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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Bevan shares some of his life experiences and challenges with discipleship.
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Have you ever had a moment where you hear God speaking to you? Or you hear a sermon and it dislodges something in your heart? Have you ever got in a fight with someone and found some rage? A moment where you know something needs changing but you don't know how to change it.
Today we are going to look at the biblical pattern Jesus gave us to unpack moments like this, where we become aware of God speaking to us. We're going to look at this out of Ephesians but also from the gospel...
As a prisoner for the Lord, THEREFORE, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received (Ephesians 4:1)
Last week we wen't over the significance of the word THEREFORE. You may have heard this saying: “Whenever you see a therefore in the Bible, you need to stop and see what it is there for”. This word serves as reminder that something significant has just happened - a flashing neon sign – flickering in the text saying PAY ATTENTION! PAY ATTENTION!
Everything said before the THEREFORE (chapters 1-3) shows the truth of God’s character, the way God deals with humans, and the Freedom and Love of Christ - the good news of the gospel. After the THEREFORE usually sits the practical instructions and responses; but if we just look at the practical instructions without the first bit we miss the heart, the revelation of who God is and we can slip into behaving right to in order to earn favour - rather than out of God's truth.
We have moments where we know all the truths from the first three chapters - we are loved, redeemed, forgiven, adopted, chosen, freely given grace etc. - BUT - instead of continuing that with THEREFORE we say "but".
Where there is a 'THEREFORE' moment, a realisation of the call of God, or sense of being asked to step into something. There is a way that steps into our lives, through the pattern of repentance and belief (Mark 1:14-15).
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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The mystery of the gospel is that while God picked the one group in Genesis 12 – His plan had always been about the many – the many languages, the many skin colours, the huge diversity founded in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. The mystery and surprise of the Gospel is that every single one of them is included together, with Israel as members together of one body, sharing together in the promise in Jesus Christ.
This is the boundless riches of Christ and the administration of this mystery. And the ramification is COSMIC. God’s huge surprise is that the CHURCH is the vehicle by which God’s wisdom is made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly realms.
The church is the body of spiritual warfare – that we do not battle against flesh and blood but the rulers, principalities and powers of this age. The Church is God’s surprise weapon!
The way God has chosen to reveal His wisdom is through the church.
The call of the church is to be a shining example of a group of people who have worked out how:
What does it take for this to genuinely happen? What does it take for the church to become the body by which the manifold wisdom of God is known to rulers and authorities in heavenly realms?
We have to acknowledge that this is not true in our society and its not true in our own worldviews. We have to be convicted by the mystery of Christ and embrace the discipline of thinking, acting and behaving as if it is true.
This is the call to us – to become ones who embrace those who are different to us so that: Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly realms.
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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As we continue to journey through the book of Ephesians the The sentence out of chapter two that captured my attention this week was: "Remember you were separate from Christ - without hope and without God in the world."
Think about how we use the word hope in our world. When I listen to the people around me I hear it used like this: “we hope the All Blacks win”, “we hope we will get a promotion”, “we hope that the money will stretch to pay the power bill”, “we hope we will find the spouse of our dreams”, “we hope our children will go well at school”, “we hope we won’t get cancer” - the definition is “want something to happen or be the case”.
Hope’s definition in this world is - we hope the future will go well but at it’s base it’s an expression of uncertainty...we hope it will work out, but we’re not sure. And that uncertainty causes us to try and build things to pin our hope on...
Things, people, experiences or causes that help us feel like the future will be better. But those fixed points - those stable things are hard to find and even if you do have them - there is little guarantee they’ll stay - Earthquakes wreck houses, humans wreck relationships, jobs are lost, causes move. Hope is hard to hold on to.
Fortunately this isn't where it ends, it goes on to say "BUT now in Christ Jesus - you who were once far away have been brought near". He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near, Grace and Peace to you - Rangimarie, the rightness of heaven resting on you... this peace which gives us a new hope.
Instead of being hopeless we have hope because of our:
ACCESS TO THE FATHER BY THE HOLY SPIRIT and by the Holy Spirit we know the presence of God - as we are BEING BUILT AS A PLACE WHERE GOD DWELLS
Today is Pentecost Sunday - when we remember and celebrate that 50 days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers as they waited in that upper room in Jerusalem. Waited to be clothed with power from on high - waited to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And sometimes I wonder if we don’t fully appreciate what this means for us now or the vital need for us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who does the work in us to fill us with Hope...
This is a key role of the Holy Spirit and why we need to seek to be filled together - that God might be found here amongst us by those who don’t know Him yet. We need to seek the filling of the HS in order that God might be found here on earth...
Remember what it was like to be separate - without hope or God and then be filled and live, by the power of the Holy Spirit in a way to offer the hope you have to others and to being built with those around you into a place where God can be found.
We are called to remember what it was like and to live empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring hope and the presence of God to a lost and broken world around us.
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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John brings us an encouragement of the kind and generous nature of God.
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Today Murray talks us through Ephesians 2:1-10 and its description of the three kinds of death: physical, spiritual and eternal separation BUT also how God has stepped in and that’s changed everything - not only that - God has raised us to a higher spiritual dimension where we can see the things that he is doing.
This whole passage is about the wonder of Gods grace - God is on the move with His incomparable grace - see Eph. 3:20-21
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Today we finish up in chapter one of the book of Ephesians - here we find Paul praying for the people and my hope is that as we explore this today we would be encouraged and empowered to pray for one another in a way that sees the realities of the Grace and Peace of God extended in our hearts, habitats and humanity.
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Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Today we continue to explore the first chapter of Ephesians - looking at Ephesians 1:1-14. My prayer is that as we delve into here the questions we would ask ourselves are: What does it mean to be chosen? How am I part of God’s rescue plan? How am I offering Grace and Peace to those who are a key part of my world?
** Audio can take a minute or two to load, please press play and be patient **
Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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Reading through the books written by Paul and I was struck by something. Lets see if you see it too? What do all these books have in common...
Grace and peace... grace and peace... grace and peace...
Now either that’s because it was the formal thing to do. Like our 'To Whom it May Concern'. Maybe, but my sense of it and what I feel God wants to embed in us (individually and as a community) as we work through Ephesians is captured in these two words is a culture and reality we forget easily.
The reality for us is that Grace & Peace are things we can soak in - but all around us are competing options. Consumerism, materialism, selfish ambition, individualism all clamour for our attention and seek to shape the world we see. We are invited to stand under the flow of GRACE & PEACE - I think Paul writes it every time as it is something we easily forget, yet it is crucial to us to live as the people of God if we want to see the Kingdom extended.
** Audio can take a minute or two to load, please press play and be patient **
Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian—both in faith and in practice, it invites us to continue our journey of “Shema” - hearing and responding to the invitation and challenges God is placing on our hearts as individuals, households and as a community.
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What was church life when Jesus was a child? How did his community interact with the word of God? It is through this lense James guides us into the start of our series on the book of Ephesians.
