Let The Church Arise

Open your Bibles, if you would, to the letter of Paul to the Ephesians. This is a wonderful book. And it's intimidating for preachers to preach. It is encouraging for preachers to preach. And I think you will be greatly encouraged by it as well. It's called, “Let the Church Arise,” that's the name of the message, because when you understand what this book tells us, as a church, the true Church of God will arise, and it is our job to let it come forward exactly the way God wants it to. And there is so much instruction here, in this letter. We will spend a good amount of time trying to plumb some of its depth.

Well, this is an introduction to the book today. Normally, we'll just go through verse by verse through this book. And I'm not sure how long some people like to chop it up into 12 sermons or 15 sermons. I'm not sure how many sermons we're going to have. We want to understand it and learn and grow by it.

A wedding banquet is a feast of details. There's all the plates – what kind of plates, how many plates. There's the coffee cups, the silverware. What kind of food are you going to serve? How many courses are you going to serve? Are you going to pick the expensive meal? Are you going to pick the economical meal? Are going to have just tea and water and lemonade? Are you going to do something a little fancy? Are you going to put your drinks that are a little fancy in fancy cups and dispensers? Preparing for a wedding is like no other. There are so many details that go into a wedding for a short amount of time. And it is memorable for that as well as other reasons. There's a lot going on. How many tables are you going to do? How many chairs? Are you going to do round tables? Square tables? All of these things. It’s a windfall of decisions to make. It's rich in details.

Ephesians is kind of like that. It's this grand picture of theology. And it starts out with a windfall of theology. Ephesians 1:3-14 in your Bible, if you look there in Ephesians, see how that's broken up into a bunch of sentences in your English Bible? That is one sentence in the Greek. It's hard to keep everyone's attention just to read Ephesians 1:3-14, let alone read it as one sentence, and then divulge everything that's in it all at one time. Ephesians is going to be a banquet of doctrine and theology for us. It's going to give us a robust theology of the church. It's going to help us set forward our purpose as a church. You should be able to look around the room and see some verses that are quoted from Ephesians.

Ephesians is written by Paul from prison, right around AD 62, and it was written probably in the prison in Rome. He wrote a few other letters at that time – Philippians, Colossians. This is a letter from someone in a cold, dark prison, writing to encourage the Church of God so that it is strengthened to handle everything that comes at it. I think the church today could handle a robust theology so that it can handle everything that is thrown at it today. Wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, you can talk. It's okay. It’s alright. Yeah, I would agree too. We need to understand this letter from Paul, in order to understand God's design for the church.

There is a danger that many churches are just constantly searching for an identity, constantly refining their vision statements, which is fine. You want to be focused. You want to use words that are from this century. Ten centuries ago, as you describe what you're doing as a church, we use words like Sunday school, things like that, that didn't exist 500 years ago. So you want to keep things updated, but the identity of the church, the purpose of the church, has not changed. When I first came here, you've maybe heard me say this, I'll probably say it a few 100 more time, Ephesians 4:11-16 was the first thing I talked about when I came here. In it, it describes what the teachers are given for and, in it, it describes what the body is supposed to do as a church, that each part is supposed to work together to build itself up in love. The primary function of the church is not primarily to feed the poor. It's not primarily to go and build houses in third world countries. It's not primarily for all of these things that are good and right and profitable. But it’s primarily not what the church is about. The church has been called to worship God, and to be witness to the world. And you're going to see here in Ephesians, the first three chapters of the book are about the call of the church. And I think you're going to be surprised at how he starts out.

How would you start out the call of the church? What would you start talking about? Well, when you meet you should do this, and this and this, and this? No, that's not how he starts at all. The first chapter is an incredible chapter. And I think you'll be surprised at what it contains, and how he wants to launch the church forward. In this time – this is before the destruction of the temple in AD 70 – how he wants to launch the church forward, a divinely inspired apostle, he starts out talking about, look at this, Ephesians 1:3 – God. I thought he should be talking about us. But he starts out talking about God. Now that is a newfound idea for churches today. In some regards, there's this whole wave of pragmatic, you’ve got to get this camera, you’ve got to get these banners, you’ve got to get all this stuff together, and then you can have church. Paul doesn't talk about that. He doesn't talk about finding a rural setting that's like an amphitheater so your voice can be heard. What does he talk about? He talks about God Almighty. He talks about the spiritual blessings we have in Christ.

