A UNCOMMON, COMMON GREETING (Eph 1:1a)

Good morning There we go. I just want to start off with a few announcements.

We have a new members class January 29th. That's next Sunday After cornia feast we'll have membership class and if that's something you're praying about You can definitely attend and just see kind of how we go through our statement of faith and what we teach and believe here

And it's a wonderful time. That'll be after our fellowship meal and then the next Sunday We are going to have a members meeting.

So we're going to talk about important Exciting stuff. So please mark that on your calendars

Wednesday nights We've been going through a series of eschatology the study of the end times and last week

We talked about a few things and I got a bunch of wide looks like post millennial ism Wow, so that's been a lot of fun and we got two more weeks of Eschatology and brother

Adam will be teaching this Wednesday on all millennial ism and I am super pumped about that So that's

Wednesday at 630. Please don't miss out on that And if you would check the the band app, we have a new greeter schedule

So please mark the dates that you're supposed to serve in the greeting ministry if you remember here at 12 5

And so with that being said we start all of our services by praying for a local church

And so this morning we want to pray for oh, I want to pray for a local church. But before we do

Also want to mention g3 conference. So I was looking on the band app and we have a deadline coming up For the price.

It's about to jump another $100 or so. So if you're wanting to go to g3, please talk to Jamie AG Or Megan Adams, I think we're gonna have a number of families go to g3 this year

It's on the sovereignty of God and I've been the last two g3s and it's just been amazing So, please reach out to them reach out to me

And like I said, is it February 1st where the price is about to go up a little bit more so we got to be on That okay, we're gonna pray for Highland Baptist Church.

So if you would please bow your heads with me Heavenly Father We just want to thank you so much for this

Lord's Day and everybody that you've brought here Lord We want to especially lift up Highland Baptist Drive Church Lord.

I just lift up their leadership Lord I pray that they would be diligent to all the things that you have called them to do

God to equip the Saints for every good work and to just feed them your word feed them your truth and allow you to do the work that only you can do with your people and so God we just We pray for them and we pray for any opportunities that we can come alongside them

Outside of just merely prayer God I just prayed that you would open up the doors for evangelism to their side of the community and for us to lock arms together

In the gospel, we pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen we've been praying this morning as a team when we came in and started running through the

Logistics of today with songs and sound and all the stuff that goes along with that But as we were together and we were praying

We were acknowledging the fact that each one of us if we are in Christ if we are believers We have experienced the life giving

Presence of the Holy Spirit within us all week long but There's something unique about gathering with the

Saints together on the Lord's Day, isn't there? There's there's something when his children come together to worship him

Where we get to experience him in a very unique way It's not that he's here any more than he was when when you were in your closet on your knees

With him or at work or or at school or whatnot But it does mean that we experience it in a very unique way.

And so I look forward to these days I hope you do too as we come together and I look around and see the

Saints together so before we jump in we like to start with a call to worship and Our call to worship always comes from Scripture and it's a read and response of that passage and today is

Psalm 66 verses 16 through 20 and hopes that God's very words from his his

Scripture will impress on our hearts on our minds the

Greatness the immensity of who he is and guard our guard us and guide us into his throne room for worship

Amen So let's stand for our call to worship this morning The psalmist says come and hear all who fear

God and we will take what he has done for our soul We cried to him with our mouth and high praise

If we had cherished iniquity in our heart the Lord would not have listened

Oh blessed be God because he has not rejected our prayer He has not rejected our prayer or removed his steadfast love from us and all of God's people said

Amen. Amen. Let's pray a prayer of adoration this morning to that great

God Dear Heavenly Father Lord, we we stop now and we set our affection and our attention upon you

Lord You have heard our cries You have attended to our voice because we are your children

Well, we long to bless you this morning through praise through honor because you are worthy of praise

You're worthy of all honor And all glory belongs to you we're not bringing you any glory where we're simply pointing to the glory that already exists and And the magnificent try you

God Father I pray that we would sing

Loudly with our voices what is in our hearts That it would come up as a sweet smelling aroma to you as we pray and as we read your word not as we look to you as we

Seek after you this morning be honored in it in Christ's name

There's joy in the house of the Lord There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet and we shout out your praise

We worship the God who was we worship the God who is

Prison doors He parted the raging sea

We sing to the God who heals, we sing to the God who saves, we sing to the

God who always makes a way. For he hung up on that cross, then he rose up from that grave, my

God still rolling stones away. There's joy in the house of the

Lord, there's joy in the house of the Lord today. We won't be quiet, we shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord, our God is surely in this place.

We won't be quiet, we shout out your praise. He has redeemed us, he has called us, he has set us apart, he has predestined us for his work, for his purposes.

