An Introduction

To the book of Ephesians chapter 1 Ephesians chapter 1 I genuinely did debate On where we were going to go next I knew eventually we would get back To trucking our way through the New Testament But I had also thought about Doing a study on marriage Because I know that that's an issue right now In our world and our culture And so as I was praying about what to do And I was looking over Ephesians And looking over some things for marriage I thought you know If I just go through the book of Ephesians I'm going to eventually get to marriage And so I thought hey let's just keep trucking through scripture And doing what we do And Ephesians is such an amazing book It truly is an amazing book It truly is what I would call a pinnacle

A mountaintop of the New Testament If not maybe the mountaintop of the New Testament It divides really nicely two ways for us The first half is our riches in Christ The second half is living in light Of our riches in Christ But we really won't spend a great deal of time Starting into the book of Ephesians We're really just going to cover the first two verses today And I've given the title an introduction Because that's what we're going to do I want to introduce to you not only the book But I want to introduce to you the people of Ephesus The church of Ephesus And how Paul came to write this letter To the church of Ephesus And how he got to know these people so well And so we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 1

More people respond that way to the way that I teach I don't know what it is They just walk out crying Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus By the will of God To the saints who are at Ephesus And who are faithful in Christ Jesus Grace to you and peace From God our Father And the Lord Jesus Christ In these first two verses In this introduction Of course three things I want you to see We're going to see the writer We're going to see the recipients And then we're going to see the greeting So the first thing that I want to do Is I want to talk to you a little bit about the writer In verse 1 he just simply reveals himself as Paul An apostle of Christ Jesus By the will of God Now in our study in the book of Galatians

We spent a good bit of time at the beginning Talking about Paul So I won't spend a lot of time Going into Paul's story But I also don't want to take for granted The fact that everybody here knows who Paul is Because perhaps you were gone the first study In the book of Galatians And perhaps you just genuinely don't know So I don't want to take that for granted So I want to spend just a moment talking to you about Paul, the writer of this epistle And really the writer of a lot of epistles Paul, before he came to know Jesus Christ As his Lord and Savior Was a persecutor of the church As a young man he was well schooled in the law He was well schooled in his understanding of the Old Testament His understanding of the Old Covenant

His understanding of the law itself And in his understanding of the law When Jesus came on the scene He was highly opposed to Jesus Because in his mind he was one of those Pharisees And if you don't know what a Pharisee is A Pharisee was the conservative religious leader of the day Who held tightly to the Old Testament And did not believe that Jesus is the Lord And did not believe that Jesus is the Lord And did not believe that Jesus is the Messiah And because he did not believe that Jesus is the Messiah He was opposed to Jesus The first time that we're introduced to Paul We refer to him as his Jewish name Which is Saul In the book of Acts When he was consenting to the death of Stephen Stephen was the very first martyr

And he held the coats of those who stoned Stephen It was the first time that we were introduced to Paul But it didn't take long for Paul To reveal himself as one who hated the church And he went everywhere he could Seeking to arrest and murder Paul To imprison if not put to death Those who believed in the way Or those who were Christians And while he was on one of these journeys to Damascus In order to bring more people back To be imprisoned if not put on trial And put to death The Lord met him And while he was on that road A bright light shone in the sky And he was blinded by the light No pun intended And he hit his knees And as he hit his knees A voice came out of heaven That only he heard That said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Lord, who are you? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting Isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? Aren't you tired of fighting against me? Aren't you tired of fighting against my offer of salvation? Aren't you tired of fighting against the truth? And at that point in time Saul surrendered to Jesus And he says, what do you want me to do?

And he says, go on into town I'm going to send somebody That's going to tell you what to do But at that time Great scales had come upon his eyes And he truly was blinded Well, he waited for three days Three days in town And while he waited for three days A fellow that God worked in his heart Showed up to visit Paul And he preached the gospel to Paul And he prayed for Paul And those scales dropped from his eyes And as ardent of a persecutor As Paul had been of the church He became an even stronger preacher Of the gospel that he had at one time persecuted And so he went everywhere he could Preaching the gospel Including Ephesus And so the life of Paul can be summed up as From a persecutor to a preacher And may I say just as a sidebar

Is that not really the story of all of us That have come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior? Maybe you didn't persecute the things of God Maybe you didn't persecute people But this is who you were And now this is who you are Because that's the difference That the gospel makes in our lives And so he refers to himself as Paul And he gives himself a title An apostle of Christ Jesus The word apostle means a sent out one And in that vein Anybody can be an apostle Who is sent out on a mission from God However the distinct office that Paul And the other twelve apostles filled Was distinct to that time frame Because they had the distinct ability And authority To declare the truth of the New Testament To write the doctrine of the church

There are some today who claim to be apostles Who claim to have that sort of right They don't No one has that right The scriptures are now a set of rules A sealed book They will not be added to They will not be taken away from And so he refers to himself as an apostle And of course he's an apostle of one specific person Christ Jesus As a matter of fact Everything about Jesus Is what encapsulated the life of Paul now Everything about Jesus Is what defined who he was As an individual And so he's an apostle of Jesus Christ But there's one last qualifying clause That he uses there After he says an apostle of Jesus Christ He says By the will of God Now I think that that's important for us to pay attention to For a couple of reasons Number one

