“Being the Church”
Ephesians 1:1-23

Introduction: Overview of Sermon Series

We use the phrase “going to Church” so pervasively, that for the most part, modern Christianity, at least in America, has forgotten what it means to be the Church.  Ever since Emperor Constantine way back in the early 4th century made Christianity legal, and began building elaborate buildings for Christian worship, the concept of “Church” has been associated with a place of worship, instead of the true Biblical meaning of the Church referring to the people of God regardless of where they worship.   

Now we as a congregation are on a path of renewal and missional redevelopment.  If we are going to reclaim an authentically Biblical model of being the Church, then we must first get a solid understanding of just what is the Church of Jesus Christ called to be and to do.  

So let me ask, how many here really want to be a Biblical Church?  Good, because that is going to be the topic of our study for the next few months.  We are going to do this by studying together the whole book of Ephesians, while drawing on supplemental texts from the whole Bible.  But even more importantly, that is what we are going to seek to become more of in the months and years ahead.    Let us pray…


I. Biblical Images of the Church

“And God has placed all things under Christ’s feet, and appointed Christ to be the head over everything FOR the Church, which is Christ’s body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way!” Eph 1:22-23

One helpful and accurate way to understand the Church from a true and full Biblical perspective, is to examine the many metaphors or images that are used to describe the Church in Scripture.   Now in our study passage this morning, the image presented is the Church as the Body of Christ.  Now, I suggest, as well as many theologians would as well, that the Church as Christ’s Body is the most prominent and foundational image in the New Testament, and from which flows all the other images.  

Now before we dive into our study passage and the Church as Christ’s Body, let us first do an overview of all the images of the Church in Scripture.  We will go through these images today rather quickly, but we will explore the significance of each of these images in greater detail throughout our sermon series.


                                                           Biblical Images of the Church

Verses

Collective

Individual

Jesus

Meaning

Gen 12,

Ex. 19

Deut 7

The “chosen people of God”

 

Israelite

OT Sacrifices point ahead to cross

We are God “special treasure”

1 Ti 3:15

Household or

Family of God

Children  Brothers & Sisters

Firstborn

Eldest

Son

Family: Love And Care

Col 1:13
Phil 3:20

Kingdom

Citizens

King

Judge

Authority

Privileges

Obligation

1 Pe 2:9
Heb 2:17

Priesthood

Priests

High Priest

Sacred service in participation with Christ

Eph 2:19-22
1 Cor 3:11

Temple Building

Spiritual Stones

Foundation

God's Indwelling Presence
Interdependence

1 Cor 12:12-27
Rom 12:4-5
Col 1:18

Eph 1:23

Body

Members

Head

Organic connection to Christ in the Holy Spirit

We are Christ in the world

Rom 16:16
Tit 2:14
Acts 20:28

The Church
-Of Christ
-Of God

Saints

Aliens

Redeemed

Savoir

Purchaser

Redeemer

Christ's Possession

Holiness

1 Pe 5:2-4
1 Pe 2:25

Flock

Sheep

Shepherd

Protection

Caring

2 Ti 2:3-4
Eph 6:10-17

Army

Soldier

Commander

Spiritual Warfare

Eph 5:22-32
Rev 21

Wife
Bride

-

Husband
Groom

Intimate Spiritual Relationship

John 15:1-8; Mark 12:1-12

Vine or Vineyard

Branches

Vine

Master Gardner

Must maintain close union with Christ to be fruitful





















II. The Church as the Body of Christ:  Exposition of Eph 1.1:23

a. Overview of Ephesians
The common element of all these images is relationship. First and foremost, we must grasp that the Church exists because of and for an intimate relationship with the Trinity, and secondly that the core essence of the Church is the relationships that exists between the members of Christ’s Body.  
You will hear this truth many times throughout our sermon series: Intimate fellowship/relationship between the member’s Christ’s Body with the Trinity and each other is not just one of many activities of the Church, it is the very purpose and essence of the Church from which flows everything else we are called to be and do.  Which means if we don’t get this relational piece right, we won’t be successful in God’s eyes in anything else we do!

Now let’s focus on our study passage of Ephesians 1, and the Church as the Body of Christ.  Let me first present a brief overview of the whole letter to the Ephesians taken mostly from the “Teacher’s Commentary.”  

Ephesians was written by Paul to a congregation established on one of Paul’s later missionary journeys (Acts 19).  It was written from Rome, probably in A.D. 62 or 63.
The theme of Ephesians is the Church as a living organism, the actual body of the living Christ.  It is a key book for understanding our personal relationship with Jesus, and how to live with our fellow Christians in a nurturing, ministering relationship.

Ephesus was thee religious center of the province of Asia.  The great temple of Artemis there drew tourists and worshipers, and served as a giant bank from which cities and nations as well as individuals applied for loans.  This highly successful institutionalized religion is the backdrop against which Paul gives us a vision of the church of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit, through Paul, wants to strongly emphasize that the Church of Jesus Christ is no institution: it is a body, a family, a holy and living temple.  It reveals a glory in the living stones of God’s temple, you and I, which far outshines the glory of the stone temple of Ephesus, even though that temple was four times the size of the Parthenon of Athens.