Let's declare this, because we were the beggars, and now we're royalty, right? Let's sing this out.

We were the beggars, well now we're royalty. We were the prisoners, well now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Well, let the house of the Lord sing praise. Let's sing that out again, church.

Yes, we were the beggars, and now we're royalty. And we were the prisoners, and now we're running free.

Yes, we are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Well, let the house of the Lord sing praise. There's joy in the house of the

Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet, and we shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord, because our God is surely in this place.

We won't be quiet, and we shout out your praise. All that God has done for us is based on who he is.

We don't know who he is. We don't know the magnificent glory that he's got. We have no concept of what he's done for us.

You made the star we host. You traced the mountain peaks.

You paint the evening sky with wonder.

The earth, it is your throne, from desert to the sea.

All nature testifies your splendor.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing his greatness, all creation.

Praise the Lord. Oh, raise your voice. You heightened all your depths, from furthest east to west.

Let everything that has breath praise the

Lord. You reached into the dust. Let's sing this out, church. You reached into the dust, and love your spirit breathed.

You formed us in your very likeness.

To know your wondrous works, to tell your mighty deeds, oh, to join the everlasting chorus.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing his great creation.

Praise the Lord. Oh, raise your voice. You heightened all your depths, from furthest east to west.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Let symphonies resound.

Let drums and chorus ring out. Let symphonies resound.

Let drums and chorus ring out. All heaven hear the sound of the

Lord. Let every nation bring its honor to the king.

Aurora, you praised the

Lord. Praise the

Lord. Raise your voice. You heightened all your depths, from furthest east to west.

We are distant burning stars, all creatures near and far.

From sky to sea to shore. Sing out forevermore.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalm 57 reads,

Be merciful to me, O God. Be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge.

In the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by.

I cry out to God, Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me.

He will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and faithfulness.

My soul is in the midst of lions. I lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.

They set a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but have fallen into pits themselves.

My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody.

Awake, my glory. Awake, O harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you,

O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. O God, you are so wonderful and mighty.

God, all creation points back to you. And Lord, we understand that we are creatures, created, temporal, finite.

God, and we are sinful. And so, Lord, as we look to you, we pray for forgiveness. God, and we know that you are faithful and just to always forgive.

God, please work repentance in our hearts. God, please help us to forsake the way of lawlessness and look to you in your grace and in your love.

God, I pray that this morning that you would remove any distractions in our hearts beside us, in front of us,

God, and that we would just see you. And God, please let your truth vindicate our heart and edify your people.

We pray these things in your name, Jesus. Do things just a little bit differently this morning.

We are about to observe the Lord's Supper together this morning, before the sermon, to really have this mindset of unity as we come together to listen to the preaching of God's word.

And so I want to read a passage to you out of John chapter 6. Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I give is the life of the world, and that is my flesh.

And so Jews then disputed among themselves and said, How can this man give us flesh to eat?

Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because the Father, and so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Amen. Now this is an interesting passage because I don't think this directly deals with the

Lord's Supper, but there's so many wonderful truths there that point us back to Jesus. We are in Christ spiritually.

He died on our behalf, and we have fellowship with the Father, with the Son, by faith in Him.

And so this is a time of wonderful fellowship. When we come to the Lord's Table, we take these elements in remembrance of all of what

Christ has done for us, what He's continuing to do in our lives, and what He will do one day in glory when we get to sit at the marriage supper of the

Lamb. And so this is a time to search your heart. Scripture does tell us not to come to the table in an unworthy manner.

Maybe there's unrepentant sin going on in your life, and if that's you, I pray that you would go to God, that you would not come partake, but tell somebody.

Come to me or Pastor Nathan. We would love to come alongside you and help restore that relationship with you and the

Lord. But like Pastor Nathan always says, this is not a time for penance. On one hand, we could never be worthy enough to come before the

Lord, but Christ, He is worthy. And if we are resting in Him, then you are free to come to this table.

And we also ask you, if you are a member at an evangelical church in good standing, this table is for you.

But maybe there's once again strife in your life in that area. Please search out

Pastor Nathan and myself, and we'd love to come to you and help. So with that said, let's once again go to the

Lord in prayer. Before we pray, we are going to stand up. And if you would, come to the back and make a line and partake this way, and then sit down after that.

So let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for everybody that you've brought here this morning.

God, I especially love the sound of life, God, and we will always just praise you for that.

God, as we prepare our hearts to go to the table, Lord, please help examine us. Please help us to examine our own hearts to make sure,

God, that there's nothing in us that we are holding back and not confessing to you. So, Lord, I just pray that you'd bless this time as we partake in the

Lord's Supper. We pray these things in your name, Jesus. Amen. Beautiful picture of unity in Christ.