Because Paul didn't seek this out And that's really good to note Especially when you know everything that Paul went through You see Most of us don't seek out positions That will ultimately cause us to be persecuted Most of us don't seek out positions That will ultimately cause us to be beaten To be stoned To be whipped To be imprisoned To be shipwrecked And in Paul's case Potentially even killed and brought back to life Most of us don't seek out that kind of position Now the only time you land there Is when it's by the will of God And when it's absolutely For God's glory And for God's purpose Because God calls us To certain things in our lives And so it's important to note that it's by the will of God Because it wasn't Paul's idea

It was God's idea for him to do this But that brings me to something that I think is important For all of us All of you If you're a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning Have been called to something by the will of God You see, you didn't realize it But the day that you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior You actually entered the ministry You see, most of us view the ministry As those who are pastors And elders And Sunday school teachers Right? That's the ministry But what I'm here to tell you is Christianity is not a spectator sport Christianity is a ministry that you get involved in Because each of you is called to something By the will of God As a matter of fact I think one of the greatest things that you can do

Is seek God for what he's called for you to do Because all of you have been called to do something Some of you will fulfill roles like this Some of you may end up being pastors and teachers Some of you may end up leading small groups Some of you may become teachers of Sunday school classes Which as a sidebar, can I say Is the most important ministry in our church I'm sorry for anybody else that serves in any other ministry Myself included The most important ministry that takes place in this church Takes place at the other end of the hallway Because what they're doing down there When they do kids work When they do kids worship And when they do Sunday school Is they are making disciples of Jesus Christ On a level that's understandable to a little mind

On a level that makes sense to a little mind Because you know what happens when kids sit in here And I talk to them?

The entire time I watch it happen, right? You may not know this But I really do look at your faces, okay? So those of you that fall asleep I know who you are Anyway But some of you are going to be Sunday school teachers And do that sort of thing And that's amazing Some of you are going to serve in your calling By cleaning the toilets Some of you are going to serve In your calling By vacuuming the floors Or mowing the church yard Some of you are going to fulfill your calling By the will of God And it has nothing to do with this church It has everything to do with your neighborhood You are called to the ministry Of mowing your neighbor's yards You are called to the ministry Of going grocery shopping for your neighbors That can't get out for themselves

Whatever it is Each of you is called to something By the will of God And I get asked by young people all the time The exact same question Ryan, how do I know what God's will is for my life? And I always give them very similar answers And I always give them very similar answers I say, first of all, you need to pray about it You need to pray and ask God to lay a burden on your heart And as you pray and ask God to lay a burden on your heart Then you have to take steps of faith And as you take steps of faith into things Sometimes God will close doors Sometimes He'll slam them on your face And you'll have to say, well, that wasn't God's will And then other doors He will open And you will run through them wholeheartedly

And God will produce amazing fruit in your life because of it Whatever it is, it's time for all of us As believers in Jesus Christ To stop sitting on the sidelines And start saying, Lord, what's your will for me? What is your will for my life in this church In my community, in my family Because I want to be what you've called me to be By the will of God And so, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ By the will of God Now, there's one thing that's not included in this first verse That I think is important for us to point out about the writer And that's where Paul is writing this from Because Ephesians is the first of what we refer to as The prison epistles That means that Paul wrote this epistle While he was in prison You see, later on in the book of Acts

After Paul founds this church in Ephesus He's going to go to Jerusalem He's going to be falsely accused of some things He's going to be arrested After he's arrested under these false accusations He's going to appeal to Caesar When he appeals to Caesar, he's going to end up in Rome Only while he's in Rome, he's going to end up under house arrest Chained every day To a Roman guard And while he is every day Chained to a Roman guard He's going to pin the epistle Of Ephesians Why is that important? Well, because in the book of Ephesians Paul is going to write about our riches in Christ You know what most prisoners don't write about? Their riches Unless they're one of those mob guys And they have money waiting for them on the outside

Most people in prison don't write about their riches He's going to talk about the freedom that there is in Christ He's going to talk about the grace that there is in Christ He's going to talk about the joy that there is in Christ And what it looks like to live In Christ, in love And he's going to write All while he's chained to a Roman guard You know why? Because your attitude is not based on your circumstances Your attitude is based on your position Your attitude is based on who you are in Christ And too many of us Especially as Western culture Christians Base our attitude on our circumstances When everything's going great I have an amazing attitude When everything falls apart Surely God must be against me today Your circumstances don't matter

Don't, do not determine your attitude Your perspective determines your attitude The riches that you have in Christ And you knowing that Determines your attitude So Paul An apostle of Jesus Christ By the will of God And now we come to the recipient To the saints who are at Ephesus Who are faithful In Christ Jesus Now I'm going to give you a little bit of a secret About Bible study So when you come to the Epistle Which is what we're in right now Especially if there's the name of a city You should look up to try to figure out If there's any point in time in the book of Acts Where that is mentioned Because Acts is where many of the churches That these epistles were written to Acts is where we first see them mentioned in the Bible As a matter of fact

Well, so there's three different places of Scripture I'm going to have you write down And one of them I'm going to have you turn to That's going to teach us a lot about our understanding Of the book of Ephesus Because it's going to teach us About the Ephesian people So the first thing that I want you to write down is this I want you to write down Acts Chapter 18 Verses 17 through 22 I want you to write that in the margin of your Bible Or on your notes, wherever you want to do it And now comes a little bit of an exhortation Where it comes to your Bibles Now, I think everybody Should bring their own Bible to church I think you should own A physical copy of the Bible You say, Ryan, I use my Bible on my phone That's great

I'm not going to condemn you for that I'm going to say, I can't do that I can't use my Bible I mean, I can I have the capabilities I have the technology, right? And I use Bible study programs on my phone all the time But if I'm really going to read the Bible I can't use my phone You know why? Because when I'm on my phone, what happens? Oh, Instagram notification Fox News notification Target notification No, I silenced all those Weather channel notification Can I tell you how old I am real quick?

