Be the Church God Wants to See in the World
First B Jackson
2026-03-15

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Circulars. When the circulars would come out, that went to everybody. You know, you got your own mail but the circulars went to everybody. This is sort of a circular letter to the saints. Yeah, the ones who are in Ephesus but also the ones who are in Jackson.

The faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you, unmerited favor, though you do not deserve it, he's given it. Grace to you and peace, the absence of turmoil, outer, or inner from God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ and then, the longest sentence starts right here. One main verb and it is praise or bless. Y'all bless and it's sort of imperative. Bless God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who's blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

He says, this is already true of you. It's already true that you have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world and you should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us and the beloved, that's not the end of the sentence. It keeps going. For two more slides.

In him, Christ, we have redemption through his blood, Christ's blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses and sins and that is all according to the riches of God's grace which he lavished upon us and all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will. If you hit that and you go, God has made known to us the mystery of his will. I just prayed that I don't know what your will is, lord. I do know that his will is that people come to know him experientially and be saved. I do know that.

I don't know how that process is going to work itself out, right? But the mystery of his will is that we be saved and sanctified and be a part of the going forward of the good news of the gospel. According to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, things on earth. In him, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him. He works all things according to the council of his will so that we must who are first to be open to Christ.

Praise his glory. That's not the end of the sentence either. It's it's long but it's 202 words in Greek. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you believed in Christ, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. God gives of himself, of his spirit when we believe in Christ.

You've been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. So, if I were to go back those slides, I'd say, blessed be God the father, blessed be God the son, blessed be God the Holy Spirit. That's a good way of looking at that. In fact, the last line, blessed be or praise to God's glorious grace because he did not have to give of himself but he did. Praise of his glory, Christ walked out a perfect human life.

Yes. He's fully God and fully man but he walked it out perfectly and he had that perfect record to hand over to anyone who would say, I need it. I don't have a perfect record. I am guilty and I want to be innocent. I want forgiveness to the praise of his glory.

God made that way available in Christ and then by the spirit who prompts us and convicts us and brings us in. To the praise of his glory. So, that's the longest sentence in the New Testament. This is second longest. Here we go.

For this reason, I too. So, Paul has more to say other than three slides of one sentence. Haven't heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exist among you and your love for all the saints. So, he's speaking to the church. This is not a terribly evangelistic Billy Graham style sermon where he's preaching to a bunch of people who do not yet know Jesus.

He is preaching to the church. Haven't heard of the faith that you have in Christ which means you believed in Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit. So, I also know that you love the saints. I therefore do not cease giving thanks for you because I know I'm not alone in this. Paul's traveled by this point thousands of miles and will travel thousands more before he ends up in prison for the gospel but unhindered as Acts says.

I don't cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. Now, y'all might see if you're familiar with the New Testament, you might see this and go, oh yeah, this is Paul being Paul. That's how he starts every time. I'm blessing the triune God but I'm also grateful for you. So, if the typical Pauline New Testament letter, if I could say this in just a few lines, it's this, grace and peace.

I always thank God for you. Hold on to the gospel no matter what. For the love of God, stop squabbling and acting stupid. And Timothy says, howdy. Right?

That's kind of the format. We're only two two points in but it's only in the second sentence of this letter, you know? Don't cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. What is it that Paul prays? Well, this is the content of his prayer.

The content of his prayer for this believing body is this, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, almighty God, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation or an opening. Revelation is when you see something that you have not seen before. When something is revealed, that is a revelation. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory himself may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation or an opening up about the knowledge of him and this knowledge in the New Testament, this knowledge of him calls back to the prophets. You remember a few weeks ago when I was going on and on and on about Yada, Yada, Yada, which is the experiential knowledge of God.

It's knowing him, not just knowing about him but knowing him, knowing who he is. The first thing that Paul prays for them when he mentions him in his prayers is that God himself would open them up to new understanding, deeper understanding of who he is. Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. So that's the content that that God will give you all a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Praise God.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be in light. It used to be that almost every time Florine led the music, it was open the eyes of my heart, lord. Love that. We sing it all the time. Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see you. Right. So the second thing he's praying is that the eyes of your heart may be opened or enlightened. Do you wanna see things the way God sees them? Yeah.

