Grace and Peace (Ephesians 1:2)

For read God's Word to the Koch family, the Gabbers family.

On behalf of all of us, we just want to express how sorry we are

at the passing of Nate this morning.

In the midst of grief, I think that the truth of God's Word can

at once feel so hollow and empty and cliche and at once an anchor

for our soul. And I'm reminded that's why we

do what we do on Sunday mornings.

As God's people. We come to draw from the well

because we need it. But not only we come this

morning to draw from the well, but every Sunday that we gather

together, we dig that well a little deeper, so that when the

storms of life come in the midst of grief and heartache, we can

drink deeply from that well again and again.

So, brothers and sisters, do now join me at the well.

Remain standing for the reading of God's Word this morning.

Read from the book of Ephesians, chapter one, verse 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. I know what some of you may be

thinking as you saw how short that verse was.

This must be a very short sermon.

Be honest. You're excited.

Well, I'm sorry, it's a pastoral trick.

We're actually going to cover the entire book of Ephesians

this morning. I think I'm joking.

So you're going to need a Bible advice.

You get your Bible out. If you don't have a Bible, we

can grab the blue Pew Bible in front of you.

And if you don't have a Bible at home, that's our gift to you.

Please take it home with you so that you would have the word of

God. Paul begins the second verse,

this letter to the Ephesians. Grace to you and peace from God

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace. In fact, the apostle Paul begins

all thirteen of his letters the exact same way. 2 Words Grace

and peace. Romans one verse 7 Grace to you

and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First Corinthians one verse 3 Grace to you and peace from God

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2nd Corinthians one

verse 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord

Jesus Christ. Galatians one verse 3 Grace to

you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Philippians one verse 2 Grace to

you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Ephesians one verse 2 Grace to

you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Ephesians one verse 2 Grace to

you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Paul begins every one of his

letters with grace and peace. Just a few of them stray from

this exact wording. Grace to you and peace from God

our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

These words are so familiar, so commonly used, that they run the

risk of becoming commonplace to us.

It might be tempting for any one of us, as we hear these words

read, or we read them for ourselves, to think this must be

some kind of Apostolic cliche, Just a throwaway, a hello at the

beginning of a letter that we just need to skip on by to get

to the good stuff. Surely Paul doesn't mean much by

it, but the book of Ephesians reminds us the grace of God and

the peace that belongs to every one of us who are in Christ

Jesus is anything but common. More than a simple salutation

greeting, the words grace and peace are a pronouncement of

blessing. They are a proclamation of good

news, grace and peace. They are the very gospel of

Jesus Christ summarized in just two words, 2 words that not only

describe the book of Ephesians, but all of Paul's theology and

every one of his letters, grace and peace.

And so this morning, as we continue to introduce this

amazing letter that the Apostle Paul wrote, the church in

Ephesus, this opening blessing, the book of Ephesians calls us

to stop and listen and to receive the grace and peace that

is offered in Jesus Christ alone.

So first grace, once you look again with me at Ephesians one,

verse 2. And again, just as he does in

all his letters, Apostle Paul begins right at the heart of the

gospel, verse 2. He offers grace, grace to you.

Now in the ancient Near East, it was customary, just like it is

in our day, to begin with a common greeting, every letter

that is written. I don't know about you, but this

time of year, especially as we begin 2026, you've probably

received a lot of emails that are beginning about the same

way, Happy New Year. And you've heard it now so many

times that it goes in one ear and out the other.

You don't stop to think that that means anything at all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What else is it that you want me

to do or say? Happy New Year.

But when we extend that greeting this time of year, we're wishing

a blessing of happiness in this new year on the recipient.

But as we say it, do we even stop to think what it is that

we're offering in the same way? Paul is introducing his letter

here, but it's anything but cliche.

Paul begins with grace. It's a word that saturates his

theology. He will use the word grace over

100 times in the New Testament, 12 times in the book of

Ephesians alone. And if you've grown up around

church at all, grown up around Christianity, odds are you've

heard about the word grace. Whether you're a Christian this

morning or not, You may have even sung about God's Amazing

Grace. Perhaps for some of you, you've

been a Christian your entire life.

You've heard this word so many times.

The question really is, do you really know what it means?

Have we really grasped all that God has given to us in his

grace? And grace is often defined by

theologians as unmerited favor and is your language of the New

Testament in Greek. The Greek word is chorus,

literally means an undeserved kindness.

In other words, grace, commonly defined, is that when we receive

something, something good that we did not deserve, receiving

goodness that we don't deserve, that's grace.

