Father, it is our deepest and most sincere prayer that we want to meet you. We put aside all the distractions, all the things that we’re facing in life, all the deadlines and to-do lists. We put it all aside. We want to hear your voice. We want to meet you and encounter you. That’s why we’re here. Pray that you fill this place with your presence and fill all of us with the fullness of Christ. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
Quick review.
If you were here last week, and not all of us were here last week, what do we cover and what questions are we wrestling with for the next few weeks? Anyone remember?
That was two weeks ago. Yeah. What is a Christian and what is a church? The two questions we’re going to wrestle with studying the book of Ephesians.
Anything you remember from last week, any observations, just to get other people up to speed. What phrase appeared 20 plus times in the book of Ephesians? Maybe you have notes, Jackie, I heard you in Christ.
In Christ, in him with Christ. That appears all over the book of Ephesians. So that’s an important description of what a Christian is. We are people united to Christ, in Christ, abiding with Christ.
So let’s ask the Lord to unpack that more and more as we continue our study of this book. Anything else that you recall?
I’ll read from Ephesians 1:4-6. 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 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 beloved, so in Christ, in him.
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6, ESV)
Another related phrase is in love. God called you to be saved. God predestined you to be holy and blameless. God chose you and predestined you to be adopted as sons and daughters. And he did this all in love.
If you get caught up in theology, it can almost sound very clinical, very sterile.
That he calls you before the foundation of the world, that he knew you by name. He knit you together.
We have to understand, all of this was done in love. Just to make sure this one is muted, Jackie. This one. This one’s muted. This one’s muted.
All of this was done in love. All of this was done in love. And another way to say it was, he blessed us in the beloved, the most beloved Son of God. He includes us in that we are in Christ, we’re in the beloved. He chose us in love.
That is what I hope. The Lord starts unpacking more today.
And then in verse seven it says in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (Ephesians 1:7, ESV)
And what a blessing that we can partake in the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. It’s right here for us. At some point in our service, we’ll be partaking it. And what we’re doing is we are, we are being forgiven of all of our sins, past, present and future.
And that’s wonderful news that the blood of Jesus covers us—past, present, and future sins—all sins covered by the blood of Jesus in love.
And then verse 13, it says in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promise.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 1:13, ESV)
Holy Spirit, not only did Jesus come, but Jesus died, was buried, resurrected, and ascended in order to give the church and to birth the church, usher in the church age through the sending of the Holy Spirit.
And he is a seal which guarantees that Jesus is coming back for us. And his seal of the promise of the glorious inheritance that awaits is a certainty because of the Holy Spirit that is now in us.
So what is the church? I just want to briefly touch on this, but we’re going to actually focus more on what is a Christian today. But what is a church? I just want to share a few verses. Ephesians 1:22-23, what is a church?
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23, ESV)
And so we used to think, like what? Like I even mentioned last week and maybe I didn’t quite capture what this verse is trying to communicate. Like, we think a full church is a full band with a packed audience, and that is fullness with all the hospitality teams in place and all the workers in place. And we think that isn’t that what fullness is?
And we said, well, you fill in the blank. Any local church can. Any local church, no matter how full it appears, can any local church say that we have the fullness of Christ, Christ by ourselves?
But actually, the deeper meaning of these two verses, it says, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. That means where two or three are gathered, if Jesus is there and he promises he’s there, the fullness of Christ is present in that circle of two or three.
That means with a handful of us, if Jesus is invited here and we welcome him here, and we’ve gathered in his name, then the fullness of Christ is actually here, no matter what it looks like on the surface, because it’s not our fullness that we’re putting on display as if we have anything by ourselves.
It is the fullness of Christ. And two people who focus on Jesus Christ, the fullness of Christ is dwelling there. Jesus is invited there, he’s there, and it’s Christ’s presence which fills up the room.
