Church Beyond Imagination

Intro: We are starting a new sermon series through the book of Ephesians called “Beyond Imagination.”

And I’m really excited about this, but I have to admit... that is a pretty BIG sounding title… yes, I made it up… but I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with it at first.

It honestly SOUNDS like one of those pep you up “ra-ra” sort of titles that get’s the team going before the big game...

And I try to usually try to avoid things like because they usually end up just sounding like a bunch of hype.

But the more and more I thought about this sermon series and dwelled upon what God is communicating in the book of Ephesians, the more I was just drawn to it.

The title for the series comes from Paul’s prayer of worship at the end of the first half of the letter:

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think [understand, comprehend, IMAGINE], according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the CHURCH and in Christ JESUS throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20–21, ESV, amplification added)

So the Title of the series comes right from the book itself… but even still, it can feel a little too big.

Even though this verse is in the Bible, it can be easy for us to look at our week-in-week-out experience with church and just be like, “REALLY? Cuz I’m not feelin’ it.

It can be really easy to look at the idea of “church” from a human perspective:

At its BEST, we see it as a group of messed-up people who, by God’s grace, get together to worship God, listen to his word, and tell others about Jesus.

At its WORST, people see the church as an institution that has been used to abuse and oppress and divide people in the world.

Kids… students… maybe you look at church and think, “Yeah… I can think of a lot of other things that stir my imagination more. Church sometimes FEELS a little boring.”

But it doesn’t matter if you have a favorable or unfavorable view of the church: when we view “church” from a human perspective, our biggest ideas about the church are not big enough.

The book of Ephesians shows us that God is ABLE… and willing, for the sake of his glory… to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine.

It teaches us to view the church from God’s perspective…

Let me illustrate it for you this way:

This summer, our family went to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky… and we were able to get tickets to the Planetarium experience in the Creation Museum.

It was my favorite part of our whole vacation…

Because what they do is they start with a satellite image of the Creation Museum where you are sitting at the moment… and then they zoom you out by factors of 10 to the furthest reaches of the known universe.

And each step of the way, YOUR position gets smaller and smaller and smaller… until eventually, you can’t even see the earth… you can’t even see our galaxy.

And they are showing you beauty that God alone enjoyed for millennia before we ever had the technology to see it ourselves…

They even show clusters of stars and galaxies that just look like dots… no one has ever seen them, and will never see them… not even through a telescope…

And you just feel SO SMALL.

But then they zoom you back in… and they start sharing God’s heart for huanity… and how, EVEN with all of that universe under his control, he still cares about people… about each one of us… and that he has a plan to reconcile ALL OF THIS to himself through Jesus Christ.

THAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE is the goal of this series: to help us see that WE are not biggest thing in God’s plan… God and his GLORY ARE… BUT AT THE SAME TIME to see that he gets GREAT GLORY THROUGH THE CHURCH… and THROUGH CHRIST JESUS…

So if you have ever felt like church seemed dry and lifeless, this sermon series is for you.

If you’ve ever had a hard time motivating yourself to get up and gather with God’s people… or to prioritize your relationships with others in the church… this sermon series is for you.

If you have been hurt by something called the church that was not living out this plan, this series is for you.

And if you love the church with all your heart and give your time and energy and treasure to it… this series is for you...

Because even for you… even for me… God’s plan for the church is far more abundant than all that I could ask or imagine.

So here’s our goal for the series AND our big idea for today:

Big Idea: Pursue God's unimaginable vision for his church so that he might receive much glory.

Your Bibles are open to Ephesians 1… today we are going to cover just the first two verses… the introduction to the letter… and use that as a launching point to give some context and overview to the book.

Read Eph. 1:1-2.

That’s what we are going to study today.

And that might seem basic… it might seem trivial… but when we come to the scriptures, we have to know that not one word is wasted.

So these verses may not look like much to you, but they foreshadow MASSIVE THEMES that we can trace throughout the entire letter.

And so, by way of overview, we are going to use these words in the introduction like a diving board to launch us into our study this fall.

Hopefully you were able to familiarize yourself with this book this week through our reading plan… if you don’t have one of those, you can pick one up on our way out.

It will help you get the MOST out of our sermons each week AND it will help you stay in the word, both of which are important and I think are best when working together in tandem.