Friends, the church is not complicated. It's robust. But it's not complicated. The vision is simple. It's very clear. We preach Christ to make mature disciples who worship God. That's what the church is all about. And I think we need to be aware of that. Because Ephesians, they get this robust theology, they can actually talk to an apostle and ask their questions. “What does God say about this?” – they could actually ask Paul that. I mean, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. We can't do that today. But in Revelations, we find out what happens to the Ephesian church over time. Revelation 2:4, right, there are seven churches or so, right around the area of Ephesus. You can look this up on your map. It's near the sea. It's in Turkey right now. There are seven churches that John writes to in the book of Revelation. And he described state of the church. Now, the state of the Ephesian church after much time, you know what happened? They forgot chapter 1. They went on and on serving and doing for God, but they forgot God. In Revelation 2:4 it says, “You have left your first love,” and then the next word is “repent, and do the deeds you did at first.” Do those things which flow out of a heart for God, because you love God and he is the central focus of your life. And there's a warning sent to that church, that they could be removed completely if they did not do that. So, there's this state where we're in as Grace Bible Church, and we're growing and we're forming and we're setting new paths for us as we grow and we can do more things, but the vision will always stay the same. The overarching goal will always stay the same. And we're going to learn a lot about that here.

So far, over the last three years, I started out preaching Philippians – beautiful book on joy and unity. Paul wrote that in prison as well, that was AD 60. Maybe about the same timeframe as this book. Then I preached through the Gospel of John. That was later. That was written later. One of the latest, if not the latest books written and recorded for us in the New Testament about AD 85. Somewhere in there. Then we jumped way back when we went to Nehemiah, the Old Testament. It's like, “oh great, now we're going to find out about what God says in 400 BC. What are all these people doing?” See, these books in the New Testament are looking back to Christ. In the Old Testament, they're looking forward to the redemption that comes through the Messiah. We find our culmination of who we are as a people, our identity, in Christ. Whether from the Old Testament looking forward through the perfect sacrifice that was given once for all, or now looking back to the Messiah and what he's done. Let me give you a little bit of the context of Ephesians as well. Actually, I think I gave you most of it. This is what happens when I go off my notes.

Paul wrote this letter AD 62, from prison in Rome. And this was not a nice time in history for Christians, things were still okay. But if you were found causing a revolt – remember that one guy that they said caused a revolt, his name was Jesus – remember what they did to him? So you still had to be weary of your image out there before everyone. So when you think about promoting this guy, that they hung on a cross and beat and tortured, it kind of weeds out all those who just come and play church. It weeds all of those folks out. Nobody wants to get hung on a cross for something that's not true. So this is very important that the church knows their direction.

So what is the purpose of Ephesians? Well, unlike John, which has a very specific purpose statement, Ephesians does not have a very specific purpose statement. But overall, its purpose is to represent the call of the church and the conduct of the church. The first three chapters are the call of the church. The last three chapters are the conduct of the church. Turn to Ephesians 4:1, let me show you this. This is kind of the middle of the book here. “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” There's the call of the church and the conduct of the church. I urge you to walk in a manner worthy – that's the conduct of the church. To which you have been called – that's the call of the church. The call of the church is where we find all of our identity in Jesus Christ. And that's explained in chapters, one, two, and three. The conduct of the church, now since you've known all these things, now that you know all this theology that Paul has written, now that you know this doctrine, you can go forward in your conduct as a church and walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We understand, look back in chapter one – we’re going to be popping all over the place, if you need a Bible, there's one in the back, do feel free to grab one of those – in Ephesians 1:6, this is part of the purpose of starting by talking about God. Look at what this says here. It says, “to the praise of His glorious grace.” We've been predestined for adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace. Wonder why we talk about worship so much? That's because we were created to praise God. It's right there in that verse. Who we are is not just to get a ticket to heaven. God's not trying to say, “Oh, we added a couple more today. Got a couple more saved today and that’s the point. Now we're good. We just live however we want.” No, as a people, we are supposed to live as those who praise God, to the praise of His glorious grace. Praise. Glorious. Grace. Grace – you've been saved by faith. And that should cause you to praise and bring glory to God. There are loaded passages and phrases like that all over Philippians. And I think we're really going to enjoy knowing just who we are and how we've been blessed in Christ.

