Yeah, welcome to our first part of our study of the letter to the Ephesians. It’s good to have you. In this series, we would like to study the Letter to Ephesus. And I think, personally, it is a very beautiful letter. it’s not the easiest one, maybe, and we need really to take our time. But it’ s very beutiful, because this letter in particular allows us an insight into the heart of God. I mean, yes, the whole scripture allows us to see God and trace God, and who God is and what God does. And that is wonderful. That is a wonderful topic to study. But I think the letter to the Ephesians does that in a particular way. If you, for example, look at the Letter to Romans, we see that as a starting point the need that we had as sinners. Romans shows us how evil, how sinful, and how depraved we were. Romans chapter 3 says, there’s none that seeks God, none does good. And so Romans shows us a twofold problem that we had. First of all, the problem of our sins that committed, sinful deeds that were committed. There we need forgiveness, we just justification. On the other side, why do we commit sins? Well, because we are sinners who have a sinful, fallen nature. That is the root of the problem, that is who we ARE, and out of what we Are comes what do we do, the fruit, sins that we commit. And both problems need a solution and that is what we find like chapter 3 verse 20 starts until chapter 5 verse 11. It shows us how God deals with the problem of our sins that we have committed and there we are forgiveness and justification on the foundation of the accomplished work of Lord Jesus Christ. But how do you deal with who we? Well, you can forgive somebody that he has stolen something, but you cannot forgive that somebody is a thief. No, we need to remove that state of a Thief. That is what God has done. He has removed our sinful state. We do not stand as sinners anymore before God. we have died with Christ. There on the cross, this old state has found its judgment. God can only judge what we were as sinners. There’s no improvement, there’s only judgment. And so now our sins are forgiven, we are justified, and we stand before God not as sinner anymore, but as those that are righteous, that in Christ. But this is the starting point that we see in Romans. the need of man, a twofold need, and God answers to that, prays to him that he answers that need. But that’s not all that Scripture shows us. And if you go to the letter to Ephesians, we see that the starting point of everything is not man’s need as a sinner, even though the question needs to be answered even in Ephesus. Ephesis 2 tells us that we were dead in sins and trespasses, But we learn that the starting point of everything is the heart of God, what He delights to give, far beyond what we need it. I want to clarify that with the help of an example. Just think about a girl that you meet maybe, or a little boy that meet in a slum, where the poorest of the poor live. And this boy or girl, whatever, this child is hungry, is thirsty and has barely anything to plough with. So if you take the need of that child as a starting point, you will give him food, water and something to drink. You will help him and give what meets his bare minimum to survive. you would cater to his needs. And then you go on and do whatever you do. But it’s quite a different story. If you tell the boy, listen, I not only have food for you and water and clothing, come with me. I have a home for, you I will even adopt you, and make you legally my own child. That’s a difference story, isn’t it? And that is what Ephesians does. It goes far beyond. the need that we had as sinners, and it unfolds us and lets us understand what kind of God we have to do with. A God that delights to give, a God who purposes in himself, quite independent of the question of sin, that he wants to make us something. And that is the beauty of The Letter to the Ephesians. And that letter we want to study and it will take some time. It will takes some videos. And I want give my best and try as best as I can to explain what I have understood so far. it really needs the grace of God to explained those things, to speak, and to teach. But it also needs God’s grace to listen and in order to grasp those thing. Because I think the things that we learn in this letter We would not dare to say those things if they weren’t written down by the Apostle Paul, inspired by The Holy Spirit. The letter to the Ephesians, just maybe to start as an introduction, or continue in our introduction. The apostle Paul had met the thephesian already. He has visited this city on his second missionary trip. We read that in Acts chapter 18, but only very briefly. Even though he was asked to stay, he had to carry on. But then in chapter 19 of Acts, we see him in Ephesus again, and then he stays there roughly three years. And it is quite a blessed time that he has there. Maybe we can quickly turn to Acts chapter. 19. And there we read something what was characterizing for this time. Acts 19 verse 20, we reach, so the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Quite a lot of Ephesians, they believed in the lord Jesus Christ and there was a local church, local assembly in that city. But as always, when the Holy Spirit is at work, we see that Satan is not far and then we have a commotion happening, a riot at Ephesus actually. And as a result of that, the apostle Paul had to leave that city again after his third missionary trip. In chapter 20, then, we see that he does not go back to Ephesus, but he meets some of the believers of Ephesians. They come over to him, he’s in Mylet, and then he meet them again. He is on his way to Rome, actually, as a prisoner. And this is somehow his farewell speech, And he warns them about the things that would happen. And then we know that the letter probably was written around the years 61-62 BC from Rome. The Apostle Paul is a prisoner in Rome and from there he writes to his beloved Ephesians. Let us go now to the first chapter and the two first verses. Let us read verse one and two. 