Amen. Just as we talk about it every week, we're looking back to that sacrifice of our

Savior. Spilt blood and body given for us. We look around as we partake, as everyone is coming around to the table and taking of these elements.

Nothing magical in the elements, but there's something spiritual about it, isn't there?

There's something of unity that God has prescribed in this ordinance, and we get to partake as one.

In Christ, as Paul says, right? And looking for that great feast one day.

But we also live in this world as we partake, and as we just get a taste of that great truth as we see the word in the ordinance of the

Lord's Supper. But we have to live this life in a broken world, right? And we long for living a righteous life, yet as the song we're getting ready to sing declares this great truth, that yes, we are living out righteous, holy living for our

Savior, for our great and mighty God who demands it. But it is not I, but Christ that does so through me.

And that's what we're picturing with this Lord's table. Amen. So, Pastor Jeremiah is going to come around and pick up cups from you, but let's stand and let's sing this great truth.

What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer?

There is no more for heaven now to give.

He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and vast.

To this I hold, my hope is only

Jesus. For my life is wholly bound to His.

Oh, how strange and divine I can see.

All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me.

Night is dark, but I am not forsaken.

By my side, the Savior, He will stay.

My labor is innocent rejoicing, for in my labor is displayed.

To this I hold, my shepherd will defend.

And through the dear shore,

I can see

Jesus. For He has said that He will bring me home.

Oh, and day by day, I know He will renew me.

Until I stand with joy before the throne.

To this I hold, shall repeat, yet not

I. Let's sing that verse out again.

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. My lips shall repeat, yet not

I. But through Christ in me. Yet not

I, but through Christ in me. My Jesus, I love

Thee. I know Thou art worthy of sin.

I resign. My gracious Redeemer.

My Savior art Thou. If ever

I Jesus tis now. Oh, I love

Thee because Thou purchased my pardon.

On threefold way.

I say Jesus tis now.

In life. I say

Jesus tis now. It's coming today in mansions of glory.

I say Jesus tis now.

Continue our time of worship now through a time of giving. Let's pray now that God would be honored in giving out of not a begrudging compulsion, but out of a heart of worship.

Dearly Father, thank you. Thank you for who you are and what you've done for us and what you've given us, your children.

And we pray now as we give that this would be honoring to you. You don't need our money, but it does belong to you.

So God, I pray as your children that we would graciously give towards your kingdom purposes.

Lord, I pray for us as a church that we would not be acting sinfulness in how we use those resources.

That they would be used for your kingdom purpose and glory alone. In Christ's name, amen, you may be seated.

Excellent time of worship and looking and gazing upon our great

Savior. So let's go ahead and open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians as we continue our new study.

This is week two, of course, our new study through this beautiful epistle. So I want us to look at verses one and two of the

Apostle Paul's opening as he begins this letter.

Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse one. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our

Father and Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful opening to an immensely deep epistle and letter to the church in Ephesus.

So before we dive in, let's do as we always do. Let's seek the source, amen. Let's go, let's pray, let's ask

God to illuminate our hearts and minds through the power of the Holy Spirit. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again and we are so thankful for your word.

But God, we know that in our frailty with our frail minds, we misunderstand, we misinterpret.

God, we miss hear. There are so many things that go missing within the context of our broken understanding.

God, you are gracious. You have given each one of us that are in you this morning the indwelling

Holy Spirit so that we have eyes to see, we have ears to hear. And God, I pray that the truth of your word would be declared today in Christ's name, amen.

Well, last week, of course, was our introduction and it was an introductory overview.

If you notice, we didn't really dive into the text per se as we usually do. We just did this flyover view of this immensely deep epistle wherein we were able to see this overarching theme within the letter that the

Apostle Paul is putting forward. We were able to see the fact that he keeps repeating this phrase, in Christ, in Christ, over and over again and driving this idea home that, hey, this book is a resource for you,

Christian. It tells you who you are. And so we see this overarching theme, one that is grounded in the overwhelming riches of being in Christ.

This beautiful truth, this beautiful phrase that Paul continues to repeat. And if you were with us last week as we started this, you will recall that this letter, the book of Ephesians, has two parts.

It's essentially split right down the middle. You have the first three chapters that Paul has written that are who we are.

Who we are in Christ, hence that repeated phrase over and over again. It's essentially doctrine, right?

It's theology. The Apostle Paul is laying out for us in those first three chapters theology, information about who we are and how

Christ has worked and how God has orchestrated and predestined and calling and bringing salvation about for His children.

But then the second half of the book, the last three chapters, we see how we as Christians should live in light of that truth.

