September 7, 2025 • 40 mins
In Introduction, the first message of the In Christ series, Tyler Lynde opens Ephesians with a clear aim: before we talk about what followers of Jesus should do, we need to know who we already are. Working through Ephesians 1:1–2, Tyler shows how Paul begins not with commands but with identity—rooted in the finished work of Jesus. Many of us readily affirm that Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, but Tyler highlights the equally essential truth that we are in Christ. These two realities form the early church’s vision of “union with Christ.” Christ in us is like the engine of the boat—power for transformation. Us in Christ is like the anchor—stability, security, and a new identity that doesn’t rise and fall with our performance.
Tyler traces Paul’s authority and calling “by the will of God” from Acts 9, reminding us that the gospel is God’s initiative from start to finish. He then looks at the recipients: “the saints” and “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” “Saints” isn’t a title earned by heroic deeds, but a positional reality—set apart by God through Christ. “Faithful” here means believing ones—those who have placed their trust in Jesus’ perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection. This identity grounds our daily obedience rather than being the reward for it.
From there, Tyler unpacks Paul’s greeting: “Grace to you and peace.” Grace, is God’s ability in us to do what we cannot do in our own strength—the ongoing power of Christ in us. Peace, resonating with shalom, is the settled rest we experience because we are in Christ—an anchor that holds in changing circumstances. Even Paul’s warm phrase “God our Father” carries assurance: the high and holy God is personally near to His children.
Along the way, Tyler notes that Paul uses “in Christ” 164 times across his letters and over 30 times in Ephesians, underscoring how central this is to understanding salvation. He also frames the series journey: first, identity (Ephesians 1–3), then purpose (Ephesians 4–6). The church at Ephesus, whom Paul loved deeply (see Acts 20), received this circular letter to be shared widely—truth that still forms us today.
If you’re weary of striving, this message invites you to rest in what Christ has already secured. You were crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him, and seated with Him. Listen and begin living not for God’s approval, but from it.
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Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:02):
We are beginning this morning a brand new series
about the book of Ephesians, andit is called In Christ.
In Christ is the name of theseries, and to study Paul's
letter to the Ephesian church isto understand the very
foundation of what it means tobe a follower of Jesus Christ.
Before Paul speaks to theseearly believers about some
(00:25):
really important things aboutwhat they should be doing as
followers of Jesus Christ, hefocuses in on something that's a
priority, and that is that theyneed to understand who they are
in Jesus Christ.
The work that Jesus has alreadydone for them, who we are and
what we have been given throughChrist's work, has already done
(00:46):
for them who we are and what wehave been given.
Through Christ's work, rootedand grounded in the love and
provision of the gospel, we areenabled to live right and
empowered to stand against ourenemy and advancing God's
kingdom.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a practical person,
I'm a pragmatic person, and sofor me, when I think of the book
of Ephesians, I think aboutsuch things as the church and
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how the church should functionproperly and how believers in
Jesus Christ come into maturitybecause of the five-fold
ministry that God's put into thechurch.
I think about marriage and theimportance and priority of
marriage and how husbands aresupposed to love their wives and
wives are supposed to respecttheir husbands.
And I think about childrenobeying their parents in the
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Lord and honoring their fatherand mother.
And then I think about, also,spiritual warfare and the
understanding that we havethrough the armor of God, how we
can stand in the evil day.
How many of you think when youthink of Ephesians?
You think about some of thosethings and are they important?
Are they important?
Yes, they're absolutelyimportant and we're going to get
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to them, but we're going to getto them next year, okay, so
what we're going to do first iswe're going to look at the first
three chapters of the book ofEphesians.
We're breaking this series intotwo parts.
In other words, the first partis in Christ identity and the
second part is in Christ purpose.
So we'll be looking for therest of this year, up until our
(02:14):
Christmas series, at what itmeans to be in Christ.
We will be encouraged by thebook of Ephesians to fully
embrace our true identity inGod's eyes, not just what we are
to do as followers of JesusChrist, but who we are as sons
and daughters of God, we mustunderstand who we are in order
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to do what we need to do, withthe right motivation, the right
heart, the right empowerment,the right spirit and all of
those things.
And how many of you know thatSatan is all too clever and all
too ready to try to twist ourthinking concerning our identity
so that we don't understandfully who we are in Christ, so
that when we do stand, when hestands against us and we must
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resist him and all of the thingsthat we understand that we need
to do as followers of JesusChrist, we end up failing in
those regards?
We end up doing the things thatwe're doing in order to earn
something that's already beengiven to us.
How many of you realize thatbecoming children of God means
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that you already are?
Realize that becoming childrenof God means that you already
are heirs of everything that Godhas provided?
You don't have to earn it.
You don't have to be goodenough, you don't have to pray
enough, read enough, go tochurch enough.
All of those things areimportant and we should do those
things.
They're part of a healthyrelationship between us and our
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father.
But I'm here to tell you thatwe are those things, because God
has made us those things.
We are his children, we are hispeople, we are the sheep of his
pasture, we are the ones thathe has chosen and called to be
his.
And I'm excited and I hope thatyou are about the venture of
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jumping into the book ofEphesians, and especially the
first half over the next fewmonths.
And we've often broken books ofthe Bible up and taught them
from a concept standpoint.
In other words, we've taughtconcept, and you know concepts
instead of precepts.
What's the difference between aconcept and a precept?
A concept is a general ideaabout something.
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A precept is where you dig downdeep and you really dig down
and find out what's behind it,what is the importance of it.
And so we're going to do thebook of Ephesians precept by
precept.
So think of the differencebetween a telescope and a
microscope.
Telescopes are good.
They help us see a lot ofthings that we couldn't see
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otherwise, but sometimes we needa microscope, and that's what
we're going to be doing in thebook of Ephesians.
So my prayer for you and for allof us as a church is that we
embrace this season and allowthe Lord to speak clearly to us
what it is that he wants us tounderstand from the masterful,
powerful, beautiful book ofEphesians.
I've often thought that if youonly had a copy of the book of
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Romans and Ephesians, that youcould pretty much understand who
Jesus is, what salvation isabout and what it looks like to
be in him and to fulfill thepurpose of God in your life.
Now we're thankful for the restof the Bible.
We need all of it, don't we?
But I want you to know that'show important I believe
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Ephesians truly is.
So we're going to get startedthis morning.
This is just an intro in Christ, intro is what it's called, and
we're going to look atEphesians, chapter one, verses
one and two.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the
saints who are in Ephesus andare faithful in Christ Jesus.
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Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that thewords that are found in the book
of Ephesians are true.
And, lord, we confess to you,and I confess in particular,
that I do not wholly understandor apply the precepts and the
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principles that are found inthis scripture.
And mostly, lord, god, Iconfess that my identity in you.
At times, in my mindset atleast, it wavers, and I consider
my identity based upon myperformance more than I ought to
.
And so, father, I pray that youhelp all of us to more clearly
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understand the beautiful richesthat are found in Jesus Christ
and in his great gospel.
We thank you that you used Paul, your servant, to write these
words by the unction of the HolySpirit, and we ask that you'd
help us to give them the effortand the reverence that they
deserve.
Change our minds and our hearts.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
So if I were to ask you thismorning to describe your faith
or your relationship with Jesus,or what it means for you to be
born again, what would most ofus answer?