And really, that's not a bad definition.

The only problem is it exposes just how small our vision of

grace really is. You see, as we hear that

definition, I think it's easy to focus on the word receive and

then the word favor. I mean, it's really the only two

words and the definition. And now we're thinking about

only something that we get, and we're turning grace into a

commodity, into some kind of thing that we can somehow grasp

at. But if we see anything in the

book of Ephesians, we learn that the grace of God is not

transactional. Now, the grace of God is deeply

relational, and God's grace isn't some substance or thing

that we can somehow grasp, but it's at the very core of his

character. It's who he is, and as Paul

continues in chapter 1, he shows us the grace of God is deeply

intertwined with his sovereignty.

Now, to even utter the word God is to assume that he is

sovereign, that he is in control, that he is Lord over

all things. That is what makes him God.

He is sovereign. He is the Creator.

Every one of us is the creature. It's probably the thing that

makes us, if we're honest, most uncomfortable about him, because

in order to truly declare his sovereignty was to admit that

none of us are in control. What Paul shows us is that

sovereignty. Out of that sovereignty, the

Creator of all things, the one who is in charge of heaven and

earth. Out of that sovereignty flows

grace. He goes on verse 4 just 4 verses

in the book of Ephesians. I want you to turn there in your

Bible. Ephesians one verse 4.

Paul says even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the

world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in

love. He predestined us for adoption

to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose

of His will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Now, this is the part of Ephesians that every

Presbyterian loves. There's some of the foundational

verses for the Five Points of Calvinism, and the Five points

of Calvinism are commonly described in an acronym, Tulip.

Maybe you've heard Tulip before. It stands for Total Depravity,

Unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,

and perseverance of the Saints. But did you know that more than

Tulip or the five points of Calvinism, these five doctrines

are known as the doctrines of grace?

This is very foundation of our theology.

Is grace, the sovereign grace of God, poured out for us?

We see this here in Ephesians. Once you look again with me at

verse 5, and as you look at verse five, let me read it for

you again. I want you to ask yourself, what

word are you most quickly drawn to?

In love? He predestined us for adoption

to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose

of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace.

What word was it? I'm sure many of us would give

different answers, but I'm also fairly sure that most of us were

probably drawn to the word predestination for different

reasons. Now some of you hear that word

predestined and you're like, finally the word predestination

is being uttered from this pulpit and others of you this

morning like I wish that word was not in the Bible.

But you see, predestination is not a Calvinist word.

It's not a Presbyterian word. It's not a Reformed word.

It's a biblical word. It's a word that the apostle

Paul is using here. But why?

Why is Paul using the word predestined?

I want you to notice that Paul is using this word as an

encouragement and as much as this word has divided the church

throughout the history of humanity, Paul is offering this

word not to divide us, but to assure us of God's grace.

Again, look at verse five. The first word he second word

predestined. But I want to remind you that as

we read the New Testament and we see the little numbers of the

verses, that none of those numbers were put there by Paul.

They were added later to help us know where we are to make

reference as we read the Bible. They're not there in the

original language. And so sometimes we can separate

verses from each other artificially.

So as you begin with verse 5, you can't miss the 2 words that

come right before it. They're not to be separated.

The 2 words The end of verse 4 In love.

In love, He predestined us to be adopted as sons and daughters.

At its core, the doctrine of predestination is a doctrine of

love. What does that mean?

It means that God loved us first.

He loved us first. That means He loved you before

you ever loved him. It means He loved you before you

ever failed to love Him. He loved you before the

foundation of the world. And this is just how big His

grace is. His grace for us is as big as

His sovereignty. And here's what's so amazing

about it. He is focused all of His

sovereign love and grace on you. The God of the universe, who

spoke the world into existence, in whom all things hold

together, loves you, and He loved you before you were even

born. I think this is one of the

reasons why I have such a hard time wrapping our minds around

grace, because it's hard to believe that God actually loves

us. And just like our first parents,

Adam and Eve, when we sin, we're also overcome, not just with

guilt, but with shame. We hide from God, we hide from

one another. So we think there's no way that

God could possibly love me unless whatever it is that you

fill in the blanket after that unless is you trying at your

core to somehow earn or merit the grace of God.

But you see these verses beginning of Ephesians teach us

no in love. He predestined us to be adopted

as sons and daughters. He loved us first.

And if you have any doubt that God loves you, then look no

further than the cross, because not only before you were born

did Jesus Christ die on the cross for you, so that all who

believe in Him would be saved. But Paul goes on and tells us

that this was the plan before the foundation of the world.

