Robert Jeffress - Like Father, Like Son?
Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress. Welcome again to "Pathway to Victory". As Christians, we're called to a higher standard of living, one that reflects the very nature of God himself. But how can imperfect people possibly imitate our perfect Creator? Today, we'll turn to Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 5. In this passage, we'll discover three ways to walk in the footsteps of our Heavenly Father. My message is titled, "Like Father, Like Son"? On today's edition of "Pathway to Victory".
No matter how hard we try, we can't keep from becoming like our parents. Have you noticed that? That's not altogether bad. I've told you about my dad before. He was a wonderful Christian. He had many positive qualities that I certainly have tried to emulate. He was a hard worker, he was an independent thinker, he never went with the flow. But he had some idiosyncrasies that my siblings and I noticed early on that we vowed we would never repeat. And yet, now as we look at each other, we laugh because we can see our dad in one another: the culinary habits, the particular likes and dislikes, the facial expressions. We have become like our dad.
In the passage we're gonna look at today, Paul tells us we need to become like our father. Not our earthly father, our Heavenly Father, and that's the theme of the message today, why we need to become like our father and how we do that. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1. Remember what Paul says here? He says, "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children". That Greek word, "Imitators," is "Mimeta" in Greek, "Mimetai". It's a word we get what? "Mimic" from. You know what it is to mimic. It's to try to duplicate somebody else's speech, their mannerisms, their appearance. A mimic of somebody who studies somebody else carefully in order to duplicate their actions and their voice.
And whenever I think of a mimic, I think about our good friend Dennis Swanberg, the comedian. He does impressions of other people. I first met Dennis 40 years ago when we were in a doctoral class together at the seminary. I don't remember one thing the professor said in the class because Dennis kept us laughing the whole time with his impersonations. I was the youth minister here at the time and we were getting ready to have a big banquet, so I asked Dennis if he would come over and be the entertainment. And I said, "I want you to do all your impersonations, except me," and I said, "And I'd like you to do Dr. Criswell, he's gonna be there".
Dennis had never done Dr. Criswell before and he said he really had only heard him a couple of times, and I said, "Well, I'll send you some cassette tapes". So I sent him just this huge package of cassette tapes, and Dennis listened and listened and listened, and imitated and practiced. Finally, came the night of the banquet and he did his Dr. Criswell impersonation. Dr. Criswell roared with laughter. I was so relieved but a little concerned when I suddenly got a call to Eastland, Texas to be the pastor there. I'm not sure if there is any relationship between that. But, you know, that's what a mimic does, he impersonates somebody else.
The Bible says we're to be imitators, mimics, of God. One commentator said it this way, "We are to repeat God's actions, we're to echo his speech, and we're to duplicate his behavior". How can we, finite human beings, duplicate God's behavior? How can we echo his words? How could we ever be like God? Isn't that what got satan thrown out of heaven, when he wanted to be like God? Well, when we talk about who God is, we talk about his attributes, and theologians separate his attributes, his characteristics, into two categories: the non communicable attributes, that is, what's unique about God that can't be duplicated. God is omniscient. No matter how hard I try, I cannot be all-knowing. God is omnipotent, I can't be all-powerful. God is omnipresent, he's everywhere at once. I can only be one place at once.
So there's certain things about God we could never duplicate. But then, there are his communicable attributes, things like justice and mercy and love. Those are the things we are to imitate. So you've got this general command, "Be imitators of God". And fortunately, God has given us, when we become a Christian, the spiritual genes we need to become like God. Those spiritual genes are called the Holy Spirit of God, Paul's gonna talk about him in chapter 5. But it's through the Holy Spirit's effort in our life and our effort combined that we can become imitators of God.
Now, Paul is gonna get real specific in this section. He said, "Here are three characteristics of God you're to seek to duplicate". In verse 2 he says we are to walk in love. Secondly, we are to walk, verse 8, in light. And finally, verse 15, we're to walk in wisdom. If you wanna be like God, walk in love, light, and wisdom. Now, let's look at that. First of all, the command to walk in love. Look at it in Ephesians, actually, begins in verse 32 of chapter 4. Remember, there were no chapter divisions in the original text. This is one long letter.
And so, this thought actually begins in chapter 4, verse 32, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ," underline that, "Just as God," "Just as God in Christ has also forgiven you. Therefore," and this is chapter 5, verse 1, "Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love," here it is again, "Just as Christ," underline that, "Has loved you and has given himself up for us, as an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma".
