WEBVTT 00:00:02.625 --> 00:00:09.746 We are beginning this morning a brand new series about the book of Ephesians, and it is called In Christ. 00:00:09.746 --> 00:00:20.952 In Christ is the name of the series, and to study Paul's letter to the Ephesian church is to understand the very foundation of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:00:20.952 --> 00:00:38.737 Before Paul speaks to these early believers about some really important things about what they should be doing as followers of Jesus Christ, he focuses in on something that's a priority, and that is that they need to understand who they are in Jesus Christ. 00:00:38.737 --> 00:00:48.024 The work that Jesus has already done for them, who we are and what we have been given through Christ's work, has already done for them who we are and what we have been given. 00:00:48.024 --> 00:00:56.950 Through Christ's work, rooted and grounded in the love and provision of the gospel, we are enabled to live right and empowered to stand against our enemy and advancing God's kingdom. 00:00:57.530 --> 00:01:15.486 Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a practical person, I'm a pragmatic person, and so for me, when I think of the book of Ephesians, I think about such things as the church and how the church should function properly and how believers in Jesus Christ come into maturity because of the five-fold ministry that God's put into the church. 00:01:15.486 --> 00:01:25.129 I think about marriage and the importance and priority of marriage and how husbands are supposed to love their wives and wives are supposed to respect their husbands. 00:01:25.129 --> 00:01:30.409 And I think about children obeying their parents in the Lord and honoring their father and mother. 00:01:30.409 --> 00:01:39.989 And then I think about, also, spiritual warfare and the understanding that we have through the armor of God, how we can stand in the evil day. 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:42.927 How many of you think when you think of Ephesians? 00:01:42.927 --> 00:01:46.263 You think about some of those things and are they important? 00:01:46.263 --> 00:01:48.290 Are they important? 00:01:48.290 --> 00:02:01.867 Yes, they're absolutely important and we're going to get to them, but we're going to get to them next year, okay, so what we're going to do first is we're going to look at the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:04.367 We're breaking this series into two parts. 00:02:04.367 --> 00:02:11.614 In other words, the first part is in Christ identity and the second part is in Christ purpose. 00:02:11.614 --> 00:02:19.181 So we'll be looking for the rest of this year, up until our Christmas series, at what it means to be in Christ. 00:02:19.181 --> 00:02:46.325 We will be encouraged by the book of Ephesians to fully embrace our true identity in God's eyes, not just what we are to do as followers of Jesus Christ, but who we are as sons and daughters of God, we must understand who we are in order to do what we need to do, with the right motivation, the right heart, the right empowerment, the right spirit and all of those things. 00:02:46.325 --> 00:03:11.276 And how many of you know that Satan is all too clever and all too ready to try to twist our thinking concerning our identity so that we don't understand fully who we are in Christ, so that when we do stand, when he stands against us and we must resist him and all of the things that we understand that we need to do as followers of Jesus Christ, we end up failing in those regards? 00:03:11.276 --> 00:03:17.480 We end up doing the things that we're doing in order to earn something that's already been given to us. 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:24.693 How many of you realize that becoming children of God means that you already are? 00:03:24.693 --> 00:03:29.907 Realize that becoming children of God means that you already are heirs of everything that God has provided? 00:03:29.907 --> 00:03:30.610 You don't have to earn it. 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:35.805 You don't have to be good enough, you don't have to pray enough, read enough, go to church enough. 00:03:35.805 --> 00:03:39.381 All of those things are important and we should do those things. 00:03:39.381 --> 00:03:43.887 They're part of a healthy relationship between us and our father. 00:03:43.887 --> 00:03:50.675 But I'm here to tell you that we are those things, because God has made us those things. 00:03:50.675 --> 00:04:02.152 We are his children, we are his people, we are the sheep of his pasture, we are the ones that he has chosen and called to be his. 00:04:02.152 --> 00:04:12.675 And I'm excited and I hope that you are about the venture of jumping into the book of Ephesians, and especially the first half over the next few months. 00:04:13.117 --> 00:04:18.137 And we've often broken books of the Bible up and taught them from a concept standpoint. 00:04:18.137 --> 00:04:23.288 In other words, we've taught concept, and you know concepts instead of precepts. 00:04:23.288 --> 00:04:25.761 What's the difference between a concept and a precept? 00:04:25.761 --> 00:04:28.927 A concept is a general idea about something. 00:04:28.927 --> 00:04:36.932 A precept is where you dig down deep and you really dig down and find out what's behind it, what is the importance of it. 00:04:36.932 --> 00:04:40.949 And so we're going to do the book of Ephesians precept by precept. 