Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20030601.htm

EPHESIANS: GOD'S SURE PLAN FOR INSECURE TIMES
Part I: Trusting In God's Sure DISCIPLESHIP For Insecure Times
(Ephesians 1:1-2 with 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Acts 9:1-22)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Through a series of events, the Lord has recently impressed me with the need to postpone a series I had said I would preach on the Book of Genesis. Instead, I must minister from Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians to encourage and direct God's flock on how God can and will disciple people amidst the deep evil that resides in the world today. Here are a few of the reasons why I came to this decision:

(1) Almost daily, fellow believers have been sending me e-mail media reports of incredible error or evil being promoted in our society.

(a) For example, in mid-May, someone sent me a report that a nominal Christian university here in Connecticut will be opening the first college gender-neutral dorm in the nation! Each student applying for admission will be randomly paired with a fellow girl or guy in a living arrangement without any consideration to their individual sexual orientation, whatever that might be!

(b) I was sent another e-mail of a court case in which a convicted sadistic murderer had his sentence thrown out by the presiding judge because he learned a couple of jurors had access to Bibles in the jury deliberation room!

Those sending me these messages are concerned and unsure of how to function amidst such wickedness!

(2) On May 22nd, our Church Ladies Bible Study witnessed two visiting women come and boisterously try to impose false doctrine on our ladies. When Chris Slate and Mikki Hinman later told me of the event, I replied these intruders most likely came from the "Brother Julius" cult that is making similar rounds in other area churches. Both the Ladies Bible Study group and our Church Board have made similar plans to address this matter were we to be "invaded" again by such cultists, but this event seem to have left some of us unsure of how to function amidst such EVIL that may INVADE our SPACE in our CHURCH services!

(3) This past week, I counseled several believers who fear evil in themselves or in other believers with whom they regularly relate!

Is there HOPE that GREAT SINNERS and people in an EVIL SOCIETY can be DISCIPLED in TODAY'S needy world? How can WE function in it with God's blessing?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "In viewing the deep evil I see in our society and even in people I know, it seems HOPELESS even to TRY to address spiritual needs in our era! Is there direction and encouragement on this?"
  1. Paul who wrote Ephesians exampled God's GREAT GRACE to disciple OTHER sinners, Eph. 1:1a; 1 Tim. 1:12-17; Acts 9:1-22:
    1. Paul who wrote Ephesians was God's INTENDED example of grace to disciple other sinners, Eph. 1:1a; 1 Tim. 1:12-17; Acts 9:1-23:
      1. Paul elsewhere detailed how he had once mercilessly persecuted Christians in errant unbelief, 1 Timothy 1:12-14.
      2. This persecution is detailed in Acts 9 where, in his pre-Christian days as a devout follower of Judaism, Saul of Tarsus angrily sought to destroy Christianity, cf. Acts 9:1-2.
      3. However, Jesus stopped him, leading Saul to faith in Himself to where, even at Damascus, Saul began to witness for Christ in the synagogue to the risk of his own life, Acts 9:3-19, 20-23.
      4. Indeed, Saul (later Paul) thus became a trophy of the patience and grace of God to reach any other sinner, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, 17.
    2. As a trophy of God's great grace, Paul introduced himself to the Ephesians as the highest of the spiritually called and gifted in Christ because of God's gracious will, Ephesians 1:1a:
      1. Paul announced he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ, the loftiest of all spiritual gifts and callings in Church History:
        1. The gifting and office of apostleship is listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28 as the preeminent spiritual gift and office in the Church.
        2. Since the office of apostleship was closed in the Early Church when Christ ceased appearing in Person to men (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1), Paul's gift and office is the greatest in kind for Church History!
      2. This highest of gifts and office was granted to this great sinner by the will of God Almighty, an infinite force that gives hope of a future ministry to other sinners like Paul, Eph. 1:1a; 1 Tim. 1:16.
    3. God had used Paul's own ministry to the EPHESIAN believers to demonstrate to them God's great grace as recorded in Acts 19:8-17:
      1. As Jewish opponents at Ephesus challenged Paul's credibility, God overturned their efforts, Acts 19:11; in contrast to Jewish legalistic ideas of purification, pagans were healed or exorcised of demons by accidentally touching Paul's facial perspiration cloths and labor aprons he'd discarded at the town dump, Acts 19:12 (UBS Grk. N.T., p. 493; Arndt & Ging., Grk.-Engl. Lex.of the N.T., s. v. soudarion (perspiration cloth) and simik inthion (work apron)!
      2. God also let Paul's ministry be contrasted with the futile efforts of errant Jewish exorcists who tried but failed to exorcise a man by invoking Paul's name to their peril and shame, Acts 19:13-16, 17. (Jews constantly complained about the nakedness of Greeks in their gymnasiums, so the flight of these Jews in nakedness gained enormous attention!) Paul's credibility was thus verified at the cost of the credibility of his Jewish critics, all to the glory of God's grace (after all, Paul himself came out of Judaism!), Phil. 3:4-7!
    4. Thus, Paul's introduction to the Ephesian Epistle serves to encourage other great SINNERS like him that they also can have their lives and works CHANGED by God's grace for God's GREAT GLORY!
  2. Those who received Paul's letter were trophies of God's GREAT GRACE to disciple OTHERS in an EVIL SOCIETY, Eph. 1:1b:
    1. In Paul's era, the city of Ephesus was a center of deep idolatry: (1) the pagan Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and (2) its bank was the treasury for Asia Minor (E. K. Simpson & F. F. Bruce, Eph. and Col., p. 15).
    2. Then, the believers Paul addressed in Ephesians had come out of the deepest of darkness: at their conversion, they gathered and burned spiritist and occult items worth million of dollars in our currency today (Acts 19:1, 10, 18-19; Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, ftn. to Acts 19:13).
  3. The salutation of the Ephesian Epistle HIGHLIGHTS the CONQUEST of God's GREAT GRACE in bringing PEACE from God to people once destined for judgment for sin, Ephesians 1:2.
    1. Paul hoped that his Christian Ephesian readers might continue to enjoy the grace of God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph. 1:2a.
    2. Paul also expressed his desire that they experience the peace that rises from the results of that grace in action, Ibid., Simpson & Bruce, p. 23.
    3. Thus, the grace of God that conquered the deep lostness of Paul and the deepest darkness of his Ephesian readers had produced peace in these Ephesian readers, the highlight of God's GREAT GRACE!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation from sin and be saved REGARDLESS of our PAST as was Saul, Jn. 3:16. (2) Then, by depending on God's indwelling Spirit, may we like Paul live righteously in our lives (Gal. 5:16-23) and (3) do God's assignment in OUR society, EXPECTING His blessing en route!

