Ephesians 1

The Will of God

Ephesians 1:1-2

We are going to begin a new study this morning on the book of Ephesians and the tittle of this message is Living in the Will of God.

That title could serve as a theme for the entire book because chapters 1-3 explain how we become God’s people, and chapters 3-6 describe how we live as God’s people.

Every Christian’s life should be characterized everyday by four words—thy will be done. That should be the HUB of the wheel of our life. Everything else is the spokes. In my work, in my play, in my family, in my church, in my time, in my finances- not my will O Lord, but your will be done.

If we were to ask God today what He would have us do, He would say SEEK my will, SUBMIT to my will, and when the going gets rough, STAY in my will no matter what.

That is what we learn from the life of Paul. Paul lived the will of God come what may. As he writes this letter to the church at Ephesus, he is in a Roman prison cell enduring suffering, arrested for preaching the gospel. He is an innocent man following in the footsteps of his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul had a relationship with God that was different from the other apostles. Early in his life he was a persecutor of the church. A killer of Christians who had been redeemed and Paul knew it. He felt he owed his life to Christ. In fact, he called himself the least of the apostles because of his life before he met Jesus, but he was far from the least of these.

He was a mighty warrior in the hand of God. The apostle to the Gentiles and the world’s first missionary. He was dedicated and devoted to the will of God, and he sets the example for us of how to live as a Christian. What we learn is we discover God’s purpose for our life by living in the will of God. (Read)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Pray)

Over the doorway to the entrance of the sanctuary at Eagles nest church, was a sign that read “every Christian is a minister, and every minister is a missionary.” I don’t know who originally made that statement, but it is true for everyone living in the will of God.

They recognize they have a greater purpose in this world. Their life has been set apart to serve Christ, and there is no greater calling.

But what is the will of God and how do we discover it? The will of God can be defined as God’s desire for how we should live, what He would have us to do. There isn’t one person in this room that has not come to a decision in life and asked, “Lord what is your will for my life?” In other words, what do you want me to do?

For some of us it is a question about who we should marry. Is this the right person for my life? Others, it’s a job offer we wonder if we should take. Some people have prayed about where to go to school, and some are praying about buying a home, and starting a family. The will of God is something every Christian is seeking and wants to understand.

It is important we understand the divine will of God is not a mystery. He is not hiding it from our hearts. He tells us how to live for Him in His Word, and He gives us help along the way we often overlook.

God often reveals his will for our lives through prayer, preaching, private devotions, and fellowship with other believers. We know If we live according to God’s Word, every decision we make becomes clearer.

There are some ministers who teach that God’s will revealed in His Word is all there is. They say, “God doesn’t have a specific purpose for our life. However, from the life of Paul we can see that’s not true. The Bible teaches us God has a purpose for each of us and a specific calling on our life.

I will give you a couple examples right here from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 1:11 says, “also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”This is what is commonly referred to as God’s redemptive will for our lives.

And again, in chapter 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” This speaks of our purpose.

So, according to Paul through the Holy Spirit, God has a will for your life and mine. There are two things He wants to accomplish in us. 1. is our salvation. It is the inheritance He has predestined for us in Christ Jesus. 2. Is that we serve Him and do the work He has prepared for us.

So, we can see there is a will of God for our lives beyond obedience to His Word. However, I would say it all begins with obedience to His Word.

Paul’s life is an example of that. He teaches us; we discover God’s purpose by living according to His will.

The first thing I want you to see in this passage is, The Messenger Vs. 1a. It was God’s will for Paul to be a messenger of Christ Jesus. Notice his description of himself. Vs. 1 says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”

Paul was an apostle. That means he was one who was sent. An apostle is one who carries the proclamation of the king. There was nothing more important in the ancient world than to be the king’s messenger carrying the good news to the people. That’s who Paul was. He was a messenger for king Jesus.

The question is are you? Are you carrying the message of the king?

But notice it wasn’t Paul’s choice. It was the will of God. In other words, Paul didn’t apply for the job. Paul didn’t sign up for service. No one said, “hey, you know what, I think Paul would make a good messenger.” No, he was appointed by God for the task.