So you have the call of the church and the conduct of the church. You may be saying, “hey, you know, I've heard Ephesians before.” How many of you have heard sermons or even maybe someone who's preached all the way through Ephesians before? Anybody? Anybody? Okay, a few. Any of you taught in Ephesians before? Any of you taught or preached in Ephesians before? Okay. I think Ephesians has something for the brand new Christian. And I think it has something for the Christian who has been saved for 30 and 40 years.

Many themes exist in Ephesians. But unity and love and the centrality of Jesus Christ dominate the pages more than any other of Paul's writings. The unity of believers – turn back to Ephesians 4:3, look there with me. Let's talk about the unity a little bit. By the way, if you ask a pastor who has been preaching for a long time, “what's one of the most damaging things that can happen to a church,” immediately he'll talk in some regard about disunity, about the leaven that leavens the whole loaf, about just that little twinge of dissension that comes up and you think, “oh, I've got to affect change here. And so I am going to get the ear of somebody in leadership, or I'm going to get the ear of somebody in influence in the church, and I'm going to work that person over until they're going to become my spokesperson for what I want to happen.” And before you know it, you've got people on one aisle and people on the other, not that you're separate. But you've got people doing one thing and thinking one thing and thinking, “yeah, that's a good thing, you should go talk to the pastor about that too.” So Paul, in Ephesians, where he's trying to strengthen the church, he talks about unity, over and over and over again.

And friends, the challenge for us is to always carefully look at our hearts before complaining we start complaining – to always look at our hearts before we might be that person who causes disunity. You never, ever want to do that. Because here's what's going to happen. You have Jesus Christ, you have God incarnate. Right? All power and authority and dominion, who loves the church. And now you come against the church to cause disunity. So you're really coming against the one with all authority, and all power, and all understanding. It's not the people. You would actually be fighting against God. Friends, that should be a warning to us to really think through how we are promoters of unity in the church.

Unity and love are genuinely put forth for the Jews and the Gentiles understand something. In Ephesians, they were still kind of a little weak on their understanding of the church. For centuries, you had the Jewish people as the light to the nations, they were to be called out. They were to be separate from everyone. Now, you have the understanding that Jesus Christ was also sent so that the gentiles might be saved. And we'll go over some of those Old Testament passages that mention my people, the Gentiles. It even mentions the Egyptians as those who will come to understand saving grace through faith. This is a new concept. And they didn't like each other culturally. They didn't like each other socially. They were okay to make money from each other. They were okay with that, the Jews and the Gentiles. But now they're going to have to worship together. There was a barrier around the temple. Did you know that? It's about this high and there was a barrier and it says, “cross at the risk of your own life.” We have we have a little piece of stone where that's etched in the stone. That is a warning to the Gentiles. If you cross into the temple and defile our temple it will cost you your life. And now Paul is trying to say that the same one who saved the Jew is the same one who saves the Gentile. This is crazy! We're going to literally have to tear down walls to make that happen. So you and I think, “Oh, it's so hard to find a good church.” Well, they wanted to find a good gathering of people so that their heads wouldn't get chopped off. That's what the Gentiles are up against here.

So I love this. It says, in Ephesians 4:3, that they are “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Now, we'll get there when we get to chapter four. But most commentators think this is the unity of the Holy Spirit – that somehow, our unity is a reflection on the Holy Spirit's unity and the church as a whole. And that we need to be called to peace – that there is this bond of peace. You can't be bound in a peaceful way with somebody and then causing disunity on the other side as well. So Ephesians is going to give us a robust theology of the unity.