He goes on verse 7. In Him we have redemption

through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses

according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us,

and all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery

of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in

Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all

things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Do you see how for Paul grace is anything but transactional?

Now the grace of God for Paul is cosmic.

It's part of his redemptive plan.

And out of the riches of His grace that He is now lavishly

poured out on us, He sent his only Son to be born in a Manger,

to live a sinless life, because you and I live a sinful life, to

die in our place on the cross, to rise against that all who

believe in Him would have salvation.

Why? Paul tells us because of love,

Because he loved us first. Paul goes on in Ephesians

Ephesians 2:4

chapter 2, verse 4. But God being rich in mercy,

because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we

were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with

Christ. By grace you have been saved.

What is he saying? It says that he loved you when

you are dead in your sin. I think that's the other reason

why the grace of God is so hard for us.

Because just as we have a small vision of God's grace, I think

the honest truth is we have a small vision of our sin.

And if you're like me, you minimize it, self justify it,

you try to explain it away. Why?

It's just another way that we try to earn our way to God.

If we can't do enough good things to overcome our sin and

let's just change the game and move the goal posts and make our

sins smaller. But this is a great paradox of

the gospel. You cannot see just how big and

amazing God's grace is for you until you see just how pervasive

and overwhelming your sin really is.

And just as the grace of God is not a thing or a substance from

involving reminds us Dutch theologian, that sin isn't a

thing. It's not some kind of substance.

It's outside of us, but it's in US, running through US.

It corrupts all of us. Every part of us is wicked.

Every part of us is treasonous. Every part of us turns our back

on God. Every part of us has gone

astray. And this is what is so amazing

about God's grace, that even when we were dead in our

trespasses and sins, God loved us, and he sent his Son to die

on the cross. John 316 Really think about the

words, for God so loved the world that he sent his only Son.

Notice the order because God loved the world, that is why he

sent his Son. This is one of the truths that

just about changed my life. When I was in seminary, I used

to think that God loved me because Jesus died on the cross.

My vision of God was a God who hated me was only because Jesus

died that he now loves me. But that's not what John 316

says, and it's not what the Apostle Paul's describing here.

Book of Ephesians. God doesn't love me or you

because Jesus died. No, because God loves you.

That is why Jesus died. He loved us first.

And this is what makes grace so big, so wide, so deep that when

we truly receive it, we cannot stay the same.

Because when we minimize sin, we make grace cheap.

We treat it into some kind of commodity that says, well, isn't

that what God's grace is there for?

I can sin and I'm forgiven. And so why even try to do good?

But when you really receive the sovereign grace of God, the

apostle Paul will teach us in the book of Ephesians that grace

actually changes us. It's so big and so powerful that

we cannot stay the same. Again Ephesians 2, Paul goes on

and talking about being saved by grace alone and not by works.

And in verse 10, he says, but we are his workmanship created in

Christ Jesus for good works for God, for hand prepared

beforehand that we should walk in them.

When you truly receive the grace of God out of His sovereign

mercy for you, you cannot stay the same.

His grace not only justifies, but it also sanctifies.

And this is what Paul is offering in the second word,

peace, grace and peace. The second word, peace, it says

grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Now Paul is not just talking

about any kind of peace. Nepal is drawing off of a word

that is used throughout the Bible from Genesis to

Revelation. It's the kind of peace the Old

Testament calls Shalom. You and I, when we think of

peace, we often think of the absence of chaos or noise.

So if I were to ask you this morning, hey, did you want some

peace in your life? I promise everyone of you say

yes, please just get me to a beach somewhere.

Give me one of those drinks with a little umbrellas.

Give me as far away from other people as possible.

So Seaside is out. I need nobody around in order to

have peace. That's not the kind of peace

that Paul is offering. Shalom is not the absence of

chaos and noise, it's the presence of God.

Because where God is present, reigning and ruling over all

things, his people have peace. And so this morning I wonder, as

you enter into 2026, are you filled with worry?

If, like me, do your anxieties keep you up at night wondering

what tomorrow or next week or next month will hold?

Every one of us, every one of us deals with anxiety and worry and

fear. And sometimes those worries are

small and sometimes they are big, even life altering.

