What does God think of the church?
For the next three Sunday mornings we want to ask this question with the
help of the first three chapters from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. John Stott has written a helpful commentary on
Ephesians in my generation. Here is what he says in his introduction:
“Nobody can emerge from
a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatized gospel.
For Ephesians is the gospel of the church. It sets forth God’s eternal purpose
to create through Jesus Christ a new society which stands out in bright relief
against the sombre background of the old world. For God’s new society is
characterized by life in place of death, by unity in place of division, by
wholesome standards of righteousness in place of the corruption of wickedness,
by love and peace in the place of hatred and strife, and by unremitting
conflict with evil in place of a flabby compromise with it …The realities of
loveless-ness and sin in so many contemporary churches are enough to make one weep, for they
dishonour Christ, contradict the nature of the church, and deprive the
Christian witness of integrity…. For the sake of the glory of God and the
evangelization of the world, nothing is more important than that the church
should be seen to be God’s new society. Towards the fulfilment of this vision [Paul’s
letter to the] Ephesians gives us a strong and steady stimulus.”
So, no matter what you think of the church, or what past
experiences you may have of the church- listen now to what God thinks of the
church, and may your minds and hearts be warmed and challenged by this!
EXPOSITION
We begin at 1:1a: “Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will
of God”. These first few words are weighty.
This letter is not about Paul and his
private opinions. He is merely an apostle, a messenger boy and elsewhere a
slave[1]
of Christ Jesus by the will of God. He carries a weighty message, from nowhere
less than the throne room of the Universe – ‘from Him who fills all in all.’ (1:23).
The recipients of this message is the church at Ephesus: “To the saints who are at Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” (1:1 b) He tells us 4 things about them:
(i)
They are saints – literally, ‘holy/ set apart ones‘. They are God’s holy, set apart, people in
Ephesus. This was the church of Ephesus. This is you Eastside!
(ii)
They are faithful because they are actively trusting
in Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
(iii)
They are in Christ Jesus - a key phrase in this letter. To be in
Christ means to be personally connected to Christ as branches are connected
to a tree and as members are connected to a body. To be in Christ means to be on our
way to heaven.
(iv)
They are the people of God at Ephesus, the Roman capital of the province of
Asia – a busy commercial port, long silted up since then, and now a heap of
ruins. They, like you and I, are part of a local church in a given location. Every
Christian has a human address and a divine address; Paul's friends were people
who lived in Ephesus, and they were in Christ Jesus.
All this tells us something about what God thinks about the
church. The rest of chapter 1 is an amplification of what God thinks of the
church (1:3-14), followed by a heart-warming prayer of thanksgiving in 1:15-23
A. 1:3-14
In the original Greek this section forms one long sentence. Paul's mind is just carried away as he thinks about the work of God in the church. Notice the continuous reference to ‘us’ and ‘we’. Paul uses the words “in Christ,” or their equivalent, fourteen times. He wants us to understand that all grace, all salvation, all blessedness is in Christ.
Let’s break this up into sizable chunks as Paul teaches us what God thinks of the church:
1. He thinks of God's blessing. God chose to bless the church now, in this world with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places i.e. with the blessings which are to be found only in heaven – godliness, Christlikeness- bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
2. He thinks of the fact that the church was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (1:4) and predestined in love (1:5) and according to His purpose (1:11). Whatever God has set His deliberate love upon from before the foundations of the world must be surely of supreme importance to Him. You can have no small thoughts of the church. You dare not despise the church of God (1 Cor. 11:22).
3. He thinks of the purpose of God's choice (1:4): God chose the church to be holy and blameless[2]. The idea of the holy means to be separated from that which is common. God has chosen Christians to be different from the world. And yet God does not yet take us out of the world- He makes us different in the world. He chose us to be blameless - a sacrificial word. Under Jewish law only an unblemished / blameless animal could be offered. One of the spiritual blessings of being a Christian is that through Christ’s perfect sacrifice, whereby He dies the death we should have died, in our place, we become blameless. God sees us blameless in Christ. Let that sink in.
4. He thinks of the status of the church – adopted children (1:5): The church is God’s family, consisting of legally adopted members. Adoption happens when children, once not part of a family are legally adopted into a family. Under Roman law the person who had been adopted received all the rights of a legitimate child in their new family. The value of the church is seen in the adoption of her members as children of God. Through adoption we receive a full standing a legitimate children. We receive the spirit of sonship (Rom. 8:15). God's children are called a "holy people" – Kings kids! (1 Peter 2:9).
5. The church was redeemed (bought) through the blood of Jesus (1:7-10). The value of the church is seen in the great cost with which she was bought. We assess the value of an object by what it costs. God bought the church by the blood of His own Son (1 Jn. 4:9). Christ gave Himself up for her (Eph. 5:25)
6. The church is at the heart of God's plan (Eph.1:9,10).She is the mystery of His will (1:9 see also 3:3,4,6) Out of the ruins of fallen humanity, from all races, languages and nations God is building a people for Himself (Eph. 2:15). The church alone has a wonderful purpose and central place in the plan of God. Through her He displays His wisdom to the world (Eph. 3:10-12).
7. The church will receive a wonderful inheritance (Eph.1:11-18). The church alone has the promise of eternal life and the hope of living in the eternal presence of God. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee for this. We are co-heirs with Christ, and though we must share in His sufferings now, we will also share in His glory! (Rom. 8:17,18).
8. The church alone enjoys the personal and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1: 13,14).
9. The church has a glorious head, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph.1:22,23). He is altogether glorious, and the church (as His body- the glorious bride) therefore shares in His glory (Eph. 4:15,16 5:29,30). The glory of the church cannot be understood apart from the glory of her head.
CONCLUSION
Stop having small thoughts about the church. Knowing what God
thinks about her, we must make it our supreme ambition and goal to make the
church look good. We must treat her like a bride – dress her, adorn her like a bride is supposed to look
for her wedding day. And where do
we start ? Right here where we are planted!
I want to encourage all of us to rethink our views of the church in the light of his text. In Chapters 4 and 5 we have previously seen what the church of Jesus is meant to look like:
- “Worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (4:1-3), in one confession of faith (4:4-6)
- We have seen that the church is meant to be a unified community in which the grace of God is poured out. God has given members gifts for ministry. He has given her leaders to be equipped and encouraged to use those gifts (4:7-12) and to become mature- to grow up into Christ, each part working properly, growing the body of the church up in love (4:13-16). All this is demonstrated by the new life which we live in 4:17—6:9.
- We stop living like the gentiles in the futility of their minds… alienated from the life of God (4:17-20)
- We put off our old selves (4:22) and put on the new self (4:24). We put off lies and we speak the truth (4:25); we control our anger, and give the devil no foothold. (4:26,27); we stop stealing, but work honestly (4:28); We stop our corrupting talk and build each other up (4:29). We let bitterness, anger, wrath go; we are kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us. (4:31,32); we become imitators of God (5:1); we put behind us sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness… we walk as children of light and not as sons of disobedience (5:3ff). Our relationships are affected by our careful walk (5:15) - we become better husbands and wives (5:22-33); our family (6:1-4) and work relationships improve (6:5-9).
- And all this because we have been changed by the grace of God – and through learning Christ (4:20) we know now what God thinks of the church, and therefore by His empowering (we were raised from the dead –cf. 2:1-10) we have received the ability to make the church what God has designed it to be.
- Are you a Christian? Then you know what is before you. Stop thinking of the church as optional and dispensable. Serve God by serving her. Make her look good. In Jesus’ Name and for His sake. Amen.
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