All right, well, friends, imagine one day you come home and waiting for you at your door is a package.
It's a gift from a friend, you notice, on the mailing label, and it's a big box.
So you drag it inside, and you open up this big box, and out come the pieces of a brand new bicycle.
Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop.
And you can tell it's a pretty nice bike, right?
It's got this ultralight titanium frame.
It's got these slick wheels.
It's top of the line.
But as you kind of sort through the pieces of this incredible surprise gift that your thoughtful friend sent you, you realize that something's missing.
There are no instructions on how to put the thing together.
You know that this bike is supposed to be state-of-the-art.
You can practically feel the wind whipping through your hair as you look at the pieces on the floor.
But you have no idea how it all fits together.
Or imagine you've been given an even greater gift.
Imagine that some forgotten distant relative dies and leaves you an inheritance.
And it's a piece of lakefront property.
And not just a piece of property, but on that property are all the materials to build a vacation home.
Apparently, they were hoping to build this home but couldn't complete the project.
And so you head out to your newly inherited piece of property, and you see there all the materials stacked and stored and covered.
But lo and behold, as you look through everything, there's no blueprint.
There's nothing that tells you how this gift is meant to be put together.
There's nothing that tells you how it's meant to be built.
Now, why do I start with this illustration?
Because spiritually, Christianity is about receiving a surpassingly great gift.
About receiving the gift of what we call salvation in Christ.
But you know, we live in a world where there are competing frameworks and competing worldviews and competing pictures of the good life.
There are lots of options out there for you if you're out to construct the good life.
So it's not as if we've just sort of lost the instructions, but there are lots of instructions that fall out of the box.
And we're not really sure which one to pick.
And it seems that what we need, as those who have received this incredible gift of salvation in Christ,
what we need is something like a blueprint.
Something like a blueprint for how this gift is meant to be put together.
For how its pieces all connect.
For what it looks like and what it feels like when it gets lived out.
And not just individually, but in our life together as the church.
And the book that we're going to be studying this fall, we're starting a new sermon series tonight.
The book that we're going to be studying this fall and actually on into the winter and into the spring.
The book of Ephesians is actually just that.
The book of Ephesians is something like a spiritual blueprint.
So if you want to understand what the core of Christianity is all about.
If you want to see how a lot of its pieces fit together.
If you want to know how to build your life in light of what Christianity is all about.
If you're curious just what Christianity is and what it does.
Then Ephesians is a great book to study.
And that's what we're starting today.
So if you haven't done so already, turn with me to the book of Ephesians.
That's page 976 in the Black Pew Bibles there.
Page 976, the book of Ephesians.
Now as you turn there, you'll see right off that the letter of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians is a letter of Paul the Apostle.
And if you kind of scan over it quickly, if you just flip the page, you see that it's pretty short.
It's just six chapters.
It's something you could probably read in one sitting.
If you had a good stiff cup of coffee and you were awake, you could probably just plow right through it.
But tonight we're just going to look at the opening couple of verses.
You'll see in the sermon card, the little blue card in your pew that we're going to kind of walk through.
You'll see how we'll break it down in the coming weeks if you want to sort of follow along week by week.
But tonight we're just going to look at Paul's opening verses.
His greeting in verses 1 and 2.
So let me read this for us.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, let's pray together as we consider this passage.
Father, we do pray for just that, your grace and your peace as we come to your word now.
Lord, many of us here have been students of the scriptures for some time.
Lord, some of us perhaps are completely new.
But God, we thank you that because you're a living and active and real God, you can meet us and teach us and show us wonderful things.
And what you've given us here in the Bible.
So we pray that tonight that you'd help us to understand.
And in understanding to know you, God, and in knowing you to be really changed in our relationship with you.
And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay.
Well, okay.
This opening is roughly how all of Paul's letters begin, if you were to scan through.
And this is actually how most ancient letters in general began.
From so-and-so to so-and-so and then some kind of blessing, right?
But you know, the more that you study Paul's letters in particular, the more you realize that Paul packs into his opening lines often some of the main concerns or the main themes of what he's going to say in the rest of the letter.
