the longest sentence in the New Testament, the opening doxology covering Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ;
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;
5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him;
11 in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;
12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
13 In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
Saul's history of persecuting Christians before his conversion
1 But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he traveled, he got close to Damascus, and suddenly a light from the sky shone around him.
4 He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
6 But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one.
8 Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. They led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
9 He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.
10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias!” He said, “Behold, it’s me, Lord.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
12 and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.”
13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.
14 Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17 Ananias departed, and entered into the house. Laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me, that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
18 Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he received his sight. He arose and was baptized.
19 He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.
20 Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.
21 All who heard him were amazed, and said, “Isn’t this he who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called on this name? And he had come here intending to bring them bound before the chief priests!”
22 But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.
23 When many days were fulfilled, the Jews conspired together to kill him,
24 but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him,
25 but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.
26 When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
28 He was with them entering into Jerusalem,
29 preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.
30 When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the assemblies throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
32 As Peter went throughout all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
33 There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed.
34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!” Immediately he arose.
35 All who lived at Lydda and in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
36 Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which when translated, means Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and acts of mercy which she did.
37 In those days, she became sick, and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
38 As Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them.
39 Peter got up and went with them. When he had come, they brought him into the upper room. All the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.
40 Peter sent them all out, and knelt down and prayed. Turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41 He gave her his hand, and raised her up. Calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
43 He stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.
Paul arriving at Ephesus on the second missionary journey and reasoning in the synagogue
1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”
7 He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
9 The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;
10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
11 He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,
13 saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”
14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
15 but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”
16 So he drove them from the judgment seat.
17 Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.
18 Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.
19 He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
20 When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;
21 but taking his leave of them, he said, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.
23 Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.
25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
27 When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;
28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
in Christ the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things
19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;
20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray opened Ephesians 1:1-14 this week, walking through what he called "the outside of the envelope" before letting Paul's opening doxology speak for itself. The sermon traced the trinitarian shape of the passage, God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and kept returning to a single pressing question: would you rather have God work His will through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience?
What was said
Ray started with the sender. Paul, formerly Saul, a man who held warrants from the Sanhedrin to drag Christians back to Jerusalem, is now introduced as an apostle of Christ Jesus. The hinge of that turn is three words: "by the will of God." It was not Paul's resumé that got him there. He called himself the chief of sinners. The will of God is what accounts for the difference, and Ray noted that phrase shows up repeatedly through the whole passage.
The letter is addressed to "the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus" at Ephesus. Ray pointed out that "saints" and "faithful" are not two separate groups in the Greek. They are an appositive, the same people described two ways. If God has called you holy, He has also given you what you need to be faithful. And the letter was always meant to travel. Just as the Colossians were told to pass theirs around, this one belongs to any believer called out of a former life and into the body of Christ.
The salutation, "grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," Ray said is anything but a throwaway line. Citing N. T. Wright, he described grace and peace as a summary of the whole gospel: grace is its origin and peace is its effect. God has unmerited favor toward us and extends it freely, and what we receive when we accept it is peace.
The body of the passage, Ephesians 1:3-14, is the longest single sentence in the New Testament, 202 words in Greek, and Ray worked through it in three movements following its trinitarian shape. The Father section establishes that every spiritual blessing is already true in the heavenly places, that God chose us before the foundation of the world, and that predestination carries a purpose: that we should be holy and blameless before Him so that others would see Him. Ray was clear that this is not an us-and-them passage. The chosen are simply a few steps ahead of the people they are called to reach.
The Christ section brings in redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of trespasses. Ray connected the phrase "mystery of his will" to Jesus Himself: if we want to understand what God's purpose looks like in practice, we look at how Christ acted on earth. The church, Ray argued, is the continuing body of Christ, and Ephesians will make explicit in later chapters that declaring the mystery of God's will to the whole cosmos is the church's assignment.
The Holy Spirit section closes the doxology. When the Ephesians heard the gospel and believed, they were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is described as the guarantee, the earnest money, of the full inheritance to come. Ray used a real estate analogy for the room: it is the upfront payment that secures the deal. The Spirit is God's binding commitment that what has been promised will be fully delivered.