00:04:40.949 --> 00:04:44.786 So think of the difference between a telescope and a microscope. 00:04:44.786 --> 00:04:46.872 Telescopes are good. 00:04:46.872 --> 00:04:54.507 They help us see a lot of things that we couldn't see otherwise, but sometimes we need a microscope, and that's what we're going to be doing in the book of Ephesians. 00:04:54.548 --> 00:05:09.074 So my prayer for you and for all of us as a church is that we embrace this season and allow the Lord to speak clearly to us what it is that he wants us to understand from the masterful, powerful, beautiful book of Ephesians. 00:05:09.074 --> 00:05:25.550 I've often thought that if you only had a copy of the book of Romans and Ephesians, that you could pretty much understand who Jesus is, what salvation is about and what it looks like to be in him and to fulfill the purpose of God in your life. 00:05:25.550 --> 00:05:27.824 Now we're thankful for the rest of the Bible. 00:05:27.824 --> 00:05:28.966 We need all of it, don't we? 00:05:28.966 --> 00:05:34.889 But I want you to know that's how important I believe Ephesians truly is. 00:05:34.889 --> 00:05:36.291 So we're going to get started this morning. 00:05:36.291 --> 00:05:43.764 This is just an intro in Christ, intro is what it's called, and we're going to look at Ephesians, chapter one, verses one and two. 00:05:46.170 --> 00:05:54.694 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. 00:05:54.694 --> 00:06:02.271 Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:06:02.271 --> 00:06:03.273 Let's pray. 00:06:03.273 --> 00:06:09.507 Father, we thank you that the words that are found in the book of Ephesians are true. 00:06:09.507 --> 00:06:22.310 And, lord, we confess to you, and I confess in particular, that I do not wholly understand or apply the precepts and the principles that are found in this scripture. 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:27.291 And mostly, lord, god, I confess that my identity in you. 00:06:27.291 --> 00:06:37.805 At times, in my mindset at least, it wavers, and I consider my identity based upon my performance more than I ought to. 00:06:37.805 --> 00:06:49.802 And so, father, I pray that you help all of us to more clearly understand the beautiful riches that are found in Jesus Christ and in his great gospel. 00:06:49.802 --> 00:07:02.000 We thank you that you used Paul, your servant, to write these words by the unction of the Holy Spirit, and we ask that you'd help us to give them the effort and the reverence that they deserve. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.286 Change our minds and our hearts. 00:07:04.286 --> 00:07:07.312 We pray in Jesus' name, amen. 00:07:08.641 --> 00:07:18.410 So if I were to ask you this morning to describe your faith or your relationship with Jesus, or what it means for you to be born again, what would most of us answer? 00:07:18.410 --> 00:07:19.291 Do you think? 00:07:19.291 --> 00:07:21.146 Let's think about that for a minute. 00:07:21.146 --> 00:07:22.625 How would you answer that question? 00:07:22.625 --> 00:07:25.584 What does it mean for you to be born again? 00:07:25.584 --> 00:07:31.382 And I think most of us would probably rightfully answer that Jesus has come into my life. 00:07:31.382 --> 00:07:42.009 Jesus has come into my heart, right, that Jesus has moved in and that he's begun to transform me by his power, the power that only he has, right. 00:07:42.009 --> 00:07:45.504 Would you agree that that's an appropriate answer? 00:07:45.504 --> 00:07:46.641 That's a good definition. 00:07:46.641 --> 00:07:51.110 That's a good description of what it means to be born again, absolutely. 00:07:51.110 --> 00:07:52.802 By the way, I'll tell you. 00:07:52.802 --> 00:07:55.548 If it's a trick question, all right, you can just. 00:07:55.548 --> 00:07:56.951 You can just take that to the bank. 00:07:56.951 --> 00:07:58.322 I'll let you know ahead of time. 00:07:58.322 --> 00:08:00.970 That's not a trick question, it's absolutely true. 00:08:01.391 --> 00:08:08.541 And this reality, or this, theologically, is called Christ in us, christ in us. 00:08:08.541 --> 00:08:14.901 If you think about it in nautical terms, think about a boat and the engine that propels that boat. 00:08:14.901 --> 00:08:29.053 This is what it's like to have Christ on the inside of us, the spirit of God moving in us to transform us and to empower us, to make us more like Jesus. 00:08:29.053 --> 00:08:33.111 And how many of you know that God does this by the work of the Holy Spirit? 00:08:33.111 --> 00:08:45.337 The Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us, and if you wonder how important this particular doctrine is, all you have to do is read the book of John and you see Jesus as he's about ready to leave this planet. 00:08:45.337 --> 00:08:48.004 He's about ready to go and be crucified on the cross. 00:08:48.004 --> 00:08:50.389 And what does he say to his disciples? 00:08:50.389 --> 00:08:53.523 It's better for you that I leave. 00:08:53.523 --> 00:08:55.105 Now. 00:08:55.105 --> 00:09:03.447 How many of you, if you were in that meeting, would have shook your head and said nope, jesus, it's not better for us that you leave. 00:09:03.447 --> 00:09:06.072 But he said it's better for you that I leave. 