God determined how He would use Paul, and Paul really didn’t have much to say about it. However, Paul did recognized it was God’s will and dedicated his life to the service. Philippians 1:21 he would say, “for me to live is Christ for me to die is gain.”

But who was Paul and why would God choose him? Well, Paul was a Jewish man who was also a Roman citizen. A Jew could buy a Roman citizenship if they had enough money. So, Paul was a man of means. We know he was a tent maker by trade.

We were first introduced to him, as Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter eight. He stood there in approval holding the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death, the very first Christian martyr.

That’s where we first learn how zealous Paul was as a Jew. He was zealous for the traditions of Judaism. Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisee’s trained under the famous rabbi Gamaliel.

The bible tells us he was respected and admired more than any other young man his age. Why? He hated Christianity and persecuted the early church.

The soon to become apostle Paul was a first century terrorist, who got permission to go and seek out Christians wherever he could find them and bring them back to Jerusalem, to be put to death.

Paul was on one of these persecution trips, traveling the road to Damascus when the risen Christ knocked him from his horse, blinded his eyes, and changed his life forever. God called Paul to begin to serve Him as His apostle to the Gentiles.

Now why is that important to us? What I want you to see that Paul was not looking for a new religion, or searching for a new way of life when Christ called him. In fact, he was perfectly happy with who he was.

He was opposed to the gospel, and he was doing everything in his power to put an end to Christianity before it began.

So, Paul did not choose Christ, but Christ choose Paul. And the same thing will be true in your life, and in mine. God chooses us and how we will serve Him not the other way around. In other words, Paul’s conversion and calling was by the sovereign will of God. It was not the life Paul would have choose for himself.

You see we think we are living in the will of God when everything is perfect in our life. We believe that we must be doing what God has called us to do when everything is easy and falls right into place. But that wasn’t the case for Paul, and we shouldn’t expect serving God to be easy in our life either.

I am reminded of the story of Joseph. When Joseph was a young man, he had dreams from God that his brothers would one day bow down before him. Well, if you can imagine that made his brothers angry, and they sold him into slavery In Egypt.

But the tragedy didn’t end there. While he was a slave he was falsely accused of raping Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison. While he was in prison, he was completely forgotten by the cup bearer.

Nothing about Joseph’s life was easy. His entire life was one broken road of misfortune. If you could have asked Joseph, he would have told you, there is no way this was God’s plan for his life.

Then, one day, when God’s timing was right, he was called on, out of prison to interpret Pharoah dream. Pharoah was so impressed with Joseph, he put him in charge of all of Egypt. Seven years later, there was a famine in the land, and Joseph’s brothers had to come to Egypt to buy food and bow down before their brother.

It was in that moment that Joseph realized that his whole life was in God’s hands. That God had used him to serve a greater purpose. All of the pain and all of the struggles were a part of God’s plan to save His people from starvation.

Instead of taking revenge on his brothers who had mistreated him, Joseph found peace in his heart and said, “That which you intended for evil, God has used for good.”

So, the next time you think you are clearly serving God’s purpose, because everything is going great, consider Joseph, and consider the apostle Paul, because sometimes the will of God for our life is not the path we would choose.

I can tell you when I first came to Faith Baptist Church being a Pastor again was not on my radar. My life was good, and simple. I retired young, my wife and I had a lot of plans to travel. However, one night, as I was passing by the church, I felt compelled to pull over and pray. When I discovered they were searching for a Pastor here, I was overwhelmed with conviction. I knew it was God’s will, even if it wasn’t mine.

Think about the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was facing the most difficult moment in His life. He was on His way to the cross, where He will die for the sin of the world, and He prayed, “Father not my will but your will be done.”

What we learn from this story is, the will of God for our lives is not easy and usually is not what we would choose to do. But it is always the most rewarding way to live. That was certainly true in the life of the apostle Paul.

The next thing I want you to see in this passage is The Mission, Vs 1b. Paul’s mission was to establish saints who were faithful in Christ. Notice who this letter is addressed to, “To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.”

Now it’s important to understand the phrase “at Ephesus” was not included in all of the original manuscripts, and there is a lot of debate about why. I think the simplest reason is because Paul wanted this letter to go out to all the churches, and not just Ephesus. But he wanted it to begin at Ephesus.