Do you think?
Let's think about that for aminute.
How would you answer thatquestion?
What does it mean for you to beborn again?
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And I think most of us wouldprobably rightfully answer that
Jesus has come into my life.
Jesus has come into my heart,right, that Jesus has moved in
and that he's begun to transformme by his power, the power that
only he has, right.
Would you agree that that's anappropriate answer?
That's a good definition.
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That's a good description ofwhat it means to be born again,
absolutely.
By the way, I'll tell you.
If it's a trick question, allright, you can just.
You can just take that to thebank.
I'll let you know ahead of time.
That's not a trick question,it's absolutely true.
And this reality, or this,theologically, is called Christ
in us, christ in us.
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If you think about it innautical terms, think about a
boat and the engine that propelsthat boat.
This is what it's like to haveChrist on the inside of us, the
spirit of God moving in us totransform us and to empower us,
to make us more like Jesus.
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And how many of you know thatGod does this by the work of the
Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit lives on theinside of us, and if you wonder
how important this particulardoctrine is, all you have to do
is read the book of John and yousee Jesus as he's about ready
to leave this planet.
He's about ready to go and becrucified on the cross.
And what does he say to hisdisciples?
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It's better for you that Ileave.
Now.
How many of you, if you were inthat meeting, would have shook
your head and said nope, jesus,it's not better for us that you
leave.
But he said it's better for youthat I leave.
Why?
So that I can send to youanother helper, another
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comforter, another one who willnot only dwell with you, but he
will live in you.
He will live in you.
This is the work of the HolySpirit in our lives.
The writers of the epistlesechoed these words over and over
and over again.
How about this one Christ in us, the hope of glory?
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But I want you to know thatthis is only one side of the
gospel coin.
This is one side ofunderstanding salvation.
This is one side that'sextremely important.
Don't do away with it.
Embrace it more than you'veever embraced it before.
But I also want you to knowthat there's another side to
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this coin that we need tounderstand, and the early church
understood these two componentsworking together, hand in hand
and side by side.
They called it union withChrist.
Union with Christ.
Have you ever heard of thatterminology?
It was something in the earlychurch that was spoken about a
lot, and it had to do with thesetwo elements, the first one
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being Christ in us and thesecond one being what?
The fact that we are in Christ.
Christ is in us, empowering usand transforming us.
But we are also in Christ.
And what does it mean to be inChrist?
It means that Christ trulyrepresents us, that Christ is
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our representative, that he isto us all things that we need.
And what does it mean that heis our representative?
It means that, through amazinggrace, every victory that he has
ever won is also our victory toenjoy.
I was watching the US Openyesterday.
Anybody like tennis there'slike five of you, I'm sure.
(11:04):
Yeah, I was watching the USOpen yesterday.
Anybody like tennis?
There's like five of you, I'msure.
Yeah, I was watching the USOpen and at the end the lady was
interviewing the winners thewinner and the second winner
Some would call loser right andas she was interviewing them,
she wanted to move on beforethey had a chance to thank all
of the people around them thathelped them to get to this point
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.
Right, and so each of theminterrupted the interviewer and
said wait a minute, wait aminute.
I need to thank my coach, Ineed to thank my family, I need
to thank my friends, I need tothank my boyfriend all of these
different things.
And it was like it was if thosetennis players who had done the
work themselves on the courtwere saying to those that were
in the crowd, that weresupportive of them we did this
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together, this was done together.
In other words, what I'mbenefiting from, I want you to
benefit from as well.
And how many of you know?
If you don't know it, I hopethat you begin to grasp it and
understand it more than you everhave before.
Every victory that Jesus Christhas fought for and has won, he
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wants us to enjoy with him aswell.
And that, my friends, is thesecond half of the good news
that we need to embrace and walkin, the good news that we need
to embrace and walk in.
Returning to our nautical motif,this truth serves like an
anchor in our lives.
So if Christ in us is like theengine to our boat, we being in
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Christ is like an anchor to us.
It keeps us, it has a steadyingnature, it gives us a new
identity that we've been givenin Christ.
If we are united to Christ,then we are united to him in all
that he has done.
For example, we have beencrucified with him, we have been
buried with him, we have beenraised to life again with him,
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we have been what Seated inheavenly places with him.
You should be a little moreexcited than you are, but I'm
going to give you time.
This is simply an intro.
By next week you're going to beshouting hallelujah Okay, we
have.
This is.
This is not fiction.
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This is real for those of uswho are followers of Jesus
Christ, who truly have been bornagain.
Christ is in us and we are inChrist.
We are seated with him inheavenly places.
Think about it like this howmany of you decided when you
were born that you were going tobe a sinner?
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Now, how many of you followedthrough with that protocol?
Some of you wouldn't raise yourhand if I was offering you a 20
bill, but that's okay, I seethat hand, yeah.
So see lots of hands going up,but anyway, yeah, this is.
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This is so true.
This is so true, this is soreal.
We must embrace this more thanever before.
So in Adam, how many of you knowthat, because of Adam's sin,
adam and Eve sin in the garden?
Everyone born after that,except for Jesus, was born not
sick, not sort of bad, was borndead.
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In our sins and trespasses, wecould not make ourselves alive
again.
We couldn't do enough.
We couldn't, you know, actenough.
We couldn't try to changeenough, there was nothing that
we could do to save ourselves.
And aren't you glad that God,in his great love, sent,
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demonstrated his love by this,by sending Jesus to die on the
cross for our sins.
And so, just as we wererepresented by Adam, and just as
none of us chose to sin, but wewere all sinners, all have
sinned and fallen short of theglory of God In Christ,
everything that is a part of himand everything that is a part
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of the inheritance that hereceives as a perfect son of God
, is also available to each andevery one of us.
That's good news.
We are no longer children ofAdam.
We are children of a new Adam,and because of the new Adam, we
have a new identity, and this istruly good news.
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So in our passage today, webegin the process of approaching
the deep riches of this inChrist reality.
Paul is probably writing acircular letter.
And what is a circular letter?
It's a letter that was meant tobe circulated around the
existing churches in Asia Minor.
So probably the word Ephesusjust place it in brackets, if
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you think about it.
So, the church in Ephesus.
It was definitely written tothem, but it was meant to be
circulated probably around allof the other churches in the
region Thessalonica, and I couldname all of the other.
You know Colossi and all of thedifferent churches.
It was probably intended to becirculated around them as well.
It's important.
He starts out with a similarliterary structure to most.
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How many of you ever learnedhow to write a formal letter?
How many of you ever tooktyping class and learned how to
type a formal letter on atypewriter With no erase key?
Okay, yeah, those were goodtimes, weren't they?
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Don't you miss the 1900s Attimes, at times, yeah, but
anyway, I digress.
So Paul sort of writes, in someways, a little bit of a formal
letter, even though it's writtenin a very conversational way,
in a way that is relational,very relational.
You can see his heart as hewrites this letter to the people
.
But he, basically he has threedifferent things that he
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introduces this letter with.
He identifies himself, he namesthe prospective recipients,
those who are going to receivethe letter, and he adds some
kind of meaningful expression ofgreeting.
So let's get into thisintroduction this morning.
The first thing he does is hespeaks of his identity.
It says Paul, an apostle ofChrist Jesus, by the will of God
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.
