United to Christ and His Church (Ephesians 1:1-2)
Notes
Transcript
Ephesians 1:1-2
“United to Christ and His Church”
Why study the book of Ephesians? And for so long (almost a year)? The book of Ephesians:
1) Deepens our understanding of the gospel & heightens our worship of God.
The letter is simple enough and so foundational that it can and should be read by any believer,
especially new believers. But the theological concepts are at the same time so profound that the
most mature and seasoned believer could never master its depths. Likewise, as our
understanding of the gospel deepens, Ephesians shows us that our study of theology should be
naturally joined with worship and praise of our amazing God. So Ephesians, Lord Willing, will
deepen our doctrine and empower our praise.
2) Magnifies the importance of the church (perhaps more than other New Testament book)
If you remember from last fall, a major theme of Colossians was the cosmic/universal reign of
Christ. One of the major themes of Ephesians is the Church’s cosmic/universal role as the Body
of that cosmic/universal Christ. In other words, Christ’s universal reign is seen throughout the
world through his church: we display and demonstrate that reign. All the while, the Holy Spirit
calls and enables to do it: Christ is the head of the body, and the Holy Spirit is the lifeblood, as
it were, of that body. Thus the role of the Holy Spirit is a paramount theme in Ephesians.
The church is also referred to as the building or temple; perhaps even the temple, the new
humanity or family of God. Ephesians gives the church a position and a job description in
effecting this new order of creation that Jesus inaugurated. In fact in Chapter 5 this is specified
in a powerful way: we see the church imaged as the bride of Christ in comparison to the
covenant of marriage. So Ephesians is known to have the highest ecclesiology in the Bible.
3) Offers some practical answers to basic questions about the Christian life.
What does it mean to be in Christ, and what does that demand of us? Who are we? Why do we
worship? What should we pray for? What is so amazing about grace? Why is the church such a
big deal? How can we imitate God? How can we be holy and unified?
Even further, how should we see our jobs/vocation? What is God’s plan for marriage? How
should we parent? How do we fight the good fight? Ephesians will answer all of these questions
and more.
4) Provides grace-filled encouragement.
Ephesians makes clear that the whole of the Christian life--beginning, middle, and end--is all by
the grace of God we’ve received in Christ. It’s encouraging, then, because this letter will allow
us to loosen our clenched-grips on self-righteous or self-approving efforts. It will help us to let
go of trying to find our identity or acceptance from any other source other than the risen Lord
Jesus.
So this letter brings for us an paradigm-shifting reality for this current life, and an astounding
hope for the life to come. In short, perhaps better than any other New Testament letter,
Ephesians summarizes what it means to be a Christian and member of the body of Christ.
But before we get to the letter itself, it would be helpful to do some quick background on the
author, recipients, and the letter itself.
The author is the Apostle Paul, the persecutor turned preacher. Once Saul, the tallest and
vainest of the tribe of Benjamin from whom he descended, now changes his name to Paul,
meaning “small. ” On the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to him and exposes him, meaning he
makes Paul realize how small and weak he really is. So now Paul’s smallness can give way to
God’s bigness, his weakness a way for the power of God’s grace to show through him.
This was a miraculous transformation and conversion, one that took Paul from being an
accessory to the murder of believers to saying “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” And
because the risen Lord appeared to Paul and commissioned his ministry, he is considered an
Apostle. This means…
1. Paul’s writings have a triple authority: the authority of Christ, under the will of the
Father, in the power/inspiration of the Holy Spirit (v. 1a).This is an important theme to
note, especially when we get to the rest of Chapter 1 and we observe the trinitarian
salvation Paul outlines. But it is sufficient for our text today to say that Paul’s words here
come to us with divine authority from the Triune God.
2. Paul’s message is Jesus’ message. He is an apostle called and commissioned by Jesus, so
Paul’s message is Jesus’ message. When Paul speaks (under the inspiration of God’s
Spirit) Christ himself is speaking. In other words, what Paul wrote to the Ephesians then
is exactly what Jesus wants us to know today. What a wonder it is to have these words;
we must approach them with humility and trembling. Because even though Paul is a
human author, behind all of his verbs, nouns, conjunctions, and tenses, is a divine author.