Ephesus was a large thriving Roman metropolis. It was the third or fourth largest city in the world at that time. Being a missionary to Ephesus would be like taking the gospel to Manhattan today. It would have been terrifying. Paul spent three years in Ephesus, longer than any other mission trip he went on.

Ephesus was the center of Pagan worship in the world. They worshipped the Roman emperor Trajan there. There was statue of Trajan standing with one foot on the world declaring himself to be god.

They also worshipped the Goddess Diana. In fact, there was a huge statue to Diana that was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. So, sharing the gospel in Ephesus was difficult, not only because of the size of the city, but because of the spiritual warfare there.

Paul was met with a lot of opposition. At one point a group of silversmiths wanted to kill Paul because he was hurting their business. They caused a riot in the city. People had stopped buying their little idols, and they were losing a lot of money.

Again, we see that God’s will for our lives is not easy. If you are doing what God has called you to do, you will face opposition from the world.

Notice God’s will for the churches here. We are to be “saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” In the bible the word saint doesn’t refer to just a select few. Saints are not just people who have done great things for God.

In the Greek, the word means to be set apart, consecrated and holy, and that is what every believer is supposed to be. So, a saint is a follower of Jesus Christ who is living for the will of God.

2 Cor. 5:17 says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation the old is gone and the new has come.’ That is a saint.

The word Faithful has a two-fold meaning. In one sense to be faithful is to believe. To have faith in God. In another sense, it speaks of our commitment and dedication to the Lord.

A person who is faithful in Christ is someone who has looked to Him and been saved. Someone who has counted Him is worthy to be trusted. Someone who has committed their life to Christ.

In other words, the saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus are those who have surrendered their lives and are serving His purpose. This is the very first step in living in the will of God.

In fact, every one of us needs to make sure we are considered as saints who are faithful. Otherwise, we are living as slaves to the corruption of the world. But, how do we do that? Our faithfulness is determined by the decisions we make every day.

I am reminded of the story of Ruth and how faithful she was to her mother-in-law Naomi. After their husbands died Naomi decided to return home to Bethlehem, and Ruth wanted to go with her. Naomi did everything in her power to talk Ruth out of going. She said, “even if I were able to have another son in my old age, what good would that do for you? No, you need to go home to your people.” But Ruth was determined, she was committed, and she was faithful.

Ruth said to Naomi, “wherever you go I will go, your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” And that was the greatest decision she made in her life. She chose to faithfully serve God, and she became an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. God rewards those who faithfully seek His will for their lives.

Let me ask you this, what are your goals in life? Do you have goals of growing spiritually? What would you like to see Christ do in your life? Do you have a sense of calling from God to serve His purpose? The choices we make today determine if we will live in the will of God tomorrow.

The final thing I want you to see in this passage is the Message, Vs. 2. Paul writes, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the same type of greeting Paul uses in most of his letters.

By saying “Grace,” Paul is not saying “Hello,” but rather he is praying for the people to receive grace and peace from God. “No two words are more important to our faith than ‘grace’ and ‘peace.

God’s grace is unmerited favor. What we deserve is judgment, but instead He saves us and He blesses us. And Peace with God is the basic need of every human being.

But, we cannot earn God’s grace and peace. We can’t please Him by our good works, or erase our own sin. He has to do it for us, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:14, “He Himself is our peace.”

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem the angels appeared to the shepherds out in the fields and announced, “peace on earth and good will toward man.” Christ came into the world and He reconcile us to God.

Now, when we experience God’s grace through the cross, instead of being our Judge, God becomes our Father and Christ becomes our Savior. Rather than running from God because of the sin in our life we want to hide, we can draw near to God with hearts that have been washed clean. We can approach the throne of God boldly knowing that His will for us is to be saved.

That is the essence of the Gospel and the beginning of God’s will for our lives. God pours His grace out on us through His Son, and He does for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. He saves us’

He reconciles us to God, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to live for Him. Then living for God is not a burden or an obligation, but an honor and a joy.

Today, I want to live for God out of the gratitude in my heart for what He has done for me and how He has changed my life.

So, as we walk through the book of Ephesians, I pray like the apostle Paul that you would experience Grace and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we would discover our purpose in this world by living in the will of God.