This book is an important one for us to study today.  It helps us not to think of the Church in institutional terms—as buildings and programs and activities alone. It helps us to see ourselves, and one another, as living expressions of a Christ who expresses His glory and accomplishes His purposes through weak and sinful human lives.  It reveals how to be the Church not to go to Church!

b. Main point and flow of study passage
When the apostle Paul wrote this passage in Greek, it came out as just two long sentences from verses 3-14 and 15-23.  These two sentences are more like a call to worship, a hymn of praise, or even a poem.  It was as if Paul was caught up in high and Holy-Spirit-birthed worship and in one ecstatic outburst, praises all three persons of the Trinity for their power and grace.  

And then his worship turns to prayer in verse 15-23 as if he was thinking, “O that all the people of God would grasp what God is allowing me to understand right now…just who we are in Christ as God’s special treasure, Christ’s body, and the incomparable unconquerable power that God makes available to us to participate with the Trinity in reclaiming all creation for Christ and kingdom.”

That is our prayer this morning as well, that as we explore each of the spiritual blessings and powerful truths revealed in this passage that we would likewise burst forth in such worship and prayer, and encounter Christ and our identity as Christ’s body in a manner that empowers us to be the Church.  Anyone else want to experience that this morning?

c. The Church as a creation of the Trinity
 Paul structures his worship-full, prayer-full revelation of who we are as the Church in Trinitarian terms. Like all that God does, we must understand it from a Trinitarian theology.   The Church is a creation of the Trinity, not a human institution.  Paul reveals that the Church was planned by the Father, purchased by and for the Son and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

   i.    Planned by the Father
We read in verse“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
What an amazing promise!  God the Father has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing!”  This word “every” here is as strong a word as Paul had available to mean every possible blessing.  By “spiritual blessing, what is meant is not that the blessings themselves are just spiritual in nature, but that these blessings come to us through the Holy Spirit.  
So what are these abundant blessings we have as the Body of Christ?  Paul lists them out while attributing them to each person of the Trinity.  Now each one of these blessings is connected to a major doctrine of our faith, and volumes have been written on each one. But our purpose here is just to become aware, to embrace, and to celebrate these blessings as they relate to our being the Body of Christ.

The Father has:
 - Chosen Us: “Chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight! (v.4)” Before our mighty, creator God declared, “Let there be light,” you were already a twinkle in His eye, and already chosen to be a member of Christ’s’ Body!
 - Adopted Us: “In love God predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ!” v 5  Your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world marking you as one of God’s adopted children!
 - Lavished Grace Upon Us: All this was done “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves!” v 6  We have received and continue to receive from the Father abundant, lavish, and extravagant grace!
 - Made Us Partners With The Trinity:  “And he (the Father) made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”      V 9-10   

This is where Paul, in our study passage, connects all these blessings to the Church as the Body of Christ.  We are being extravagantly blessed in Christ for a purpose.  And that purpose is so that we are empowered to participate in fulfilling the grand plan of the Trinity—the “missio dei” as it is called—of gathering in all creation into the eternal kingdom of God!


  ii.    Purchased by and for the Son

In Christ we have…
 - Freedom: “we have redemption through his blood!” v 7  We have been redeemed by and for Christ. This means that we were set free from captivity to the devil, darkness, and death!
 - Forgiveness: “…we have forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us!” v 7-8   Every sin you have committed knowingly or unknowingly, every sin you will commit is taken into the body of Christ on the cross, forgiven, and in its place you continually receive Christ’s holiness, Christ’s faith, Christ’s hope, Christ’s love, and Christ’s power in its place!
 - Significance: “we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” v 11   

Our election was not to an individual salvation, but to be a member of Christ’s Body.  Christ did not die for an individual, He died for the Church collectively.  And when you were granted the gift of faith to be embraced by grace you became a member of Christ’s Body.  You may physically isolate yourself from this Body, and suffer accordingly, but you cannot disconnect yourself spiritually from the Body of Christ.  We are forever interdependent and spiritually connected to one another. So you better get use to putting up, I mean, enjoying every other Christian brother and sister!  

The other awesome truth of this verse is that you are not only part of God’s plan, but you are the primary means through which God is accomplishing His grand plan for the universe!  Talk about having significance!


iii.    Empowered by the Holy Spirit

By the Holy Spirit we are…
  Marked with God’s Seal: “Having believed, we were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” v 13 Paul’s use of the word “seal” here has a number of powerful connotations.  Ancient documents were sealed for authenticity.  Someone carrying such a seal on a document, or on ring say, would carry the authority of who sent him or her.  And to seal something granted it absolute security of ownership.  



