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Introduction · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you guys have your Bibles, you can open to Ephesians chapter 1. We're only going to look at the first two verses this morning, or this morning, this evening. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, just an introduction. What's interesting is, and this doesn't happen very often, but tonight I'm introducing the book of Ephesians. This coming Sunday I'm introducing the book of...
• 0:20
  2 Thessalonians, and you guys will see there is very little difference between the two verses that begin both of these books. They're almost identical. And so it'll be, you know, Sunday will be interesting because I'm going to shoot all my best stuff now. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 say this, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me?
• 0:49
  Lord, be glorified as I preach and may your word be preached with clarity and conviction. God, may it go forth in power. And Lord, I pray that we would be devoted to your son and no one else. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, like I said, I'm so thankful for the youth and the kids ministry joining us last Wednesday. I do. It does cause me to wonder, though, what their perspective on it is.
• 1:20
  You know, the youth group over here is old enough, I think, that they're really engaged. And man, you can tell there were some kids that were just worshiping their hearts out. But if you go further to this side, you've got all of the little ones, you know, the base campers, third, fourth, fifth grade, they were all up in the front. They were doing their thing. They figured it out. This is what we do. And, you know, they're still understanding the gist of the gospel. But whatever, as you get further back, they get younger and younger and younger. And you get back to the, like, preschool age kids. And I do wonder.
• 1:46
  what is it that they're taking in right now? What do they think? We're all excited to have them here. I wonder if they ever look around and just go, what is happening right now? My dad, a full-grown man, is singing. Full-grown men don't sing in our culture, right? It's not a thing we do. Singing, raising our hands, closing our eyes. He's singing, and he's singing to someone who's not my mom. Who's he singing? I wonder sometimes, what are they taking in? What will they remember? What will they...
• 2:15
  I wonder sometimes if they actually get what we do here. I walked over there because I wanted to kind of high-five as many as I could, and so I was standing here. I walked over. My little niece, Hallie, little Hallie, ran over to me, and Hallie is just...
• 2:33
  Adorable, adorable. And I was blessed with girls, you know, so I'm kind of smitten immediately anyway with them, like the eyes and the ponytails, you know, pigtails. Like little blonde pigtails will honestly get almost anything they want from me. Like, you want a pony? You know, I'm going to buy you one. And so, you know, little tiny Hallie comes running over. She's got the little pigtails going. She comes over. Uncle Danny, she grabs me. I'm holding her. We're singing.
• 2:56
  And listen, I'm not a self-conscious guy. I'm really not. After about my thousandth sermon, like I got used to the fact that people just look at me. It's part of my job, you know. And so I'm not very self-conscious. I don't normally care, you know, what other people's opinions of me are. But man, I'm standing there. I'm holding little Hallie and I'm singing. And, you know, I'm just singing my heart out.
• 3:20
  But she made me, she created kind of an awkward moment because she decided that rather than participating up there, because she can't read it anyway, she, her full focus and attention was on me. But her face is this far away from me, you know, so I'm used to people watching me from this far. But from this far, you know, like, I mean, her face was right here. She's just watching me. And eventually her face moved around the front real slow like this.
• 3:48
  And at one point, I'm singing, and she is literally looking directly into my mouth. Her eyes are right here. And I'm still singing. I'm doing my thing. But she's just looking straight down my throat, like grabbing onto my chin and staring down there. I'm like, what are you doing? I said, Hallie, you've got to take this back. I gave it back to my wife, Hallie. I said, I don't know, man. What did little Hallie take away that evening?
• 4:15
  I don't know. I don't know what eternal impact it had on my little niece. My Uncle Danny's throat is weird. I don't know. I wonder sometimes what our little ones experience and what they'll take away. My prayer as their pastor and your prayer as their parents and as their friends is that they will learn from an early age that it is a joy to be a part of Christ's body. It really is.
