Final Greeting
Notes
Transcript
Gathering
Call to Worship
A psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. 1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to your name, Most High, 2 to declare your faithful love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 3 with a ten-stringed harp and the music of a lyre. 4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands. 5 How magnificent are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts! 6 A stupid person does not know, a fool does not understand this: 7 though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be eternally destroyed. 8 But you, Lord, are exalted forever. 9 For indeed, Lord, your enemies— indeed, your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. 10 You have lifted up my horn like that of a wild ox; I have been anointed with the finest oil. 11 My eyes look at my enemies; when evildoers rise against me, my ears hear them. 12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, 15 to declare, “The Lord is just; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
Corporate Prayer -
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Scripture Reading
1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
Worship through Song
Sermon
Prayer
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we looked at prayer in the Spirit. That we are to pray in the Spirit at all times and in all things. Paul teaches this idea that constant communion and communication is not just possible but it is one of the most amazing truths of the Gospel of Jesus. That through saving faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus that we have been not only reconciled but the veil was torn and we now have access to God at all times.
That ended what seems to be the polished communication that is main teaching of Paul in this letter. It is suggested that from this point forward Paul turn to write his final greeting to the readers of his letter. This section reads as a normal letter would read verses the organized composition above. So let us read his final greeting the the church at Ephesus.
19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should. 21 Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me so that you may be informed. 22 I am sending him to you for this very reason, to let you know how we are and to encourage your hearts. 23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Request
Paul’s Request
Paul says pray for me also. Why would he need prayer. It is believed that he is writing this while in captivity in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar. He was able to rent a house and live there with a roman guard present.
16 When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
He has been accused and has defended himself before the Sanhedrin Jewish leaders, Governor Felix, Governor Festus, King Agrippa. This has taken about two years to get tho this point. But Paul appeals to Caesar so he will go from being captive at the local level to basically the national level. The emperor is the most powerful person that Paul will have to deal with or at least his court.
Unlike the governors and even the king the emperor would not have first hand knowledge of what is going on in the area. The information here would be reports and testimonies and that is what would be presented in the trial.
Lest imagine that you are Paul. You are zealous for your God. Your whole life has been put into learning and defending the God of the scriptures. You are not only commited you excel at it. You find yourself on the Jerusalem council, the 70 highest men in the community. Then there is Jesus, you want nothing more to end this threat to your God. You stand and watch Stephen get stoned to death. You lead the persecution of this group of people that you call the Way. So you do just that.
Then you meet Jesus and every thing changes. God shows you his power through the work of his son and Paul is changed forever. The man who was leading the attack against these so called Christians finds himself as one of them. God reveals his mission to you and you set out living and working for it. You see amazing things happen for the kingdom of God and you also experience some of the most difficult times in your life. You have been arrested for no crime. Each time you stand on trial they cannot find you guilty so you continue onto the level of trial. For two years you are going through this and you now find yourself in custody in Rome awaiting an appeal to Caesar's court.
This Caesar would be Nero. Who was know to have killed many of his family and even it is recorded that he killed him mom with a collapsing bed. He was know for all sorts of debauchery and would have people killed on a whim. He had been emperor since he was 16.
And what does He ask for them to pray about.
19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
When it was laid out Paul knew he would stand before them most powerful man in the know world or at least his court and he wanted prayer that he would proclaim the message of the gospel with boldness and not fall into the temptation of satan to be quite.
It wasn’t his status or situation that he was concerned with. It wasn’t the physical but the spiritual that he wanted prayer for. To be bold with the only message that saves.
He had been made an ambassador for the gospel and wanted to be bold.
This is where he writes from and we can’t imagine what it would look like to stand be for this man. Maybe a POW might know the feeling where your life is completely in the hands of another.
And this is the same message we are to proclaim.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
Does the christian church of today plead this case. In many ways I would say yes. However I don’t believe they know what they are being reconciled from or the actual character of the God that they are in enmity with.
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Objects of Prayer
The spiritually healthy person is devoted to the welfare of others, especially fellow believers. On the other hand, the root of both psychological and spiritual sickness is preoccupation with self. Ironically, the believer who is consumed with his own problems—even his own spiritual problems—to the exclusion of concern for other believers, suffers from a destructive self-centeredness that not only is the cause of, but is the supreme barrier to the solution of, his own problems. Usually such selfishness isolates him from the other believers, who if they were intimately involved in fellowship with him, would be regularly praying for his spiritual welfare.
