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We’re still in Ephesians 1:1. I love getting
into the study of a book. I love digging in and finding the riches that are
there. We may be in this book for a while. This is the third message in verse 1,
but there’s so much here that we need to see.
In verse one we found out something about the author. "Paul an apostle of
Christ Jesus by the will of God. " We see that Paul was a man just like you and
just like me in the respect that he had feet of clay. As a believer he did not
get anything different than what you or I received in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are all complete in Christ. However, when Christ put out the callings and the
gifts, He cuts the pie the way He wants to cut it. Paul got a little bigger
slice than what some of us might have gotten. He was
"an apostle of Christ
Jesus by the will of God."
The word "God" does not have the definite article in front of it. It refers
to the whole Godhead. When the definite article is used it refers to
God the Father. But here it is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The
whole Trinity was involved in Paul being an apostle of Christ Jesus.
The word "will",
thelema,
means the result of God’s will. So, as the result of the counsel of the Trinity,
Paul was an apostle of Christ Jesus. He was a man sent forth with a message that
was not his own. But then secondly, we saw something about the audience of the
book of Ephesians.
"...to the saints who are at
Ephesus and who are faithful
in Christ Jesus."
These were saintly saints. They were not just saints by
position. Now what do I mean by that? When a person receives Christ he has been
cleansed, set apart now, for the use of God. He is God’s own property. However,
these were saints not just positionally. They lived saintly in this world.
Experientially, daily, they lived faithfully, it says, "...in Christ Jesus."
Now we want to look a little bit deeper at this audience. It was a Gentile
audience.
Remember God gave to Paul the ministry of the
Gentiles. He was a Jew, and God
gave him the burden to preach the gospel to the Gentile world. This was quite a
problem with his Jewish brethren. You say, "Why was it important the Ephesians
were Gentiles?" Well, the book of James was written to predominantly a Jewish
audience. The book of Hebrews was the same way. Here it is written to a Gentile
audience. Look in
chapter 3:1. He says it very clearly:
"...for this reason I,
Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles..."
Actually,
this is the word for "nations," but it is the word we translate "gentile."
So Paul is writing to a Gentile audience.
Now, as you know, this Gentile nation was in Asia Minor. How do we know that?
Ephesus was on the
western coast of Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. Ephesus was a seaport
on the western coast of Asia Minor. It was the fourth largest city in the Roman
Empire. It was a city with a population of about 300,000. [Click
here for pictorial tour of Ephesus or
click here for a "virtual tour"] When Rick Shepard, my Associate Pastor of Family Ministries, and I had the
privilege this past summer of going to Greece, we got to see this city.
The
city has a seaport which is about 8 miles inland now because of the change of
the waters there. It is no longer right on the coast. There is a thoroughfare,
which used to go from the seaport all the way up a long hill to a big
auditorium, actually an outside theatre that would hold about.25,000 people. As
you get up to that auditorium, on the right is the remnant of the temple of
Artemis [also called Diana], which was their focus of worship, their goddess,
there at that time. As we got to that thoroughfare on both sides were these
large pillars. They were just gorgeous. And on the other side of the pillars
were places where they used to sell things. Most of them probably sold little
statues of their goddess
Artemis (pic of statue) which Paul had to deal with when he was there
in Ephesus. The
Temple of Artemis
was one of the seven wonders of the world.
[Ed note:
Click for artist reconstruction] Even what’s left is majestic [Ed note:
Click for "what's left"]. Paul had visited Ephesus on several occasions. In
Acts 18 and verse 19, he stopped there for a brief visit on his
second
missionary journey. But on the
third missionary journey, he goes straight to
Ephesus and stays two years. Let’s look at
Acts 19 and sort of
review some of this so you can get familiar with who Paul is writing to, the
audience of Ephesians. In chapter 19:1, he fulfills his promise and goes to
Ephesus. It says in verse 1: "It happened that while
Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some
disciples."
Remember, he stayed two years there and ministered to the disciples. This is
where many, many miracles took place. In fact one of the miracles is when he
cast the demons out of the sons of
Sceva. Let’s look at
verse 17. "This became
known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon
them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified."
