To the Faithful Saints in Christ

Introduction

I love my wife, and remember the day we were married.

I remember what she looked like walking down the isle, and I remember being completely overwhelmed by her beauty.

Since our marriage we have grown.

We live together, and sometimes we disagree, yet as we have grown, our love for one another has grown.

I would die for my wife.

Our love has grown to the point that I would die for her, give my life so she could live.

My love for my bride is great, but it’s nothing compared to the love Christ has for His bride, the church.

It is this love, that Paul writes about in his letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians is about the bride of Christ, and Christ love for his bride.

It’s about Christ’s bride finding it’s identity.

It’s about Christ’s bride learning what comes with this new found identity, and how to live in a marriage together.

The book of Ephesians moves from the first few chapters of theological brilliance, into practical application of what it is to be the bride of Christ in a world that isn’t looking to get married.

Today we are going to take a look at the opening verses of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which was most likely circulated around the churches in Asia Minor which is the region that Ephesus is located.

These first two verses set the stage for the letter in a way that is important to understand. It’s the tale of two kingdoms, two conflicting kingdoms that were created by God, yet provide the way to a marriage like no other.

Ephesians 1:1–2 NIV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

To The Saints (God’s Holy People)

Greek - “hagioi” refers to those who are set apart, or who belong to God, not to the moral quality of being without sin, to Those “In Christ Jesus”

The NT tells us that all Christians are considered holy and are truly saints because of the work of the cross.

1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Essentially, we are saints, sinners and sufferers through Christ Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is addressing this letter to those who have this “legal” status as holy people. It’s not a letter for everyone, it’s for those who confess to be sinners, and profess Jesus as their Lord and saviour.

Paul takes his address a step further by pointing out it’s the faithful one’s that he is addressing.

To The Faithful

Greek adjective - “pistos” has either an active meaning (trusting, having faith), or a passive (trustworthy, being faithful). The active meaning is the intent of Paul in this passage.To Those “In Christ Jesus”

Those who are actively trusting God, actively living by faith. Those are the ones who this letter is for.

Then Paul shows us how being a faithful, saint, sinner, and sufferer all comes together. It’s by being “in Christ”

In order to be holy, and faithful, one must be what Paul calls “in Christ Jesus”.

To Those “In Christ”

What does it mean to be “in Christ”?

To be in Christ is to be personally & vitally united to Christ, just as branches are to vines & members to the body & thereby also to Christ’s people.

You will see according to Ephesians it is impossible to be part of the Body without being related to both the Head (Jesus) and the members (the Church).

This is the overarching theme of Ephesians. You can not claim to be in Christ without being part of the Body of Christ. This is what connects us to Jesus.

According to the NT - especially Paul - to be Christian is in essence to be “in Christ”, one with him and with His people (the church).

So being “in Christ” is both personal and corporate. It’s communal, and not done alone.

Transition

Paul’s description of his readers is comprehensive, they are saints because they belong to God, they are “believers” because they trusted to Christ, they have two homes for they reside equally “in Christ” and “in Ephesus”.

All Christians people are saints & believers, and live both in Christ and in the secular world. In the heavenlies and on earth.

“God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithfully in Christ”

Two Kingdoms at the same time.

We Are Citizens of Two Kingdoms

Many of our spiritual troubles arise from our failure to remember that we are citizens of two kingdoms. If we focus on only one of these realities we miss something.

The Kingdom of Heaven

When we focus on the kingdom of heaven, often people think this means we must stay away from the world, in order to pursue Christ.

The problem with this is we don’t reach the world for Christ if we are staying away from the world.

To pursue Jesus Christ one must seek His Spirit, commune with the Holy Spirit and follow the promptings and guidance of the Spirit.

James 1:27 NIV

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

This means we must live as Christ has called us, holy. Loving others as Christ loves us. But we do need to engage with the culture in our world. So we can’t just live in the kingdom of heaven, when we are physically living in this world, with a mission to reach those who don’t know Christ, those who are “of the world”

The Kingdom of the World

Often we pursue or are so preoccupied with the world that we forget we are “in Christ”.

This means we tend to focus on worldly things and put Christ as secondary.

The church (the body) is also placed as second. Possible a routine that we do once a week, or maybe only once a month. Others things become more important then being with the body of Christ.

You can’t be “in Christ” without the body of Christ. Christianity is all about community, as we will see in Ephesians. This body of people called the church is vital to our own personal faith, and the mission of reaching the world.

Ephesians is going to teach us how to live as:

Two Kingdoms Merged Together

John 15:19 NIV

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

John 17:14 NIV

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

James 1:27 NIV

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

We are technically, physically in this world, not many would deny that reality.

We also must engage with the world, and all of it’s ways. We make money, we spend money, we have a choice in how we act toward others.

We engage the world, yet Christ says we are not actually from this world, we belong with Jesus, because we are His people.

However, the merging of these two kingdoms is difficult.

1 John 2:15 NIV

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

How Do We Live as Saints, faithfully in Christ Jesus, yet live in a world that is absent from Christ’s kingdom values?

The apostle Paul gives us the answer to this question, through grace and peace within the community of saints. Being the faithful presence of Jesus in this world. This is what we will learn from the letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:2 NIV

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul opens his letters with this often, and it’s on purpose. He is calling the church to live by grace and peace, these are the qualities it takes to live in two kingdoms. These are the qualities of those who are His ambassadors in this world.

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 NIV

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The body of Christ, the church is how you learn to live in merged kingdoms, in Christ Jesus, as faithful and holy people.

God created the church through Jesus Christ so we could be who He has called us to be, a community of holy people who love one another, and pour out that love to the world.

Ephesians focuses on the church, as the body of believers who can change the world.

Ephesians is going to teach us how we do this. It teaches us how to live a new life, in a new society, with new standards, and new relationships.

Big Idea: We are called to live in two kingdoms, empowered by the Spirit to be God’s holy people within a messy world.