So for the next 45 minutes or so, our goals are to...

First, lay a solid groundwork of the context of the letter and...

Second, lay out three primary themes from the book of Ephesians… three ways we can expand our imagination so that when we think about church… and particularly OUR church, we are looking at it from God’s perspective.

So the first theme… the first way we must expand our imagination this Fall… is this:

Theme 1: Expand your participation in the plan of Christ. (v. 1a - “Paul, an apostle...”)

Explain: Paul begins the letter by introducing himself as the author… in those days you signed the letter at the beginning...

And he signs it like this: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”

Now you should probably read that and say, “Pastor Ben… I don’t see where you are getting your main point from… what does that greeting have to do with the PLAN of Christ?

To which I would say, “I’m glad you asked. It shows you are holding me accountable. But I want to show you that this greeting has EVERYTHING to do with the plan of Christ.”

Because Paul, the Apostle, plays a big role in revealing God’s plan in the present age.

Let’s start with the word “apostle.”

The word apostle simply means “sent one.” An apostle is a messenger. An ambassador.

And the degree of AUTHORITY that an apostle has, is then based on WHO SENT THEM and WHAT MESSAGE they carry.

Which is WHY Paul qualifies himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus.”

Paul was sent BY CHRIST JESUS… Christ means “the Promised, Anointed Savior King”...

And therefore the message tat Paul delivers in this book carries the very authority of the King of Heaven, Jesus himself.

Let’s NEVER forget this: when we pick up the Bible and turn to a letter like Ephesians, we are not MERELY reading the words of men…

These writers are MESSENGERS of Jesus… INSPIRED by the Holy Spirit… they speak the very words of GOD!

That’s why it’s LUDICROUS for anyone to say something like I heard one former pastor in our area say one time, “I don’t pay much attention to Paul… he’s just a man. I focus on the words of Jesus.”

To read the Bible… including Paul’s letter to the Ephesians… is to read the words of Jesus!

He WAS AN APOSTLE OF CHRIST JESUS!!!

That’s why we sing and pray, “SPEAK OH LORD!!!”

Because we believe that he IS SPEAKING through his living and active word.

Paul emphasizes this himself throughout the letter… that the words of the Apostles are the foundation upon which the church is built.

Now this gets even more clear when we recognize that the apostle writing this letter is not just any messenger… he is the Apostle PAUL.

Paul had a very unique calling as an apostle and a very unique role in the plan of God… which is why I believe he adds this second phrase to describe his apostleship: “by the will of God.”

God had hand-selected Paul to reveal his plan of salvation… not just salvation for individuals, but for the church, which is God’s plan for the present age.

To really understand this, we have to go back to Paul’s calling in the book of Acts.

You see, the now-Apostle of Christ Jesus USED to be a devout Jewish Pharisee who KILLED people for following Jesus.

And one day, on his way to beat up some Christians in Damascus, the resurrected and ascended Jesus appeared to Paul and literally knocked him off his high horse.

And Jesus struck him blind and sent him on ahead into the city so that a disciple named Ananias could tell him what to do.

Now when Jesus told Ananias that he was supposed to lay hands on Paul (THE PAUL) and restore his sight, Ananias was (understandably) a little bit scared.

So here’s what Jesus said to Ananias about Saul in Acts 9:15-16 -

“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

He is a CHOSEN INSTRUMENT OF MINE TO CARRY MY NAME… WHERE??? ...before the Gentiles.

Gentiles are everyone who is not a Jew. So you might say, “The nations.”

The Gentiles hearing the gospel and joining God’s people is very important to the book of Ephesians.

But for now, focus on Paul’s apostolic calling by the will of God: he’s God’s chosen instrument to carry the name of Jesus to the Gentiles.

Here’s a devout Jew who kills Jesus followers for fun… and now he’s going to carry the name of Jesus… not just to Jews… but to unclean GENTILES… people he would have NEVER interacted with before!

This calling is IRONIC in more ways than one… Because Paul’s story parallels a much bigger story… the entire plan of salvation that God had initiated through Jesus Christ.

You see, just like the pre-converted Paul, the Jewish nation had forsaken their role in God’s redemptive plan.