I want for you too. If if I'm gonna pray that for anybody, for these folks right here, Sunday morning, when I'm standing up here, I'm hoping that God's given me something that when I say it, it'll dislodge some logjam in your mind and you it'll open up something new about God and about his goodness and his grace and his mercy and his love and that's what Paul was praying for those folks at Ephesus. We know he spent longer at Ephesus than anywhere else. He spent almost three years there. So, he knows these folks and he's thankful for them but he wants for them to get it in a way that is more profound than they have gotten it so far.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that what? So that you will know what is the hope of his calling. Now, we know in the New Testament, Elfy's hope is every time that's not hope. Yeah, hope in the New Testament. Every time we see hope in the New Testament, it is an absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass, Okay?

So when we think of hope, I hope so. That might happen or it might not happen. But hope in the New Testament is always an absolute certainty that has not yet come to pass. Can we stick with that for just a second? I want for you to know, Paul says, I want for you to know what is that future certainty that you're still questioning, that you haven't settled in your heart yet.

Now, the calling of a person to Jesus or the calling of a person for what he is to do for Jesus or she is to do for Jesus. That calling has an absolute certainty and the fulfillment of it is future but the calling has already happened. Especially Saint Paul spent so much time saying before the very foundation of the world. God's got his plan and he's working his plan and you're a part of this plan especially church like a collectively you're a part of this plan but he's saying, I'm praying for y'all that y'all may all see what it is that God has called you to in the past. What he had as his plan from the beginning is for that hope.

Now is that I've got a home in heaven for sure there in those mansion sublime? Yeah. That's part of it, but that's not all of it. So in the sweet by and by, wonderful song. Love it.

Love it. Love it. It's so much fun to play, so much fun to sing, but that's not all it's about. It's partially there. So that you will know what is the hope of his calling.

We have a part church. We have a part in other people having that future hope in the sweet by and by. I think that Ephesians is mainly about how God is planning on using the church to get more people to that future hope. So, the calling has happened. The hope is still future, but it's an absolute certainty.

And Paul wants you to understand that. It's not just me, my four, and no more. I get my kids saved, and that's good enough. It is I wanna be a part of what God is doing in this world. I wanna see the gospel go forward.

I wanna see people set free in Christ. When somebody has the boldness, when somebody has the guts to walk into this empty building and just go, hey, is anybody home? I want for one of us, some of us to say, yep. Here I am. I can't wait to talk to you.

You know? Amen, Connor. So that you will know what is the hope of his calling. So, I want your eyes of your heart to be opened to see not just the glorious future for yourself but the glorious future that you have a part in making for someone else who does not yet know the power of God. So, the hope of his calling and that's something like I said that was past but it's has future ramifications.

So, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now, if I just stopped at the riches of his glory and the inheritance, everyone of us would think heaven. He's saying that in the saints, in the church, there is a richness. There is plenty, there are plenty of resources within the church. Towards that future but this is this is something that is future but it's in the saints who are here now.

Paul's called them saints. He immediately as an appositive says, and you are the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now, you're only faithful in Christ Jesus. It's because of Christ Jesus, you can be faithful at all and that's another refrain that Ephesians hits over and over and over and it's in Christ and if you have grown up in the church and you've heard, oh in Christ, in Christ, in Christ so many times or you just think of it as Jesus's middle name, you know, Jesus Christ It's like, if you think of it like that's just a name, it means anointed one, the only anointed one, Messiah Jesus. I had a professor that almost never used Christ unless he was saying Christas in Greek but he he usually said Messiah Jesus because the hope is in the chosen one.

Now, I've said that this letter is about the church. If you really understand the chosen one, let's let's just let scripture say it. I don't want to get ahead of myself. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance? Christ's inheritance in the saints.

I hope that you'll know and understand the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the boundless greatness of his power toward us who believe? So Paul is speaking as a living person, a living people at that time. I'm a living person speaking to living people. At this time, but y'all are all saints.

It was saints then and it's saints now. You don't have to go through canonization to be a saint. Okay? You do have to go through regeneration to be a saint, but that's what it takes. You receive the righteousness of Christ upon belief.

You receive the Holy Spirit upon belief. This what is the boundless power greatness of his power toward us who believe is present. So, I thought I put that up there. I did. Here it is.

The hope of his calling. So, that calling was in the past. God made a way. The way that anyone would be saved would be through Christ. The riches of his glory of his inheritance.

That is future, yes, but it's the future of all believers and right now, we're still building, right? Still building that till the fullness comes in. Still building that and then the boundless greatness of his power towards us who believed. That is the power source for the present day to day life. This is how it's worked out and so Paul's prayer is it covers it all.

