Displaying posts by Greg Ho

Praise for God's Blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:2-6)

Here, Paul reviews for us the great benefits we should enjoy as Christians. We are blessed! We should know our blessed position and blessed possessions in Christ!

1. Grace is favor from God (Ephesians 1:2).
2. Peace is union with God after separation (Ephesians 1:2). You cannot have grace without peace, but we need both grace from God and peace with God! Having no peace with God translates to a lack of peace with other people; aggression in our hearts results. Man can only be at peace with himself when he is at peace with God.
3. A Father. God is now or father; we are adopted in the family of God (Ephesians 1:2).
4. The Lord Jesus Christ. Christ died for us! He is now our Lord, as opposed to our enemy (Ephesians 1:2).
5. The Father has given us every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). For example, our sins are forgiven; God has chosen us and brought us into his family.
6. The Father has chosen us (Ephesians 1:4). He chose us for himself; he didn't ask anyone for any advice. God is sovereign in salvation and makes no mistakes whatsoever. What God chooses and designs remains forever (Isaiah 43:10). Some may say "this is unfair." But no one has the ability to judge whether God is fair (Romans 9:19-20). Paul endured suffering for the "chosen" (2 Tim 2:10). It is the chosen who are saved (1 Peter 1:1-2). God chooses people in love. Election is not determined on any virtuous quality or foreseen act in man. Election is not based on anything done by us. Those who God elected he brings by the power of the Holy Spirit to a saving faith in Christ! (A point of confusion is the word "foreknowledge" in 1 Peter 1:2. This is not saying that salvation is based on God's foreknowledge of our choice. But this is not what "foreknowledge" means. But, the only things that can be foreknown are those that are predetermined! So, God's choice is before faith.) Election encourages holy living and evangelism!
7. The Father has guaranteed that we will be holy and blameless before him (Ephesians 1:4). Election encourages to live holy lives.
8. The Father adopted us as sons (Ephesians 1:5).
9. The Father blessed us in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6).

What does it mean to be a Christian? Where you really gain your identity, is when you become a Christian. Your identity is found not in what you did and who you are, but who Christ is and who He is. In this first verse, Paul identifies his audience.

This epistle is directed and addressed to Christians. Though it was directed to the church at Ephesus, it was meant to be a circulated letter, effectively addressed to all Christians in the surrounding areas, and even us today.

So here, Paul identifies his audience in several ways. The question we need to ask ourselves after understanding how Paul identifies these Christians is: Can we be identified like this too?

First, Paul identifies his audience as "saints" (Ephesians 1:1). The word "saints" mean "holy ones" or "separated." The Christian is one who has been separated from Satan's clutches. We are set apart outwardly (in our conversations, in our behavior), but we are also set apart inwardly. We've been cleansed from an evil conscience, all the pollution that sin brings to our life. Our minds are not governed by sin, but by the Word of God.

The word "saints" isn't something we strive to be, or a title someone can bestow on us, but it is something that all Christians are already. We have been set apart for God, by God. (This is antithetical to the erroneous, Roman Catholic idea of "saints," in which a saint is someone who is someone special, someone especially holy, and to whom you can pray to after they die.) Saints are not superior Christians, all Christians are saints!

Second, Paul identifies his audience as "faithful in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:1). Christians remain faithful to the doctrine of Christ Jesus (his death, burial, resurrection, and defeat of sin and death) and remain faithful in obeidence to Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the center of our lives and our belief as Christians. If Christ as a person is not essential to you, you are not a Christian. We have a relationship not with knowledge, but with a person.

Faith in Christ means several things: First, you assent to the facts of Christ in your words. But second, you must assent to the facts in another way, not just mentally, but in your heart, in a way that affects your life, in a lasting way that endures forever (1 Cor 15:2). This is not just mental assent, but a commitment to the facts. To receive the gospel means to receive the resurrected Lord that affects your mind, heart, and soul, permanently.

Third, we are "in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:1). Before we were in Christ, were in someone else: Adam. Adam, the first man, disobeyed in the garden of Eden and plunged us all into sin and guilt. (1 Cor 15:22) In Adam, we were doomed to hell. But now we have been brought out of Adam and into Christ. In Christ, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). In Christ, we are an entirely new creation (2 Cor 5:17). All people are either in Adam or in Christ.

Those who are new creations in Christ ought to practice holiness. Since God is holy, God's people must be holy also.

What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to be a saint, it means to be faithful, and it means to be in Christ, not in Adam.

