Union Church

The Story of God: James

Listen along as we look at the letter from James to the church.

Notes/Quotes:

James 1:1-28  - Mike Reading

In a word St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. - Martin Luther

Mark 3:20-21
John 7:1-5 
Acts 1:14

“In English, perfect means “without blemish.” What this word (perfect) means is: whole, to be complete, be consistent, like an integer, which is related to integrity. It speaks of maturity…All the ethics of the Bible are imitative, because this is what God is like.” - Jonathan Pennington

“In rapid-fire sequence, James: • encourages his readers to respond positively to their trials (1:2–4); • exhorts them to ask in faith for wisdom (1:5–8); • comforts the poor and warns the rich (1:9–11); • pronounces a blessing on Christians who endure trials (1:12); • warns believers not to blame God for temptations (1:13–15); • reminds his readers that all good gifts, including the new birth, come from God (1:16–18); • warns his readers about sins of speech (1:19–20); • exhorts believers to be obedient to the word they have received (1:21–25); • and reminds them of the essence of “true religion” (1:26–27). Wordplays, evident in the Greek text but usually not in the English, forge literary links between many of these sections: • chairein (“greetings”) in v. 4b is picked up by charan (“joy”) in v. 2 • leipomenoi (“lacking”) in v. 4b is picked up by leipetai (“lacks”) in v. 5 • peirasmon (“trial”) in v. 12 is picked up by peirazomenos (“when tempted”) in v. 13 • Note also that teleios (“perfect,” “complete”) occurs in vv. 4, 17, and 25." Douglas Moo

“I am more impressed than ever by James’s creative use of Hellenistic Jewish traditions in his exposition of practical Christianity. And I remain convinced that the heart of the letter is a call to wholehearted commitment to Christ. James’s call for consistent and uncompromising Christian living is much needed. Our churches are filled with believers who are only halfhearted in their faith and, as a result, leave large areas of their lives virtually untouched by genuine Christian values. Nor am I immune to such problems. As I quite unexpectedly find myself in my “middle age” years, I have discovered a tendency to back off in my fervor for the Lord and his work. My re-immersion in James has challenged me sharply at just this point.”
 Douglas Moo

 

The Story of God: Hebrews

Listen along as we continue our journey through the story of scripture. Today we look at the book of Hebrews.

Notes//Quotes:

Hebrews 1:1-4

“It is the audience that really helps us to understand the book. The audience appears to be primarily Jewish Christians, who grew up in Judaism, but have believed in Jesus. They have embraced him as the Messiah. Yet they have hit a snag. For whatever reason – perhaps the pressure of persecution and opposition – they are thinking about going back to Judaism. They’re considering leaving this newfound faith and going back to the old ways: animal, sacrifices, worship at the temple – the old paths, if you will, that the Jews have trusted in for generations. In other words, these people are starting to doubt whether this Jesus thing is all it first promised to be.” Michael Kruger

Colossians 1:15-16

”If Jesus is not God, then there is no Christianity, and we who worship Him are nothing more than idolaters. Conversely, if He is God, those who say He was merely a good man, or even the best of men, are blasphemers. More serious still, if He is not God, then He is a blasphemer in the fullest sense of the word. If He is not God, He is not even good.” J Oswald Sanders, The Incomparable Christ

“The great object of the Epistle is to describe the contrast between the old and new covenants. But this contrast is based upon their unity. It is impossible for us rightly to understand the contrast unless we know first the resemblance. The new covenant is contrasted with the old covenant, not in the way in which the light of the knowledge of God is contrasted with the darkness and ignorance of heathenism, for the old covenant is also of God, and is therefore possessed of Divine glory. Beautiful is the night in which the moon and the stars of prophecy and types are shining; but when the sun arises then we forget the hours of watchfulness and expectancy, and in the clear and joyous light of day there is revealed to us the reality and substance of the eternal and heavenly sanctuary” Adolph Saphir

Hebrews 2:1
Hebrews 3:12-14
Hebrews 4:11-13
Hebrews 4:14-16
If you have a choice between letting the doctor examine you right away, uncomfortable though it may be, and waiting until he or she can do a post-mortem on you after it’s too late, it’s wise to go for the first. If you open yourself, day by day and week by week, to the message of scripture, its grand sweep and its small details, and allow the faithful preaching of Jesus and his achievement to enter your consciousness and soak down into your imagination and heart, then the admittedly uncomfortable work of God’s word will be happening on a regular basis, showing you (as we say) where you really are, what’s going on deep inside. You may need help from someone else in this process. Just as the healing work of the early church didn’t mean that doctors became unnecessary, so the probing, searching, penetrating analysis of God’s word doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a job for psychotherapists and similar professionals. But nor do they make the task of the word unnecessary. To spend time, prayerfully and thoughtfully, with scripture and with Jesus, the written and living Word of God, is to know that gentle but powerful touch, like a very sharp and fine blade, producing surprising and perhaps alarming results. - Tom Wright

