WALK IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE CALLING

As Ephesians chapter 4 begins, Paul shifts his emphasis from what God has done for us (the indicative) to how we respond to it (the imperative). In light of all God has done to make us the church and in awe of all the church is (see chs.1-3), we are called to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called" (4:1). The first application of this, as those who have been called to life and peace with God and each other, is the charge to fight to maintain peace within the church. The continued enjoyment of God's peace will be experienced as we make war on what causes divisions among us. Paul encourages the Ephesians & us to walk out the unity that characterizes the Church of every age. Sharing in common the seven amazing "ones" that have become ours through the one gospel which has created the Church (4:4-6). Living in a manner which is worthy and reflective of that gospel as we live together "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love," as we strive, not against one another but together with each other, to preserve the peace that God has established with us (4:2-3).

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EXPERIENCE THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF the SAVIOR

In Paul's first prayer in Eph 1:15-23, we learned that the Spirit was the power of the Church who fills us with the power of the Risen King. Now, we marvel at the wonder that the same Spirit is at work to bring the loving, gracious, and soul-refreshing presence of the Savior at home to our hearts through faith. Taken together, these two prayers reveal that simultaneously: Christ is in heaven, reigning in power & Christ is in our hearts, refreshing us in love. Our King and Savior couldn't be closer, couldn't be nearer, couldn't be more eager to fills us with his life, joy, and peace. The "head" of the Church (1:22) is no mere figurehead, nor is he an inaccessible leader, but instead, he is both powerfully pursuing the advancement of his mission while making himself personally present and available to all those who are his. What other institution on earth has a leader who is so powerfully at work and personally involved in the lives of his people?

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GOD’S MYSTERY REVEALED IS THE CHURCH

The unity of Ephesians 2:11-22 is the great mystery of Ephesians 3:1-13. In and through this "new man" - the Church - is the way in which God will save all mankind. The uniting of Jew and Gentile is Step 1 in God's plan "to unite all things" in Christ (Eph. 1:10). From the beginning, God has had one plan to save his one people made up of every tribe, nation, and tongue in his grand pursuit of setting all things at one with himself. Paul's binding in chains is no sign that God's glorious plan isn't going forward (Eph. 3:1, 13). So we should take heart and marvel at what we've been caught up in.

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TRUE UNITY IS IMPOSSIBLE APART FROM CHRIST

In Eph 2:11-22, Paul reminds the Ephesian church that when they were saved by grace and raised up with Christ, they entered into a new life with a new people. When they became united to Christ by faith, they became united with everyone else who's become united to Christ by faith - regardless of how different, divided from, or at odds with they might have been before. God saves us as individuals into a community - a people, a body, a family of God made up of all those who have been brought near to God through the cross of Christ in the power of the Spirit. There's no way to be a Christian apart from belonging to this family. There's no way to have peace with God apart from walking in peace with each other. In the Church, God holds out to the world a true end to the hostility we have toward one another, because in his cross, Jesus Christ took our hostility upon himself in order to kill the hostility between us. 

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ALL GRACE ALL THE WAY

Eph 2:1-10 is the story of every believer's salvation. Our journey from death to life in which God took us from being drowned on the bottom of the ocean floor to raised with Christ in the heights of heaven (2:6). And all this has come to us by grace. Apart from any earning or deserving. Not because of good works, but for the purpose of good works (2:8-10). By grace we've been saved from God's wrath to live for God's glory. In the story of our salvation, God's done all the work, and we get to walk in the joy of it. 

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THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD

If the Church is what God is doing in the world, what makes the Church go? What energizes, fuels, and motivates the mission of the Church to extend God's grace and establish God's peace? Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 provides the answer: the Holy Spirit. The Ephesian church then, and our little church now, however ordinary, unimpressive, or in-progress we might be, are filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to God's right hand. Listen to Sunday’s sermon to learn more about the work of the Spirit in the church.

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BECAUSE GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE IS MARVELOUS

The Church is what God is doing in the world. And as we look at her, what do we see at the center of her life? The glory of God. The most important thing about the Church is not the Church, it's God. In Ephesians, Paul can hardly make it through the letter's opening before he erupts in praise to the God of the Church. He reaches back before the beginning of time (1:4-5), journeys to the climatic moment of salvation history (1:6-7), enters into the present lives of his readers (1:11-13), and then raises their eyes upward to the grand ending God is writing for his chief protagonist (1:14). From start to finish, every movement of God has had one goal in mind: the praise of his glorious grace. The Church exists because God desired to possess a people to enjoy his glory forevermore. The Church is most faithful, joyful, and pure when she is as about God as he is about himself.

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THE CHURCH IS WHAT GOD IS DOING IN THE WORLD

Coming out of the series in Habakkuk, we've been meditating upon the truth that God is always up to something even if it’s hard to see. He’s always working good for his people and advancing his purposes for the world. This Sunday we asked the question, “In this grand story that God is writing, who’s the main character through whom he advances the plot?” In our lives today, where should we look to see God at work toward his great aim of uniting all things in Christ? (Eph 1:10) Where is his amazing grace most evidently poured out and through what instrument is he making peace in the world? The Book of Ephesians gives us the answer: The Church.

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PRAY AND GO!

Between the end of our time in Habakkuk and the start of our Ephesians sermon series, we were joined by guest preacher, Jim Donohue to be encouraged in our gospel mission. The mission we have to spread the joy of Jesus to our neighbors who are like sheep without a shepherd. In a city where the harvest is plentiful and we need all the laborers we can get! Far from being overwhelmed by this task, we’re encouraged to lean in with faith that the Lord of the harvest, the Great Shepherd of our souls, will give us all we need - the people, the power, and the grace - to gather in the harvest for himself. So we pray & we go!

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WE LOOK TO CHRIST TO LEARN HOW TO SUFFER WELL

This past Sunday was our final Sunday wrapping up what we've learned in the book of Habakkuk. We turned to the letter of 1 Peter - a textbook on how to suffer well as a Christian. The believers then lived as exiles in a world in which there was no social benefit to being a Christian, they were regularly slandered and insulted by their neighbors, and they faced the same struggle against "the passions of the flesh, which wage war" against our souls as we do today (1 Pet 2:11-12). So how did Peter encourage them? How does he teach them to suffer well? By telling them to suffer like Christ. Why does he do this? Because Jesus Christ himself puts what we learned from Rom 8:31 ("If God is for us, who can be against us?") to the test and proves it's 100% true. We look to him and we learn how to suffer well as we live as exiles on the way to our eternal home. 

*Due to some technical difficulties, the opening portion of the sermon audio was not captured. You can read the manuscript here to fill in the gap and listen to the rest of the sermon below.

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