So how many of you know thatPaul was not always Paul.
What was his name before Paul?
Saul, saul of Tarsus.
And Saul was not an apostle ofJesus Christ, but he was called
by God to be an apostle of JesusChrist.
And, by the way, the reason whythat's significant, that it
says of Christ Jesus, is becausethis is like a capital, a
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apostle.
When we read later in Ephesians4 next year, we'll read about
apostles, prophets, evangelists,pastors and teachers, and those
are functions that are given todifferent people within the
body of Christ in order to helpthe body of Christ mature.
But there are the originalapostles who were the ones that
walked and talked with Jesus onthe earth for three years, and
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also those who spoke to himdirectly, that he called into
the ministry himself.
And Saul, who became Paul, wasone of those candidates.
And can you remember when thatoccurred?
Let's read it quickly togetherActs, chapter nine.
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Now, he went on his way.
He approached Damascus andsuddenly a light from heaven
shone around him and, falling tothe ground, he heard a voice
saying to him Saul, saul, whyare you persecuting me?
And he said who are you?
Lord, notice, use that wordLord, pretty important.
He realized something big washappening here and I need to get
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this right.
Who are you, lord?
And he said I am Jesus, whomyou are persecuting, but rise
and enter the city and you willbe told what you are to do.
The men who were traveling withhim stood speechless yeah, I
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would have too.
Hearing the voice, but seeingno one.
Saul rose from the ground andalthough his eyes were open, he
saw nothing.
So they led him by the hand andbrought him into Damascus and
for three days he was withoutsight and neither ate nor drank.
So here's our example of Jesushimself calling Saul, saving
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Saul, appearing to Saul,speaking to Saul and calling him
into the ministry.
We know it was by the will ofGod because if you go on with
this passage and read further,it says now there was a disciple
at Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in avision, ananias.
And he said here I am Lord.
And the Lord said to him riseand go to the street called
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straight, straight street, it'sa good name and at the house of
Judas, look for a man of Tarsusnamed Saul.
For behold, he is praying andhe has seen in a vision and man
named Ananias in Jerusalem andhere he has authority from the
chief priests to bind all whocall on your name.
Don't you love Ananias?
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Ananias wasn't fake, he wasn'tpretending he was very real and
he did not mind being honestwith the Lord about his concerns
.
He said I've heard of this man,saul, and I happen to know that
he's carrying papers that tellhim that he has permission by
the high priest of Jerusalem tobother, arrest, murder those who
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are your servants.
Lord, like myself.
Don't tell me you do anythingdifferent.
None of us would have jumped upat the first request and said
yes, lord, here I am.
Let's be real.
Aren't you glad that Jesus isthe perfect one?
And it's his perfection thatsaves us, not our own?
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The Lord said to him go, for heis a chosen instrument of mine
to carry my name before theGentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I willshow him how much he must suffer
for the sake of my name.
And Ananias jumped up and saidyes, I'll do it.
I'll tell him about thesuffering that he'd known.
So it was the will of God thatPaul was called to be an apostle
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of Christ Jesus, and under thatauthority not his own authority
, but under the authority of thename of Jesus and the
authorization of the call of Godon his life, he writes to these
millions well, we don't knowthe numbers, but a lot of
Christians, and how many of youknow.
We're reading it today and eventhough it was written to
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certain people in a certain timein history, what's written in
it applies to us today, becausewe are all one in Christ Jesus.
So that's who it was, that'swho the identity was and who
were the recipients.
To the saints who are inEphesus and are faithful in
Christ Jesus, to the saints Wasthis letter intended to be sent
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to New Orleans?
I thought about that beforehandand I thought there's a small
chance that that might come offas a funny joke, but I tried it
anyway and I hear Neil's voicein my head saying stay in your
lane.
So we're going to move on.
We're going to move ahead,anyway.
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But can you imagine he'scalling these people saints?
Most of the time when we thinkof saints, they're called saints
posthumously, after they'vepassed away.
Right, and they're calledsaints because of what?
Because of what they have done?
Is what they have doneimportant?
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But is that what God's talkingabout here?
Is that what Paul's writingabout here.
Are those the people that he'stalking to?
Is that the qualification thathe's using here, or is he using
a different one?
You're learning, you're workingwith me on this.
You're catching the drift right.
He's not talking about thembeing saints because of an
accomplishment or becausethey've been tremendously
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religious or because they'resaying the right things all the
time or doing the right thingsall the time.
He's calling them saintsbecause God in Christ Jesus, has
made them holy.
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To be a saint is to be set apartfor holiness, separated for God
from the world.
It's a name which is applied inthe New Testament to born again
believers.
We are all saints in ChristJesus, aren't you glad?
So this, again, is a positionalword.
This is a word of identity.
This is a word that defines us,based on who we are and what we
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do should come out of that,should find its anchor or its
place of beginning in that placebut it's not the end of it In
Christ, all believers are saints, even though in ourselves we
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are not always saintly.
I thought about asking thehusbands and wives to look at
each other right now, but I'mnot going to do that.
So to the saints who are inEphesus.
Again, this was meant to becirculated, but we know that his
intent was for the church inEphesus to receive this and
probably to receive it first.
Paul loved the people of Ephesus.
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We saw that in the video.
He spent, as far as we know,the most time with that church
of any of the other churchesthat he helped establish in Asia
Minor and other places.
He spent up to three yearsthere with him.
We know that he established aschool there, a bible college,
and one of his students was who?
Timothy, his son in the faith.
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And after Paul helped establishthe church at Ephesus, guess
who he assigned as the overseerof this beautiful church?
Timothy.
He set Timothy in there as oneof the elders and the leaders,
the overseer of that church.
We can see his heart fully laidout for this church in Acts,
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chapter 20.
I'm going to read a passagefrom there, and this is as Paul
is getting ready towards the endof his life to go to Jerusalem,
understanding he's been, it'sbeen prophesied to him, he's
been given a word of knowledgethat when he got, or word of
wisdom that when he goes toJerusalem that he's going to be
arrested and he's going to besent to Rome and he's going to
be imprisoned in Rome andeventually, eventually, he's
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going to give his life for thename of Jesus Christ right.
And so, before he heads on thatjourney, before he gets on the
boat to head to Jerusalem, hecalls the Ephesian elders to
himself in a place calledMiletus.
And as he's there, standingbefore them, he pours out his
heart, understanding that thisis probably the last time in the
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flesh that he will ever seethem.
And when they came to him, hesaid to them you yourselves know
how I lived among you the wholetime, from the first day that I
set foot in Asia, serving theLord with all humility and with
tears and with trials thathappened to me through the plots
of the Jews, tears and withtrials that happened to me
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through the plots of the Jews,how I did not shrink from
declaring to you anything thatwas profitable and teaching you,
in public and from house tohouse, testifying both to Jews
and to Greeks, of repentancetoward God and of faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ.
And now, behold, I'm going toJerusalem, constrained by the
Spirit, not knowing what willhappen to me there, except that
the Holy Spirit testifies to mein every city that imprisonment
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and afflictions await me, but Ido not account my life of any
value, nor as precious to myself.
If only I may finish my courseand the ministry that I received
from the Lord Jesus to testifyto the gospel of the grace of
God.
And now, behold, I know thatnone of you among whom I have
gone about proclaiming thekingdom will see my face again.