00:09:06.072 --> 00:09:06.474 Why? 00:09:06.474 --> 00:09:19.671 So that I can send to you another helper, another comforter, another one who will not only dwell with you, but he will live in you. 00:09:19.671 --> 00:09:21.384 He will live in you. 00:09:21.384 --> 00:09:24.509 This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:09:26.379 --> 00:09:29.966 The writers of the epistles echoed these words over and over and over again. 00:09:29.966 --> 00:09:34.554 How about this one Christ in us, the hope of glory? 00:09:34.554 --> 00:09:40.707 But I want you to know that this is only one side of the gospel coin. 00:09:40.707 --> 00:09:44.484 This is one side of understanding salvation. 00:09:44.484 --> 00:09:47.392 This is one side that's extremely important. 00:09:47.392 --> 00:09:49.222 Don't do away with it. 00:09:49.222 --> 00:09:52.149 Embrace it more than you've ever embraced it before. 00:09:52.149 --> 00:10:05.272 But I also want you to know that there's another side to this coin that we need to understand, and the early church understood these two components working together, hand in hand and side by side. 00:10:05.272 --> 00:10:07.902 They called it union with Christ. 00:10:07.902 --> 00:10:09.788 Union with Christ. 00:10:09.788 --> 00:10:11.134 Have you ever heard of that terminology? 00:10:11.134 --> 00:10:22.405 It was something in the early church that was spoken about a lot, and it had to do with these two elements, the first one being Christ in us and the second one being what? 00:10:22.405 --> 00:10:26.390 The fact that we are in Christ. 00:10:26.390 --> 00:10:32.403 Christ is in us, empowering us and transforming us. 00:10:32.403 --> 00:10:35.389 But we are also in Christ. 00:10:35.389 --> 00:10:37.013 And what does it mean to be in Christ? 00:10:37.013 --> 00:10:48.335 It means that Christ truly represents us, that Christ is our representative, that he is to us all things that we need. 00:10:48.335 --> 00:10:50.967 And what does it mean that he is our representative? 00:10:50.967 --> 00:10:58.607 It means that, through amazing grace, every victory that he has ever won is also our victory to enjoy. 00:11:00.171 --> 00:11:02.355 I was watching the US Open yesterday. 00:11:02.355 --> 00:11:04.267 Anybody like tennis there's like five of you, I'm sure. 00:11:04.267 --> 00:11:05.113 Yeah, I was watching the US Open yesterday. 00:11:05.113 --> 00:11:05.534 Anybody like tennis? 00:11:05.534 --> 00:11:06.220 There's like five of you, I'm sure. 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:26.801 Yeah, I was watching the US Open and at the end the lady was interviewing the winners the winner and the second winner Some would call loser right and as she was interviewing them, she wanted to move on before they had a chance to thank all of the people around them that helped them to get to this point. 00:11:26.801 --> 00:11:31.980 Right, and so each of them interrupted the interviewer and said wait a minute, wait a minute. 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:39.248 I need to thank my coach, I need to thank my family, I need to thank my friends, I need to thank my boyfriend all of these different things. 00:11:39.248 --> 00:11:53.202 And it was like it was if those tennis players who had done the work themselves on the court were saying to those that were in the crowd, that were supportive of them we did this together, this was done together. 00:11:53.243 --> 00:11:58.822 In other words, what I'm benefiting from, I want you to benefit from as well. 00:11:58.822 --> 00:12:01.225 And how many of you know? 00:12:01.225 --> 00:12:05.975 If you don't know it, I hope that you begin to grasp it and understand it more than you ever have before. 00:12:05.975 --> 00:12:16.267 Every victory that Jesus Christ has fought for and has won, he wants us to enjoy with him as well. 00:12:16.267 --> 00:12:30.241 And that, my friends, is the second half of the good news that we need to embrace and walk in, the good news that we need to embrace and walk in. 00:12:30.263 --> 00:12:32.427 Returning to our nautical motif, this truth serves like an anchor in our lives. 00:12:32.427 --> 00:12:39.625 So if Christ in us is like the engine to our boat, we being in Christ is like an anchor to us. 00:12:39.625 --> 00:12:46.159 It keeps us, it has a steadying nature, it gives us a new identity that we've been given in Christ. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:51.711 If we are united to Christ, then we are united to him in all that he has done. 00:12:51.711 --> 00:13:06.971 For example, we have been crucified with him, we have been buried with him, we have been raised to life again with him, we have been what Seated in heavenly places with him. 00:13:09.114 --> 00:13:11.703 You should be a little more excited than you are, but I'm going to give you time. 00:13:11.703 --> 00:13:13.769 This is simply an intro. 00:13:13.769 --> 00:13:20.586 By next week you're going to be shouting hallelujah Okay, we have. 00:13:20.586 --> 00:13:20.947 This is. 00:13:20.947 --> 00:13:23.009 This is not fiction. 00:13:23.009 --> 00:13:30.636 This is real for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, who truly have been born again. 00:13:30.636 --> 00:13:34.812 Christ is in us and we are in Christ. 00:13:34.812 --> 00:13:37.950 We are seated with him in heavenly places. 00:13:37.950 --> 00:13:43.389 Think about it like this how many of you decided when you were born that you were going to be a sinner? 