And in just a minute, we're going to spend, you know, the bulk of our time tonight looking just at how Paul does that here in these opening verses to get a sense of what the book of Ephesians is all about.
But before we do that, you know, it's worth pointing out that if we were to go ahead and we were to sort of read the rest of the letter, we would actually notice something a bit peculiar about the book of Ephesians.
The first thing that we would notice that's a bit peculiar is that this letter does not seem to be addressing a particular need or a particular crisis in this particular church.
Now, if you've read some of the other in the New Testament, think about some of Paul's other letters.
In Galatians, he's battling some false teachers.
In Philippians, he's responding to a generous gift that the church has sent him, who are partners with him in ministry.
In 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he's answering some questions about the Lord's return.
In 1 and 2 Corinthians, he's dealing with all sorts of issues and problems.
If you want a little snapshot into that, you can check out the podcast from our morning service over the last year.
We looked at 1 Corinthians and all of the crises and issues that Paul dealt with there.
But what's very interesting is that here in Ephesians, there doesn't seem to be a crisis.
There doesn't seem to be a pressing need that he has to address.
Rather, it seems that the content of this book is...
Well, I hesitate to say it's general because general sounds really boring, right?
And Ephesians is anything but boring.
Rather, the content of Ephesians is...
I mean, how are we going to put it?
It's universal.
It's like the core of everything.
In fact, if you're a student of Paul's letters, you notice that Ephesians is very carefully constructed.
It's sort of written in beautifully wrought language.
It doesn't feel like something that's polemical that Paul's just ripping off to meet a need.
No, it seems like he's taken his time to construct this thing.
It feels sort of like a beautiful blueprint.
And the second thing you notice if you read through the rest of the book that's kind of peculiar...
...is that Paul doesn't seem to let on that he has any intimate knowledge of the church in Ephesus.
He makes very little mention here of his relationship with them.
And again, that's very unlike many of Paul's letters.
Often, Paul is addressing particular people by particular names throughout his letter.
I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
That's Philippians.
I mean, that's pretty direct, right?
That shows a pretty intimate knowledge of the people in the congregation.
And it's particularly surprising here in Ephesus that he doesn't make any kind of personal mention
because we know from the book of Acts, chapter 19, that Paul actually spent literally years
ministering in Ephesus before he wrote this letter.
He had an ongoing, long-term relationship with this church.
And yet, you would read this letter and it feels like it could be written to anyone.
Third peculiar thing about this book.
And it's actually found in the second half of verse 1.
Look back at the second half of verse 1.
We read there,
To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
Now, notice, there's a little number 1, superscript 1, next to faithful there in our text of the ESV.
Do you see that?
That's telling you to look down in the footnote.
And if you look down in the footnote, you read there that in some of the New Testament manuscripts
that we have of this book, the words in Ephesus are omitted.
They're not there.
And in fact, it's that way in some of the oldest manuscripts that we have.
Okay, well, what does that mean?
Well, I think as we put all these peculiar pieces together,
and many New Testament scholars have come to the same conclusion,
it seems pretty likely that this book of Ephesians originated as something like a circular letter.
Something that Paul composed not just for one church, but for many churches.
And that's why there isn't just one name there.
That there are copies that exist without a city name,
because they could be sent to any city.
Now, if that's true, if Ephesians is some sort of circular letter that Paul wrote
to be distributed broadly among the cities, that's a really cool idea.
And here's why.
Because if that's true, then what we have in the book of Ephesians
is the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest minds of the early church,
trying to distill the essence of his message,
trying to get to the heart of Christianity,
trying to get down to the bare bones of the gospel,
and fit it into a power-packed letter,
this short, explosive letter that churches all over could benefit from.
In other words, he's writing a blueprint,
not just for the church in Ephesus, but for all of us.
To the saints who are in New Haven,
and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
So let's take a few minutes then,
and see how these opening verses highlight some of the important themes
that we're going to see in the rest of the letter,
this letter that was meant not just for Ephesus, but for all of us.