It covers like, hey, you're a part of something that started a long time ago. You're a part of something that's going into eternity future, but we have to walk it out in the right now. And that's the order it's in. It's past, future, and present. So he centers his focus back on the present time of how are we going to walk this out and what are we going to do?

What is our job basically? Now, these, all of these things are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might and if we were to look backwards, we would see God flex when he pulls those people out of Egypt. Honestly, when he put them into Egypt with a flex too. He grows em up through the wilderness generation dying off into the promised land. Everything we see of God in the past shows his power.

But when he speaks of, there will be no more tears. When he speaks of finding your fullness in him who fills all in all, that is also by the strength of his power. So, just say, these are shot God showing off, showing his muscle flexing. The hope of his call and the riches of glory and his inheritance in the saints and the boundless greatness of power. It's boundless towards those of us who believe.

What is impossible with man is possible with God. He has all of the power. He proved it in raising Jesus from the dead. He'll go into that later on in the book which he brought about in Christ. Here he is.

This right there. Like I said later, it's the very next phrase. The strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and when he seated him at his right hand the heavenly places and remember back to that first sentence, he said, this is already true. This is already true and though you're going through it because you're wrestling flesh and spirit, you're wrestling back and forth and you have a hard time believing what you can't see yet, hope, absolute certainty that is not yet come to pass. He's saying, these things are already true.

These show God's flex, you know, like when he raised Jesus. He's far above all rule and all authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but in the one to come. So, would you say Ephesians has a high Christology? Yes. Very.

Very high. So, these all show God's flock like when he raised Christ. He raised him from death to the place of absolute honor overall forever and ever. So, we have that seated in the heavenlies, right hand of God and you can see that scene but you're thinking, how does that affect me? Because it says the boundless greatness of his power toward us who believe.

What does it say Jesus is doing sitting at the right hand of God? Interceding for us. Does that just floor you? I mean, first of all, that he could think of all of us at the same time would be enough. But that he's interceding for us and by his spirit, he is empowering us and enlightening us to do his will.

Dude, what more could you ask for? That's crazy. We're almost finished by the way. He put all things in subjection under his feet. That's an Old Testament reference.

In Psalm eight, it says, God, you have him, the Messiah. Rule over all the works of your hands. He's the agent of creation and he is in charge and you've put everything under his feet and if we look around right now in the world and we think, well, don't look like everything's under Jesus' feet. You know, it all comes out in the end, comes out great in the end if it ain't coming out great, it ain't the end. You put all things in subjection under his feet.

This is already true. Christ is lord of all. He is. Now, are there people who are rejecting him? Yeah.

Are there systems that are rejecting him? Yeah. Oh, yeah. But there's a purpose and it's moving forward and it's moving forward and this says, how it's moving forward? God put everything in subjection under Christ's feet and made Christ head over all things to the church.

Oh, wait a second. This is his plan? Yeah. This is his plan? Amen, Connor.

You're nailing it, man. Yes. This is his plan. This is plan A. There's no plan B.

So, let's keep on going. He made him the head. He's putting him in subjection under his feet and Jesus didn't choose the victory route of military might or power. He didn't choose to topple kingdoms while he was here and he's not choosing to do that right now. He's choosing to be himself in the church.

Amen. And we are to be a part of that and he made him head over things, all things to the church which is his body. Okay. He's the head and we're the body. Sit with that for a minute.

When we say that we are the continuing body of Christ, this is what is this what we want for the world to see of Christ? Are we acting like we want the world to see Christ? I I hope we are. I wanna be. I want for y'all to be.

I wanna be myself. But this is Ephesians, the rest of the book of Ephesians is about how it is that we are to get under Christ's feet, under his subjection, under his headship, but we are the plan that God has for the world. He goes on to say in Corinthians, he says, now, you are the body of Christ, church. If you're a believer in Jesus, you're a part of the body of Christ and you are a part of the going forth of the mission of Christ. Now, I could go back to Jesus's first sermon in Luke, right?

Where he says, set the captives free. You know, heal the sick. All of that sort of stuff. We're to be a part of the same ministry that Christ was a part of when he was here. Love one another Easy to understand, hard to do, right?

This passage is easier to understand this week, I think, than last week but it's harder to do. In order to get the world into subjection under Christ's feet, we need to show them the better way and the better way is love. The better way is the way of Christ. So, Christ is the head over all things and the church is his body. That should probably be a capital c.