It's also going to give us a robust theology of love. Again, in Ephesians 4:2, he's urging us to walk in certain way, it says in verse two, we should walk “with all humility, and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” And that does mean to bear with someone. It’s not a comfortable way of saying it. You're going to have to endure with people in love. Now, I've only been preaching for three years. But this is a hard thing to do at times as we butt heads, as you say, “this way,” and somebody else says, “that way” and you go, “Okay, now what?” Well, if you back up, and you look at with all humility, and you look at with gentleness, and with patience, and you do all of these things together in the church in love, now you have a relationship with each other, that is mutually beneficial, because you're trying to promote Christ, right, through peace, through the bond of peace, and not our own agendas. See how that takes care of a lot of issues in the church. And we do things in love, and it's genuinely put forth.

Look down there at Ephesians 1:4, let's look at that. This is how it’s supposed to be. He’s trying to call these two groups of people together. For us, I think you can think of, “well, maybe I came from this tradition, or that tradition, or this method, or that method, or this church or that church.” Here's what the Bible says – there's one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. See the calling? The calling is continually referred to here, to promote their obedience to God's word. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who was overall and through all and in all. There is not the salvation for the Jews and somebody else. There's not the salvation for this people group in India, and that people group in Russia and this one in Africa, and I don’t know why we pick on Africa so much. There's all of these people that think there's many roads that lead to God. How do you explain that passage if there are many roads that lead to God? You can't. Right? There's one name under heaven by which we are given that men must be saved – the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's only one way. There's one set way of doing things that he has given to us. This just blows their minds, because they've been called out from all these other people groups for so long, for so long. And now, this is a clarion call to be unified in their pursuit of God. Friends, if there's anything that we learn from Ephesians, it is to be unified in our pursuit of God. It's to be unified in our pursuit of God.

And then, every pastor loves this. I guess we're in chapter four a lot. I didn't really realize that, but look in Ephesians 4:11-16. Do you want to know what the job of the pastor is? It's right here. Do you want to know what your job is in the church? It's right here. Look at this. “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” My job is to equip you for the work of the ministry. And, in a lot of churches, that's reversed – the people think it's their job to enable the pastor to do the work of the ministry. That's not biblical. What does it say right there in your Bibles? We’re going to get everybody plaques so they can put it in their house, right – with this verse right here, “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” I tell my wife and I tell some of the guys who come and set up and the ladies who come and set up – I get more and more energy when I see you all here. I got here today about five minutes later than I normally do and the truck was unloaded again, already. Normally we're bringing it in and bringing it in. But now we have a system built, that we can bring stuff in more efficiently. And things get set up very quickly and it really energizes me. And I look forward to the worship, led by everyone up here. I really thank you and appreciate you all for what you do to lead worship through song. I just get energized by that. That's what the church is about. It says that right here in this passage. Look, let's read on.

Look down in Ephesians 4:16. Talking about Christ, “from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.” Every part of the body here is in view. When each part is working properly, what happens when the body works properly together, it makes the body grow. So that it builds itself up in love. The edification of the saints, that kind of old phrase that we use to define the inner working purpose of the church as we gather together, it's to build itself up in love. It’s not to launch orphanages and missions those somebody needs to do that, who has a caring heart for those people in those children. And why not God's people? But the purpose of the church is to build itself up in love. It's not about us though, because Christ is the head of the church. I'm not the head of the church. You are not the head of the church as the people. Christ is the head of the church. So when it builds itself up in love, it builds up Christ. Do you see that? When you all use your gifts for God's glory, the church grows.

Healthy things grow. They grow numerically, most of the time. Although I think Jeremiah, the weeping prophet did a pretty good job, and they threw him in a cistern to die. I think Noah did a pretty good job of being a righteous man and preaching on the earth. And yet that didn't turn out so well for everybody else. I think Enoch did a pretty good job. I think there's lots of examples where you could say, “okay, healthy things are stabilized, and they still bring glory to God. But sometimes they don't grow as much.” But the normal pattern is that healthy things grow. Healthy things grow. If you plant something in the ground, and you water it, and you care for it, and it just stays there the same size, when you planted it, would you consider yourself successful? Not so much. Well, maybe some of you if it doesn't die, that would be successful. But we don’t just want it to not die. We want it to grow. We want it to grow. Healthy things grow. I think God is still responsible for growing his church, whether he wants it to be 1000 people, or 100 people, or 50 people, that's up to him. We understand that from Matthew 16:18, where he says, “I will build my church.” But yet the pattern is for you all to grow, and to build the church up and you see other people grow.

