Starting Point

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe launches a new series called "The Domino Effect," exploring the power of our decisions through the book of Ephesians. Karl highlights how Ephesians teaches us about grace, our view of the church (ecclesiology), and how our beliefs about Jesus should shape our relationships with others. He emphasizes two major themes that run throughout Ephesians: peace and unity.

Paul describes the church as "the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:23), calling believers to a higher standard than the world's casual view of church. Karl challenges the congregation to be people of peace whose words and actions match, just as Jesus not only preached peace but embodied it. He also emphasizes Paul's message that unity doesn't require uniformity—we can disagree on some things while remaining unified in Christ, which is at the heart of the Gospel and God's plan to "bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ" (Ephesians 1:10).

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, if you have your Bibles with you this morning, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to turn over to Ephesians chapter one. We're launching into a new series called the Domino Effect. Grasping the power of our decisions as we think together some about our lives of faith and what that looks like lived out in the world day to day. You know, it's interesting. I love how the Holy Spirit works.

I have done my sermon planning for I try to keep about three to six month window out. So I had already chosen selected this text and these sermons months ago. In fact, as adult ed committee we sat down and we were dreaming and thinking about what we'd studied together this fall. And we selected Ephesians knowing that I would d be preaching on it and we'd be studying it in our Bible classes together. Because we wanted a chance to dive deeper into God's word together.

To hear not only what we talk about in worship, but then to get a chance to dive real deep. Because I can only get us so deep so far in 20, 25 minutes together on a Sunday morning. But we can dive into the word deeper together. And maybe there's not a better word for us to be studying and thinking about in our day than the word of Ephesians. This letter and we have some interesting opportunities before us when it comes to studying the book of Ephesians.

The first one is familiarity. It's a chance to ream familiarize ourselves with this letter. I think it's a really interesting one because it's one that we don't often think about when we're quoting texts back and forth and we're thinking about some of the most popular texts in the Bible. But I think Ephesians has an incredible word for us to say. Sometimes we recognize our lack of familiarity when it comes to different core Christian topics like grace.

Ephesians has a lot to say to us about grace. In fact, Paul will write it this way. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. These next seven, eight weeks together we're going to have a chance to get to dive in and ream familiarize ourselves with the text.

I hope that if you aren't a part of our Bible classes that you'll join in one of our Bible classes to learn more together. It's an opportunity to relearn some of this material. It's also an opportunity to learn a fancy theological word called ECCLESIOLOGY which is basically our view of the church. If you think about what is your view of the church, what's our world's view of the Church? For many, it's not that important.

I mean, maybe it's a good thing to do a couple of times a year, Christmas, Easter. Maybe it's important to go to if we don't have anything else going on in our lives. That is not Paul's view of the Church. In fact, he's going to have a pretty different definition. He says in chapter one, just a little further down from what Shingai read for us a moment ago.

And God placed all things under Jesus feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His Body. The fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Now, how many of you have that definition of the Church written down in your dictionary, right? The fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Paul has a very different idea about who the Church is.

Paul said it's the body of Christ. He holds us to a higher standard. Now, Paul wasn't unfamiliar with the reality of the church, right? Who the Church is versus who the Church is. And if you're wondering about that, you can go back and read his letter to the Church in Corinth.

Both of them, right? That church was living way outside the box in a lot of different areas. And yet Paul continues to call them out to no, no, no, you're the Church. You don't just happen to be a group of people who showed up at the same place at the same time or maybe who hold to this specific set of propositional truths. That's what makes us the Church.

Paul says no, no, no, it's way bigger than that. Who the Church is is a reflection of the body of Christ, the fullness of him who feels everything in every way. We are the Body Christ. This study is going to be a chance for us to learn who we really are as the Church. But not only that, who we are in relationship to one another.

How do we treat others? In Ephesians, we are going to be confronted with this teaching about how we believe about Jesus impacts and shapes how we treat one another. Paul is s going to introduce this word submission. And in our day, that's a tough word. That's a hard word to know.

