Ephesians 6:5-9 Leading at Work Under the Lordship of Christ

 Okay, friends, if you have a Bible, if you please open with me to Ephesians chapter six.

Ephesians chapter six. You are welcome. If you'd like to use the notes in your bulletin as we look at God's word this morning, you remember that for many months now we've been going through the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians is a. Book that Paul writes, as I mentioned to the children in 80 62, it was a city that was in the shadow of the temple of Artemis, which was one of the seven wanders of the world.

It was a place where there was unbelievable influence of foreign gods in their midst, just like there is today in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ephesians, though it was written 2000 years ago, is not unlike the world in which we live today. As we come to this portion of Ephesians in chapter six, Paul has just explained to us the house table, the relationship that husbands have to wives relationships that children.

Have the parents and the relationships now that masters have to slaves, and as I said last week, about a third of the Roman world where people who were in indentured servitude, who were enslaved in some way because of either debt they owed and the slavery of ancient Rome was not like the chattel slavery of the pre Civil War era in the United States.

It was a different kind of slavery altogether. Evil, nevertheless. Evil indeed. And as we come to Ephesians chapter six, especially verse nine, you'll see the word masters, which is a hard word to say in contemporary America, but nevertheless, that is the word that he gives. The word in Greek is crio. It is lords.

And it was what the relationship was between slaves and those. Who were in authority over them. And so it's good for us to think about those in terms of boss and employee, people who are in some kind of vocational or economic power dynamic. And that puts us squarely in our workplaces where you spend most of your week.

And so as we stand together, if you're living and Abel, would you stand. We'll read Ephesians chapter six, verse nine, and I wanna speak specifically to those of you who are in authority over others in your place of employment. This is the word of God. Men and women have died to have it translated into English, and we take it for granted.

But please let the weight of how easy it is to hear God's word in your mother tongue, fall on you as the Holy Spirit speaks to you through his word.

Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him. The grass withers and the flowers say the God's word stands forever. And this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be stated, please, father, would you take your word, your holy word, your anar word.

Your inspired word. Your infallible word, and would you massage our hearts with it? Would you do soul surgery in our midst on the spot? Would you open our hearts to believe the gospel afresh for those who come with critiques with. Obstacles. Oh, father, which you show the beauty of your son to such a magnitude that those obstacles fall at the foot of the cross, which is completely level.

Boss or employee, mother and child, father and son. We stand level as sinners at the foot of your cross, desperate for your grace, and so would you work in our hearts. Now we ask. In Jesus name. Amen. Okay, because I'm talking to um, bosses, I'm just gonna cut to the chase and give you the executive summary.

This is how you like to operate, isn't it? Here's the point of the sermon, because all authority rests under Christ the impartial master in heaven. Believers who lead others must reflect his just humble and threat free character.

Point number one told you, this is the executive summary. We see the call you are to imitate employees. Sincerity. Look at the verse part of, uh, verse nine. This verse has really four sections. I'm gonna talk about it in terms of verse nine, A, BT and B. Verse nine. A Masters do the same to them. Literally in Greek it says Masters.

Likewise do the same. There's no reference in Greek, but we know that the nearest reference is the Deloy earlier in the passage there. That is the slaves. Do the same to them, in other words, all that I just asked the slaves to do to you up in verse uh, six and seven. Sorry. I know, I know. I can't help it.

Alright. Sorry. Don't ever happen again. Listen. But as bond service of Christ, I know I'm gonna get you back. Stay with me. Rendering service with goodwill as to the Lord and not to men. Alright. Listen, you render service heartily as unto the Lord. You, we've asked the, the servants, the slaves to submit themselves in every way with sincerity and honesty and transparency.

And so Paul says, and likewise do the same. So your call is to imitate your employees sincerity. And so today the application spills over into relationships that you, where you have a vocational or an economic relationship with someone else.

How many of you raise your hand, have people in your place of employment who report to you, they report to you. You are in a sense of boss over them. You're an authority over them in some way, shape, or form.