After he asks for this prayer and only this prayer here he continues with.
Tychicus
Tychicus
21 Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me so that you may be informed. 22 I am sending him to you for this very reason, to let you know how we are and to encourage your hearts.
I wasn’t uncommon for a letter like to be sent with or carried by someone who recieved the letter would recognize or know. This would do a couple of things. It would authenticate the writing. Lets just face it just like today it is hard to know who to trust. A letter shows up and how do you know it actually came from the person who wrote it. Well this was a common way. Another reason was that this person or persons would share about the specifics that were not included in the letter.
To share about what was going on and telling them about all of the things that were going on that did not pertain to the purpose of this letter. Paul was part of this community and they would have many questions about life.
It is also possible that Paul discussed the letter in length with him and he would explain and answer any questions that they may have about the content of the letter.
But this man in particular was a faithful servant with Paul he also carried the letter to the Colossians Church. He was an active participant in Paul’s ministry and he worked along side Paul in his mission.
Because of this he was also sent to encourage. This church was started by Paul and he ministered there many years. This was one of their leaders and they needed encouragement so he sent Tyhicus.
Which brings us to the closing benediction.
Final Words
Final Words
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace
Peace
He started the theme of peace from the beginning of this letter.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
What was the peace that was recieved?
14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
Take a moment and think on this. Two groups that were separated, full of hostility for each other were made into one people. This was accomplished through the only way possible and that was through Jesus since he is our peace.
Jesus proclaimed the message from the beginning, That the good news was that by his sacrifice those that were far from God would be made near.
Peace amongst brothers and sister comes from peace with God and is only found in community with God and fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.
It is our relationship with Jesus that brings peace to our marriages, our families and our churches.
Love
Love
Paul has talked about Ephesians love for each other,
15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
That they are to bear on another in love,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Love was a foundational part of the church.
15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
But unlike today where love is used as a justification for all sorts of sins. The love that brothers and sisters in christ are to have is to be the love of Christ.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her
A love that we can only give to other because it has been first given to us.
19 We love because he first loved us.
We don’t justify our action with love. Our love demonstrates our faith. Because Christ’s love is a different love. It is a love that take the object and puts them first.
It it the opposite of love of self. And it is by faith.
Faith
Faith
Faith and love are tied together.
15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
We are saved by faith. To believe in the teachings of the bible. To believe in the account of Christ. To believe in the need of a savior that will save us from our sins as we come to know there is a God and we cannot earn our way into his good graces because we have to large of a sin debt.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
We have access to God through faith.
Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.
We have one unified faith. There is only one.
It is by faith that extinguishes the attacks of the enemy.
Faith Love and Peace are completely through the letter to the church. This letter which describes so well God’s desire for his church and his people.
Grace
Grace
24 Grace be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s final word were that he wished God’s divine favor upon them and that they would endure to the the end. He qualifies that those that have the favor of God will be those whose love is undying or incorruptible.
A true believer will continue to love for Jesus the entirety of their life on this world. Anyone who loses their love never knew him. A true believer will endure to the end because it isn’t them who will sustain them till the end. But God will preserve them through the work of the Holy Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Ephesians is such a deep revealing of what the church is to be and how it should be. The center of all of it is the messiah the savior Jesus. And the spirit who works through us and in us.
We sit here on the 4th of July and we will celebrate our independence as a nation. But do you celebrate your independence as a person.
Your freedom from the bondage of sin and free to live a life honoring and submitted to God as Lord.
He is the good shepherd, the Good Lord, he is faithful and his love endures forever.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
The body and church is to come together to grow into the headship of Christ. But in order to do that we must come together. We must interlink our lives under Christ. But this isn’t easy. we are all still in sin in many ways. Sometime it is subtle and sometimes it is blatant. But it all effect the body.
We are pulled in every direction in this world. There is so much out there for us to give our attention to and our time too. But we must pull together for community and equipping each other.
All close relationships reveal to us our hard spots. Our spouses and our children all show us what we need to repent of but what about accepted sin in the family. That is revealed in the body and allowed to be worked through.
Just like marriages that make it through the tough time. So is a healthy body of beleivers. Where we come together to see us all grow into maturity and stature by Christ’s fullness.
Prayer
Song
Sending
Call to Service or Discipleship
As you prepare to leave this place, hear now God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship.
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who have undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessing/Benediction
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.