Ephesians part 2
Sun, 16th Feb 2014
Dave Urwin
Ephesians chapter 1 v15-23
Summary:
Paul is moved from praise to prayer, he had heard of the love of the Ephesians and gave thanks. He says that he is thankful for all that God has done but he wanted the people to know the Lord better.
There are 3 things Paul wants his readers to know
1) The hope of Gods call v18 The call of God takes us back to the beginning of our Christian lives. He called us to be part of the body of Jesus, to be saints, holy, set apart and free from sin. The hope to which we are called is a new life. We can look to the glory that may one day be revealed. We can know the wonder of what it is to know Jesus in our hearts.
2) The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. We have an inheritance in the saints beyond our wildest imagination where we weill see Christ and worship him. There will be no more tears, death or suffering. Denominations don't matter, God calls people from all backgrounds from all denominations. Paul says we can anticipate the reality of our glorious inheritance.
3)His incomparably great power. v19 to end.
The call=beginning
The inheritance=the end
The power=now in between
Paul reminds us that God shows his power in the resurrection. Death is something that we all have to face. Humans die but God has power over death and with Jesus in our lives death is no longer our enemy.
The second way that God shows his power is in Jesus enthronement. Paul wants us to know that Jesus is exalted over every power in the universe. He is over every title that can be given
The third way his power is shown is in the headship of the church. The church is made up of every single person who belongs to Christ. The church ought to be different to any other institution in the world. Meetings within the church are really important to seek the mind of the head of the church. Everybody in the church needs to get involved in discussing Gods will.
Is Pauls prayer being answered by us? Are content just plodding along? We can pray that people can be filled with Gods wisdom and know Christ in us
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Sun, 21st Oct 2018
