[SPEAKER_00]: And pray with me one more time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to jump into Ephesians 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you for your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just said that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks be to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we stand for your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we stand because we believe it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stand because we believe it's authoritative over our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stand because your word is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword.
[SPEAKER_00]: because your word is good, and it's right, and we want to live according to it, Father, and so I pray that right now you would help me just to communicate it well and faithfully, help all of us, including me, to hear it, and to receive it, to believe it, and to go and live it out, faithfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus' name we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, last semester, we were walking through the letter of Ephesians, and we got through chapter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got through chapter 1 in the spring, and so we're going to jump back in here as we go into the fall semester, and what I want to do today is really just go back into Ephesians chapter 1 and just recap, just recap that chapter for us, so that as we start next week into chapter 2, we just kind of have our footing and kind of that foundation understanding where we're
[SPEAKER_00]: We're coming from a know some of y'all are brand new since then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you didn't hear any of the messages from the first staff.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do our messages live online.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go to Eastridge's website, they live on there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can go listen to those or just go listen to other better preachers preach on Ephesians as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is such a good book.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a good letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just such a helpful letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think for the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is my favorite book of Bible, yes, and I just so enjoy the way Paul writes in this letter just using such Exalted and vaulted language about the greatness and the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call this really as we're going through this book glorious grace As Paul opens up this letter about the glorious grace of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in the Ephesians one Five he says in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ
[SPEAKER_00]: And accordance with this pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which is freely given us in the one He loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what I want to do today again is just to kind of look back over Ephesians chapter one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what Ephesians one is is really a sort of a 30,000 foot snapshot of the gospel message of who God is for us in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: who got his for us in Christ Jesus, who we are in Christ Jesus, under the Lord's ship of him, and the salvation that He has won and purchased for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really quickly, just to give you some context, again, to this letter and where this came from and who these people are.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Apostle Paul wrote this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote Ephesians and Galatians and Colossians in 1st St. Corinthians Romans.
[SPEAKER_00]: All those are at most of the letters of the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Apostle Paul wrote Paul was a Jewish Pharisee.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the book of Acts, we see him and Acts chapter 9.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's persecuting the church and later becomes a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meet Jesus on this road to Damascus going to persecute Christians Jesus blinds him Jesus tells him I'm gonna now use you as my chosen vessel to go and bring the message of the gospel to the Gentiles Not to the Jews but to the Gentiles specifically the Ephesians were Gentiles and so they were some of the people that Paul ended up taking the gospel message To and then the letters that he wrote that we have in the scriptures are letters that he would write to these churches Letters that he would write to the people
[SPEAKER_00]: where he had planted churches on his missionary journeys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about Ephesus a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: The city of Ephesus was known as the fourth greatest city in the ancient world.
[SPEAKER_00]: fourth grade of city after Rome after Alexandria and after Antioch, which was in northern Syria.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the city of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's modern day turkey.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you guys see this map here, here's like Jerusalem over here, the Holy Land, so to speak right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that little thumb that sticks out there, that's turkey.
[SPEAKER_00]: Modern day turkey is Asia Minor, Ephesus is right there, then you got, this is Europe over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now that's Asia, here's Europe, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesus sat right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesus was a very important city because as you can see, it was a port city.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so people with traveling really on the Roman roads going over towards Rome.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you wanted to go from Asia to Europe, you were going to leave through Ephesus, so you can imagine pretty big and bustling city kind of a hub of commerce and trade and culture and those kind of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesus was famous for a couple of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was famous for the Temple of Artemis, and the cult worship of this goddess called Artemis.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Romans called her Diana, the Ephesians, and the Gentile, the Greeks, they called her Artemis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, a false god, a false deity, but they worshiped her
[SPEAKER_00]: really the whole city was a cult.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as you read the book of Ephesians, you really get that context of why Paul talks very much about spiritual warfare, especially as we get into chapter six.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about blessing and curses and things like that because they lived in a world that was very familiar with witchcraft and the occult and cursing and
[SPEAKER_00]: and those kinds of things as opposed writing this letter into that culture again to remind the men who you are in Jesus and what he has purchased for us to bring us out of such darkness and into his light.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really like chapter 5.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read a lot about darkness and light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesus was known for a couple of other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was known for the
[SPEAKER_00]: The Arcadian Way was this 40-foot wide marble road.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can still go here today, and you can walk down this road.