00:13:43.389 --> 00:13:48.302 Now, how many of you followed through with that protocol? 00:13:48.302 --> 00:13:59.139 Some of you wouldn't raise your hand if I was offering you a 20 bill, but that's okay, I see that hand, yeah. 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:04.576 So see lots of hands going up, but anyway, yeah, this is. 00:14:04.576 --> 00:14:05.057 This is so true. 00:14:05.057 --> 00:14:07.019 This is so true, this is so real. 00:14:07.019 --> 00:14:10.884 We must embrace this more than ever before. 00:14:11.205 --> 00:14:16.922 So in Adam, how many of you know that, because of Adam's sin, adam and Eve sin in the garden? 00:14:16.922 --> 00:14:27.864 Everyone born after that, except for Jesus, was born not sick, not sort of bad, was born dead. 00:14:27.864 --> 00:14:33.010 In our sins and trespasses, we could not make ourselves alive again. 00:14:33.010 --> 00:14:34.596 We couldn't do enough. 00:14:34.596 --> 00:14:37.083 We couldn't, you know, act enough. 00:14:37.083 --> 00:14:42.774 We couldn't try to change enough, there was nothing that we could do to save ourselves. 00:14:42.774 --> 00:14:56.261 And aren't you glad that God, in his great love, sent, demonstrated his love by this, by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. 00:14:56.261 --> 00:15:19.399 And so, just as we were represented by Adam, and just as none of us chose to sin, but we were all sinners, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God In Christ, everything that is a part of him and everything that is a part of the inheritance that he receives as a perfect son of God, is also available to each and every one of us. 00:15:19.399 --> 00:15:22.275 That's good news. 00:15:22.275 --> 00:15:25.038 We are no longer children of Adam. 00:15:25.038 --> 00:15:34.477 We are children of a new Adam, and because of the new Adam, we have a new identity, and this is truly good news. 00:15:34.477 --> 00:15:43.357 So in our passage today, we begin the process of approaching the deep riches of this in Christ reality. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.182 Paul is probably writing a circular letter. 00:15:46.182 --> 00:15:47.331 And what is a circular letter? 00:15:47.331 --> 00:15:52.783 It's a letter that was meant to be circulated around the existing churches in Asia Minor. 00:15:52.783 --> 00:15:57.942 So probably the word Ephesus just place it in brackets, if you think about it. 00:15:57.942 --> 00:16:00.316 So, the church in Ephesus. 00:16:00.316 --> 00:16:08.697 It was definitely written to them, but it was meant to be circulated probably around all of the other churches in the region Thessalonica, and I could name all of the other. 00:16:08.697 --> 00:16:11.698 You know Colossi and all of the different churches. 00:16:11.698 --> 00:16:14.798 It was probably intended to be circulated around them as well. 00:16:14.798 --> 00:16:15.461 It's important. 00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:19.179 He starts out with a similar literary structure to most. 00:16:19.179 --> 00:16:22.019 How many of you ever learned how to write a formal letter? 00:16:22.019 --> 00:16:30.642 How many of you ever took typing class and learned how to type a formal letter on a typewriter With no erase key? 00:16:30.642 --> 00:16:41.274 Okay, yeah, those were good times, weren't they? 00:16:41.274 --> 00:16:45.619 Don't you miss the 1900s At times, at times, yeah, but anyway, I digress. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:57.774 So Paul sort of writes, in some ways, a little bit of a formal letter, even though it's written in a very conversational way, in a way that is relational, very relational. 00:16:57.774 --> 00:17:00.621 You can see his heart as he writes this letter to the people. 00:17:00.621 --> 00:17:05.082 But he, basically he has three different things that he introduces this letter with. 00:17:05.082 --> 00:17:14.911 He identifies himself, he names the prospective recipients, those who are going to receive the letter, and he adds some kind of meaningful expression of greeting. 00:17:14.911 --> 00:17:16.955 So let's get into this introduction this morning. 00:17:17.857 --> 00:17:21.311 The first thing he does is he speaks of his identity. 00:17:21.311 --> 00:17:26.098 It says Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. 00:17:26.098 --> 00:17:29.805 So how many of you know that Paul was not always Paul. 00:17:29.805 --> 00:17:32.253 What was his name before Paul? 00:17:32.253 --> 00:17:34.980 Saul, saul of Tarsus. 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:43.279 And Saul was not an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he was called by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:50.936 And, by the way, the reason why that's significant, that it says of Christ Jesus, is because this is like a capital, a apostle. 00:17:50.936 --> 00:18:04.419 When we read later in Ephesians 4 next year, we'll read about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and those are functions that are given to different people within the body of Christ in order to help the body of Christ mature. 00:18:04.419 --> 00:18:18.473 But there are the original apostles who were the ones that walked and talked with Jesus on the earth for three years, and also those who spoke to him directly, that he called into the ministry himself. 00:18:18.473 --> 00:18:23.042 And Saul, who became Paul, was one of those candidates. 