Here at Ephesus God had done a powerful work. In the shadow of the Temple of
Artemis, the false goddess of that area, God had moved in. And through Paul, as
he preached the gospel, allowed him to do many miracles. People began to respond
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you’ll go on in that particular chapter to
verse 26, it says some of the men there, some of the merchants, were upset. They
were upset because they sold little statues of the goddess Artemis, and now Paul
was ruining their business. Verse 26-29 says ".
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Acts "26 "And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in
almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a
considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no
gods at all.
27 "And not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into
disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be
regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world
worship should even be dethroned from her magnificence."
28 And when they heard this and were filled with rage, they began
crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"
29 And the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with
one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus,
Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia.
30 And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would
not let him.
31 And also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him
and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.
32 So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the
assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what
cause they had come together.
33 And some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews
had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was
intending to make a defense to the assembly.
34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose
from them all as they shouted for about two hours, "Great is Artemis
of the Ephesians." |
And verse 30 says that,
".And
when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let (5707)
him." He had created chaos in Ephesus. So you begin to
get a feel about the Christians that had to live there. Paul left, but they are
left there. This is who Paul is writing to in the book of Ephesians. In
Acts
20:16 Paul skirts Ephesus. He’s on his way to Jerusalem. Remember God said, "I
want you in Jerusalem and I want you in Rome." In order to get to Jerusalem on
the feast of
Feast of Pentecost he skirts Ephesus. He knows that if he stops it is going
to take him too long to leave. But he goes to
Miletus, and in
verse 17 of
chapter 20, he calls the elders of the
church of Ephesus to come to him. Paul is concerned. Paul says,
"after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the
flock;."
Who is he talking about? Probably the legalizers of that day. You see, Paul used to be a savage wolf himself. He knew
how they worked. As soon as the gospel of grace was preached and the people had
responded to it and he was gone, people would come in with false doctrine and
try to put the people back under bondage. As a matter of fact, Ephesus had a lot
of trouble with false doctrines. You see this over and over again. In
1 Tim
1:3 it says that Paul left Timothy there in Ephesus to correct the false
doctrine of that area. It was an area which was infiltrated with that which was
not the truth of God’s word. The saddest story about Ephesus, I think, is in
Revelation 2
when it becomes the first of the seven churches that John is told
to write. The church at Ephesus is the church that left its first love.
So you begin to get a feel about the church at
Ephesus and the audience he is writing to. So, as we get into this study, we
want to just dig it as deep as we can and see what it can mean to us. Some of
the phrases are so powerful in Ephesians 1:1. Let’s go back and read it again.
"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:." The title of this message is,
"Are you faithful in Christ Jesus?" What does it mean to be faithful in Christ
Jesus?
Well, first of all the
little phrase, "in
Christ
Jesus"
points to our character as believers.
Do you know the difference between reputation and character? Your reputation is what you want people to
think you are. Your character is what everybody who lives with you and knows you
knows that you are. The fact that they were faithful in Christ Jesus points to
the character of these believers.
The Greek work for "faithful" is the word, "
pistos".
It is the adjective used to describe the saintly saints. It comes from the word,
"
peitho"
which means to win over, to
persuade.
Peitho
is translated "to obey" in Hebrews. It has the
understanding of someone who has been run over, who has been totally persuaded
to the point of a willingness to obey. It means trustworthy. It means dependable
to do what God said to do.
Now there are several references in the NT using the word "pistos". I want us to look
at it because as I researched the word it drew a picture of what it means to be
faithful in Christ Jesus. When the term is used in relation to God it means
something different than when it is used in relation to man. Why? Because God is
perfect. When you say God is faithful, He never errs in His faithfulness to do
what He says He will do. As a matter of fact, in
1Cor 1.9, Paul shows
that God is faithful, and he mentions this about God’s character. He is
absolutely faithful. You say, "Oh brother Wayne, I trusted God’s word, and God
hasn’t done what He said He would do in my life." Well, if you’ve trusted Him
and you stood upon His word and He has not moved, then it is just not time for
Him to move. You wait upon the Lord. God does what He says He will do.
(Ed note
on "FAITH": "When
John Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he
discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who had
been running hard came into the missionary’s house, flopped himself in a large
chair and said, “It’s good to rest my whole weight on this chair.” “That’s it,”
said Paton. “I’ll translate faith as ‘resting one’s whole weight on God.’”MacArthur,
J. F. (1986). Ephesians. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Eph
6:16). Chicago: Moody Press.)