It's not just church. It's the church. Okay. The church. All believers at all times.

That's his body and that is the way that he carries forward. We should be filled with grace and with mercy and with forgiveness and with love. We should be leaning towards other people with favor. When Christ says, I didn't come in the world to judge the world. I came here on a rescue mission.

That's what we need to be on. The church which is his body, the fullness. Fullness, the church, his body, this is the fullness. Question mark. This is the fullness.

This is how he wants to express himself. This is what he's chosen to do. We say often times that that spreading the gospel is not so much just preaching a message but it's saying, from one beggar who has found bread, this is where bread is to be found, right? So, we are the fullness. Christ is the fullness.

Pleroma comes up a lot. Pleroma means fullness in Greek and it comes up a lot. It means the sum total of fullness, abundance, even super abundance. It's overflowing and the fullness. Christ was the in all of the godhead dwelt in him.

He was the fullness of God and he says that about the church and that is sobering. Honestly, it's sobering to think about that. There are 18 different occurrences in the New Testament. You can do your own study if you want to. I'll come to em eventually.

The fullness of him who fills all in all and that's one of those circumlocutions for God where he's just saying, God almighty. He is the one who fills all in all and it has to come from him but the fullness is the church and so this is the end of the sentence. This is the end of that second largest longest sentence in the New Testament but there's a lot in here and when we go into chapter two and chapter three and chapter four, we're getting into more theology and underpinning but then when we get in four, five, six, we're getting into how to act it out. If you try to go to the passages that say, do this in chapter five. Before you understand this and and you're humbled yourself before this, you won't get what the rest of it means at all.

You'll you'll be judgy and ugly and proud and everything else. If you get this and allow it to shape you and go, oh my goodness. I'm the normal person that has just been called into a superhero mission, and I'm empowered by almighty God. I don't think I'm ready for this, Lord. How many stories are in our stories that are just like that?

I don't think I'm ready for it, Lord. But you say that I am. I'm gonna trust you. You say what I'm supposed to do, love one another. Okay.

Whoo. They're almost unlovable. So are you. Yeah. Right?

So I got a one a couple more slides. So I woke up this this week one day and I just thought, you remember the phrase, and it's been attributed to everybody, but be the change you want to see in the world. It's on bumper stickers. It's usually attributed to Gandhi, although he didn't really say it. He said something sort of like it.

Be the change you want to see in the world. That sounds great. I've heard it from Bob Marley. I've heard it from John Lennon. I've heard it from a lot of different people but it's they they didn't say that but basically, what Ephesians is saying is be the church you want to see in the world.

Actually, cross out the Q. What it's saying really is be the church that God wants to see in the world. That's what we need to be. Amen. First B, B, the church that God wants to see in the world.

When he says, I want you to help people. I want you to pray for people. I want you to be willing to be interrupted. May we be the church that God wants to see in this community and may we be a part of the church that God wants to see in the greater context of the whole wide world. Since we're here, I say, let's start acting here but we spread from here to the very uttermost parts.

That was his design from the beginning. That's the worst picture of Jesus I think I could have chosen. I just opened my eyes to Jesus, the Orthodox. Sorry about that. But be the church that God wants to see in the world.

Would you stand with me? I'm going invite the band back up. I've got a few people to pray for. One of em is Yvonne and Yvonne has asked us to pray for during the announcements for the past few weeks and she has seen the doctor and they believe that they're able to do a procedure, a lumpectomy on the March 23 which is the very first of spring break which is great for her because she's off work and then she has another treatment, another consultant consultation on April 2 but we're going to pray for her that God would be healing her. We're going to make the fullness that we have of what God has laid before this church right now.

This is our sister who's hurting and we want to help her. For Caroline who is our sister who is hurting and she is in treatment and both of them have a glass half full mentality like you've never experienced before. You need to talk to both of them about what God is bringing them through. It's wonderful And for an anonymous guy that actually two anonymous guys. One of them that I'm praying for and one of them that is Florina's playing praying for.

I believe God is bringing them into the kingdom and I just want for them to be received with goodness and grace to recognize that. And Lord God Almighty, don't let us screw it up. Amen. How deep the father's love for us. Would you sing it out for us?

Let's worship the Lord. Amen? And I just wanna say before we start to sing, thank you, Nick. Thank you, Nick, for being here. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. It's amazing to see his desire and passion to learn the instruments and to worship together. I'm