Ray brought the sermon home by reading the whole passage through twice more, pressing on the recurring phrase "to the praise of his glory." The question he left with the congregation before moving into communion was the same one he had raised throughout: God is going to accomplish His will regardless. The only real choice before us is whether He does it through our obedience, as Jesus modeled, or in spite of our disobedience.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray described Paul as someone who went from hunting down Christians to being sent out by Christ, and said the explanation is simply 'by the will of God.' What does it mean to you that Paul's transformation is credited entirely to God's will rather than Paul's own change of heart or effort?
Pastor Ray said the church is meant to be like the temple in Jerusalem, the place where heaven and earth meet, and that we are supposed to be declaring the mystery of God's will to the whole world. What does that look like practically for First B Jackson in this community?
Overcome. Be The same power that rolls Jesus from the grave, the same power that commands the dead to wake lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when he speaks. The same We have hope that his promises are true in his strength. There is nothing
Are we not doing at the cross? Okay. Why is this present? Oh. Oh, no.
I've made a mistake. I don't know what that was about.
Good morning, everybody. Congrats for being here. You yeah. You're Wake up. It's early.
Right? It feels it feels early. Congrats for being here on time. You guys are doing great. Would you join with us and sing with us in song?
We're gonna sing a song called Psalm 92 where it talks about, it is good to praise you Lord and remember your love and your faithfulness. Would you join with us in singing?
Love in the morning and your faithfulness at night proclaim your
Here today, it's delightful to have you so much going on here at First Speed. Josh, can you hit that first slide for me? I don't have the clicker up here. It's going to be the video. Hey, guess what?
It's going to be a video. This is just like the substitute teacher coming into class. Everybody put your notes down. Here we go. I'll just narrate.
It's coming up here. They're already announcing the date. Here at Wonder We're gonna jump to the next thing. So Vacation Bible School is coming up. And if you thought that was fun, we did that on a purpose just so you could come to Wonder Junction for Vacation Bible School, June 22 through the twenty fifth.
We only have the sign up link yet for adults to volunteer. But would you consider? Would you pray about being there? I've been a part of it for a couple years. It's a blast.
It's so much fun to work with the kids. And the link is already on the website, or you can use that QR code there as well. And go ahead and click that next one for us there, Josh. And Awana's gonna be back on tomorrow night in this room. We have tons of kids that come in here.
That's what that big circle on the ground is for. They play games. They learn Bible verses. It's a great chance to pour into the lives of all the kids in this area. Next slide there.
Oh, hey. Look at this. Next, meal music and a message is on on Wednesday night over in Driggs. It's a blast. Last week or two weeks ago, like 70 people showed up.
Lot of great music, a lot of great food. Would you come and participate, and would you be willing to maybe show up and help set up too? Because there's plenty of efforts that need to be put into that to make sure it goes smoothly. And Celebrate Recovery is kicking off at Gateway Church. It's a a super wonderful ministry for anybody who's dealing with addictions of all sorts.
There's a a pamphlet out back where you can come talk to me if you have questions about this. It's a it's a just a big group setting, and they split off into men's and women's and talk about a different addictions from chemical to relationships, all sorts of things like that. Highly recommend getting connected with that as well. And Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship will be back on March 13 with their with their little gathering event over there as well. And for more information, check the website.
There's all kinds of stuff going on at First B. If you're feeling lonely, if you're feeling left out, would you show up to one of these events and get plugged in with us all? I think that's it. Did we forget anything? Okay.
We'll try that video again next week. Everybody have a great week. Well, just stand up and greet each other too.
Power in hand speaking the father's plan sending a sound light in this broken We will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony everyone almighty nothing as sweet as his love and mercy nothing comes close to the Lord God. So selfless, so generous, so faithful you are. Awesome God,
You can have a seat for a minute. Ray, would you pray for our Yes,
sir. Lord God Almighty, thank you for the privilege of being together this morning, for the beauty of the day, and for the beauty of this fellowship. Lord, I thank you that you've called us out of and into out of everything else and into Christ. Out of the darkness and into the kingdom of marvelous light. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask that you would use us to advance your good gospel.
Would you use your word in our hearts and in our lives, Lord? Illuminate so that we may understand it. And Lord, I pray that we'd have the willingness to do your will in your way that we would be very, very conscious of you. And would you give us your eyes to see what it is that we need to see? Would you give us Lord, you've given us resources.