I
Corinthians 1:9 says that...
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"God is
faithful, through Whom you were called into fellowship with His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord." |
Heb 10:23 says,
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Let us hold fast
the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful" |
That is the beautiful attribute of God (Click
for Attributes of God). He is
absolutely, purely faithful to what He says. Now when you take that word
"faithful" and apply it to man, it doesn’t mean perfection! But it has a lot to
say about the character of a believer. For instance, look in
Lu 16:10. You want to know whether or not you are faithful? Then watch this.
He said,
|
Luke 16:10: ""He
who is faithful (pistos) in a very little thing is faithful also in
much & he who is unrighteous (unjust) in a very little thing is
unrighteous (unjust) also in much." |
If God’s character is to be dependent upon
whatever He says He will do and that character is within us, then we need to
find out if we are dependable. Are we faithful? You say, "How can I know if I am
faithful?" Look at the little things in your life. Oh, listen, if something big
happens to us, many of us will rally and become faithful. But it’s not just in
the big things. It is in the little things where you find the depend-ability and
trustworthiness of an individual. Let me ask you a question. Do you have a
grudge against anybody? Are you critical in your heart toward a brother? If you
do, you are not a faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because God’s
word says, "Let not the sun go down..."
You are to deal with your anger. You are
to deal with your problem with somebody else. And if you are not doing that, you
are not dependable to do what the word of God says to do. That’s a little thing,
yes. But, my friend, if you are not faithful in that little thing, then
obviously you are not faithful in the big things that God has for you. Do you
want to know whether or not you are faithful in Christ Jesus? Are you a Saintly
Saint? Are you faithful in the little things? You see, that’s your character.
It’s what your family knows about you. It’s what happens when you are sitting
there watching the television and something immoral comes on. Do you turn it off
or do you leave it on? Are you faithful in the little things? Are you faithful
in your thought life? Are you faithful when you are by yourself? One of the
greatest measures of a man’s faithfulness before God is not what he is in the
appearance of others but what he is when he is by himself. And God knows that,
folks. He knows whether or not you are dependable to do what He tells you to do.
It’s a measure of a man’s character. It’s a measure of his love for Christ. This
word "faithful in Christ Jesus" defines the character of a servant of God. If you are
a servant of God then you are faithful before him.
In
Heb 3:5 it says that
|
"Now Moses was
faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those
things which were to be spoken later" |
Who are the people who are faithful in Christ
Jesus? They are servants. They are bondservants. They do what they do for Him
because they want to, not because they have to. You know it even defines the character of the wives of leaders within the
church. I thought that was interesting. It speaks specifically of deacons.
Look in
1Ti 3:11. You see when you appoint someone
to an office within the church, whether elder or whether deacon, you are not
just appointing the man. You are appointing his wife. She is just as accountable
to God as the man. The word for "women" and the word for "wife" is the same
word.
|
"Wives must
likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful
in all things." |
You may have a man
that is as godly as any man that has ever been around. But he may have a wife
that cannot keep her mouth shut. She just continues to carry information to this
person and this person and this person. That wife is not faithful before God.
That disqualifies her and him from being in that office. It defines the character of one to whom Christ can entrust
ministry.
It says in
1Ti 1:12,
|
"I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me
faithful, putting me into service" |
"...and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord
who has strengthened me...", now watch, "...that He considered me faithful...", That was
first, then, "...putting me into the service (ministry)." I don’t know how many people
come to this church and want a ministry. They come to me and say, "Wayne, can
you give me a ministry?" Man does not give to another man a minis-try. God gives
the ministry. It’s received, not achieved. So when we are faithful God will give
us the ministry He wants for us. But the key is, are we faithful in Christ
Jesus? It defines the character of men who qualify
to be disciplers of other men.
Look at what it says in
2Ti 2:2.
|
"The things
which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,
entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." |
If you don’t have a man who is
living it, then you don’t have a man who can teach it. That is why one of the OT
prophets says, "I want to know thy law. I want to do thy law. Then I want to
teach thy law." [cf
Ezra 7:10] You can’t teach what you are not living. If you are not
faithful in the little things you are not a saintly saint. Paul is not writing
to the unfaithful. Paul is writing to the ones faithful in Christ Jesus. Not
just positionally saints, beloved, but the delight of God in Ephesus.
