20260315 The Church Ephesians 1.1-23 Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful

for your help thus far, and we come to you now

to ask for your continued help and guidance and

power. That your word would go forth in the power

of your spirit, that you would accomplish all

of your perfect purposes in the lives of your

people, that you might yet have mercy on some

who are yet in their sins, and grant unto them

repentance and faith. We asked that you'd overcome

the messenger that you'd speak in spite of me

that your word and your word alone would go forth

that there would be No barriers to the work of

your spirit today and the lives of your people

here But we would be anxious to conform ourselves

to your word and spirit And so we ask in Christ's

name Well last week we started a series on the

church, a mini series probably, but we look throughout

the New Testament to get some of the I guess

the basic principles that are involved in the

church hopefully to whet our appetites for further

study to look into the great privilege that is

ours as being part of the church and as we hopefully

all know and have always known that the church

is the people. It's not this building or any

other building, but we are the Church. So the

first two verses that we looked at last week

were Jesus, after Peter's confession that he

is Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God, and Christ

telling them that based upon that rock, he will

build his church. So that's important for us

to remember. Christ will build his building and

will continue to build on into the future until

all the church is saved. All the elect, in other

words, are saved. He is building his church.

Nothing else is building his church. We may be

those who are faithful, carrying out what the

Lord told us to do, and therefore useful in Kingdom's

work, but the actual building of the Church is

Christ's work. And the second we looked at was

the so -called Great Commission given to the

Apostles, where he tells them to encourage it,

to let them know, all power, all authority is

given unto me. now and forever. So we want to

expand that. We want to look at that this morning

as to how that all works out in reality. So I'd

like us to turn to the first chapter of Ephesians

this morning. so Ephesians obviously was written

by Paul and I believe the purpose of Ephesians

is to show the love of God for his people and

to encourage his people to love him and one another

more and more and he gives lots of specific instructions

But this first chapter here is kind of like the

foundational teaching. Now, if you remember,

Paul was the biggest sinner that had ever lived,

according to Paul. Right? And he was a terrible

sinner. In truth, you know, he murdered people,

he killed people, he hated Christ. He was a Pharisee

of the Pharisees. That was Saul. But what happened?

Well, God got ahold of him, didn't he? And he

changed him all around. He became Paul, probably

the foremost apostle, the majority of the New

Testament written by him. So in other words,

he declares himself to be an example for those

who would come after him. But if God can get

a hold of me and save me he can do the same for

anybody That's what he said He's the writer obviously

as I said to the Ephesians So it's it's rather

Wonderful really That such a man could be got

a hold of and changed in such a way as to actually

write scripture It's marvelous to think about.

And Hiss describes Paul in the second chapter.

I'm just going to read this one verse. And you

hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses

and sins. That's all of us. We're all dead in

trespasses and sin at some point in our life.

And unless the Lord does something, that's where

we're going to stay. Exactly there. I mean, you

can make all kinds of declarations. You can turn

over as many new leaves as you want to. You can

affiliate yourself with the best people around.

You can give away all of your money. But unless

the Lord quickens us, we're all going to hell.

That's it. That's all there is to it. In other

words, I could have just as easily said and probably

should have in the light of the series, unless

the Lord brings you into the church, you're going

to hell. There's no difference in those two statements.

But we're going to look at this, you know, a

lot of people think, well, it's just a matter

of you just share the gospel and you believe

that somebody believes and that's it, they're

in the church. And that's, you know, that is

true as far as it goes. But Paul goes deeper

than that. And that's what we're going to look

at here in this first chapter. So follow along

or look at your Bibles as I read beginning in

the first verse of Ephesians chapter 1. Paul

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God

to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the

faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and

peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus

Christ Okay, so Paul Paul's an apostle because

Christ made him an apostle by the will of God

So he didn't take the obligations responsibilities

privileges onto himself. He was called to it

It's what God had for him to do now He was a

Christian on the road when he saw Christ on the

road to Damascus, right? Did he start all of

a sudden writing the New Testament? No, he was

in the desert for three years He was isolated.

He was he was with Christ. He was fellowship.

He was learning Christ out in the desert And

he was being prepared for the work of an apostle

For three years at least maybe more But he says

then grace to you and peace And don't ever get

those two reversed. In the scriptures, they're

always in that order. Grace and peace. In order

to have peace, you've got to have grace. You

don't have peace to get grace. Peace comes from

grace. In other words, God has intervened. He's

poured out His grace upon you and given you His

peace. And it's nothing that you've earned or

anything else. It's all from God grace and peace

That's just how he expresses it isn't it from

God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ

Continuing then blessed be the God and father

of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us

with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places

in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him

before the foundation of the world That we should

be holy and without blame before him That's that's

before there ever was a world God has chosen

each and every one of us. He's elected us we

sometimes say but he's chosen us before the foundation

of the world Can you can you get your mind around

that can you believe it that you were on the

mind of God before the foundation of the world.