• 4:46
  I mean, I pray that we would all experience what Betsy experienced when she came here. And there were genuinely people praying for her. That we would rejoice over the fact that we actually got to meet her. And that it's not somebody faceless that we're praying for. And that joy and almost overwhelming love would be something that they actually experience. Most kids, I don't know why this is, but most kids, I think, grow up hating going to church. They think it's boring and pointless.
• 5:17
  And my genuine hope is that little Highlanders would be raised knowing that the church is greater than us, that it existed before us, that if the Lord tarries, it will continue to exist after we are all gone. My prayer is that they would truly know what Ephesians chapter 3 describes as the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ through their experience with the bride of Christ. My hope is genuinely that when people would come,
• 5:44
  Through these doors and hear from this book being preached in this room that people would experience the bride of Christ in such a way that it would cause them to fall more deeply in love with the Son of God. My prayer is that we would leave here so grounded in our mission and purpose that we would avoid what the majority human experience I think is. And that is kind of a shapeless, amorphous, pointless existence.
• 6:16
  dedicated to the temporal rather than to the eternal. Now we've all observed, I think, that in the absence of meaning and purpose, people will do almost anything. They will give their lives to almost anything in an effort to matter. People in their core want to leave a legacy. They will want to give their lives to something that outlasts them. And all people, in my opinion, have what I'm going to call a church.
• 6:48
  A church, a group that they've devoted themselves to, that they've thrown themselves into, that they're hoping will give their life meaning and purpose. And whether it's Brothers in Arms, or the 4-H, or Drinking Buddies, or Gangs, or the Elks Club, or Sam's Club, if it's Awana, or tagging, even tagging. People do that. Graffiti on the side of the freeway.
• 7:16
  Graffiti on the side of train cars, they do that because they want to be seen. They want to do something that others will see that will outlast them. All people want to leave their mark. All people are giving themselves to something that I'm just going to define as, with a small c, a church. A church. And we are, in my opinion, embarking on an exciting study tonight because the letter of Ephesians is a letter to the church.
• 7:42
  and about the church, but we're beginning this study on the brink of, in my opinion, an exciting time in church history. My wife Hallie and I are constantly in prayer for our family and for the will of God for our family. Just like all of you do, we inquire of God where the large pockets of non-believers are.
• 8:00
  And where we would become most effective. Man, I love hanging around the bride of Christ. I love hanging around believers. I believe wholeheartedly in community and fellowship. You guys know that. We have people in our home all the time. That's what we want to do. But man, I also want to be around unbelievers.
• 8:17
  I want to be around them. I want to develop friendships with them. I want to talk to them so that we can use that as a bridge for the gospel. I want to genuinely love them and have them genuinely love me back so that we can develop that rapport so that their lives can be transformed by the blood of Jesus. I mean, that's what we all want. I had lunch with another pastor of a sister church of ours, the Pastor of Grace Fellowship down in Lakewood.
• 8:43
  Pastor John Byrne yesterday. John is a wonderful man and helps to lead what they call the lead team of Converge here in North Denver. So our 12 or 15 kind of sister churches all here in the North Denver area. He's the lead pastor of that. He and I had lunch just yesterday. And he said, man, Danny, you know, we get together with these guys once a month. We have lunch together. We pray for one another. All of these senior pastors of these churches. It's wonderful. I love it. I love the camaraderie.
• 9:11
  But he said, man, Danny, we have got to figure out how to have that group of guys actually make an impact. We don't want to have lunch just to have lunch. It's about more than eating burritos. And praise God for burritos. But it's got to go beyond that. Is there something beyond that? And we just began to pray and think about planting churches, replanting churches, revitalizing churches. How do we, just like Alex said, strengthen the church? That's what we want to do.
• 9:41
  We want to strengthen the church and not just here at Highland. We want to have a huge God-honoring impact here in North Denver. And as Hallie and I really honestly pray about where the pockets of unbelievers would be, I think that we've maybe discovered something a little bit startling.