Can you imagine the horrible situation they are in in
Ephesus? There was idolatry and wrong doctrine everywhere. And there were the
faithful few to whom Paul writes the book of Ephesians. "Faithful"
points to the character of the believers at Ephesus. One of the things I think
is most important is that you can determine your measure of faithfulness: it’s
not in the big things, but in the little things. That stuck with me when I was
studying this. I remember when my children came to know Christ, or said they
did. But you wonder if they have really understood. You go through that
wrestling match in your mind. You don’t want them to wake up like I did at 32
years old having been in the ministry 8 years and realized I didn’t even know
Christ. We have got to understand something here. I know what might be an
encouragement to your heart about that. There was one thing my wife, Diana, and
I watched for in Stephen and in Stephanie. Of course since Stephanie was first
and older, we watched for it in her first. Stephen came along behind her. They
came at an early age, and they asked to receive Christ in their life. In order
for me to know they understood, I watched for some-thing. I watched for a
willingness to repent and confess sin when they became aware of it in their
life. I can remember Stephanie when she was very, very little, around seven or
eight. Sometimes she would have her head over on the counter or the table, and
Diana would say, "Stephanie, what’s wrong? Are you sick?" "Oh no, momma. I have
had some awful, awful thoughts this morning and I am just asking God to forgive
me." As a matter of fact I saw that develop as pattern in her life when she was
very small. The same thing developed in Stephen. I do not have perfect kids.
When you speak of faithfulness you are not speaking of perfection. You are
speaking of people who are dependable to do what God says to do when they become
aware of it. For instance, David was a man after God’s own heart. Did that mean
he was perfect? Are you kidding? He committed adultery then took the husband of
the woman he had committed adultery with and had him murdered in battle. How can
he be called a man after God’s own heart? I’ll tell you how. Because when Nathan
came and put his finger between David’s eyes and said, "Thou art the man" he repented.
Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 were
written by a man who was filled with remorse. He repented before God, confessed
his sin, and turned back to the way that God had put before him.
What does it
mean to be faithful in Christ Jesus?
Well, watch those little things in your
life. Sometimes faithfulness is not seen before the failure. Sometimes
faithfulness is more clearly seen after the failure, when you have messed up.
What do you do when you have messed up? Do you go around talking about other
believers? Do you criticize them as if you were the standard? Do you repeat
things when you don’t even have the information yourself? Do you second-guess
other people? Are you busy with this kind of lifestyle? How can you call
yourself faithful in Christ Jesus? You are not. You may be a saint. But you’re
not a saintly saint. You are not living as God wants you to live. In chapters
4-6 of Ephesians Paul has to instruct, exhort and encourage the Ephesian
believers. Why did he have to encourage them if they were already perfect? Faithfulness does not mean perfection. It is a measure of a person’s character.
It is a love for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it points to the
character of one who is a believer who is faithful in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, it points to the source behind their
character.
Now don’t start praising believers. Let’s don’t all go to Ephesus
and pat them all on the back and say, "Man, I love you guys! You’re doing it
right!" NO! You don’t praise men. You praise God who lives in men that enables
men to be what they are. Look at the phrase, "...faithful...". Now look at the
next three words "...in Christ Jesus...". There are three prepositions that are
similar, but yet at the same time drastically different. The preposition "
eis"
(1519),
is translated "into something." For instance the man walked into the house.
That’s into, eis.
Then there’s a preposition " ek",
which means "out of" which means the opposite. The man walked out of the house.
It’s motion out of something: Eis - into something,
Ek -out of something. But then there’s another
preposition we’re looking at today--"
en".
It means the man remains "in" the house, "in" Christ Jesus. Now that means a
whole lot more than what I am going to share, so for you scholars--relax. I am
not going to touch every base. But there’s one aspect of it that I want to show
you. Any ability we have in the Christian life to be faithful before God, or
whatever else we are talking about, is not of us. It’s because we are in Christ
Jesus. And as a result of us being in Him, He in turn is in us. That is the only
way any man can be faithful or dependable. It’s only as he is willing to submit
and cooperate with that which is in the person that is in him. Look at John 14,
just as a thought. As I was studying this really came to my mind. We see
evidence of Christ doing what He said He would do in His faithfulness by how the
Ephesian believers were able to live in the midst of all kinds of degradation.