“Weak faith is still real faith, because weak faith is still faith in a strong Savior. It’s his strength, no our weakness that matters.” - Dane Ortlund

The vultures of consumerism will come to steal your generosity.
The vultures of lust will come to steal your holiness.
The vultures of power will come to steal your humility.
The vultures of selfishness will come to steal your sacrifice.
The vultures of distraction will come to steal your focus.
Drive them away with faith.
Drive them away with the word.
Drive them away with prayer.
Drive them away with spiritual disciplines.
Drive them away for the reward that God has promised. - Jon Tyson

Hebrews 12:1-2

The Story of God: Philemon

Listen along as we go through the letter to Philemon

Notes//Quotes:

Text: Philemon
Title: History, Heart, Hope

Reading: Philemon (esv)

“23 …if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23 & 24)

“though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you” (Philemon 1:8 & 9a.)

 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances” (Proverbs 25:11, nasb)

“Human reconciliation runs on loving tact, something every Christian should master regardless of personality or position.” (R. Kent Hughes)

“12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (Philemon 1:12-16)

“…[I]n Christ Jesus you are ALL sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” 
(Galatians 3:26-28)

“The relationships of the old creation that are marked by polarities (you are either one or the other) and characterized by an economic hierarchy (one side of the relationship is valued higher in the economy of the present age) do not continue into the new creation in Christ.”  (Daniel Ragusa)

“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” 
(2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 
(Romans 5:6-11)

“Forgiveness is a form of voluntary suffering. In forgiving, rather than retaliating, you make a choice to bear the cost.” Timothy Keller

 

 

The Story of God: Titus

Listen along as we wrap up the pastoral epistles.

Notes/Quotes:

Titus 2:11-3:11
Titus 1:5
Crete Pic
1:10-16
“In verse 12, Paul calls the Cretans “evil brutes.” It is a damning indictment, and probably not something you would want to say of a group of people unless you were able. To cite one of their own as the source—which is precisely what Paul is doing here. “One of Crete’s own prophets” - The philosopher Epimenides - thinks this of his countrymen. In the Greek language, “Cretan” became a by-word for dishonesty: “To Crete” was to lie. The phrase translated “evil brutes” is literally “dangerous animals.” Crete was famous for having no dangerous animals, but the saying was that the human inhabitants more than made up for this lack of wildlife.” - Tim Chester, Titus For You 

“The laws allow them to possess as much land as they can get with no limitation whatever. Money is so highly valued among them, that its possession is not only thought to be necessary but in the highest degree creditable. And in fact greed and avarice are so native to the soil in Crete, that they are the only people in the world among whom no stigma attaches to any sort of gain whatever. Again all their offices are annual and on a democratical footing…the Cretans by their ingrained avarice are engaged in countless public and private seditions, murders and civil wars, they yet regard these facts as not affecting their contention, but are bold enough to speak of the two constitutions as alike”. Polybius, Greek Philosopher, 150 B.C.

Titus 1:5-9

“The vocation of pastor(s) has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans.” - Eugene Peterson

“My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see grace operating in their lives…Congregations are composed of people, who, upon entering a church, leave behind what people on the street name or call them. A church can never be reduced to a place where goods and services are exchanged. It must never be a place where a person is labeled. It can never be a place where gossip is perpetuated. Before anything else, it is a place where a person is named and greeted, whether implicitly or explicitly, in Jesus’s name. A place where dignity is conferred.” Eugene Peterson

Titus 2:1
Titus 2:11-15
Titus 3:1
Titus 3:2
Titus 3:3
Titus 3:4-7
Titus 3: 8-11

The Story of God: 2 Timothy

Listen along as Bill Berve walks us through Paul's second letter to Timothy.

Notes//Quotes:

2 Timothy 3:12-17 - Larry and Jorgen reading

“Timothy was deposed to fear rather than to lead. Greatness was being forced upon him much like Moses and Jeremiah and many others before and after him, but he was exceedingly reluctant to accept it."
Patrick Fairbirins (18th century scholar)

"I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:5-6

"You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men,[a] who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Timothy 2:1-4

"While it may be difficult to judge how “successful” you are at being "strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," there are at least three things whose absence in your life makes it clear that you are not doing so. First, there will be very little prayer in your life. Second, there will be very little risk-taking to speak the gospel and plenty of caving in when you are given opportunities to speak or defend the gospel. Third, there will be very little peace and plenty of anxiety in your life — a sure sign that you are failing to trust God."
Timothy Keller

"Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene."
2 Timothy 2:14-17

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." 2Timothy 3:16-17 

"For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing." 2 Timothy 4:6-8

"Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments." 2 Timothy 4:9-13

The Story of God: 1 Timothy

Today we enter the pastoral epistles in our journey through Scripture.