What I want you to see is, when Paul says we're to love one another, he's not talking about some syrupy emotion that's hard to define. He's talking about a very specific kind of love, a love that forgives. Forgiveness is the obligation of those who have been forgiven. Notice what he said in verse 2 of chapter 5, "Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, gave himself up for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma".
That's a reference to the Old Testament sacrifices. There was nothing fragrant about burning an animal. The smell was anything but fragrant, but to God it was fragrant because it resulted in forgiveness. In the same way, God did not delight in the death, the torture, the crucifixion of his own son, but he delighted in the result, and the result of Christ's death for us was the forgiveness of our sins. If you wanna be like God, then you walk in love. That means forgiving other people. But he also talks about a second way we imitate God, and that is by walking in light.
Look at verses 8 through 10, "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord". The Bible says God is light, he's pure, he's holy, he is righteous, and we are to imitate that in our life and not walk in darkness. Think about how much God loves light. Do you know what his first words recorded in scripture were? What is the first thing God said? "Let there be light". God is light.
John talks about that in 1 John 1, verses 5 through 7. "This is the message we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we do not practice the truth". Earlier, in chapter 4 of Ephesians, Paul talked to about people who were darkened in their understanding because of the foolishness that is within them because of the hardness of their hearts. He was talking about the way gentiles live in immorality and murder and covetousness. He said they do that because they've hardened their heart to the truth. But we're not to be like that. We're to be children of light.
Well, how do we pull that off? How do we walk in the light? Well, first of all, we have to understand what darkness is, and notice his description of walking in darkness in verses 3 to 4. He says, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not be named among you, as is proper among the saints: and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or course jesting, which are not fitting, but rather the giving of thanks". This is a list of dark deeds. It's not a complete list, but it had some that were especially meaningful to the Ephesians because of what was going on in the temple of Diana. He said, first of all, you put aside immorality.
The Greek word there is "Porneia," it is the word we get "Pornography" from. It's an umbrella term that, really, covers all sexual immorality. We're to put aside immorality. Then secondly, he says, put aside impurity. This word means uncleanness. It literally refers to the foul smell that comes from an open wound. Put that aside, that's darkness. Thirdly, he says put aside greed. We're to avoid greed. At first, that seems misplaced. We've been talking about sex. Why does he talk about money? Because greed and immorality come from the same base emotion, and that's covetousness. He says forth, put aside filthiness, that's darkness. This refers to obscene or shameless speech.
In fact, in verse 12 he's gonna say, "It's a disgraceful, even to speak of the things which are done in secret". Fifth, he says, avoid silly talk. You know, that word "Silly" literally means in Greek "Moronic". Talking like a moron, just silly talk. We're to avoid that. Finally, he said darkness includes coarse jesting. Now, it doesn't just say jesting. There's nothing wrong with being funny and enjoying a joke. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3:1 says there is a time for everything under heaven, including a time to laugh.
Proverbs 17:22 says a joyful heart is good. It's good, it's good medicine. But the word "Coarse" here literally means a well-turned wit, a well-turned word. Coarseness is turning something clean into something that's dirty. We call it in our culture, innuendo. Everything is dirty. Everything has a dirty connotation to it, double entendre. We think it is so clever for people to take something clean and pervert it. God doesn't think it's humorous at all. It's coarse. Just think of late night talk show host and how they'll take things and turn them into something dirty. In my day, it was Johnny Carson. He was a master comedian, but he also had a way of just turning things into something that was unclean.
Somebody said, "The distance between talking about immorality and committing immorality is a shorter distance than you can possibly imagine". Don't let these things become a part of your speech. Instead, be known for giving thanks. John r. Stott, the late pastor, said, "All of God's gifts, including sex, are subjects for thanksgiving rather than for joking. To joke about them is to degrade them. To thank God for them is a way to preserve their worth as a blessing of our Creator".
Now, that's a description of walking in darkness. Now Paul is gonna give a defense for walking in light instead. Why should we choose to walk in light, holiness, righteousness instead of darkness? Notice the two reasons Paul gives. First of all, he says, because we are recipients of God's light. Look at verse 6. "Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things," the immorality, the impurity, the uncleanness, "Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them: for you were formerly darkness," you used to operate in darkness, "But now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light". We're to walk in light because God has shown his light on us.