This is who you are in Christ dear saints! As a member of Christ’s Body, you are marked by the Holy Spirit as being the real deal as to being God’s child!  You have been given authority to carry out Christ’s work of redemption and reconciliation!  And you are absolutely secure in your relationship as an adopted Child of God so that nothing in heaven, hell, or earth, there is noting you or anyone else can do, that can snatch out of the Father’s hands!

Guaranteed an Eternal Inheritance:
 “(The Holy Spirit) is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.” V 14  Just think about what this verse is revealing…if the our being filled with the Holy Spirit, and all the associated blessings that come from that relationship, such as the one we are listing out this morning, are all just a deposit of our full inheritance, O my, what does that say about how inconceivable, unimaginable our full inheritance is going to be!!!  And this glorious inheritance is guaranteed by God. I think that’s a guarantee we can trust!

Brought into Intimate Relationship with the Trinity
“ May….the glorious Father, give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” v 17   This is not intellectual knowledge, although it certainly includes an important cognitive component.  This is mostly a relational knowing like between a parent and child, husband and wife, two kindred friends.

Given Unshakable Hope:
 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…” v 18  Friends, we settle for such a small hope, such a weak faith, such a tepid love, when the promises of God as we discover such as in these verses keep reminding us and empowering us that in Christ, as a member of His body, as an adopted, Spirit-filled child of God, we are given the guaranteed hope of being co-heirs and co-rulers with Christ, a faith that can change the world, and an agape love that is the mightiest force in the universe!

Given a Glorious Future:
“….that you may know….the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” v 18   I think that if we could somehow get even a glimpse of our full destiny as to who we will be, what will be our position, even what we will look like, when Christ returns and ushers in the full kingdom of God, it would be overwhelming, perhaps even a little frightening!  We read in places like later on in Ephesians that God is always ready to “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”  In Colossians 3 we read that our real and full life is hidden in Christ, and that only when Christ returns will our full destiny be revealed and that with great glory!  In Cor 2 we read that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has even dreamed of all that God has prepared for those that love Him!”  How can we possible have a low self-image, a weak hope, a small faith, a lukewarm love, a greedy, materialistic heart, when this is who we are and this is our guaranteed destiny!

Given Incomparable Power:
“….that you may know….God’s incomparably great power for us who believe.”  V 19  The word “power” here, is the Greek word “dunamis.”  It is where we get our words like dynamic or dynamite!  I suspect that most of us simply have no real idea, or experience, with just how much power resides in us through the Holy Spirit!  Somehow in our modern American Christianity we have rationalized away the full power that God longs to demonstrate through His people.  All over the world God is demonstrating His miraculous power in order to heal, save, and deliver. Yet we see so little of that power displayed in the Western world.  We are not without demonstrations of God’s power and provision by any means!  Right here through the people of God at Third Presbyterian Church, we have experienced first hand the mighty hand of our God repeatedly…amen?  But don’t you long for even more of God’s power?  Not for the purpose of sensationalism, or for bragging rights! But because our city, for that matter our own lives, are filled will deep hurts, addictive sin, shattered relationships, that only the power of God can remedy! Paul declares in 1 Cor 2 that our “message and preaching should not depend on persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power, so that our faith does not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God!” 1 Cor 4 declares that “the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power!”
     If we are going to be the true Church, the living, healing, saving, loving Body of Christ in Dubuque, we need more of God’s dunamis flowing through us!  Launching new programs, new outreaches, changing our worship time and style, getting a new pastor, denomination and name won’t mean a thing unless first and foremost we become people through whom the power of God is demonstrated!  How do we become better channels of God’s power?  We engage in the channels of grace Christ has given to the Church: primarily by being people saturated in God’s Word and prayer!  

Our study passage goes on to say in verses 20-23 that this “power is like the working of God’s mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

This is what it means to be the Church, to be the Body of Christ!  We are actually, not metaphorically, the Body of Christ on earth.  Christ is now continuing the mission of the Trinity through His Body on earth, that’s you and I, by the person and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  The power of God flowing through us is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, and made Christ Lord of all!  And this mission, that we are called and empowered to participate in, that is the central purpose of the Church, is to bring all creation back under the reign and rule of Christ the Lord, and back into reconciled relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and with one another!

 *  The Church of Jesus Christ is not a human institution, but an organic, spiritual creation of the Trinity.
 *  We are the actual Body of Christ on earth, called to one main purpose.
 *  That purpose is to glorify God by participating with the Trinity in God’s “mission dei” of reconciling all creation back under the Lordship of Christ and into intimate relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and each other.
 *  We must keep the “main thing the main thing,” and the main thing that we must focus on is living and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in power unto the salvation and discipling of Gold’s elect.
 *  We must keep the “main thing the main thing,” and the main thing is that we are living and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in power unto the salvation and discipling of God’s elect!
 *  How many want to be a God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Holy-Spirit-empowered, gospel-proclaiming, Word-saturated, prayer-fueled, agape-extending, hope-giving, faith-conquering, disciple-making, life-changing, Satan-defeating, kingdom-advancing, Biblical, missional Church?