• 10:08
  You know, the American church, I do think, I love the church, I never want to give the church a black eye, but the American church, we know, has a lot of problems, just like every church does. But the problem with the American church does not seem to be numeric. What do I mean? I've heard people say that the problem with the church is there's not enough churches. Is that true? Because you guys, there, it seems like there are churches everywhere. Does it seem that way to you?
• 10:48
  Staff lunch today, we drove from 92nd and Sheridan up to 120th and Sheridan. We drove two miles up Sheridan. Man, every corner, there's a church on every corner. I think that's weird, right? The problem with the American church doesn't seem to be numeric. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't continue to plant churches. Of course we should. There are pockets.
• 11:11
  of people legitimately that don't have access, I think, to a biblical, I mean, Christ-exalting, disciple-making church. I think that is a reality. But it's not just that they don't have access to a church because there seem to be churches everywhere. The problem seems to be that many of the churches, and this is not to make any kind of judgment on the churches between here and 128th and Sheridan. No judgment at all. Does that make sense? Okay. All I'm saying is it's not a numeric problem.
• 11:38
  Their church is on almost every major corner. And the problem seems to be that the church either isn't doing what they should be doing or isn't willing to do what they should be doing. I was a history major. I love history. As a history student, I have observed, I think, certain trends within the church. One of which is this. Sending nations seem to become pagan nations. Sending nations seem...
• 12:16
  to become pagan nations. The first church in Jerusalem, the biggest, most vibrant sending church in the world at the time. Right? And that torch was then passed, maybe to Antioch.
• 12:30
  Right. Antioch became the sending church. Then they kind of wrapped their way around the Mediterranean Sea and began to move west. Right. And as the apostle Paul takes the gospel into eastern and western Europe, it begins to move with him and churches are planted and Europe becomes the center of Christendom. And for a thousand years, that's how it is. But eventually it moves. Right. And Europe becomes the UK. And through the 1800s, man, some of my favorite authors of all time.
• 12:58
  were pastors in England in the 1800s. And now you go to the UK, and man, there are no churches anywhere. Church buildings everywhere. Does that make sense? There's no gospel presence. Nobody's preaching. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, obviously, God has the faithful remnant, and they're doing their thing, and they're preaching and praise God for them. But man, that was the sending church in the world at the time. Charles Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle. J.C. Ryle, man. He was the best.
• 13:28
  And I, man, where are they now? And the UK eventually becomes the US. It was New England. New England was the sending capital of the world. But now New England basically jettisoned the gospel and it's moved across, right? Now it's the West Coast and maybe even not the West Coast anymore because we're coming up on, I got to step away from the, you know, I'm not preaching the Bible at this point. I'm just going, but you know, we're coming up on maybe the deaths of some significant pastors.
• 13:58
  from the last generation that have gone before us, who have really been the bastion of the Christian faith in the U.S. Man, some of these big, Chuck Swindoll, John MacArthur, these guys aren't going to live much longer. And I think, what's going to happen when all of these guys are gone? Lord, raise up another generation. But it seems as though it's being carried again. And now the gospel has continued moving west, and now maybe even into Asia. And you hear about these numbers through China and other places. But sending nations seem to become pagan nations. That seems to be...
• 14:27
  the way that it goes. I think that it's possible, very possible, unless the Lord brings revival, and we pray that he would, that we are on the verge of a godless America. We're on the verge of persecution in the church. We're on the verge of no longer needing to search out the pockets of unbelievers, but we ourselves will become the pockets. And on that day, what an advantage it will be to be a part of the true church. You say, well, why do we need the church? Because our connection as the bride of Christ to the groom,
• 15:00
  is what will genuinely sustain us when we have nothing else. When you have nothing else, it's Jesus. It's Jesus. And I pray that it wouldn't happen, but honestly, I don't know that I can pray that it never happens because I hear about stories of people who lose everything and leave nothing left but Jesus. And you're like, man, that's... I don't know if they want to walk through that fire, but it definitely does prove...
