Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20130407.htm

THE PRISON EPISTLES: NURTURE FOR OPPRESSED BELIEVERS
I. Ephesians: Nurture In Living Focused On God's Eternal Purpose For Christians
B. Nurture In Focusing On The Believer's Spiritual Position For Earthly Life And Ministry
1. Nurture In Focusing On God's Salvation Of Believers Unto God's Foreordained Works
(Ephesians 2:1-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. When Paul wrote the "Prison Epistles" of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon in his Roman imprisonment, his status as a prisoner troubled believers, cf. Philippians 1:12-13; Colossians 2:1-2; 4:7-8 and Philemon 22; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672, "Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians."
    2. One of their concerns undoubtedly was the way such an imprisonment seemed to hinder Paul's outreach efforts as an apostle of Christ in that era, a concern at which Paul hinted in Philippians 1:12-14.
    3. Aware of this need, Paul wrote his Prison Epistles with special focuses to comfort and stabilize his readers, and Ephesians 2:1-10 focuses on the certainty of our earthly capacities to live and minister for the Lord regardless what troubles we face in the world, a focus of encouraging insight for us believers today:
  2. Nurture In Focusing On God's Salvation Of Believers Unto God's Foreordained Works, Eph. 2:1-10.
    1. Before salvation, the Christian was helplessly, hopelessly doomed to eternal damnation, Ephesians 2:1-3:
      1. Before salvation, the Christian had been spiritually dead in his tresspasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1.
      2. In that state, he followed the course of this lost world, following Satan, the "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience," Eph. 2:2 ESV; Ibid., ftn. to Eph. 2:2.
      3. In addition, the Christian before salvation lived in the passions of his sinful nature, expressing the lusts of the body and of the mind, being by nature destined for God's eternal wrath for all lost men, Eph. 2:3.
    2. However, at salvation, God positionally justified, raised up and enthroned the believer in the heavens in Christ entirely of God's work apart from any human effort or merit on the part of the believer, Eph. 2:4-9:
      1. In His great love for the lost man, and in His rich mercy, so that even when the Christian had been spiritually dead in his trespasses, when he believed the Gospel of Christ, God made him alive together with Christ, saving his soul by grace, Ephesians 2:4-5.
      2. This salvation was through faith apart from any merit or works on the Christian's part, Eph. 2:8-9.
      3. Not only was the believer justified, but God made him spiritually alive in Christ, and raised him up with Christ and made him positionally to sit enthroned in Jesus Christ in the heavens, Ephesians 2:6.
      4. This was done that in the eternal ages to come, God might show the exceeding riches of His unmerited favor toward the believer through Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:7. "Believers will [thus] be an eternal display of the grace of God," Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Ephesians 2:7; brackets ours.
    3. Accordingly, the believer is God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus at the point of salvation unto good works in the Christian life, works that were ordained in eternity past by Almighty God, that the believer should "walk" or function in them, Ephesians 2:10.
    4. In this context, then, the works a believer positioned in Christ performs for God, their having been ordained from eternity past by God Who is above all entities in the universe (cf. Eph. 1:21-23), can ONLY be EFFECTIVE regardless WHAT TROUBLES the believer faces in his earthly walk PROVIDING he LIVES by FAITH in serving God in HIS power and leading, cf. 2 Timothy 1:6-7!
    5. In the case of the imprisoned Apostle Paul then, his readers were to trust that even his incarceration was in God's permissive will and somehow advanced God's plan that Paul minister as His apostle to the nations, Acts 9:15. [Though Christians in Paul's era did not know it, his imprisonment served opportunity for him to HAVE to WRITE the "Prison Epistles," thus greatly edifying millions in future generations of Christians in line with God's PURPOSES for Paul to be an effective apostle to the nations!]
Lesson: The salvation and positioning of the believer in the heavenlies in Christ out of a hopeless state of utter human helplessness prior to salvation is so fully and wonderfully accomplished by God, that His eternally preordained works for the believer WILL make him EFFECTIVE in SERVICE in GOD'S plan PROVIDING the believer functions in God's grace and will in a walk of faith.

Application: May we take heart that all we do as believers for the Lord WILL be effective regardless WHAT we FACE, providing we WALK by FAITH in dependence upon God's spiritual provisions!