There has been great change here at Grace Bible Church over the last three years that I have been here. And before that, just the cultivation of the ground and tilling it and I think the Lord is allowing us to plant and for the plant to take root. And, as we water, that it will continue to build itself up and grow. You look at that picture from Psalm 1:1-3. It's something I would encourage all of you to memorize. “Now blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he shall meditate day and night.” And listen, “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,” which just dies. No, “which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and in whatever he does, he prospers.” That's the picture. That's just the first three verses. That's the picture of the Christian life. And that's the launching point of praise for all of the Psalms. And Psalms ends with that verse that talks about symbols and loud praise. And in the middle, it's just this vast emotion of praise and glory to God.

Friends, if you yourselves are not joyfully serving God, then something is wrong. Maybe you need watered a little bit more. Maybe you need sharpened a little bit more. When the pruning shears come out, the sharper they are, the better they do their work. But it hurts to be pruned. It hurts that everybody sees this giant thorn on the top of your head and whenever you get close to people, you poke them with it. It hurts for someone to say, “Have you ever seen that like two-foot thing sticking out of your head? Let me help you rip that off.” Oh, this sounds like a lot of fun, right? Scripture says no one likes discipline at the time, but he will be trained by it. We are trained when we disciple each other in love, and humility and great patience. It's great to have someone training and walking arm in arm with you who is the most humble patient person ever? Isn’t that right, dear? Yeah. But you want to have somebody around who is willing to put forth the effort to see you grow? Why? Because God's glory is at stake. And I think that when we think there’s something else at stake, besides God's glory, it seems like what are we doing this for? Why do we come here and sit and then go home and then nothing happens and I don't even know where God is in my life and I don't know what's going on and I'm just so overcome by sin and doubt and depression and what is happening? Well, you're not growing. You're not doing the basic spiritual disciplines that God has set forth in his word to cause you to grow, not to just hope and guess you will grow, but to cause you to grow.

God wants to work in and through you, you specifically, if you call yourself a Christian, if you're an image bearer of God, he wants to build you specifically up to bring Him glory in this dark world. I think this world could use a little bit of that. So Ephesians 4 talks about that. And it's not just built up a little bit, it says built up here, and it talks about, in Ephesians 4:13, to a “mature manhood,” to the “stature of the fullness of Christ.” The bar is set super high. If you just casually read something, you're just going to casually understand it. When you put that thing into practice. Now you're going to understand a little bit more, right? If you only look at motorcycles, you're going to understand them a little bit. If you hop on a motorcycle, 1000 cc's, and you start riding, you're going to understand it a little more. If something runs out in the road in front of you, you're going to understand the dynamics of how this thing stops, or slides, and how you stop or slide or run into things while you're using it. Right?

There's a whole gamut of understanding that comes through putting into practice the knowledge that we have. And as a church, we must understand the knowledge of God so that we can put it into practice. And as you put it into practice, you're going to grow and you're going to be encouraged. And you're going to think, “wow, what was I so depressed about? I had been saved from eternal damnation and eternal wrath of God. This is awesome. I got to tell somebody about it.” If you've never felt that, I guarantee you, something needs to change.