• 15:28
  their legitimacy as sons and daughters of God, and strengthen their faith in Christ. We as a body must be devoted to our bridegroom. We as individuals must be devoted to both the bridegroom and his bride. And this is the message of the book of Ephesians. And it's a love story about a bride and a groom. That's what it is. It's about the church falling desperately in love with her husband.
• 15:56
  Jesus Christ, it will raise your view of Christ, will be elevated, but also will be your view of the church. Because every single husband and wife is a package deal. You can't have one without the other. They're a package deal. And so we pray that as your view of Christ raises, so will your view of the church. And I don't just mean of Highland Baptist Church, but I mean of the church globally around the world and what Christ is doing through her. John Phillips has said this, Ephesians is perhaps...
• 16:26
  The grandest of all of Paul's epistles. Doctrine will thrill us in the book of Romans. Discipline will confront us in Corinthians. We will read of deliverance in Galatians. Deception in Colossians. Discord in Philippians. Duty in Philemon. Discovery in Thessalonians. But in Ephesians, devotion is the theme. There Paul was saying, take another look at the beloved. Fall in love with him afresh. He is the chiefest among ten thousand.
• 16:54
  The altogether lovely one, fairer than the fair, the glorious bridegroom of our hearts. And so as we introduce the book, allow me to just set the stage. Let's give the context for the book. And most of this, you know, every time I have to introduce a new book, this is so vitally critical to our understanding. But it's also going to be the most boring sermon in the next 14 weeks. Because this is kind of the history part of how Ephesians came to be. Let's begin with the theme.
• 17:23
  The theme, if you were to read the book of Ephesians, and I pray that you would, it's six chapters long. If you're a fast reader, it takes probably 12, 15 minutes. If you're a slow reader, we're talking maybe an hour. An hour. It doesn't take very long, and that's really on the slow end. The theme, seven times, if you were reading the sixth chapter, seven times in this short letter, Paul uses the term mystery, mysterion in the Greek. This refers not to something which is impossible to understand.
• 17:51
  Like, oh, I don't know, women are a mystery. You know, when a guy says that, what he means is there's just no figuring them out. No matter what happens, there's no figuring them out. My 14-year-old son, Zach, came back from winter camp a couple of days ago and was laughing to himself because of something that Addie Rush did. The shoe. So Addie Rush, who is also probably around that same age, 14 or so.
• 18:18
  13 years old. The group was all walking together. There was a lot of snow down there, especially Larkspur had more than we had here. And so better than a foot. And they're walking around from dorms to cafeteria to the music and all of that stuff. And so they're all walking as a group. And all of a sudden, Addie says, oh, wait, my shoe came off. And they said, well, okay. So they're looking down. She says, well, no, I don't know when it came off.
• 18:46
  Apparently it had come off long before. And she just kept on, she didn't know. And Zach came back, you know, so now they're all spreading out to try to find the shoe. You know, and Pearson just said, oh, they'll probably find it in the summer. You know, just let the snow melt, it'll come back. But Zach came back and he said, Dad, I don't get girls. Like, how do you not know your shoe comes off?
• 19:09
  You know what? Honestly, I think it was Addie Rush trying to get a new pair of shoes from her dad. I think that's what happened. She's going to come home and say, I lost my shoes. She's hoping for a new pair. You know, we say, man, girls are a mystery, Zach. When we say that, what we're saying is they're impossible to figure out. That's not this kind of mystery that the book of Ephesians describes. This is the type of mystery that is more like what's behind door number one, right?
• 19:39
  As long as the doors are closed and it is undisclosed what is behind door number one, you'll never know what's back there. But as soon as the door opens, you know what it is. That's this type of mystery. It describes this mystery that can be understood as soon as God reveals what the mystery is. And what he describes in here is that the mystery is that when Jesus came, he unlocked reconciliation between...