What do you do with your worry? It's one of the reasons why

religions of the world, all of them have tried to promise

peace. That's what they offer, but none

of them quite seem to deliver. And now, as 21st century

Westerners now not only looking to religion, but looking to

different philosophies and ways of living on our own terms,

we're surprised when nothing quite satisfies the longings of

our heart. And the reason is because we're

just trying to treat the symptom rather than getting up to its

root cause. So whatever's filling you with

anxiety this morning, the solution is not to somehow have

that not in your life anymore. However that looks like for some

of you, it's avoidance. Others of you is to take matters

in your own hands and try to rid it from your life on your own

terms. But the real solution is what's

underneath the anxiety. What's underneath the anxiety is

that we are at war. War with ourselves, war with our

God, war with one another, war with the world around us.

We are not at peace. And that is the kind of peace

that Paul is offering us in the book of Ephesians.

First, he offers peace with God. To turn to Ephesians 2 verse 13,

Ephesians 2:13

Paul says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off

have been brought in here by the blood of Christ, For He Himself

is our peace. What is He talking about?

Well, in our sin as traitors against the king and His

Kingdom, we are at war with Him. That means we have no peace with

Him. That means we are separated

relationally from God our Creator.

The Bible says we're at enmity with Him.

That means we are His enemies. In the book of Romans, Paul

reminds us that while we were enemies, Christ died for us.

Here at Ephesians, when we were dead in our trespasses, he loved

us. And here in Ephesians 2, he's

saying that even when you were once far off, God has now

brought you to himself by the blood of his Son Jesus Christ,

who is himself. Our peace.

How you and I deserve death and condemnation because of our

treason against the King and His Kingdom.

But God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place on

the cross and so make peace, an offering of peace so that our

relationship with God our Creator would be restored once

and for all. In Christ.

We now have peace with God and we can pray to him as our

Father, with Christ as our brother.

But it not only has profound implications for the way that we

relate to God, but also the way that we relate to one another.

That's the second thing Paul describes the book of Ephesians,

that we have peace not only with God but with one another.

In the first half of Ephesians chapter one through 3, it's

really how do we have peace with God?

But in the second-half, the book of Ephesians 4 through 6, it's

really, what does it now look like?

Because we have peace with God and we've been restored to our

Creator. How does that peace now

transform everything around us and every relationship that we

have? We have peace with one another.

This is Ephesians verse 4, verse one.

Paul says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you

to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been

called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

bearing with one another in love.

He loved. Now we are called to love, eager

to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace in

this peace. This Shalom is transformative.

It changes everything and every relationship around us.

So he'll go on describe the peace that is ours in marriage.

And this morning you might say, well, my marriage is anything

but peaceful. For some of you, your marriage

is strained, your relationship fractured.

Other of you have come out of a broken marriage that has

absolutely wrecked your soul. Other of you long to be married

and never have. Paul gives us a vision of

marriage in the book of Ephesians that shows us that our

true marriage within Jesus Christ the great bridegroom and

in that marriage, the perfect marriage between the Lamb of God

and his people. We have real peace.

A piece that transforms every relationship.

He goes on describes this piece that transformed the family

because the families that we have, however broken that they

are, are all meant to point to this right here.

And as you look around, this is the family of God, brothers and

sisters in Christ with a common older brother who is Jesus and a

common father. And finally, though we are

cursed in our work and thorns and thistles and everything that

we do in our various vocations. Ephesians will describe how the

peace of God transforms our work because the gospel far as the

curse is found and now we labor working the grace of God into

our work. And lastly, we have peace

against the principalities and powers in the forces of evil in

the heavenly places. We have nothing to fear whatever

this world may throw at us, because Christ himself is our

peace. And commentators have pointed

out that Paul ends the book of Ephesians in the same way he

begins. This is Ephesians 6, verse 23,

Ephesians 6:23

the last two verses of the book. Peace be to the brothers and

love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus

Christ. Grace be with all who love our

Lord Jesus Christ with love. Incorruptible peace is only

possible because the sovereign grace of God poured out for us

in His Son Christ Jesus. But there is a third word that

we have seen both the beginning and the end.

Not just grace and peace, but it's love.

Out of His love for you, God has grace and He has poured out His

grace in order to make peace. Peace with you and peace with

this broken world so that we would now be His ambassadors of

peace until Christ comes again. And it is that grace, that

peace, and that love that He has now set before you on this table

as we come to him. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we pray now as we come to this table of grace

and peace that you have set before us, that you would help

us to receive what is ours in Christ Jesus.

If anyone this morning does not believe in you and has not

received this gracious gift that is theirs, I pray that you would

give them faith and help them now to trust in You.

Praying the simple prayer. Lord, have mercy on me, a

Sinner, and for all of us who desperately need to come to this

well once again, help us now to drink deeply.

If your grace is lavished upon us, we ask in your name, Amen.