You know what fascinates me more than anything? The weather channel notification The weather channel notification The weather channel notification The weather channel notification The weather channel notification Polar bears like Coke Read more about it I think I will, right? Those get me more than anything in the world And I start seeing all those notifications You know what I am at that point in time? Distracted You know why?

Because I'm ADHD Have you noticed that about me? I can't focus on things like that So I think you should own a physical copy of the Bible And then you should write in that Bible Now, if you don't own a physical copy of the Bible You need to go out and buy one this week Okay? And I'm going to give you four ideas Of Bible notifications The Bibles that you should own You should either own A Thompson Chain Reference Bible And I'll send this out on Flocknote later too I did this first service And somebody goes I wrote down one of them Can you send the rest of them out? You should own a Ryrie Study Bible You should own a Schofield Study Bible And you should own the Open Bible You should own either one Or in my case All of those

And you can get them in sweet premium leather covers That you can then look at them and say And then look at and display And they're amazing You should own all of those Bibles If you cannot afford To go out and buy yourself a Bible I want you to reach down to one of these rows That has a Bible And I want you to take that And I want you to take it home with you Because that's your Bible Happy birthday from Calvary Chapel of Ark City Because I want you to own a copy of the Bible And then I want you to write down the verses That I tell you to write in the margins Because this is how you can study it for yourself Because my friends There is literally nothing more important in the world For you to do Than to spend time in the Word of God

Because it is your greatest strength It is your greatest place of understanding It is your greatest source of your knowledge Of the Savior who loved you enough To die for you That being said Write down those verses I'm just going to reference them I'm going to tell you what took place That's the first time that we see The city of Ephesus mentioned in Scripture Okay? So it's the end of Paul's second missionary journey And at the beginning of his second missionary journey He tried to go into Asia Asia is the province Where Ephesus was located But God prevented him God would not let him go into Asia Instead he had to go into Macedonia Which was really good Because when he went into Macedonia The churches of Philippi The church of Corinth

The church of Thessalonica Those were all started While he was in Macedonia But on his way back to Antioch Which was his home church From his second missionary journey He stopped in the port city of Ephesus And two of his friends That were traveling with him Aquila and Priscilla He left there And they sort of laid the groundwork For what would be The ministry of Paul in Ephesus That's the first time we see Ephesus mentioned in Scripture The second time that we see Ephesus mentioned Is Acts 19 Acts 19 Because Acts 19 Is Paul at Ephesus And while Paul is at Ephesus Acts 19 tells us the entire story Of everything that Paul did While he was at Ephesus So again I'm going to hit the high points for you To give you a little bit of background

About what took place at Ephesus So the first thing that happened When Paul showed up at Ephesus Is that he ran into 12 young men And these 12 young men Had an idea of who God is They had a firm understanding Of the old covenant And they had a firm understanding Of John the Baptist's teaching But they didn't really understand Jesus And they didn't really understand the Holy Spirit And so Paul asked them He said, have you received the Holy Spirit yet? And they said, we don't even know That the Holy Spirit's come And so he said, well let me tell you more about it So he did They accepted Jesus as their Savior And he baptized them And they were filled with the Holy Spirit That's what started his time in Ephesus Well then he comes in

And he does what Paul always did When he showed up to a new city Because Paul was Jewish by birth But he was called to the Gentiles So the first thing that he always did Is he always showed up to the synagogue Which was the meeting place of the Jews in any town And as he showed up to the synagogue He would begin preaching The gospel of the Lord And he would begin preaching The gospel of the Lord And he would begin preaching The gospel of the Lord And he would begin preaching The gospel of the Lord Well we're told that in Ephesus He preached the gospel in the synagogue For three months So three months of him At least every week, if not maybe every day He was reasoning with all of the people in the synagogue

But pretty soon those Jewish religious people Became hard towards him Like often times happen Because of their hard hearts And their rejection of the gospel and him He had to find a different place to teach But rather than leave He found a place called the school of Tyrannus Now Tyrannus is a place called the school of Tyrannus Now Tyrannus was a philosopher and a teacher And he had a lecture hall And so what Paul did is He rented out this lecture hall And in the afternoons He would literally reason and teach Reason with and teach the people And he did this for a period of two full years Every day Teaching them the word of God As a matter of fact His ministry was so extensive from Ephesus That we're told in Acts chapter 19 That everyone