Lesson: The setting and content of Ephesians 1:1-2 reveals God CAN DISCIPLE the WORST of sinners who live in OUR society TODAY!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 For me, the most encouraging examples of God's willingness and power to save people in our society today have come from people we have known come to Christ through the ministry of our own body, Nepaug Church. I thought I would encourage you by reminding us all of one such testimony:

A meek little lady who lives in Hartford, Connecticut as is named "Irene" was once a dedicated propagator of the Jehovah's Witness cultic beliefs. This cult strongly denies the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ and the belief that salvation from sin and hell comes by faith alone in Christ's atonement on the cross. (cf. Van Baalen, The Chaos of the Cults, p. 266-271)

Well, "Irene" was led to faith in Christ by a party that once attended our Church, and so she asked if she could be baptized by me as a Biblical Christian in the Nepaug River behind our Church.

I remember the occasion well. Irene clasped her hands together in a posture of classic prayer when I put her under the water, and when she came up, she lifted her head back to look at the sky, her hands still clasped in prayerful devotion to Jesus her Savior, and her face simply glowed with joy and peace!

The last I heard about her, little, meek "Irene" was regularly risking her life to stop a Latin Kings drug dealer or gangster on a street corner, telling him, "Jesus Christ loves you and died for you. If you believe in Him and His death on the cross for your sins, you will be forgiven all of your sins and someday go to heaven."

Yes, that's right, a former Jehovah's Witness who witnesses for salvation through faith alone in the LORD Jesus Christ to members of the Latin Kings gang in Hartford, Connecticut! She was saved and baptized as a ministry of this Church!



As God did for Paul amidst the Ephesians at Ephesus, He has done for little, quiet "Irene" amidst the Latin Kings of Hartford! He is STILL able and willing to disciple ANYONE!



May we believe in Christ to be SAVED ourselves, and then DEPEND on His POWER and AUTHORITY to serve Him in our lives, EXPECTING our ministries to make an impact TODAY!