• 20:08
  Parties that were up to that point. Unreconcilable. Okay. So you're going to hear in Ephesians chapter 2. About and even tonight we'll get to this. About the irreconcilable differences. Between Jews and Gentiles. The two just can't get along. But by the blood of Jesus. He breaks down the dividing wall of hostility. Between these two groups. What was up to this point. Irreconcilable now. Can have peace.
• 20:38
  He's going to talk in Ephesians chapter 5 about husbands and wives. An impossible mystery. It even says marriage is a mystery. It just refers to Christ and his bride. He says that marriage is a mystery. Well, the mystery was that husbands and wives cannot reconcile apart from the grace of God. He describes these irreconcilable parties that through the blood of Jesus can come together and have peace. And he uses both of those as an example. And it's beautiful.
• 21:08
  Jews and Gentiles, husbands and wives, he uses as a physical, tangible example for us to understand our relationship to the Father. We were at odds, irreconcilable. We cannot be friends until the blood of Jesus comes, revealing the mystery. Does that make sense? And now we can have peace with each other. That's the theme.
• 21:34
  Notice William MacDonald says, what is this wonderful truth which forms the theme? It is the announcement that believing Jews and believer Gentiles are now one in Christ Jesus. They're fellow members of the church, the body of Christ. At the present time, they are seated in him in heavenly places. In the future, they will share his glory as head over all things. I think it is impossible for the observant Bible student not to notice the similarities between Ephesians and Colossians.
• 22:04
  Colossians and Ephesians are almost the same book. Colossians is just a couple of chapters shorter. The themes there seem to be similar. Reconciliation, but from different perspectives. Colossians, the prominent doctrine is the head of the church, Christ. In Ephesians, the prominent doctrine is the church as the body of Christ. So Christ is the head. In Colossians, in Ephesians, the church is the body. This will be the theme of our study for the next several months.
• 22:34
  That you and I, as believers in Christ, really are a member of the body of Christ. I know that we say that all the time, but we really are. We are connected to the head. We cannot survive without him. Just like a headless body will die, so will we apart from the head. Ephesians will help us to answer what it means to be a member of the body of Christ. That is the mystery revealed.
• 23:01
  Well, let's look at the author and date. The author is obviously the Apostle Paul. If you look back at verse 1, he introduces himself. He claims the letter as his own by simply saying, Paul, Paul. Ephesians is one of the famous prison epistles written by Paul during his first Roman imprisonment. His first Roman imprisonment, Acts chapter 28. I do believe, and this is for another time, that there was...
• 23:27
  Quite possibly another Roman imprisonment. Maybe even a fourth missionary journey. That's a question I'd like to ask Alex's opinion on at some point. But maybe even a release from that imprisonment in Acts chapter 28 to go and do one more missionary journey. And then a second Roman imprisonment where he eventually pins 2 Timothy and is ultimately beheaded.
• 23:48
  But it was written during that first Roman imprisonment in Acts 28. It was written in close proximity to Colossians, Philemon, maybe around AD 62. That's obviously an estimate. It's not dated. The apostle Paul writes it. Address these. Who does he write it to? Notice it continues. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. I love there that he says, and over and over and over in his writings, he says, by the will of God. Sometimes he even goes on to say, not by man, right? But by the will of God.
• 24:17
  I have a very good friend, a young man whom I'm so proud of and had the privilege of kind of mentoring for many years in ministry who is being called to his first senior pastorate. He's candidating there the next two Sundays. The third Sunday, they'll be voting on him, which you guys, honestly, is such a weird thing to have happen to you because it's very personal, right? I'm like, man, I know. I just said I'm not a self-conscious guy. I'm not.
• 24:48
  But it's weird to have somebody out there vote no. Because you're like, well, I mean, there are literally six churches between here and 120th and Sheridan. You know, drive down, choose anyone you want. They're all great, you know. It's weird. And so I was texting with him this afternoon. And he said, Pastor Danny, you know, I'm next several weeks. I'm preaching. But I think they've called me. The elder board has called me. And now they're going to confirm. The congregation is going to confirm me February 10th.