I want to show you this because if you are going to understand Ephesians… and you are going to understand the church… you need to understand the history of God’s plan to save humanity:

We call that the Redemptive-Historical Context of the book.

God’s plan to save humanity starts all the way back at the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis.

God created the first humans, Adam and Eve and told them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it.

They were to procreate an entire human race who would be God’s people on earth and reflect his image and goodness perfectly.

Their source of identity was found in their relationship to God.

They walked with God in the Garden and did his work.

But when he created, God made more than just an earthly realm where humans live… he also created a heavenly realm of angels who were designed to worship him around his heavenly throne and give him glory in a different way than humans.

And those two realms were created to interact, but were not the same.

Now all of the problems that we face on earth actually started through a great rebellion in the heavenly realm...

In Genesis 3, we are introduced to a serpent who tempts the woman who then tempts her husband to sin.

And that serpent is referred to throughout the Bible by a number of different names: Lucifer (an angel of light), Beelzebub (the Lord of the Flies), the Devil (or deceiver) the Dragon, and perhaps the most common that we use: Satan.

Satan rebelled against God himself by wanting to be god instead.

And when that did not succeed and he was promptly cast down from heaven, he then tried to tempt human beings away from God to do the same.

I want you to see that the problem that we face is more complex than some people eating an apple that God told them not to...

The problem we face is COSMIC in scope… it finds its roots in the heavenly realm: that’s very important to the book of Ephesians.

So in Genesis 3, sin enters the world. Adam and Eve give into the lie of Satan that they could be take God’s place… we call that the Fall.

And so God banished them from the perfect relationship that they had with him...

He put strife between them and himself… between them and each other… between them and the creation… and between them and the host of fallen angels called demons.

And the ultimate consequence of their sin was spiritual death: eternal separation from God.

The entire created order… the heavens and the earth... fell into chaos because of the sin of humanity. That’s VERY IMPORTANT because it explains so much of our day to day experience even now.

But God, in his MERCY, made a promise to set things right.

He promised that through the woman, he would send a son to crush the head of the serpent.

And that promise was repeated again and again throughout the ages.

It came to Noah after God wiped out most of humanity with a world-wide flood.

And then as the world repopulated, and sin continued to abound, the promise came to a man named Abraham.

God promised Abraham that he would be given land, an offspring, and a blessing… and that through Abraham’s offspring, all the nations of the world would be blessed… that Abraham’s family would include, not just his son Isaac, but a whole multitude of people as many as the stars in the sky!

God’s intent all along was that the NATIONS… not just Jews, but GENTILES... would be reconciled to him.

And that promise to Abraham was reiterated to his son Isaac, and to Isaac’s son Jacob, and to Jacob’s twelve sons… who became the nation of Israel.

The nation of Israel was called to be a nation of Priests and a light to all nations… they were SET APART FOR GOD to point people TO GOD.

UNDERSTAND: ISRAEL WAS THE PLAN through which God would fulfill his promise to Abraham and bless all the nations of the earth...

Specifically through the law and even more through the Tabernacle and Temple which was

But if you read the Old Testament, they fail at this on a number of fronts:

First, They aren’t faithful to God. They give into sin just like the rest of the nations.

They REGULARLY worship the false gods of the nations instead of the one true God… ultimately they were worshiping DEMONS.

The Bible says that behind every false god is a demon.

So here is ISRAEL, GOD’S CHOSEN NATION… WORSHIPING GOD’S SWORN ENEMIES IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES.

Not only that, but Israel also has this spiritual pride that just because of their bloodline, they are better than the rest of the nations.

They forget that they were chosen in mercy, not because of their pedigree.

Think the prophet Jonah.

Jonah is told to go to the Gentiles in Nineveh… he is REPULSED at the idea because he thinks he is better than them.

And so God continually warned Israel of this consequence: if you refuse to worship me alone and represent me to the nations, I will send you into exile.

I will give you over to the slavery of the false demon-gods you worship.

And he did… he sent them into exile in Assyria, in Babylon, in Persia… and even when they returned to their own land, they were under the foreign domination of Greece and then Rome.

And you need to understand… if you talk to a faithful Jew today, they would understand that they are still in exile to this day.

The temple is not restored… they do not believe their Messiah has come.

