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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/terry-topley/introduction-to-ephesians/
Could we read, please, in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 1? Ephesians, chapter 1, please. Ephesians, chapter 1, and we'll read from verse number 1. Ephesians 1 and verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice verse 1 again. It really should read, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, just as it is at the end, to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Now, that's all I want to read, and trust God will bless his word with what will follow in the will of God. When you come to the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, it has been termed as the topstone epistle in the New Testament.
When you come to this epistle, you're on very high ground doctrinally, and you're really in the high escalons of the writings of Paul the apostle. It has been called the twin epistle because written around the same time as the epistle to the Colossians, they tell us that 50 of what is in Ephesians you will find in Colossians.
So it's a topstone epistle, and it's a twin epistle. It's also been called a Trinitarian epistle because if you read an epistle to the Ephesians, you will never, ever be a Unitarian because it is full of the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And so when you read this epistle, and I'd like you to keep your Bible open, as you read through it even casually, you'll come to the end of chapter 3, and there you will see a little word, and the little word is the word Amen.
And then when you come to the end of chapter 6 and you come there, you'll see the little word Amen. And so in our English version of this Bible, of this epistle, it's easily divided the first three chapters and then Amen, and then the next three chapters and then Amen.
And so it's often been said that the first three chapters are doctrinal and the next three chapters are practical. So there is a clear distinction even in the writing of the epistle. In verse 1 where we've read in chapter 1, Paul's an apostle.
When you come to chapter 6, Paul's an ambassador. When you come to chapter 3, Paul's a prisoner. When you come to chapter 4, Paul's a prisoner. In chapter 3, he's a prisoner of Jesus Christ. When you come to chapter 4, he's a prisoner of the Lord.
And so I would encourage you to read your Bible and to read it again and to read it again and to read it again and do as I was taught to read. Set a little notebook beside you. Forget about commentaries and all these things on the internet and so on.
Just read your Bible with a little notepad and a pen and write down what you enjoy and write down what strikes you and write down any questions you have and write down any problems that you might see and write down anything to encourage and then you can read your commentary or whatever you want to do.
But read your Bible. Make your Bible your number one book that you're going to read. We sing at home in Ireland, the best book to read is the Bible. We have read here and when I was just saved, I didn't even have a Bible, but when I was just saved and came into the assembly, I was taught when you're reading your New Testament, no matter where you're reading, try to see what the writer says about the Father and about the Son and about the Holy Spirit.
I've said already, Ephesians is full of that. And so when you come to the epistle to Ephesians, sit down and read it and read it again. It only takes 18 minutes to read. And if you're a slow reader, it takes 20 minutes, three minutes every chapter and there's six chapters.
And so in 20 minutes, you could have read this topstone epistle and this twin epistle and this Trinitarian epistle and you could have your notebook full. I just want you to think with me because recently I've been reading through it and I thought I'll do what the old man used to tell us to do.
I'll see what it says about the Father and I'll see what it says about the Son and I'll see what it says about the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to deal with the Father. I just want to think about what it says about the Son.
Now in the doctrine of the epistle, if you want to know in relation to the Father, he's the beloved. In relation to the body, he's the head. In relation to the building, he's the chief's cornerstone. In relation to the bride, he's the bridegroom.
But that's not the way I was looking at it. I was just reading through the epistle to see what Paul said in any verse about the Lord Jesus. And so we begin at verse one of chapter one. And I read these words, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus. A young believer, when you're reading your Bible, do what I've said, but every now and again, just sit back and ponder what you have been reading. Do what the Psalm says, Sela. Pause and consider and meditate and think about what you're reading.
And so as I was reading it over again, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus, I remembered what the old man used to tell us. When you get the name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, the emphasis is always on the first word.
So if it's Jesus Christ, it's Jesus, the man on earth, who's now in heaven. And the emphasis is on the man on earth, although he's now in heaven. When you get Christ Jesus, the emphasis is on Christ, the man in heaven, who was once on earth.
And so as I thought about that, I just thought simply this, you know, when Paul who wrote this, when he got saved, Christ was in heaven. When you got saved, Christ was in heaven. When I got saved, Christ was in heaven.
You and I are linked with a man in heaven. And so I thought about this, I thought about this, Christ, a man in heaven. And as I read down through the epistle, I came in chapter one, and he's talking about the power of God.
And he talks about the mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And so I thought about this, Christ is seated.
Christ is seated. As I sit here in my little study, and as we sit here today in Highland, there's a man and he's seated at the right hand of God. And he's there by the mighty power of God. And I thought about that, Christ is seated.