Would you allow us to see where the need is and to go after that. In Jesus name, we ask you that you'd advance your good gospel among us, through us, in us, and to the community around us to the very uttermost parts. In Jesus name, amen. And it's time for children's church downstairs. And there they go.
How are you all this morning? Did did your phone did your phones wake you up? I I didn't even think about it. This is the like usually I'm ahead of it where I know. Okay, it's Sunday morning.
It changes on Saturday night. I didn't think about it, but I am so grateful. We have made it. And I know it's not been a hard winter. I know that it's not been a hard winter unless you're a skier or snowboarder.
It hasn't been a hard winter. But I am kind of a solar powered person. I'll just admit that. So daylight savings time being back is really, really good for me. And we are in the light of the New Testament.
I've talked about for a long time that hey, good to see y'all. We've talked about for a long time that all of the minor prophets are kinda like dark clouds with silver linings. So the dark clouds with silver linings, and I think we've been in it since October. Is that right, Peter? October, November ish is when we started.
And so we've been walking in this deep mud together for a long time, And I needed the hope of the New Testament. I try to bring it out every time we see it, but we've been in some fairly dark books for a good while now. And we are up to Ephesians. Ephesians, we're gonna start with Ephesians one. Hey.
And today, we're just gonna look at the outside of the envelope. Okay? The the beginning part of it tells who sent it and who he sent it to. Right? And then the salutation is just great.
And the first sentence. So that's what we're getting into today. Here we go. Ephesians one one and two is the outside of the envelope. Paul, formerly known as Saul.
Okay? That's a lot right there. We can go into that. If you know the history and the last thing we did before we got to the minor prophets was go through the book of Acts. So from Acts nine all the way to the end of Acts, we saw Paul and his various journeys and starting out Saul of Tarsus with writs from the Sanhedrin of warrants, if you will, from the Sanhedrin to go out into the territories and drag back to Jerusalem anybody who is following the way, following Jesus.
So, like I said, just the first name in there, Paul, formerly Saul, an apostle. That's mind blowing. That he would be one who has sent out. Apostle just simply means one who has sent out. Paul, one who has sent out.
The guy who used to murder Christians, the guy who used to drag them back, the guy who was exceeding all others in his religious zeal, right, of Christ Jesus. Those were the people he was persecuting. Right? The people who followed after Christ Jesus were the people he's persecuting. So Paul formerly Saul.
One who was sent out by the Sanhedrin to call Chris to kill Christians is now sent out by Christ. And you just go, how can that be? Well, the line is one that's that stopped me in my tracks Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. By the will of God. There's a lot right there.
I know this is just the first opening. You know, this is outside of the envelope. But if you get an envelope, it's got a little hard on the outside of you know that's gonna be a love letter. You know? This one is gonna be about Jesus, and this one is gonna be about the will of God.
And all of that stuff that we just walked through for months on the minor prophets where it was old covenant stuff, where listen, you're not in living up to your end of the bargain. That's what God was saying. You're not living up to your end of the bargain. You are not following after me. You are following after the world.
You're acting just like everybody else. You've been chosen and you've been given this good law for your good, not so that you can beat people over the head with it. It's for your own good, and you're denying that, and you're pretending. You're serving me with your lips, but not with your heart. Rend your heart, not your garments.
Don't do just the religious stuff. Right? And Paul was really good at doing the religious stuff. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. If you think the will of Saul, the will of Saul was prove how great he was.
Prove how awesome he was to God and to the Sanhedrin and everybody else. But after he realized who he really is, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. I don't deserve this goodness that I've got. I don't deserve a portion of the new covenant. I failed the old old covenant, something horrible.
But by the will of God, he's in. Not because of anything that he had done, but because of God. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. To the saints. So return address is finished up there now.
Now he's who is this to? To the saints, Hagios, the holy ones. The holy ones. This is Paul, Saul, who sent in a letter and this says to to Ephesus is the next line, right, to the saints who are in Ephesus. But he's sending this letter to the saints who are in the saints, the holy ones who are in the city of the worship of Diana, Artemis of the Ephesians.