You know, while I was reading that this week, I thought about may and I, when we were dating in high school. We would go out on a date, or maybe to a movie, or to eat and then we would come back to Amy's house and we'd go into the living room and we'd be seated on the couch and would enjoy a little bit of fellowship together. You know what I'm talking about. Nothing immoral, just a little fellowship. A holy kiss or two.
But Amy's father, who, by the way, is still with us at age 96 and watching this broadcast right now, Amy's father had the most annoying habit. He had the ability to move around quietly like a cat burglar. You never knew where he was. You could never find him. And suddenly, we'd be enjoying our fellowship time when the lights would turn on, just about giving me a heart attack, and there he would be standing. "Just checking in, just checking in". Do you think turning on that light had any effect on my behavior? You better believe it did. Light is a motivation to do the right thing, and we need to remember the light is shining on us right now, whether we realize it or not.
I remember, thinking about being a teenager, we used to have these Bible teachers who would say, "Now, before you go out parking on Friday night, just ask yourself this question: what if Jesus were to come back and see what you were doing? What would he think about it"? Now, the only problem with that is, where is Jesus right now? Is he in heaven with blinders on and can't see anything? He's watching right now. It's not just some future day, he's watching, evaluating, and judging. The light is shining on us. Therefore, we ought to walk in the light. We're the recipients of God's light. But not only that, secondly, we are the reflectors of God's light. We're like the moon. The moon doesn't generate its own light. It reflects the light of the sun.
And so, we are to reflect, not block, we are to reflect the light that comes from God the Father, and that's what he's talking about in verse 11 through 13. "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them". We are God's floodlight to expose wickedness. Now, you know, sometimes non-Christians are repelled by that. Have you ever heard a non-Christian say, "I don't like hanging around Christians. They're so judgmental"? Or they may never say anything, but that unbeliever is convicted of the way he's living by the way that they live and obey God. And so, they're repelled from the light. But there are other unbelievers who are attracted to God by the way they see Christians walking in the light.
Albert Schweitzer had a great word about influence. He said, "Example is not the main thing in influencing people, it's the only thing". The way we reflect God is through our behavior by walking in the light, and that's why Jesus said in Matthew 5, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven". We are to walk in the light because we are recipients of the light and we are to be reflectors of God's light.
When I was a little boy, one thing I did with my dad was every week we would watch the Alfred Hitchcock show together. And each week it was an anthology, there was some new story, some creepy, eerie story. And in 1964, there was an episode called, "The final escape". It was about a woman who was convicted of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison and she was so angry, she yelled at the judge and said, "This is unfair, and I will find a way to get out of this prison". So she's taken to prison, and while she's there she befriends an old man who works in the prison. His job is to build the caskets for anyone who dies, and he needed cataract surgery, so she said, "I will give you the money if you'll help me escape from this prison".
And what the old man would do was, whenever somebody would die he would place their body in the newly made casket, wheel the casket outside the wall of the prison, and bury it in the cemetery. So she had this idea. She said, "The next time somebody dies, I'm gonna get into the casket, you'll wheel me out, bury me in the casket, and then the next day, when nobody's looking, come back and rescue me".
What could go wrong with that plan? So a couple of days later in the TV, show, the bell begins to toll, signaling a prisoner has died. And this woman gets out of bed makes her way down to the lower room where they make the caskets, it's dark. She climbs into the casket in complete darkness, pulls the lid the casket, pulls it down. She waits, and she can start to feel the wheels turning as the casket makes its way outside the prison and outside the gate. She can feel as it's lifted up and it's put into the ground. She can hear the clumps of dirt being thrown onto the casket. She smiles, her escape is complete. She waits and waits.
The next morning comes, nothing happens. The morning turns into another nighttime and she begins to panic. Something's wrong. She takes a match and she lights it, and sees that the corpse she's with is the body of the old man who made the caskets. And the last scene of the show is the camera tilting up from the cemetery to the sky as you hear the woman wailing uncontrollably, realizing she will be in that grave forever.
I told that story one time in a church service on Easter Sunday and a man wrote me the letter the next week, said, "That is the worst story I have ever heard. I am never coming back to church again". It is a creepy story, it's an eerie story, but I'll tell you something even more eerie. And that is, Christians who have been raised to a whole new way of living, to walk in the light, who voluntarily choose to climb back into that casket of sin, death, darkness, judgment, and live there forever. What a poor choice. That's why verse 14 closes with these words, "Arise, o sleeper," verse 14, "And arise from the dead, for Christ will shine on you".