In the province of Asia Heard the word of God It was a powerful ministry that took place It was an amazing ministry that took place there Matter of fact the ministry was so powerful That two really cool things happened The first thing that we're told is that Unusual miracles were worked By the hand of Paul Let me tell you what the unusual miracle was So Paul was a tent maker And it was hot in that Mediterranean sort of climate And so as he's working along His brow starts sweating He picks up a cloth and he Wipes it off And so people would start taking his sweat cloths And they would put them on people that were sick And God would heal them Now listen y'all If I'm really sick and I'm laying in a hospital bed

And you come at me with your stinky nasty sweaty business Just take it out of there okay I don't want any part of that It was an unusual miracle for that time only Right I don't want your sweat socks up on me But God did cool things there Now why did God do those kind of cool things there Why did God work that kind of an unusual miracle I think it's because of what really took place in Ephesus You see Ephesus Was the center of the worship of someone named Artemis We might know her as Diana Right and Diana was the goddess of light As a matter of fact there was a small stone That was a meteorite that had fallen out of heaven That they said came directly from Diana And they worshipped around this And they silversmiths made little statues of Diana

And that's what the people worshipped And so it was a really cultish satanic sort of an area And because of the cultish things that took place there God did powerful miracles To show that he was greater Than any of the satanic things that took place Well not only were there unusual miracles that were worked But all of these people that follow these cultish practices They started coming forward And you know what they did when they came forward They started confessing all of their sins They started confessing all of the things that they'd done wrong Because they realized they were living in sin And that their only hope was Jesus So they start confessing their sins And they bring all of their books That taught them the cultish things

All of the Netflix packages that they had And they bring all of their books And they lay them all down And they burned them As a matter of fact it said the pile was so big They gave the monetary amount in the book of Acts Now the monetary amount they gave in the book of Acts We would go It's a lot of silver But let me tell you what it was in our culture today The amount of money it would have cost to buy all of the books That all of these converts to Christ were following The amount of money it would have cost in today's dollar Would be between one and five million That's the revival that was taking place in Ephesus And as a sidebar I want to point something out here That's what the gospel always does The gospel takes people who are lost in sin

Accepts them as they are But doesn't leave them as they are It says come to Jesus But you have to leave your crap It says come to Jesus But you've got to leave your garbage It says come to Jesus But eventually you've got to shed all that junk Otherwise you didn't really come to Jesus And when we come to Jesus We have to burn all of the junk that we've left behind Because otherwise it will come back on us Otherwise we'll want to take it back Because the gospel says Come to Jesus Come as you are But Jesus says you're not going to stay that way Because I'm going to change your life From the inside out And so this powerful thing took place Well the last thing that took place In the city of Ephesus Is that there was a great uprising

You see all of the silversmiths All of the artists who are making All of these silver shrines Got together and said I don't know about y'all But my economy is dying right now I am not making any of the cash And so I don't know what we're supposed to do And they're like well it's that Paul guy's fault It's the guy that's in the school of Tyrannus' fault And so they put together this huge uprising That came forward And they gathered in this coliseum And shouted forever Greatest Diana of the Ephesians Well nothing came of it Everything dispersed But because of the great pressure That was on Paul at that point in time He had to leave from there When Paul left he went and checked out The other churches in Macedonia

And he was determined to come back to Jerusalem Because he wanted to make it back to Jerusalem Now on his way back to Jerusalem Is the last time that we see Ephesus mentioned In the book of Acts And this is what I want you to turn to I want you to turn to Acts chapter 20 Verses 17 through 38 Acts chapter 20 Verses 17 through 38 This is Paul's farewell To the Ephesian elders Starting in verse 17 It says this From Miletus he sent to Ephesus And called to him the elders of the church And when they had come to him He said to them You yourselves know from the first day Of the day that you have come That I set foot in Asia How I was with you the whole time Serving the Lord with all humility And with tears and with trials

Which came upon me through the plots of the Jews How I did not shrink from declaring to you Anything that was profitable And teaching you publicly and from house to house Solemnly testifying to both Jews And Greeks Of repentance towards God And faith in our Lord Jesus Christ And now behold Bound by the Spirit I am on my way to Jerusalem Not knowing what will happen to me there Except that the Holy Spirit Solemnly testifies to me in every city Saying that bonds And afflictions await me But I do not consider my life of any account As dear to myself So that I may finish my course in the ministry Which I received from the Lord Jesus To testify solemnly to the gospel Of the grace of God And now behold I know that all of you

Among whom I went about preaching the kingdom Will no longer see my face Therefore I testify To you this day that I am in Ascent of the blood of all men For I did not shrink from declaring to you The whole purpose of God Be on guard for yourselves And for all the flock Among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To shepherd the church of God Which he purchased with his own blood I know that after my departure Savage wolves will come in among you Not sparing the flock And from among your own selves men will arise Speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them Therefore be on the alert Remembering that day and night For a period of three years I did not cease to admonish Each one with tears And now I commend you to God

And to the word of his grace Which is able to build you up And give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified I've coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes You yourselves know That these hands minister to my own needs And to the men who are with me In everything I showed you That by working hard in this manner You must help the weak And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said It's more blessed to give than to receive When he had said these things He knelt down and prayed with them all And they began to weep aloud And embraced Paul And repeatedly kissed him Grieving especially over the word which he had spoken That they would not see his face again And they accompanied him to the ship

Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders There's a handful of things I'd like to point out to you He pointed out his own service there I served with humility and great tears He said I declare to you Everything that I possibly could As far as the gospel is concerned But then he warned them He said be on guard Because there are wolves that will come in from without And there are men that will rise up from within That will want to try to draw disciples to themselves Because listen, that's how Satan attacks the church He attacks the church with wolves from without And he attacks the church by putting tears within Right? False teachers within And he says Therefore watch out Be on guard Give them the word of God

And then he says that one last sad thing He says I'm probably never going to see you again Because I'm heading to Jerusalem And I don't know how that whole thing is going to turn out But this will probably be the last time that you see me Did you notice how the people of Ephesus responded? They wept Why? Because Paul wasn't just a guy that showed up for a few weeks Paul was a guy that lived there Paul was a guy that met there Paul was a guy that taught there He was a guy that taught there He was a guy that lived among the people That worked among the people That sweat among the people That bled among the people That cried when they lost loved ones And celebrated when they had weddings That celebrated when new babies were born

Because he was a part of the family of the church of Ephesus And I want to make a quick point of personal application here Before we get into the book Brothers and sisters If you want to love the body that's here In Calvary Chapel of Ark City Then you need to be a part of the body That's here at Calvary Chapel of Ark City You need to be a part of the body that's here You need to get involved with the people here You need to get to know the people here I know what happens on a Sunday morning I know what happens because I see it happens Although we're way better about it than we used to be What happens on a Sunday morning is You're new and you show up And you really hope no one talks to you Or maybe you really hope someone talks to you

But you put off the vibe that you really hope no one talks to you And then no one talks to you And you say, see, it was just another church And then some of you show up And you've been coming here forever And you say, see, it was just another church And you see the new person and you're like I should go talk to them I'm scared to go talk to them They look like they don't want to talk to me There's a lot of people in this church I've never met before Even though I've gone here for five years now There's a lot of people that I've never met before I won't take any time to get to know them And then church finishes And everybody, out the door Y'all, I'm here till one, okay? Except today Because I've dropped my daughter off at work

Other than that, I'm always here till one Because I'm sticking around talking to people And you should do the same thing Listen, you should be the people That I have to kick out of the church And be like, listen, take it to Pizza Ranch, okay? Like, finish this conversation there Because if you want to love the body here And if you want to be loved by the body here You've got to get involved in the body here And it doesn't matter what church it is If you want to love the church You have to be involved in the church You have to get messy with the church You have to cry with the people that lose loved ones You have to celebrate with the people that get married You have to celebrate with the ones That have had new babies You have to come alongside them

You have to come alongside the new moms And love on them Because quite frankly They're going through hard times You have to come alongside the new dads And tell them how They need to keep doing their job And don't give up even though it's hard You need to come along The parents who have teenagers Sweet Jesus, come alongside the parents That have teenagers And tell them, listen This isn't going to last, okay? I promise you're going to make it through this You need to come along The parents that have grown kids That they don't know how to parent anymore And they don't know what their relationship Looks like anymore And they don't know what their relationship looks like anymore And everything just changed We need to come alongside the young woman

Who's been divorced Whose husband left her And now she doesn't know what she's going to do with her life You need to come alongside the young dad Who lost his wife unexpectedly And now doesn't know how he's going to raise his kids And doesn't even know how to make a grocery list Let alone know where anything is in the grocery store You see, that's the body loving each other And that's how you become like the church in Ephesus But you have to get involved with each other If you want to love the body You've got to get involved in the body That goes for pastors and congregation And so, with that being said There's two things I take note of about Paul With this farewell address to the Ephesian elders Number one I take note of his deep love for the people

He had such a deep love for the church in Ephesus But the second thing I take note of Is the deep concern he had for the people Because, listen Once you've ministered to people They're always your people Once you've ministered to people They're always yours All of my youth group kids know That once they've graduated high school In my mind, they're always freshmen in college They're like, Ryan, I've got three kids now I don't care you're still a freshman in college Because you're still one of my kids And you'll always be my kids Because I poured into your life And that's never going to change And my concern for you is never going to change My concern for the people that I minister to Is never going to change And that's the way Paul was

That's why, later down the road Paul's going to write them this book of Ephesians Because he's concerned for them He knew that everyone that followed him around Would lead them in the false doctrine All the people that followed him around Would pull them away from the truth Would pull them away from the simplicity of Christ Would pull them away from the riches that they have in Christ And so what did he do? He wrote the book of Ephesians Because of his deep love And his deep concern for the Ephesian people And what's he going to tell them about? The riches in Christ And how to live According to the book of Ephesians To their riches in Christ Which that brings me Go back to Ephesians chapter 1 Which that brings me

To the second part of this aspect of the recipient And that's He talks to them about being in Christ I'd like to read the second half of verse 1 to you again It says To the saints who are at Ephesus Who are faithful in Christ Jesus There's three ways he refers to The people in the church of Ephesus He refers to them as three different things The first thing he refers to them to Is saints They are saints Now I don't know what you picture in your mind When you picture a saint But I know what a lot of the world pictures in their mind They picture somebody who's pious and perfect, right? I think within the Catholic Church In order to be made a saint You have to have lived a long life of following Jesus And have two confirmed miracles