John 14:18-20 says,
|
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. "After a little
while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I
live you will live also. In that day you will know (5695) that I
am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you |
"I will not leave you as orphans..." Jesus said this to His
disciples in His private discussion after Judas had left. "...I will come to
you. After a while the world will behold me no more, but you will behold me.
Because I live you too shall live. In that day...", referring to what He just
said, "...you shall know...", "
ginosko",
experience, "...that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you." Faithful in
Christ Jesus.
If you ever see anything good in me, you know good and well where it came
from. It didn’t come from me. It came from He who is in me and whose I am. It
came from the Lord Jesus Himself. It’s the same with you. If you see something
about me that reminds you of yourself, don’t be critical of me. Just remember we
all are potentially the same way. I am not preaching Wayne. I am preaching the
Word. You know I am gong to be wrong at times. I don’t ever tell you I am the
authority. The Bible is the authority. You know that. I am learning with you.
When you see something in me that is good, remember it is not me, it must be
Christ in me. I know what my flesh is all about. However, I am thankful that I
am a saint having been set apart unto Him. I am not some old lousy sinner
everyday. If I am, I haven’t met Christ yet. He set me aside. I am for a
different purpose, and I cannot habitually live in sin anymore. First John tells
me that. The ability to be faithful as well as any other ability concerning our
responsibilities to Christ is an ability that comes from our being in Him and
Him being in us. "
Pistis"(4102)
is another word in the same family. It is usually translated faith. The word we
have been looking at is pistos.
Most of the time it is translated "faith." But I think, one time in the NAS, it
is translated a better way. It is translated "faithfulness". If you’ll look with
me in
Gal 5:22, let’s notice something here. There is some-.thing produced
by the Spirit of Christ. Verse 22 says,
|
Galatians 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness..." |
The word is
Pistis, not
pistos.
It is translated faithfulness. I have to believe that the result of the Spirit
of God working in your life and working in my life produces a consistency of
dependability to do whatever God said. It’s not perfection, but when we err we
run to do what God has told us to do. So "...the faithful in Christ Jesus..."
refers to the character of believers. But it refers to the source behind the
believers. As a matter of fact, it is the resurrection power of Christ that
provides the ability to live this way under God. Let me show you.
In Ephesians 1:1 Paul says, "...faithful in...". What are
the last two words? "...Jesus Christ..." Is that what your translation says? No!
"...Christ Jesus..." That’s important. Why is it important? Before His
resurrection He was known as Jesus. That was His earthly name, but after He
resurrected it changed to Christ. He is known to be the Christ. Now listen, when
you see that you are talking about the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. And it is
His resurrected power administered by the Holy Spirit of God that enables you
and me to be dependable and faithful in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you a question.
Are you faithful in Christ Jesus? I don’t know, I don’t live with you. What are
you like in your conversations? What are you like in your business life? How
much do you cheat on your income taxes? Why do you try to make people think you
are something when you know good and well you are not? That is not what it means
to be faithful in Christ Jesus. It’s even in the little things. How you treat
the waitress when she comes to the table, and you ordered beans, and she brings
peas, and they’re cold has a lot to do with whether or not you’re faithful in
Christ Jesus. You cannot tell me that a person can be rude to the people God
died for and turn right around and claim to faithful in Christ Jesus. How do you
know they are faithful? By the little things. And if they are faithful in
little, they will be much. Well, are you faithful this morning in Christ Jesus?
I could never point a finger. There are too many times when I am unfaithful. But
the believers at Ephesus were faithful. They were saintly saints. And Paul in
Ephesians 1 wants them to be enlightened about a few things. In Chapter 2 he
wants them to remember some things, things that will help them. In chapter 3 he
wants them to understand and comprehend some things that will bless their socks
off. And then in chapters 4-6 he has some things to encourage and instruct them
with that will help these saintly saints keep on living as the saints God wants
them to be.
|
Can God count on you in the little things?
Can you be called a true
servant of Christ?
Can God trust you with a ministry?
Do you want a ministry?
Can God trust you?
Are you faithful?
Are you the one that can disciple others?
Can you share the Word?