And so don't you know that the gospel doesn't just transform your heart, but because it transforms your heart, it affects everything you do. And the way that you lead your employees, the way that you lead your company, the way that you help your company sink about the nature of our fallen world, and you strive to meet the need of your company's intended purpose.

This passage calls managers, executives, business owners, anyone who manages to mirror the same authority that you expect in your employees to work heartily as unto the Lord. Duso with a, it says in verse five, with a sincere heart as you would Christ. Not by the way of I service or people pleasing, but as bond service, you indeed, as bosses, you are also service deloy of Christ.

Paul doesn't, he does not flatten the responsibilities of the organizational chart. He flattens the moral value of every person on that organizational chart. In other words, Paul doesn't ask for identical tasks, but he does ask for identical motives. At work, you are to work as unto the Lord not to please men when he requires of servants.

Now he expects and requires of masters of all those who are in command. And leadership. And leadership refined by the Holy Spirit is transformed by Grace. New Testament scholar Harold Hoener reminds us that all of this house table that we see beginning in verse 22 of chapter five is dependent. The imperatives of to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

You see that verse in chapter four, verse one. You see it again later in chapter five. Uh, verse one in every household relationship, husband and wife, child to parent, employee to boss, foster employee. This is called the EF fell in German. It's the house table in English. He rewrites the ethics of marriage in verses 22 through 23.

Then he rewrites the ethics of children for their parents in chapter six, one to three. Then he rewrites the ethics of Parenthood in in verse four, and then in verses five to eight, he rewrites the ethics for employees. And verse nine. You see that the spirit writes the ethics of leadership, and these commands in chapter six are showing us the dawn of a new humanity.

The way that we are to live as Christians, as a pilot project of the new humanity in a fallen world, a snapshot to the world of what a cruciform cross shaped people look like, who help us anticipate what it's gonna be like in the new heavens in the new earth. Just like the trusses say what began in the garden will one day end in the new heavens and the new earth where the lion will lay down with the lamb and we will work.

And enjoy the beauty of God's presence in a way that Adam was called to do before the fall. And you will still work in the new heavens and the new Earth. It's a city. So good news for Young Cal, we're gonna need engineers. Pastors are gonna be out of the job because we're gonna have Christ there. There will need, there'll be no need for those of you who are physicians, because Christ is a great physician, there'll be no sin and therefore no signs of sickness.

We will nevertheless still work because it is a beautiful thing and the way that you treat your employees today should be a snapshot of the way that we will without sin, enjoy all the joys of the new heavens and the new Earth just as Christ made you alive and you were dead in your sin. So your work, whether it's motherhood or manual labor or as a manager, is a participation in God's own recreation project, and so therefore leads at the same kind of sincerity that you expected of others.

Isn't it amazing that Jesus, the Lord of Lord, of King of Kings, the week that he knew he was going to die,

grab the towel and the upper room at his side. Other than the man that they serve him, he says, says in Mark 10, he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And Jesus takes a towel and a water basin, and he washes the disciple's feet. In John 13, Jesus says, in effect to his disciples, oh, you have a savior.

Yes, I'm the king of kings. I'm the Lord of Lords, but I'm a savior who stute. I'm a savior who serves and in fact, oh Christian. Until you recognize that it is Jesus who came to serve you in order to help fulfill what you could never fulfill in yourself. He did the work that you could not do perfect in every way as he was.

He lived the life he couldn't live, and he died of death that you should have died. Jesus fulfilled the law so you could stop trying so hard to fulfill it to please him, but he's already pleased with you if you believe in him. He has covered you with a righteousness that's not your own. Why do we wear robes in this church?

Get the picture of him covering us with his righteousness. It's not because we think we are robes are cool. It's a picture again for us to see in a thousand ways the way that he covers us from head to toe with his righteousness. So when the father looks at you, he doesn't see Blake in all of my mess and insecurities and liabilities and spend.

He sees the spotless lamb of his risen and ascended Lord glory. Hallelujah. Because Jesus did the work for me and for you. And the tragedy is that so many of you who lead in your place of employment, you lead in the same way that you try to live out your spirituality. That is you're always trying to do better because you're so fearful.