[SPEAKER_00]: This 40-foot wide marble road.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would actually be lit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the only ancient road of this side that was completely lit.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of those columns, they would light it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the way down this road, and you could walk from the harbor on the Arcadian Way, all the way up to the amphitheater.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the other thing it was known for is this great big.
[SPEAKER_00]: amphitheater right here, seat 25,000 people in this amphitheater.
[SPEAKER_00]: The amphitheater was really one of the hubs in the city of its culture, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you could go to the amphitheater, they would put on the gladiator games or the Olympic games, they would obviously have plays and songs and things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a big, big thing, right, to go into the theater.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever was happening in the theater, it was very important in the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this was the city of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul spent three years in the city, planted a church there, shared the gospel there, and it says in Acts 19 that the gospel prevailed in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel was prevailing really in all of Asia through Paul, through his companions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now Paul, a few years later, after he is
[SPEAKER_00]: He is left ethicist and he is actually a prisoner in Rome at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is writing a letter back to this city to encourage the Christians about what it means what it looks like to continue living out their faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants them to understand and know the gospel, be solidified in that and then be able to kind of live that out as Gentiles in a pagan city, in a very hard place to be a Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Ephesians chapter one, let's kind of go back over Ephesians one.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I want to do is as we look at this chapter specifically.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want us to think, and I want us to see, what is the purpose of God in Ephesians chapter 1?
[SPEAKER_00]: How does Paul communicate to us the purposes of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's really three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think three aspects of the purpose of God we see in Ephesians chapter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: So number one is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of God in the position of the saints,
[SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of God and the position of the saints, who are the saints, the saints are Christians.
[SPEAKER_00]: The saints are those in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's me and you, that's the Ephesians who have believed, come to faith in Jesus Christ as crucified and risen Savior all who are in Christ are called.
[SPEAKER_00]: The saints, he opens up this letter to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your position.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you can kind of sum up all of your Christian life, and I think these two words in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what it means to be a Christian, you are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Christ is in you, Paul talks about this throughout the letter of Ephesians and Romans and Galatians and first Corinthians, he loves to use the phrase in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: To remind the Christians, so you are positionally, your identity before it is anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know, listen, I know when it comes to identity, we put a lot of things on ourselves about who we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe a lot of things about ourselves about who we are, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's okay, things about maybe what you do and your job and career, your mom or your dad or your spouse or whatever that may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But first and foremost, and deeper than anything else you are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a Christian person.
[SPEAKER_00]: The faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the faithful in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So listen to what Paul's doing here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is just laying a bedrock of Foundation under the feet of the Ephesians and I think for us as we read this about what it means to be in Christ Listen to Ephesians 1 verses 3 through I'm gonna read through 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
[SPEAKER_00]: who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not all the times He says in Christ or in Him or in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight, in love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Him,
[SPEAKER_00]: We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposeed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: In him we were also chosen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just keep reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were also chosen having been three destined according to the plan of him who works out everything and conformity with the purpose of his will.
[SPEAKER_00]: In order that we, who are the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession
[SPEAKER_00]: glory, who wants to get an amen to that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is who we are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: The position of the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of God's purposes and that's one of Paul's intentions as he writes the opening chapter of this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians to tell the Christians that they are chosen.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are holy, they are blameless.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are adopted as children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is who we are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are redeemed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Redeemed means to be purchased out of something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was technically a slave term.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were a slave, you had to be redeemed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had to be bought out of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're told that in him we have redemption through his blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus blood shed on the cross was our payment to free us, to free us from the slavery of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is who we are, positionally in Christ redeemed from sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He says, we are forgiven of sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the greatest news in the world, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're forgiven of your sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, your sins, I know mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're forgiven in Christ Jesus, positionally.
[SPEAKER_00]: forgiven and free.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls his ares with Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls his full and empowered in the holy spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he actually calls us as a read the end of chapter 1 again verse 22.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says God placed all things under his feet Jesus and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is us, which is his body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are we?