So, is this your identity now?

Audience: Even though this letter was written to the church at Ephesus, it was a letter that was meant to be circulated to surrounding churches.

Purpose:This book is a book that gives us larger understanding of what God has done, and who we are in Him. When we see this, all our priorities will be changed.

Themes in the book of Ephesians:

1. God
2. Jesus Christ
3. God's sovereignty over salvation
4. The Godhead (we see the Father in Ephesians 1:3-5, the Son in Ephesians 1:10, the Spirit in Ephesians 1:13).
5. The mystery of God's will (Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:3; Ephesians 5:32). This is something that was previously unknown and now revealed.
6. The Grace of God (Ephesians 2:8). It's God's grace that saves us!

The structure of the book of Ephesians:

1. First Part: Doctrine, or Right Belief (Chapter 1-3)
   1. Description of the believer's blessed position in Christ (Eph 1:1-16)
   2. Prayer that these truths will make a difference in our lives (Eph 1:15-23)
   3. Unity (Eph 2)
2. Second Part: Conduct, or Right Living (Chapter 4-6)
   1. Unity
   2. Walk before God in love, light, and wisdom
   3. Submit to God in your relationships
   4. Spiritual warfare

If we were to do an evaluation of the church today and diagonse its trouble, we would find that the great problem with the church is that the participants have become so preoccupied with themselves that they have lost sight of God Himself. The church seems to run everywhere for help except to the Lord.

If Satan can get us to forget God and get us all sidetracked on something else, then he has succeeded in his mission.

Ephesians was written by Paul to call the church back to what is important. We find much about Ephesus in the book of Acts.

We see Paul arriving in Ephesus is in Acts 18:23, and he spent almost three years there preaching and teaching. The going-ons in Ephesus as a whole is seen in Acts 19:8-35. Here we find demons, exorcisms, practicing of the magic arts, and rampant idolatry. Here we find that this city was also the guardian to a fertility God, Artemis. Paul's attack on this God, and the profits of the idol-makers, brought the anger of the people upon him.

After Paul left Ephesus and was on his way back to Jerusalem, never to return, he sends word back to the Ephesian elders, and wants to talk to them before he goes back to Jerusalem (Acts 20:16). He implored them to guard the flock from wolves, and false teaching (Acts 20:29). The best way to protect the flock is to preach the truth.

So young Timothy was sent by Paul to pastor the Ephesian church. Paul says to Timothy "I started it, you finish it!" So Paul passes the baton (1 Timothy 1:18-20). Among his message to Timothy was to warn him about people who say that they know the truth, but their lives do not match it. They really do not know anything, but have a morbid interest in disputes. (1 Timothy 6:1-5).

Years later, after all these things (circa AD 70 or so), Jesus addresses the church through the Apostle John in Ephesus in Rev 2:1-7). Jesus gives them a commendation: he commended their toil and endurance, and their intolerance of those who are evil. This was a church that was fighting for truth and identifying false teachers. But something happened in the battle: They stopped loving Christ. They lost their first love. He warns them that if they do not repent, he would remove their lamp from their lampstand; he would shut them down. (And sadly, he did.)

We, as a church, must be careful to heed Jesus's words to Ephesus, so that we can remain on our lampstand! We must grow in our love of God, grow in our knowledge of God, and live like we know God!

Three themes we'll see in the book of Ephesians:

1. The supremacy of God Ephesians 1:3 starts the book of Ephesians with praise to God. Here is where we must always start. Wes must be concerned about God's glory. We ought to think less about ourselves and more about God.
2. Christ, and what he did to carry out our redemption A genuine, lived-out love for Christ should be evident in our lives.
3. God's sovereignty in salvation. This book reveals the divine side of salvation. It is God Himself who makes the difference between the elect and the non-elect!

Ephesians is a book about God, and what he's done!

An ordiance is a visible, outward, symbolic rite to be performed by the church. What is the significance of the Lord's Table? We must make sure we don't treat this ordinance with a lack of understanding.

The Lord's table is a memorial that treats the bread and wine as symbols to observe the first and second coming of Christ, to be performed until He comes again.

In fact, the Lord's table is a "rememberance" (1 Cor 11:25), so that we never forget what God has done. There is precident for this type of rememberances in the Old Testament (stones in Joshua 4:20-24). Its meant to bring the past into the present, for hope of the future. We trust God to rescue, provide, keep his promises, and do the same for the future that we did back then. This kind of remembering is meant to sustain the people with a hope.