00:18:23.042 --> 00:18:25.032 And can you remember when that occurred? 00:18:25.032 --> 00:18:30.643 Let's read it quickly together Acts, chapter nine. 00:18:33.910 --> 00:18:34.551 Now, he went on his way. 00:18:34.551 --> 00:18:44.798 He approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and, falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him Saul, saul, why are you persecuting me? 00:18:44.798 --> 00:18:47.152 And he said who are you? 00:18:47.152 --> 00:18:52.638 Lord, notice, use that word Lord, pretty important. 00:18:52.638 --> 00:18:56.163 He realized something big was happening here and I need to get this right. 00:18:56.163 --> 00:18:58.105 Who are you, lord? 00:18:58.105 --> 00:19:09.082 And he said I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. 00:19:09.082 --> 00:19:17.733 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless yeah, I would have too. 00:19:17.733 --> 00:19:18.516 Hearing the voice, but seeing no one. 00:19:18.516 --> 00:19:22.371 Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were open, he saw nothing. 00:19:22.371 --> 00:19:31.814 So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. 00:19:32.575 --> 00:19:43.086 So here's our example of Jesus himself calling Saul, saving Saul, appearing to Saul, speaking to Saul and calling him into the ministry. 00:19:43.086 --> 00:19:51.955 We know it was by the will of God because if you go on with this passage and read further, it says now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. 00:19:51.955 --> 00:19:54.741 The Lord said to him in a vision, ananias. 00:19:54.741 --> 00:19:56.172 And he said here I am Lord. 00:19:56.172 --> 00:20:07.054 And the Lord said to him rise and go to the street called straight, straight street, it's a good name and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. 00:20:07.054 --> 00:20:17.059 For behold, he is praying and he has seen in a vision and man named Ananias in Jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. 00:20:17.059 --> 00:20:30.751 Don't you love Ananias? 00:20:32.776 --> 00:20:41.381 Ananias wasn't fake, he wasn't pretending he was very real and he did not mind being honest with the Lord about his concerns. 00:20:41.381 --> 00:20:57.509 He said I've heard of this man, saul, and I happen to know that he's carrying papers that tell him that he has permission by the high priest of Jerusalem to bother, arrest, murder those who are your servants. 00:20:57.509 --> 00:20:59.672 Lord, like myself. 00:20:59.672 --> 00:21:03.656 Don't tell me you do anything different. 00:21:03.656 --> 00:21:08.603 None of us would have jumped up at the first request and said yes, lord, here I am. 00:21:08.603 --> 00:21:11.625 Let's be real. 00:21:11.625 --> 00:21:14.736 Aren't you glad that Jesus is the perfect one? 00:21:14.736 --> 00:21:18.123 And it's his perfection that saves us, not our own? 00:21:18.123 --> 00:21:31.051 The Lord said to him go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. 00:21:31.051 --> 00:21:34.980 And Ananias jumped up and said yes, I'll do it. 00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:36.852 I'll tell him about the suffering that he'd known. 00:21:36.852 --> 00:22:03.733 So it was the will of God that Paul was called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and under that authority not his own authority, but under the authority of the name of Jesus and the authorization of the call of God on his life, he writes to these millions well, we don't know the numbers, but a lot of Christians, and how many of you know. 00:22:03.733 --> 00:22:15.285 We're reading it today and even though it was written to certain people in a certain time in history, what's written in it applies to us today, because we are all one in Christ Jesus. 00:22:15.285 --> 00:22:21.260 So that's who it was, that's who the identity was and who were the recipients. 00:22:21.260 --> 00:22:30.739 To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, to the saints Was this letter intended to be sent to New Orleans? 00:22:34.531 --> 00:22:45.722 I thought about that beforehand and I thought there's a small chance that that might come off as a funny joke, but I tried it anyway and I hear Neil's voice in my head saying stay in your lane. 00:22:45.722 --> 00:22:48.199 So we're going to move on. 00:22:48.199 --> 00:22:51.776 We're going to move ahead, anyway. 00:22:51.776 --> 00:22:55.923 But can you imagine he's calling these people saints? 00:22:55.923 --> 00:23:04.411 Most of the time when we think of saints, they're called saints posthumously, after they've passed away. 00:23:04.411 --> 00:23:07.036 Right, and they're called saints because of what? 00:23:07.036 --> 00:23:11.691 Because of what they have done? 00:23:11.691 --> 00:23:15.217 Is what they have done important? 00:23:15.217 --> 00:23:18.784 But is that what God's talking about here? 00:23:18.784 --> 00:23:20.375 Is that what Paul's writing about here. 00:23:20.375 --> 00:23:22.084 Are those the people that he's talking to? 00:23:22.084 --> 00:23:26.797 Is that the qualification that he's using here, or is he using a different one? 00:23:26.797 --> 00:23:29.809 You're learning, you're working with me on this. 00:23:29.809 --> 00:23:31.354 You're catching the drift right. 