And I thought of Christ, the man in heaven, Jesus, the man who was once on earth. And I thought about this place where he is, and this position where he is. And I thought about the glorious person of the Lord Jesus, and how he went up, and he went in, and he sat himself down.
He's there inherently of his own right, by his inherent glory and person. He went up, and he went in, Hebrews tells us, and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty and high. And he's there by invitation, because the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou in my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
And he's sitting there in expectation, because his enemies are going to be under his footstool, or become his footstool. And I thought about Christ, and he's seated. But then Jesus, I started to think about the different places that he sat on earth.
And he sat over, he sat on the well at Sychar. And I thought to myself, yes, he sat on the well. And then I thought to myself, well, he sat in Peter's boat. He did. And then he sat over against the treasury.
And then he sat in the colt, the foal of an ass. And as I was pondering that in my mind, I thought to myself, well, the Lord Jesus, he's seated in heaven. But when he was here, how did he sit on the well?
Well, you know, he sat on the well as a soul winner. He sat on the boat as a teacher. He sat over against the treasury as a judge, as an assessor. He sat on the colt as the king. And then I did something else that the old man used to tell us to do.
I started to apply what I was reading to myself. So when you're reading, you record. And when you're reading, you meditate. And when you're reading, you apply it to yourself. And so I started to apply it to myself.
And I thought about the Lord Jesus. Here he is as a soul winner. Here he is. And he opens a conversation with this woman at Sychar. And he speaks to her about the living water. And he says, give me to drink.
And he speaks to her. And then he listens to her. And he speaks to her. And he listens to her. And he wins her. And he has patience with her. And he wins her to himself. And at last, she sees who he is.
And he reveals himself as the Messiah. And she goes to the people of the city, of the village. She says, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not just the Christ. You know something?
I said to myself, now listen. I want everybody to listen. Terry, have you spoken to anybody this week about their soul? Here's the man who's in glory, who's seated. And once he's sat in a well as a soul winner.
Let me ask you, brother. Let me ask you, sister. Have you an interest in the souls of men? For I believe this God is a God of whosoever. That there's a salvation for all mankind. That every soul that you meet, there's salvation for them.
And if you have an interest in the soul, have you spoken to anybody this week and told them about a man seated in heaven? And so I was applying it to myself. And then I thought to myself, well, the Lord Jesus in the boat, he sat as a teacher and he taught the people.
And I thought to myself, well, Terry, what about it? You're not a teacher, but he can share something of the word of God with people. And you know, just a month or so ago or six weeks ago, I was coming home from Scotland and I was enjoying, I was enjoying a Sam and it was bubbling over in me.
And you know, I was looking at the boat, I was looking around at all the people. I mean, I spotted this lady on her long hair and her dress and her husband with his nice cropped hair and his shirt and tie.
And I thought, well, they must be believers. They just stood out from the crowd. And I thought to myself, well, I'll just go over to them and I'll share this Sam with them and maybe encourage them. And I went over and I introduced myself and I says, it's great to see you.
I take it you're believers. Well, I hope we are. And I says, well, well, anyway, I was just enjoying the Sam and it was, I was looking around to see if I could share it with anybody. I'll just share it with you.
It'll shorten the journey. And they started to speak about Sam 84. And I said, you know, the Sam, it's, it's divided for us in the Bible because there's four verses and then a little word sealer, and then there's four verses and another little word sealer.
And then there's four verses. And I says, you know, I've written over the first four verses, the John section of this, um, and I've written over the next four verses, the Peter section of this, um, and I've written over the next four verses, the Paul section of this, um, and I said, you know, this is a pilgrim, Sam, and this is a man.
And he's away. He's away from the gathering center. And And he's away from the place of worship, and he's away from the gathering of the people of God, and he's away from the God of the center. And he longs to be there, and he longs to be with them.
And he begins to think of the little spiral and the little swallow, and they just fly in and out of the temple precincts at their will. They just come and they go, and there's nothing to hinder them. And he's miles away, and he just longs.
He longs to be there, and he longs for the God of the gathering center. He longs for the Lord himself. And I said, you know, that's the John section. I says, that reminds me of John in the book of Revelation, and he's on the Isle of Patmos, and he's away from the gatherings of the Lord's people, but he longs to be there.
And his mind is on the saints, and he goes in his mind and the Spirit and the Lord's day, and he's thinking about all the lampstands, those golden lampstands, those assemblies, and he's thinking about Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos and all those gathering centers and the conditions of the people of God, and he just longs to be there.