If you are not living it yourself,
how can you teach it
to anyone else. |
Well, this is quite a group of people we are studying. They were
saintly saints amidst all the idolatry and deception you could possibly imagine
in the western area of Asia Minor of their day.
(Return to TOP of page)
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|
|
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Ephesians 1:1 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: 2 Grace
to you and
peace
from
God our
Father
and the
Lord
Jesus
Christ. |
Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1.
We are going to move to verse 2. We found in verse 1 that the audience
of the book of Ephesians was saintly saints that were faithful in Christ Jesus.
That is important to understand. They were not just saints positionally. They were saints experientially. They were daily dependable to do the things God had told them to do.
They were not perfect, but they were dependable. How did they do that? They were
faithful IN
Christ Jesus. Because they were IN Him and because He was
IN them, they were enabled
to do something they could not have done apart from His power. So what a wonderful audience
we are looking at and Paul is writing to in Ephesians. Paul does something in verse 2 that
he does in all of the 13 epistles that we know for sure that he wrote. He gives them
a greeting. Now I love something about the New
Testament epistles. The authors signed it before they wrote it. Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if you could get a letter that was signed before you had to read it? Then you
could make up your mind if you wanted to read it or not. They signed the epistle and then
they would write it. Paul tells who he is; he tells who he is writing to; and he gives them a
greeting.
In
Ro1:7,1Co1:3; 2Co1:2; Gal1:3; Php1:2;Col1:2; 1Th1:1; 2Th1:2; Phile1:3 Titu1:4,
he uses the exact same words that he
puts in
Ephesians 1:2. There’s something that is significant about that. In I and II
Timothy he adds a word. He says, "Grace...", and he adds, "...mercy...", and then, "...peace to
you from God our Father and from Christ Jesus our
Lord." To pass this off as a simple
greeting to me is to miss the point. I believe in the plenary
[Ed note: plenary means full or complete in every respect] verbal
inspiration of scriptures. That means every word of God is inerrant, infallible and inspired. If that’s the case, this is not just Paul writing this greeting, this is the Holy Spirit of
God inspiring Paul to write this greeting. And if the Holy Spirit inspired him, then there’s
something we need to look at in the greeting that he gives to the church at Ephesus.
The greeting was more than just a
formality. It was a wish, a desire of the apostle to the audience that he was writing.
Let’s look at it. He says in verse 2, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ." The older I am getting the deeper these words are becoming to me, and
the more I realize how ineffective I can be in even sharing them. But perhaps we’ll get a
glimpse of these two words. We’re all desperate for them. The word "grace" is the word
charis. It
comes from the word "
chairo",
which means to rejoice. Certainly when you begin to
understand the word "grace" there’s a rejoicing in your heart. I was thinking about the song
"Glad". Oh man, I love that song. "Oh be ye glad, be ye glad". Rejoice for what the Lord has
done for you. When you understand grace there’s such a lift that comes in your
spirit.
How many of you are just beaten down?
How many of you feel like you’re in a valley? You look around you and
nothing seems very appealing. When you come to God’s word and you begin to understand
God’s grace, there ought to be lifting of your spirit. There ought to be a rejoicing in your soul.
|
GOD IS A GOD OF GRACE.
GRACE
IS FAVOR THAT IS DONE WITHOUT EXPECTATION OF RETURN. |
Now as believers we have to come to
understand this. We have to come to understand it is the absolutely free expression of the
loving kindness of God to mankind. What kind of God do we serve? We serve a God that is
filled with lovingkindness. He is a God of grace. As a matter of fact, the first time
you ever find the word "grace" it’s in the Hebrew. It’s in Genesis 6
[KJV
Gen 6:8] when God decided to
covenant with
Noah. He looked down on this earth and saw all the sin, filth,
wickedness and evil, and God had grace upon Noah. Not only did He spare Noah and his family, He
spared all of creation because God is a God of integrity. This God of grace, who created
mankind, did not abandon it just because mankind rebelled against him. Oh no! He is committed
to what He created.
His plan of
redemption unfolds
throughout all of Scripture. It is what forgives the sinner and what brings joyfulness and
thankfulness to his heart. It is what changes an individual. Grace is more than just
the nature of God in His character. It is something He expresses to us. It’s the changing
power of God. It’s what takes a man who is a sinner, bound and blinded by sin, and lifts
him up out of the mire. God changes him. He transforms him. It’s God that does that. It’s
grace that does this. Grace always deals with man’s sin.