He's sending a letter to a bunch of pagans? Well, no. He's sending a letter to a bunch of followers of the way who were formerly pagan. He's formerly just as Jewish as he can be. Just as Judean, let's say that.
Just as Judean as he can be. His upbringing and his way is not God's way. Their upbringing and their way was not God's way. But we're all called out of whatever it is, affiliation. Whatever it is, we're called out of and into and the book of Ephesians is a book about the called out ones, the church.
It's about, oh, it's so good. If you don't, if you haven't read it lately, read all of Ephesians this week. Read it two or three times. It's not long. It won't take you fifteen minutes to read the whole book.
Now you can bear down on it and spend as much time as I have right here on just these two lines. There's always going to be more that you didn't see, but read it. It's good. If you get the flow of it, you read it several times, you'll start seeing less about, oh, yeah, there's that part in five where I really disagree with it. By the time you get to chapter five and you're understanding what's going on, really, you won't be disagreeing with it.
The church is in a way like the temple. The temple of God in Jerusalem is the place where heaven and earth met. And we, church, are to be the place where heaven and earth meet. Where the will of God is carried out in the saints. So the saints, the holy ones, though you were not holy, he has called you holy.
So that's how he leads off. Who are in Ephesus? That, I think that, yeah, it's good. It's a if it's it's Ephesians. But the saints who are in Ephesus, this is a circular, just like the letter to Laodicea.
Oh, yeah, Colossians and Corinthians. Y'all send this letter around, let everybody read it. It's not just to the saints in Ephesus. We're not just reading their mail. This is our mail.
If you have been called out of whatever your affiliation and into the church, the church triumphant, all believers throughout all ages, then this letter is for you too. It's not just for the ones who are in Ephesus, to the saints who are in Ephesus. So wouldn't be a sermon without a map, would it? Paul's second missionary journey. First missionary journey did not get near Ephesus.
Second missionary journey, he goes around up through Pisidian Antioch, over through Troas. He hears the Macedonian call in a dream at night, goes across really fruitful ministry in Philippi, Lydia, the seller of purple, a woman, slave, and the Philippian jailer, Gentile. Woah. It's for everybody. Going on from Philippi down towards Thessalonica and Berea where they wanted to seek out the way of God more accurately.
Down from there, Athens. Right? Mars Hill, philosophy, reasoning with Corinth, Sentre, and then across on a boat to Ephesus. I say that because the next time he does it and the third missionary journey walks back. Acts 18 says, and they came to Ephesus and he left the rest of them there.
He himself went into the synagogue house was his custom and reasoned with the Jews from the scriptures. But it's a pagan area, and so there are tons of Gentiles around. He started for the Jew first and then for the Gentiles, so he did that. And here we are. He's writing to these saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
Now, if you read this in English, that might sound like they're saying, oh, yeah, they got in. Though you're not holy, God's called you holy. But these were also faithful. But that's not that's not the case. Strike that.
The saints are faithful. Okay? That's what it says. I know that we're we're we do it to kinda make ourselves make sense in English. In Greek though, it says, to the saints, the faithful.
It's an appositive. It's like saying to Jose Canseco, the baseball player. Okay. If you are a saint, he has given you what you need to be faithful. Okay.
And he's it's a high calling, and he's given you what you need to live up to that calling even just in the first sentence which we're about to get to. There's the letter right there. Paul formerly known as Saul, apostle of Christ Jesus, under house arrest in Rome. Most people think maybe he was in Ephesus. There are some folks that think it's called the letter to the Ephesians because he's in jail in Ephesus.
I don't know. The saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus, Ephesus, province of Asia, sealed. Grace to you. I've said this a 100,000 times. Y'all know what grace is?
Grace is unmerited favor. If you meet someone and you have grace for them, they don't have to do anything to prove themselves to you. You just already have unmerited favor. You're already leaning towards them in love. And that's what God is saying through Paul to them and to us.
He's saying, grace to you. Grace to you and peace. This is the salutation. It's like dear so and so. I don't know why we start letters and just say, dear, Billy Bob, da da da da da da We write three pages and then we say, Ray.
Oh, yeah. I'm glad to know that's Ray. Paul says first, Paul. So you don't get any confusion. This is me.