And therefore they are still incapable of representing God to the nations the way they should.

So here’s the plaguing question at the end of the Old Testament: if the people God chose to represent him to the nations can’t or won’t do it, how will God fulfill his promise to Abraham that he would be a father of many nations?

And how will God get the glory of the nations that he so rightfully deserves???

How will the heavens and the earth be restored?

Enter Jesus.

Jesus is God the Son, CRASHING THROUGH that distance between heaven and earth.

He is God tabernacling among his people… not in a tent or a temple… but in the flesh.

He succeeded everywhere Israel failed.

He completely fulfilled God’s law. He cast out demons. He healed the brokenness caused by the fall. And he forgave sin.

He made the perfect sacrifice for sin by sacrificing his own body. And he rose again to new life so that he could be the light of the world.

And the Bible says that his work had a profound effect: it rendered the gods of this world… Satan and his demons… powerless.

He triumphed over them in the cross and in his resurrection… he put them to open shame.

He crushed the head of the serpent. He took away the curse of death so that people could once again live in perfect relationship with God forever.

And as a result his resurrection, he is creating a new people… a new humanity… and beginning the process of reconciling ALL things to himself, things in heaven and things on earth. (that’s Ephesians 1:10, by the way).

And that new people is created when the good news of Jesus is PROCLAIMED and believed.

Everyone who believes God… just like Abraham did… becomes a child of Abraham and an heir of God THROUGH FAITH… because their FAITH is counted to them as righteousness… right standing with God.

So get this: Jesus IS the blessing that comes THROUGH ISRAEL AND THROUGH ABRAHAM to the nations…

There’s only one problem: Israel largely rejects their own blessing… especially the religious leaders of Israel like the Pharisees… Paul being a prime example before his conversion.

And so they remain in exile to this day until their eyes are opened to see that Jesus really is the Messiah they were waiting for all along.

In the meantime, the good news of Jesus goes forward to the Gentiles…

And that new people… a new humanity is formed... and that new people is called the church.

It’s not Israel, though it includes Jews.

It doesn’t replace Israel, though other nations receive the full benefits given to Israel.

The church is something NEW… Ephesians 2 calls it a “new man”: it is the gathering of Jews and Gentiles who put their faith in Jesus Christ and worship forever before his throne.

It is the obediently assembled household of God that includes both Israel and the nations...

And the church has been filled with the very SPIRIT OF GOD to be the very BODY OF CHRIST, and is given the responsibility of carrying God’s blessing to the nations in the present age... by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to all.

So the Church is God’s present plan to create a people for himself who will live together in a New Creation...

God will restore Israel and fulfill all his promises to them… they will continue to play a unique role throughout all eternity.

But God’s vision is bigger than Israel… his big plan is a New Heavens and a New Earth where God dwells with his people.

So why do I go into all of that?

Because you can’t understand Ephesians unless you understand how it fits in the whole big plan of what God is doing...

And also because that’s what Paul means when he says, “I’m an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.”

Paul is saying, “I once thought that I was something special because I was a Jew who opposed Christians… that was MY WILL.”

But now I understand that my only identity is in relationship to Jesus Christ… and my only job in life is to do his will.

And Christ’s will for Paul was CLEARLY communicated to him…

Paul highlights this again in Ephesians 3:8-10...

“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things… (Eph. 3:8-10)

God’s will for Paul as an apostle was twofold-

1) Carry the gospel to the nations, and

2) To reveal this mystery: that gospel of Jesus Christ creates a new people who are God’s plan… called the church.

AND WHY IS THAT HIS CALL?? Paul continues in chapter 3 -

...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God [the fulfillment of that whole plan of God that I just told you about] ...

...so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

That’s the angels and demons.

So here’s the bottom line of what I’m trying to say: Paul’s job as an apostle… and his purpose in this letter… is to reveal that what is happening in the church and in Christ Jesus is COSMIC in nature…

The gospel and the church are the COSMIC PLAN OF GOD.

By that I mean that the church is not just about what we see in this earthly realm… I mean it has massive ramifications for the glory of God in BOTH the earthly AND heavenly realms.

When spiritually dead people come alive, turn from their sin and start worshiping God...

When people stop fighting AGAINST God’s plan and start fighting FOR God’s plan...