• 25:16
  Or whatever weekend that is, you know. Yeah, February 10th. And I said, that's great. And I said, don't forget, the Lord calls pastors. The Lord does. People don't. People can confirm them. Right? Constitutions can say the vote and the election and all of that stuff. And I said, some people will vote no. But don't forget, the Lord votes yes. Right? And the Lord always has the majority. The Lord votes yes. So you move forward. It doesn't matter.
• 25:45
  It doesn't matter who votes yes, and it doesn't matter who votes no. I said, because people don't make pastors, the Lord does. And I love how over and over and over in Ephesians again, right? By the will of God. By the will of God. He says, now to the addressees, to the saints. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Notice first he says, to the local church, to the saints who are in Ephesus. Now the initial reading of this letter took place.
• 26:11
  in local churches in and around Ephesus. The letter was meant to be read in multiple churches, whatever house churches more than likely were meeting in and around Ephesus. The city of Ephesus itself was morally and spiritually debauched. In contrast to their fellow citizens, those in the church were called to be saints, literally called out ones, sanctified, holy ones. That's where we get the word saint, to the saints, to the saints who are in Ephesus. And I know that other church traditions...
• 26:39
  We call saints, use that word saints, of different types of people. Like you've got to do miracles first. You've got to do as sainthood is given to you. There is sainthood and then there's kind of the rest of the Christian mass, right? And not every Christian is a saint, but that's not what the New Testament says. The New Testament says that every single one of us is a saint. Even the worst sinner among us is a saint. Is a saint. And the reason is because of the merits of Jesus and not our own.
• 27:09
  In reality, none of us is any more sanctified than anyone else. Honestly, anybody want to claim to be the best, most righteous person in the room? You want to stand up and say, honestly, yeah, I sin less than everybody in here. There's just no way. I talk to my sons all the time. I was trying to explain this to Pearson one time. And I just said, Pearson, I guarantee I have sinned more than you. I'm a worse sinner than you. He's like, no, there's no way, Dad. You're a pastor. There's no way.
• 27:39
  You know, it's always funny to me because he's like, I've told him before, Pearson, if you ever have a question about anything, anything, it is impossible to make your dad blush. It's impossible. Like, bud, I've been a pastor for 20 years. Before that, I was a baseball player. Like, there is nothing.
• 28:00
  I haven't heard. There is nothing I probably haven't said at some point. I mean, honestly, there is nothing, nothing that you can say that will make me blush. Then I can't remember what I was doing. What was the point of that, Henry? I don't remember. It was good. Saints. So I tell Pearson, right? I guarantee I'm a worse sinner than you. No, no, no, Dad. You're a pastor and all of these things. How do you know you're a worse sinner than me? And I said, simply because I'm older than you. I'm older than you.
• 28:40
  And therefore I've sinned more than you. Right? Nobody in here is going to stand up and say, I've sinned the least. The only one who probably could is little Hallie with the little blonde pigtails. Right? She's sinned less than all of us because she's younger. That's it. But the Bible says that we're all saints by the merits of Jesus and not our own. That righteousness was given to us. That we became his righteousness and he became our sin. That's 2 Corinthians 5.21. That's a good memory verse. Right? Man, to the saints, to the local church called out.
• 29:08
  John Phillips says, to be a saint at Ephesus was to be like a lovely lily in a stagnant pond. Just imagine that disgusting swamp that we live in. We are called to be those beautiful lilies on the top. I've been convicted by this thought. I've been called out. That's what saint means, right? A called out one, a holy one. I've been called out. The question I have is, have I gone out? Just because I've been called out doesn't mean I've gone out.
• 29:40
  There are times I find myself embroiled in the very sin that I'm called out from. I find myself keeping the company that I know is unhealthy for my soul. I've been called out. The question is, have I gone out? So that's first to the local church, to the saints. But notice it continues. It says to the saints who are in Ephesus. It's also written, I think, this letter to the larger church.