That’s why we are all about Jesus here. Because if you talk about Jesus and you exalt the Name of Jesus, and you focus on Jesus, then the fullness of Jesus potentially can walk into the room. And now this place is full.
That’s what Paul is trying to describe here. So that’s the church. And now for the implications for the believer. Actually, a similar idea in chapter 3, verse 19: And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19, ESV)
So Jesus in himself is the fullness.
And if we invite Jesus, the fullness of Christ is here. But it also says in this verse that we too can be filled with all the fullness of God.
That means we pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, whenever we gather in his name. So we have the fullness of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the indwelling spirit of Christ overflowing.
The filling is there, and Jesus is at the center. That is a picture of what a Christian community gathering in a church setting should look like.
It doesn’t have to do anything with numbers. It’s each believer being filled with the fullness of goddess and two or three gathering in Jesus’ Name. The fullness of Christ enters into the room. And now this place is full.
What is a church? What is a Christian? Now I want to just go into what is a Christian.
Ephesians 1:15-16. These are the key verses for today.
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, (Ephesians 1:15-16, ESV)
If you want to be a Christian that is worthy of remembrance, and people know of you, and when they think of you, they give thanksgiving to God for you, you need two qualities.
First is faith. Second is love for all the saints.
Faith. What is faith?
The answer is in Ephesians 1:21 to 23, talking about Jesus, who is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:21-23, ESV)
To me, this is a great definition of what faith is.
Faith is saying that God is bigger than anything I face in this life, and I place my faith, my ultimate and utter and complete faith in Jesus.
He’s bigger than my problems. He’s bigger than my circumstances. He’s bigger than my marriage issues. He’s bigger than the issues of my kids. He’s bigger than my finances. He’s bigger than everything that we face, and not just what we see in the natural.
These verses are talking actually about the Spiritual realm, that Satan has privates and captains and lieutenants and generals in his army.
And God is saying Jesus is above all of them. Even if Satan walked in this room, should we be afraid? If the antichrist, whoever he is, walks into this room, are we going to cower in fear? Or do we believe that my faith in Jesus, my God, is bigger than Satan?
He’s bigger than my problems. He’s bigger than everything that I face. If you have that in you, then you are a person of faith. You bring all of your issues to Jesus, and you say that my God is bigger. My God is bigger.
That is what faith is. The second component of a praiseworthy Christian worthy of remembrance, worthy of thanksgiving. Not only faith, but love for all the saints.
And as you look inward and as you look at how you interact with people in your life, as you look back on how you reacted to the person who cut you off on the freeway, the person who was serving you food, and they were rude to you, as you look back on just all your interactions, people closest to you, neighbors, strangers, coworkers, anybody that you met this week, how did you respond to them?
Was there love?
Or can it be said of all of us that if we look at ourselves, there’s no love in the tank, we’re completely loveless? We have nothing to give. And that’s why the verses are in chapter 3, verse 14.
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through a spirit in your inner being.
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, ESV)
So here in these verses, it brings together faith and love that Christ will dwell in our hearts according to the measure of our faith. If you have a little faith, Christ is there dwelling with you, but in a small portion.
Many times, don’t we go through life and disconnect from Christ? We are not in Christ. We don’t run to Christ. We don’t remain in Christ. We face life apart from Christ. When that happens, there is no faith, and Christ, who wants to dwell richly in us, finds the door of our heart closed.
Faith is the door. We open the door of our heart through faith, saying, Christ, I believe in you, I trust in you. That is what it means to be in Christ.
Faith is the door. Without the door, if the door is closed, Christ, as much as he wants to dwell richly in us, he cannot. So we must open the door and say, I want to be in Christ. I want to be in Christ. I want to dwell with Christ. I want to face this situation alongside of Christ. I bring this situation to Christ.
That is what it means to open the door of our heart through faith. Now Christ has an opportunity to dwell richly in us. So that covers faith. Faith is my God is big. He’s bigger than anything I face, and I don’t face it alone. I face it with Christ. I put my faith in Christ. We are facing this challenge together. We will get through this obstacle together. I am not alone. I am with Christ. That is what faith means. My God is bigger than everything I face, bigger than Satan himself.