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Therefore, I testify to youthis day that I am innocent of
the blood of all, for I did notshrink from declaring to you the
whole counsel of God.
Paul left it all out for thechurch of Ephesus.
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He told them everything that hehad been told.
He gave them everything that hehad been given.
This is the kind of church thatPaul was writing this letter to
.
Goes on, but for the sake oftime, we're going to move on.
He also speaks of them andcalls them faithful.
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Again, we're tempted to see thisword faithful and jump
immediately to the product ofaction, to us making the right
choices that prove ourfaithfulness.
And is that important?
Absolutely right, it isimportant.
But we believe that the wordfaithful here, we know that the
word faithful here meansbelieving ones, those who are
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filled with faith, those whohave put their faith in Jesus
Christ, and this is descriptionnot just of the church of
Ephesus but of every trueChristian.
Jesus himself said if we are tofollow after him, we must
repent of our sins, we mustrealize and recognize that we
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are sinners, that we have failedover and over again, and that
we must put our faith and hopein Jesus Christ, who lived a
perfect life, who died on thecross, taking our sin and our
shame and all of thecondemnation that that sin
deserved, as God poured out hiswrath upon him.
Wrath upon him and alsobelieving that he rose from the
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dead, proving that he haddefeated death, hell in the
grave, and putting our faith andhope in Jesus's finished work.
That's how we get calledfaithful by God, when we put our
faith in Jesus Christ.
Of course, believers should alsobe faithful in the sense that
they are reliable andtrustworthy.
Can you imagine how much of adifference you could make in
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your employment if you stood outbecause you were a faithful
person?
You were a reliable person, youwere a trustworthy person.
The boss knew that if they cameto you they were gonna get the
truth in love, right?
What a difference that couldmake.
And what a difference it doesmake, and I know that many of
you are living your lives inthat way and I thank God for it.
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So let's move on.
It says also he calls.
He says that they were inChrist Jesus.
And again, this is gonna be thepreliminary thought of the rest
of the sermons that would bebuilt out based on the precepts
that are found in Ephesians onethrough three.
Paul is not merely saying thesepeople believed in Christ,
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rather that they were in Christpositionally, that they were in
Christ.
This concept of being in Christis one, if not the most
important parts of Paul'stheology, for this is the center
from which he understood andexplained salvation itself.
In fact, he never referred tobelievers as Christians In all
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of Paul's writings.
He never called us Christians.
You know what he called usBelievers, but he called us in
Christ.
He said that we were the inChrist.
That's how he referred to us.
In fact, in his epistles, 164times, he uses a version of in
Christ to describe followers ofJesus Christ.
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Do you think he's trying to geta point across?
He's trying to get us tounderstand again Christ is in us
, but also that we are in Christ.
And in the book of Ephesians.
As we go through it, you'regonna see over 30 times that he
uses this phrase or this coupleof words in Christ.
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Let's go on to the greeting.
Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You saw in the video how it wasGod's intent to make one new
man out of Jew and Gentile.
And you see that even in thegreeting, the grace word here is
based on charis, which was aGreek word, and the English
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definition for it is grace.
But the word for peace findsits roots in what Hebrew word,
shalom, shalom.
And so we see even in Paul'sgreeting his desire to
communicate to the people ofEphesus the beauty of God's
covenant people, the Jewishpeople being accepted into
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covenant with him, based onJesus Christ and their belief in
Jesus, and also Gentilebelievers who would come
alongside and they would growtogether to create this new
entity, those who are found inChrist.
So let's look at grace to you.
Paul's readers had already beensaved by the grace of God.
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Right, is he writing tobelievers here?
We've established that hecalled them saints and he called
them faithful.
You don't call somebody who'snot a Christian a saint or
faithful, right.
So he says grace to you.
He's speaking to them about notjust the undeserved favor that
they received as lost people,but now the fact that they
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needed strength from God becausethey were going to face
problems, trials and sorrows inthe life that was to come, and
what the apostle wishes for themhere is that they would
understand the grace of God inways that they had never even
imagined before.
Please don't let these wordsbecome so common in our hearing
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and so we get so used to talkingabout grace and talking about
mercy and talking about all ofthese things that we forget
about what they mean.
The gospel of Jesus Christ isgood news, not only for the
world that is lost, butespecially for those who are
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believers in Jesus.
What is the definition forgrace?
I just combined a couple here.
Grace means divine assistancefor daily living, living living,
if you're in the South, that'swhat it is.
Or God's ability in me to dowhat I can't do in my own
strength.
It's the grace of God.
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It's, it's God giving us the,the, what we need, the, the, the
power that we need.
We said in the beginning thisconcept expresses well Christ in
us.
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
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and when to say yes to God, andall of those things.
That's grace.
It's the gift of God's grace,enabling us, empowering us.
It is the engine of ourspiritual lives.
But it also says here that hedesires peace from God, our
father, and the Lord JesusChrist.
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And what is peace?
Peace means a spirit at rest inall the changing circumstances
of life.
Did you know that we can livelife like that?
We can live lives of peace thatare defined by peace, no matter
what the circumstances are thatwe are facing in this life,
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when a diagnosis comes, or whenthe checking account is
different than what we thoughtit was, or when we're having a
relational struggle withsomebody that's very dear to us.
Whatever the case is, how manyof you know that we can walk as
believers in Jesus Christ?
Because of our identity inChrist, we can walk in peace.
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You see, these saints hadalready experienced peace with
God when they were converted.
Peace with God, peace thattransforms and that changes us,
but day by day.
They needed the peace of God.
The peace of God that isindependent of circumstances and
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that results from takingeverything to God in prayer.
How many of you know that thereis a peace of God that passes
all understanding, that's ableto guard our hearts and minds?
Where, in Christ Jesus, inChrist Jesus, in Christ Jesus,
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when we live based on our trueidentity, we can live lives that
are characterized by the peaceof God?
So this union, from a unionwith Christ perspective, just as
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grace represents Christ in us,peace represents the fact that
we are in Christ.
He is the anchor for our souls.
And as we finish this, let's notoverlook the marvelous words
God, our father.
Any of these three words, leftto themselves, could create a
different type of definition ora different way of looking at it
.
You look at God, and that is aword that is high and lofty.
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It's something that seemsunattainable and unapproachable.
And if you just take father,that's a word that's relational
and very approachable and veryimportant.
And we want to follow God andunderstand the fact that he is
father.
But how many of you know, whenyou put that word in the middle,
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our God, our father, god, ourFather the name Father speaks of
the one who is intimately nearand accessible.
And you join these two wordswith the pronoun are, and we
have the staggering truth thatthe high and lofty God who
inhabits eternity is the lovingFather of everyone who has been
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born again through faith in theLord Jesus Christ.
And this, my friends, is thegood news.
And I hope that you will beginto read and meditate upon and
memorize the book of Ephesiansbecause, week after week, we're
going to be digging into thedepths and the riches of the
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powerful truth that is found inthis book, not just so that we
can apply it to performance, butso that our minds can be
changed and transformed by therenewing of the what?
Renewing of our minds?
By the word of God, the washingof the water of the word of God
.
This is the good news.
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Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for the bookof Ephesians.
I thank you, lord, that you didnot intend for this book to be
written just as something to beread once and glanced at and
easily forgotten.
