The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'From an Authorized Representative to a Separated People,' explores the opening chapters of Ephesians, focusing on Paul's role as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. It highlights the transformation of Saul to Paul, emphasizing the profound grace of God in changing a persecutor of Christians into an apostle. The sermon discusses the idea of the 'saints' as individuals set apart for God's glory, and how believers are chosen to be holy and blameless. The role of the church is seen as pivotal, with an emphasis on unity in Christ, being part of one body, and living a life worthy of the calling received. The notion of being 'in Christ' is central, representing the believers' identity and inheritance through faith. The sermon underscores the continuous theme of grace and the power of God's will in the lives of believers.

Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.

In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age which is to come.

And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians chapter 2. In you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God Not of works lest anyone should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.

And that he might reconcile them both the God in one body through the cross, thereby put into death the entity. And he came and preached peace to you who are afar off, and to those who are near. For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians chapter three.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles, If indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you which is your glory For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to Know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen. Ephesians 4, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does it share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Now this I say, this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the Son go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but Now you are the light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectfully, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God, the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church.

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, Let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Bond servants, Be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ. Not with eye-service, as men pleasers, but as bond-servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven and there is no partiality with him.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end and with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, tick a kiss, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will make all things known to you whom I have sent to you for this very purpose that you may know our affairs and that he may comfort your hearts. Peace to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. So what a wonderful opportunity to hear the purest most precisely true words in all the world.

I just love it when we do extended reading of Scripture even though I find it to be so hard to stay focused in on the words. But we'll take the next 10 or so months to break that apart. Hopefully keeping it attached to the whole the whole side. I think that's going to be the big challenge is about when breaking it into micro sections to keep it attached to kind of the theme of all of it. I'll work hard to do that and we'll just try to extract the most good out of those six chapters that we possibly can.

Well the title for the hopefully somewhat abbreviated sermon this morning is from an authorized representative, Paul sets himself forward as an authorized representative standing on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak to a church, to a separated people. Paul's gonna call them saints here in the first verse and that's what it means, a people separated out to be God. So if you wrote a letter you would you'd be probably start with a from and a to also identifying yourself as the author and letting the person know that you're writing to exactly who you're writing to. That's what Paul does at the beginning here in this first verse. We'll only look at the first verse today, but I want to exhort you in the first verse and the second verse, next week we'll join verse 2 to it.

We'll back up a little bit and spend a little more time in verse one and add verse two to it next week. But I want you to exhort you to believe that these are not throwaway words. If I were to write a letter, My intro to the letter, my greetings in the letter might be throwaway words, but no word in all of Scripture is a throwaway word. Here's what Martin Lloyd Jones says. Again, I'll be quoting him a lot through Ephesians.

He was a preacher, he was in his heyday in the middle 1900s. I think he died in 1973 or some such thing, early 1970s, but he was a powerful preacher from the last century. He was a medical doctor, he was an MD born and trained in medicine in Wales and then his preaching ministry was in London, so that's Martin Lloyd-Jones. Here's what he said, I suppose that all of us in varying degrees must plead guilty to the tendency to regard the introductions of these New Testament epistles as being more or less formal. We tend to feel that introductions are more or less unnecessary and that we can skip over them in order that we may hurry on to the great message that follows.

Here's what I want to guard us against is just skimming over the top of verse 1, yea yea yea, from to get to the message. There is deep, rich, essential truth right out of the gate right in verse 1. Paul is already hard at work So I want to exhort you to be hard at work to mine out the deep, rich, essential truth just in this first verse. So as we come to verse 1, let's pray. Oh God, thank you.

Thank you for even the very first words of this rich treasure the letter of an Apostle to Saints and thank you for sending Thank you for the words from heaven, revelation from heaven, words that we need to know we wouldn't know any other way. Thank you for Ephesians, make us such good students. In Jesus name, amen. Well, who the letter is from begins verse 1. It's from Paul.