Sent out by Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, to the faithful in Christ Jesus and recognize that the the saints in Christ Jesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, it's really about being in Christ Jesus. It's not so much the character of what he called you out of as what he called you into. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That sounds like, oh, yeah, throwaway line. That's not a throwaway line.
I almost just preached this, but I've been going for six minutes here. Okay. Nobody complains about a short sermon. We do have communion today. There's plenty to chew on right there.
You know, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm reading a book recently. After I do my own study, I do go back and read other folks' stuff too. And this one's good. This is N.
T. Wright. He says, the greeting of verse two is standard, but no less powerful for that. If you really sit with it and meditate on the fact that God through his apostle sent out one is sharing with you his unmerited favor and his peace. Grace and peace sum up the gospel.
Its origins are in grace, unmerited favor of God. He's got all of the love. He's got all of the truth. He's got all of the resources, and he is extending that towards us. And what we get if we receive it is peace.
Grace and peace to you. Grace and peace sum up the gospel, its origins and its effects. I like that. So then inside the envelope. Of course, it would have been a scroll.
Don't argue with me, I know. I'm contextualizing. Ephesians three one three one three through 14 is the longest sentence in the New Testament. So grammar nerds, treat yourself to this this week. Okay?
The longest sentence in the New Testament, in Greek, it's 202 words. Lots of clauses, not a lot of verbs. So not a lot of indicative verbs, not many at all actually, three in two zero two words. But there are lots of participles just kind of all over the place explaining what's going on. So it's 12 verses long and five sentences in English.
And I challenge you to diagram this sentence. Okay? I can see three people that went, like the rest of you thought, oh, I haven't done that since the ninth grade and I don't wanna ever do it again. It'll look something like this. Cheat sheet.
Y'all go back and watch real slow and you can see that. So three through four one three through 14 is Paul's overflowing opening doxology. And doxa means glory and loggia or logas means content word, expression, speak, say, whatever. It is a saying what is about God's glory. So here we go.
The doxology is this. The first few verses are about God the father, primarily. The next few verses are about Christ the son, and the last couple are about the Holy Spirit. And if you ever hear from your TikTok theologians that the trinity was invented at the council of whatever. No.
No. No. No. No. No.
The spirit of God was hovering over the waters in the beginning. It's throughout both testaments. Don't believe anybody that tries to go back and say, oh, they just invented that. They didn't just invent that. It's there.
Read the actual Bible. Okay. God the father, Christ the son, and the Holy Spirit. So this passage I think lays a very firm foundation for everything that will follow in Ephesians. And God's grace and peace in those first couple of lines do too, but then he gets into this and we'll say God the father is the primary in the first few.
There are so many different ways of looking at this. I'm gonna present you with a few of them before we finish. God the father, blessed be. That's the main verb, and it's kind of a command. And we sang in one of those songs.
Let us bless the Lord every day and night. Do you think of blessing God or do you think of God blessing you? This says, bless God. Blessed be or praise be unto God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It is already true in the spiritual realm.
Now, you might feel because you're walking it out on Earth, in this mortal coil, surrounded by folks who don't care and folks who do. You might feel like this is not true of me. He's saying this is the truth. This is truer than what you're feeling. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he, the father, chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy. Saints, Hagios, same word. Right? That we should be holy and blameless before him in love. In love, he predestined us for the adoption to himself as sons.
I could go into it. At the time, adoption as a son was even more it was a bigger thing than being adopted as a daughter. Okay? Just the way it was in the time. So when he says he's chosen us and adopted us all, men and women, for adoption unto himself as sons with greater rights than a daughter might have.
Full heirs. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. There it is again, his will by the will of God is the way it starts off in verse one and two and then here it is again. That comes up a lot in Ephesians and I want you to consider the will of God as you're reading through Ephesians. Consider what it is that the whole church is supposed to be doing for the whole world by the will of God.
Consider that. According to purpose of his will to the praise of oh, here it is by the will of God. According to the purpose of his will to the praise of his oh, yeah. And if it is about God's will, not just collectively because I've been mentioning it collectively and I think the book primarily is collective. But whether it's you individually or us as body, if it's all about God's will and it is, would you rather have God work his will through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience?
We have a choice to pray and listen. And when we hear the direction of God, either say no or say yes, Lord. Right? It's yes, Lord or it's no. It can't be no, Lord.