The biggest tragedy, the biggest situation, it’s overwhelming in ourselves. But with Christ, in Christ, with a faith that says, my God is bigger, now that thing is cut down to size and is put below the feet of Christ.
So that thing that used to dominate over you is so big in your eyes, that situation, that circumstance, it was towering over you and it was a shadow over you. In Christ, he put it under his feet. And so in faith, we say, my God is bigger.
That thing that was so big, we shrink it down to size. We put it under the feet of Christ. That is what faith is. The second part of it is love. Before, it was love for all the saints. But before we talk about love for the saints, love for the stranger, love for the enemy, love for the neighbor, before that, we need to be strengthened by being rooted and grounded in love, the love of Christ.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done any planting. You know, I’ve been cutting some various plants and cacti from the garden and putting them in some soil indoors or in a little vase of water, and you see the roots grow, and that just takes time.
You got to plant it in the soil and leave it there. It can’t move. You put it in a vase of water and just keep it there.
Imagine, like, you’re so anxious about seeing progress of that plant that every five minutes you’re pulling it out of the soil, you’re pulling it out of the water. Do you think that thing will ever develop roots if you’re pulling it out every five minutes?
How do we get rooted and grounded in love? You have to remain in the presence of God long enough for the roots to start growing. 5, 10, 15 minutes in the morning, 5, 10, 15 minutes at night is great.
But likely, if that’s your pattern, then there are large sections of your day that you’re anxious and worried and upset, and like Martha and Mary, like Martha, just troubled and irritable, and just things bother you.
And these are signs that we’re not. The roots haven’t developed yet, so we need to stretch out the time with the Lord. Stretch out the time.
My encouragement is through these songs. If you play guitar in the past or keyboard, dust off your instruments, start playing again. Just be in the Lord’s presence. Sing. Sing to him.
Sometimes it’s hard to pray for an hour or read the Scripture for an hour, but it’s much easier to sing for an hour. And so just start trying different things to lengthen the amount of time that you’re with the Lord so that you give sufficient time for roots to start growing. Because we need to be rooted and grounded in love.
When you look at a child who is the apple of his parent’s eye, and that parent really adores a child, and there’s such safety and affection and love and joyous and just outpouring of love for the child. That child is rooted and grounded in love, and they are so confident, like they can walk up to a stranger and they feel like, I’m loved by my parents, or this stranger probably should love me, too. There’s just such a confidence that comes when you grow up in an environment of. Of this type of love.
It changes your confidence, and you face the world differently.
So if we are a child of God, and God is our Abba Father, and we are grounded and rooted in this love of the Father expressed to us through Christ, think of the confidence that we should walk around with. Not arrogance, but just confidence, like no one can ruin my day. I am above all the things that I’m facing. I’m not worried or stressed about things. Things just roll off of me. I have thick skin.
Things just bounce off of me because I’m so protected, just surrounded by God’s love. And I’m confident.
And we need strength to comprehend. Just reading it, like, I don’t, the way he described it, so interesting, like just thinking about it, it doesn’t, it’s not enough to penetrate our heart. It’s like there needs to be some force behind this revelation. There needs to be some spiritual help and strength so that it can penetrate our heart.
We need strength to comprehend. It’s not easy. It’s easy to comprehend here in the head, in the heart.
It takes strength, divine strength, divine help to comprehend and to hit us in our heart that we are loved like this. And it’s the breadth and length and height and depth.
Breath and length, everything that you face in life. Breath and length, everything that you face, height and depth. The great times, the difficult times, the times when you’re on the top of the mountain, the times when you’re depressed in a valley. Length, breadth, height and depth.
If you just look at that, what is God communicating? He’s saying, look at the cross of Jesus Christ.
