Ephesians 2:1-10 Goodness

 

Today is Pentecost, the day that Jesus sent his Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of Jesus that keeps reminding us of who Jesus is, his life and teaching, and the hope that we have in belonging to Jesus. This all flows out of the kindness, the goodness of God. The word for goodness, agathos in Greek, includes the idea of generosity and doing what’s right. All these different aspects of the fruit of the Spirit are all interconnected and intertwined with each other.

Last week we saw kindness as being the opposite of meanness, goodness goes in a slightly different direction. Goodness is a deliberate choice of right over wrong and the constant fight against all moral evil while choosing and following all that is morally good. Goodness is an active choosing of Jesus’ way over our way or Satan’s way. This is why goodness is connected so closely to doing, it’s actively living out Jesus’ way in our lives as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” It’s all about pointing people to God through how we live, through the things we do. As Paul reminds us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We do good works, not save ourselves, but out of gratitude to God who is “making us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Jesus Christ, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness, or goodness, to us in Christ Jesus.” Paul doesn’t want us to think for even a second that anything we do saves us from our sin. It’s Jesus all the way. As Richard Carlson writes, “Our works have not saved us, but they are part of the goal God had in mind in saving us. Hence good works are not simply the by-products of our conversion but were pre-planned and pre-prepared by God.”

These good works show the change that the Holy Spirit makes in us through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. When God created humanity in his image, we were created good and very good. Sin changed that, this is why God sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to reverse the effects of sin in us and begin the process of making us good and very good once again. This is what we call sanctification. This is a life long process, which is why we’re reflecting on growing the fruit of the Spirit in us, no matter how old we are, because we all have growing to do.

Pete Armstrong talks about Barnabas, the only one willing to take a chance on the angry murderous Saul after Saul became a follower of Jesus, “We have all been around exciting people who are passionate about the wrong things. What did Barnabas encourage them towards? “He encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:23c). Perhaps this was his way of saying: Remember this day always. Remain true even when temptation comes. Remain true when the culture goes against you. Remain true when you are threatened with your life (a reality for the early church and for many believers around the world today). Barnabas had a beautiful way of encouraging them toward the truth of the Lord, who loves us with all His heart.” Phillip Yancy marvels at the love and grace of God, “God wants something more intimate than the closest relationship on earth, the lifetime bond between a man and a woman. What God wants is not a good performance, but my heart. I do “Good works” for my wife not in order to earn credit but to express my love for her. Likewise, God wants me to serve ‘In the way of the Spirit”: not out of compulsion but of desire.” Good works flow out of our love for God, but also out of our newfound love for our neighbours.

What are these good works that God has prepared for us to do? Is everything nice we do a good work? We can go to the GEMS for some insight from the Old Testament, Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Baking cookies for your neighbour, mowing their lawn, or shoveling their driveway after a snowstorm are good things. But maybe we need to go deeper into what the good works God has prepared for us to do are. Are there things in our community that are broken, systems that hurt rather than help? Are there gaps in our community that those who are poor, oppressed, in need of help and compassion fall through unseen and uncared for? The Bible has always been concerned for the entire community, not simply the wealthy and comfortable. God’s goodness is about righteousness and justice, about standing up against moral evil and actively engaging in building God’s shalom and kingdom in our community. Imagine investing your life in doing God’s good works with him!

We have some amazing people and organizations doing good works in our community right now: YU Turn and Stepping Stones, the Broomtree Foundation, the foodbank, along with government organizations such as FCSS and Neighbourlink. There are great needs in our community because of the economic climate in our province and COVID. Family breakdowns and abuse are up, drug and alcohol abuse are up, many more people are struggling with mental health. There are no shelters in Lacombe for those who are homeless, there is no emergency woman’s shelter in Lacombe, or a parent in crisis support group. Bethel is a church that loves doing, it is a church filled with loving servants, but perhaps we need to be more deliberate in how we serve, in the good works we’re engaged in.

Jesus challenges us when it comes to doing good in Luke 6:31–35, “Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

Doing good to people we don’t know, for those who we don’t care for, even those who have hurt us is the challenge of Jesus. It’s easy to take care of each other. To discover God’s good works for us takes listening to our community, watching what is or isn’t happening around us, getting to know the people of our community by serving in places like the Broomtree, YU Turn, FCSS, and other organizations in Lacombe that are working to make our city a better place to live. It takes spending time getting to know our neighbours, the clerks in the grocery stores, the other parents at the swimming pool or lake, talking to those serving in our local government about the needs they see and how they see we could bring more shalom, justice, and health into our community. These are the kinds of good works that cause others to wonder about the God we follow, this is how we can be part of how God changes lives and communities.

This kind of effort as a church and as individuals reveals how God’s goodness is shaping us, how the goodness of the fruit of the Spirit is growing in us and using us to lead others to Jesus. Us doing good works reveals God’s goodness. Paul writes to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, “We are gifted by God for good works. We are subjects of not only God's grace, love and mercy, but also of God's gifts. Sometimes we even say yes to God's yes, which is when the gospel is unleashed in our lives and challenges our self-reliance. This is when things get really exciting.” It’s good to live an exciting life partnering with God to transform lives and our city through God’s goodness and the good works he’s prepared for us to do.