[SPEAKER_00]: The body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the church where the saints in Christ Jesus, we are His body and then He says the fullness of Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us, the fullness of Him, who fills everything in every way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus fills everything in every way and we, as Christians, are the fullness of Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We fill Him who fills all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has made us to be this, to be His fullness.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the truth that Paul is trying to help the church and Ephesus understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are the fullness of God in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are the means by which God is building His kingdom over the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Church, that's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know the Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we pray that as Jesus taught us to pray that we are praying, your kingdom come, your will be done through us is what we're praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's how God's doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: These building is kingdom through us over all the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't get to decide how His authority, His authority is exercised, we don't get to decide that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's His authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we get to speak his word, and we get to share his gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get to share his story with anybody and everybody who will listen.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to go preach the gospel over all creation and exercise the authority of God's kingdom over all the earth and into eternity into whole universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is who we are and this is what we will do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be his representatives of his authority over all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see how Paul is just shifting your thoughts about who you are and who they are to just see and glory and Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I am anything, I am in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I want to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I need to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I am that, I am all I will ever need to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to be anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't have to prove anything else to anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to prove anything to yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to prove anything to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know him and you trust him and you abide in him, and this is who you are, all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, the purpose of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So number one is the purpose of God in the position of the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, the purpose of God in the power of the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is communicating this to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we learn to understand that identity that we just talked about and receive that identity from God,
[SPEAKER_00]: Our positional identity is established and confirmed to us in us through the gift of God's Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus promised His disciples, He would give them a helper, He would give them the Holy Spirit after Him, that the Spirit would come, the Spirit would communicate to them, all the things, and remind them of all the things He had taught them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here in Ephesians we see that the Holy Spirit communicates to us, the blessings we have in Christ, verse 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, we have every spiritual blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: in Christ, blessing by the Spirit, in the Spirit, in Christ, the Holy Spirit is communicating to us, the blessings we have in Jesus, that you are adopted, that you are redeemed, that you are forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a day where you struggle to believe those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever have a day like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where you struggle to believe you're a child of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where you struggle to believe that you were really forgiven of the sins you've committed?
[SPEAKER_00]: You struggle to believe that God has really purchased you out of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: You struggle to believe that you really have the power on the equipping to go and live as his child in the world and share the good news that God's be ever struggle with those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Holy Spirit who equips us to be reminded and empowered to go and live that way even when we struggle in our flesh with those things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Spirit is constantly doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's communicating to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: every blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are told in Romans and Galatians that it's by the Spirit that we cry of a Father, because He's the Spirit of adoption.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the Spirit who reminds us every day that we are His children.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit reveals to us the will of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 1, 8, and 9.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the Spirit reveals to us God's will.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit seals us as airs, and as God's airs, and God's possession, verse 13 and 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit gives us the knowledge of God, verse 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit empowers us to walk in resurrected life and be united with the exalted Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the passage I read of front, Ephesians 1, 15 through 23, that we walk in the resurrected life of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has been raised from the dead, and he has now exalted to the right hand of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we are in Him, then positionally, that's who we are, raised from the dead, and seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Paul tells us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's the spirit that communicates all of this to us day by day by day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul tells the Galatians.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the part in Galatians, we're Paul tells them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, the Jelph forget that you began this Christian life by the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And are you now trying to continue in your Christian life by your own flesh and power?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, of course not.
[SPEAKER_00]: You continue the same way you began.
[SPEAKER_00]: How?
[SPEAKER_00]: By the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: You live in the Spirit as you began in the Spirit, and so it's the Holy Spirit that Paul is communicating to us here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Ephesians, I've told you all a couple of times, the letter of Ephesians, it's so trinitarian in the way that Paul lays it out and he communicates.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's certain verses in here that's father, son, Holy Spirit all working together and it's love the way he communicates us to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in Christ and filled by the Spirit for the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So number three, the purpose of God in the praise of the Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: So those three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of God in the position of the saints, we see an Ephesians 1, the purpose of God, in the power of the Spirit, in Ephesians 1, and number 3, the purpose of God in the praise of the Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: He begins this letter again, verse 3, praise, be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's praising God the Father,