Lord, this book is written sothat we might learn from it,
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that we might observe it, thatwe might read it, that we might
study it, that we might meditateon it, that we might memorize
it, that we might know you, andin knowing you, we can know
ourselves in the way that you'vemade us to be like you.
And so, father, I pray in thedays and weeks ahead that you
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would open the eyes of ourunderstanding, that we would see
clearly who you are.
And, father, I pray for thosethis morning who don't yet know
you.
I pray that this would be theday that they would cry out to
you and acknowledge that theyare in need of, desperately in
need of salvation.
I pray that you would meet themat the point of their need and
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that you would save them inJesus' name, amen, amen.
We are beginning this morning a brand new series
about the book of Ephesians, andit is called In Christ.
In Christ is the name of theseries, and to study Paul's
letter to the Ephesian church isto understand the very
foundation of what it means tobe a follower of Jesus Christ.
Before Paul speaks to theseearly believers about some
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really important things aboutwhat they should be doing as
followers of Jesus Christ, hefocuses in on something that's a
priority, and that is that theyneed to understand who they are
in Jesus Christ.
The work that Jesus has alreadydone for them, who we are and
what we have been given throughChrist's work, has already done
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for them who we are and what wehave been given.
Through Christ's work, rootedand grounded in the love and
provision of the gospel, we areenabled to live right and
empowered to stand against ourenemy and advancing God's
kingdom.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a practical person,
I'm a pragmatic person, and sofor me, when I think of the book
of Ephesians, I think aboutsuch things as the church and
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how the church should functionproperly and how believers in
Jesus Christ come into maturitybecause of the five-fold
ministry that God's put into thechurch.
I think about marriage and theimportance and priority of
marriage and how husbands aresupposed to love their wives and
wives are supposed to respecttheir husbands.
And I think about childrenobeying their parents in the
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Lord and honoring their fatherand mother.
And then I think about, also,spiritual warfare and the
understanding that we havethrough the armor of God, how we
can stand in the evil day.
How many of you think when youthink of Ephesians?
You think about some of thosethings and are they important?
Are they important?
Yes, they're absolutelyimportant and we're going to get
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to them, but we're going to getto them next year, okay, so
what we're going to do first iswe're going to look at the first
three chapters of the book ofEphesians.
We're breaking this series intotwo parts.
In other words, the first partis in Christ identity and the
second part is in Christ purpose.
So we'll be looking for therest of this year, up until our
(02:14):
Christmas series, at what itmeans to be in Christ.
We will be encouraged by thebook of Ephesians to fully
embrace our true identity inGod's eyes, not just what we are
to do as followers of JesusChrist, but who we are as sons
and daughters of God, we mustunderstand who we are in order
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to do what we need to do, withthe right motivation, the right
heart, the right empowerment,the right spirit and all of
those things.
And how many of you know thatSatan is all too clever and all
too ready to try to twist ourthinking concerning our identity
so that we don't understandfully who we are in Christ, so
that when we do stand, when hestands against us and we must
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resist him and all of the thingsthat we understand that we need
to do as followers of JesusChrist, we end up failing in
those regards?
We end up doing the things thatwe're doing in order to earn
something that's already beengiven to us.
How many of you realize thatbecoming children of God means
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that you already are?
Realize that becoming childrenof God means that you already
are heirs of everything that Godhas provided?
You don't have to earn it.
You don't have to be goodenough, you don't have to pray
enough, read enough, go tochurch enough.
All of those things areimportant and we should do those
things.
They're part of a healthyrelationship between us and our
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father.
But I'm here to tell you thatwe are those things, because God
has made us those things.
We are his children, we are hispeople, we are the sheep of his
pasture, we are the ones thathe has chosen and called to be
his.
And I'm excited and I hope thatyou are about the venture of
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jumping into the book ofEphesians, and especially the
first half over the next fewmonths.
And we've often broken books ofthe Bible up and taught them
from a concept standpoint.
In other words, we've taughtconcept, and you know concepts
instead of precepts.
What's the difference between aconcept and a precept?
A concept is a general ideaabout something.
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A precept is where you dig downdeep and you really dig down
and find out what's behind it,what is the importance of it.
And so we're going to do thebook of Ephesians precept by
precept.
So think of the differencebetween a telescope and a
microscope.
Telescopes are good.
They help us see a lot ofthings that we couldn't see
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otherwise, but sometimes we needa microscope, and that's what
we're going to be doing in thebook of Ephesians.
So my prayer for you and for allof us as a church is that we
embrace this season and allowthe Lord to speak clearly to us
what it is that he wants us tounderstand from the masterful,
powerful, beautiful book ofEphesians.
I've often thought that if youonly had a copy of the book of
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Romans and Ephesians, that youcould pretty much understand who
Jesus is, what salvation isabout and what it looks like to
be in him and to fulfill thepurpose of God in your life.
Now we're thankful for the restof the Bible.
We need all of it, don't we?
But I want you to know that'show important I believe
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Ephesians truly is.
So we're going to get startedthis morning.
This is just an intro in Christ, intro is what it's called, and
we're going to look atEphesians, chapter one, verses
one and two.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the
saints who are in Ephesus andare faithful in Christ Jesus.
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Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that thewords that are found in the book
of Ephesians are true.
And, lord, we confess to you,and I confess in particular,
that I do not wholly understandor apply the precepts and the
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principles that are found inthis scripture.
And mostly, lord, god, Iconfess that my identity in you.
At times, in my mindset atleast, it wavers, and I consider
my identity based upon myperformance more than I ought to
.
And so, father, I pray that youhelp all of us to more clearly
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understand the beautiful richesthat are found in Jesus Christ
and in his great gospel.
We thank you that you used Paul, your servant, to write these
words by the unction of the HolySpirit, and we ask that you'd
help us to give them the effortand the reverence that they
deserve.
Change our minds and our hearts.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
So if I were to ask you thismorning to describe your faith
or your relationship with Jesus,or what it means for you to be
born again, what would most ofus answer?
Do you think?
Let's think about that for aminute.
How would you answer thatquestion?
What does it mean for you to beborn again?
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And I think most of us wouldprobably rightfully answer that
Jesus has come into my life.
Jesus has come into my heart,right, that Jesus has moved in
and that he's begun to transformme by his power, the power that
only he has, right.
Would you agree that that's anappropriate answer?
That's a good definition.
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That's a good description ofwhat it means to be born again,
absolutely.
By the way, I'll tell you.
If it's a trick question, allright, you can just.
You can just take that to thebank.
I'll let you know ahead of time.
That's not a trick question,it's absolutely true.
And this reality, or this,theologically, is called Christ
in us, christ in us.
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If you think about it innautical terms, think about a
boat and the engine that propelsthat boat.
This is what it's like to haveChrist on the inside of us, the
spirit of God moving in us totransform us and to empower us,
to make us more like Jesus.
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And how many of you know thatGod does this by the work of the
Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit lives on theinside of us, and if you wonder
how important this particulardoctrine is, all you have to do
is read the book of John and yousee Jesus as he's about ready
to leave this planet.
He's about ready to go and becrucified on the cross.
And what does he say to hisdisciples?
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It's better for you that Ileave.
Now.
How many of you, if you were inthat meeting, would have shook
your head and said nope, jesus,it's not better for us that you
leave.