The recipients are the faithful saints in Christ Jesus (who are in Ephesus). “Saints” is an
interesting term, because it was typically reserved for the Old Covenant people of God, and
sometimes even for angels. “Saints” means holy ones, those who are set apart/consecrated,
which is descriptive of what has happened in their hearts: God has set them apart. The fact that
pagan Greeks, or pagan Americans, could be given this title is a staggering example of the grace
of God in their lives. Christ has made all believers into a holy people, meaning our position is
holy because we’re with Christ, even if we aren’t yet personally holy.
It’s important to remember we are not called “holy” because we are pious or perfect people
ourselves. It is rather because of this new position we’ve been brought into by virtue of Christ’s
life, death, and resurrection. It’s not on account of our own doing that we are holy in position
and title, but because of what Christ has done. But the calling of a believer is to live consistent
with that title, that positional reality; to become in practice what we are in position.
That is personal holiness, and it will result in godly behavior progressively. We are to be, or to
become, “holy and blameless” as we see in 1:4. In fact, we must say here that if we never show
any semblance of sainthood or holiness in this life, we have strong reason to doubt that we will
be saints in the life to come. We are called saints or “holy ones” because that’s what God has
made us to be, and will continue to make us to be, if we are in Christ.
And that is a great definition of “faithful” = those who are in Christ by virtue of their active
belief and trust in him. Faithful is another word for believers; believers who are in Christ.
Christ, the one in whom they have been brought into fellowship. Yes, there’s an inference in the
one in whom they have believed. But Paul’s emphasis has more to do with the fact that Christ
has himself u nited believers in his name.
The letter itself was most likely a circular one, meant to be distributed and read to various
churches in the region of Asia Minor; Colossae, Smyrna, etc. When we go through the letter we
will notice Paul does not address specific problems or errors in the Ephesian church, but he
covers broader issues. So we should consider this a more general letter that multiple churches
could benefit from, like a blueprint for Christian life. It’s Paul’s “guidebook,” if you will, for
life as New Covenant members and churches (with affection, it is a “Christianity for
Dummies”).
Verse 2 opens the letter with a popular greeting from Paul, used in most of his letters: “Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” S
ome have called these the
“twin blessings” in the “poetry of redemption.” And while they are blessings, Paul also intends
them to be a prayer and promise that the Ephesians would experience both. Because they are in
Christ, the promises of grace and peace from God are guaranteed to them. Let’s look at each of
these promises: grace and peace.
Grace is what you have received from God in Christ, because saving grace is found in nothing
or no one else. “Grace” is such an important term for Paul in the rest of the New Testament. It’s
the source of our justification→“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24).
And in Ephesians 2 we will explore how this grace “is the gift of God” (2:8).
Peace is the status you now have with God the Father; it signifies spiritual wholeness and
well-being in his blessings; of course, initiated by his grace. Another preacher once said, “Grace
is the fountain of which peace is the stream.” The prophet Ezekiel spoke of this peace, when he
prophesied that God would “make an everlasting covenant of peace” with his people, the
shalom spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures. We know this new era of peace is inaugurated by
the Messiah, the one who Ezekiel’s predecessor Isaiah called the “Prince of Peace.”
This is what the blood of Jesus provides for us; this new covenant of peace. And to declare
God’s peace to a person or people is to announce that this new covenant, and the favor of God
that this new covenant brings, has been given to them and rests upon them. Remember the
Angel’s announcement in Luke 2? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on
whom his favor r ests.”
Part of this peace is letting go of our own selves and our own efforts to be considered righteous
before God or others. The Prince of Peace achieved it, we need only to receive and rest in it.
Jesus says in John 14, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” In other words, the peace
of my salvation, the peace of being united to me by faith is now yours. This is the peace Paul is
announcing.
And we should take a moment to remember something here. While Paul is declaring God’s
initial grace and peace to the Ephesians, he is also praying they would receive his continuing
grace and peace in the future. Because even the greatest of saints need fresh supplies of grace
and peace. These are ongoing provisions that enable us to live consistently with the calling of
our sainthood. We cannot live as “holy ones” in the new covenant without his ongoing grace in
our lives.
This is why it’s so important to avail ourselves to his grace regularly. He has given us regular or
ordinary means of his grace.