Although in Acts chapter 7, he's not Paul. As the ones who stoned to death, Stephen, after Stephen preached Christ, men stone him to death and they put their garments in the possession of a young zealot named Saul of Tarsus. In Acts 8 that young zealot, Saul of Tarsus, goes about imprisoning believers, men, women, and children, persecuting the church. And in Acts 9, he's going to Damascus to further persecute believers and Jesus meets him there on the road and appears to him and More or less literally captures him. He captures him.

And then at some point he begins to be called Paul in the book of Acts. I believe Acts 13 9 is the first time he's called Paul. It's the very beginning of the first missionary journey and Luke, the author of Acts, says Saul who is also called Paul. We don't get any sort of story around the name change, but at some point he ceases to be known as Saul of Tarsus and begins to be known Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. And so this is a name, Paul, with a profound history of the grace of God.

You can just trace out the name in the book of Acts. He was the young zealot that those who were martyring Stephen entrusted their belongings with while they stoned him, but he became a great apostle to to the Gentiles. That brings us to what Paul says of himself. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ because God wanted it that way and God made Paul that by the will of God. God wanted to do it and God did it.

God captured Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and he made him his own and he commissioned him to send him to the Gentile world. He made him an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well why did that happen? Because God wanted it that way, that's why it happened, and so it happened that way. It was the unified will of the three in one God.

God exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They are one God with one perfectly single will. They don't have competing desires, they have one single will. And it was the triune God's desire and will that this man be set apart from from his past life his past view of the world is that is a past view of himself his past view of Christ and he become a vessel of mercy to the Gentile world. Now, what does it mean to be an apostle of Jesus Christ?

There are two ways that apostolos, that's the Greek word, It looks almost exactly like the word apostle. Apostle is essentially a transliteration of the Greek word. There are two ways that that Greek word is used in the New Testament. There's the basic meaning of the word and it's applied to a variety of people in the New Testament and then there is a narrower more specific more specialized usage. The basic meaning is this, a delegate, I delegate to you the authority to go and act on my behalf, a messenger, one sent forth with with orders, that might be the best of the phrases attached to the basic meaning.

One sent forth with orders to act on behalf of the sender, to do according to the sender's will, to speak according to the words of the sender. This sense is used for example of Barnabas in Acts 14 verse 4 and Acts 14 verse 14. Barnabas is called an apostle and also James the brother of Jesus, not James the brother of John who was one of the twelve, a disciple, but Jesus' half-brother James is called an apostle in Galatians 1.19. By this usage we could call the Templetons and the Carringtons, who we sent to Turkey last November, sent ones, ones sent forth with orders, or we could call them apostles. In that sense, the Templetons and the Carringtons could be called apostles, although I'd be very hesitant to do it because people think different things with apostles, and its modern usage in modern churches is very unhelpful.

I think men who are calling themselves apostles, though they might fit the basic meaning of the word, are very misleading at worst. Excuse me, at best, they are very misleading. But there is this narrower, more specific, more specialized usage as the following texts imply. Listen to Matthew chapter 10. You can turn there if you want.

Matthew chapter 10, verses 1 and 2. And when he, Jesus, had called his 12 disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the 12 Apostles are these. First Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother and and on and on. We get the 12 names of the 12 disciples, but it is a definite number, a finite number.

The number is 12 and they are directly chosen by Jesus, directly called by Jesus, directly taught by Jesus, directly sent by Jesus. By the way, Paul fits all those criteria. Paul was directly chosen by Jesus, directly called by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9. He was directly taught by Jesus and directly sent by Jesus. Listen to Galatians 1, 11 and 12.

Galatians 1, 11 and 12. Paul writes this to the Galatian church. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it but it came through the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul makes the claim in Galatians 1 verses 11 through 12 that the gospel that he preached was not a secondhand gospel taught to him. The gospel, if I've ever preached the gospel to you, it's a secondhand gospel.

Meaning that Jesus didn't teach it directly to me. People who were taught the gospel, people who minded out of Scripture, taught it to me and then I've taught it to others, but Paul wasn't making that claim. Paul's making a much more authoritative claim that the gospel that he was preaching, he got directly from Jesus Christ, he wasn't taught it by any man, he was taught by the resurrected Lord himself. So The twelve were directly chosen, called, taught, and sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, not indirectly, directly, and Paul, all of that criteria fits him the same way. Now still in Matthew 10, Now listen to verses 6 through 8, Matthew 10 verses 6 through 8.