You're so fearful that the, your father in heaven is going to not provide for you. He's already provided his son for you. So many of you're so fearful because you think everything depends upon you. Did you not hear what Nathan said earlier in that first, uh, first question of the HaBO catechism. Not a hair can fall from your head.

Is that your solving father's? Isn't that good news?

We have a call. Our con, our call is to imitate our employees sincerity. Does your leadership at work reflect the servant hearted leadership of Jesus?

Do you treat those under you with equal respect, care and fairness? Are you odd and grateful for Jesus's servanthood toward you and eager to model it in the way you would lead or just to be very? Would you wanna work for someone like you?

Even secular companies have a sense of this. I have many, uh, I have several friends who after they were pastors for many, many years now, they serve on the staff of, uh, well-known companies, large companies, to help coach other executives on how to treat their employees. Why? Because the world hungers for.

And you've got it Trinity. Oh, Christians, do you believe it? So first, the call to imitate employees sincerity of heart point number two, six B, that the command you are to renounce your threats. Where do we get that from? The text. Well, it says, and stop your threatening Paul moves from the call. Do the same to the command renounce.

You are threatening honey case pain. A in Greek. It's a Greek part of civil honey case means to loosen or let go of it. It's present part of civil, which means it means to continue to loosen or let go of. This is not a one time deal. The grammar suggest that you are to continue to let your threats go.

Senator once famously said that fear is the death's guardian of servants. That was the MO of all the ancient realm. Fear was the motive to keep people in line. And here in the first century world, Paul takes that common idea and he turns it on his head. 'cause he says, as a Christian in the Christian community, fear no longer flows from those in authority down.

But fear should flow from those in authority upwards so that you should not use terror to motivate others. You should send your sense of fear, heaven word, and you should fear the Lord your God. It says in Leviticus 25 43 that you should not treat you those under you ruthlessly, that you should fear the Lord your God.

And so Paul pulls this Jewish idea from the heart of the Old Testament. So apply it to us today to say that our fear is not a downward trajectory, but now our fear is upward. We raise our eyes to heaven in awe ingrained, or of his holy presence. He reverses the direction of fear. And this doesn't undercut the accountability that Paul expects for us to demonstrate at work, but it does undercut the terror.

The means and methods by which we help lead others at work. Are you still with me? It is a great reversal. The employer and the employee now answer to the same heavenly master, and it makes tyranny at work as a Christian impossible, accountable, of course, but not by the fear of. And some of you are in jobs where, you know what this is like because your manager, unfortunately doesn't have very good skills and he uses intimidation and terror all the time to drive you.

But there's a different way in the gospel. Oh, those of you who lead companies, what an opportunity you have to use the beauty of the gospel and the way that you treat others. Uh, for example, um. Do you remember in Fellman when Paul writes to, uh, to Philman and he writes about Onesimus, who was a runaway slave?

And how does he treat, tell, uh, Fellman to treat Onesimus when he comes back into his home as family, not with terror, but with a familiar care.

What does obeying this command look like for you at work? You are there. I'm not. You need to tell me, but let me just offer a couple of suggestions. Maybe it's the end of manipulative speech or guilt based motivation for your employees. Maybe it's hiring coaches for employees who are on improvement plans much earlier before you prematurely make a decision about their future employment and don't give up on them.

Maybe it means that. You love them and encourage them in a way that you might encourage a brother or sister at Trinity. I don't know what it means for you because I'm not there, but you are.

We need to hear this because so much of our dominance at work grows out of our unbelief because we do not believe God's gonna provide for us, and we are trying so hard. To earn a name for ourselves. You've worked so hard to get to that rung of the ladder in your corporate world and your unbelief shows up in your craving For diamonds, you're always jocking for position and in undoubtedly, I have many friends who work for big firms, and there are steps you must take, and there are lots of long hours you must serve.

No doubt about it. Those are fuel for devotion and love and care of others around you. That means those of you who are at Tutu, that means that the jobs that you're preparing for one day, some of you're called to be pastors like me and praise God, and I can't wait to help you lean into your calling. But some of you're gonna be engineers, you're gonna be accountants, you're gonna be attorneys, you're physicians or doctors.