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do we praise, who do we sing to, who do we worship, who do we live for, who do we give our lives to, who give our lives to the Father, who do we give our lives to the Son Jesus, who?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, the answer is yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: We give our lives to him, the Father, him, the Son, him, the Spirit He has got, three and one, the Godhead.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is who we worship, our God is Trinity, our God is triune.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so when Paul is communicating to the Ephesians that we praise God, he is communicating and keep reading through the rest of the chapter, we praise Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: in Philippians chapter 2, same guy, Paul writes that every knee will bow, in every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is the glory of God the Father, that we do what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Bow and confess and praise Jesus as Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is God's glory, that we praise Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is God's glory, that we worship His Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul is communicating this to us to let us know that when we see Jesus and know Jesus and trust to Jesus and worship Jesus, we are worshiping God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the fullness of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's said again, verse 23, he fills everything in every way God has placed all things under his feet, so it pleases the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: It pleases the Father to put his son Jesus forward and for us to look upon Jesus and glory in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at, look at verse nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, and he made known to us the mystery of his will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the mystery of God's will.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to his good pleasure, which he purposeed in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Christ is the fullness and the completion of his will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what it is, verse 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: To put into effect, when the times will have reached their fulfillment,
[SPEAKER_00]: In heaven and on earth together, under one head, even Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: I call this the mystery of history.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did a message on this last spring.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what it is, the mystery of history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real hit, real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take a picture of this or write it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: The mystery of history, this is Ephesians 1, 9, and 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Father created all things in Christ and 4 Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are told in John chapter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, who's that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: All things were made through him and nothing was made that wasn't made through Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what John tells us in John chapter one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Father created all things in Christ and four Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now here's what he's doing now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's restoring all things to Christ through the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just talked about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: By his spirit, his power at work within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: until he finally presents it all complete to Jesus as his full and final inheritance in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is kind of the already and not yet of Christianity, of the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the already and not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's already done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's already purchased all things for Jesus by the blood of Jesus himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus in his death and in his resurrection has fully and completely purchased all the universe for himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told us disciples this, all authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: and heaven and earth has been given to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's already happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, we know that not all knees are bowing and confessing Jesus is Lord right now, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There might be somebody in this room that you don't confess Jesus is Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would just tell you, you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're not confessing Jesus is the Lord, I'm telling you on the wrong team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Join the team today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confess them as Lord, because you will in the end, because in the end, when all things are completed, when this is full and final in the inheritance that God gives to His Son, Jesus, it will be every knee will bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, in every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when all things are complete, God will separate those who confess that, and those who have not until the end, they will confess it in the end, but at that point, too late,
[SPEAKER_00]: But they will confess, and God will bring all, the faithful and Christ Jesus into His kingdom, for eternity, and we will spend eternity with Him, and full knowledge of Him, and perfect relationship with Him, and one another, reigning over the universe with Him forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the gospel, and this is what we have to look forward to.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is our hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians 1, 15, through 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: says that he is before all things, Jesus is before all things and in him all things hold together, Jesus hold everything together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 1, 3 says that he is the radiance of God's glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Corinthians 4, 6 says that Jesus is the glory of God's glory shines in the face of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we talk about God's glory and the praise of His glory that we see in Ephesians chapter 1 he says three different times to the praise of His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is the glory of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus and so to the praise of the glory of God is always to the praise of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we see when you see Christ, when you learn Christ, when you know Christ, when you abide in Christ, you abide in the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all that the Father has done, all that the Father is doing and all that the Father will do is to this end, is to this goal that His Son will be praised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus Christ, that is the purpose of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, I wanted to kind of look back again to Ephesus, because I wanted to think about how Paul, what I believe when he was writing this letter, like, what was on his mind, what was on his heart?
[SPEAKER_00]: I try to get into his mind a little bit if you'll humor me, and yeah, I'm guessing a little bit about what Paul was thinking about, but then I got to imagine, because Paul spent longer in Ephesus than he did in any other city that he visited.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't spend three years in any other city, except E.E.
[SPEAKER_00]: loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: the Ephesian church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves the Ephesian people.
[SPEAKER_00]: He spent three years there learning their culture, making part of their culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was this moment in Acts chapter 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where Paul is in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing ministry of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was this moment where the gospel had started like I told you up from.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel had started.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says the gospel prevailed over the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the gospel's just moving forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is making disciples Paul is preaching and teaching and meeting with the folks every day and more and more people are becoming Christians and the gospel's just winning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just winning in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was this guy's name was Dimitrius.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Acts 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: This guy, Dimitrius, he was a silver smith.