First, our blueprint for Christian life and doctrine in the book of Ephesus
opens with the will of God.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God.
Over and over and over in this book,
we're going to learn about God's purpose,
God's plan,
God's will.
In other words, what God desires,
what God brings about.
Ephesians is going to take us from eternity past,
before the foundation of the world,
on through the present,
and into eternity to come.
And along the way,
Paul is going to show us what God's heart is.
What the one true creator,
God's unfailing purpose is.
His sovereign plan.
His fatherly will.
And what we're going to see is that God's purpose,
his plan,
his will,
is not some cold,
abstract,
distant thing.
That it's not just the decree
of some far-off deity.
But it's the burning desire of God
to express his glorious grace
in the redemption of his lost children.
Think about Paul.
As a young man,
who was Paul?
If we were to read a news article about Paul,
the young man,
do you know what we would call him?
We'd probably call him a terrorist.
He was a murderer,
a religious zealot,
whatever you want to use,
whatever words.
He hated Christ,
and he hated Christians,
and yet,
what we read here in verse one
is that the will of God,
the purpose,
the plan of God,
intervened.
And the persecutor of Christ
was transformed in the proclaimer of Christ.
The persecutor of Christians
became the pastor of Christians.
Friend, I wonder,
do you think it's possible
for people to change?
Or will we always be stuck
in the same old ruts,
in the same old bad habits,
in the same old spiritual deadness?
And not just personally,
how about our city?
Do you think that things can change
in New Haven
or whatever neighborhood you live in?
Do you think that we could see
our city become a place
where God's name is honored
and loved and praised,
and people are freed
from the darkness
and selfishness
and sin
and self-destruction
that we're trapped in?
It's easy to lose hope,
isn't it?
It's easy to think
that we'll never see renewal
or change,
either personally
or communally.
And you know,
in ourselves,
in our own strength,
in our own will,
it is impossible.
But not for God's will.
What we're going to see
in our journey
through this book
is that God takes
the things that are dead.
Not just weak,
not just faltering,
not just in need of help,
but the things that are dead
and makes them alive.
And God takes the things
that are far off,
that are strangers,
that feel like they're lost
and gone forever,
and he brings them home.
God's will.
I hope you want to learn more
about God's purpose
and God's plan
and God's will
because,
whether you like it or not,
it's coming in this book.
But friends,
it's awesome.
And you want to see it.
But let's keep moving.
In the rest of verse 1,
this blueprint speaks
not just about God's will,
but it speaks about
our identity.
To the saints
who are in Ephesus,
who are faithful
in Christ Jesus,
Paul writes.
Notice here
that we're called saints.
And in the New Testament,
that word doesn't mean
the extra holy
and righteous Christians.
Saints in the New Testament
are not the super Christians
who do everything right.
No.
Saints is a term
that Paul uses
for all Christians.
It's something that's true
of all of us.
For everyone
who's put their trust in Christ,
you are a saint,
according to the New Testament.
And a saint,
biblically speaking,
is someone
who's been set apart
for a noble purpose.
Someone who's been set apart
for a noble purpose.
And where have they been set apart
for this noble purpose?
In Ephesus.
See right there,
Paul says saints
who are in Ephesus.
Or we could even read
saints who are in New Haven.
Right here.
Set apart by God
for a noble kingdom purpose
right in this city.
There's a mission here,
you see.
We have a calling
to inhabit our city,
our neighborhoods,
our colleges
as those who have been set apart
for a noble purpose.
To shine the light of Christ
into the darkness.
To call the dead to life.
To help bring the strangers home.
And to love
with the love of Christ.
So on the one hand,
we're saints
in fill-in-the-blank
Ephesus.
But we're also faithful
in Christ Jesus.
We inhabit the city.
Yes, we're in New Haven.
We're in Ephesus.
But we also inhabit Christ.
We are in Christ Jesus.
We are in Him.
We're united
and one with Him.
How?
How are we united
to Christ?
How are we in Him?