• 30:06
  Some early manuscripts, the words in Ephesus were omitted. They're not even in there. I do believe they're inspired. Early church fathers, many early church fathers believed the reason for this was to inspire whatever church was reading the letter to insert their own name in the blank. Did you guys catch that? Some early manuscripts, some early Greek manuscripts of the book of Ephesians, the letter to Ephesians, those words in Ephesus are omitted to the saints who are in, and then there's almost kind of a blank.
• 30:36
  and are faithful in Christ Jesus. And some early church fathers believe that that was so that any church that read it could insert their name. It's almost like it was written to the saints who are at Highland Baptist Church. It wasn't only written to the church at Ephesus. Does that make sense? This was written to us. We could put our names in the blank to the saints who are in Highland Baptist Church and are faithful in Christ Jesus. If the Ephesian saints were to remain unstained,
• 31:07
  in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, then so are we. So are we. So that's who it was written to. Let's look at some tributes, and I won't go through all of these, maybe just a couple. Klein Snodgrass, great last name. Pound for pound, Ephesians may well be the most influential document ever written. If read receptively, it's a bombshell. Look over again at John Phillips, the last one.
• 31:32
  In Ephesians, we get the eagle's view of things. We see the eagle rising and wheeling, then soaring off into the high vault of heaven. We marvel at Paul's command of language, only to discover that even his eloquence is inadequate to convey the concepts of eternity completely. Just a wonderfully, beautifully written book. Quick outline. The most common dividing of Ephesians splits the letter in half, and we'll do the same. I think it's as good as any other.
• 31:58
  outline the first half dealing primarily with doctrine the second half primarily with practices seems to be how the apostle paul writes the book of colossians could be divided the same way the book of galatians could mostly be divided that way maybe the thirds instead of the halves but he does this a lot he starts with doctrine then he goes to practice you know all pastors do that
• 32:18
  He hits you with doctrine and then he gives you the application. I mean, that's basically what he does. The first three chapters, the doctrine, describe the position of the believer in heaven while on earth. And so I'll tell you what that means. What that means is that although you remain here on earth, positionally, you are as good as in heaven. I don't mean that there's some weird split spirit or anything else. I'm just saying that you are a child of God. You are a child of heaven, although you remain on earth. Right?
• 32:50
  If the presence of God defines heaven, the boundaries of heaven, that's a good way to say that. If the presence of God defines the boundaries of heaven and the presence of God dwells in you, like the Bible says, then while you live on earth, heaven dwells on earth, right? I mean, heaven exists in you. Okay, so that's the first three chapters. Doctrine. The second three chapters, practice, are the life of the believer on earth in light of heaven. And so if that is true,
• 33:20
  If we are on our way to heaven and positionally we are there, if the presence of heaven dwells in us, then how should it change our lives? It should. When people have an encounter with us, honestly, if the presence of heaven dwells in us, then shouldn't they be able to tell? I mean, I think that's the question that Paul would ask. Shouldn't it change the way that we live? Shouldn't it change the way that we speak and the way that we work? Shouldn't we be the best employees our company has? Of course it should.
• 33:48
  That's what it means, right? Uncompromising, obviously, and not tolerating sin and injustice and all of those other things, but that we would be Christ. That we would be Christ. Really, honestly, Christ to people on earth. Outline last. Let's look at the greeting. Look at the greeting. Verse 2 and we'll be done. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Almost every time. This is what he says. This is how he greets his people.
• 34:16
  was chosen specifically for the church at Ephesus because he knew that church's problems. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ does two things. First, it enjoins Jew and Gentile. Grace and peace, he says, through our Father. The customary Greek salutation for ancient letters was rejoice. It's the Greek word chiari. Paul replaces it with a similar sounding word for grace.
