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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Song of Adoration: Hymnal #103A: 1-4 “Bless the Lord, My Soul” Song of Confession: Hymnal #177 “Before Thee, God, Who Knowest All” Song of Preparation: Hymnal #69B “Thy Lovingkindness, Lord, Is Good and Free” Scripture: Ephesians 1 (p. 1159) Text: Ephesians 1:1-2 Message: A Loving Greeting Song of Response: Worship Folder #38 “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” Doxology: Hymnal #248: 5 “All Creatures of Our God and King” |
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Have you ever walked away from an event feeling spiritual refreshed and enlivened? I have left sermons and pastor’s conferences this way. A vacation might bring this, especially if one has been stressed out for awhile. The benefit of a pastor going to a pastor’s conference is that he can hear about and develop some new skills or tools for his craft, preaching and pastoring, he can be refreshed by brothers in the ministry, he can receive prayer from those who have gone through similar circumstances as well. This letter to the Ephesians works in a similar way.
One great difference between teaching, direction and encouragement from a conference, and this letter is that this letter is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians was John Calvin’s favorite letter. John Mackay, former president of Princeton Seminary was converted under its teaching when he was 14. He wrote, “to this book I owe my life.” It also was the first book I read after the Lord changed the direction of my life. It has a special place in my heart and I pray it might find a place in yours. Ephesians is a book about new things. It begins by teaching about the new life as new creations, then it speaks of a new society, then it moves to the life of the believer with new standards, and it concludes the book by focusing on new relationships. This morning we see the greeting in the first two verses. Our theme is Our Lord greets us through his servant Paul.
- The Author
- The Audience
- The Greeting
I. The Author
Our text begins simply with the word “Paul.” He claims to be “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Paul had formerly been called Saul. Before his great conversion on the road to Damascus, where the resurrected Lord appeared to him, Saul was a great persecutor of the church. He held the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death. Acts 8 says (v. 3) “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” One chapter later he was converted. He is the author if Ephesians. Some have claimed that one of his followers after him wrote it and put his name on it, but this is a wrong idea. The evidence of inspiration is present and the Spirit does not inspire anyone to lie.
In some letters of Paul, like Romans, he is very personal and even mentions a couple dozen names of fellows saints. In Ephesians, he isn’t personal like that, which has lead some to speculate he didn’t write it. Rather, the reason to be general, is that after this letter would have gone to Ephesus, it would have been shared with the other churches of Asia, like Laodicea and Colossae.
Paul identified himself as an apostle. An apostle is someone who is sent by another. Jesus sent out the 11 disciples, Judas excluded. Matthias was added to the number of apostles. Paul can claim apostleship because he was sent by Jesus. We can read Ephesians or Romans and think of Paul as the great theologian. He was trained in the highest seminary in the land of Israel. But, Paul was first and foremost a missionary. He had a burning passion to bring the gospel to the nations, especially the gentiles.
Since Paul was an apostle of Christ Jesus, he had the authority of the sender on his side. Once in awhile, a parent will tell their child, tell your brother or sister it is time for bed. Well, what is the younger child going to say, “I don’t have to listen to you.” Maybe, not, but they have to listen to mom and dad and if they sent one child to relay the message, they had better listen and listen quickly. Paul is not coming on his own authority or with his own message. His authority comes from the sender, from the Lord Jesus Christ.
A greater purpose or means is seen in the phrase, “by the will of God.” God had called and ordained Paul to this particular work. His friends wouldn’t have encouraged him to this work. His seminary professor, Gamaliel, would not have told him to be become the apostle missionary. He is doing this by the will of God.
Two years ago in my previous charge two sets of triplets were born a month apart. I heard someone ask one of the father’s if he ever thought he would be the father of triplets (like anyone ever thinks that). He said “nope, but it’s clear that this is God’s will for us.” Apply this same principle to anything, whether good or bad. Did you ever think you would have a wayward child, or a child with special needs, or be unemployed, or be the chairman of a school board, or the president of a company, or even part of a certain church. Maybe not, but what the scriptures teach us time and again, is that the God who calls his people to these works and situations, is also the God who will certainly equip them for it. Do not despair when you have a great mountain to climb. You will get tired sometimes, but the Lord will never leave you.
II. The Audience
Read 2b. Though this letter would have been shared with the neighboring churches, the intended audience was the church in Ephesus. Paul would have known them well. He spent almost three years among them, preaching and teaching, even from house to house, we know from Acts.