What do we do with that? In fact, he'll write it this way. Submit to one another out of your reverence for Christ, out of your belief and your trust and your hope that's in Jesus. Submit to one another and Then it's gonna spend the rest of chapter five and most of chapter six kind of unpacking that. And for those of us who have a little bit of familiarity with this letter, we know that many have taken this text and the verses that come after and totally misused them to subjugate women in ways that are unbiblical and to mistreat people, to condone slavery, all kinds of uses, because they didn't understand exactly what Paul was talking about.

So we're going to have a chance to dive in and learn a little bit more about what does this mean for our relationships, what decisions do we make now that actually are going to impact how we live in the world with the people around us. But not only that, we're going to have an opportunity to look again at the context. Ephesians is one of Paul's most popular letters, but it's also one of his most questioned letters. In fact, scholars will say we're not even sure that Paul wrote it. It may have been one of his disciples.

If you look back at verse one of chapter one, you might notice in your Bible it says Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to God's holy people in Ephesus. And then it has this little superscript little letter. And if you click on that letter or if you look at the note at the bottom of the text, it says in some of the ancient texts it doesn't have an Ephesus. So there be questions going on about the text. Is it from Paul?

Was it really to Ephesus? What's going on here? If you read through the whole letter, it sounds more like a sermon than a letter to another person. And so all these kind of questions are sometimes get in the way of us hearing the text. That's part of why I want to invite you to dive into Bible class, because we're getting a chance to get to wrestle with some of these questions and how they impact how we hear it.

I think Paul did write this letter. I think it was to the church in Ephesus. And so that's what we're going to chase together. But it's important sometimes to hear these questions because we want to read and understand the letters as they were written and to who they were written. And to understand that has an impact on how we hear it today.

And certainly I don't know that there's a better time that we could be studying this letter with the chaos and the uncertainty, with the tragedy, with the gun violence that we've Seen, that's just an epidemic in our country. Maybe there's not a better time to stop and think about what does Paul write here to the church in Ephesus? There will be two major things. There are more than that, but at least these two we're going to see all throughout the letter. And the first one is peace.

Notice how Paul describes Jesus preaching in chapter 2, verse 17. He says, Jesus came and preached peace to you who are far away and peace to you who were near. Jesus didn't think peace was a good idea. He wasn't advocating it as maybe something we ought to consider. Jesus preached peace as if something was at stake, like our souls.

He preached the kingdom of peace because it mattered, because it was significant. In fact, what Paul will says, he didn't just preach it. He was it t just a couple of verses before that one. For he Jesus himself is our peace. Jesus life and his words were tied together.

He wasn't saying one thing and then doing another. They matched. He was what we would call authentic. He was a person of integrity. He practiced what he preached and he preached peace.

So church, we have to ask ourselves, especially in light of the events that have been happening all around us in the world the last couple of weeks, specifically in our country, do our words and our actions match? Are we people of peace? You see, Jesus didn't respond with anger and violence. When people treated him with anger and violence, he respond with peace. Church, are we people of peace?

If we followed you on the socials, would we hear words of peace? If we followed you in your daily life, whether it's at work, at school, on campus, in the neighborhood, in your home, are you a person of peace? Do your words and actions match? Jesus preached peace to those who were far away and he preached peace to those who were near. Everybody got it?

Do we get it? The second theme that we're going to hear all throughout this letter is unity. Not just peace, but unity. Doug Foster, who'Church of Christ historian down at ACU, Several others have put together this project trying to identify all of the different group within the Churches of Christ. And so far, just in our stream, they found over 75 identifiable different groups.

We're struggling with this unity thing even though it was a core bedrock principle when our stream, our tribes started this unity thing. It's tough. Ephesians is going to challenge us with this truth that there can be unity even if we disagree about some things. I know that seems like a foreign concept because that's not the way of the world. That's not the voice that you hear coming from the world.