Listen, all that is still a ministry for you, and that ministry should be lived out as unto the Lord because you are commanded. Not just called, but you are committed to renounce threats in the way that you lead. The leader who knows Mercy Best

or Most leads the best. The leader who knows Mercy most leads the best, and Jesus doesn't need to receive mercy. But he knows Mercy most because he offers it to us. He gives us mercy. He does not give us what we deserve. In fact, he laid down his life for us so that we could take the gospel with us.

There's a call, there's a command, and thirdly, there is a conviction. He says in the next part of the verse, in verse nine C, knowing that he who is both their master and yours in heaven. Another perfect part of temple knowing it's a settled conviction. You know that Jesus is there in your curiosity, your Lord and your master.

The one who has blessed you and predestined you, adopted you, is a master of all masters. And the reality that crisis in heaven means that the world already has the rightful administrator. And his new creation is breaking into the world, and he's using believers in all their areas of industry to be his hands and feet.

To extend his kingdom. Yes, his kingdom. Even in to the world of your industry in which you spend so many hours of your week, do you do your tasks at work anticipating this new creation? You consciously work under the days of your master in heaven who loves you and died for you. Do you believe that his reward surpasses anything a successful company might offer you?

Does your leadership convey an awareness that you have a borrowed authority, or do you act like you are the ultimate owner?

How does gratitude for crisis adoption reshape the way that you treat those? Around you. Listen, sometimes the most practical efforts of the gospel are most important in the most intimate areas of your life. And there's nothing more intimate than you, than your work. You feel threatened whenever it becomes, um, tenuous.

You wanna provide for your family, which is a beautiful good and right. How many of us sometimes forget the gospel at work? And this is a challenge, quite frankly, also for pastors because it is real easy. It is easy for the church to be more concerned with noses and nickels than your discipleship. And this church wants to continue to plant.

We're constantly sending people away. It's like the upside down nature of the kingdom. It would be very easy, wouldn't it, for us to say, please come. Keep coming, keep coming, and we can, you know, do the dog and pony show. We can do things that attract you. But whoa, how shallow it would be if your dependence on the gospel became paper thin and, well, I don't know.

Size that this church is going to be. I don't even really ask those questions necessarily. What our elders, what I'm trying to really help build into us is a kind of culture that keeps Christ in the very center. So one of the practical ways it manifests itself on our staff is I'm growing as a boss right now and working on very clear responsibilities for everybody that reports to me on staff.

So those responsibilities can be very clear so that we understand that we are called to do things with excellence, and we are held accountable for doing those things. That is a gospel thing as well. But there are nine values of our staff, and you're welcome to take these and run with them if you want to.

You can plagiarize all nine of 'em. But here they are for us. We want you for us to do excellent work. Why? Because you're called. We want you to abide in Christ. You are his. We want you to take initiative. You have permission. You don't have to ask me. We want you to build trust because you're part of a team.

We want you to fail up because you're accepted. We want you to laugh at yourself because you are secure and we want to celebrate wins because we are part of something big. And so we wanna direct our days even as staff of this church towards a much bigger recreation project than just trying to plant churches or trying to operate a church in Alto or Tulsa, Oklahoma Metro in 2025.

And so also at work, you're so, you're part of something so much bigger. We

work and lead and serve under the smiling gaze of our true master in heaven. Okay. A call. A command, a conviction, or a motive. And finally, God's own character. Character, we are to reflect God's impartial justice. A call imitate employee sincerity, a correction without threats, a conviction. Remember, your true authority and character reflect God's impartial justice, the very end of the verse, and that there is no partiality.

You should know it. In Greek know it. There's no,

he ends his house table where he begins with God's attributes and character. God is the Lord of all. He shows no favoritism. The Greek word is a funny word to say, pro to Paul Limpia, which means the receiving of faces. It's a picture of a courtroom where the verdict attends, not a reputation or on rank.

Paul shatters the image that there would be any favoritism. There is none of that. With the Lord who shows no partiality or favoritism. What's the proof of that? Even his own self. In fact, he shows favor to you now through Christ because he took out his wrath upon his son. That should equip us, therefore, to show no partiality to those at work.