1 Tim 4:13→ “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”
Ephesians 5:19→ “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”
So on top of our regular and personal intake of the Scriptures, we avail ourselves to public
reading of Scripture, to Biblical encouragement, to preaching and teaching. We also pray and
sing together in hymns and spiritual songs. In short, we “get in the way of grace,” (a theme of
Ephesians).
Finally, Paul ends this greeting the way he begins it. By highlighting it is from “God the
Father” that all of our blessings come. He is the source of it all, as the one who provided Christ
to us as the ultimate sacrifice and offering.
The entire book or message of Ephesians can be placed into two frameworks: Our position and
our practice.
OUR POSITION (Ch. 1-3)→(3 major ideas here)1
1. We have new life in Christ.
This new life is not about conforming to a list of rules or adopting a philosophy. It isn’t
about financial prosperity or becoming a nice person. It’s about becoming a NEW person;
about moving from death to life, from darkness to light. Paul’s message is not about
calling people to religion but calling people to Jesus, the one who is the way, the truth,
and the life. Through the book of Ephesians, Paul presents a present salvation...a
“realized eschatology,” helping us to experience the spiritual blessings of God today.
2. We have union with Christ.
This idea of being with or in Christ is mentioned in Ephesians more times than in any
other New Testament letter: 36 times to be exact. This union makes the inheritance we
receive from God possible because it is actually Christ who is the primary inheritor. “In
him we have obtained an inheritance,” (1:11). That is, by virtue of our union with Christ,
the Great Inheritor, we receive spiritual blessing. This union makes the riches of God and
the storehouses of heaven available to us, because all those who are united to him, by
grace through faith, share in that inheritance.
This list is developed by Tony Merida in Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Christ in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: B&H
Publishing, 2014), 15-17.
1
The inheritance is his; he is the source, sphere, and guarantor of all God’s promises.
Those united to him have access to all that he has and all he is. Meaning, as John
MacArthur writes:
“Christ’s riches are your riches; his resources are your resources; his righteousness
is your righteousness; his holiness is your holiness; his power is your power; his
position is our position. Where he is, we are; what he has, we have.” This is your
identity. Your identity is not your prominence, performance, productivity or
popularity. Your identity is in Christ.
3. We now have a new community in Christ.
When God saves sinners, he brings them into a new community, called the church,
comprised of Jews, Greeks, light-skinned, dark-skinned, etc. Listen to what John Stott
says about the church:
“The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine
afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God’s
new community. For his purpose...is not just to save individuals and so perpetuate
our loneliness, but rather to build up his church, that is, to call out of the world a
people for his own glory.”
In short, we were saved by the grace of God, from the judgment of God, into the
community of God, for the praise of God ( Eph. 1:6).
OUR PRACTICE (Ch. 4-6) → How We Are to Live in Christ
The hinge verse of Ephesians is 4:1 where Paul urges us to “walk in a manner worthy of the
calling to which you have been called.” In other words, due to God’s glorious salvation spelled
out in Ch’s 1-3, and in light of his perfect plan to bring his church together in Christ, those who
are recipients of “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (1:3) are urged to live as if all
of it were true. So every aspect of our lives is now to be lived in reference to Jesus. Because our
hearts and our character will only be changed in a radical way by authentic union with him; by
clinging closely to Christ.
There are five ways we work on having practice worthy of our calling, and Chapter 4 gives us a
glimpse of this pursuit of unity and purity. We do this by2:
1. Having distinct character, living “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing
with one another in love” (4:2).
2. Diligent peacekeeping, being “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace” (4:3).
3. Standing for doctrinal convictions, maintaining there is “one body and one Spirit...one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,” a nd that we wouldn’t be
“children, tossed to and fro and carried away by every wind of doctrine” (4:4-6, 14)
4. Understanding our diverse capabilities, living out what we see in 4:7-14, where all
members of the body have roles and gifts to be used.
5. Depending on Christ and each other, by “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in
every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and
held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (4:15-16).
So as we close this introductory sermon for Ephesians, maybe we can simply put it this way.
Regarding the overall point and purpose of the letter, Ephesians is really about “identity
formation.” Meaning God wants to assure us of our place in his gracious and saving purposes.
As a result, this should bring urgency to our lives and to our church to live in conformity with
this divine plan; a divine plan centered in union and with Christ.
Benediction
● Ephesians 3:17-19→ “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
2
Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Christ in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2014), 15-17.