When you hear somebody believes one thing and they disagree, well, they're wrong or they're un American, or they hate Jesus or fill in the blank. They hate immigrants. But what Ephesians is going to challenge us to hold onto is that we can be unified without being uniform, that we can disagree about some things and still be unified. Jesus came and he preached peace to those who were far away, but he also preached unity. Let me take you back to a couple of words, a couple of verses that Shingai just read for us a moment ago.

Chapter 1, verse 9 and 10. God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment. Why? To bring unity. To bring all things to unity.

Not just some things, not just a few things, not just earthly things, not just heavenly things, all things to be unified. In fact, Paul's going to talk about unity in every single chapter of this letter. He's going to talk about it in chapter two, he says, for He, Jesus himself is our peace, who has made these two groups one. And he's destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. In verse three, he says, this mystery is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, sharers together in the promise in Jesus Christ.

In chapter four, he'll tell the church, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. In chapter five, he says, submit to one another and how we treat one another in chapter six, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Why? Because we're all together.

We're all one. Jesus died that we might be his body, the fullness of him who feels everything in every way. And so of course, we're not all going to look the same and we're not always going to think the same. Why? Because we're the fullness of God.

It can't be contained in just one thought and just one set of beliefs in just one thing, right? Paul says, whoa. We're preaching peace and unity. Unity is at the heart of this letter because unity is at the heart of the Gospel. That God's great reconciliation, his great unity project, is to bring those who were far from him, who were sin, who were slaves to sin, who were broken, to bring and restore them, to unify them back together as one Family.

And so to the church in Galatia, he says, there's no longer slavery, free, there's no longer male or female. There's no longer Jew or Gentile. Why? Because we're all one in Christ. We're going to hear this heart that Paul has for setting unity right at the heart of who we are.

So as we finished the last couple of minutes this morning, I wanted to invite us to look again at the passage that Shingai read for us just a moment ago to hear a couple of these truths coming out once again as it sets us up for our starting point. Because the decisions we're going to make this next week are going to shape the reality that we live in. They're going to shape the relationships that we find ourselves in. So what decisions are we going to make? To start, let me ask you, how many of you are familiar with the game Connections?

I've got an example for you to look at, but there's a group of 16 words here, and you've got to find four different groups of four words that are all connected in some way, shape or form. I think we have it. I don't know that we have it. There it is. Here we go.

Okay, so take a look at this list. I'm going to give you 60 seconds and just see. Can you find the connections between these 16 words? There's four groups of four things and they're connected. Can you make the connection?

All right. For sake of time. How are we doing? Anybody caught one yet? Here, let's go.

Here's the answer page so you can kind of connect. The first four are different parts of the leg, knee, ankle, shin, thigh. Some of them are baby animals. You have a calf, a cub, a joey and a kid. Some of them are slang words for going to the bathroom.

The can, the head, the John, the throne. Some of them are fish that aren't really fish, right? Crayfish, jellyfish, silverfish, starfish. But this game is built upon this principle saying, can you take some things that you're not sure how they fit together, but yet look at them and find ways that they connect together? I think that's what Paul's going to do for us in the course of reading through his letter to the church in Ephesus, to take some of these things, like the story of Israel and our story, and how do they fit together and where does Jesus fit into this story?

How is he connected? What is that going to look like? How will that work itself out? You he's going to show us how Christ and us fit together not just individually, but as his body, the Church, and therefore how our story is connected to his story. And that connection is significant.

In fact, in verse 8, second half of verse 8, with all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan. As a plan for the fullness of time to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Paul says God has a plan. There's this plan. God is at work in our world.

He's actually making these connections. And we don't always see it. Sometimes we need a little help to see it. And I think Paul's going to give us some help to see how are we all connected to this great grand story. And he uses this word plan.

God's building this economy, this reality, this world around us. And he's made all these incredible connections. He's been up to something moving. He says verse 10, with a plan.