God promises so much. But there's something about the joy of suffering for Christ that mature believers understand. And they're okay with that. Right? You repeat it repeat it to yourself often, who Christ, “for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising of shame.” He wasn't like skipping willfully to the cross. Nobody would do that. He despised the shame of being on the cross. Yet, because he was joyfully wanting to exalt God, he did it anyway. And in his humanity, he was like, “Lord, please let this cup pass from me.” And in His obedience, His full, perfect obedience, he joyfully obeyed God the Father, knowing this was going to be painful. And you are the benefit of that obedience. If you know Jesus Christ, if you have turned from your sins and repented of your sins, you receive that grace of God, by faith. You've been changed. You are the recipient of that grace. When people come into this church, they should see something different about us. Not, “Oh, yeah, I've seen it 1000 times.” You should go, “that person is on fire for Jesus Christ. And I know that life is tough. But they do not complain. They live to serve God and His people. How do they do that?” Because Christ lives in them.

All right, well, that's just a little bit about chapter four. I got a few minutes left, I'm barely halfway through the message. Let me just tell you a little bit about the theology. We are not going to have an hour and a half message. The children's workers would revolt. There is robust theology in here. Anyone who says doctrine is not important to life does not understand the book of Ephesians. Doctrine means teaching. Theology means the study of God. There is doctrine about God. There are specific instructions about who God is and how we must worship him. Right? If you came before a king on announced and you didn't know the rule, you’d get your head chopped off. Everybody learns the rule quickly. Right? You have to know how to approach God Almighty’s thrown. Okay. That's important.

If we understand the teachings of the Bible, we understand the conduct that the Bible requires. But here's the thing. You'll be tempted to try and live life by your own power. I'm supposed to do this. I’m supposed to read my Bible. Yeah, I know. I'm supposed to pray. I'm just so down. Why do you think you're down? Because you're not reading and praying? Well, how do I get the energy read and pray? Well, you read and pray. It's the catch twenty-two. How do you learn to study and love God's word more? You study it. You read it. You go, “hey, do you know how to study the Bible? Yeah, tell me, how do you study your Bible?” And if they just say, “Uh, I don't know.” “All right. How about you? Do you know?” And you keep going around to people in this church. And you ask them this question, maybe even today. Do you study your Bible?

Because we've got some people who really know how to dig into their Bible here. And they can just talk to you about how to study how, to understand the context, the scope, what's the scope of the letter? The call and conduct of the church. That's the scope of everything he's saying. It helps us understand the specific points about the church. It helps us understand what he's talking about in Ephesians 2 about salvation and how we're saved by grace through faith. He defines grace as being by the will of God. That explains grace. I never understood grace before. I just thought it was this, this thing, this bestowed favor. Well, it is that but it is bestowed favor from God Almighty, something you didn't deserve. That should encourage you to read His word, because He has already bestowed that favor on you as you receive it by faith. We just need to work these things out, but not in our own strength. We need to let ourselves be fueled by our love for Jesus Christ. And when you start reading your Bible, and it's drudgery, it's your own strength. You cannot read the magnificent Word of God and be bored out of your mind by it and be propelled by the grace of God at the same time. It's impossible.

One of my favorite professors at seminary, I was telling a friend this week about it, I may have told you before, his name is Dr. Essex. You can look them up online. He's put almost all of his Bible survey classes online. Every book of the Bible he covers. You can watch his lectures. He's been teaching for over 40 years through the Bible, every single year. He's been reading through the entire Bible every three months since he was a teenager. The guy knows his Bible. And you know what? He is so humble. You can ask him a question. And if he doesn't know, guess what he says? I really don't know. Here's the collective understanding of this passage. We're not exactly sure what that phrase means right now. But we will one day understand it fully. Here's what I think it means. But he's still willing, after all of that to say, I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I don't know, I had the privilege of talking with Dr. Macarthur, one on one. I've had the privilege of talking with him, me and him and two or three other men in the room for hours asking him Bible questions. He's the same way. You may think he has everything fully answered, but he doesn't. And he will be the first to tell you that. He will say, “I don't understand this beyond this. This is all I understand.” And I know that seems to present a dichotomy, that it's saying this and this at the same time. But he’ll be the first to say, “this is all we know about that, because that's all the Bible says.”

Friends, the beauty of that is that, if the Bible only goes so far, then we're only required to know so much. In the infinite wisdom of God, that should be comforting. That should be comforting. This Bible, this book, will talk about the heart of mankind. It will talk about the motivation for everything. Look in Ephesians 1:1, you'll see Paul's motivation in the very first verse. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.” What does it say there? “By the will of God.” You wonder why Ephesians was written? Because God wanted him to write it. And he was obedient to that point.