At least that was my last understanding That maybe has changed That's what it takes to become a saint And so for many people If you know that kind of a That kind of a criteria for being a saint You would say, well, I can't ever be a saint As a matter of fact, all of us as Christians always say Listen, I'm no saint because I'm not perfect Right? No one's perfect But I'm here to tell you That what Paul calls the Ephesian people Is the same thing that you are You are a saint The word is hagios in the Greek And it was an old Greek word That they used to refer to anything That was dedicated to the gods If a building was dedicated to the gods It was hagios Literally, set apart to the gods If you brought a sacrifice to the gods

It was hagios, set apart to the gods If you became a servant of the gods You became hagios Set apart unto the gods Well, Paul now takes this word That was very familiar in the Greek culture That was very familiar to the Greek mind And he refers to all of those who believe in Jesus Christ As hagios, set apart Holy ones That's what the word literally means Have you ever looked at your life and thought I am a most holy thing Usually we would call that bragging, right? But it's not bragging if that's what Jesus calls you Because I actually think the bigger problem That we have in the church today is Most people don't view themselves as holy And sometimes they're okay with that Listen, nobody's perfect, right? I was a little sinning

No, you're a most holy thing So Paul sanctifies that word And it's no longer set apart unto the gods Now it's set apart unto the God It is set apart unto the one true God Because that is who you are You are a most holy thing Set apart unto God If you put your faith in Jesus Christ If you've been born again I'm going to give you a fun theological term, okay? You can impress your friends with this later It's called positional sanctification That's what this word saints refers to It refers to positional sanctification It means that you are in the positional sanctification A position of being set apart unto God The moment that you got saved, that's what you became Holy, set apart unto God There's a second theological term that you need to know

It's called practical sanctification That means that you now need to live like what you are Once you've been set apart unto God Now you need to live set apart unto God Because you, brothers and sisters, are saints He refers to them as saints The second thing that he refers to them as is faithful Now usually when we hear that word faithful We think about being trustworthy or reliable And while that is oftentimes the way faithful is translated In the New Testament scriptures And absolutely something that we should be And I might talk about that in just a second That's not actually the meaning of that word faithful here The meaning of that word faithful here is One who has put their faith in something Literally full Of faith

You've put your faith in something I'll shorten it for you even more A believing one Those who are believing ones But listen, we have to pay attention to what our faith is in Because your faith has to be in something that is worth putting your faith in And their faith, of course, is in Christ Jesus Now, I'm going to tell you That if your faith is in Christ Jesus And you are set apart unto God Eventually you should become faithful And be reliable and trustworthy Right? That's the fruit that's produced in your life But he refers to them, first of all As saints set apart unto God Second of all, those who have their faith in God And then there's one last phrase that he uses for them And that phrase is In Christ Jesus In Christ Jesus The word in

Is a primary preposition Denoting position Let me tell you what I mean by that This morning when you woke up Your alarm was going off And you were like You were in bed Right? That's where you were That was the position that you were in And then you got up and made yourself coffee And sat down on your couch in your living room You were in the living room Right? And then you got in your car and you came to church You were in your car And now that you're here, you're sitting in the sanctuary Some of you are in a state of sleep Right? I mean, that's what you're in right now I'm just kidding Nobody's asleep right now I'm really proud of that That's where you are And the position that you've been placed into is In Christ Jesus

That means that when God looks at you He only sees Jesus He doesn't see you in your sin any longer He sees you in Christ This phrase, in Christ Jesus Is going to be oft repeated throughout the book of Ephesians As a matter of fact, some might say That it is the key phrase in the book of Ephesians Because every single person in the world Every single person in the world Every single person in the world Every single spiritual blessing that we've been given That he is going to talk to us about Throughout the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians Come about because we are in Christ Because we are in the club So I want to ask you a question this morning Are you in Christ? Not are you in church Not are you sitting in your chair

Not are you in a family that all believe in Jesus Are you in Christ? Have you come to a place where Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior Because you see, Jesus doesn't have grandkids He doesn't have nieces and nephews He doesn't have cousins He only has kids And you are either in Christ Or you're not in Christ And if you're in Christ You have every spiritual blessing that you can imagine If you're not in Christ You are under God's wrath And you just need to know that And so if you're here this morning And you've never come to Jesus Christ And today's the day for you to be in Christ Because if there's one thing that I can continue to impress upon humanity It's that none of us is guaranteed tomorrow And so he says To the saints who are at Ephesus

Who are faithful in Christ Jesus The fact that they're in Christ Is what makes them saints And faithful ones The third thing that we see Is the greeting He gives this greeting Notice what he says in verse 2 He says Grace to you And peace From God our Father And the Lord Jesus Christ There's two words that Paul seems to always greet churches with And they're the words Grace And peace Some call them the Siamese twins of the New Testament Because that's what Paul always uses So let's spend just a couple of minutes talking about these two words And why it's important that he uses these two words The word grace is the word In the Greek charis And it literally means unmerited Unmerited favor Unearned favor And it was an important

Powerful word in the Greek language Because anyone that bestowed something upon you That you did not deserve Was considered to be the greatest of people Because they granted grace To you And brothers and sisters For us that grace Is our power for daily living It's the power that we have To do everything that we need to do As believers in Jesus Christ And I'll say the same thing that I said At the very end of the book of Galatians And I'll probably repeat this multiple times It's his grace that's called you It's his grace that saved you It's his grace that empowers you It's his grace that preserves you It's his grace that teaches you And as that great hymn writer of amazing grace said It's his grace That will lead you home

