Sermons on Ephesians (Page 2)
Co-Heirs with Christ (Ephesians 1:11-14)
The Apostles have an inheritance Paul now turns his attention away from the Ephesians and speaks about himself and his co-laborers. By God’s grace he has been predestined for an inheritance. This was God’s plan for Paul and the Apostles. God purposed to give them a wonderful inheritance. God is glorified by the Apostles God has saved Paul and the Apostles as a display of His grace. This work He has done so that He would be glorified. This was…
God’s Eternal Plan (Ephesians 1:10)
God has purposed and administered all of timeAs we have seen, God purposed in Himself before the foundation of the world to save His people. Here we read that God’s purposes stretch farther than that. Not only did God plan our salvation before the foundation of the world, He is currently watching over all things and directing all of time to His desired end. The word translated “dispensation” comes from a Greek word meaning to administer or steward. God has…
The Infinite Wisdom of God (Ephesians 1:8-9)
God has poured out His grace upon us Paul here continues this thought of God’s extravagant grace poured out on us. It was not just poured out in forgiving us; it has also been poured out in God revealing His wisdom and prudence to us. God’s wisdom God has shown us how wise He is. The word for wisdom here is “sophia” from which we get the word “philosophy” (love of wisdom.) Who could conceive of such a glorious plan…
Rich in Grace (Ephesians 1:7-8)
In Him As Paul continues to tell the Ephesians about how blessed they are he keeps using the phrase “in Him” or some variation of it. He is trying to hammer into our heads that we are not blessed in who we are or what we have done; we are only blessed in Christ. All of our blessings flow from Him. Every blessing is only found in Jesus. Redemption The next blessing we have in Christ is redemption. Redemption simply…
Adoption (Ephesians 1:5-6)
In love Paul uses the phrase “in love” to connect how God has chosen us before the foundation of the world with God predestining us to adoption. God has done all of this because of His great love for His people. He predestined us to adoption The word predestined literally means to determine beforehand. Before the foundation of the world and before we had ever done any good or evil God determined that He would adopt us. In the process…
Chosen by God (Ephesians 1:4)
Paul has just told Christians that they are blessed with spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. What are these blessings? Chosen Paul immediately begins by talking about predestination. So often predestination is a source of controversy or confusion. However, Paul sees predestination as a source of comfort. We are so inclined to view salvation as us choosing God, but here Scripture tells us that our salvation was brought about because God chose us. People who are proud and successful…
Truly Blessed (Ephesians 1:1-3)
As we learned in the background of Ephesians, the church at Ephesus was facing financial loss and persecution. The more faithful they were to the Gospel the more their economy dried up. The more faithful they were to Christ the more their neighbors hated and persecuted them. The more they followed Jesus the harder things got. The closer they walked with the Lord the more their blessings disappeared. Wrong theology This brings us to a major paradox of the Christian…
Introduction to Ephesians (Ephesians 1:1)
As we begin to study Ephesians we must make sure that we interpret it correctly. The golden rule of interpretation is “What did the original hearers hear?” In order to know this we must know something of the author, his audience, and the circumstances surrounding his writing. Paul is the human author When God inspired the Bible the men He used were not robots. The Holy Spirit used these men’s experiences, personalities, and vocabularies to communicate His truth. Understanding who…
What a Woman Needs from Her Husband (Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:7)
The man is the head The man is not supposed to be the leader in his home; he is the leader in his home. He is either leading poorly or leading well. When a man complains that his wife will not “let him” lead he is in fact still leading; he is just leading poorly. Although women are sinners, most of the time when a woman will not follow her husband’s leadership it is evidence of poor leadership. A woman…
Family Worship – The End Goal
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,…
What Is Marriage? (Ephesians 5:31-32)
Societal collapse Virtually every problem in our society can be traced back to the breakdown of marriage. Poverty, violence, incarceration, education, grades, depression, suicide, risky sexual behaviors, etc. are all directly tied to the breakdown of marriage. We all know this to be true. However, how can you fix something that you cannot even define? Confusion Over the last decade our society has debated marriage, traditional vs. marriage equality. The arguments made before the Supreme Court made one thing clear,…
Evangelism – Introduction (Part 1)
Everything we do stems from our deeply held beliefs. If we are going to be effective witnesses for the Lord we must closely examine what the Bible teaches about salvation and then allow these teachings to affect our evangelism. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be…