And so today I actually had a plan. Actually, for the next two weeks, I had a plan of doing part two and part three of an introduction wherein we would spend time looking at the people of Ephesus.

We would spend some time looking at the background of the Apostle Paul's relationship to the people in Ephesus and the church that was there.

I was going to spend some time looking at historical context. However, if you've been here long, you know how often

I change my mind on Saturday mornings. And hopefully this wasn't Nathan changing his mind. Prayerfully, this was the

Holy Spirit changing my mind and Pastor Jeremiah working in tandem with that.

But I would like for us instead to go ahead and dive into the epistle. I want us to dive into the book. And what we're going to do when we dive in is then slowly bring about some of those details as we go along over the next few weeks.

Or as I said last week, the next few months. And Brother Keith called me out in the sermon

Q &A laughing that this is only going to take a few months. I said, yeah, 64 months is a few months, right?

I'm not saying it's going to last that long. We don't know. But we trust God. And we're just going to dive into this. And the first thing that I want us to see in this letter is an uncommon common greeting.

An uncommon common greeting. This greeting from the Apostle Paul as he's writing this letter, it's common in the sense that this was a customary way for someone to identify themselves when they wrote anyone back in this time.

You would start at the beginning of the letter. Now, it's hard for us to comprehend that. And we kind of skip over those as we read. Let's be honest.

When you read the epistles, you kind of skip over the first three verses. You skim through them, right? Because it's just an introduction.

You're like, it's the same introduction over and over again. But these introductions are common then because nowadays, well,

I guess we don't even do it. We do email and text now. So you don't even have to identify yourself. But back when

I was younger, you hand wrote letters to everybody. And what you would do in our culture is you would write to whoever you're writing.

Oh, dear John. And then you'd jump right into the topic of the subject. And you don't identify yourself until the end, right?

It's, oh, love Nathan and the Hargrave family or whatever. But this is not the way things worked back then.

And so any letter that you see, there's an identification right up at the front. And the recipient of this letter expected the author to identify themselves.

And rooted in this common practice of identification was a hierarchy of identity.

Meaning, how much stock do I need to place in the words of this letter?

How much stock do I need to place in the words of this letter? And that greatly depends on the authority of and or the author of the written letter.

I mean, we essentially do the same thing, right? I mean, come on. When the prince of Nigeria sends you an email, like that's important, right?

You got to open it. I'm kidding. He's not really a prince. He's some broke dude with a server in India.

But I laugh. But really, we do this. When we receive a letter, let's say from the state.

Anybody ever been summoned for jury duty? When you receive a letter from the state summoning you to jury duty,

I'm going to take that a lot more seriously than when the car dealership down the road summons me to their new big sale.

It's a very different thing. I'm identifying the authority and the person in which this letter is written.

And I'm justifying what value I place on the words of this. And identifying an entity's identity informs us of its authority.

And as I'm reading that, I'm realizing you can't say that five times fast, right? Identifying an entity's identity informs us of its authority.

Hence, the government, lots of authority. The car dealership, no authority.

I'm identifying who this is. And now I know how seriously to take the letter. And so, identification at the onset of a letter was by all means common during this day.

And this is why we see this pattern used all through the New Testament. We see Peter using it.

We see Jude using it. We see James using it. The Apostle Paul in every one of his letters. Now, that's common.

But what is uncommon is the authoritativeness in which these letters are presented.

There's something vastly uncommon to what is being written in the letters of the

New Testament. You see, getting a letter from a king, or in our case a government, is authoritative.

Right? Getting a letter from the IRS is far weightier than getting a letter from your grandmother.

Right? It may not be as fun, but it's weightier. Right? It's more important.

I'm going to take this very seriously. However, the highest level of earthly authority still has borders.

The government can summon me to jury duty. It can demand taxes from me.

But you see, it can't tell me how and when to worship God. It has borders.

It has limitations. And when I receive that letter, I understand those limitations of its authority.

And I read the words as such. And here's the thing.

Those limitations were set by an ultimate authority. All authority is set within limitations under the ultimate authority.

And so, when we receive a letter from that ultimate authority, the only limitations and borders that that authority are bound by are the ones in which he himself, from himself, and of himself, has set into place.

Because he's the ultimate authority. It's the triune God. God the

Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one, make all the rules.

And all that he does is good. He sets the borders. He is ultimate authority, unlike any other entity in this world or this universe.

Now, if you're trekking with me so far, you might be saying, yeah, I get all of that, but what does that have to do with this letter?

Didn't the apostle Paul write this letter? He's not God. He identifies himself right up front, right?