When people stop fighting their sworn enemies and are instead reconciled to them in unity…

Something bigger than we can imagine is happening.

Something is happening through which God gets GREAT GLORY to the furthest reaches of heaven and earth!

Our SIN PROBLEM is COSMIC in scope… it extends to the heavenly places… and therefore, God’s PLAN of reconciliation is COSMIC in scope.

His plan is to create a people for himself from every tribe and nation and people and language who reflect his wisdom and grace to the furthest stretches of the heavenly places.

And so what does that mean for us, as we pursue God’s unimaginable vision in OUR church?

Apply: It means that we must expand our participation in the plan of Christ.

In your reading plan, I worded it this way: that he would expand our VISION of church ministry so that we each maximize our role in the body.

Just like Paul, our lives must be devoted to doing the “will of God”… which this book reveals is wrapped up in his plan for the church.

Why, after coming to understand God’s plan for redemption, would we want to devote our lives to anything else???

And just like Paul, we each have a role to play in the church.

We see this in the book’s structure:

The first half of the book (chapters 1-3) is all the theological truth about this big, glorious, beyond imagination plan God is accomplishing in the church. It’s largely “What God has done.”

The second half of the book (chapters 4-6) is all about how we are to live because that is true.

So here’s what I find fascinating… Paul’s description of the church in the first half of the book, is SO BIG… SO GLORIOUS… SO UNIVERSAL… SO HEAVENLY...

But when he goes to apply that in the second half of the book, it’s SO PRACTICAL… SO LOCAL… SO SEEMINGLY SMALL.

It includes things like being equipped as member of Christ’s body to do the work of the ministry

In includes things like regularly speaking the truth in love to one another.

It includes things like singing to one another and teaching one another in all wisdom.

It includes things like making sure our households are ordered right and that we are living out the gospel in our work relationships.

And so which is it? Is the church about these big cosmic universal realities or these small, localized moments?

To which Paul would say: It’s BOTH. At the same time.

What we learn is that the things that SEEM small in the church actually have MASSIVE effects in the spiritual realm that we do not typically imagine or think about.

And the more that we see and understand those effects, the more we are motivated to participate in God’s plan though one another ministry.

When you see that your singing on a Sunday morning isn’t just about making sure your voice doesn’t sound too bad to the people around you… and really it’s the channel by which we together experience the Spirit of God filling us… it increases your participation in that singing.

When you realize that the health of your marriage isn’t just so that you can have a happy home, but it’s about displaying the beauty of Christ’s relationship to his church… it motivates you in a different way to pursue God’s design.

And so our goal for this fall is that we all would expand our vision of church ministry so that we each maximize our role in the body.

Believer, you need to understand this: The church isn’t just some PART of your life… it’s not just some activity you do or organization you’re part of that you squeeze into the margins of your life when you have some spare time… The church IS God’s plan for the whole present age… and everything in your life must connect to that plan if you are to be found in the will of God.

We could say it this way: part of your IDENTITY IN CHRIST is that you are part of his church. And you must live that out practically if you are to be found faithful to him.

That leads us to the second theme I want us to look at this morning from the second half of verse 1… and these will flow faster from here:

Look down at verse 1 again… Paul writes, “to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus...”

Theme 2: Expand your wonder at your identity in Christ. (v. 1b - “to the saints… faithful in Christ Jesus”)

Paul addresses this letter to the Saints...

Now, that doesn’t mean dead people that you pray to like the Catholic church most often uses the word...

Saints simply means “those who are set apart as holy for the purpose of the Lord.”

Notice: the word is SAINTS… plural...

We are set apart TOGETHER… as a PEOPLE.

Secondly, Paul describes these Saints as “faithful.”

Literally, “full of faith.”

They believe Jesus and live out of that belief.

Their lives are devoted to him.

And these saints who are faithful are identified with a specific location: Ephesus.

Ephesus was a major city in Asia Minor. It was a port city with a lot of trade coming in an out of it. It was a happening place, and one of the biggest things happening there was the worship of the goddess Artemis.

That is, until the gospel had really shaken things up there.

About 8 years before writing this letter, Paul had spent two years in Ephesus preaching the gospel and establishing the church… and it had taken great effect, especially among the non-Jewish community.