Grace is that free expression of God
to mankind, who rebelled against Him, that enters into a man’s life and deals
with his sin and transforms him and fills his heart with gladness. It fills his heart with
rejoicing. I’ll tell you what, folks. If you have been living under the grace of God today, you’re a
different person because of it. It has lifted your spirits to realize God loves you so much that He
freely expressed that love by sending His son into this world.
So many people relegate grace just to
salvation. They’ve overlooked the fact that grace continues on and on. It’s the
ongoing changing power of God. It’s the ongoing willingness of God to deal with the
sinfulness of even His bride the church. We must understand that.
I took the word "grace" and ran it
through the book of Ephesians and began to get a picture of what we are talking about.
Obviously it is not a complete picture because it is used in all of the Scriptures. You
must take the whole before you can understand it completely. But let’s look at it and
see if from Ephesians we can understand a little bit more about what grace really is.
Look at verse 6 of chapter 1. As a
matter of fact, I guess we would have to go back to verse 5 to catch the whole
sentence. In verse 5 he says, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ Himself,
according to the kind intention of His will..." Do you see the heart of God? "...to the
praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved." Now don’t
forget those last two words. You see grace is a free expression. That’s right! But it was
very expensive to God to be able to express it. We forget this. Grace is very costly.
Yes, it is free to man, and man cannot earn it. God just decided to display and to manifest it
to man. But what it cost God to do that is what we must understand. To talk about grace
as just the kindness of God that is expressed is to miss something. Somehow embedded deep
into the word "grace" is what it cost God to express it. That’s how undeserving
man was to ever receive it. You must understand that. So all of this that we have at
salvation was expressed to us in the beloved. He came and He died a wicked cruel death on
the cross so that we might have this grace manifested into our life. We must understand
that. It is God’s favor freely offered but expensively expressed when He sent His only son
into this world. What we have is a result of a holy God reaching down into the filth of
this world and sending His son to die for you and me.
Secondly, we find it again in chapter
1 and verse 7, "...in Whom...", speaking of Christ, "...we have
redemption..."
Do you know what the word
redemption means? (See
Word Study on Redemption). It means that we are purchased. It means to be
purchased off of a slave block. I have not gone into the verse and studied all it is
speaking of there. We’ll get back to it. But what in the world would cause a God to do that for His
creation? You see He is the God. And He is a God of kindness and favor and grace. "...in
Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of our trespasses
according to the riches of His grace." It mentions His blood. You see you can’t take grace away
from what it cost God to express it. When you have realized what it cost God to express
it, it begins to help you realize the wickedness of sin and the undeserving state of mankind.
You think sin is not important? It cost God His only son on the cross. It cost God much
suffering to express His grace to you and me.
In Ephesians 2.5 we find the word
again, in the middle of a sentence. So let’s back up to verse 4. It says, "...but God,
being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in
our transgressions made us alive together with Christ..." And then he says, "...by
grace you have been saved." He made us alive. He made us alive with Him. He speaks of His
resurrection. We are identified with Him in His death, and we are identified with Him in His
resurrection. To have a resurrection you must have a death. And there again the word
"grace" is directly associated with what it cost God to freely express it to mankind.
In chapter 2 and verse 7 we find it.
He says, continuing the sentence there that we have already begun in verse 4, "...in
order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." "...In the ages to come..." Now I don’t know all that
that means yet, but one of the thoughts that came to my mind was as long as we live, and we
will live eternally, God will continually be revealing to us His grace. We think we understand
it. Oh folks, we only understand what God has chosen to reveal to our hearts. But
as long as we go "...in the ages to come..." He will be revealing His grace to you and me.
So when you think of the word
"grace", immediately think of the fact that before Christ we were all dirt and had sin
natures that rebelled against God. We are created that way. But as a result of His race, He
reached down, and Jesus came into this world. It cost God. Yes, it’s free, but it’s
expensive. There’s an enigma there. It was very expensive for God to display something that is free
to us.