That's what he says. He says, Paul. He gives his name right at the beginning. This is the apostle Paul writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, right?

This isn't God. Paul's under the authority of God. But you see, therein lies the uncommon nature of these letters in the

New Testament. Even though they're using a common practice, this is an uncommon source in which these words are coming forth.

You see, Paul may have penned this letter. Well, actually, most believe he was set in chain to guards, and he was speaking the letter as somebody else actually penned the letter.

But Paul may have sent this letter. However, he never once claimed its content as originating from any authority of himself.

Never once. On the contrary, what do we see? Well, look at the passage.

Look at there in verse 1, Paul. So all of a sudden, Paul, he identifies himself right at the beginning, right?

There's earthly means being used. The apostle Paul identifies himself. But notice what he does. Immediately, as soon as he says his own name, he hides himself.

Instantly. It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

Now, in order to understand what I mean by hiding himself behind an ultimate authority, we need to understand this title, apostle.

I think there's a lot of confusion about the office or title of apostle.

We see a lot of charlatans today. A lot of wolves walking around claiming to be apostles so and so.

They're self -proclaimed apostles. Many of whom are part of groups like the so -called apostolic church, things of that sort.

Unfortunately, here's the problem. These groups, they're deceived. We should pray for them.

We should pray that God will reveal his truth to many of the people that are deceived by this idea.

And unfortunately, they have a misunderstanding of this phrase, apostle. Which, by the way, in its simplest form, apostle just simply means one who is sent out.

So remember that. One who is sent out. That's the simplest form of a definition of this word, apostle.

And based off of a rudimental definition of this word, every evangelist and every missionary that's ever been sent is a quote -unquote apostle.

If we use the word in this context. And we even see an account of this type of usage in the

New Testament. Are any of you familiar that there are people in the New Testament that are referred to with this phrase apostle that weren't part of the twelve apostles?

You ever heard of a man named Barnabas? Barnabas, he's with the apostle

Paul in much of the beginning stages of Paul's mission work. And Barnabas is like right beside him.

And actually over in Acts 14, it refers to Barnabas with Paul as apostle.

So it gets confusing, right? I thought there were only the twelve apostles. What does that mean? Well, Barnabas isn't one of the twelve.

Was he made an apostle? Was he the thirteenth apostle? What does this mean? However, with a little bit of contextual study and you look at that passage there in Acts 14, you begin to see that it is not referring to a title for Barnabas.

Apostle is not given to him as a title, but as an adjective that is predicated on being sent out by the church back at the beginning of chapter 13.

Because you remember Barnabas, Paul, and a group of other men were sent out.

Remember the rudimental foundational understanding of the word apostle, right? It's a sent out one.

And it's not being used as a title with him. It's being used as a word that is saying, hey, he's been sent out,

Barnabas and Paul. Now, you may say, well, what does that have to do with anything?

How does that connect? This is much different than someone saying, I am apostle so and so.

You see, Barnabas never claimed the title of apostle. Was he according to the fundamental foundational definition of the word?

Yes, but it wasn't the office that he was called to. This is very, very different. As a matter of fact, this office that is reserved for those 12 apostles, which, by the way, they were the only 12, and they're still the only 12, that requirement had three prerequisites.

Is anybody familiar with the three prerequisites for one of those 12 to be considered someone in the office of apostle?

I'm going to tell you. You might want to jot these down. This is good for your study. Number one, to be in the office of apostle, you must be an eyewitness to the resurrected

Christ. Do you know a soul today that has been in the presence of the resurrected

Christ? Meaning that you must have been in the physical presence of Jesus himself.

It's one of the prerequisites, the first prerequisite. Now, we know that the other 11 fit this bill, right?

After all, these were men that walked with Jesus in his earthly ministry. The other 11, these were men that actually saw him after his resurrection.

They put their fingers into the holes in his hands. They physically ate with him. They were with the resurrected

Christ, so we know that, but what about Paul? Hadn't Jesus already ascended by the time

Paul gets on the scene? I mean, while Jesus has ascended, the apostle Paul is being prepped to then just go out and torture and capture and imprison

Christians. Like, he's not with the risen Jesus. Ah, but remember the road to Damascus?

Remember that encounter of the apostle Paul? As a matter of fact, turn back to Acts chapter 9 with me. If you've got your

Bible, you can jot this down. Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 3. I want you to see this evidence of the apostle

Paul and what qualifies him to this first office of apostle.

In Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 3, we see this encounter. You remember the apostle

Paul is, he's asked permission to go to other cities and to find

Christians and imprison them. That's what he's asked to do. I mean, he's zealous about it, and he's on his way. In verse 3, it says, now as he went on his way, he approached

Damascus. And suddenly, a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you,

Lord? That's key right there. If you write in your Bible, underline that Paul said,

Lord. He knew who he was speaking to. And Jesus said,

I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now, some people have questioned this encounter and said, well, he wasn't really, maybe

Jesus was just there in spiritual form. Right? Like our full preterist buddies, right?

Oh, Jesus doesn't even have a body anymore. He came in spiritual form. No, no, because Paul's already confirmed over in 1

Corinthians this encounter. You can jot this passage down in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 1.

He's defending his apostleship, and he says, am I not free? Am I not an apostle?

Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Paul was in the presence of the physical

Jesus. He confirms it again in 1 Corinthians, back down in chapter 15.

In verse 7 and 8, he says, then, speaking of Jesus, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

This is an apostle poem. This is the man writing this letter to the church in Ephesus.

He is an apostle. He meets the first requirement of apostleship. He has been with the risen

Savior, physically with the risen Savior. Now, Jesus doesn't come down and reveal himself to us today, does he?

So, does any person today meet the very first requirement of apostleship?

No. And if someone says they did, they're lying. They're not an apostle.

So, you see, Paul does meet this. Well, there's a second one. There's a second requirement. It says that he must be chosen by the

Holy Spirit for this office. He must be chosen by the Holy Spirit. And Paul also meets this requirement because in Acts 9, again, later down in verse 15, if you're still in that chapter, you can look at verse 15, as God is speaking to Ananias about Paul, which is about Saul at the time, as he's speaking to Ananias about this, it says there,

But the Lord said to him, said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine.

He's speaking of Saul, Paul. He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name.

Before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel sent out. Right?

That's why we use that phrase, apostle. I sent out one. But I can send somebody out all

I want. And they're not, their title isn't apostle. Oh, but when the

Holy Spirit calls them out. When the Holy Spirit sends them forward, this is the title.

This is the apostle Paul. And only the other 11 disciples and him had this title because of this.

The Holy Spirit chose them and sent them out. There's a third and final sign.

And this is the ability to perform signs and wonders. Paul says in 2

Corinthians 12, 12. He said the sign. There are the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

And I don't think I need to remind you of all the encounters where in the apostle Paul committed or performed signs and wonders.

Do I? So Paul meets these three requirements. And the other men, these 12, including him, are the only ones with the title of apostle.

So now that we know what an apostle is, we can begin to understand how

Paul is hiding himself in the opening introduction to Ephesians. We can begin to see how

Paul mentions his own name, but then immediately hides behind the cross.

Look at the passage again in Ephesians. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Yes, Paul is writing this letter, but not by his own authority.

Remember, an apostle is a called out one, one who the Holy Spirit himself has sent and he even declares his allegiance in this opening statement to that very office.

Yes, I'm Paul. In human form, you're looking at me. But my title tells you what

I really am. I'm a representation, a representative of Christ.

I'm a representative of the triune God, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

And I love that Paul uses this same phrase in all of his openings. If you go flip through your

Bible and look at all the epistles that are written and look at the very beginning of it, and especially with Paul's. He does the same thing in Colossians, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

Philippians, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. First Corinthians, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Romans, a servant of Christ Jesus.

He's constantly hiding himself immediately at the beginning of every letter that he writes.

It's the only way that he identifies himself. Now, I need to address this because it might stand out to some of you, the fact that he uses the phrase

Christ Jesus in his openings. And there's lots of discussion as to why this is that he phrases it in this way.

He says Christ Jesus and not Jesus Christ. Because you see that many times in Scripture where you see it referred to as Jesus Christ.

And I'm not going to pretend that I know Paul's intent here. There's all types of concepts and ideas.

And some say, well, he uses in his openings Christ Jesus because Christ, of what it means, he's not referring to Jesus in his humanities, referring to Jesus in his deity right up front.

I'm not going to assume any of that. I don't know. Nevertheless, the substance remains the same.

Okay? Whether he says Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ, Christ means Messiah, and Jesus is the

Christ. The victorious Messiah. So Paul is identifying this, and he makes it very clear when he introduces himself.

He says, yes, I am Paul. That's me, but I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live and the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, as Paul declared in Galatians 2.

This is what Paul's life and writing and ministry is surrounded around.

Paul's apostleship was not a source of pride, but a calling to die to self.

I don't know about you, but if God called me to be an apostle, he's going to have to give me humility too. Because I can tell you right now, if I walked in here with the title apostle,

I'd probably be flaunting it like many of the self -professed apostles you see today. Right?

But Paul does not. God's gifted him and prepared him. He's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

If I'm an apostle of Christ Jesus, it's not me.