Would you rather have God work his will through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? Remember that Christ was absolutely obedient. Okay? Absolutely so, and we're gonna celebrate that right here in a bit. He did it by the spirit.
We'll get to that. So if you were seeing that and I was not underlining all of the pronouns and references to God. It's because some of those are for Jesus. If you look at this color coded deal here, blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It's true already.
Even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be blameless, holy before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the, and Jesus is, the beloved. That's beautiful. So we've got father and son pretty well covered even in that first part, but it's primarily about God the father and his will and his way.
So, let's go to Christ the son in verse seven. In him, in him, that's Christ. We have redemption through his blood. Though we failed at the old covenant just like everybody before us failed at the old covenant, the access to God as Jesus says, no one comes to the father except through me. Jesus' perfect record is available to anyone who will accept the gift of it that he is giving.
In him, we have redemption through his blood. We have the forgiveness of our trespasses. He will throw them as far as the East is from the West and remember them no more. Blot them out. Though our sins were before him, he will take them and place them behind his back.
Almighty God says that. Okay? Forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of his grace, the father, which he, God, lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. There it is again.
His will is important. What is it that God wants? I could do a whole sermon on where it said explicitly in the Bible. This is God's will. One of them is to be grateful.
I've covered that recently. Making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. If we look at that and we see how Christ acted on this Earth and what he did, that is what uncovers for us the mystery of God's will for what we should be doing. Are we not, church, the continuing body of Christ? Yep.
That's what we're saying we are. If we are the continuing body of Christ, and it'll get to this explicitly in chapter two and three, we are to be declaring to the whole cosmos everything, the mystery of God's will because it's been revealed in the church. Like I said, the church is like the temple. It's where heaven and earth meet. High calling.
He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him. The fullness of time gets me this. When the fullness of time had come, same guy writing this, you know. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, father, son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons, greater inheritance. He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth.
This sounds like Colossians, which he probably wrote within a couple of weeks. For in him, Christ, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And through him, Christ, to reconcile to himself all things. God has a plan, and he is working that plan. Christ is the way.
He is the agent of creation, and he is the agent of change. He's the agent of redemption. God is reconciling all things to himself. All things whether on earth or in heaven, he's making peace by the blood of his cross. That again is what we're going towards today.
In him, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him. The purpose of God and the will of God are very closely linked who works all things together to the council of his will. We've hit this one recently too. We know that God is working. For those who love God, all things are working together for good.
To those who are called according to his purpose, the will of God, the purpose of God, very closely related, and he's working all those things together. I could ask again, would you rather be through your obedience or in spite of your disobedience? So that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory. What's the chief end of man? There are no Presbyterians in the room at all.
There he goes. Glorify God and enjoy him forever. Yeah. To glorify God. That's it.
To the praise of his glory. So we've gotten through God the Father with a lot of references to Jesus. And if you look back, we got to Christ the son with a lot of references to the father in both of those paragraphs. But now, we get to this. And Jesus said to them, his disciples, again, this is post resurrection.
So they have seen Jesus conquer death. They have seen resurrection power. They have seen God fulfilling the new covenant. That it was no longer the old covenant, which we none of us can live up to, but the new covenant. And Jesus is saying, peace be with you.
Shalom. Absence of war, yeah, but absolutely resting in God. Peace be with you As the father, just as the father, in the same way that the father has sent me, even so, I am sending you. How did the father send him? It was the will of the father that Jesus would come.
Jesus came, left the glories of heaven, and it says, and he submitted himself to the spirit even when he got to the garden. Right? When it's death is on the line. His death is on the line. He says, I don't want to drink from this cup.
That's the will of the human side. Right? The will of the of all of us. I don't want to do that. Yet, not my will but yours be done, father.
And by the spirit, he was able to say, not my will but yours be done. So in just the same way that the father sent him out empowered by the spirit, Jesus is sending us out and that's the next couple of lines. It's about the Holy Spirit. Here it is. In him, you also in him, what is that?
Jesus. Okay. In him, in Jesus, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Who is the guarantee? The down payment guarantee.
Let's go into that. It is the earnest money. Hey, Jackson real estate agents. There are probably 10 of y'all in the room. It's the earnest money.
