Untitled Sermon

Introduction

Ephesians deepens our understanding of the gospel. (Ephesians 3:8)

Ephesians magnifies the importance of the church.

Ephesians comes to us in a general form.

Ephesians provides grace-filled encouragement.

Ephesians is meant for ordinary people called to an extraordinary purpose.

Ephesians offers practical answers to basic questions about the Christian life.

Why worship?

What should we pray for?

What is so amazing about grace?

Who are we?

Why is the church a big deal?

How can we be unified?

How do “new” people live?

How can we imitate God?

How do we fight?

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

Paul was not a guy searching for answers, he thought he had it all figured out. He grew up a levite, studied and became a Rabbi, was becoming extremely well known and high ranked in the Jewish community at full force, was really a terrorist towards those who followed after Christ and even advocated for the stoning of Stephen one of the apostles. He wasn’t searching, he was sure of what he was doing and where he was going with his life. He thought he was doing God’s will, but God had grace on Him and turned him from being a terrorist into a disciple. That’s a crazy transformation and it shows God’s sovereignty that He could change the heart of a man that was so radically against Jesus to being a radical disciple of Jesus, traveling to share the gospel, and writing 13 books of the New Testament. And here he clarifies that he became an apostle, not by his own choosing, but by the will of God in Paul’s life and His grace upon Paul to give him a new heart. (Galatians 1:15-16 “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the gentiles.”)

The Recipients

This letter could have been circulated to many different churches in the surrounding area around Ephesus.

There was much difficulty in Ephesus because of it’s sheer size, diversity, and spiritual warfare. Ephesus was probably the 4th or 5th largest city in the known world at that time. It was at the intersection of four major highways. It had a 25,000 person amphitheater that held athletic events like the olympics, and had massive temples to different gentile gods that made the city much money every year. The culture was steeped in materialism because of the massive amounts of wealth, sensuality because of the worship of the roman goddess Diana whose temple was one of the seven wonders of the world, and perverted idolatrous practices. Ceasar Augustus was spoken of as a “Savior” in this city and his birth was considered “the beginning of good tidings to the world.”

Paul faced much opposition in Ephesus as was mentioned in Acts 19:9-10 “But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (You can teach people about Jesus and talk about Jesus anywhere, it doesn’t only have to be at church or in a Christian style setting like camp or winter weekend) Paul taught in this lecture hall during the “siesta” or break period during the day. So instead of resting off the job he took the opportunity to share the gospel. You can find ways to share the gospel with others like starting a bible study with friends at school that are curious about Jesus, putting up an “ask me about my faith” question bar up on your story, posting a weekly story asking how you can pray for those that follow your page, etc. We need to be like the church in Acts 17:6 that were turning “the world upside down” in Ephesus. I pray that we would make a holy disturbance within our city and beyond.

He addresses them as saints or “set apart ones”. This came from the description from the Old Testament that speaks of God choosing a people from among the nations to be “My kingdom of priests and My holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). Paul emphasized the importance of unity within the church in Ephesus. He mentions unity in Christ or union with Christ 36 times in this letter (more than any other letter he wrote). The heart of Christianity is to be united to Christ Jesus.

The Message of Ephesians

The key theme of Ephesians is being “in Christ”. God is forming a new humanity through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Paul focuses on the transforming power of the gospel throughout the letter. Tranformation. That’s another huge theme in this book. As Paul describes who we are in Christ and how we are to live in Christ it clearly shares that transformation happens in the life of true believers. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit there is change in the life and heart of a person. We have mentioned this before, but it’s more than a thought, it’s more than a preaching point, it’s more than words on a page in a book, it’s a life lived in transformation because of our awareness of Jesus’ work to give us grace and salvation freely and gratitude for what God has done.

Application

Don’t lose your love-This study through Ephesians and through any book of the Bible should increase our love for Christ. But don’t lose it. The church at Ephesus had a rich history of faith and had many influential people disciple and pour into the church, but the last thing mentioned of them in Revelation 2:1-7 is that they had become cold to the gospel and “abandoned the love [they] had at first”. They had grown cold to their relationship with Jesus. So I want to ask you, Is your service to Jesus mechanical? Do we love Him, or are we just using Him for our own ambitions? Jesus told them to repent…if you have lost your love for Christ return to Him. The great thing is that if you’re sitting here tonight or listening online, it’s not too late for you to turn to Christ. Whether you’re struggling in your faith or you’re making your faith in Jesus public tonight for the first time, it is NOT TOO LATE. God is giving you this opportunity right now to turn to Him and to trust in Him.