00:23:31.354 --> 00:23:43.233 He's not talking about them being saints because of an accomplishment or because they've been tremendously religious or because they're saying the right things all the time or doing the right things all the time. 00:23:43.233 --> 00:23:48.323 He's calling them saints because God in Christ Jesus, has made them holy. 00:23:58.109 --> 00:23:59.772 To be a saint is to be set apart for holiness, separated for God from the world. 00:23:59.772 --> 00:24:03.117 It's a name which is applied in the New Testament to born again believers. 00:24:03.117 --> 00:24:09.151 We are all saints in Christ Jesus, aren't you glad? 00:24:09.151 --> 00:24:12.673 So this, again, is a positional word. 00:24:12.673 --> 00:24:14.095 This is a word of identity. 00:24:14.095 --> 00:24:42.906 This is a word that defines us, based on who we are and what we do should come out of that, should find its anchor or its place of beginning in that place but it's not the end of it In Christ, all believers are saints, even though in ourselves we are not always saintly. 00:24:42.906 --> 00:24:45.340 I thought about asking the husbands and wives to look at each other right now, but I'm not going to do that. 00:24:45.340 --> 00:24:52.027 So to the saints who are in Ephesus. 00:24:52.027 --> 00:25:01.058 Again, this was meant to be circulated, but we know that his intent was for the church in Ephesus to receive this and probably to receive it first. 00:25:01.078 --> 00:25:02.801 Paul loved the people of Ephesus. 00:25:02.801 --> 00:25:03.851 We saw that in the video. 00:25:03.851 --> 00:25:14.038 He spent, as far as we know, the most time with that church of any of the other churches that he helped establish in Asia Minor and other places. 00:25:14.038 --> 00:25:16.843 He spent up to three years there with him. 00:25:16.843 --> 00:25:22.768 We know that he established a school there, a bible college, and one of his students was who? 00:25:22.768 --> 00:25:25.473 Timothy, his son in the faith. 00:25:25.473 --> 00:25:33.316 And after Paul helped establish the church at Ephesus, guess who he assigned as the overseer of this beautiful church? 00:25:33.316 --> 00:25:34.518 Timothy. 00:25:34.518 --> 00:25:41.056 He set Timothy in there as one of the elders and the leaders, the overseer of that church. 00:25:41.897 --> 00:25:46.653 We can see his heart fully laid out for this church in Acts, chapter 20. 00:25:46.653 --> 00:26:11.855 I'm going to read a passage from there, and this is as Paul is getting ready towards the end of his life to go to Jerusalem, understanding he's been, it's been prophesied to him, he's been given a word of knowledge that when he got, or word of wisdom that when he goes to Jerusalem that he's going to be arrested and he's going to be sent to Rome and he's going to be imprisoned in Rome and eventually, eventually, he's going to give his life for the name of Jesus Christ right. 00:26:11.855 --> 00:26:22.482 And so, before he heads on that journey, before he gets on the boat to head to Jerusalem, he calls the Ephesian elders to himself in a place called Miletus. 00:26:22.482 --> 00:26:32.105 And as he's there, standing before them, he pours out his heart, understanding that this is probably the last time in the flesh that he will ever see them. 00:26:32.105 --> 00:27:02.782 And when they came to him, he said to them you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you, in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:27:02.782 --> 00:27:21.329 And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me, but I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. 00:27:21.329 --> 00:27:30.590 If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 00:27:30.590 --> 00:27:38.153 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 00:27:38.153 --> 00:27:50.604 Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 00:27:53.691 --> 00:27:58.363 Paul left it all out for the church of Ephesus. 00:27:58.363 --> 00:28:01.839 He told them everything that he had been told. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:05.079 He gave them everything that he had been given. 00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:11.083 This is the kind of church that Paul was writing this letter to. 00:28:11.083 --> 00:28:15.720 Goes on, but for the sake of time, we're going to move on. 00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:19.637 He also speaks of them and calls them faithful. 00:28:20.902 --> 00:28:31.044 Again, we're tempted to see this word faithful and jump immediately to the product of action, to us making the right choices that prove our faithfulness. 00:28:31.044 --> 00:28:32.234 And is that important? 00:28:32.234 --> 00:28:35.618 Absolutely right, it is important. 00:28:35.618 --> 00:28:55.878 But we believe that the word faithful here, we know that the word faithful here means believing ones, those who are filled with faith, those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, and this is description not just of the church of Ephesus but of every true Christian. 00:28:55.878 --> 00:29:24.467 Jesus himself said if we are to follow after him, we must repent of our sins, we must realize and recognize that we are sinners, that we have failed over and over again, and that we must put our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross, taking our sin and our shame and all of the condemnation that that sin deserved, as God poured out his wrath upon him. 00:29:24.467 --> 00:29:35.163 Wrath upon him and also believing that he rose from the dead, proving that he had defeated death, hell in the grave, and putting our faith and hope in Jesus's finished work. 00:29:35.163 --> 00:29:43.942 That's how we get called faithful by God, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. 