Notes/Quotes:

1 Timothy - Christine Reading 3:14-16
Disciples, Deceptions, Definitions

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus…” (1 Tim. 1:3a.)

"...remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith." (1 Tim. 1:3b-4)

"3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”
(1 Tim. 6:3-5)

“Countless times I have heard Christians say, ‘Why do I need to study doctrine or theology when all I need to know is Jesus?’ My immediate reply is this: ‘Who is Jesus?’ As soon as we begin to answer that question, we are involved in doctrine and theology. No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.  A good theologian is one who is instructed by God.” (R.C. Sproul)

John Calvin on sound doctrine:
Part 1: sound doctrine is that which magnifies the grace of God in Christ, from which we learn where we ought to seek our salvation. 

Part 2: Sound doctrine is that by which the life is framed and transformed to the fear of God, and the practice of obedience. Walking according to the law of God.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
(1 Tim. 1:5)

“14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” (1 Tim. 3:14 & 15)

“It has been right before our eyes in the Bible all along. Scores of references to “brothers and sisters,” to God as our Father, to Jesus as both our Bridegroom and Elder Brother, to the essential loving unity of God’s family, and to the household environment of holiness, spiritual nurture and safety. Paul taught Timothy “how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Tim. 3:15). He told the Ephesians, “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (Eph. 2:19)….Pastor and writer Mark Buchanan affirms this: “Jesus is not ashamed to be called our brother. The Father gives us the Spirit of adoption through whom we cry, ‘Abba!’ Jesus asks who his mother and brother and sisters are, and answers they are those who do the Father’s will. From the cross Jesus says to the disciple John and his mother Mary, ‘Behold your son; behold your mother.’ And he says that our loyalty to him must transcend biological attachments.”
(Lee Eclov)

The Story of God: 1&2 Thessalonians

Listen along as we continue our journey through the Bible.

Notes//Quotes:

1 Thess 1:2-10 - Denise

“The resurrection was indeed a miraculous display of God’s power, but we should not see it as a suspension of the natural order of the world. Rather it was the beginning of the restoration of the natural order of the world, the world as God intended it to be…The resurrection means not merely that Christians have a hope for the future but that they have a hope that comes from the future. The Bible’s startling message is that when Jesus rose, he brought the future kingdom of God into the present.” - Tim Keller

“The implications of this are significant. If we over stress the “already” of the kingdom to the exclusion of the “not yet,” we will expect quick solutions to problems and we will be dismayed by suffering and tragedy. But we can likewise over stress the “not yet” of the kingdom to the exclusion of the “already.” We can be too pessimistic about personal change. We can withdraw from engaging the world, too afraid of being “polluted” by it. - Tim Keller

1 Thess 3:11-13, 
4:13-18, 
2 Thess 1:5-12

 1 Thess 4:1-12
1 Thess 3:11-13

1 Thess 5:14-24
Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. - JC Ryle

Matthew 5:13-16, 
1 Peter 2:9-12

Handles for hope and holiness 
Remember the return of Jesus for real life.
Fight distraction with the practice of devotion.
Pray the promises for yourself and others.
Walk patiently and reject passivity.
The why of it all is witness.

The Story of God: Colossians

Listen along as we continue our time working through the story of Scripture.

 

Notes//Quotes:

Colossians 1:15-23 - Jon Reading
Supremacy, Sufficiency, Solidarity

“In the past, it was common to refer to the problem as the “Colossian heresy.” That term is misleading because it anachronistically assumes that there were widely accepted criteria for judging orthodoxy in the time of Paul. It also assumes that the opponents are Christians who are corrupting the Colossians’ faith. Arnold uses the word “syncretism” to avoid prejudging the teaching as “bad, heretical, or unorthodox.” Paul, however, calls it a “philosophy” (2:8). Putting this term in quotation marks prevents us from understanding it as a logical system of truths and principles and allows it to apply to a religious way of life. What this “philosophy” was and how it threatened the congregation has occupied scholars’ attention for some time and no consensus has been reached. To identify the “philosophy” we have only meager snippets in a short but clearly polemical section (2:8, 16–23). The problem is compounded because this section is the most unclear passage in the letter. Many interpreters look outside the text for some evidence in Paul’s environment that will help stitch all the allusions in the letter together into a coherent pattern. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack, however. What is worse, the diverging conjectures reveal that scholars are looking in quite different haystacks for this magic needle. When one examines all the conflicting proposals by scholars who muster impressive primary evidence to buttress their arguments, the conflicting accounts resemble the story of blind men trying to describe an elephant when they are touching different parts of the animal. This does not mean that if we piece together all the different proposals, we will have our answer. The evidence is confusing and enigmatic.” 
- David E. Garland