It covers everything, everything you face, covered by the love of God, expressed and proven by the cross. Everything that you face in life.
Jesus says, I died for that. I cover that. I redeem that. You don’t have to be defined by that. The cross of Christ, everything you face, breath, height, everything that you face, height, depth. It is the cross of Christ. It proves that we’re loved.
God doesn’t have to give us anything. He doesn’t have to answer any prayer request for the rest of our days.
Just the fact that Jesus was sent, that in love, we are predestined to become a child of God.
And then in the year, whenever it happened for me, 1993, that is the year it happened. When that thing that was predestined, I don’t know, thousands, tens of thousands of years before time and before eternity, I don’t know. I can’t even calculate. But he knew me by name.
And then 1993, Jesus would meet me. And it proves the unconditional love of the Father and the perfect love of God expressed through Christ.
And you can read Ephesians, chapter two. It is not because of anything that we did. It’s not because of anything that we did. We were dead in our transgressions. We were a corpse you weren’t saved because you were such a good person or because you had perfect attendance at Sunday school. You didn’t do anything. You were dead. But God, who is rich in mercy, made you alive in Christ is nothing that we did so that none of us can boast. It’s all there in Ephesians, chapter two.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV)
No pastor can take credit and said, you got saved because I preached. Now thank me. Glorify me for all of your days. Be loyal to me. No preacher, no teacher, no gospel evangelist can say, I did it for you. I did it, so thank me. No. Ephesians two, it’s clear nobody can take credit. We didn’t do anything. Nobody did anything. God, in his mercy, took a corpse and breathed on it, and it became alive in Christ Jesus, the author of Life, walked into the room. He called you by name. You came alive.
Your heart that was once dead, a heart of stone, became a heart of flesh. So what is a Christian? We are people who have faith that my God is bigger than anything I face, and Christ has put everything under his feet, and I am in Christ. I trust in Jesus. That is step number one. Step number two, we are people who love all the saints, but we have no love by ourselves. And so that we need to go to the source of love, who is God.
He has a limitless supply of love, and we are rooted and grounded in his love for us. And when we are, when that becomes a reality, then we have love in the tank to love the saints. And lastly, Christians are ones who know how to repent. Ephesians, chapter two. I’ll just read a few verses and we’ll close. Ephesians, chapter two.
And you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:1-5, ESV)
You notice, everything that Paul is mentioning here is past tense. You once did this. You once were like this. You once lived like this. This is what repentance is. You once walked in one direction. You do an about face. Now you walk in a new direction.
Once we were worldly, we just followed the course of the world.
We just followed the mainstream. We just follow the majority. We’re just moving with the current. Everything that other people are doing, we are also interested in, we’re curious about, we want that too, that is following the course of this world. That was once describing the believer before he met Jesus. You once followed the prince of the power of the air. Satan was your father, whether you knew it or not. You are a slave of sin. You are dead to the things of God. You were once like this. You once followed a spirit.
Now we have the Holy Spirit. Before, you had a different spirit: the antichrist spirit, unclean spirit, a deceitful spirit, an unholy Spirit was saturating your life, filling your life, and you followed him, and it was leading you into disobedience to God.
You were following your own passions, your own desires. What you wanted to do, you just went for it. You indulged in it. You just didn’t consult anybody else. You just did it. That was once your life.
Repentance means that is no longer my life. I did an about face.
And that’s why it says in Ephesians 2:10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)
So now we have a different path. God has prepared in advance good works, and now we need to, in God’s time, in God’s way, discover what those good works are and walk in them.
And even more fundamental than walking in good works is chapter four, verses one to three. And we’ll close with this.
I, therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6, ESV)
So now we are called to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling. And what is that worthiness? What does that calling look like?
It is a path of humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:2-3, ESV)
Even in a small family, don’t you find it hard to love your family at times? Even in a small church, aren’t there certain people that you kind of like to avoid on a Sunday because they irritate you, they bother you?
