Supporting Texts: Acts 26:16-18; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 4:7; 1 John 2:15; 2 Peter 1:2-3.
On February 27, 2005, I stood in this very pulpit and delivered my second sermon as the pastor of High Prairie Church. On that morning, I believed the Lord was leading me to begin a study of the book of Ephesians, and so my text was the first three verses. After much prayer, I am convinced the Lord wants us to pursue a study of that wonderful book of Scripture once more.
There are two main reasons for us to study Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. The first reason is that Christians must come to understand their identity in Jesus Christ and comprehend the divine riches He has put at their disposal.
Far too many Christians have allowed the world to impose on them its own identity. While the Bible tells us that we should “not love the world nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15), yet we permit the world to tell us who we are. The world tells us to fit in with everyone else, to get along and to be careful not to live our Christian lives with too much boldness. Many of those who believe in the Lord Jesus do not want others to know that they are Christians and that they do trust in. Perhaps out of a sense of shame or maybe out of fear, many live hidden Christian lives and fail to realize the awesome and eternal position they have been granted as those who have been reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ. Our failure is that we do not trust that God has granted us a new identity in Jesus Christ. Maybe we are just too absorbed with ourselves.
The British pastor of the previous century, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Much of the trouble in the church today is due to the fact that we are so subjective, so interested in ourselves, so egocentric. Having forgotten God, and having become so interested in ourselves, we become miserable and wretched and spend our time in shallows and in miseries. The message of the Bible from beginning to end is designed to bring us back to God, to humble us before God, and to enable us to see our true relationship to Him. And that is the great theme of the epistle to the Ephesians.”
Our understanding of our identity in Christ leads us to also understand the great riches we have in Him. Let me give you an illustration that happened to me years ago. Early in our marriage, Linda and I lived on Miami Beach and those were difficult days in our lives. Our third child had been born with very serious medical problems that forced her to remain in the newborn intensive care unit at the hospital for over a month. When she finally came home, she was so small, she could be held comfortably in one hand. My wife had to attend to the baby’s medical needs while caring for our two older children. I often prayed for God’s help, but sometimes it seemed that there were no answers. During those days, someone gave me two bicycles to which I attached children’s seats. For a small break, on weekends, Linda and I would take the three children for rides; two with me, and one with her. On one of those rides, we passed an apartment building which had police and paramedics parked outside. We wondered what had happened.
The next day, the newspaper carried the story that explained why the police were at that apartment. An elderly man had died, and after several days, other tenants discovered his death. The newspaper report lamented that there was no furniture in the apartment besides a mattress on the floor and a small kitchen table with two chairs. Scattered about on the table top and counter tops were cans of dog food, some opened and empty, and some unopened. A single spoon was in one of the opened cans. Somehow this dear old man had fallen through the social safety net and spent his last days eating dog food. It was really quite sad.
Two days later, there was another article in the newspaper about this tragic event. The manager went into the apartment to remove the few articles of furniture in order to begin preparing the place for a new tenant. When he moved the mattress, he was shocked to find thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in and under the mattress. When it was all counted, it amounted to more than two hundred thousand dollars. The man had died eating dog food while sleeping every night on a fortune.
How much this is like Christians in our day! We find ourselves spiritually starved and completely powerless while trying to live the Christian life in our own strength. We run into problems we cannot solve, find questions we cannot answer, and face life’s difficulties with no strength. In times like these, many wonder if the God of our Christian faith can actually help us. And yet, God has freely given us the riches of His grace. I draw your attention to the book of Ephesians in the hopes of helping you unlock the door to the great spiritual riches God has already given you.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul speaks of “the riches of God’s grace,” “the unfathomable riches of Christ,” and “the riches of His glory.” He calls the believer to “attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, to be filled with the Spirit,” and to be “filled up to all the fullness of God.”
In this epistle alone the word riches is used five times, grace twelve times, glory eight times, fullness, filled up, or fills six times, and the vital phrase, in Christ, fifteen times. Christ is the source, the scope, and the guarantee of every spiritual blessing and of all spiritual riches, and those who are in Him have access to all that He is and all that He has.
