Life in Christ Together

Main Idea: What we share in Christ propels worship and a worthy walk together.

1. Consider the message of Ephesians.
2. Listen to the letter of Ephesians.
   
3. Thank God for the grace revealed in Ephesians.

• Automated Transcription
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  Well, good morning. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Good morning, Faith Bible Church, and good morning to our visitors. My name is Dan. I'm one of the pastors here today. We're kicking off the Paul's letter to Ephesians, and we are excited to do that. We're going to have different elders read through the chapters, so we're going to read the whole book today as part of what's going on, and then we have a send off at the end, if you're visiting with us, and you do not yet follow Jesus. This is a great book to start with, because it gives you the full scope of what it means that Jesus saves, not only saves us from our sin, saves us from eternal destruction away from the presence of God, but it saves us into a relationship with Him and His people, and Ephesians is is all about that. I remember when I got saved, I had been exposed to some Christianity. I was a Catholic kid who was an altar boy. What I understood about the church was whatever was in the Catholic Church, whatever altar boys did is what I understood, and it took me a while to figure out what the church was about, and Pastor John Smith, who now pastors at Christ Our Hope, took us through a study, a bunch of us young men, and Ephesians 310 changed my life because I understood the church, it says this, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. What we're going to do is we're going to hear about this, and we are going to hear about the great mystery that was revealed, the church and God's plan. I could summarize the message of Ephesians, maybe in a way like this. What we share in Christ together propels worship and a worthy walk together. You thought when you were saved it was just you and Jesus, but when you are saved, if you are now saved, it's you and Jesus and all the saints. It's a glorious truth, and it's a powerful book written by the Apostle Paul. I want to just highlight some things. We're going to read all of it, so we don't have to listen hard very often, but you probably will today, because we're not used to just reading a whole book of the Bible. So, here's how to focus. Number one, in the first chapter, notice that it's all about praise and prayer. What God has done is what we pray. We praise, and that's the basis of Paul's praying. Chapter two is our history together, being dead in sin, being made alive through Christ Jesus, and being brought into the church. Chapter three is about this mystery of the church. And then fourth or six are about how to live in a way that honors Christ. First half is doctrine, the second half is about our practice, and notice that it starts with our attitudes, and it starts with our doctrine that has to be unified, and then we have all these commands of putting off sin and putting on righteousness. Chapter five is about love and wisdom, and you'll notice there's things for everybody, husbands and wives, if you're a worker or a boss, there's stuff for you in that, and at the end it ends with a call to use the gospel as a protection, because we still have an enemy called the devil, who is trying to destroy us. So pay attention to those, and then I'll work through one and two, give a little overview of the book, but first I'm going to pray, and then Tom's going to lead the way, and we have various elders going to read through the book for us. Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy on us, Faith Bible Church, all the churches in our city, those who you have called to yourself through the gospel of your son, and that we, as the collective church, give you praise and honor. We, as a local church, Faith Bible Church, give you praise and honor for all the riches that we have in Christ. And I pray that you would help us see your Son, Lord Jesus. Thank you for what you have given by laying down your life, sending your spirit, making us alive from the dead through Him, Holy Spirit. We thank you for giving us this word. You inspired the Apostle Paul to write it, and it has been a benefit for the church for 2000 years. Use it, even in just the simple reading of it, to do. Spiritual transformation in us, that we may give you praise and proper obedience. We ask all this in Christ's name. Amen.
  
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  Paul, as an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him and we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in Him. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory? For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come, and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all and
  
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  you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were in nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved and raised us with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once. Far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of the commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, and He came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near, for through Him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in Him whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Him you also are being built together in a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
  
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  For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. How the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed in His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of His power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
  
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  I therefore therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean, but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature. Father of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him, who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love. Now, this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they have become calloused and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity, but that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
  
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  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints, let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of these things that they do not in secret, but when everything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, Oh, wake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully, then, how you walk not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
  
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  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the integrity of your heart, as to Christ, not by way of eye service, as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, serving with good will, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that both of their masters and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength, put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm. Therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all having taken up the shield of faith, which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrow arrows of the evil one, also received the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit, and to this end being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with the boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak, but that you also may know about all my affairs that I am doing. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make everything known to you. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know our circumstance, and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all of those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.
  