Every one of us who is in Christ, that's true

of us. And he did so because he's going to bless

us with all spiritual blessings in Christ and

he's going to, what? He's going to make us holy.

and without blame before Him. All of that, that's

all part of the plan. That's all part of the

salvation of God. It's all part of God's salvation.

And that's true of every Christian. He says,

in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption

of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according

to the good pleasure of His will." There you

have it again. It's God's salvation. God's doing

His will. He's carrying out His will. He's predestinating

people to be His children. Every Christian is

a child of God. Every Christian is a part of

the family. of God. He's part of the Church.

They're in the Ephesian Church here in this particular

place. They're here at Believer's Chapel. All

of us who were predestinated, who have believed

in Christ before the world began. All of this

is in the... We don't have to preach this. I'm

not saying we preach this. I'm saying we have

to know this. We have to have an appreciation

of God. These truths must be known. To have a

deeper fellowship with God, you must embrace

these truths. And you must be searching and learning

and finding out. In verse 6, He's doing all of

these things, these many blessings and promises.

all to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein

He hath made us acceptable in the beloved." He's

doing it, why? For His own glory, for the praise

of His own grace. He makes us acceptable in the

beloved, in Christ. As I said, it's God's salvation.

He's done it all for His own glory. And that

would be a terrible thing if you or I did that.

But it's not terrible because God has done it.

He's worthy to do it. We shouldn't expect anything

less from God. And we should gladly give Him

all the glory and praise that is due to His name.

Wherein, in verse 8, wherein he has abounded

toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having

made known unto us the mystery of his will, according

to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed

in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullest

of times he might gather together in one all

things in Christ, both which are in heaven and

which are on the earth, even in him. So he's

revealed the mystery all throughout the Old Testament.

There's hints and such of it that this Messiah

was not going to be simply the Jewish Messiah,

but he was going to be the Messiah for all the

world, for all the nations, that the Gentiles

were going to be brought in. And this wall of

enmity that is between them is going to be removed.

And they would be one spiritual people before

God. That's what he's talking about here. That

we are one people. Now, you know, that's drastic

at the time that it was spoken. That's just,

that's radical. It's unheard of. Who would have

ever believed it? Who could ever have believed

it? But it's hardly, it borders on nothing to

us. Until we take another look at the world and

Then we should really fall before God as to what

he has done in all the churches I'm talking the

true churches There's nothing National about

it. There's nothing Ethnical about it. There's

nothing Racial about it that there is such a

thing as that They're all one in Christ. We are

all one in Christ We have peace one with another

through Christ because we are all in Christ That's

a glorious thing That God could make that possible

in mankind, but he's done it He did it from the

start The gospel went forth to the Jews first

then to the Gentiles and the Gentiles were grafted

in with the same privileges as the Jews and they

became one person before Him. They are one spiritual

person before them even now. That was the plan.

That was the purpose. All of this is transpiring.

All of this is being set in motion. It's all

accomplished by God. Nobody played any part in

this other than God. It's all God's salvation.

It's according to His plan. And then in verse

11, He says, in whom also we have obtained an

inheritance, being predestinated according to

the purpose of Him who worketh all things after

the counsel of His own will, that we should be

to the praise of His glory. who first trusted

in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that

ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your

salvation, in whom also that ye believed ye were

sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So here

now, we're introduced to the third person in

the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. First we had the

Father and Jesus Christ, and now we have the

Holy Spirit. And God so then working in us that

we indeed have trusted because we were chosen

and we were predestinated and now then we are

sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit

of promise. So it was promised in the old, it

was promised on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came.

The Holy Spirit is now. He's in the world. He's

carrying out His continual ministry. And one

of those ministries is that we are sealed. In

other words, we're His. We're Christ. We've got

to seal. The Holy Spirit was promised, was given,

and He has sealed us. He sealed us in our relationship

to God through Jesus Christ. That's a fact. You

may fall, you may sin, in other words, but you

will never fall away. You will never lose that

relationship that you have with Jesus Christ

because the Holy Spirit has sealed you. You will

be brought to repentance and faith. You will

not be able to continue in your sin. So there's

a big difference there. If you continue in your

sin, you have reason to believe you've never

been sealed. Because what? It's contrary to scripture.

If you're repentant, you know that you're sealed

and the Holy Spirit has worked in you and brought

to you repentance and faith and put you back

upon the proper path. It's a seal. It's official.

And it's an earnest of our inheritance. Did I

read that? No. 14, which is the earnest of our

inheritance until the redemption of the purchased

possession unto the praise of His glory. So it's

earnest. It's earnest money. You ever bought

a house, you put down earnest money. That's a

token that you're going to pay the whole amount.