And he thinks about the Lord who walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and his affection is wrapped around the Lord. He would love to be there, but he can't. Some would love to be here today, but they can't.
Their heart is here, but they're not here. Their spirit's here, but they're not here. And I was telling these people, I said, you know, that's the John section. The man just longs to be with the gathering.
I hope you try to get it to all the gatherings of the Lord's people. I hope you're there at the breaking of bread. I hope you're there at the gospel meeting. I hope you're there at the prayer meeting.
I hope you're there at the Bible reading. I hope you're there at the ministry meeting. I hope you long to be with the people of God. And then I said, you know, the next section, that's the Peter section.
And I says, in that section, you know, the man has started the journey, and he's making his way to the center. He's making his way to the place where the Lord is. And I said, you know, he had to go through the valley of Baca, that dry, barren, hard place.
He longed to be where the people of God were, but he had to go through this valley. It was a valley of difficulty. It was a valley of tears. To get where he wanted to go, he had to go through this valley.
And I said, you know what he did? He made it a well. I says, I don't know if he really did this or not, but I believe he dug a well. And the barren place became a place of refreshment. And he was not only thinking about himself, but maybe, in my mind, I think about it like this, maybe he was thinking about those other pilgrims who were following on and coming behind him.
And they too would go through the valley. And they too would go through this barren, dry, arid, hard place. And he's thinking about them, and he wants to leave them a little refreshment to help them on their journey.
And I said, you know, that's just like Peter and his epistle. And Peter's been through the hard times, and Peter's been through difficulties, and Peter's been through trials, and Peter has been a man who has denied his Lord, and he's shed his tears of repentance.
And Peter's been imprisoned, and Peter's been beaten for his testimony. But Peter's been restored, and he's been recovered. And Peter's writing an epistle as an apostle, but he's writing an epistle as an elder with an affection for the people of God.
And he calls them pilgrims and strangers, and he's trying to help them as they're going through fiery trials as to try their faith. And they're going through the difficulty. And you know something, brothers and sisters, we all go through trials.
We all go through difficulties. We all go through the valley of Baca. We all go through the valley of tears, and we wonder at times, why? Why me? But maybe it's just to help some weary pilgrim that's coming behind you, some other brother, some other sister.
And you've been there, and you meet them, and you can put your armor around them, and you can shed their tears with them, and you can say, you know, brother, I've been there. The Lord is faithful, and the Lord will bring you through, and the Lord will stand with you in the trial.
But you must go through this dark valley to get where he is. And that's the Peter section. And you know, as I was talking to these people, you know, I deemed in my own heart, these are not believers. These are Cuneites.
And so I threw in a little about the blood. Peter says, we're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
And I told them about the redemption price that he paid at Calvary. And then I says there's the Paul section. And when we read that in the psalm, here's a man, and now he has reached, he's reached the place.
And he listens to the worship, and he listens to the singing, and he listens to the adoration, and he joins it. The praise that's going to the Lord. And as he's there and he's reveling in it, this is what he says, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. And here's a man and he's arrived and he's through the valley and he's on the other side. The Lord has brought him there. And that brings us back to Ephesians.
That's the Paul section. Why? Because you see, we're in the heavenlies in Christ. We're already there, brethren. We're reveling. We're reveling in the heavenlies. We're reveling in a person. We're reveling in the Christ who's seated at the right hand of God.
And as I thought about that, I simply, I just simply in my own little mind and in my own little note, I wrote this, Christ is seated. That's what I want you to note. Christ is seated. But you know, when I read on down in Ephesians, he not only set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, but look at verse number 21 in this, in this chapter, it says he set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, not only in this age, but in the age that is to come.
And I sat back and I thought about that. Christ is seated. And I just wrote it down beside that. Christ is supreme. Oh, there's a man in heaven tonight while you and I are seated here and he's seated at the right hand of God and he's far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named.
He's supreme. No matter, no matter what, what strata, no matter the, what hierarchy of the angel you get named, no matter, no matter whether it's the angel or archangel, seraphim or terrapin, whether it's demon or devil, Christ is supreme, far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
He's already told us in this chapter, before we got to that verse, that God is going to head up all things in Christ, pointing to millennial kingdom, pointing a day when he, when he will come and he will subdue all things unto himself, when he will subdue kings, when he will subdue generals, when he will subdue armies, when he will subdue nations, when he will subdue all and he will rule from the river to the ends of the earth.