The gospel had SUCH an impact that people were turning from the worship of Artemis to the worship of Jesus in masses...

And it actually so great a revival that it was hurting the local economy… it put a major dent in the silver-smithing idol-manufacturing industry.

So what we can learn from that event is that the church in Ephesus became FILLED with Gentiles… former idol worshipers… along with some Jews who had been prepared by the teachings of John the Baptist.

So the new Jew/Gentile dynamics of the church were on full display there.

Now it’s interesting… many of you have a footnote in your Bible telling you that the words “who are in Ephesus” is not found in the earliest manuscripts.

And it’s possible that those words are not original… but there is great evidence to support the idea that this letter DID go to Ephesus, and not only to Ephesus, but the churches in the surrounding region like Laodicea and Colossae.

It was likely an “encyclical” letter… it circulated between the churches… we saw something similar last week when Paul told the Colossian church to swap letters with Laodicea… it’s POSSIBLE that the letter that we know as “Ephesians” is actually that letter he was talking about there.

And we can draw this implication in the way Paul wrote letters to local churches: the church MUST be expressed in various locations… LOCAL CHURCHES… even as the church is BIGGER than any one location… it’s about the Church AND the churches… not either/or.

Saints who are faithful are called out for Christ in specific locations so that there is a VISIBLE EXPRESSION of his church there.

Now maybe you are like, “OK… But Paul calls these church members ‘saints… who are faithful’… but that’s not my experience of any local church I’M FAMILIAR WITH!!!

“I’ve been in church long enough to know that the people there don’t always act like saints… and they aren’t always faithful!”

Which is why we need those two ever-so important words on the end: IN CHRIST.

We can only be saints who are faithful if we are IN CHRIST.

This idea of being “IN CHRIST” or what theologians call “union with Christ” or “identity in Christ” is a MAJOR THEME of this book.

In Ephesians 1:3, we are “blessed... in Christ”...

1:4 - God CHOSE us IN CHRIST before the foundations of the world.

1:7 - We have redemption and forgiveness IN CHRIST.

In Ephesians 1:9, the purpose of his will is set forth for us “in Christ”

In Ephesians 1:13, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit IN HIM…

In Ephesians 1:20, God’s power comes to us through his work IN CHRIST.

In Eph. 2:6, we are both “raised up with Christ” and “seated in the heavenly places IN CHRIST.”

In Eph. 2:7, Paul says that God is going to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

In Eph. 2:10, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works...”

In Eph. 2:13, we Gentiles who were without God and who were far away from God’s promises have been brought NEAR IN CHRIST.

In Ephesians 3:6, we Gentiles get to receive the promises of God in Christ Jesus.

In Eph. 3:11, God’s eternal purpose for his people is realized IN CHRIST JESUS.

In Eph. 3:21, God gets much glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.

And in Eph. 4:32, God’s forgiveness comes to us “in Christ.”

Everything that you are… and everything that you do... if you are a follower of Jesus Christ… is the result of God attaching your life to the life of Jesus by faith.

The genuine believer’s ENTIRE LIFE is wrapped up in these words: IN CHRIST.

HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS is YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

HIS HEART is YOUR HEART.

HIS INHERITANCE is YOUR INHERITANCE.

HIS PURPOSE is YOUR PURPOSE.

HIS ARMOR is YOUR ARMOR.

HIS LOVE is YOUR LOVE.

Your IDENTITY is IN CHRIST.

But if you go back through that list of verses that I just mentioned, you will notice something very important that we often miss: they are all descriptions of a people TOGETHER.

We are SAINTS who are FAITHFUL IN CHRIST TOGETHER.

Don’t try to remove the promises of Ephesians from their context and individualize them.

You must enjoy the blessings and promises and purposes of God in Christ AS PART OF his church.

That’s the only way they can be truly obtained and experienced.

It’s like a football game… we’re into football season now, so it’s time for a sports analogy…

So if a team enjoys a good play… or if they win a game, the Quarterback can’t say, “YES! I am stoked about MY VICTORY over the other team!!!”

No… if he has any integrity he must say, “WE are STOKED about OUR TEAM’S victory over the other team.”