In verse 11, he says we've been destined according to the purpose of God. In fact, Paul sees not only his story, but his story as the working of God's plan. Notice back in verse one, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God that he sees even his own life is actually the working out of God's plan. And he's a part of that. God is at work.

And though there seems to be all kinds of chaos and disorder in the world, he's saying actually there's a plan that God is at work in the world. You know, Jesus taught us to pray. God, make your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. But Paul says it's happening that kingdom, it's already breaking through. That there are ways that God is working.

In fact, did you hear all the God verbs in this passage? Part of why I wanted us to hear Shingai read these words is to hear those. He chose us. Verse 4, he predestined us. Verse 5, he redeemed us.

Verse 7, he's lavished His grace on us. Verse 8, he made known to us his will. Verse 9, God is working. He's choosing and he's calling and he's moving and he's shaping the world around us. But it's kind of interesting, if you notice, he keeps saying he calls us, he predestined us.

Then in verse 13, he makes this little shift. I don't know if you caught this before, but he says, and you Also were included in Christ. And he go, wait a second, Paul, you just said he called us and he's predestined us and he's lavished grace on us. And then he says, that's us. He's also called you.

Well, who's the. Yeah, Paul says, there's a decision we got to make. Are you and us. Will you believe? Notice and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed, when you were Marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who's a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.

See, one of the things we're going to keep encountering all throughout this letter is we have some decisions to make. And the first one is, do you believe? Will we believe that Jesus really is who he says he is? Will we believe that God is at work in the world even though we don't always see it, even though there's chaos and disorder and we wonder and we struggle that we continue to hold on to this belief that God is working, his economy is actually beginning to play out.

We decide to face this because that decision is going to have a domino effect in our life. It's going to begin to change how we treat other people. It's going to begin to change how we treat even ourselves. Do we want to be a part of God's story?

This week you're going to have an opportunity to make a decision about your words and your actions. Are they going to match?

Are they going to match in the spirit of peace and unity that Jesus came to preach to those who were far away and those who were really close? We, your words and your actions match, will preach peace. This week we help peace come on earth as it is in heaven.

Or will we be a people who choose chaos and division? We participate that in that, in our language, how we talk about things. Will we participate that in how we treat others? Or maybe mistreat others? See, this is our starting point right here.

Church. Will we believe? And if so, Paul says you're going to be Marked with the promised Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit is going to help you do what you won't be able to do if it's just you. He's going to help you to be faithful to the commitments that you make.

He's going to be faithful to help you continue to preach peace to those who are far away from God, who have the slightest idea, who maybe at times even seem anti God that you can still be a person who preaches peace and unity.

Will we believe you? See, this decision is going to have a dramatic impact on the world around us.

Church, what’s going to be your starting point this week?

God, I pray that our starting point will be right here in Ephesians 1. This reminder that you’d work in the world around us, that you've chosen us, that you've called us, that you've predestined us, that you've lavished your grace on us, that you've invited us to be in your family and then you've called us to be Jesus, your body, the fullness of you in the world around us.

Father, too often we have seen just how damaging the church can be when it's not the fullness of you, it's the fullness of the one of this world. God help us not to live that way. Would you remind us once again of our calling of who we are and God, would you encourage us to live by faith? We encourage us to live out the grace and the love that we have so richly has been lavished on us that God, it would inspire us to live as men and women of peace this week. And O Lord, how our world needs peace, how our country needs peace, how our political institutions need peace.

Got our colleges and our universities and our schools need peace. God, our families need peace, our churches need peace. God, would you help us to make a decision today for you to choose to follow you in your way that leads us into peace and unity? Would you confront us in those places where we built up walls or barriers, whether it's to you spirit, or to the people around us and God, would you help us to repent and walk in a different way? God, I know this week you're going to bring us into opportunities to let our words and our actions match.

Oh God, would you help us give us the courage, Lord, let those things match. And in ways where our pride swells up, Lord, help us.

Help us turn away to repent.

God, we want to be people who preach peace to those who are far away and those who are near. May we follow in your way, Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.