Same as the Holy Spirit here. We have the Holy

Spirit of promise and it's an earnest. of the

greater glory to come, the greater relationship

with God to come. That will come, will definitely

come. There's no doubt about it. It will come

because we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit

of promise. He is our earnest and we do therefore

have an inheritance. Now, that's all foundational

stuff. That's all the truth of God, the truth

of His Word. It's not all of it. It's a great

deal of it, though. It's all involved in our

salvation. That's what happens to us when we're

saved. That's what happens to us when we're brought

to Christ and when He puts us into His Church.

All of that. That's happened to every one of

us if you're in Christ You're a new creature

You were dead, but now you've been quick and

you're alive Just like Saul was turned into Paul

You know you're not the same if you're in Christ

you're not the same So then, that being said,

what are you? Well, you are. You're a Christian.

You're free. Your sin has no power over you.

All of that's true. But have you been turned

into Paul? Well, probably none of us here, anyway,

will ever be turned into Paul. But have you been

turned into much of anything? Other than you're

in Christ and all legally You're justified you

you're you're set apart You're cleansed your

your sins are covered all those things that we've

just read are true But in the in reality in everyday

life What are you? Well, the Bible would call

you probably for the first and I'm just making

this up five years for the first three years?

You're just a baby. That's what you are. You're

a baby Christian. Do you realize that you're

a baby Christian? Do you act like a baby Christian?

Remember? We read it. They desire milk. They've

got to have milk. They've got to have food. They

won't be quiet. They won't be happy until they

get their food. A baby. And the Bible tells us

that a baby Christian is the same. You can't

be satisfied with anything other than more and

more about Jesus. More and more about Jesus.

That's what I want. That's what I want to know.

How can I love him more? How can I serve him

better? And we think that we're, I did, and you

know, I think I was doing all right. I was after

Jesus. Well, and it was fine, but I was a baby

Christian. And when you start to walk, normally

you stumble, if you know what I'm saying. Normally

you have a little bit of a problem that has growing

pains maybe is what it's called. There's some

difficulties on the road. It's not all what you

thought it was going to be. It's not all coming

easy. Some of this stuff is work. Is this what

I signed up for? Some of this stuff is ridicule.

You work in a factory with 300 people of 300

men and all of a sudden you're changed. You're

going to hear about it. Believe it. They're going

to be on you like I don't know what. And they're

going to be trying to make you slip up and fall.

It's a baby Christian. That's what we go through.

If you're a Christian, have you experienced these

things? Do you know anything about this? That's

all I'm asking. I'm not saying you have or you

haven't. But do you have a right view of yourself

remember that's part of Bible You have to have

the right view of God and the right view of yourself

Without it you're not going anywhere you're just

gonna be on a treadmill walking in place And

you're not being Conform to Jesus if you're on

the treadmill Not saying that you're not a Christian

or that you're going to be going to hell, not

saying any of those things. Because we know,

if we're Christians, we're secure. But there's

going to come a time when there's going to have

to be some change. And this is what Paul's going

to be talking about here in the last part of

this chapter. We read then, in verse 15, After

I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love

unto all the saints." There's those two things

together, remember? Faith toward Jesus and love

to the saints. We cease not to give thanks for

you, making mention of you in my prayers. Again,

that's Paul's example. This isn't the only place.

He's always praying for people. He's always praying

for the saints. He doesn't even know these people.

Hardly any. He's praying for him. That the God

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory,

may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation

in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your

understanding being enlightened, that you may

know what is the hope of his calling and what

the riches of the glory of his inheritance in

the saints. And. What is the exceeding greatness

of his power toward us who believe? According

to the working of his mighty power Which he wrought

in Christ when he raised him from the dead and

set him on his own right hand in the heavenly

places comma Okay, that's his prayer folks. Do

you pray that for yourself? Do you pray for anybody

else? That's a pretty big deal. That's a pretty

important prayer. The very Apostle Paul prayed

that. What's he saying? He's saying that the

Spirit would so work in you that your understanding

would be increased, that you'd be enlightened,

that you'd be knowing more and more and more

and growing and growing in your love and appreciation

for Jesus Christ, for your love to the saints.

In other words, this relationship is alive. It's

having an effect upon you. You're no longer going

to stay a baby all your life. You're going to

grow. And you're going to enjoy it so much that

you can't stop. Because the Holy Spirit's at

work in you. And you have to. You have to know

more. It's your desire to know more. You come

to grips with the privilege of knowing God. You

ladies are studying in the women's ministry,

knowing God. There's no greater thing to strive

after, to know God. And that's what the Spirit

has given you. The Spirit is turning us all into

these people who are just sold out for God, perhaps.

Nothing's more important. million other responsibilities

that we have to do. But none of them take the

place of our desire to have fellowship with God.