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. Well, introduces himself. He’s the writer of this letter and he writes to those who Ephesus, by the way, was the capital town of this province, the Roman province Asia. And he writes to those who are in Ephesis. But before he introduces the addresses of his letter, he introduce himself. What we actually learn now is that he introduced himself as an apostle. And this apostleship is of Jesus Christ and it is by the will of God. Let me quickly say something about this phrase here in apostle. Well, apostle means simply messenger. Apostolos, that is somebody who has been sent with a message and Paul has a quite unique message. We will see that and we will begin with that in verse three. This wonderful message where he actually starts with, bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He starts a praise when he has this message or when He begins to announce that message. It is really some kind of prayer in three different stances versus But he’s a messenger, and here he stresses his apostleship. And that is something that we do not find in all the letters. In some of the Letters of The New Testament, we don’t find that. But why do we find it here now? Why does he call himself an apostle? Well, the reason usually in the New Testament is a twofold. For one, he stress his Apostleship when they’re is something that needs to be corrected when his letter somehow concerns the order within the local church, the Local Assembly. And with this apostleship there is connected with authority and he makes use of this authority that has been given him. But that is not the reason here when it comes to the letter to Ephesians, because if you read the letters, you will realize that actually there is nothing that the apostle Paul corrects here. There is no reproach, no correction at all, even though later on it seems that this local church did not develop in a good way. If you go to Revelation chapter 2, the first letter is addressed to emphasis and they have forsaken their first love. There is a reproach there. But here we actually find a church that is in a very good state, in the very practical state where they were called even faithful concerning their practical work. The reason why he stresses his apostleship here is because of the kind of message that he brings. There we have a revelation, a new revelation that God has given this chosen vessel bring to the Ephesians and also now us. And there he chooses this apostle to bring that message. The reason of the revelation that he brings makes God to chose him as a vessel. Then this man is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He’s not of man or through man, he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. That lets us think about the events on the road to Damascus where Saul is even trying to persecute the Christians in this foreign country, in the foreign city, Damasus, but where the risen and glorified Christ meets him. Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you persecutes. And there he met the Lord Jesus, and he was that chosen vessel by the lord Jesus to bear his name before the Gentiles, before kings and the people of Israel. And then, that is something very special here, what we learn. we learn here, by the will of God. And actually, this phrase will, that is something very special. Four times we learned in this first chapter, we read about the Will of the God, and of course, here the WILL of GOD, as we have seen already, is in relationship to His apostleship. He is an apostle by THE WILL OF GOD. But what we learn here very generally is that God has a will. And you see, this will originates in God. It is something that god has conceived before the times, before creation. There he had this Will of his in whom he find all his delight when There was not even this universe, when there wasn’t even the creation, there was no sin. He had a will and that will was independent of sin, yes, sin God was surprised by sin! God knew that this would happen and God had the solution to that. But that’s what I said at the beginning, God has something in mind that goes beyond the question of sins, it has nothing to do with sin his thoughts go higher and further than sin And this will of God has its center in the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, and that makes me happy, I am part of that will. All those who believe in The Lord, Jesus, Christ, they are part God’s will, where I know God thought about me when I even didn’t exist. When I haven’t even committed the first sin. There God, thought, about, me. and He purposed in His heart that He wanted to make me something, that he wanted give me the Lord Jesus Christ and all those things that are connected with the lord Jesus. Let’s move on and then we have the those who are in Ephesus that are the recipients. We have heard about the historic context already, but he calls them saints on the one side and he called them faithful in Christ Jesus. They are saints and they are faithful. These two things he says about those believers and we need to occupy ourselves first with saints. He calls Now that may appear strange to us. And maybe we think those believers in Ephesus, they were quite special believers. They had a very close relationship to God and maybe they did something very special. That is the usual way we use the word saints in our everyday language. Somebody who is very closed to god, somebody who has done something special to him, who’s very pious, very God fearing. Now, we need to be careful how we used the words saint in everyday languages and how scripture uses the world saint. Let us turn quickly to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10. And there we learn actually something very wonderful. There we read, by that will, that again is the will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We, that are the believers, have been sanctified. I think we understand this. It’s not too difficult to understand that this is something that has already happened. We have sanctify. Somebody has done that. Now the meaning of sanctifying in the equivalent word in Hebrew and in Greek, they just mean to set apart. to reserve for oneself, to separate for one’s self. And that is actually what has happened. God has those who believe in the Lord Jesus separated for himself, set them apart and reserve them for Himself. That is something that has happen. The tense in which this phrase is used is perfect. That means something has happened in the past and it has remaining results. We have been sanctified and therefore we are sanctifying. we have that position before God. You can speak about positional sanctification. It’s not something that we try to acquire. 1 Peter 1-2 says that we have been sanctified by the Spirit and have no doubt that this sanctification happened when we were born again by water and Spirit. The water shows us more the purifying aspect where God dealt with our sins and those sins have washed away And the Spirit shows us this character where God worked something completely new, where He gave us, this new life, God’s life. God nature. And actually when we come to our letter to the Ephesians chapter, verse four, we actually will see that now we, that we might, should, That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That is what God had in mind. But now we are dealing with sanctification and that is something that we possess already. Many people connect the thought of sanctifications that, we need to overcome our sinful nature. We need improve our sinfull nature until we reach that point actually where we live sinless, without sin. Where we overcome that, where we reach that perfect state and where you then actually are saved. But that is not the language of Scripture. We have been sanctified already. And since that’s the case, of course, we are now called to live accordingly. That is also something that Scripture shows us. Let us read two Bible verses. 