As I thought about that and I pondered it over, I thought to myself, what a great, what a great God we have. What mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and set him at his own right hand into heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
You see the man that you and I are linked to, he's seated and he's supreme, supreme. And then I read on, do you know what it says there, and I've put all things under his feet, all things under his feet.
What does that mean? That means, that means that all are subject to him, all are subject to him. You know something, that's very important for the Ephesians because the Ephesians were once linked with witchcraft and black arts and they were once held in bondage by a spirit power.
You read Acts 19, how they were delivered by the gospel, the gospel of a risen man, the gospel of a man who's seated and who's supreme and all these beings are subject to him. And Paul is showing that he's greater than all the powers of darkness.
They're all subject to Christ. As I pondered that, I thought, what a God, what a Savior. You and I are linked with Christ. And you know, I thought to myself, well, this is a mighty epistle. No wonder it's called a topstone epistle.
And then I read on, back to verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and I thought to myself, now I stopped here, you better go back a wee bit because Paul's an apostle. He's a sent one. That's what apostle means.
He's a sent one. Who's the sender? He's an apostle. The one who has sent him is the one who's seated and the one who's supreme and the one to whom all are subject. And here's Paul, and he says, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
It was a risen man that sent Paul. And as I sat back in my little seat and my little study, I thought to myself, well, wasn't it good that Paul wasn't disobedient? Wasn't it good that Paul was obedient?
Wasn't it good that Paul did what our brother read, Lord, what do I have me to do? Wasn't it good that Paul obeyed the risen Lord? I'd say that these Ephesians would rise up and call him blessed, and thank God for the day that he came with the gospel to them.
Do you know, brethren, I just want to say this. It came to my mind as I was sitting in my little room. Forgive me for speaking so much about myself, but you see, in our day, now listen, in our day there is a movement, there is a movement to diminish the authority of the apostle.
An apostle was a man who was sent, and he was sent with the authority of the one who sent him. He represented the one who sent him. And if an apostle came in here tonight, today, and he began to teach us, he would have the authority of the one who sent him, the one who's seated, and the one who's supreme, and the one to whom all are subject to, and Paul was subject to him.
And I want to say as you read through the epistle to the Ephesians, if you read any apostles' epistles, it's good for you to be subject to what he writes. If we were just to stay in this epistle, and we've all, I'm a failure, we've all failed in these things, don't get me wrong, but this man, Paul, he's going to write about unity.
How are we getting on at unity? Yes, I have failed in that. He writes about purity. How are we getting on at purity? I have failed in that. He writes about honesty. He writes about an enemy. He writes about safety.
Do well for us all to be subject to what he writes, to apply it to our lives. As I pondered the apostle, he's a sent one, and the man who sent him is seated, supreme, and to him all are subject. And I had to apply it to myself.
Terry, are you subject? He's an apostle of Christ Jesus. He's writing to the saints at Ephesus, to the believers in Christ Jesus. The faithful, he's not dividing the saints to those that are faithful, those that are not.
He's distinguished. He's identifying who the saints are. They're the believers in Christ Jesus. And I'll just finish with this, because there's so much, and I'm still in verse 1. He's the Savior. He's the Savior.
The believers in Christ Jesus. I thought in my little study, well, he's the Savior. He's seated, and he's supreme, and they're all subject to him. And he's the sender out of the apostle, but he's the Savior of sinners.
He's the real soul here, and you're not saved. The man in heaven is the object of faith. Paul tells us here about the blessings, and he tells us about this wonderful salvation, and he starts to unfold.
And he tells us how we get into this, and it's not verse 4, brother, and how we get into it. No, no. It's verse number 13, how we get into it. We're not chosen into salvation. We hear the word of truth, and we believe, and that's how we come into it.
No one ever chosen to be saved. No such thing as chosen sinners in the New Testament. The gospel of God goes out to whosoever. Every person in this building can be saved if they're not saved. How do you get it?
You believe the gospel. You believe the word of salvation. You trust him who's seated, and who's supreme, and who all are subject to, the one who sends out the apostles, because he's the savior, the object of faith.
I'm still in verse 1. You read it for yourself. I could go on, and go on, and go on. There's so much in this epistle about the Father, and about the Son, and about the Spirit. And I leant back in my little chair at home, and I thought, what a marvelous epistle.
No wonder it's called the Tapstone Epistle. And Colossians must be great as well, because it's a twin epistle. And it's full of the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. No wonder it's called the Trinitarian Epistle.
And I recommend it to you. May God bless this work.