Paul's dead. Paul died. And something new came alive, something new that reflects the light of Christ and Christ alone in everything that I do.

I am purely a representative. Paul's writing these words.

He's not saying, hey, guys, hey, church in Ephesus, you need to listen to me. Look at what great insight

I've got. I'm the apostle Paul. Jesus talked to me himself.

Gave me insight. You've got to honor and obey me because of my title.

You never see this representative Paul, do you? He simply says and sees himself as a representative of the king.

And everything that Paul writes is, thus saith the Lord, the King of kings, the

Lord of lords. This is Paul's ministry. He says,

I have nothing. He has everything. I have no wisdom.

He has wisdom. I have no power. He is all powerful.

This is all that we see in God's word written by Paul here. Paul is affirming that he himself is in Christ.

In Christ. And Christ is using him to communicate to the body.

All the others who are in Christ, and praise God he did, right? We are recipients of this letter.

We are recipients of this word because God used the apostle Paul to write what he wanted for us to see and to know.

Because Christ is the head of the church and these are his very words, aren't they?

These aren't Paul's words. These are the very words of Christ.

How do we know that? We know that because of passages like 2nd

Timothy, right? 2nd Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is breathed out by God.

Everything in here from Genesis to the end of Revelation are Christ's very words.

You know, I heard someone at a conference one time. I think you were with us. You might have been with us. There was a panel of women.

My wife was on it. Where's my wife? She was on it. She remembers this. Her face dropped. She didn't know what to do.

She went into a straight panic. This lady on the panel is talking about women pastors. She says, well, here's the problem.

That was Paul's opinion. Jesus never said that. You can tell the whole room gasped and my wife goes, what?

I looked over at her, but this is the way people think, right? That was

Paul. Paul wrote that stuff. But that wasn't Jesus' words. Oh, yes, it is.

Jesus' very words. Because if the Apostle Paul wrote it and the

Holy Spirit inspired it, it's as good as if Jesus were standing here right now speaking it from his very lips.

Right? It's as good as Jesus himself speaking this truth to us.

And here's the thing. Most of us in this room know this, don't we? If you're a Christian in here, if you're a professing

Christian, you know this. You're at a Bible -believing church. You affirm the truth.

You're like, oh, yeah, the Bible is God's word. I love the word of God. Yeah, Jesus spoke all those words, and he used people like the

Apostle Paul, and all of it is true, and everything is great. But how often do you read it and how often do you hear it as if that wasn't the case?

I'm guilty of that. So often I have to say, oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

Oh, but praise God. Praise God that he is gracious.

He's gracious and patient with us, even when we don't obey him as we ought, and that he has given us his word.

We have his word. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness. He's given us everything we could possibly ever want as children of him.

We take it for granted. Oh, but he's gracious.

Let's be honest. Let's take off our holy, pious mask for a second. How many times have you gone a long period of time without really being in this, without really gleaning from it, without spending time with the

Lord and certainly not obeying it? How many times have you done that?

How many times have you gone periods of time where you have no love for this truth?

But then, for those of us that are in Christ, we may go through those periods of time, but then

God, as the loving, gracious father that he is, he chastens us, doesn't he?

He chastens you, and then he drives you back to it. He drives you back to it, and you find those moments where you're like,

Oh, Lord, forgive me. I want it. I have a love for it again, and I long for it, and I know that's what

I need. Hey, you know, I don't know about you, but every time this happens to me, and I'll be honest, it happens more than I'd like to admit, but every time it happens to me,

I find myself wondering, when I'm back in the word, why have I not been feasting on this the whole time?

Why did I ever believe it? These words are so life -giving. They revive my soul.

I'm truly communing with the creator, and this is what

God intended for us to commune with him, right? That's why he gave us his word, to glean from him, to rest in him, to learn from him, so that we may know him, and that is the purpose of all of Scripture.

It's him revealing himself and his will to us. Thank the

Lord that he chastens us and brings us back to that beautiful truth. And when

I say to us, I mean for those of us that are in Christ, as the apostle Paul keeps referring to.

Haven't you ever noticed these words are precious and real to us? But to unbelievers, they are complete nonsense.

You ever look at them like, why do you not see it?

How can you not love this? How can you not see the congruency of it?

How can you not see the consistency here? How can you not see the beauty and the reality of it?

They're spiritually dead. They can't. But we who are made alive in Christ, we see them as those life -giving words.

Let's look back at our passage. I want us to see one more thing in this text. It says,

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. But he doesn't stop there. There's not even a comma there. It doesn't end.

He says, by the will of God. This is a beautiful declaration from the apostle

Paul as he hides himself in this. You see, God could have written this book himself, couldn't he?

