So, Tychicus is carrying the letter to the Ephesians, he’s carrying the letter to the Colossians.

302
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:38.480
He’s coming all the way from Rome, more than a thousand miles, to carry these letters.

303
00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:43.240
And he’s accompanied by Onesimus.

304
00:34:43.240 --> 00:34:53.800
He has one more letter, and that was to a man in whose household in Colossae, the church was meeting.

305
00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:55.760
His name is Philemon.

306
00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.920
We have that very small letter that comes just before Hebrews.

307
00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:07.370
To Philemon, he writes, “ I appeal to you for my child Onesimus.

308
00:35:07.370 --> 00:35:12.400
” By the way, the word Onesimus means useful .

309
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:15.070
It was a slave’s name.

310
00:35:15.070 --> 00:35:22.100
“ I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment.

311
00:35:22.100 --> 00:35:25.920
” That means that Onesimus came to him.

312
00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:30.930
He witnessed to him and he’s come to faith in Jesus Christ.

313
00:35:30.930 --> 00:35:38.340
“ Who formerly was useless to you, but now useful both to you and me.

314
00:35:38.340 --> 00:35:42.680
” He’s a runaway slave, Onesimus.

315
00:35:42.680 --> 00:35:45.960
What happens to runaway slaves?

316
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:51.130
They’re put to death, or if spared, they’re branded.

317
00:35:51.130 --> 00:35:59.980
“ I’ve sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart.

318
00:35:59.980 --> 00:36:06.960
I wish to keep him with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel.

319
00:36:06.960 --> 00:36:15.000
But without your consent, I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but of your own free will.

320
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:30.420
For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me.

321
00:36:30.420 --> 00:36:34.380
But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

322
00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:44.920
” That’s Onesimus the slave being restored to the one who was his master, Philemon.

323
00:36:44.920 --> 00:36:47.040
What happened to Onesimus?

324
00:36:47.040 --> 00:36:48.680
Was he branded?

325
00:36:48.680 --> 00:36:58.080
Was he put to death?

326
00:36:58.080 --> 00:37:02.480
The Apostle John had a couple of disciples.

327
00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:06.220
One of them’s name was Polycarp.

328
00:37:06.220 --> 00:37:09.220
John discipled Polycarp.

329
00:37:09.220 --> 00:37:14.620
Polycarp and the Apostle John discipled another man whose name was Ignatius.

330
00:37:14.620 --> 00:37:17.080
The two of them.

331
00:37:17.080 --> 00:37:21.180
In the first century, you have a disciple in the faith, his name is Ignatius.

332
00:37:21.180 --> 00:37:24.200
Ignatius wrote things.

333
00:37:24.200 --> 00:37:41.280
Among the things that he wrote, he mentions somewhere right around the late 90s of the first century, there was a man named Onesimus who was the bishop of Ephesus.

334
00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:44.080
The church that Paul’s writing to right here.

335
00:37:44.080 --> 00:37:47.480
He’s returning a slave to the people of Colossae.

336
00:37:47.480 --> 00:38:03.460
He’s writing to this church, and he’s giving instructions to slaves how they can live rightly before the Lord, to serve the Lord even in the worst of work situations.

337
00:38:03.460 --> 00:38:12.000
You think you have a bad work situation?

338
00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:14.380
Serve the Lord in your work.

339
00:38:14.380 --> 00:38:25.360
Not by way of eye service as a man pleaser, but as a slave of Jesus Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

340
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:31.900
When you do the will of God from the heart, people are blessed through it.

341
00:38:31.900 --> 00:38:35.780
You can remember that there’s a reward for it.

342
00:38:35.780 --> 00:38:46.020
Knowing that whatever good thing one does, the work that you do in faith, you’ll receive back from the Lord.

343
00:38:46.020 --> 00:38:49.100
If you’re a slave, it’s true.

344
00:38:49.100 --> 00:38:52.100
If you’re a free man, it’s also true.

345
00:38:52.100 --> 00:38:54.220
Let’s pray.

346
00:38:54.220 --> 00:39:10.400
Father, I know this is a complicated passage and the doctrine of vocation is complicated in itself, and we certainly can’t answer questions in one session like this that must be in people’s minds.

347
00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:17.580
Yet it is true, and I pray Father that you give us grace as we unfold it in the next couple of weeks.

348
00:39:17.580 --> 00:39:28.780
We ask that you help us to stop compartmentalizing our life, to recognize the work that you call us to.

349
00:39:28.780 --> 00:39:33.940
If it seems mundane to us or unimportant, it is not that at all.

350
00:39:33.940 --> 00:39:36.560
It is precious and valuable.

351
00:39:36.560 --> 00:39:42.160
It is a means by which you bring blessing and good to the world.

352
00:39:42.160 --> 00:39:49.400
Help us to value, for Christ’s sake, the gifts that you’ve given us.

353
00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:58.680
Help us to realize that all of life is where we serve as Christians, and especially in the work that you have called us to.

354
00:39:58.680 --> 00:40:07.380
Lord, we pray that you’re faithful and no matter what job is before us at the moment, guide us into your truth.

355
00:40:07.380 --> 00:40:12.980
Help us, Father, as we struggle with obedience in these areas.

356
00:40:12.980 --> 00:40:16.360
Father, I thank you for the grace of Jesus Christ.

357
00:40:16.360 --> 00:40:24.740
Salvation is not based on any works that we do, but on the great work that Christ has already done for us.

358
00:40:24.740 --> 00:40:35.720
So it saves us from all sorts of sins that we can find in the workplace.

359
00:40:35.720 --> 00:40:44.260
Thank you, Father, for your work, for your grace, and for the good that you do and the good that you work through us.

360
00:40:44.260 --> 00:40:46.240
We praise you for it in Christ’s name.

361
00:40:46.240 --> 00:40:48.240
Amen.