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  When you, I did, I have this week reading it several times, washed through those phrases in Ephesians two. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, made alive in Christ. Doesn't your heart soar with thanksgiving? Ephesians is a book that gives us incredible thanksgiving. The elders chose Ephesians in one major reason, because so many of you are new in the last seven or eight years that we need to get a reset or reexamine how to live life together. The title that we're giving the whole of the book is Life in Christ Together. How many of you remember when I preached through Ephesians 20 plus years ago? Okay, so that's why we need to do it, all four. Of you, you get it again, that's how many people weren't here 20 years ago. So, for you, it's brand new. For me, I get to preach something for the second time. Do you know how many times I've preached something twice at Faith Bible Church? Not very many times. I always have something new. So, this is a joy for me to be able to get back to that, somebody asked me, did you dust off your old notes? Oh no, I was a new preacher. Those notes needed to be shredded, so it's real. It's a thrill for that. Today's a little bit different in that we have three segments. I introduced it, we talked about the message of the book, we heard the book, and boy, that sparks praise, thoughtfulness. Just hearing the Apostle Paul's words. What I want to do today is give a little bit of an overview of the book, look at the introduction to whet our appetite. If I were to summarize that mission, though, you can see it in your notes, that what we share in Christ propels our worship and worthy walk together. Ephesians is the book that drives a sledgehammer at individualized Christianity. When you think of Jesus saves, you usually think of it personally, and a lot of good songs are written about me and my relationship with the Lord. There's a lot of psalms about me and my relationship with the Lord, but this is about a salvation that is inclusive, and it should follow naturally on with the Great Commission. We've been talking about the Great Commission. We're about to send a couple off on a Great Commission work, and the gospel is to go to all nations, that means that wherever the gospel is planted, you're going to find people of all different kinds, socioeconomically, politically, their class will be different, races often are different, ethnicities are different. This was true in Ephesus, it was a very diverse city, one gospel saves all kinds of people under one umbrella, Jesus Christ. And this is a call to live in unity and love together under this idea. And as we look at this book, there's just a couple of things I really want to highlight as we get going, and the first is that the book starts largely with a praise and adoration to God as Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. Paul prays, the first chapter is praise and prayer, and then we get a history, and the section in chapter three ends with another praise and prayer. All of these things are what God has done, and who we are in Him. You'll notice that the last half of the book is very practical. You want any advice about how to get along with somebody, how to get along in marriage, how to get along with siblings, or how to reconcile. You're almost always going to get somebody wiser or older than you taking you back to the book of Ephesians to put off sin and to put on righteousness. And so Paul has a design in a diverse city like Ephesus to impact our worship and impact our holiness and our practice. So, let's take a look at the book. Let's take a look at this opening section, and I want to give a good 20 minutes on just a couple of these first verses to help us set up the book. I want you excited about it. Want you coming back. If you're brand new to Christianity, you've never heard about the gospel, this is a great book to jump into, because here you have the fullness of what it means that Jesus saves. Starts with this, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Paul, this is the same Paul in Acts chapter eight that stood among the baggage or the coats overseeing the execution of Stephen, who was martyred for his faith. In chapter nine, the apostle Paul has been given arrest warrants and full powers by the Jewish leadership, by the religious leadership, to arrest people in various synagogues. He goes to Damascus, where there are synagogues, with the ability to arrest and haul back to Jerusalem anybody he wishes who has professed faith in Jesus Christ. On the way, Jesus meets him in glory. The resurrected Jesus died, buried, raised in glory, meets Jesus in this blinding light. Paul asks, Who are you and. He declares who he is at that moment, although he's not an official apostle yet. He is given not only a new life in Christ, but he is given a commission to be an apostle, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. That word's significant, too. You're not often used to thinking about it, but Apostle, an Apostle was an authoritative representative of a master. He's sent one, an authoritative representative of Christ Jesus. This authoritative representative, you'd say it like this: whatever he says in his role as apostle is what Jesus says, so if you're thinking about red letter editions, how many of you have a Bible with a red letter edition? You, those are cool, because you can spot the words of Jesus as you go through the Gospels. This book is red letter because when Apostle speaks it. It's Jesus' words. The spirit empowers the words. The spirit inspires the words. He is a representative of Christ Jesus, Jesus who has ascended and is enthroned on high. In the book, we find out right in the first chapter that Jesus is over all rulers, powers, principalities, and it's going to be nations, it's going to mean angelic, and he is the head over the church, and he is the apostle to us. It does mean that when we open up this book and the apostle speaks to us, we're hearing God's word, so week in, week out, this is God's word to us. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, he notes it's by the will of God, precisely because he was met on the road to Damascus, interrupted in his murderous pursuits, in his persecution, and he was commissioned by Jesus. He said, "I didn't make this up, I didn't start this out. These aren't my words, this isn't my office. This is by the will of God. So it's a functional way of saying what I'm about to write to you, you have to listen to as it is God's word. This is God's word to you. This message, my office, my message is God's word, and you need to pay attention. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints, to the saints. Saints in the New Testament are not people who have done miraculous things, who have shown a special devotion to the Lord. That's, that's. I grew up Roman Catholic. My understanding of the church was very Roman Catholic, which meant you go to mass, you do a couple of things, you touch a piece of sponge with holy water in it, you cross yourself, you go into mass, you genuflect, you get up, you sit, you say you say a Lord's Prayer, you go through the mass and the service, 50 minutes, you're in, you're out. There's really no other life and relationship with anybody else, generally speaking. If you're Roman Catholic, unless of course you're part of one of the fraternal or maternal organizations, which I was part of the Knights of Columbus for a year when I got saved. When I got saved, I went back to the Catholic Church, because I didn't know where else to go. I didn't know what else to do, and pretty soon I found that it was generally empty. The preaching wasn't there, something that I was excited to hear wasn't there, and maybe if you're a former Catholic, you identify with me. I was an altar boy, all of those things. I did not understand what I meant, but what I thought saints were were people who had done profoundly spiritual things, suffered in a profound way, or had done miracles, and so you have all kinds of saint names, Saint Aloysius, the the older Anglicans have all these too. There's a Saint Aidan's church in Spokane where they tie these titles to especially holy men or women in the faith. That's not what this is to the saints, means to the holy ones, this simple translation for it, but you might not really understand that either. What is a saint? What is a holy one? It is a person who has believed Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ has revealed himself through the gospel, and by his holy spirit has made you alive to hear the gospel response. Respond to the gospel, and believe you've repented, you believed, now you're a holy one, and it's used here in contrast to the idolaters and immoral in Ephesus. So you're taken out of a world of sin and unholiness, and you're brought into a world of holiness by your relationship with Jesus Christ, that's a holy one, a holy one. Your fundamental, if you're a Christian, your fundamental identity is not sinner but saint. Where's Howard? Where's Dr. Howard? Are you going to give me an amen? Thank you, Dr. Howard Stetson has reminded me for years that we're not sinners, which I find really odd, because I still sin, but what he means, and he's right about, is that our fundamental identity has changed. You still might sin and do sin, but that's not your fundamental identity anymore. Your fundamental identity is a saint, a holy one, one who has been taken from sin, from a sinful world, brought into relationship with Jesus Christ, and now when you sin, you're not going for your new nature, you still have the old remnants of the old nature clinging to you, you still have the results of sin to you, and later on in the book, he's going to tell us to put to death the sin and to put on righteousness. You have a new identity if you are in Jesus Christ. Extraordinary good news. What does it mean that Jesus saves? Jesus saves you from the guilt of your sin, from the wrath of God, into a relationship with Him. He makes you righteous or holy by faith, and you have a new identity, a holy one with God, who is holy. You'll see it next week when we talk about Him choosing us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him to the saints who are in Ephesus. Ephesus, where is that? If you open up your paper Bible, or if you have a quick ability to do it in your electronic version, there's a map in the back of your book. If you see the map of the Mediterranean, the upper right side, there's this kind of big belly bulge, it's a way to describe Asia Minor, and right in the middle of that bulge, the belly button of that bulge, bulge is Ephesus, and it was a large Roman city with a fantastic library that rivaled Alexandria, and it was filled with idolatry in the ancient world. You could be a devotee of, let's say, that city was Artemis. Artemis was a goddess of wisdom, a goddess of fertility. I think she could fight too, like I think she was a goddess of war, she could do a lot, that goddess, not really, but that's what they thought. There were a lot of devotees to Artemis, but you could also be a devotee of many others. It was pluralistic, polytheistic, so you might have a main god in your house, and you would have this carved in niche in one of your walls, you would go to the local market if you rebuilt a section, and you would buy an idol, either cast metal or carved stone, you would put it in that niche, you would have a candle with it, and you could do your daily worship to that idol. Ephesus was filled with idolatry, and the people worshiped many gods. Yes, there was a synagogue. Paul went and preached in the synagogue. Many were converted, but most of the synagogue rejected. Paul