But he said it's better for youthat I leave.
Why?
So that I can send to youanother helper, another
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comforter, another one who willnot only dwell with you, but he
will live in you.
He will live in you.
This is the work of the HolySpirit in our lives.
The writers of the epistlesechoed these words over and over
and over again.
How about this one Christ in us, the hope of glory?
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But I want you to know thatthis is only one side of the
gospel coin.
This is one side ofunderstanding salvation.
This is one side that'sextremely important.
Don't do away with it.
Embrace it more than you'veever embraced it before.
But I also want you to knowthat there's another side to
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this coin that we need tounderstand, and the early church
understood these two componentsworking together, hand in hand
and side by side.
They called it union withChrist.
Union with Christ.
Have you ever heard of thatterminology?
It was something in the earlychurch that was spoken about a
lot, and it had to do with thesetwo elements, the first one
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being Christ in us and thesecond one being what?
The fact that we are in Christ.
Christ is in us, empowering usand transforming us.
But we are also in Christ.
And what does it mean to be inChrist?
It means that Christ trulyrepresents us, that Christ is
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our representative, that he isto us all things that we need.
And what does it mean that heis our representative?
It means that, through amazinggrace, every victory that he has
ever won is also our victory toenjoy.
I was watching the US Openyesterday.
Anybody like tennis there'slike five of you, I'm sure.
(11:04):
Yeah, I was watching the USOpen yesterday.
Anybody like tennis?
There's like five of you, I'msure.
Yeah, I was watching the USOpen and at the end the lady was
interviewing the winners thewinner and the second winner
Some would call loser right andas she was interviewing them,
she wanted to move on beforethey had a chance to thank all
of the people around them thathelped them to get to this point
(11:26):
.
Right, and so each of theminterrupted the interviewer and
said wait a minute, wait aminute.
I need to thank my coach, Ineed to thank my family, I need
to thank my friends, I need tothank my boyfriend all of these
different things.
And it was like it was if thosetennis players who had done the
work themselves on the courtwere saying to those that were
in the crowd, that weresupportive of them we did this
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together, this was done together.
In other words, what I'mbenefiting from, I want you to
benefit from as well.
And how many of you know?
If you don't know it, I hopethat you begin to grasp it and
understand it more than you everhave before.
Every victory that Jesus Christhas fought for and has won, he
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wants us to enjoy with him aswell.
And that, my friends, is thesecond half of the good news
that we need to embrace and walkin, the good news that we need
to embrace and walk in.
Returning to our nautical motif,this truth serves like an
anchor in our lives.
So if Christ in us is like theengine to our boat, we being in
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Christ is like an anchor to us.
It keeps us, it has a steadyingnature, it gives us a new
identity that we've been givenin Christ.
If we are united to Christ,then we are united to him in all
that he has done.
For example, we have beencrucified with him, we have been
buried with him, we have beenraised to life again with him,
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we have been what Seated inheavenly places with him.
You should be a little moreexcited than you are, but I'm
going to give you time.
This is simply an intro.
By next week you're going to beshouting hallelujah Okay, we
have.
This is.
This is not fiction.
(13:23):
This is real for those of uswho are followers of Jesus
Christ, who truly have been bornagain.
Christ is in us and we are inChrist.
We are seated with him inheavenly places.
Think about it like this howmany of you decided when you
were born that you were going tobe a sinner?
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Now, how many of you followedthrough with that protocol?
Some of you wouldn't raise yourhand if I was offering you a 20
bill, but that's okay, I seethat hand, yeah.
So see lots of hands going up,but anyway, yeah, this is.
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This is so true.
This is so true, this is soreal.
We must embrace this more thanever before.
So in Adam, how many of you knowthat, because of Adam's sin,
adam and Eve sin in the garden?
Everyone born after that,except for Jesus, was born not
sick, not sort of bad, was borndead.
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In our sins and trespasses, wecould not make ourselves alive
again.
We couldn't do enough.
We couldn't, you know, actenough.
We couldn't try to changeenough, there was nothing that
we could do to save ourselves.
And aren't you glad that God,in his great love, sent,
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demonstrated his love by this,by sending Jesus to die on the
cross for our sins.
And so, just as we wererepresented by Adam, and just as
none of us chose to sin, but wewere all sinners, all have
sinned and fallen short of theglory of God In Christ,
everything that is a part of himand everything that is a part
(15:12):
of the inheritance that hereceives as a perfect son of God
, is also available to each andevery one of us.
That's good news.
We are no longer children ofAdam.
We are children of a new Adam,and because of the new Adam, we
have a new identity, and this istruly good news.
(15:34):
So in our passage today, webegin the process of approaching
the deep riches of this inChrist reality.
Paul is probably writing acircular letter.
And what is a circular letter?
It's a letter that was meant tobe circulated around the
existing churches in Asia Minor.
So probably the word Ephesusjust place it in brackets, if
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you think about it.
So, the church in Ephesus.
It was definitely written tothem, but it was meant to be
circulated probably around allof the other churches in the
region Thessalonica, and I couldname all of the other.
You know Colossi and all of thedifferent churches.
It was probably intended to becirculated around them as well.
It's important.
He starts out with a similarliterary structure to most.
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How many of you ever learnedhow to write a formal letter?
How many of you ever tooktyping class and learned how to
type a formal letter on atypewriter With no erase key?
Okay, yeah, those were goodtimes, weren't they?
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Don't you miss the 1900s Attimes, at times, yeah, but
anyway, I digress.
So Paul sort of writes, in someways, a little bit of a formal
letter, even though it's writtenin a very conversational way,
in a way that is relational,very relational.
You can see his heart as hewrites this letter to the people
.
But he, basically he has threedifferent things that he
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introduces this letter with.
He identifies himself, he namesthe prospective recipients,
those who are going to receivethe letter, and he adds some
kind of meaningful expression ofgreeting.
So let's get into thisintroduction this morning.
The first thing he does is hespeaks of his identity.
It says Paul, an apostle ofChrist Jesus, by the will of God
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.
So how many of you know thatPaul was not always Paul.
What was his name before Paul?
Saul, saul of Tarsus.
And Saul was not an apostle ofJesus Christ, but he was called
by God to be an apostle of JesusChrist.
And, by the way, the reason whythat's significant, that it
says of Christ Jesus, is becausethis is like a capital, a
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apostle.
When we read later in Ephesians4 next year, we'll read about
apostles, prophets, evangelists,pastors and teachers, and those
are functions that are given todifferent people within the
body of Christ in order to helpthe body of Christ mature.
But there are the originalapostles who were the ones that
walked and talked with Jesus onthe earth for three years, and
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also those who spoke to himdirectly, that he called into
the ministry himself.
And Saul, who became Paul, wasone of those candidates.
And can you remember when thatoccurred?
Let's read it quickly togetherActs, chapter nine.
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Now, he went on his way.
He approached Damascus andsuddenly a light from heaven
shone around him and, falling tothe ground, he heard a voice
saying to him Saul, saul, whyare you persecuting me?
And he said who are you?
Lord, notice, use that wordLord, pretty important.
He realized something big washappening here and I need to get
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this right.
Who are you, lord?
And he said I am Jesus, whomyou are persecuting, but rise
and enter the city and you willbe told what you are to do.