You know, sometimes we think a little
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. I don’t know how many times I
have sat up on the pulpit area and seen the crowds come in and had to fight back the
tears. I can’t imagine why anybody would want to come and hear me. And then it dawns on me
that they are not coming to hear me. They’re coming to hear God’s word. And God
overwhelmingly tells me that all the time. Listen, it’s by grace I was even saved much less
used as a part of His kingdom. How often do we get competitive even in that which only
God by His grace has allowed us to participate? I am
afraid sometimes we take grace as a
license, and we don’t see how undeserving we are of His grace. Don’t ever read the word
"grace" that you don’t realize that you absolutely deserve nothing, and I absolutely
deserve nothing.
You want to talk about the grace of
God as if it is some kind of divine license that allows us to live even outside the
restrictions of God’s word? No! Grace, folks, is given to those who absolutely don’t deserve
anything but hell. And once you have received grace, you never forget that you didn’t
deserve it to begin with and that now when God transforms you, you live in the mindset of how
wonderful this grace is.
I tell you what. When you start
understanding, and God starts revealing it to your heart, there is going to be a
rejoicing, like I said earlier, that you haven’t had before. God is going to put
a song in your heart. Some of you even have the garment to praise Him a little
bit. And one of these times we are going to see it in a service, and this place
is going to go nuts. And I am not telling you to do that. But it’s amazing what
happens to somebody when it suddenly overwhelms him, and he sees what grace is
all about.
Well,
in chapter 2 and verse 8, Paul says it as he has said it so many times. He says
"...for by grace have you been saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God..." Paul enters into ministry now and explains how God has
lifted us up and saved us all by grace, very expensive grace to God but freely
offered to man.
In
chapter 3 verse 2, look what it says: "If indeed you have heard of the
stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you..." Paul was talking
about his ministry to the Gentiles. The word "stewardship" there is a word that
means someone managing the affairs of a household. Here’s God over His creation,
and He looks down and sees none righteous, no not one. And so the Lord Jesus
goes down and says, "I’ll become the man. I’ll be the God-man." And He goes
down, walks in covenant with His father, and the Lord Jesus pays a price, a debt
that He didn’t owe when we owed a debt we couldn’t pay. God lifts us up out of
the miry clay, and He sets our feet on the rock. And not only that, He lets us
get involved with what He’s up to in reaching His creation. To think that He
lets us be involved with Him. Paul says, "...this ministry I have to you is by
the grace of God." He says at other places, other books, "Man, I am the chief of
sinners. I used to crucify Christians. I took them out. I stood there while
Stephen was stoned to death. And now I am overwhelmed by the fact that only by
God’s grace, I don’t deserve it, He let me be a part of His ministry." In
chapter 3 and verse 7 Paul speaks of his ministry. He says, "...of which I was
made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me
according to the working of His power."
And then in verse 8 of chapter 3 he
says, "...to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the
Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ." Whenever he talks about his ministry or his
salvation, he has the word "grace" wrapped all around it. "I didn’t deserve for God to stop me on
the Damascus road. And I certainly don’t deserve for God to use me in the way that he has
used me. It’s just by God’s grace. God has transformed me. I am no longer the
same, and I walk in awe of His grace." Are you living that way? Are you
rejoicing in your heart that God loves you like He does? This is the loving-kindness of
God. He broke through the darkness of this world with His light, and He sent Jesus to the
cross.
In Chapter 4 verse 7 Paul speaks of
the ministry that all folks have within the body. And he says, "But to each one of
us...". You could say, "Brother Wayne, you didn’t know me before I got saved. Let me tell
you what I was like before I got saved." And you begin to realize how rotten your life really
was. "But God broke in, and by His grace I was saved. And now, Wayne, let me tell you how
He’s gifted me and how I am so grateful that He ministers through me. It’s so
different."
I was thinking of my wife, Diana, and
our gifts. We went to a hospital one time together. We walked in the door, and
the little lady started groaning. I picked that up right off. That rascal, she was doing fine
when we got there. We walked in, and Diana, with her gift of mercy, runs over, gets her
head on her pillow, pats it around and gets it where it’s real comfortable. Diana pats her on
the cheek and gets her a little glass of water. I am thinking, "Oh come on, Diana. She
just wants attention. Let me exhort her." So I walked over and said, "Don’t you
know the scripture...?" And I started exhorting her in the Word. We got out in the hall, and Diana
said | |