Ephesians is also about our place in His church. When people hear the word “church,” most of them immediately think of a building. But “church” in the New Testament never referred to tall cathedrals that point to man’s great genius rather than God’s grace. The church, dear friends, is the people inside; and only those people who have received Christ as their Savior. The building in which the church meets is irrelevant. The church is the people who join together to worship the living and true God. As we pursue our study of this book, we will discover what God designed the real church to be and what it is supposed to do. I hope you will join me each week as we unfold the truth on its pages together.
For today, we will look at the first two verses, which make up the book’s salutation. In it we will discover four pairs of thoughts woven together by the Apostle Paul: two sources of his authority, two descriptions of believers, two blessings for believers, and two sources of the believers’ blessings. We begin with two sources of the apostle’s authority.
TWO SOURCES OF PAUL’S AUTHORITY. Ephesians 1:1a
The Book of Ephesians. There has never been any serious question about the authenticity or canonicity of the book of Ephesians. Most serious scholars who have studied the book conclude it was written by the Apostle Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome in about 63 A.D. The book contains several important theological themes: the identity of the believer in Christ, the doctrine of the church, God’s gracious sovereignty, the centrality of Christ’s work of reconciliation, the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and the distinctive ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the first century, the Roman city of Ephesus was a large and important political and commercial center. Located on the western coast of Asia Minor, it was the capital of proconsular Asia and a part of a very prosperous region. During his missionary journeys, Paul spent much time in Ephesus, establishing churches and training church leaders.
An Apostle of Jesus Christ. “Apostle” is a compound word in the original language, and has the meaning of one sent forth on a mission. In the New Testament it means a person who has been personally sent out on a mission by the Lord Jesus and who bears the message about Him. The twelve apostles selected by the Lord had full authority in oral and written proclamation. They had authority to establish and build churches. They were responsible for training and equipping the leaders of those churches.
In this introduction to Ephesians, Paul had in mind the office of apostle and declared that he was an official delegate of the Lord, possessed by Jesus Christ for the purpose of spreading the message of Christ and His redemption. As an “Apostle of Jesus Christ,” Paul was a fully authorized and commissioned ambassador sent out by Christ Himself. Along with being authorized by Jesus, Paul was accountable directly to the Lord Jesus for his message. Paul’s undeniable credential was that He was an apostle of Christ Jesus.
By the Will of God. Paul did not choose to be an apostle: he was chosen to be an apostle by God’s will. This means that Paul was an apostle because God wanted him to be. “By” designates the divine cause by which Paul received his apostleship. Paul described his calling that came to him soon after he received Christ as his Savior: Jesus told him, “I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:16-18).Clearly, Paul was an apostle because of God’s sovereign choice.
Paul did not point to the will of God in order to draw attention to his unique status but to reflect his awareness that his mission did not arise from any personal qualification or desire on his part. He endured the rigors of the apostolic life because he knew he was completely surrendered to God’s will.
TWO DESCRIPTIONS OF BELIEVERS. Ephesians 1:1b
Saints. What do you think of when you read or hear the word “saint”? What the Bible means by saint is different from what many think in these days. A saint is simply an ordinary Christian, who was made a saint by God’s grace the instant he or she placed their faith in Jesus Christ. There is a large denomination that claims a saint is a particularly holy person who is exalted to be a saint by ecclesiastical procedure. A person is nominated for the position, then a trial is held in which an advocate pleads the virtues of the nominee and another, called the “Devil’s advocate” tries to tear the person down. If the person’s worthiness is properly established, a vote is taken, and, if elected, the person is declared a saint. But the Bible knows nothing of this definition of being a saint.
In Scripture, every Christian is a saint. Since there is nothing inherently or intrinsically holy about any person, being a saint is a status granted to them by God’s grace because they have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Each and every Christian has been granted this position as a saint and is called upon to act in a saintly manner. Are you a Christian? Have you trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior? Then, no matter how young or old you are, in God’s eyes, you are a saint, like every other Christian who is saved by grace.
As a true believer in Jesus Christ, this is your present and eternal position in Christ. You have been set apart and made holy through the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. When a person acts in faith to receive Christ as Savior, God immediately acts in grace to impute into that person Christ’s own righteousness. It is Christ’s own righteousness that makes us saints and not our own character, accomplishments or good deeds. It is Christ and Christ alone that makes you and me a saint.