The same is true in the church… the blessings of God and the promises of God and the plan of God are experienced and enjoyed TOGETHER IN CHRIST.

Our common identity in him unites us together… and… in fact... it creates the common picture found in Ephesians that "the church is his BODY.”

Each of us are IN CHRIST in the sense that we aree PART OF his body.

The church… locally, globally, and universally, is an integral part of our identity in Christ.

And so this Fall, we want to keep exploring what that means so that we expand our WONDER at our identity in Christ.

Ask yourself, “How much do I make, on a daily basis, of being IN CHRIST? How much do I think about it, dwell upon it, cherish it, and allow it to drive my life?

And how much do I think about the fact that I am only ONE MEMBER… ONE PART… in his body?

How much do I consider that I am IN CHRIST together with other believers?

Because once we start to really grab hold of who we are in Christ, everything changes about our daily experience.

Our fears and anxieties change…

our desires and motivations change…

our priorities and pursuits change...

My definition of success changes.

My whole orientation to the world around me changes.

Being IN CHRIST… changes everything.

We will keep returning to this theme again and again so that we WONDER at it and that it CAPTIVATES our thoughts and changes everything about our daily lives.

Now, we can only be “saints who are faithful in Christ” if the gospel has come and changed our hearts.

The church is the called out assembly of BELIEVERS.

This is captured in verse 2: “grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here’s the third and final theme we want to look at today:

Theme 3: Expand your passion for the gospel of Christ. (v. 2 - “grace to you and peace from God”)

Explain: Paul, as he always does, is going to connect everything in this letter back to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church exists because God in his grace saved sinners and set them apart as a people for the Lord.

The church can experience peace because Jesus came to be the Prince of Peace.

That’s the gospel… the grace of God bringing about the peace of God. “grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Grace and peace are the heartbeat of the gospel (in chapter 2)

Grace and peace are the result of the gospel (in chapter 4)

I like how Howard Hoehner explains this verse… he writes, “Grace expresses the cause, God’s gracious work, and peace, the effect of God’s work. The grace of God that brings salvation to sinners effects peace between them and God, and that same grace enables believers to live peaceably with others.”

Do you see in this verse? Grace is the cause of God’s work and peace is the effect.

We mentioned it earlier from Ephesians 1:10 - God’s plan is to reconcile ALL THINGS IN HIM (IN CHRIST)… things in heaven and on earth.

That’s peace.

But these words “grace” and “peace” are so familiar to us that we can easily think too small of thoughts about them...

Which is why, over and over again, Paul uses the word “RICHES” to describe the gospel and its benefits.

That’s one of my favorite words in the book of Ephesians.

SIX TIMES Paul describes the grace of God and the resulting benefits of peace with God as RICHES.

When Paul says, “Grace to you, and peace” it’s not a little trite greeting that he is giving…

This is not like us saying, “I hope this letter finds you well…” simply because we don’t have anything better to say and it just seems polite.

This is something that Paul wants the church of Jesus Christ to KNOW and EXPERIENCE: the RICHES of God’s grace that result in the RICHES of God’s peace with himself and others.

And he will go to great lengths in this letter to make sure they get it… to make sure they VALUE the gospel enough to truly put it on display in their actions and words.

When we learn to value the gospel, when we expand our passion for the gospel in this way, we will be the church that God calls us to be.

We will put that gospel on display for all to see: in heaven and on earth.

We will live out of our gospel identity IN CHRIST.

And we will carry his gospel to a lost and dying world so that MORE PEOPLE can be added to the church of the saints and MORE PEOPLE can give God the glory he deserves.

So this fall, will you Pursue God's unimaginable vision for his church so that he might receive much glory.

As we close, I want you to write down your answer to this question:

What is the greatest thing you could imagine God doing in this local expression of his church?

By the way, I’m going to ask you to share this with someone… so actually do this.

Now, I hate to break this to you… but no matter what you wrote down… your vision for the church is, it's too small.

God wants to do more through this church than you could possibly write down… more than you could ask or imagine.

That doesn’t mean we don’t imagine… it means we keep expanding our vision to match what he wants in the church.

Let’s pray…

And as you pray, I want you to share what you wrote down with a few people around you.

And then I want you to pray for those things.

And I want you to ask God to expand your thinking about what he wants for the church.