Jesus is commissioning them and sending them out. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." So they were sent out to preach and to preach Jesus and they were they were given miracle working power to authenticate their preaching. In other words they were preaching something that people wouldn't believe, that life is only through this Jesus of Nazareth.

Now who's going to believe that? People who saw the miracles, people who heard of the dead being raised and the blind receiving their sight, the deaf receiving their hearing. They were given miracle working power to authenticate what they were preaching. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is writing to the Corinthians a second letter and he's claiming authority, he's claiming that they should view him of one of these special Apostles, not just kind of a general sent one, but one of these very specific, specialized, the office of an Apostle. He's claiming that for himself and he says this in 2nd Corinthians 12 12, truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

In other words, God showed you I was this special kind of one sent forth with orders because he gave me the ability to do signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Paul calls them there signs of an apostle, an indication of direct choosing and calling and teaching and sending directly by the Lord Jesus Christ, with the stamp of approval being signs and wonders that followed. So Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ in every sense of the word. He is a delegate, a messenger, one sent forth with orders. He was directly chosen, called, taught, and sent by the Lord Jesus.

And he has been sent by Jesus to preach Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus Christ means to preach Jesus as the Messiah. Messiah and Christ mean the same thing, the anointed, the one anointed by God to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people. Here's what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 2 verse 2, 1st Corinthians 2 verse 2, wonderful. Paul writes, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

So if you want it boiled down, Paul boils it, it boils everything else away, and what are you left with when he boils everything away? Christ and Christ crucified. Or as we as we saw last week when Paul was appealing to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20-21. He says this, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So what was Paul's gospel to Jews and Gentiles?

Repentance and faith. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Paul is writing to establish himself as an authoritative representative of the Lord Jesus Christ sent by Jesus to evangelize and then disciple these Ephesian Gentiles. He's saying I'm one sent under orders and I was sent to you to bring the gospel to you and then to help you grow in grace those of you who have been converted to evangelize and to disciple you this this was God's will by the will of God now who is the letter to The letter is to the saints who are in Ephesus. The saints who are in the capital of the Roman province of Asia.

We would say Asia Minor today. It's in Turkey. The Templetons can drive to this location in 40 minutes. We've got pictures of them among the ruins in Ephesus. The Roman province of Asia, we would call it Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, had a capital.

It was Ephesus, the third greatest city in the Empire which ruled the known world. Rome was the first city, then Athens, then Ephesus, so the third greatest city in the empire that ruled the known world. That's who's Paul's writing to. It was a city of 200 to 250, 000 people where the trade routes came together bringing together people and goods and commerce from all over the world to this place. Now what is a saint?

What is a saint to the saints who are in Ephesus? The Greek word translated saint literally means a most holy thing or people or person, a most holy thing, A person who is set apart to be God's, who is drawn out of the world in order to be for God's pleasure and God's glory in the world. Martin Lloyd-Jones says this, the perfect illustration is that of the children of Israel under the old dispensation. They were a people set apart by God, they were taken out of the world, taken out of Egypt, they were given a certain uniqueness by God, they were God's own people. They are described as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, a people for God's particular possession and interest.

So is the earth the Lord's and all the fullness thereof? Yes, that's Psalm 24.1. Everything belongs to God, so that's absolutely true. But in a particular way, God calls out of the world a people and he sets them apart for himself for his own pleasure to accomplish his own good purposes among them to glorify his name and to make him self loom large over the world and to be known for all of his perfections so So there were these people in this great city of man, Roman Empire, like the Empire of man, it's not the Empire of God, certainly. There were these people in this great city of man, Ephesus, a city that worshiped the false goddess Diana.

Remember Acts 19 last week? Great is Diana of the Ephesians! They chanted that for two hours. Ephesus, the city that worshiped the emperor as a god, Ephesus was known for emperor worship as well as the worship of Diana or Artemis. And the one true God said, no, these people are mine.