The men who were traveling withhim stood speechless yeah, I
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would have too.
Hearing the voice, but seeingno one.
Saul rose from the ground andalthough his eyes were open, he
saw nothing.
So they led him by the hand andbrought him into Damascus and
for three days he was withoutsight and neither ate nor drank.
So here's our example of Jesushimself calling Saul, saving
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Saul, appearing to Saul,speaking to Saul and calling him
into the ministry.
We know it was by the will ofGod because if you go on with
this passage and read further,it says now there was a disciple
at Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in avision, ananias.
And he said here I am Lord.
And the Lord said to him riseand go to the street called
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straight, straight street, it'sa good name and at the house of
Judas, look for a man of Tarsusnamed Saul.
For behold, he is praying andhe has seen in a vision and man
named Ananias in Jerusalem andhere he has authority from the
chief priests to bind all whocall on your name.
Don't you love Ananias?
(20:32):
Ananias wasn't fake, he wasn'tpretending he was very real and
he did not mind being honestwith the Lord about his concerns
.
He said I've heard of this man,saul, and I happen to know that
he's carrying papers that tellhim that he has permission by
the high priest of Jerusalem tobother, arrest, murder those who
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are your servants.
Lord, like myself.
Don't tell me you do anythingdifferent.
None of us would have jumped upat the first request and said
yes, lord, here I am.
Let's be real.
Aren't you glad that Jesus isthe perfect one?
And it's his perfection thatsaves us, not our own?
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The Lord said to him go, for heis a chosen instrument of mine
to carry my name before theGentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I willshow him how much he must suffer
for the sake of my name.
And Ananias jumped up and saidyes, I'll do it.
I'll tell him about thesuffering that he'd known.
So it was the will of God thatPaul was called to be an apostle
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of Christ Jesus, and under thatauthority not his own authority
, but under the authority of thename of Jesus and the
authorization of the call of Godon his life, he writes to these
millions well, we don't knowthe numbers, but a lot of
Christians, and how many of youknow.
We're reading it today and eventhough it was written to
(22:05):
certain people in a certain timein history, what's written in
it applies to us today, becausewe are all one in Christ Jesus.
So that's who it was, that'swho the identity was and who
were the recipients.
To the saints who are inEphesus and are faithful in
Christ Jesus, to the saints Wasthis letter intended to be sent
(22:30):
to New Orleans?
I thought about that beforehandand I thought there's a small
chance that that might come offas a funny joke, but I tried it
anyway and I hear Neil's voicein my head saying stay in your
lane.
So we're going to move on.
We're going to move ahead,anyway.
(22:51):
But can you imagine he'scalling these people saints?
Most of the time when we thinkof saints, they're called saints
posthumously, after they'vepassed away.
Right, and they're calledsaints because of what?
Because of what they have done?
Is what they have doneimportant?
(23:15):
But is that what God's talkingabout here?
Is that what Paul's writingabout here.
Are those the people that he'stalking to?
Is that the qualification thathe's using here, or is he using
a different one?
You're learning, you're workingwith me on this.
You're catching the drift right.
He's not talking about thembeing saints because of an
accomplishment or becausethey've been tremendously
(23:37):
religious or because they'resaying the right things all the
time or doing the right thingsall the time.
He's calling them saintsbecause God in Christ Jesus, has
made them holy.
(23:58):
To be a saint is to be set apartfor holiness, separated for God
from the world.
It's a name which is applied inthe New Testament to born again
believers.
We are all saints in ChristJesus, aren't you glad?
So this, again, is a positionalword.
This is a word of identity.
This is a word that defines us,based on who we are and what we
(24:19):
do should come out of that,should find its anchor or its
place of beginning in that placebut it's not the end of it In
Christ, all believers are saints, even though in ourselves we
(24:42):
are not always saintly.
I thought about asking thehusbands and wives to look at
each other right now, but I'mnot going to do that.
So to the saints who are inEphesus.
Again, this was meant to becirculated, but we know that his
intent was for the church inEphesus to receive this and
probably to receive it first.
Paul loved the people of Ephesus.
(25:02):
We saw that in the video.
He spent, as far as we know,the most time with that church
of any of the other churchesthat he helped establish in Asia
Minor and other places.
He spent up to three yearsthere with him.
We know that he established aschool there, a bible college,
and one of his students was who?
Timothy, his son in the faith.
(25:25):
And after Paul helped establishthe church at Ephesus, guess
who he assigned as the overseerof this beautiful church?
Timothy.
He set Timothy in there as oneof the elders and the leaders,
the overseer of that church.
We can see his heart fully laidout for this church in Acts,
(25:46):
chapter 20.
I'm going to read a passagefrom there, and this is as Paul
is getting ready towards the endof his life to go to Jerusalem,
understanding he's been, it'sbeen prophesied to him, he's
been given a word of knowledgethat when he got, or word of
wisdom that when he goes toJerusalem that he's going to be
arrested and he's going to besent to Rome and he's going to
be imprisoned in Rome andeventually, eventually, he's
(26:08):
going to give his life for thename of Jesus Christ right.
And so, before he heads on thatjourney, before he gets on the
boat to head to Jerusalem, hecalls the Ephesian elders to
himself in a place calledMiletus.
And as he's there, standingbefore them, he pours out his
heart, understanding that thisis probably the last time in the
(26:29):
flesh that he will ever seethem.
And when they came to him, hesaid to them you yourselves know
how I lived among you the wholetime, from the first day that I
set foot in Asia, serving theLord with all humility and with
tears and with trials thathappened to me through the plots
of the Jews, tears and withtrials that happened to me
(26:51):
through the plots of the Jews,how I did not shrink from
declaring to you anything thatwas profitable and teaching you,
in public and from house tohouse, testifying both to Jews
and to Greeks, of repentancetoward God and of faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ.
And now, behold, I'm going toJerusalem, constrained by the
Spirit, not knowing what willhappen to me there, except that
the Holy Spirit testifies to mein every city that imprisonment
(27:15):
and afflictions await me, but Ido not account my life of any
value, nor as precious to myself.
If only I may finish my courseand the ministry that I received
from the Lord Jesus to testifyto the gospel of the grace of
God.
And now, behold, I know thatnone of you among whom I have
gone about proclaiming thekingdom will see my face again.
(27:38):
Therefore, I testify to youthis day that I am innocent of
the blood of all, for I did notshrink from declaring to you the
whole counsel of God.
Paul left it all out for thechurch of Ephesus.
(27:58):
He told them everything that hehad been told.
He gave them everything that hehad been given.
This is the kind of church thatPaul was writing this letter to
.
Goes on, but for the sake oftime, we're going to move on.
He also speaks of them andcalls them faithful.
(28:20):
Again, we're tempted to see thisword faithful and jump
immediately to the product ofaction, to us making the right
choices that prove ourfaithfulness.
And is that important?
Absolutely right, it isimportant.
But we believe that the wordfaithful here, we know that the
word faithful here meansbelieving ones, those who are
(28:44):
filled with faith, those whohave put their faith in Jesus
Christ, and this is descriptionnot just of the church of
Ephesus but of every trueChristian.
Jesus himself said if we are tofollow after him, we must
repent of our sins, we mustrealize and recognize that we
(29:05):
are sinners, that we have failedover and over again, and that
we must put our faith and hopein Jesus Christ, who lived a
perfect life, who died on thecross, taking our sin and our
shame and all of thecondemnation that that sin
deserved, as God poured out hiswrath upon him.