00:29:45.132 --> 00:29:49.730 Of course, believers should also be faithful in the sense that they are reliable and trustworthy. 00:29:49.730 --> 00:29:59.285 Can you imagine how much of a difference you could make in your employment if you stood out because you were a faithful person? 00:29:59.285 --> 00:30:03.751 You were a reliable person, you were a trustworthy person. 00:30:03.751 --> 00:30:09.556 The boss knew that if they came to you they were gonna get the truth in love, right? 00:30:09.556 --> 00:30:12.073 What a difference that could make. 00:30:12.073 --> 00:30:18.589 And what a difference it does make, and I know that many of you are living your lives in that way and I thank God for it. 00:30:18.589 --> 00:30:21.718 So let's move on. 00:30:21.718 --> 00:30:22.990 It says also he calls. 00:30:22.990 --> 00:30:24.893 He says that they were in Christ Jesus. 00:30:24.893 --> 00:30:34.653 And again, this is gonna be the preliminary thought of the rest of the sermons that would be built out based on the precepts that are found in Ephesians one through three. 00:30:34.785 --> 00:30:43.231 Paul is not merely saying these people believed in Christ, rather that they were in Christ positionally, that they were in Christ. 00:30:43.231 --> 00:30:55.015 This concept of being in Christ is one, if not the most important parts of Paul's theology, for this is the center from which he understood and explained salvation itself. 00:30:55.015 --> 00:31:01.388 In fact, he never referred to believers as Christians In all of Paul's writings. 00:31:01.388 --> 00:31:03.734 He never called us Christians. 00:31:03.734 --> 00:31:08.712 You know what he called us Believers, but he called us in Christ. 00:31:08.712 --> 00:31:11.814 He said that we were the in Christ. 00:31:11.814 --> 00:31:13.570 That's how he referred to us. 00:31:13.684 --> 00:31:23.013 In fact, in his epistles, 164 times, he uses a version of in Christ to describe followers of Jesus Christ. 00:31:23.013 --> 00:31:24.872 Do you think he's trying to get a point across? 00:31:24.872 --> 00:31:35.455 He's trying to get us to understand again Christ is in us, but also that we are in Christ. 00:31:35.455 --> 00:31:36.650 And in the book of Ephesians. 00:31:36.650 --> 00:31:44.233 As we go through it, you're gonna see over 30 times that he uses this phrase or this couple of words in Christ. 00:31:45.126 --> 00:31:46.192 Let's go on to the greeting. 00:31:46.192 --> 00:31:50.204 Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:31:50.204 --> 00:31:56.435 You saw in the video how it was God's intent to make one new man out of Jew and Gentile. 00:31:56.435 --> 00:32:06.654 And you see that even in the greeting, the grace word here is based on charis, which was a Greek word, and the English definition for it is grace. 00:32:06.654 --> 00:32:16.144 But the word for peace finds its roots in what Hebrew word, shalom, shalom. 00:32:16.144 --> 00:32:43.694 And so we see even in Paul's greeting his desire to communicate to the people of Ephesus the beauty of God's covenant people, the Jewish people being accepted into covenant with him, based on Jesus Christ and their belief in Jesus, and also Gentile believers who would come alongside and they would grow together to create this new entity, those who are found in Christ. 00:32:43.694 --> 00:32:45.673 So let's look at grace to you. 00:32:46.377 --> 00:32:49.250 Paul's readers had already been saved by the grace of God. 00:32:49.250 --> 00:32:52.380 Right, is he writing to believers here? 00:32:52.380 --> 00:32:56.372 We've established that he called them saints and he called them faithful. 00:32:56.372 --> 00:33:00.411 You don't call somebody who's not a Christian a saint or faithful, right. 00:33:00.411 --> 00:33:02.875 So he says grace to you. 00:33:02.875 --> 00:33:30.135 He's speaking to them about not just the undeserved favor that they received as lost people, but now the fact that they needed strength from God because they were going to face problems, trials and sorrows in the life that was to come, and what the apostle wishes for them here is that they would understand the grace of God in ways that they had never even imagined before. 00:33:30.135 --> 00:33:45.516 Please don't let these words become so common in our hearing and so we get so used to talking about grace and talking about mercy and talking about all of these things that we forget about what they mean. 00:33:48.586 --> 00:33:59.856 The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, not only for the world that is lost, but especially for those who are believers in Jesus. 00:33:59.856 --> 00:34:03.565 What is the definition for grace? 00:34:03.565 --> 00:34:05.556 I just combined a couple here. 00:34:05.556 --> 00:34:12.235 Grace means divine assistance for daily living, living living, if you're in the South, that's what it is. 00:34:12.235 --> 00:34:16.431 Or God's ability in me to do what I can't do in my own strength. 00:34:16.431 --> 00:34:18.356 It's the grace of God. 00:34:18.356 --> 00:34:24.168 It's, it's God giving us the, the, what we need, the, the, the power that we need. 00:34:25.710 --> 00:34:29.594 We said in the beginning this concept expresses well Christ in us. 00:34:29.594 --> 00:34:42.652 Grace is a form of Christ in us, the Holy Spirit working in us, equipping us, helping us, telling us when to say no to sin and when to say yes to God, and all of those things. 