I'm calling them out of pagan worship. I'm calling them out of Emperor worship. I'm calling them out of the world to be mine, to make my name loom large over Ephesus and boy did it ever in Acts 19 is the name of Jesus Christ looming large over Ephesus. It's causing riots. It's causing economic and social disruption.

That's what the gospel ought to do. God reached into Ephesus, this thoroughly pagan city, and said, you are mine to this group of Ephesians people, and he set them apart for his own pleasure and his own glory. In Leviticus 8, Aaron and his sons are being set apart to God. He's actually calling them out of Israel into the office of priests to serve God in temple worship and in Leviticus 8 they're washed with water, Aaron and his sons are washed with water, this is all wonderfully symbolic, and then the blood of a substitute is applied to the tip of the right ear and to the thumb and to the right big toe. Literally the blood of a substitute head to toe.

Wash with water and then the blood of a substitute applied. Think of the Ephesians in that way. They are They are cleansed. They are set apart by cleansing. They used to fit in fine in Ephesus.

They used to fit in fine in the temple of Diana or the temple of the emperor in the normal workings of the economy of Ephesus, but they don't fit in fine anymore because they have been cleansed and washed and the blood of a substitute has been applied to them as it was to Aaron and his sons in Leviticus 8. They were called out of the world and they were cleansed and made something completely new. They were born again. That brings us to the final phrase of this verse, and faithful in Christ Jesus. Now the word translated faithful is either restrictive or descriptive.

In other words you have to make a choice. Is this saying of the saints some of them are faithful and it's narrowing down the saints into a smaller subset of the saints or is it just describing who the saints are? So let's consider this word that is translated faithful. It can mean trustee, A person who shows him or herself faithful in the discharge of a responsibility, worthy of trust. That's normally how we think of faithful, isn't it?

All that faithful servant, you can trust him to discharge the responsibility given to her. She's faithful or it can mean full of faith. Faithful. Full of faith. One who believes in, one who trusts in, one who casts himself upon or casts herself upon in hope, in complete hope.

Brothers and sisters, as we work through Ephesians, it will be very obvious that it is not a letter written just to trustworthy Christ followers. In chapter 4, he's going to say, it's time to stop living like Gentiles. Okay, so this is not a letter written to a subset of saints it's actually describing saints. Saints are full of faith. Saints are full of faith.

Saints are those who are full of faith in Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has become so much in our minds first name, last name. Christ is not his last name, it isn't. It means the one anointed by God to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people. So I'm going to keep translating Christ into Messiah.

They are synonyms. They can be used interchangeably to just sort of force us back to thinking of Jesus as God's anointed to come here as the prophet, priest, and king, the promised savior to come and save a people. Saints, holy ones, ones who have been separated from the world to be gods, are not a little group of super disciples. The Catholic Church makes saints a little group of super disciples, and you have to have verifiable miracles and on and on. No, no, no.

Saints is not that. Saints are not a little group of super disciples. They are simply those who trust in God's anointed. God says, I sent, I anoint this one to be the Savior of my people and some people entrust themselves to Jesus Christ and they are saints. If you're a saint you are a Christian, if you're a Christian you are a saint, if you are not a saint you are not a Christian, and if you are not a Christian, you are not a saint.

They are joined to Jesus by faith. They believe in Him and they are in Him, faithful, full of faith in Christ Jesus. By the way as we were just reading through the whole book, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, we're gonna be in it every week in Christ. They who believe in Him are they who are in Him. They used to be in Adam, now they are in Christ by faith and so they're saints.

They're set apart from the world for God's pleasure and God's glory. Two final reflections on Paul and these saints. The first one, just listen to Acts 9 13. This is the conversion chapter of Saul of Tarsus. He's about by verse 19, Acts chapter 9 verse 13.

By then he's already been, He's been blinded by Jesus on the road to Damascus. And then God sends a man named Ananias, not the Ananias who struck dead in Acts chapter 6, this is a different Ananias. God sends him to lay hands on him so that he can receive his sight back and to speak certain words to him. And here's what Ananias says to God in Acts 9 13. In Acts 9 13, Lord I have heard from many about this man how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

Oh, Saul of Tarsus' reputation preceded him to Damascus. I heard about all the harm he's done to your saints. In Jerusalem, now he's writing a letter to the saints in Ephesus. Isn't that beautiful? It's just in this one verse wrapped up, God reaching into sin and rebellion and filth and changing someone and making them completely different from what they were before.

