Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Title: Part 1 (1-3): Our Wealth ~/ Part 2 – Our Walk ~/ Part 3 – Our Warfare

Lesson Title: Introduction to Ephesians

Text: Eph 1:1-2

 

Intro.

I’m incredibly excited about the journey we are about to begin as we study this great Epistle.

I don’t really know what God is going to do through this study but I know what He wants to do and can do.

All that I could ever dream of Mt.

Zion being as a church is becoming very clear to me as I study this Epistle.

So my desire is that by studying it, and understanding the principles, it will form the character of this church.

Listen to what others have said: “this is the crown climax of Pauline theology.”

~/ the sublimest communication ever made to men,” ~/ the quintessence of Paulinism, ~/ Dr. Arthur T. Pierson called Ephesians Paul’s thrird-heaven epistle.”

Another likened the book to the Grand Canyon and the Alps of the NT.

Even in all of Paul’s evident command of language, he’s still really inadequate to accurately express these concepts completely.

Far be it from me to try and compete with those who have tried to describe this book, but it is important in looking at an overview of this book to take note of certain words which are characteristic of it and which Paul uses more frequently in it than any other Epistle.

Here is just few illustrations: (Eph 1:7) talks about the /riches of His grace/, at the end of the verse.

(3:8) talks about the /unsearchable riches of Christ/.

(3:16) ‑ /the riches of His glory/.

So you have the riches of His grace, the riches of His glory and the riches of His Son.

In other words, God is unloading all of His riches in the book of Ephesians.

The word grace is used 12 times.

And the word grace means ‑ God's unmerited, undeserved kind­ness and favor*.

*Grace is behind all of this abundance that God pours out.

The word glory is used 8 times.

The word inheritance is used 4 times.

The word riches is used 5 times.

The words fullness and filled are used 7 times.

And the key to everything is because we are in Christ (10 times).

That is why all of the fullness of all the riches of the inheritance of the glory of His grace is ours.

Do you see?

Because we are one with Christ in His church, because we are redeemed, this incredible fullness is ours.

Perhaps the sum of it all is in chapter (3:19) ‑ /"That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."/ It's an incredible thought that literally the believer can be filled with all the fullness of God Himself.

That we would know the unsearchable riches of Christ.

That we would be able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works in us.

You see, it's all such noble, grandiose concepts ‑ fullness, riches, inheritance, wealth, resources ‑ all in the book of Ephesians.

Another way in which the characteristic of this great Epistle can be stated is that it is a letter in which Paul looks at salvation from the vantage point of the /heavenly places./

Although Paul, in all of his writings, expounds and explains the way of salvation; he mostly is dealing with particular heresies, and with arguments or controversies that had arisen in the churches.

But here, Paul seems to be, as he puts it, /in the heavenly places, /and he is looking down at the great landscape of salvation and redemption.

So, we will see very little controversy; and this is because Paul’s great concern here was to give to the Ephesians, and us a high bird's-eye view of this wondrous and glorious work of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now Luther says that the book of Romans is “the most important document in the NT, the gospel in its purest expression.”

In many ways I would agree that there is no clearer, purer and plainer statement of the gospel as given in Romans.

But if Romans is the purest expression, then Ephesians is the most majestic.

Folks there are places in this book, especially toward the end of the 1st and 3rd chapter that Paul is carried away out, above and beyond himself, and loses and abandons himself in a great outburst of worship and praise and thanksgiving.

By the way, that’s also my prayer for you and I.

That we would dive into this book with great expectation, and at times, I hope it will be difficult for you to speak of it in a controlled manner because of the greatness and because of its grandeur.

Let’s begin by taking a general view of it, and by doing so and having a firm grasp of it we then will not get lost in the details.

By the way, we are going to look at both (general~/particulars).

But I have found that the greatest wealth has been mined from the details.

I.

(v.1)

The doctrine of God.

The general theme is seen right from the onset.

Paul is always quick to his point in his letters.

/Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God/ – there it is!

The theme of this letter, first and foremost, is about God the Father.

(v.2) /grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ./

(v.3) /Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…/  That’s where we all need to begin.

This is the theme that controls everything else – the starting point.

Paul knew that everything is of God, and by God, and that to Him the glory must be given.

The Bible is God’s book, it is a revelation of God, and our thinking must always start with God.

Much of the trouble in the Church today in this 21st century is due to the fact that we are so interested in ourselves, so egocentric.

We have forgotten God, yet the message of the Bible from beginning to end is designed to bring us back to god, to humble us before God, and to enable us to see our true relationship to Him.

This Epistle; it holds us face to face with God, and what God is, and what God has done; it emphasizes throughout the glory and the greatness of God – God the Eternal One, God the everlasting, God over all – and the indescribable glory of God.

(v.5) /Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

/

(v.9)/

Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.

/

(v.11)/

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

/

God, the eternal and everlasting God, self-sufficient in Himself, from eternity to eternity, needing the aid of no-one, living, dwelling in His own everlasting, absolute and eternal glory, is the great theme of this letter.

We must start with God, and forget ourselves.

In this letter, Paul wants to take and give us a view of the glory and majesty of God.

As we read this, I trust as I have, you will hear the voice as it came to Moses from the burning bush saying, /Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place wheron thou standest is holy ground /(Ex 3:5).

Folks, we are in the presence of God and His glory; so we must tread carefully and humbly.

a.

The Sovereignty of God.

Within this doctrine of God we see three things the first being we are at once face to face with the sovereignty of God.

Def.

his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure (1 Chron 29:11; Dan.

4:25, 35; Rom.

9:15–23; 1 Tim.

6:15; Rev. 4:11).

God’s rule and authority over all things.

The supremacy of God

 

How little today do we hear these great expressions of true Christian doctrine and theology.

How little are we told of the about the glory, the greatness, the majesty and the sovereignty of God!  Our forefathers delighted in these terms; these were the terms of the Protestant Reformers, the terms the Puritans and the Covenanters.

They delighted in spending time contemplating the attributes of God.

Look again how Paul immediately recognizes this.

/Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

/– not by his will!

Paul did not call himself, and the Church did not call him; it was God who called him.

He states this even clearer in Gal 1:15 /When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace.

/There is always emphasis on the sovereignty of God, and will see it throughout this letter.

It is God who has chosen us in Christ, predestinated us.

It is a part of God’s purpose that we should be saved.

There would never have been any salvation if God had not planned it and put it into execution.

It is God who /so loved the world, /it is God who (Gal 4:4) /sent forth his Son, made of a woman, mane under the law/.

It is all of God and according to His purpose.

It is /according to the counsel of his own will /(Eph 1:11) that all these things have happened.

Throughout this Epistle it will tell us that we should always contemplate our salvation in this way.

We must not start with ourselves and then ascend to God; we must start with the sovereignty of God, God over all, and then come down to ourselves.

We also find that God is the God of the time element.