00:34:42.652 --> 00:34:43.416 That's grace. 00:34:43.416 --> 00:34:47.409 It's the gift of God's grace, enabling us, empowering us. 00:34:47.409 --> 00:34:50.436 It is the engine of our spiritual lives. 00:34:50.436 --> 00:35:01.838 But it also says here that he desires peace from God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:35:01.878 --> 00:35:02.586 And what is peace? 00:35:02.586 --> 00:35:08.688 Peace means a spirit at rest in all the changing circumstances of life. 00:35:08.688 --> 00:35:12.396 Did you know that we can live life like that? 00:35:12.396 --> 00:35:33.686 We can live lives of peace that are defined by peace, no matter what the circumstances are that we are facing in this life, when a diagnosis comes, or when the checking account is different than what we thought it was, or when we're having a relational struggle with somebody that's very dear to us. 00:35:33.686 --> 00:35:39.565 Whatever the case is, how many of you know that we can walk as believers in Jesus Christ? 00:35:39.565 --> 00:35:44.315 Because of our identity in Christ, we can walk in peace. 00:35:44.315 --> 00:35:50.764 You see, these saints had already experienced peace with God when they were converted. 00:35:50.764 --> 00:35:59.449 Peace with God, peace that transforms and that changes us, but day by day. 00:35:59.449 --> 00:36:01.735 They needed the peace of God. 00:36:01.735 --> 00:36:09.815 The peace of God that is independent of circumstances and that results from taking everything to God in prayer. 00:36:09.815 --> 00:36:17.793 How many of you know that there is a peace of God that passes all understanding, that's able to guard our hearts and minds? 00:36:17.793 --> 00:36:35.992 Where, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, when we live based on our true identity, we can live lives that are characterized by the peace of God? 00:36:35.992 --> 00:36:54.972 So this union, from a union with Christ perspective, just as grace represents Christ in us, peace represents the fact that we are in Christ. 00:36:54.972 --> 00:36:58.099 He is the anchor for our souls. 00:37:00.168 --> 00:37:05.159 And as we finish this, let's not overlook the marvelous words God, our father. 00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:11.751 Any of these three words, left to themselves, could create a different type of definition or a different way of looking at it. 00:37:11.751 --> 00:37:17.356 You look at God, and that is a word that is high and lofty. 00:37:17.356 --> 00:37:20.936 It's something that seems unattainable and unapproachable. 00:37:20.936 --> 00:37:28.869 And if you just take father, that's a word that's relational and very approachable and very important. 00:37:28.869 --> 00:37:35.525 And we want to follow God and understand the fact that he is father. 00:37:35.525 --> 00:37:49.144 But how many of you know, when you put that word in the middle, our God, our father, god, our Father the name Father speaks of the one who is intimately near and accessible. 00:37:49.144 --> 00:38:08.657 And you join these two words with the pronoun are, and we have the staggering truth that the high and lofty God who inhabits eternity is the loving Father of everyone who has been born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:38:08.657 --> 00:38:13.014 And this, my friends, is the good news. 00:38:13.014 --> 00:38:37.277 And I hope that you will begin to read and meditate upon and memorize the book of Ephesians because, week after week, we're going to be digging into the depths and the riches of the powerful truth that is found in this book, not just so that we can apply it to performance, but so that our minds can be changed and transformed by the renewing of the what? 00:38:37.277 --> 00:38:39.385 Renewing of our minds? 00:38:39.385 --> 00:38:45.175 By the word of God, the washing of the water of the word of God. 00:38:45.175 --> 00:38:47.398 This is the good news. 00:38:47.398 --> 00:38:48.760 Amen. 00:38:48.760 --> 00:38:49.264 Let's pray. 00:38:51.329 --> 00:38:54.815 Father, I thank you for the book of Ephesians. 00:38:54.815 --> 00:39:05.840 I thank you, lord, that you did not intend for this book to be written just as something to be read once and glanced at and easily forgotten. 00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:28.996 Lord, this book is written so that we might learn from it, that we might observe it, that we might read it, that we might study it, that we might meditate on it, that we might memorize it, that we might know you, and in knowing you, we can know ourselves in the way that you've made us to be like you. 00:39:28.996 --> 00:39:38.675 And so, father, I pray in the days and weeks ahead that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that we would see clearly who you are. 00:39:38.675 --> 00:39:42.193 And, father, I pray for those this morning who don't yet know you. 00:39:42.193 --> 00:39:52.431 I pray that this would be the day that they would cry out to you and acknowledge that they are in need of, desperately in need of salvation. 00:39:52.431 --> 00:40:00.293 I pray that you would meet them at the point of their need and that you would save them in Jesus' name, amen, amen.