He used to do harm to the saints. Now he's writing them letters to encourage, strengthen, instruct. Secondly, this is Paul's start to Ephesians. Everything goes back to Jesus the Messiah. Look at Jesus just in verse 1.

Look at Jesus. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints here in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ and the saints in Ephesus were full of faith in Christ Jesus and it's going to be that way all the way through the six chapters. Jesus, Jesus, more Jesus. Get ready to be refreshed.

Applications I'll give you two. Applications I'll give you two. Number one, Think about God sending someone to evangelize and disciple you and be thankful. Think about God in heaven, the maker of heaven and earth, sending someone, a sent one, so sending someone with orders, under orders to evangelize and disciple you and then be thankful. If you're in Christ, if you have saving faith, that's what happened we can we can think of our coming to faith in a sort of mechanical way and disconnected to what was actually it was the will of God.

He wanted to send someone to you so he sent someone to you to tell you the good news and then to help you make progress in the faith. Actually in Hebrews 3 verse 1 the author of Hebrews says consider the high priest and apostle of our confession Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is actually called an apostle. In Jesus we saw in the Gospel of John how often he set himself forward as one just sent from the Father to do the Father's will and to say the Father's words. Jesus is the ultimate apostle.

He was sent under orders to bleed and die for sinners. And then there are these other apostles who are sent with miracle working, authenticating authority to preach a new message with with the stamp of approval from God to even raise the dead and then converts are made who make converts who made converts and the gospel made it to you because God sent someone to evangelize you and disciple you. We're watching it happen in the book of Ephesians but you know what You don't even need the book of Ephesians if you're in Christ. God did that for you. He sent someone to tell you the good news and to help you make progress in the faith.

Number two, know that if you are a saint, the contents of this letter are for you. God intended all along for people in little churches in the year 2020 to study this letter. This is because God put it here. So this is for us, the people who have been called out of the world Inexplicably called out of the world. Can you explain how and why you were called out of the world?

I cannot But it seemed like a good idea to God so he did it He made me a saint and so the contents of this letter are for me and they're for you. Let's pray. God thank you for Sending the High Priest and Apostle of our confession, Jesus Christ, to bleed and die for sinners, to make a way for sinners to be made right in your sight, cleansed and free. Thank you for sending Paul and the other apostles under orders to establish the New Testament Church and to give us the New Covenant, New Testament doctrine. And thank you for the people, those of us who were saved, thank you for sending people into our lives with the message of peace and then so many people to help us make progress in the faith.

Praise you in Jesus name, amen. Men, over to you. Jason, you touched on this, but I want to call us to think for a few minutes about this incredible miracle, beyond miracles that, I mean, every salvation is amazing. To take the dead and the blind, to make them see and to resurrect them, the work of God is extraordinary in every life. How crazy would it be?

You remember the disciples' response when, wait, wait, wait, wait, that guy's coming? That guy's like Saul? That guy's coming here? Do you remember their response in the book of Acts at the idea that there's just no way this man, but yes, there is a way because of that God, our God, who can take the most radically opposed, the one who at best was overseeing the stoning, as Jason mentioned, and gathering the clothes, and then getting letters to go round up more. That that man would be the one to write this letter, bathed in mercy, bathed in love, bathed in the attributes of the God that He never knew.

The God that He thought He knew, but never did. And the beauty for Saul to be released from the bondage of thinking that his religious zeal would produce righteousness, so much so that he would be outraged that others would claim that this Savior Jesus was the way instead of His righteous pursuit as He was trained under Gamaliel and thought that this would be his route for reconciliation with God. I say this because children, especially here and all of us, should marvel at this. That we are reading a letter inspired by God, as Jason mentioned, that breathed out by God through this man, through that man. Think of the most radical in our day that is opposed to Christianity.