Because grace is the greatest thing That we need more access to In our lives Grace to you Through Jesus Christ our Lord The second greeting that he gives Is he gives the greeting of peace The word peace is inner rest And man could we use some inner rest right now Amen We could use some inner rest Listen The day that you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior Those of you that have put your faith in him You began to be at peace with God Because up to that point in time you were at war with God And again if you're here this morning And you've never come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior You may not realize this But you're at war with God And quite frankly you're at war with yourself But once you came to Jesus Once you surrendered to him

Once you signed the peace treaty and said I give up you win You're at peace with God But you don't necessarily have the peace of God You see our peace with God never goes anywhere But the peace of God can sometimes be conditional Based upon our circumstances And how much we trust God in the midst of those circumstances And so he wishes peace with God peace upon them, because no matter what circumstances they're in, which by the way, where's Paul right now? Prison. He says, grace to you and peace. And where do both of those things come from? God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting to take note

that he first of all wishes them grace, and then he wishes them peace. Because as has often been said, you can't know the peace of God until you first know the grace of God. But there's a little bit of something deeper also within this grace and peace greeting that he gives to them. There was a major racial division that took place in the world, the Mediterranean world at the time that Paul was writing these letters. One of the greatest racial divisions that the world has ever

seen. And the greatest racial division of that time was between those who were Jewish and those who were Gentiles or the Greeks. And that racial divide was deep. You see, the Gentile people hated the Jews because they were weird. They did weird things. They wouldn't cut the corners of their beard. I don't know if you've ever seen an Orthodox Jew, but they have like curly hair hanging down to here, and they wear the phylactery on their head. They wear

the funny little hat. They wouldn't work on the Sabbath day. They have odd sacrifices. And the persecuted them for it. The Jewish people knew that they were God's chosen people, and rather than using that as a platform to declare the truth of God, they instead used it as a platform for and they hated Gentile people. And they referred to them as the things that God would use

to stoke the fires of hell. That's a pretty deep racial division. Amen? And so when Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he knows there's going to be at least two different types of people that are there. There's going to be Jewish people that are there. And there's going to be Gentile people that are there. Well, the typical Gentile or Greek greeting of that time

was to say, grace to you. And the typical Jewish greeting of that time was to say, shalom, peace to you. So when Paul says grace and peace from our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, he's saying, whoever you are, Jew or Gentile, this message transcends the racial divide. This message transcends any of the racial issues that you have, any of the division that you have.

Because what I'm about to write to you about your riches in Christ is for everyone who is in Christ. Whatever your social background, whatever your color of skin, whatever your ethnic background, whatever you have, this message is for everybody. And I'm reminded that the gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for the black guy. The gospel is for the white guy.

The gospel is for the guy that's from Asia and the guy that's from America. The gospel is for men. The gospel is for women. The gospel is for straight sinners. And the gospel is for gay sinners. The gospel is for those who know what their gender is. The gospel is for those who don't know what their gender is. The gospel is for those who are determined and conservative in their thinking.

The gospel is for the liberal. And you know what? The gospel is even for the people who have transitioned and even had sex change surgeries because Jesus can still change their life. Because whatever they've done to their physical body, their soul can still be saved. And this brings me to what I always talk about at the beginning of June. Because we all know what June is, right?

I was going to wear my t-shirt today. Not the t-shirt you're thinking. I was going to wear my t-shirt today that said, your life has value. And I forgot to grab it this morning when I was picking out my clothes last night, which I have to do the night before because I'm too confused on Sunday mornings to pick out my own clothes. I should have grabbed that t-shirt

because, you know, June is Sanctity of Life Month, right? Because in June is when we overturn Roe v. Wade. And it was a beautiful thing. But the rest of the world, the rest of the world looks at June and they call it Pride Month. And my friends, I think if there was one area where the church has really stepped in the poo, it's the way that we've handled homosexuality and transgenderism.

Because we've usually done one of two wrong things. We've either, number one, just accepted it and said, be who you want to be. Or number two, we've ignored it and hated it and pushed it away from us. And brothers and sisters, that's not what we're called to do as gospel saints. We're called to love the unlovable. We're called to love everyone and give out the gospel to everyone

no matter what their background is. We were at that conference yesterday up in Wellington and the guy that led worship got up and shared something. He said, I feel like the Lord's given me a word to share here. And so I just want to share it with you guys. He said, many of us have watched the Jesus Revolution movie. Of course, we're all a bunch of Calvary guys.

Of course, we've watched it. He said, I know a lot of you have watched the Jesus Revolution movie and there's a lot of you that have watched it. And I think that's a lot of you that have watched it. And I think that's a lot of you that have watched it. There's one scene I want to point out to you. And it's the scene where Lonnie's talking to Chuck. And he says, my people don't feel welcome at your church.

Your doors are closed to us. And until you're willing to open the doors to us, my people will remain unreached with the gospel. He said, friends, I think our doors are closed to this new counterculture that's out there today. And that's the LGBTQ community. And what we've done as the church is we've told them you're too lost. You can't be saved. You're too gross.