Wrath upon him and alsobelieving that he rose from the
(29:31):
dead, proving that he haddefeated death, hell in the
grave, and putting our faith andhope in Jesus's finished work.
That's how we get calledfaithful by God, when we put our
faith in Jesus Christ.
Of course, believers should alsobe faithful in the sense that
they are reliable andtrustworthy.
Can you imagine how much of adifference you could make in
(29:55):
your employment if you stood outbecause you were a faithful
person?
You were a reliable person, youwere a trustworthy person.
The boss knew that if they cameto you they were gonna get the
truth in love, right?
What a difference that couldmake.
And what a difference it doesmake, and I know that many of
you are living your lives inthat way and I thank God for it.
(30:18):
So let's move on.
It says also he calls.
He says that they were inChrist Jesus.
And again, this is gonna be thepreliminary thought of the rest
of the sermons that would bebuilt out based on the precepts
that are found in Ephesians onethrough three.
Paul is not merely saying thesepeople believed in Christ,
(30:39):
rather that they were in Christpositionally, that they were in
Christ.
This concept of being in Christis one, if not the most
important parts of Paul'stheology, for this is the center
from which he understood andexplained salvation itself.
In fact, he never referred tobelievers as Christians In all
(31:00):
of Paul's writings.
He never called us Christians.
You know what he called usBelievers, but he called us in
Christ.
He said that we were the inChrist.
That's how he referred to us.
In fact, in his epistles, 164times, he uses a version of in
Christ to describe followers ofJesus Christ.
(31:23):
Do you think he's trying to geta point across?
He's trying to get us tounderstand again Christ is in us
, but also that we are in Christ.
And in the book of Ephesians.
As we go through it, you'regonna see over 30 times that he
uses this phrase or this coupleof words in Christ.
(31:45):
Let's go on to the greeting.
Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You saw in the video how it wasGod's intent to make one new
man out of Jew and Gentile.
And you see that even in thegreeting, the grace word here is
based on charis, which was aGreek word, and the English
(32:05):
definition for it is grace.
But the word for peace findsits roots in what Hebrew word,
shalom, shalom.
And so we see even in Paul'sgreeting his desire to
communicate to the people ofEphesus the beauty of God's
covenant people, the Jewishpeople being accepted into
(32:28):
covenant with him, based onJesus Christ and their belief in
Jesus, and also Gentilebelievers who would come
alongside and they would growtogether to create this new
entity, those who are found inChrist.
So let's look at grace to you.
Paul's readers had already beensaved by the grace of God.
(32:49):
Right, is he writing tobelievers here?
We've established that hecalled them saints and he called
them faithful.
You don't call somebody who'snot a Christian a saint or
faithful, right.
So he says grace to you.
He's speaking to them about notjust the undeserved favor that
they received as lost people,but now the fact that they
(33:10):
needed strength from God becausethey were going to face
problems, trials and sorrows inthe life that was to come, and
what the apostle wishes for themhere is that they would
understand the grace of God inways that they had never even
imagined before.
Please don't let these wordsbecome so common in our hearing
(33:37):
and so we get so used to talkingabout grace and talking about
mercy and talking about all ofthese things that we forget
about what they mean.
The gospel of Jesus Christ isgood news, not only for the
world that is lost, butespecially for those who are
(33:58):
believers in Jesus.
What is the definition forgrace?
I just combined a couple here.
Grace means divine assistancefor daily living, living living,
if you're in the South, that'swhat it is.
Or God's ability in me to dowhat I can't do in my own
strength.
It's the grace of God.
(34:18):
It's, it's God giving us the,the, what we need, the, the, the
power that we need.
We said in the beginning thisconcept expresses well Christ in
us.
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
(34:40):
and when to say yes to God, andall of those things.
That's grace.
It's the gift of God's grace,enabling us, empowering us.
It is the engine of ourspiritual lives.
But it also says here that hedesires peace from God, our
father, and the Lord JesusChrist.
(35:01):
And what is peace?
Peace means a spirit at rest inall the changing circumstances
of life.
Did you know that we can livelife like that?
We can live lives of peace thatare defined by peace, no matter
what the circumstances are thatwe are facing in this life,
(35:22):
when a diagnosis comes, or whenthe checking account is
different than what we thoughtit was, or when we're having a
relational struggle withsomebody that's very dear to us.
Whatever the case is, how manyof you know that we can walk as
believers in Jesus Christ?
Because of our identity inChrist, we can walk in peace.
(35:44):
You see, these saints hadalready experienced peace with
God when they were converted.
Peace with God, peace thattransforms and that changes us,
but day by day.
They needed the peace of God.
The peace of God that isindependent of circumstances and
(36:06):
that results from takingeverything to God in prayer.
How many of you know that thereis a peace of God that passes
all understanding, that's ableto guard our hearts and minds?
Where, in Christ Jesus, inChrist Jesus, in Christ Jesus,
(36:26):
when we live based on our trueidentity, we can live lives that
are characterized by the peaceof God?
So this union, from a unionwith Christ perspective, just as
(36:52):
grace represents Christ in us,peace represents the fact that
we are in Christ.
He is the anchor for our souls.
And as we finish this, let's notoverlook the marvelous words
God, our father.
Any of these three words, leftto themselves, could create a
different type of definition ora different way of looking at it
.
You look at God, and that is aword that is high and lofty.
(37:17):
It's something that seemsunattainable and unapproachable.
And if you just take father,that's a word that's relational
and very approachable and veryimportant.
And we want to follow God andunderstand the fact that he is
father.
But how many of you know, whenyou put that word in the middle,
(37:37):
our God, our father, god, ourFather the name Father speaks of
the one who is intimately nearand accessible.
And you join these two wordswith the pronoun are, and we
have the staggering truth thatthe high and lofty God who
inhabits eternity is the lovingFather of everyone who has been
(38:02):
born again through faith in theLord Jesus Christ.
And this, my friends, is thegood news.
And I hope that you will beginto read and meditate upon and
memorize the book of Ephesiansbecause, week after week, we're
going to be digging into thedepths and the riches of the
(38:26):
powerful truth that is found inthis book, not just so that we
can apply it to performance, butso that our minds can be
changed and transformed by therenewing of the what?
Renewing of our minds?
By the word of God, the washingof the water of the word of God
.
This is the good news.
(38:47):
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for the bookof Ephesians.
I thank you, lord, that you didnot intend for this book to be
written just as something to beread once and glanced at and
easily forgotten.
Lord, this book is written sothat we might learn from it,
(39:10):
that we might observe it, thatwe might read it, that we might
study it, that we might meditateon it, that we might memorize
it, that we might know you, andin knowing you, we can know
ourselves in the way that you'vemade us to be like you.
And so, father, I pray in thedays and weeks ahead that you
(39:33):
would open the eyes of ourunderstanding, that we would see
clearly who you are.
And, father, I pray for thosethis morning who don't yet know
you.
I pray that this would be theday that they would cry out to
you and acknowledge that theyare in need of, desperately in
need of salvation.
I pray that you would meet themat the point of their need and
(39:56):
that you would save them inJesus' name, amen, amen.
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