It's the upfront saying this is going to happen. Earnest money, a large part of the payment. At the time, it was much more than it is these days. It's given advance, and advance has a security that the whole will be paid. Absolutely, absolutely in Christ.
Absolutely glorified, if you will. Whether on the great and mighty day of the Lord or after we pass in death from this life into the next. Guarantee is the Holy Spirit. So you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of that whole inheritance to the praise of his glory. So that is all of the verses that we're covering today.
And I've looked at it in a trinitarian way. Father's flow flowing over me, kinda like a bath, washing away that old covenant. Okay. Washing it away and because the anxiety that one feels when you feel like I've done something wrong and there's nothing I can do about it. That's a terrible feeling.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. When you lean in and you say, Lord, I agree with you about this sin. He takes it. That's wonderful.
Okay. Let's look back over and see. I'm gonna go through this rather quickly and look at all the different references here. We've already referred to God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But look at how many are having to do with us, the saints, the faithful, and you think, oh, I'm not faithful.
There's no such thing as a junior varsity Christian. If you're a saint, you're faithful. That's the way it goes. The book is gonna be about holiness, and it's gonna be about unity. The unity in Christ is very, very important because the world is not unified.
Can I get an amen? Right? Blessed be the God and father of our. It's ours. Okay?
Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. And if you take it as an us and them, that's a problem because he's called us through no merit of our own. Grace is not because. It's not transactional for us, right? We didn't do anything to earn our way in.
So, blessed be the God and father of our he's our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, because God sent him and we accepted him, right? Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It is true. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.
It says, if you get stuck on predestination, please don't. The point of this is he chose us to be blameless so that others would see him. Do you get that? It's a there's a purpose for that. That predestination part of it is not.
It's just us. It's not them. If you look back at the minor prophets, by the time we got to the minor prophets, they knew the Torah well. They knew the history. They were living the history.
They knew that they were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles. Were they a light to the Gentiles? They wanted to be just like the Gentiles. Give us a king. Give us a king.
We wanna be just like everybody around us. No, you don't. God said, it's not an Us and them. When Paul gets down to the first fruits, like we're just ahead of some people. We're just a few steps ahead of some people.
If we're doing as God would have us to do, it should be attractive and people should be being called out of and into, right, out of whatever affiliation and into the body of Christ. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the well, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, it really is about his will. To the praise of his glorious grace which he has blessed us in the beloved. So our us, us, we, us, adopted as sons, us.
In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace that he's lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him. That's us. He's uniting us to himself in Christ. Did you get that?
He's also saying all things he's working. It's not universalism. Not everybody's gonna accept it. But he's working his will to bring people together. In him, we have obtained inheritance, haven't been predestined according to the purpose.
Whenever you see predestination, it is for a purpose. It's so that others may know. Okay? It's an it is an open question whether anyone else will receive. If it wasn't, it wouldn't say whosoever, nay.
Okay? So that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. You might be seeing a theme here that I'm gonna bring up in just a sec. In him, you. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you believed him, and you were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, and that is y'all.
Okay? It's collective because it's about the church. It's not just about you individually. Americans, we have a tendency to individualize everything, especially the blessings of God. But this is in him y'all, when y'all heard the gospel of y'all salvation and you believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it to the praise of his glory. So God the Father and Christ the Son are very actively involved and we are, according to God's will, exposed to this good gospel, and the Holy Spirit is working and pleading, illuminating his word, convicting us of our sin, convincing us of God's goodness and righteousness, his patience, and his long suffering, his way. One more way of looking at this. Okay? I'm gonna read the whole thing again.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This reminds me of a story. Sorry. When I was in the ninth grade, tenth grade, ninth grade, I don't know, we had to do the to be or not to be speech. Right?
Remember, memorize the to be or not to be speech from Hamlet. And I got to class, and I saw it on the board that that's what we're doing today, and I'm ADD. Why not? And I thought, I don't know that. And so a couple people were sitting in front of me.
I'm in, like, the third chair. And I said, miss Palmer, I don't know it. And she got mad. She called me my dad's name. She flunked him in 1966.