I don't know, fill in the blank, whatever comes to your mind. That that man would be not only sitting in your living room praising your Savior, but that He'd be writing these letters of love. And instead of collecting those to be sent to death, would be writing letters of life to souls that touch us to this day. That is the mercy and grace of this miraculous God whom we serve. For you young people, that's the prayer, as James said earlier, that's our prayer especially as parents, that you would not come out of this book without knowing this God, without knowing this Savior.

May the Lord be gracious to us and help us in it. Adding to that, Jim, also, right? Be amazed at Saul. Adding to that Jim, also be amazed at Saul. Be amazed at you if you were a compliant, relatively obedient child, that God would open your eyes and say that's not enough.

That's not enough. Whether it's you as a child or you as an adult, that we're saved. We have some here that were saved as adults. Alright, And we've heard those stories. Already tempted, it's not going to happen.

Jason will hold this back to the... Let's just jump off and talk about the will of God versus the will of man. You just want to get into that. I was talking to my family last night on this amazement by the will of God. Just park on that.

The world right now, and it has been, but we're seeing it ramped up, is all about my will. My will. Oh, God, knit you in your mother's womb and stamped on every cell of your body that you're a boy or a girl and people want to say, no, my will be done. But be amazed that God's will was to knit you together, make you how you are. That's God's will.

Man or woman, whether you like your nose or don't like your nose, It was God's will to make you that way. And it's beautiful. It really is. Everyone here is so unique by the will of God. Yes, we have effects of sin on our life and the general effects of not being perfect and body shapes change and lose eyesight, you get old and can't do some things, your memory's not as strong, but by God's will, He did all that.

And if we need a dose of humility, it's right there by the will of God that He would save you. We'll get more of that in chapter 1, especially in chapter 2 and continuing on. You need a dose of humility. You need help with our humility that will drive you to tears if you dwell on it very long, but drive you to joy if you dwell on it longer. By the will of God.

By the will of God. He's taken you. Saved you for those that are saved. Cared for you. Nurtured you.

Sanctifying you. And calling you a saint puts you... You, if you're a saint, you are a peer of Paul. You're a peer. You're a brother.

It took the same amount of mercy and grace and blood and wrath taking of Christ to save you the dip Paul took the same will of God Alright, let's begin our time of the Lord's Supper. We're essentially going to go right to it. I just want to bear down on the thought of saints, people who are separated out. So how do you, what makes a saint? That makes saints, or what that symbolizes makes saints.

The body and blood of Jesus Christ is what makes someone able to be set apart for God's use. You can't set aside filth for God's use. You have to do something with the filth. That's why in Leviticus 8 you have the symbolic washing of Aaron and his sons and the symbolic application of the blood of a substitute applied to them and then they can be priests. That's how it works.

You're of no value or use to God in the state of your natural defilement. You defiled yourself in so many ways. You have to be washed. The blood of a substitute has to be applied to you, but when it is, you are set apart to him for his own pleasure and for his own glory in this world. So this is really our weekly time of the Lord's Supper is a celebration of what makes a saint.

It's not trying harder, not working longer, it's Jesus's merit given to you, Jesus's blood applied to you. So if that's true, if you've forsaken every other hope, turned you back on every other hope to just hope in Jesus and His own work, His own blood, and if you've made a public profession of that by being baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if you're willing to obey Paul when Paul commands you to examine yourself and as God would show you things that need to be turned away from, just turn away from them now. The exhortation isn't well if if God puts his finger on sin in your heart then just let it pass. You might need to if you can't repent of the sin but the exhortation is actually like part with the sin right now and partake if you belong to the Lord and you're baptized.

Let's give thanks for the bread. God, let's give thanks for the bread every time my mind goes to Isaiah 53 and the thought that you were it pleased you to crush your son it pleased you to break the body of your son. So we take the bread in hand as a symbol of the body of the Lord that would have to be crushed if sinners were to go free, if sinners were to be pardoned. Thank you for the body of your Son. We know that what we studied in the gospel of John is utterly true that no one took his life from him that he willingly laid it down willingly subjected himself to be broken and crushed so that your anger against my sin could be diverted to him and he could swallow all of it up Thank you for the body of Jesus and this remembrance of the body of Jesus.

It's in His name that we pray, amen.