• 34:48
  which is charis, charis. So he changes chiari into charis. And you hear how the two are very similar. He follows it with a well-used Jewish greeting, which would be peace, shalom. From the outset, Paul's intention is to remind his readers that there is no ethnic division in the church. He takes the Greek salutation, grace. He takes the Hebrew salutation, peace.
• 35:15
  And he runs them into each other. And he does this over and over and over in his writing. And it's as if to say, if there is division in the church, Jew and Gentile has no place. There's no place. Like Betsy said tonight, there is one God, one baptism, one spirit, one, one, one, one, one, seven times, I think, in Ephesians chapter four, seven times, one, one, one, one, one, right? We're children of the same father. No place for that ethnic division.
• 35:48
  You know, and in our church, we don't divide ethnically here. I'll tell you though, we do divide. Anybody notice? We divide. How do we do it? I'm watching this stuff all the time, you know. It's not ethnic. It's not. It's not by gender typically. How do we divide? Usually by age. And you guys, and I'm not going to say this is not some raging war like it was with the Jews and Gentiles, but I'm telling you, it's funny to me.
• 36:28
  If I'm feeling rowdy on a Sunday, I sit on this side. I do. If I'm feeling a little bit tired, sit on this side. I'm telling you, I don't know what it is, you guys. We divide. It's the weirdest thing. I'm up here preaching, especially second service. There is like a middle row division, you know? And you guys, I don't know. You know what I would love to see happen? I would love to see this. I would love for somebody to just decide to mix it up. I would love to mess people up.
• 36:58
  It would be so great. Maybe I'll do it. Maybe I'll tell the young adults on Thursday. You know, just because this whole thing, I mean, this is the young adult section. You know, this is where they all sit and there they are. You know, maybe I'll do it. Maybe I'm just going to tell them, you know what? Just mess them all up. You know, sit wherever you want. Go and take everybody's assigned seats and let's see what happens. You know, but man, there's just these funny little human divisions that we create in the church that have nothing to do. Honestly, they just have no place.
• 37:24
  And I know that it's not hating one another. That's not what's going on here like it was going on there. But it is funny that we do that. It's funny. We are creatures of heaven. Birds of a feather, right? Man. He breaks that down from the very onset. Then he says he even calls our Father the Lord Jesus Christ. He enjoins Jew and Gentile. Second, he equates Jesus and the Father. Very clearly here. God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He just runs them right into each other. It turns out that Mary, though favored among women, was not full of grace.
• 37:54
  That Hail Mary that we all know and some of you have been taught to say, it's not true. She wasn't full of grace. I'm sure she was wonderful. I mean, she was an incredible young lady, which is why she was chosen. But not because she was full of grace. She needed the grace of God. The source of true grace and peace is God. And in this text, we see the source of grace and peace as Christ, co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent with the Father. Man, Highland, we're part of something exciting.
• 38:24
  We really are. It's the body of Christ, the church. This isn't just something we do because this is what we're supposed to do. That's not it, man. If we are coming to this place on Wednesdays and Sundays, and honestly, if all we're getting out of it is what little Hallie got out of it when she's staring down, you know, my gullet, you know, like if that's, if that's our Christian experience and man, we are missing so much. We're missing so much.
• 38:48
  My prayer is that we would elevate through the book of Ephesians our view of Christ. And as we do, that we would elevate his bride as well. That we would take joy, honest joy and satisfaction in being a part of the body of Christ. Let me pray. God, thank you for the book of Ephesians. Thank you for worship. Thank you for these people. And thank you for the Kirk's and their testimony, Lord. Thank you for how you have sustained them the last couple of months. Thank you for their kids. God, I pray that their time here, although short, and we pray temporary.
• 39:19
  would be a joy to them, that they would look back at these months as you moving, as your people embracing them, that they really would experience heaven on earth? Well, they're here in the presence and spirit of God. And God, I pray for the next several months as I and Tom and Alex all teach, Lord, be glorified, really glorified and exalted in the preaching of your word. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.