He could have sat in heaven and declared the truth while Michael the archangel penned it on paper.

And then sent a legion of angels down with copies to all of his children in the whole world. He could have done it that way.

Right? Theoretically, he could have. But that wasn't his will. This was not his will.

His will was to use a broken vessel like Saul. Think about who

Saul was. I don't think I need to do a historical reference on Saul. Most of you know who Saul was, and we've already referenced it.

He was in prison in Christians. He hated Christ. He hated the church.

And he's chasing after them. And the Lord has chosen this man to be a vessel in which he speaks through in his word.

And this is the pattern of God in all of scripture, isn't it?

God uses a weak murderer like Moses to deliver his people from bondage and to bring about his law.

God uses an insignificant shepherd boy like David to sit on the throne where the line of Christ himself would come from.

God uses a childless old man like Abraham to bring about a nation. God used fishermen, tax collectors, zealots to turn the world upside down and bring about his kingdom on earth.

This is the pattern in which God uses, and this is his will. Because God uses the small and despised things of this world.

And praise God that he does. I'm so glad that he does because I would be without hope because I'm the smallest and most despised and weak.

I know who I am. I'm a child of God. But in this world, in the world's eyes, they look at me, you tiny little hobbit man who likes to yell a lot.

Right? I'm the weakest of the weak. I'm the fool of all the fools. When I read

Proverbs, guess what I see? The fool, me. But God uses the despised and broken things of this world.

And I think he does so, so that he receives all the honor and all the glory. That's what

God's most interested in. His glory. His honor being seen to the world and to the universe and all of creation.

And Paul is not getting honor and glory for his missionary journeys. No honor and glory in writing these epistles.

Paul is simply reflecting the light of Christ and the work of the gospel in accordance to the will of God.

This is what we see at the beginning of this letter. Do you know we saw all that right there in just that little phrase? There's a lot there, isn't there?

We could go on for days in this. I've just picked the highlights. Paul declared that he had been set apart by God before he was even born over in Galatians 1.

You hear that first? Think about that for a second. When we think of the will of God. Now we can dive in, and we're going to.

As a matter of fact, I've tabled the whole will of God conversation for another text here in a few weeks. But we can talk about the decreed will of God and the sovereign will of God and all that comes along with it.

And we'll get into that. But I want us to see right here with the will of God with the apostle Paul.

Paul had already declared, as he writes there in Galatians 1, that he, before he was even born, had been set apart by God for this very purpose and this very work.

Now as we get into Ephesians, we'll begin to see that pattern over and over again. The sovereign will of God. God decrees it, and it will come to pass.

He knew what Saul was going to be. But he had already set him apart, and he said,

I've got a day when I'm going to knock him to the ground, and he's going to be confronted by Christ.

And he's going to see it, and I'm going to call him, and I'm going to use him, and I'm going to have him speak my words, my very words, through his letters to my people.

That's God's will. We can see it. We can see his revealed will in the life of the apostle

Paul. God wants us to have the words that he has spoken to us. All those words that are breathed out by him and are meant for life and godliness.

Meant so that every single one of us that is in Christ would be lacking nothing.

That's what he's given us. That's what we're getting ready to jump into in this book in Ephesians, is seeing the beauty of who we are and our position in Christ.

And so that we can be like the apostle Paul is right at the very beginning of this letter. As we study and as we get into it, and we see who we are in Christ, and we see the position that we have, and we see the power in the gospel, and we see all the beautiful truths of those doctrinally rich theological concepts and ideas from God.

As that is revealed to us through his word, we'll begin to hide behind the cross as Paul did.

Because our position is not of us. Our position is one of carrying out and being obedient to the very will of God.

So I'm looking forward to this. Guys, it's a little weird not doing the Lord's Supper right after the sermon, so I don't know what to do.

You want to do it again? No, no good. Alright, well let me pray. Let's pray and then let's sing the doxology together and close out.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for not leaving us to ourselves.

Thank you for giving us everything that we need for living righteous lives in accordance with your will.

Father, help us. Help us to love these words. Help us to glean from these words. Father, help us not to just be hearers only, but that we be doers of your word.

Father, help us. Or mold us. Form us into the image of your son.

Lord, help us to imitate Paul as he imitates your son. That in humility he hides himself behind that beautiful cross and then writes an epistle like this.

Such richness from you. Oh Father, thank you for working in and through us.

God, I pray now as we prepare to close out our service and then go and eat together in fellowship that you would be honored in our fellowship.

Thank you for the resources and the food that families have brought. Father, I pray that you would be honored as we eat and as we come back together for sermon

Q &A that it would be beneficial to us, your people, and honoring to you in Christ's name.

Amen. Let's stand. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.