In the Lord's Table, God has given us visible signs of the gospel; the fruit of the vine representing the blood, the bread representing his body. When we take it, we thank God for what he has done for us, and what he will yet do for us! We should never do it in a ho-hum, repetitious manner.

It is also a look backwards towards the Passover. It's a proclamation of the gospel. It's not a coincidence that Christ instituted the Lord's Table during the Passover meal. The Passover was a celebration of a rescue from 400 years of slavery. It was a rememberance of the miracle where God killed the firstborn of all people in the land except for those who had blood smeared on their doorposts (Exodus 12:11-14). The Lord's Table is also a celebration of a rescue, but a rescue from sin and death. God "passes us over" in judgement because of the blood of Christ.

Now back to 1 Corinthians. This letter was written to a problematic church, struggling with: 1. factionalism (1 Cor 1:12), 2. sexual immorality (1 Cor 5:7). (At the Lord's Table, Christians ought to deal with the remaining leaven in their life.), 3. Idolatry (1 Cor 10:14-16).

When we take the Lord's Table, there's an inward look that ought to take place (1 Cor 11:27). We ought not to partake of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner. But, what does it really mean to partake in a worthy vs. unworthy manner? Is it Biblical to absent ourselves from the Lord's Table because we feel dirty from sin? This brings us to our text!

Taking the Lord's Table in an Worthy Manner

1. They partake in eating the bread and drinking the cup by faith. Ask yourself: Have I placed myself by faith under the blood of Christ in the same way that the Israelites by faith painted their doorposts with blood during the Passover?
2. They examine themselves to see if they are pure and genuine. (1 Cor 11:28) (The word "examine" implies to test metal to see if its pure.) Is their faith genuine? Are they living a life that reflects a true faith? They then repent of remaining sin that is there.
3. They judge the body rightly (1 Cor 11:29). Understand that we are all on equal footing before the cross. Schisms and divisions are not to be brought into the Lord's Table.
4. They judge themselves rightly. (1 Cor 11:31) They look at their life and are honest with God and identify their sin, know their wretchedness. Self-examination must be happening before taking the Lord's table, and any sin found confessed and repented of.
5. They receive one another (1 Cor 11:33-34). Are you treating others the right way?

The prerequisite of coming to the Lord's Table is essentially repentence. However, no one ever can repent of all things perfectly, and it is wrong to abstain from the table because of a perceived failure do to do this perfectly.

Taking the Lord's Table in an Unworthy Manner

1. Not being a genuine, approved Christian recognized by others (1 Cor 11:19).
2. Unrepentent living that shows you are not a true believer (1 Cor 11:29). Taking the Lord's Table without being a believer may even cause you to die (1 Cor 11:30). These are unbelievers.

Believers are not called to abstain from the Lord's Table! Only in the case of a recognition of 1. unrepentent sin without a desire to repent, and 2. a rift between you and a brother or sister, is it Biblical to abstain. However, #1 is a huge problem, since all true believers want to repent! #2 should be removed because you have time to get it right before the Lord's Table.

Barring these two cases, it is not Biblical to abstain from the Lord's Table simply because of a feeling of guilt or unworthiness!

The Lord's Table is a forward look to the time where Christ will come again! When its time to partake of the Lord's Table, be joyfully and mindfully prepared to embrace the gospel, remember the New Covenant, and enjoy the gospel, the greatest treasure ever bestowed on a human being!

The Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, is talking about Jesus (Luke 24:13-27)

According to Scripture, Jesus started to explain to the disciples from the book of Moses concerning himself. Last time, we went from Creation to the tower of Babel. Today we will take a helicopter ride some of the rest of the Old Testament examples. Where is Jesus in the Old Testament, and where was he prophecied?