went to the Gentiles, the idol worshippers with other nationalities, and huge numbers converted, so large it was that they were known for having these magical texts. If you needed health, healing, blessing, success, you went and bought a magical text, and or you had somebody read one, and it was like an incantation that blessed the womb, the graduation ceremony, you name it, the crops, or you worshiped your local idols, and what happened in Ephesus is that so many, so many idolaters were converted to faith in the one true God through Jesus Christ that they had a big bonfire, and they burned their magical texts, and they stopped buying the idols, and pretty soon the craftsmen who were making the idols, they saw business down 2030 40% and they were really angry. There's a record of a riot organized against the Apostle Paul. Don't let. Don't let anybody tell you that you have to do a lot more than preach the gospel to make a big impact in your culture. You can do more than preach the gospel, but if you faithfully preach the gospel, it will fundamentally hit the economics of a city, the politics of a city. It will aim at the social and class structure of the city. It will be a sledgehammer to those things, because a person who trusts Jesus Christ has new worship, and that new worship changes how they spend their money, how they work, how they worship, where they worship, who they love, and they care for. To the saints who are in Ephesus, it was a stratified society with nobility and slaves and everything in between. And when we see a book like Ephesians, it is preaching that we are all unified under one head, Jesus Christ, to the saints who were in Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila brought the gospel to it. Paul came very quickly to it. You could read Acts 18 and 19 for the back story on Ephesus. He had an 18 month seminary that trained and sent enough missionaries to reach all of Asia Minor, it's to the saints and not to churches, probably because Ephesus had many house churches. There are many gatherings and sets of people, most likely it says to those who are faithful in Christ Jesus, saints are your identity. If you're in Christ, faithful is your calling in Christ to believe and keep believing, to obey and keep obeying is faithfulness. faithfulness to believe and keep believing to obey and keep obeying is faithfulness. These are faithful, and it is difficult in a city like Ephesus, like it is difficult in a city like Spokane, to not have the temptations, the idolatry. Ours might be a more secular kind of idolatry, but religions on the rise in Spokane too, all kinds of religions on the rise in Spokane too, and you need to remain faithful to the truth revealed in Scripture and the apostolic teaching, the faithful in Christ. I think of some examples, we had our children's ministry annual. Thank you. Joe ran that for us. Susan Olson reached 50 years serving in children's ministry, and I was talking to Karen Bolts yesterday, and she.. it's not all been at Faith Bible Church, so she didn't get a special plaque. If you'd have gotten here earlier, Karen, you'd have gotten the special plaque. But she.. she's been serving kids in various churches for 56 years. That's.. that's amazing. And we don't have time to run through the 35 year people, the 25 year people, and so on, who have been faithfully serving, that's just the kids, let alone elders and others who have been faithful in Christ Jesus, to the saints who are in Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Then we come to the gold mine phrase of the introduction in Christ Jesus, a simple little phrase in Greek, it's Ian, Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, this little phrase, which is repeated with variations throughout the book in Christ, in Him, in whom it's the idea of being united with Him. We use the word theologians have used the word for many years, called union with Christ, and it's kind of a hard concept to get your mind around, we understand that we might believe Jesus. Jesus is mine, and I'm his, and I have a relationship, but this is far richer and far deeper. This in him language is talking about a union. Let me explain it, and then I'll illustrate it out of the book in a couple of ways. Explaining it, when you trust him, you are brought into relationship with him that is unbreakable and intimate, unbreakable and intimate by the power of the Holy Spirit. You're sealed in him, you are united to him, and so you have a relationship with him, but there is an expansiveness. Do it, because every person who trusts Jesus is in Jesus, and so this union with Christ not only includes a relationship with Christ, but a relationship with all other Christians. If you notice, when we read the book, it's hard to translate you into the plural without saying you all or y'all, but every you in Ephesians is plural, talking about us or we or our. So, being united with Jesus means you are united with other believers. Now let's think about this. Can you think of a Christian you don't like? Oh, you're all of a sudden triggers. I could think of a lot of Christians I don't like. Did you know they're still your brothers and sisters, whether you like them or not? No. Say it isn't so. You're going to spend eternity with them in heaven, whether you like them here or not, you will like them there, and it doesn't. I know heaven's big, and it's spread out, and maybe that person that you didn't like on earth could be far away from you. In heaven, you never have to see him, like maybe that's true, but it won't be true there, because there all sin will be taken away, there all differences will be set aside, all disagreements will be resolved by King Jesus, and you will be at harmony. This reality of being saints in Christ Jesus means that you are in a forever relationship, an intimate relationship with Jesus