This book is going to talk about how we are dead in sin. Ephesians 2:1-10 – it's a beautiful portrait of salvation, of being completely dead in sin, not being able to be saved on your own, dead people don't do very much right, being drawn by the grace of God, being saved by grace through faith in verse eight. That it's not of yourself. It's not of works, so that no one can boast. And then Ephesians 2:10, that it's changed this dead person, by this thing called grace of God, into a person who was created, as God’s craftsmanship, is what it says. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works. He takes something completely unable to bring glory to God, and transforms it into something that can always give glory to God. You always have the decision and the option, once you're saved, to give God glory. And we think, “Oh, that's a great section on salvation,” but it's salvation for us to understand in the context of the church. This is not rogue salvation, where you're off on your own.

The whole context of this book is the church together. It's speaking of salvation, as it relates to individuals in the body of Christ working together. See that? Our salvation, our understanding of salvation, and Ephesians is not for our own benefit. It's for the benefit of the church. And as we serve, as we understand it, we serve each other and build the church up, not ourselves. It’s a beautiful picture.

The wrath of God is going to be here. Why does Ephesians 2:4 say that God made us alive while we were dead? What happens when you're dead? It explains it in the first four verses there. You're under the wrath of God, eternal damnation – that when you sin against the Holy and Righteous God, there's a price to pay. And we need to know that. And it's not just, “Oh, I like God. And I like the things about God. And so one day I'll be okay.” No, it's either you are okay or you are really, really, really not okay. There's no in between. There's no in between at all. It's just suffering under the wrath of God for all of eternity, or by grace, you have been saved. That's the good news. That's why it's good news. Have you ever thought about that?

If there's no reason to be saved from something drastic, it's not really that good of news. Right? If the floodwaters are rising, and a boat shows up, that's really good news. But if the river is just calm, you don't feel like fishing, and the boat shows up it's like, “eh.” But when the floodwaters are rising, and the boat shows up, and you get it in, now that's really, really, really good news. Isn’t that right, Grace? There is a call to repentance, friends. There's no such thing as being transformed by the grace of God and nothing happening.

The bar is set even higher after chapter 2 and chapter 3. Did you know that the witness of the church extends beyond our Earth? Did you know that? Ephesians 3 talks about that, that it's a witness to the heavenlies. Did you know that? That heavenly beings are watching the church as a witness to God. As a witness to Jesus, that they can see, they’re watching the church and how it operates. And you just thought you were a witness to your neighbor. That is an incredible witness. It talks about the Trinity. Ephesians is full of talk about the Trinity.

Look in chapter 2. And then we'll close with this. Look in Ephesians 2:18-22. “For through him, we both have access in one Spirit,” see, there it is, “to the Father.” There's the Spirit and the Father. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” And it goes on to mention the Lord and God and Spirit again. How do those work together? How do we understand the function of the Trinity that we call it? Three Persons, one essence, how do they function together? It's explained over and over again, if you're in the right book, in Ephesians, multiple times. Well, there's Christology. There's the source of revelation in God. There's all of this greatness in chapter 1, about how we're blessed in Christ. There's the good news of forgiveness.

It talks about marriage in Ephesians. It talks about parenting in Ephesians. It talks about battling the spiritual world in Ephesians. It talks about standing firm with the armor of God. How can you stand firm in this world – it talks about that in chapter six. I think this book, as long as you're reading the same one I am, is going to be a blessing to you. A great blessing to you, and thereby a great blessing to the church. And now to be a blessing to the children's workers. Let's pray.

Lord God, I thank You, Father, for your goodness to us. Father, we have this incredible task, to bring about glory and praise, to love You and to have the church build itself up in love. Because of you working through us Father. Help us to understand what that means. Help us to invite our friends, Lord, to understand what it means to be in a biblical church, Father. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to let the biblical church arise.

Friends, let’s just spend a moment thinking about our part in God's Church. Amen. Amen.