9/17/17-Eph. 1:15-23-The Local Church: Jesus is Lord

Paul’s prayer is that we would know God and understand the benefits of the gospel

We are Christians. That means we are adopted children of our heavenly Dad, and we have a new identity. Christian means “little Christ”. Our lives are no longer dominated by sin, unrighteousness, or pride, but now ruled by Jesus.

The bottom-line truth for the Christian is this simple statement: Jesus Is Lord

We have a new life in His kingdom, and as members of that new kingdom, we participate in His life, and we continue His mission. This is so much deeper than simply “making a decision for Christ”. Rather this includes “becoming one with Him”, and this is not some strange mystical union. It means what John the Baptist said, “He must increase, while I must decrease”. It means becoming more like Jesus.

This passage in Ephesians shows that we as a church have 6 aspects.

First-The church is a caring community
-If we are going to be a church that is proclaiming, promoting, and providing the gospel through love, service, and prayer, then the first of these three is love.
-If we strive to love one another as Christ loves us then the world who struggles with loneliness will be drawn to that
-Too hard to love someone? Remember Jesus Christ and His love for you, and allow His love to be the power you use to love others. If you have trouble, then try serving them. If you can serve another, you can eventually learn to genuinely care about them.
-If we strive to be a caring community, through Christ-given love, not only will we love each other, but it will overflow to those outside our walls.

Second-The church is a praying community
-Remember our vision statement, “…through love, service, and prayer”
-Church that prays together stays together
-Church that prays together grows spiritually
-Church that prays together, God will give her a mission to the world. (Not just busywork, but purposeful work)

Third-The church is a thinking community
-Just because we are Christians, doesn’t mean we turn off our brains
-If anything we ought to be thinking more for the Bible calls us to be wise.
-With all of the issues that face our world, we as Christians no longer have the luxury to not think biblically about each of them
-If we don’t think, then the Gospel won’t look relevant to any of this.
-The Gospel is our foundation. Creation, Fall, Redemption (crucifixion, resurrection, sending of the Holy Spirit)-everything falls under one of these categories.
-Want to solve racism, war, poverty, bullying? Look to the Gospel
-Before we act, we as Christians must think
-Point of knowing the Bible is to know God and His ways, to be in relationship with Him, and understanding Him

Fourth-The church is a time-understanding community
-What?
-We understand what God has done in the past
-We understand what He will do in the future (the details may be fuzzy but we have a sense of who comes out winning, Jesus)
-So with a healthy knowledge of both past and future, we live confidently in the present.
-We don’t hid from the pain of live, but we understand and take hope in the fact that death does not have the final word, Jesus does.
-”Faith is patience with the lamp lit”
-God wants us to take hold of that lamp, to have that faith that gives us confidence to understand yesterday and yet face tomorrow.

Fifth-The church is a confident community
-Confident, not arrogant, because we place no confidence in ourselves, only in God
-Paul was writing to a church that was living in a real superstitious culture
-They would try to manipulate Fate by using magic
-The world today isn’t that much different. For all of our advancements in science, people can still be superstitious
-So why do people fear the stars instead of trusting in the One who made the stars?
-Paul wants the Ephesians (and us here at Conemaugh) that everything is under the Lordship of Christ. He rules over all, and He proved this when death could not even defeat Him!!
-Paul is saying we don’t need to quiver before some “unseen hand of Fate”, for we trust in a God who has plans for us and they are good!
-No power is greater than Christ. He rules over all-We aren’t slaves. Nothing can stand against HIM!

Sixth-The church is a power community
-We have the power to serve others.
-The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is given to every believer when we become Christians and it is always available.
-Paul’s prayer wasn’t that God’s power would be given to us but that we would be aware of that power already given to us in Christ, and use it!
-Our culture today offers no basis for hope
-Hope was just as rare in Paul’s day as it is in ours.
-But God’s work in christ addresses meaninglessness, the problem of evil and death.
-The Gospel does not just offer nice words, but power and living hope
-God does not always remove us from danger or difficulty or death, but His power, He makes us more than conquerors! How?

→ He may not remove these things, but redeems them. Our hardships have purpose now, and even if we cannot see it, God still is redeeming our suffering and using it for His glory

If we are in Christ, We have His power to do good in the world, to change lives!

“Jesus is Lord”-This all springs from this simple truth. Cling to it.

“If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away, and behold all things have become new”

Jesus is Lord