Ephesus was a major city. At that time, it was the 4th or 5th largest city in the world. It was the capital of Asia in the Roman Empire. The Romans let the Ephesians pretty much self-govern. They had their own senate as a democratic city. Ephesus contained one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the temple of Diana, sometimes called Artemis. Though it had been partially destroyed 400 years before this letter was written, it had been rebuilt and a great deal of revenue came into the city by pilgrims who would visit the temple. The many breasted statue of Diana was carved from a rock that supposedly fell from the sky. She was a goddess of fertility, nourishment, and animals. Artisans made money from selling silver figurines shaped like the temple. So, when Paul came to Ephesus preaching, it is understandable why these artisans were angry that he was preaching against idols. Demetrius in Acts 19 began this mob and Paul nearly lost his life. Nevertheless, this coastal city in modern day Selchuk, Turkey, had received the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are two more terms used in this verse to describe the audience or original hearers of this letter. They are called saints, and faithful in Christ Jesus. To be called saints, means to be set apart. Paul uses a similar address to begin I Corinthians. Saints are what they are, faithful is what they do or are called to be. God calls the church saints, because church means “called out ones”, set apart as a community chosen for eternal life. This idea that a saint is someone who is uniquely holy or close to God is a Roman Catholic falsity. These New Testament letters are written to the saints. This is also why I begin my sermons by saying, “Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ.” That doesn’t even mean that every person present is a believer, just as it was in Corinth or Ephesus. It is a corporate way of addressing those who are outwardly united to Christ by profession.
Paul also calls them faithful. In a time and place where there would have been so much pressure to follow the pagan customs of the Romans and worship Diana, Christians were different. They would have had to sacrifice much for the sake of their faith. Today, when you see a place like Chick-fil-a closed on Sundays because it is the Lord’s Day. The world hates that. The leadership of that company is making a conscious effort knowing that some people won’t go there because of their stand. But, faith tested by the fire is refined. Maybe we need to ask ourselves how we have been tempted to give up our conviction to go along with the world. We might not be tempted by the worship of Diana, but what about other idols. The idol of the urgent and social media. The idol of sports. The idol of work and the love of money. The idol of entertainment and how we fill out Lord’s days. God calls us as saints, set apart in Christ Jesus. We are called to be faithful. Confess your idolatry to the Lord.
We don’t know how large the church was in Ephesus. But, it has been established for a couple decades and Paul is writing to them, likely from imprisonment (house arrest) in Rome.
III. The Greeting
Read verse 2. Sometimes this makes up the greeting to start a worship service. Paul, inspired by the Spirit, greets them with grace and peace. Those two words are related. Grace is the cause of peace. Grace can be defined in many different ways. After all, it is an attribute of God. A.W. Tozer defines it as, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the underserving.” He goes on to explain that it is inherent in God’s nature.
Grace is also God’s way of working salvation in us. Grace has been defined as God’s unmerited favor. This starts to get at it, but it doesn’t go far enough. It isn’t as though we were neutral with God. We merited rather the opposite of grace. We waged war against him and he forgives us, bring us into his family, unites us to his son, gives us the glorious inheritance we will see in the coming weeks. “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace that is greater than all our sin.”
Grace is also God’s power working new life within us. The end of chapter 1 will draw this out even more. Grace is the gift to see the wonders of the Lord in our life and for us.
We live in a world of revenge and hatred instead of grace and peace. It is only the gospel that is able to change people. The solutions the world gives are dead ends. There is a drug problem all around. What is the solution? Safe injection sites/closing the border? Big box stores have closed in Chicago, because they lost millions of dollars and much of that was from theft. What is the solution? I heard proposed this week to have city/municipal grocery stores. You don’t have to be a political science major or an economist to know that is a bad idea. In public schools, kids having pre-marital sex, what is the solution? Hand out condoms. You see, politicians and schools and authorities have to seek solutions to problems. They might be doing what they can. But, if you do not address the cause or the root of any of these problems, you are just painting over rust. Grace and Peace are not just “church words” that are nice to hang on a wall. They are the life changing reality what we receive in Jesus Christ. Three times in these opening two verses his name is used. That is because all that will come after this, will flow from the believers identity and life in Jesus Christ.
The reason why Jesus Christ is named so often in these opening verses is because he is the vital link to the author, to the original readers, and to the message, and therefore to us. It is in Jesus Christ that the new life is found and that is what will be fleshed out in the verses that follow. This letter will be a challenge as it contains some deep theological truths, but it should also be a comfort. There will be commands and rebukes, but it will all be built upon grace. Maybe the thematically central verse in Ephesians in 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Our sin will be the cause for grace, Christ’s work will be the way of grace, and the Spirit’s power and life-changing work will be the result of grace.
Maybe you find yourself needing to be spiritually refreshed or you realize you haven’t dug deeply into the word lately. Maybe you need the comfort of the gospel of peace. Ephesians will give that by the Holy Spirit. “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace that is greater than all our sin.” Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Steven Swets, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2023, Rev. Steven Swets
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