The Gospel is the Answer
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Introduce the series
Ephesians; Who we are and How we live in Christ
We are going to go through the book of Ephesians verse by verse
Today - an introduction titled, The Gospel is the Answer
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Written by the Apostle Paul, though some question that
some believe that it is somebody posing as Paul
this book is unlike the other letters that Paul wrote
there is no issue that needs to be resolved, or purpose for Paul to be writing them
there is a lack of personal touch that appears in a lot of, if not all of the other Pauline letters
of which you would think would be there because Paul lived in Ephesus for three years
I believe that it is Paul that wrote this letter
I believe that it was a letter that was written to a larger community than just the church in the city of Ephesus itself and this letter was to be circulated throughout the region
part of the reason for that belief is that some of the older manuscripts do not have the word Ephesus in the first verse, it stops after Christ Jesus
We also see in the last part of chapter 6 Paul speaks about sending Tychicus to speak about the different things that Paul is going through where he is
21 Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me so that you may be informed.
The belief is that Paul is writing this letter from prison
either in Cesarea which would date the letter to about 57-59 AD, or in Rome which would date the letter to about 60-62 AD
The letter is broken down in 6 chapters 155 verses, will take you about 20 minutes to simply read through it
really there are two major themes in this book
the first 3 chapters are about who we are in Christ
the last 3 chapters are about how we are to live as believers in Christ
PRAY!
The Gospel is the Answer from God
The Gospel is the Answer from God
There is no doubt that the gospel is one thing that the Apostle Paul is passionate about
what do I mean by the gospel
that we have all sinned, that God’s answer to this was sending Jesus, that all who confess and believe will be saved
we see this in the book of Galatians chapter 1 where Paul explains that there is one gospel, that it doesn’t matter who comes to say something different, there is only one gospel
that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone
anyone who says anything different will be cursed
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
so Paul believes that this gospel is for all people, not just the Jews but for gentiles as well
as such we read about his missionary journeys in the book of Acts, specifically about his trip to Ephesus in Acts 19
one of the things that we learn from Acts 19 and 1 Corinthians 16 is that Paul was in Ephesus for about 3 years
the longest time that he spent anywhere, it was not because everything was easy
8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,
9 because a wide door for effective ministry has opened for me—yet many oppose me.
Paul is in Ephesus because he believes God is the one who has sent him, commissioned him to be an Apostle to the gentiles
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.
What we must see is that God’s will, God’s desire is always the gospel
it has been from the foundation of the world
4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.
it is the reason that Jesus came
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
So when the question arises for us on the will of God, it always begins with the gospel
we do wait until we have a feeling to share it
we will never graduate from it
Paul is in Ephesus because he sees a great opportunity for the gospel to advance, despite some difficulties that he was facing
The Gospel is the Answer to a Lost World
The Gospel is the Answer to a Lost World
I always find it interesting that people will gage the will of God based on if it is safe for them to do so,
or at the very least if they have not had any “red flags” come up
typically what we call red flags are obstacles in the way of us doing something
obstacles that will make things more difficult
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.
I do not believe that this was written only for the church of Ephesus, that it was was written to the surrounding churches in Asia Minor, modern day turkey as well
but Paul did spend a lot of time in Ephesus, it was a very big city with a lot of things going on
one commentator said, “Imagine sending a missionary to Manhattan, a great city with a great need for the gospel.”
even if the letter was sent to surrounding communities, everyone would have been exposed to, and would have been effected by one way or another to the social life in Ephesus
To What was going on in Ephesus
Caesar Augustus
to a lot of people in Ephesus, this was the savior of the world
the calendar was changed according to his day of birth
he had statues built of him
while the people of Ephesus were trusting in Caesar the church was proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ
this would automatically put them at odds with the government
Goddess Diana
The Temple there one of the 7 wonders of the world
a goddess of fertility, people would come from all over the world to her temple in Ephesus
many people made a lot of money off of this, as they would sell hand made images and idols of her
read all about this in Acts 19
a riot was starting because the believers were spreading the gospel and people were leaving their idol worship and following Christ, it was costing these merchants money and caused them to rise up against the church
sorcery, idolatry, and demonic practices
Tell of the great things that the Lord was doing through Paul from Acts 19
Sons of a Priest attempted to do the same things
18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,
19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.
You see the answer to a lost a dying world, to a world that is chasing after other gods and evil spirits is not for us to hide or seclude ourselves, it is the gospel
God chose to have his people spread the word, to share the gospel with those around us
the gates of Hell cannot stop the gospel of Jesus Christ
this is God’s answer, his desire for the lost and evil world… the gospel
and his desire is that you would be a part of it
either by accepting him as your lord and savior
or if you are a believer, to share the message of Jesus Christ to those who are around you
The Gospel is the Answer to our Everyday Life
The Gospel is the Answer to our Everyday Life
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s prayer, or greeting to the people reading this is for “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I did not know at the beginning of the week how much I would preach on from this first chapter
I am making it through two verses… I will make it through more next week
I wrote out the first 14 verses
it was the second verse that hit me and the gospel jumped out at me
Grace and Peace are both unmerited gifts from God
we deserve neither, yet can receive both from him
I do not believe it is any accident that “grace to you,” comes before the peace
I have heard so many people talk about a stale faith… a boringness to their relationship with the Lord
I believe that this happens when we lose site of the gospel
you see, our pride tells us that we are mature enough to move on
“Preacher, the Bible says that we need to move on to meat and not be stuck on milk.”
as if the gospel of Jesus is just a simple concept and that we can move on from it
The gospel is the foundation of our faith and you cannot understand any other part of the Bible without it coming through the lens of the gospel
as we read scripture, we read all of it, the OT through the lens of the gospel
understanding that it is part of the story of God redeeming his people
as we pray, and feel like we are failing at it, we must remember the gospel
that we are not perfect people, we do fail, but the grace of God is with us in our failures and at that time we can actually be honest with God
just yesterday, as I was praying in the morning, praying for a fellow pastor, I remembered the last time that I really got to hang out with him was when we played golf
once my mind heard golf, I could no longer remember what I was praying about...
after a couple of minutes thinking about golf, I finally told God, “There goes my mind again. Lord, take my imperfect prayer as an offering for him, may your Spirit pray for what he needs right now, as you know greater than I what he needs
As we go through this book, you will see who we are in Christ
that God knows your brokenness, your shortcomings and all of the mess you have
that he saved you anyways, that it was never about what you brought to the table
and now that we are saved, how do we live that out