Dr. Harry Ironside put it this way, “Are you a saint? You say, “I wouldn’t like to go so far. I am not sinless yet.” A saint is not a sinless person; a saint is a separated person, separated to God in Christ Jesus. People have an idea that if you live a very saintly life, eventually you may become a saint. God says, “Do you believe in My Son? Have you trusted Him? Very well, then, I constitute you a saint; be sure that you live in a saintly way.” We do not become saints by saintliness, but we should be characterized by saintliness because we are saints.”
Faithful in Christ Jesus. How did the Christians in Ephesus become saints? Paul tells us they were faithful, which means that they were believers in Christ Jesus. These people were not saved by living faithful lives, rather, they put their faith in Christ and were saved. “Faithful” could just as easily be translated “believers.” That they were “faithful in Christ Jesus” means that these saints are those who are connected presently and eternally with Jesus Christ.
TWO BLESSINGS FOR BELIEVERS. Ephesians 1:2a
Grace. Paul tells us that the true believers in Christ are granted two wonderful blessings. This is, of course, only the beginning of God’s blessings for believers spelled out in this wonderful epistle. The first is grace. I am confident that most of you know that the word in the original language for grace is “charis.” This was a common word in ancient times used as a greeting. In the New Testament, grace is a word that has a profound theological importance. It shows God’s unmerited or undeserved favor in providing salvation for sinners through Christ’s sacrificial death and enablement for believers. Grace is the entire gospel in one word. Paul desired that Christians appreciate, accept and appropriate God’s undeserved favor that only God can grant them. Someone has written an acrostic that shows a definition of grace by using the letters of the word: grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Christians are saved by grace, kept by grace, sanctified by grace and will ultimately be glorified by God’s grace.
Peace. While “grace” was a common word in the Greek language, Paul’s inclusion of “peace” comes to us from the Hebrew world. Jewish people in both the first century and the twenty-first century often greet each other by using the word “Shalom” which means “peace.” Where grace expresses the cause of God’s redemptive work, peace shows the effect of the redemption in Christ. It tells us that the hostility from God toward every disobedient rebel, and we all were, has been eternally changed by the work of Christ. He took our sin upon Himself on the cross, and when we trust in Him for our salvation, He removes the guilt and penalty and, rather than hostility, God grants us peace. Rather that eternal wrath for our sin, forgiveness in Christ grants everlasting peace.
Paul tells us in Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). And, if that were not enough, we find that “the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). What a treasure! You and I as Christians have God’s grace and peace both now and forever.
TWO SOURCES OF THE BELIEVERS’ BLESSINGS. Ephesians 1:2b
God Our Father. The words “from God our Father” shows that God is the source of the grace and peace Paul had just mentioned. Grace and peace are available only through the divine source of God the Father and God the Son. Here, Paul shines the spotlight of truth on your personal identity as a Christian. Since you have trusted in Christ as your Savior, you are rightfully and eternally a son or daughter of God. He is your Father. Through Christ, you and I have been placed in an eternal and close relationship with God. This can never change! In Romans, Paul wrote, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:16-17).
The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord! All authority has been given to Him! Twenty-four times in this epistle of six chapters is Jesus referred to as Lord. Since He is Lord, everyone who is a Christian, and who is therefore a saint, must submit himself or herself to Him as Master. We are called to put aside our rebellious, self-centered ways and truly submit to Him as our Lord!
So, we begin our discovery of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. Among other things, this book answers the question, “What is God doing?” Too often people relegate any sense of God’s activity or planning to the distant past or the far away future, as if He worked only in the first century or in His future kingdom. Ephesians tells us that God is working now, here, in this world to set apart a people for Himself.
I urge you to begin reading through Ephesians. In it you will find that “God’s divine power has already granted to us everything that pertains to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), and that He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
As we prepare our minds for the partaking of the Lord’s Table, keep in mind that we are to worship the Lord in this manner in order to remember Him. His words were, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” The Lord’s Table is a blessing designed only for those who are believers in Christ. If you have never received Christ into your life, do that right now as we pray together.