Or you meet some Christians at a cafe and you look the other way. You don’t want to bump into them again because of their previous conversation.
These are all clues. We don’t have love in our tank. We don’t have love in the tank. We don’t have love for the saints.
You would think a Christian, we should easily love other Christians, right? It’s not easy. We should easily love our Christian family members, right? It’s not easy.
In many cases, people, the way they handle it is, well, I’m bothered by that person, so I’m gonna avoid that person. I’m gonna switch churches.
In a family setting, you’re stuck. You can’t switch your parent, you can’t switch your child, your spouse, you’re stuck. And in a sense, God is saying, we’re all stuck together. There’s only one church.
So the fact that you’re having problem with a saint, does this solve the problem that you switch churches? It doesn’t solve the problem because there’s only one church.
So there’s a deficiency in you and an inability to love that kind of personality. There’s a lack of forgiveness, a lack of bearing with one another.
And you switching churches, you avoiding that person, you’re keeping your love tank small versus, okay, I am rooted and grounded in God’s love. For me, the breadth, the length, the height, the depth, the cross of Christ proves that I am love. God doesn’t owe me a, I’m rooted and grounded in this reality. Now your tank is being filled.
Now you face that same brother or sister at church, that same family member that annoyed you last night. And now when you look at that person, there’s a humility, which is another way of saying, now you’re more prepared to love that person. There’s a patience. Now you’re more prepared to love that person. Now you can bear with the person’s immaturity and personality and character flaws. Now we’re saying you’re more prepared to love that person.
Do you see how the love that’s rooted and grounded in love translates to all of our relationships, in our family, in our church?
I hope nobody leaves here annoyed. And then years later, they call me up and say, you know, Ray, you really annoyed me. And I’ll say, why didn’t you, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me years ago? Why are you telling me years later?
I hope nobody does that in a family. You can’t escape one another, so it’s gonna come out. But in churches, it’s in among the saints.
We just keep our lipid tight. We don’t work things out. We avoid, we switch churches and we just never fix what’s broken inside. We need to have much more love for the saints. We have no love in ourselves, but God has a limitless supply of love. And if we’re rooted and grounded in his love, then we have a chance to love the saints. Okay, let’s pray. Father, thank you for teaching us about what a Christian is. A Christian is one who has faith that my God is bigger than all that I’m facing.
And everything is put under the feet of Jesus Christ. All problems, all obstacles, all spiritual attacks, all deceptions, all confusion, all frustrations, all relational conflicts. Everything is small compared to my God. My God cuts all of these down to size and just as a small thing that Jesus can step on and step over. And so we put our faith in Christ. We are in Christ. Thank you, Lord. We are also people who are characterized by our love. Forgive us for our lovelessness. Forgive us for our partiality. Forgive us for favoring and avoiding.
Lord, we want to have love for the saints, but we have no love in ourselves. So, Lord, we want to spend more time with you in prayer and worship and reading of Scripture and listening for your voice.
We want to stretch out that time so that we can become rooted and grounded in your love. Thank you for the we want to learn what is the height and depth and the breadth and the length of the love of God expressed to us in Christ through the cross. It’s a proof we are fully loved.
Lord, may we have love for the saints after we’ve been filled up with your love.
Lastly, we repent if we have not walked the walk and only talked the talk. We repent that things that we should have put aside, things in our past that used to characterize our lives before we met Christ. If they’re still with us, we repent, Lord. We shouldn’t keep living this way. We shouldn’t keep following the world, Satan, unclean spirits, our own passions and desires. We should have new desires. We have a new Holy Spirit. We have a new shepherd.
We’re following a new head of the church. And so, Lord, we pray that we would walk in a manner that is worthy of the gospel, with humility and patience, bearing with one another in love.
Thank you, Lord, for showing us what a Christian is. We want to spend some time with you. We pray that you minister to us as we partake in the Lord’s Supper.
Thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ, which proves finally and completely that you love us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