5 More Reasons why Christ Had to Die:

1. Adam and Eve: Adam and Eve sinned and then needed to be clothed. All manmade religions are like Adam and Eve's fig leaves. Clothing can cover their naked bodies but cannot cover their sinful hearts. Religion cannot cover the sinful heart, cannot forgive sin, can make no one right with God. Just like an animal had to die to clothe Adam and Eve, so Jesus had to die to clothe us.
2. Abraham's sacrifice of Issac: Abraham was commanded to offer up his son, Issac, a human being. Here, the sacrifice of a human being is foreshadowed. But before Abraham could sacrifice Issac, God provided an offering Himself (a ram). The picture of Issac later foreshdowed the burnt offering in the sacrificial system, or an offering that people needed to bring to appease God's anger, as a sacrifice for sins. Abraham called the place where this took place "Jehovah Jireh," which means "God will provide." (Genesis 22:14) Just as a ram died in Issac's place, so did God provide Jesus to die in our place. We procure this sacrifice by faith (Hebrews 11:19)
3. The Passover:The last plague upon Egypt was the death of the firstborn child. God said that if the Isrelites followed his word, they would be saved from this tragedy (Exodus 12:5-7,13). The way to be save your child was to offer a lamb, and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and the lintel of their house. Here is a picture of someone who, by faith, shed the blood of an animal and smeared the blood. The angel then would pass them over. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The tradition was then that a lamb would be sacrificed every year, at Passover, as a rememberance. When Jesus died, he died at the exact time, during Passover, when the Passover Lambs were killed (1 Corinthians 5:7).
4. The Ten Commandments: When the Ten Commandments were given, the Israelites thought it would be easy to obey them. But no one can obey the law perfectly. Indeed, the law of God was added to keep the knoweldge of sin before people (Romans 5:20). But the law never made anything perfect; that was not its purpose (Hebrews 7:18-19). The law could never give anyone righteousness equal to God's righteousness. But there is a type of righteousness totally unrelated to the law! (Romans 3:21-22,28). The law, then, is a "teacher" to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24), to show us that we are guilty before God. It was to point out our need of a savior and a sacrifice, in whom we would need to believe by faith.
5. He Died to Rise: Jesus all along died so that he could rise again (John 10:17-18). The resurrection of Jesus was sufficient as a sacrifice. The resurrection showed that Jesus was more than a man, but was God. His rising proved that God accepted the sacrifice that was offered. He needed to prove who he said he was, the Messiah of prophecy (1 Corinthians 15:4). He also needed to show that he conquered death for all believers. Death has lost its poisonous fangs for believers because of Christ! All people will be resurrected, either to life or to judgement.

Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your eternal Savior. You will also be resurrected from the dead someday! If you have faith in Christ, you will go to eternal glory with our Lord. Without saving faith, you will be resurrected to everlasting judgement.

Faith in Christ requires you to 1. Repent of your sin, 2. Believe in Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection, and 3. Turn to Christ for forgiveness of your sins.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life! He is the Savior.

To continue to answer this question, we need to turn back to Genesis 3.

Another 4 reasons that Jesus had to die:

1. Because of what happened in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-4)
   • Adam and Eve fell into temptation; they saw what they wanted and they took it, plunging the whole human race into sin.
   • Even here, the very first prophecy of Christ's death is presented (Genesis 3:5).
   • What happened that day? 1. Man became lost. 2. Man became an enemy of God. 3. Man became alienated from God. 4. Man became a slave to Satan and sin. 5. Man became guilty before a holy God. 6. Man became a debtor with a huge price to pay for his sins (death). This encompasses physical and spiritual death. He could no longer respond to God.
   • The requirement of Jesus's death is foreshadowed by the fact that Adam and Eve's shame had to be covered by animals skins (shed blood) (Genesis 3:21)
2. Because of what happened to Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-5)
   • Cain wanted to worship his "own way" (Genesis 4:3). Cain's sacrifice of vegetables did not shed blood, which was required to atone for sin. He chose to worship his own way, instead of the way that God made!
   • Abel was righteous because he offered up a sacrifice of blood, which was a shadow of the true sacrifice for sin that was once for all offered, Christ.
3. Because of Noah (Genesis 6:1-8)
   • Noah was righteous because he did what the Lord said (Genesis 6:8), not his own heart, which was evil continually (Genesis 6:5).
   • The people of Noah's day were judged for their sin, and there was no way to escape. The same is true today.
   • The ark provides a picture of the only way to escape God's judgement (Genesis 6:9-14).
   • There is only one way to enter. There were not many entryways (only one way for salvation).
4. Because of Babel (Genesis 11:1-5)
   • Babel is the story of men who banded together to rebel against God.
   • As judgement, God confused their language and scattered the people.
   • As a result of confusion of languages, every people group has a different idea of how to get to God.
   • Christ's death and resurrection is the only basis for God forgiving sin. All other religions are systems of work; not of attaining grace.

Jesus's sacrifice is so perfect and so final and so sufficient that it put an end to all repetitive sacrifices forever. It gave to all who believe a permanent justification before God, now and forever.

Jesus's sacrifice as the only way to have your sins forgiven from God was the only plan from the beginning (Luke 24:46)!