She said, Billy. And then I let three or four more people go, and I said, Miss Palmer, I could try. And I said it perfectly, I didn't miss a single word because I heard I'm saying this over and over, so you'll remember it. Okay. I'm saying this over and over, so this is more important than this story.
Alright? But I listened to it three, four, five more times probably. And I said, miss Palmer, I could try it. She said, go ahead. To be or not to be, that is the question whether to noble or not.
I could do it right now if I needed to. I don't. But I walked past the grade book at the end, and I said, I'm sorry, miss Palmer. She said, it's alright. You know, it's forgiven.
I got a zero still. Because when I was called upon, I didn't know it. She said it would have been just easy for you, Ray, to know this, and you didn't do it. And that's fine. I didn't hold it against her.
I still made a zero. But here we go. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, that's in there, with which he has blessed us in Christ the beloved. In him, have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. Unmerited favor. According to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.
Christ shows us the purpose of God. He is on a rescue mission, and we should be too. As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth. In him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ, y'all just a few steps ahead of the next folks.
Okay? Might be to the praise of his glory. To the did you get that? To the praise of his glorious grace. To the praise of his glory.
And then the next one is in him you also when you heard, y'all. The word of truth, the gospel of y'all salvation believed in him. We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. There's so many different ways to look at this. It's fertile.
Fertile. I I hope our hearts are fertile soil. This is amazing. I want you to sit with this and we're going into a time of communion right now. So I'll ask the usher, the elders to come forward.
Would y'all individually and would we collectively as a body of believers rather work, God work his will through our obedience like Jesus or in spite of our disobedience.
That's it.
The band's coming back up. Ushers are coming forwards. I'm gonna pray. Lord God almighty, this representation that we have before us right now, this open table for anyone who has ever put their faith in you, for anyone who is putting their faith in you today for the very first time. To anyone who says that's what I want, Lord.
I want for you to reveal to me the mystery of your will through Christ. Show me your way. Allow me the grace to walk in it. I want the peace that is being offered. This is an open table.
It's not denominational. We are unified by your spirit. We are called by your will through the blood and redemption available in Christ. So Lord God Almighty, I pray that you'd bless this little cracker that's a representation of the body of Jesus who walked out that old covenant perfectly himself. He was in all ways tempted just as we are, yet he was without sin.
He had a perfect record and he could offer it to anyone who would accept it. And so Lord, for anyone who has accepted it, I pray that they would partake. And Lord, if there's anybody in the room who has not yet, that you would show your purpose and your mystery of your will through us who are humble before you in Christ. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
I've never known a love like this before. Never thought that I could be so sure. Not a fear anxious thought loved, never been this free all my life. Before my life began, you knew my name, and you're with me every step along the way. You're my refuge and my home.
Them there and he says to us now, this is my body which is given for you. Take this, take it in as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you Jesus for taking on the assignment, for understanding it so well and so perfectly, and feeling all the feels that we feel, feeling all the temptation that we feel yet being victorious by the spirit and the will of God. Thank you for your perfect record offered on our behalf. Thank you for walking it out.
But Lord, thank you for also your voluntary and sacrificial death that you went to the cross on behalf of all who would ever believe. Before you, after you, history is your story. Thank you, Lord, that you voluntarily and sacrificially offered the blood. That is what we celebrate together as we distribute it. Lord, I pray that you'd bless everyone who would partake.
If there's somebody here who has not yet put their trust in you, I pray that you would move on them and share with them the mystery of your will through the person or people sitting next to them. In Jesus name, I pray your blessing on this cup. Amen. So in the same manner that they had taken the bread, Jesus also took the cup. It was after supper.
It wasn't on silver trays and plastic cups of Welch's grape juice, but the sentiment is the same. He took this and after he'd given thanks for it, he said to his disciples there and he says to us too, this is the new covenant in my blood. Man, after walking through the minor prophets for a long time, do you all have a greater understanding of how relieved those disciples would have been? Yeah, me too. He said to them and he says to us, this is the new covenant in my blood.
Take this and take it in. Drink of it. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen. Would you stand with me?
And for the benediction today, do we have another song?
We we can do it.
What do we want to do? What's the song?
Lord, I you.
Lord, I need you. Alright. Let's go do that. Let's sing it together and then we'll geo from here. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his spirit, he carry his message forward in you, through you this week.