[SPEAKER_00]: So his job was to make idols for Artemis, the false deity of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he goes to some of the other guys, and he's like, hey y'all, the gospel is really hurting our commerce here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's hurting our money.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hurting the silver industry, and the idol industry here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he tells that to some of the other folks,
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says that those guys they begin to incite the crowds in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the truth of the matter is, because of their conversation, again, you can go read this in Acts 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly, it wasn't about Artemis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they even say, like, Demetrius, when they're talking about this stuff, he's like, listen, Artemis is going to be robbed of her divine majesty, like he pretends that he cares about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be robbed of her divine majesty, which a couple things.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, if your God can be robbed of divine majesty, it's not a God.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're saying Artemis is going to get robbed of her divine majesty, but number two, again, they don't really care about Artemis, they don't care about this false deity, what they care about is their pockets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the major is, it kind of makes that point really, it's hurting our bottom line, the gospel is, and so we got to do something about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they begin to incite the people and riot, the crowds up, and they begin to tell, like, I guess spread this word throughout the city, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna mob, we're gonna riot, and this riot begins, and says the people start,
[SPEAKER_00]: get this kind of mob mentality.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen this even in our day and in our culture at times, this mob mentality happens and it even says a lot of the people don't even know what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even know why they're rioting.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even know why they're there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they all rush into the theater.
[SPEAKER_00]: We put that theater back up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they all rush as they rush as one man,
[SPEAKER_00]: into the theater and then they get in there and they're just all shouting and it's crazy and it's this is wild scene y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a massive happening in the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just imagine the uproar of this and then it says for two hours in this theater.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thousands upon thousands of Ephesians stand and they shout, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians for two hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: They shout, I think, 25,000 Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: shouting this and they even drag a couple of the Christians into there and they probably just put them right there on that stage in the middle Trying to hear from them like what is this all about tell us what you guys think tell us what to do and they don't really You know have words to say and the crowd is just too raucous and too rye this and they don't really get a word in edge wise But Paul Paul standing outside acts as this he's standing outside He's probably on the arcade in way and he hears the upper and he knows what's going on in Paul It says tries to get into the theater, but they won't let him
[SPEAKER_00]: His friends prevent him from going in, probably because they know Paul's got a big mouth and Paul's gonna roll him up worse, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause what's Paul gonna do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna preach the gospel, that's what he's gonna do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna go in there and he's gonna tell him that truth that had to grieve his heart to hear the city shouting lies, blasphemy, greatest Artemis of the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's standing outside trying to get in,
[SPEAKER_00]: and his friends won't let him and actually get him they get him away and he ends up leaving Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think, my best guess is, Ephesians 1 is Paul's attempt to say what he would have said if he had gotten in that theater that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 1,
[SPEAKER_00]: is just where I can just imagine Paul sitting as he was a prisoner in Rome thinking, Man if I don't we got in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man if I could have said what I wanted to say that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what I think he's doing is he's leading the Ephesians, and he's leading us as we read this down the Arcadian way, and he's leading us into the great theater of history and the universe to say
[SPEAKER_00]: The opposite truth against the lie that 25,000 were shouting that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Ephesians one, Ephesians one, really the whole letter of Ephesians is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Ephesians one, he's telling us, we have every blessing in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are chosen and adopted and redeemed in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus by His blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is resurrected and exalted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the heir.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the head.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the ruler.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the fullness of all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Church, will you stand with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you stand with me and let's together?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's proclaim this truth this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think it would bless the heart of Paul, believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless is the heart of God when we as Christian people we proclaim the truth of this Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So say this with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're searching for purpose, say it, greatest Jesus, when you're seeking identity, greatest Jesus, when you're planning out your future.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus, when you're looking for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great is Jesus, when life is hard, greatest Jesus, when you're anxious and depressed, greatest Jesus, when you're guilty of sin, church,
[SPEAKER_00]: When your marriage is struggling, greatest Jesus, when your kids are going astray, greatest Jesus, when you don't know where else to turn, greatest Jesus, listen, when nothing else in your life is great right now, greatest Jesus, that's Ephesians one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's what God wanted for the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's what God wants for us that our lives would resound with this proclamation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Say it with me one more time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great as Jesus and listen, the world disagrees with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesus disagreed with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: 25,000 in that theater, they disagreed with that statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the whole world does.
[SPEAKER_00]: They disagree, if you confess with your words and your actions that greatest Jesus, the world's gonna be against you at times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just know that, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: As you walk out the doors today, just know.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're gonna honestly go and live out the truth that greatest Jesus, the world's not gonna be with you on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're gonna be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna be with each other, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And all the church over all the world,
[SPEAKER_00]: is going to be with you and more importantly, God Himself is going to be with you because He has given us Jesus so that we would wholeheartedly proclaim every day greatest Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what He's all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, we don't live our lives based on what is popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live our lives based on what is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is true, greatest Jesus, greatest Jesus.