1 Peter 1.16, the first one. There we read, Be holy. For I am holy. The admonishment that is given here by Peter is be holy, live a holy life. And holy is the same word as sanctified. Live a life that’s separated from anything that isn’t in harmony with God. live a life separated from sin. And the reason that God gives is actually, for I am holy. Then we can also go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3. There we actually have the same thought before us. For this is the will of God. God has a moral will. We have Ephesians in front of us and we read about the Will of the God there. His absolute will, His counsels, and they will always come about. But God has also, secondly, a moral will. That is what we have before us here. And He also thirdly has a personal will for you and for me. and that is something that He might want for You, but not necessarily for Me. When it comes to his moral will, that is as true for you as it is for me, but it also does not always happen because we do not live according to our position. Our practical walk every day is not in accordance with who we are. It should be, it’s not. But when it come to His counsel, His absolute will that always comes about, and that’s something that we should differentiate. But here we read, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. Because we have been sanctified, we are called to live every day the life of those that have a sanctifying life. That is practical sanctifications, like where we experience the sanctify life Now let’s go back to Ephesians chapter 1. And that is what we learn now here. They were saints. Those believers in Ephesus, the smallest, And the most seasoned believer in that town, they were all saints. From the very first moment where we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are born again, we’re sanctified, whether we know it or not. That is the position that we have in The Lord, Jesus, Christ. that is how God looks at us and it cannot be taken away. It is safe and secure. But again we also are called to live. as those that have been sanctified. And then we have also they are faithful, they’re called faithful in Christ Jesus. That is more in reference to their practical everyday life. They were faithful. Then again, we see that those believers in Ephesus, they were in a very good practical state. And we learn here actually also that it is necessary that we have this good, practical, spiritual state in which we need to be in order to understand and grasp the thoughts that God wants to reveal to us. We come to verse 2. And in verse 2, we find two greetings, a twofold greeting and a true-fold relationship that we have to God. First of all, it is grace and peace. And that is something that comes from God, where grace comes form God and piece comes for God We have do with the God of grace. He is characterized by grace, and He delights to give grace And He’s the God of peace, and He wants to give us that peace. Now, this greeting, grace and peace is not uncommon. We find it in multiple letters. And we must understand one thing, that grace, peace don’t have to be understood in a saving sense. Let us remember that the Ephesians were saints already. They have experienced the saving grace of God as we learn in the second chapter verses 8 and 9. Year saved by grace through faith. That is something that they had experienced already But what Paul desires them to experience is that practical enjoyment of that grace, this unmerited, undeserved love that we need every day. And actually, that is something that, in particular, when it comes to the character of this letter, we needs. We need that Grace that you can really understand what God unfolds to us, that it becomes something that is ours. It is our in Christ, but we need to put our foot on it, so to say, that becomes practically ours and that we really enjoy it and live as such. And the same thing, and it’s interesting by the way, I just would like to highlight this, grace comes first and then comes peace. That is usually the order that you see. If we have this practical enjoyment of God’s grace where He meets us in grace, then usually we also have peace. And again, it’s not the peace with God, but it is rather the the Peace of the God. This God who wants to give His peace to us so that we are practically characterized by that peace. It is not the peace of conscience here, where we are free of any accusation within us of sin. No, that has been dealt with fundamentally. And so we have a perfect conscience, so to say. But this is the peace that we enjoy every day as we go through this life. Both come from God. And now this God is introduced to us in a twofold way. It is God, our Father, for one. And then we have the second relationship we had with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the twofold relationship that we enjoy. And first of all is God our Father that is here before us. It is also later that he blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There also we see it is the god and father of Our Lord, Jesus. Christ and that reminds us of those words that the Lord. Jesus, Christ spoke to Mary in John chapter 20. He says, I go to my God. and your God. And so far that was nothing new. But now he adds something that is for us so common. He says to my father and Your father. God through the Lord Jesus Christ has become our father for all those who believe in the lord Jesus christ. We have that relationship to God as our Father. and as such we can, as children of God, we have fellowship with Him as our Father. He is our father and then the Lord Jesus Christ, He’s our Savior, he’s the one that died for us, who gave His life and on the foundation of His sacrifice, of his death there on Calvary’s cross, We can now enjoy blessings. that go beyond imagination, that goes beyond what even the believers in the Old Testament enjoyed. And as we go… through those blessings that will unfold in this letter to us, we must never forget it took the Lord Jesus Christ. He needed to die, He need to lay down His life and suffer there on Calvary’s cross so that God could bless us in Him in the way He does so. But He is also our Lord, that is also something you must never forget. He has authority over us. We follow Him, we are His disciples. So far, as an introduction to this letter to the Ephesians and the two first verses, in the next video, we are going to start with this praise of the Apostle Paul and where he starts to unfold those blessings that are now ours in The Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us today and until the video I say goodbye and God bless.