1. It is a “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (2:8).
2. It is dependent on “human tradition” (vv. 8, 22).
3. It is dependent on “elemental spiritual forces of this world” (v. 8).
4. It is not dependent on “Christ” (v. 8).
5. It involves dietary restrictions (v.16).
6. It involves the practice of Jewish holidays (v.16).
7. It involves ascetic disciplines (vv. 18, 23).
8. It involves angelic beings (v. 18).
9. It involves visions (v. 18).
10. It results in pride (v. 18).
11. It results in loosing connection with Christ (v.19).
12. It involves a number of rules as a means of spiritual growth (vv. 20-23).
- Douglas Moo

      We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
      He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
- Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language 

Gif Laughing Baby

3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 
- Colossians 3:3-17 ESV

“When Christians do not live with a deep sense of gratitude for what God has done for them in Christ, they will become engulfed in anxieties and will be tempted to look for security in something other than Christ. Paul repeatedly urged the Colossians to be thankful for the victory already won for them by Christ’s cross and resurrection. Salvation can be found only in Christ, and Christians do not need something else or something more. The cross brings redemption, the forgiveness of sin, and triumph over all the powers that would oppress human life. Every believer is made complete when placed under the complete claim of Christ, and all the spiritual ills of our world find their only cure in him."
- David E. Garland

Elaine dancing gif: https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKstUpSOgEXNzKE/giphy.gif

 

The Story of God: Philippians

Listen along as we learn about the place of Philippi, the prayer of Paul and how we are to press God's providence into our lives.

Notes/Quotes:

Philippians 1:3-11 - Larry and Jorgen

Philippians 1:3-11

(memes) - 1,2,3

Acts 16:11-12
Acts 16:13-15

Acts 16:16-24

“God’s total care and governance of His creation for His glory and their good” - Jerry Bridges

Philippians 2:1-11
“We’re daily being indoctrinated by the world to have the opposite mindset. You want your life to speak? Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.” - Beth Moore

Philippians 4:4-7 -

“To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being "in the know," cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit...A praying life is just the opposite. It engages evil. The psalmist was in God's face, hoping, dreaming, asking. Prayer is feisty. Cynicism, on the other hand, merely critiques. It is passive, cocooning itself from the passions of the great cosmic battle we are engaged in. It is without hope.” Paul Miller

The Story of God: Ephesians

Listen along as Mike Gaston teaches through Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:8-13 
 
Slide 1
 
Fun Facts from Efesians 
 
Geography
 
Grammar
 
Greetings
 
Slide 2
 
Map image (attached)
 
Slide 3
 
Fun Facts from Efesians
 
Geography
 
Grammar: Indicative/Imperative
 
Greetings: basically, none
 
Slide 4
 
“Ephesians, unlike Colossians, was not devised to combat error and expose the inconsistencies of false teaching. Paul’s aim was more detached and therefore more exalted. He rose above the smoke of battle and captured a vision of God’s sovereign plan that transcends the bitterness of controversy and the necessity for the church militant here on earth to fight for its very existence.
 
Paul stood aside from the conflict and contemplated God’s overall design for his church and for his world. As he did so, he came to realize as never before the breathtaking scope of God’s strategy in Christ for the fullness of time.”
A. Skevington Wood
 
Slide 5
 
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
 
​​​​​​​​Ephesians 1:3-4
 
Slide 6
 
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
 
Slide 7
 
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to 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 us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Ephesians 2:11-16
 
Slide 8
 
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
​​​​​​​​​Ephesians 3:4-6​​​​​​​
Slide 9
 
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
 
​​​​​​​​​Ephesians 3:8-10
 
Slide 10
 
The cosmic mission of the church is to display before the hosts of heaven the manifold wisdom of God. "You are the light of the world." But not merely that. You are the light of the cosmos, with the spectacular mission of revealing the wisdom of God to supernatural beings…
 
How are we, the church, to make this wisdom known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places? … What the church is to do is demonstrate the wisdom in God's mysterious plan. The wisdom of a plan is seen by the fact that it works. We show the wisdom of God by showing in the church that it is working. The death of Christ was not in vain: it has reconciled us to God, it has broken down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile and other races, it has produced one new body, and it has given us the hope of his immeasurable kindness forever. We show the wisdom of God to the cosmic powers by living this way, by being the church Christ died to create.
​​​​​​​​​John Piper
 
Slide 11
 
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner 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. 
​​​​​​​​​Ephesians 4:1-3
 
Slide 12
 
(The Ephesians are called) to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
 
Slide 13
 
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…
 
Ephesians 5:17-18
 
Slide 14
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord… 
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…
 Ephesians 5:22,24
Slide 15
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 firm. 
Ephesians 6:13