We get how we're in Ephesus.
We sort of live here.
We pick up the language
of New Haven.
Right?
Which is one of the things
you pick up
if you live in New Haven
long enough.
You say right
at the end of all
of your sentences.
But how do we inhabit?
How do we dwell
in oneness with Christ?
Well,
Paul says here,
it's by faith.
Faithful in Christ Jesus.
And faithful here
means not so much.
Paul's not talking so much
about our trustworthiness
or our reliability
to do or to accomplish things.
rather it's as if he's saying,
he's talking about
those who have placed
their trust in Christ.
Those who are believers
in Christ Jesus.
Faith,
trust,
belief,
they're all sort of
the same word
and concept
in the New Testament.
So he's talking about
those who have been
united to Christ
through trust,
through faith.
who are you?
Who am I?
Aren't these some of the most
foundational questions
we can ask?
And our blueprint here
is saying right from the start
that first and foremost,
you are through faith
in Christ Jesus.
And in Christ Jesus
through faith,
not works,
not family background,
not wealth,
not status.
No.
Through the simple gift
of faith,
you are united
to the king.
And being united to him,
you are a saint
with a mission
to inhabit your city
as an ambassador.
So friends,
when you wake up
in the morning
and before the flood
of your to-do list
comes crashing
into your brain,
this week,
first thing,
try reminding yourself
of this
before your feet
even hit the floor.
Remind yourself
that you are a child
of a king
and that you have been
set apart
for a noble purpose
in this place
and in this time.
And that first
and foremost,
you are not
what your education level
says you are
and not what your job title
says you are
and not what your bank account
amounts to.
You are first
and foremost,
if you've placed
your trust in Jesus,
you are beloved
in him.
and this book,
as we peel back
the layers,
is going to unpack that.
It's going to unpack
what it means
to be in Christ
and it's going to do that
in stunning ways.
I guarantee you
that if you haven't studied
the book of Ephesians before,
you are going to be shocked
by what this book says
is true of you
and true of the church
in Christ.
I guarantee it.
And if you have studied
the book of Ephesians before
and you haven't been shocked,
you haven't understood
what you've been reading,
this book is going to
blow your mind
about who God has made you
in his son.
Third thing,
last.
This blueprint
is about God's will,
it's about our identity,
and last,
it's about grace.
Grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace.
Friends,
what is grace?
In the Bible,
grace is undeserved favor.
It's favor
that you've done
nothing to deserve.
And you know,
this whole book
is structured
according to the deep logic
logic of grace.
It's structured around it.
It's a blueprint
of God's grace.
And I want to show you
how the whole book
is structured
before we wrap up.
How Paul put this
whole book together.
He wrote it actually
in two halves.
And in chapter 1,
verse 3,
look there,
we read,
blessed be the God
and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is chapter 1,
verse 3.
Who has blessed us
in Christ
with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places.
Now,
next week,
we're going to unpack
that verse
in a little more detail.
But for now,
notice that that verse
is all about
what God has done
for us
in Christ.
And for the next
three chapters,
Paul's going to unfold
all that God
has done for us.
What he's accomplished
in Christ
on our behalf.
That's chapters 1,
2,
and 3,
the first half
of the book.
Now look at chapter 4,
verse 1.
Paul writes,
I therefore,
a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to walk
in a manner worthy
of the calling
to which you have been called.
And that begins
the second half
of the letter.
Where Paul,
having laid this foundation
of what God
has done for us
in Christ,
now tells us
what our life
should look like
in response.
How do we walk?
How do we live
as those who have received
every spiritual blessing
in Christ?
And that's chapters 4,
and 5,
and 6.
So you see how
this whole thing
is put together?
Chapters 1,
2,
and 3
tell us what's true.
And chapters 4,
5,
and 6
tell us now
what to do.
And as I said,
that, friends,
is the deep logic,
the deep pattern
of the gospel of grace.
This is the blueprint
at its most
foundational level.
First,
God's grace.
Then,
in response,
are works.
You know,
we go through
most of life
thinking this way.