and the other believers. This is why you can't be a solo saved Christian outside of a church very well, very effectively, because you're saved into Christ Jesus with others. It's the design of the church. There's a mystery talked about here in Ephesians chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, that Gentiles are co-heirs with Jews brought into the same promises that Abraham had. Can you imagine how challenging that could be? There have been some challenges here, and we all speak English, mostly, or maybe not. Throughout the history of Faith Bible Church, we have had some incredible privileges. We have had Russian speakers here, and we've had people translate from my English manuscripts into Russian. Then we've had Nepali speakers, and we've had people translate from Nepali or from English into Nepali, and that's a Nepali church, Me Lap Church, who we help plant that meets on Saturday nights, and lots of the members come here because they also want an English church. Also, they kind of get dual membership of two different churches at the same time, and now we have it, have the services translated into Ukrainian. I remember there's all kinds. This is kind of a funny one, but this is just illustrative of what it would mean if people from various nations now get saved and are in the same church in Nepal. They don't, they don't have the kinds of toilets we have, so one of the things that was a surprise for the first six months of having Nepali believers in the service and getting it translated is that you would go to use the toilet and there would be footprints on the toilet and you're thinking to yourself why are there footprints on the toilet seats, because where they were from they stand on not the seats, but on a squatty potty. So we had to have some discussions. It's not really fun for us to sit down on a toilet seat with your footprints, we don't love that. So it took some work to make things work out. Now you could imagine at a spiritual level how people would practice their spirituality in different ways in different nations, not just the language barrier, which is a big one, big enough, one, but in their practices, Paul writes this book for people who have converted from the devotion to Artemis, the devotion to Zeus, the devotion to the emperor, to singular devotion to Jesus Christ, and they all had different traditions, different ways of exercising their spirituality, and now they're all one together. I mean, it's been one of the greatest privileges of our church to have those kinds of things happen, but there were some growing pains. Lord willing, there will be growing pains again as God continues to rest. People from every nation, every tribe, every tongue, right here in Spokane. You know, we are the ends of the earth. We are the ends of the earth. Side note, the elders have been asked by Grace Bible Church in Republic, Washington, which I think is the ends of the earth, the to come alongside them. Craig Loftus, who has been pastoring, has some serious health issues. They don't have another elder they'd like us to help. We're going to start sending some teams of people up there to encourage and help that church, help them guard against wolves creeping in, as Craig's health is not very good. Guard to feed and help the people grow. That's what that's what churches do. This in Christ Jesus means that men and women from every tribe and tongue and nation are unified together. The introductions, like lots of his introductions, include what Don Carson calls wish prayers. Verse two: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace was a common Christian greeting. It was a common Roman greeting, just grace, which is like good favor upon you, but when the Apostle Paul uses it, he is praying that the God of all grace would extend grace, that is his favor and kindness and divine enablement to enjoy him and to fulfill the great commission and to build up the body of Christ. Grace to you, you all was a wish prayer that God would extend His bountiful grace in all kinds of ways to a believer or a set of believers. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul will use peace in two ways in the book. One is he's going to describe it historically, you who were once at enmity with God because Jesus died on the cross and he rose from the dead and he is reigning in heaven. All those who believe in him are no longer at war with God, and God is no longer at war with them. And if that's not you today, if you are at war with God, and you know it, I remember knowing it. Today is a day to surrender your life to Him, to call on Him for forgiveness, grace to you, and peace is not talking about that, actually. Peace, as we experience peace, we could describe it this way: a settled sense of rest and calm, not agitated. The opposite of it is anxiety, worry, fear, dread, because of what Jesus Christ has done for you and done for all of us together. There can be a settled sense of rest, absent of anxiety, or worry, or dread, or fear, God is no longer at war with you, and you are no longer at war with Him. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May you experience it. He's going to show us why as we open this next week now we're going to take the Lord's Supper. Father, thank you for this introduction. Thank you for the ability to immediately celebrate what unifies us, Jesus Christ and His gospel. Thank you for this book, help us engage with it over the months of study, I pray that you would be at work in our church to continue to unify us, to deepen our unity, love, affection, give us greater clarity on doctrine and truth, so that that unity is built on truth, and give us the same love that Christ love for each other, Christ has given for us His name. We pray. Amen.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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