That should be the reality, folks. That's what

Paul's saying here. You're doing your daily work,

your daily duties. You're all engaged in this

world's activities. And we have to be. There's

no doubt about that. If we're going to be responsible

people, we have plenty of things to do. We now

sit around and read the Bible all day. We can't

do it. Does that mean that we don't want to do

it? Does that mean that, oh, I've got an opportunity

here. I'm going to read the Bible. I've got an

opportunity. I can pray. And it certainly should

set, at the very minimum, we should be saying,

I've got a certain block of time that's set aside

every day to do just that, the fellowship with

God, to learn of Him, to grow. to pray for my

brothers and sisters in Christ who have bared

their hearts and souls to me and asked me to

do so. They've told me of their problems. They've

told me of their difficulties. They've told me

of their needs. And will I refuse to pray? How

is that love? It's not. It's not a work of the

Holy Spirit. It's a work of our own sinful flesh.

That's all. We've got to face reality, folks.

That's the reality. That's a Christian. That's

Christianity. That's a spiritual relationship

that we have with Christ Jesus. The power of

the Holy Spirit living within us. The same power

that raised Christ from the dead. Oh, I can't

do it. Well, what are you talking about? Do you

know how sinful that is? To say that about God?

Oh, I can't do this. The Holy Spirit raised up

Christ from the dead and He can't empower you

to do what God's called you to do. That's just

a total contradiction. That's the truth. Total

contradiction. Now, He's not going to make you

do it. I didn't say that. You don't want to do

it, you're not going to do it. And you're not

going to get any help to do it. But according

to Paul's prayer here, it's all waiting there

for us. All the help that we need, all the guidance,

everything that we need, all the growth, everything

to bring us to maturity is in the Word and Spirit.

We don't have to stay babies. And I was generous

when I said five years. That's a long time to

stay a baby a five -year -old is not a baby Okay,

so wrapping it up we finish it with this 21 far

above all principality and power might dominion

and every name that is named not only in this

world but also in that which is to come and hath

put all things under his feet and gave him to

be the head over all things to the church which

is his body the fullness of him that filleth

all in all." So there you have it. That's the

end of the argument or that's the end of the

teaching. Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

Everything has been put under His authority for

the sake of the Church. Again, think on that.

God governs this world in every way possible

for the good of the Church. That's a handful

there, to get your mind around that. Sometimes,

probably most of the time, we can't figure it

out. How is this going to help the church? Well,

that's what it says. I just read it to you. So,

if you doubt it, you're doubting the Word of

God. All the difficulties, all the crazy circumstances,

it's all for our good. If we grasp it, if we

use it in that way, if we come to a proper understanding.

But the most radical thing here... is where I'm

closing. It says, the church which is his body,

the fullness of him. That phrase has gendered

more controversy probably or at least as much

as any other phrase in the Bible. The church

is the fullness of Christ. is going to be benefited

it's his inheritance so to speak by the people

whom he came to save they're his fullness he's

growing he's expanding daily more and more people

are being brought to Christ the church is his

fullness now we can't add anything to Christ

I'm not saying silly things like that But I am

saying that that's the value that God puts on

the church. It's the fullness of Christ. Christ

has worked. Christ has brought people to Himself.

He's empowered these people to live to His glory.

And He's made full by the additions, continual

additions to this church. Look at Jesus, all

that he's doing, all that he's accomplished.

It's a wonderful thing to be in his family, to

be a part of his church. To have that much purpose

in your life that you're said to be the fullness

of Christ. How much purpose do we need? That's

plenty for me. I can do it. I got the Holy Spirit.

I can live to His glory. I can do what He's called

me to do. I can remember the first time I had

to do a lot of things. And it was with quaking

knees and full of doubt. And I was scared to

death. First time I've tried to do things. But

I had those verses in my mind. God's gonna help

me do this. He's called me to do it and I'm gonna

do it. I'm not going to be deterred. I'm going

to go through with this. And lo and behold, it

was just like he said it would be. Now, I'm not

saying I did great at it the first time, but

I did it. I followed the Lord, and I did it.

And the more I did it, the more I liked it, the

greater enjoyment it was, and the more help I

was, and the more glory I gave to God. And that's

just how it works. If you're a Christian. It

says Christ, Christ filleth all in all. Christ

is everything, in other words. He's all there

is. He's everything. He's all that I need. He's

all that I want. He fills it all. Is that how

we think? Is that what we're after? A really

big time relationship with Jesus Christ. Learning

and growing in our faith. Serving more and more.

Serving the people of God more and more. Loving

one another more and more. That's all hand in

hand. I hope it is. Because that's what the church

should be. And that's what we want to strive

at. The biblical view of the church. Well, we'll

pick it up next week, and if I get the verses

soon enough, I'll email you.