You can't be saved. If you're not going to find your identity in Christ and you're going to find it by changing your sex, then you're not part of us and you can't be part of us. And listen, until we're willing to open our doors and say, I don't care how lost you are in sin. I don't care how deep the decay goes into you. I'm still going to love you and I'm still going to give you the truth of Jesus Christ.

I'm not going to be willing to let you stay that way. But I'm still going to speak the truth to you. And I can still call you my friend, even though I disagree with your lifestyle. Friends, it's the beginning of Pride Month and my challenge is always the same. It's time for us to dedicate that every day you are going to pray for the LGBTQ community. Not for their destruction, but for their salvation.

My wife and I watched What is a Woman the other day, which by the way, I highly recommend it, but you need to know it handles very, very sensitive subjects in very, very bold ways. And so you need to be warned that if you're easily shocked, you might not want to watch it. But the most heartbreaking thing that you'll see in that entire movie is someone who had transitioned from being a woman to a man and the great regret in this person's life. And people like that need to know you're not beyond saving.

You're not beyond the gospel. Because the gospel reaches to everyone. And listen, I don't think that's the last time that we're going to see that. Do you know that the suicide rate for those that either begin the hormone drugs or those who have already transitioned is skyrocketing? You know why? Because they didn't have an identity anywhere else. They thought they'd find it in this

and they still haven't found it. And they need to be told your identity is in Christ. And you need to be told that. And you need to be told that. And he did not make a mistake when he made you. You are not a mistake. You are fearfully created by a loving Savior. So every day this month, every time it comes up, every time you see a flag, every time you see a post,

every time you see something you disagree with, pray. And pray hard. Pray hard for the salvation of those caught up in this lifestyle. Amen? Well, it's Communion Sunday. And so I'm going to invite Jared to come up. And I'm hoping that kids are being rounded up currently. I've got a thumbs up on that.

So we'll give the kids just a minute. I see a parade about to head this direction. So moms and dads, if you would kind of keep your eye on that door. So that kid, come on in kids.

Push. There you go. Come on in. It's a small parade right now. No, there has to be more of a parade than that coming.

I know the minute I get there, I'm going to have to start. Yep, here they come. Oh, and we have some sort of weapons. Swords, torches, something that's going to be awesome. Come on in, kids.

Nora, come sit with Grandma and Grandpa.

Other side, MJ. All the way to the back. I don't know of names here.

They're still coming, I think.

One more crew.

We've got Heidi's at the back.

Heidi, she's all the way up here, kiddo.

I try to know all their names, but it's getting a lot harder. I don't even know who you belong to.

Never mind, switch to Grandma and Grandpa. You're good. I can only imagine what the people online are thinking, right? Like, what is that guy doing?

Okay.

All right, gang, it's Communion Sunday. And communion, of course, is the celebration of the unity that we have in Christ. Inside these trays are a couple of cups. The bottom cup has the cracker, and the top cup has the juice. And they are representative of what Jesus did for us. On that last great night of the feasts, it says that Jesus took the bread and he broke it.

He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Take and eat. Do this in remembrance of me. Then he took the cup, and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood that is shed for you. Take and drink. And we're told that as often as we partake in this meal that we proclaim, we declare the death of Jesus Christ. Because the only reason we can be in Christ

is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. And so we're told that we are to partake in this in a worthy manner. And so if you're here this morning, and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, like we've talked about, you've never come to that place where you are in Christ, then honestly, this meal isn't for you. It can be for you if you make that decision today.

And listen, it's as easy as this. It's as easy as confessing your sins and asking him to be your Savior, putting your faith in Jesus. But if you're here this morning and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, the way that we partake in a worthy manner, is that we make sure that our heart is clear before the Lord. And so as Jared plays this last song, and as the ushers come forward to hand out the elements, I would ask that you would ask God to search your heart and see if there's any wicked way in you.

Because we want to make sure that our hearts are clean before God as we declare our oneness with him and the oneness that we have with each other. And so I'm going to ask the ushers to come forward as they hand out the elements, if you would please stand, and then we'll partake together. Because he lives. I can face tomorrow. Because he lives.

Because I know the future. Life is worse. Because he lives. God sent his son. They called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive. He bled into bone. My grave is there to prove my sin.

Because he lives. Life is worse.

How sweet to hold. How new and joy he gives. He's a spirit.

This child can face a certain day.

No.

His worth is worse. Because he lives.

Would you bow with me?

Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, your hands and feet, that were pierced. Your side that was pierced. Lord, for bearing the crown of thorns on your head and the beatings on your back. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, I thank you for your blood that was shed. Lord, your blood that is enough

not only to cover our sins, Lord, but to do away with them forever and ever. And Lord, I just ask that as we partake in this meal, may we be ever more mindful of our sins. Of the great sacrifice that you've made for us. And ever more mindful of the body of Christ that has made one in you. Father, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

Before I pray us out, I've been liking to do this and I want to do it again. I just want you to take a minute. I want you to look around you. Because it's your family. These are your people. This is who God has seen fit to put you in a family with in this congregation right here. Take time to get to know your family. Amen? Take time to love on your family. Because of Jesus,

we may come from a lot of different backgrounds, but we're unified through him. And Lord, I want to pray that you would be with us as we go out from this place. Lord, may your grace and your peace rest upon each person. And may we be drawn near to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.