Most of our life
we go along
thinking that
if I obey,
then God
will accept me.
We put works
first,
then God's favor.
And that is
the blueprint
that nearly all of us
build our lives on
by default,
isn't it?
If I'm good enough,
then I'll be blessed.
Then I'll be accepted.
Recently,
I was at my
son's preschool.
We had this little
end-of-year picnic
back in May.
And one of the ladies
there,
she's a real cool lady,
she had this t-shirt on
that said,
no yoga,
K-N-O-W,
no yoga,
no peace.
So if you do yoga,
bam,
you get peace.
It's that easy.
But isn't that
kind of the logic
that we all live by,
right?
If you devote yourself
to the practice,
if you do the work,
if you exercise,
if you try hard,
then as a result
of the work
that you put in,
you'll know peace.
Now,
I'm not just picking
on yoga
because that's what
happens in every
area of our life.
In our work,
in our relationships,
whatever,
we are programmed
to think that my
acceptance is based
on my performance.
If I get a good grade,
I'll get a good job.
If I make her laugh,
I'll get a second date,
right?
That's how it works.
And on and on and on.
But Paul is showing us here
that Christianity
is completely different.
That the message
of Christianity
is that God
accepts us
by grace
first,
apart from our performance,
and then,
as a result,
we obey.
Look again
at chapter 4,
verse 1.
Therefore,
Paul says,
I urge you,
da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
What's the therefore
referring back to?
All of chapters 1 and 3.
The grace of God
that brings us
peace with God.
Grace
and peace.
And of course,
the great question is,
how is God able
to accept us
apart from our works?
How is God able
to come to us
and accept us
wholly apart
from our performance?
Why would God,
who is holy and just,
extend to you and me
grace and peace?
Well, again,
the answer is right here
in these opening lines
in verses 1 through 2.
In each of these
three little lines
that we've read,
what do we see
again and again?
Or rather,
who do we see
again and again?
Who is it that Paul
just can't help
but mention
as he speaks
of God's will
and our identity
and God's grace?
Who's at the center
of this blueprint
that Paul has
constructed for us?
Who is it that we
should build our lives
around and upon?
Who is it that this
building ultimately
is meant to display?
Three times
in three breaths
he's mentioned here.
Look again.
Christ Jesus.
An apostle of Christ Jesus.
Faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace and peace to you
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of what God
has done in Jesus,
we are made partakers
of his grace,
his undeserved favor.
When we were sinners
under God's wrath,
Christ came
and stood in our place
and died for our sins
and was raised again.
God unleashing him
from the power
of death and sin
and unleashing everyone
who trusts in him
from sin
and from death.
friend,
is there any
better gift
that you could
imagine
receiving?
Bicycles are great.
A nice piece of
lakefront property
would be even better.
But you and I both know
that those gifts fade.
they grow old,
they lose their splendor,
and eventually
we long for something else.
Even if we get
what our hearts desire
in earthly things,
sooner or later,
it's not enough.
But this gift,
the gift of God
in Christ Jesus,
this gift of grace
and peace,
this gift of knowing God
will know no end.
It will never lose
its splendor,
and it will never lose
its power to thrill us.
And instead of growing
older and older
with time,
it grows newer
and newer
into all eternity.
And what we see
right here
in Ephesians
is that this gift
is available
right now
for all
who come to God
through Jesus Christ
and put their trust
in Him.
Friend,
do you have that gift?
And if you have it,
do you know
what to do with it?
In the coming months,
this book is going
to show us
what it is
and what to do with it.
So keep coming back
and we'll keep unfolding
this blueprint together.
Okay?
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we began our service
tonight
by confessing
that we are
forgetful people.
But Lord,
we also confess
that there are many things
we haven't learned
about you
and about your gift
of grace.
So we thank you
for the book of Ephesians
that teaches us
the ins and the outs
and the foundation
of what it is
we stand on.
Lord,
bless our journey
through this book
this coming year
and help us to grow
more and more
to the praise
of your glorious grace,
we pray.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.