I have a high school friend, his name is George, and his father was a police officer. And one day George came into football practice in the locker room and he goes, you'll never guess what happened. I got pulled over on the way to practice and he got pulled over and immediately when he saw the date of the police officer walking toward his car, he.

And he thought, well, this is gonna be quick and easy, but you know what his father did? He gave him a ticket. He said, you were speeding. Here's your ticket. And then so he switched roles and he said, son, I'll see you when you get home and you get to tell your mother. God shows up partiality. He treats you.

Completely equal if you're the boss or the employee. Listen, he doesn't flatten responsibilities, but he does flatten moral values on the organizational chart so that everybody is treated with the same dignity and respect, whether you are the bottom or the top of that organizational chart, because he shows no partiality, because he demonstrated all, all the favor towards you.

He removed from his very own son when he put him on the cross for sinners like you and like me. That truth is not just something to be believed in. It is a way to paint an entirely different worldview of the way you understand the world, from the heart of raising your children to the way that you treat your employees at work.

That's what this house table in Ephesians 5 22 through six nine is four. Paul is saying that Jesus, the one who called you, adopted you. Ephesians chapter one, who has lavished you with grace upon grace. He has rescued you from your trespasses and sins. This is Ephesians chapter. Two. And he has called you to live into all of those things he has done for you.

Ephesians chapter three, and you are to walk in light of that Good news. Ephesians four, five, and six.

God shows David after Samuel looked at iab, one of the sons of Jesse. He says, no. Um, Samuel, don't choose based upon appearances. Don't look upon der stature. He says in one Samuel 16, the Lord does not see his man sees. The man looks at the outward appearance that the Lord lives on the heart. When Jehosaphat reformed the laws that worship his Israel, he appointed judges in the land and all the fortified cities of Judah city by city, and he says his Chronicles 19.

Consider what you do for you, judge, not for man, but for the Lord. Fear the Lord. And may the fear the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, but there is no injustice with the our God or partiality. David Tophat, listen, you stand on the shoulders of giants who have gone before you to begin to apply the truth of God's word to his people in your calling at Word.

So may the impartiality that God gives us provide for us three freedoms. The first is a freedom from comparison because you are already accepted. The second is freedom for manipulation, is you serve a just master who will judge what you do in the body, whether good or evil. And third, there's a freedom from despair because your labor is always.

Even the sacrifices you make, nobody else is Savior, sees them.

So maybe trade our subordinates and co-laborers and mission not as instruments for our resume. Maybe audit the systems of our own company for hidden favoritism, gender or race or personality or access. Maybe trade the privileges of. And you spend time not committing from above, but more time collaborating from the side.

And is there someone at work that you need to encourage or apologize to this week?

How does your tone or the timing display fairness, the way you talk to your employees? And do you rejoice that Christ, Christ examines not your rank? He loves you too much.

So to close, what makes a workplace subversively Christian is not the Bible on the table or the verses on the wall. It is when bosses dismantle the myth that status on staff measures worth or significance all begins with a call and six a do the same for them. You're to imitate employee sincerity and it goes to a command.

You are to renounce threat. And then he convicts us that we are to remember our true authority in Jesus, and he displays for us the beauty of fathers

we're to reflect God's impartial. So may your workplace become an outpost even and restored a preview of the new creation. And may your and my impartial Lord whose justice is cured, whose mercy is lavish, equip us to shepherd all who report to us as we report together with them to our faithful Lord and his servants in holy obedience and hallelujah.

Father, would you help us to hear your. Call and your command, the conviction of a new motive at work and to see your character. Would you help us Lord to live out the gospel at work in the way that we extend the beauties of the new heavens and new earth, even in the workplace? Thank you. Father. You have equipped us to new methods we don't need to threaten.

Help us to equip. You are not partial to help us to rejoice in your justice, to help those who report to others, maybe even in this very room, to see that titles do not give us significance and work

your work in our lives. And would you help us to lead organizations and s. To lead our people to do excellent work as unto your glory to us, the Lord, not to your name. We give the glory Father.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.