IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH
WALK WORTHY OF YOUR CALLING

Paul wrote, “1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

The moment after one is baptized “all” their sins are forgiven, they are added to the body of Christ, which is the church, and then something truly wonderful begins.

That person now has a purpose.
They are now the chosen, redeemed, predestined, adopted, heirs, saved, reconciled and now they begin a glorious transformation as they are recipients of wisdom from above.
Why? So that God will be glorified through His saints!
His glory and His wisdom would be on display as Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:21 which summarizes the calling, that God would be glorified through us (the church) and through Jesus for all generations forever and ever. That is our calling in this life.

So, in this less we’ll learn a bit of what it means to be…

We can love each other all the while still not seeing “eye to eye” on various points and still draw closer when we differ in our understanding.
Those who are more mature in the faith must remember they didn’t start where they are now.
We all must, with all lowliness and gentleness longsuffering, bear with one another in love.

In this lesson I will stress three points…

Walking worthy is necessary if we are going to have unity.
Christ Like Character brings Christian Unity.
And Three, there is a charge, or command from Paul to maintain Christian unity.

We begin with understanding that for this to happen we must “Walk Worthy” (4:1)…

THE CHURCH THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD

Let’s read 1 Tim. 3:15, and we will expound on it later in the lesson. The the saints, the children of the Heavenly Father, Paul wrote, “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15.

There are blessings available only to those who are members of the household of God. Blessings that cannot be claimed by those outside the family of God. As a member of God’s family, a Christian enjoys these benefits 1. An Heir of God – Rom. 8:15-17, 2. Access to God as Father – Matt. 6:9. 

Notice that Paul used the terms “church of the living God” and the “house of God”: The word “oikos”, “house” can mean “house, the material building, household, family, lineage, nation”.  Paul used it, not as a physical house, rather here referring to the spiritual family of God. Translated as “household” in Hebrews 11:7 referring to the family of Noah. There are a number of lessons about the church which can be learned from this comparison.

1. An Heir of God – Rom. 8:15-17
2. Access to God as Father – Matt. 6:9 (Matt. 5:45, 7:8; Eph. 1:3)
3. God’s Fatherly Correction – 2 Cor. 12:9-10
4. God’s Fatherly Protection – Psalm 121
5. God’s Fatherly Love – Rom. 8:35, 38-39

STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT

In our lesson today we begin with seeking understanding of the apostle Paul’s prayer for Strengthening

Thus the title today is strengthened with might which comes from verse 16. . .

That God would grant these saints be, “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man”.
The prayer is a continuation from chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 where Paul said…
I, “do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”.
But here in chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 we see Paul’s prayer is for the entire family of God.
The word Paul uses for “family” is derived from [πατήρ] meaning father.
The family in heaven and on earth is of the Father.
That is a family made because of the great love the Father has for His creation.
Remember, we are all named after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who is seated at God’s right hand…
His name is above “every name that is named” ( 1:21)
a name “above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth” ( 2:9-10).
In fact, Paul proclaims that the day is coming when “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (11).
So, whether you are saved or not saved – you will bow, you will confess Christ as Lord.

Now let’s turn to chapter 3 and not a few things beginning at verse 16…

MIND OF CHRIST – PART 4
WHY JESUS

Ever consider how powerful the little word Come is?

My House – Movie – Walk – Visit my Church

Jesus:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” – Matt. 16:24
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden” – Matt. 11:28
Jesus said to Peter “Come…out of the boat, walk on the water and walk to Me” – Matt 14:29
“…come to Me and drink…out of YOUR heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38

Jesus invites all to come to Him, come live as I lived, come raise your children right, come and follow me to heaven where I Am!

IT IS THE INVITATION OF GOD

Therefore, for a little while today we’re going to talk about why Jesus.

IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH YOU ARE SAVED – PART 7

As we now move from chapter one to chapter two, we must note the first word of this second chapter is the word, “and”. Significant because that word then tells us that even though there is a chapter break, the thought and context are a continuation from the second half of previous chapter.

Where Paul wrote, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17). Paul prays they will have spiritual discernment. To know the hope of His calling, the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (1:18-19). This immeasurable greatness of the Father’s power is seen first in the resurrection of Jesus (1:20-21).

Here in chapter 2 of Ephesians Paul describes the immeasurable greatness of His power in another way.

It is through this power that we will understand another aspect of who we are in Christ.
He accomplishes this by comparing what we were before Christ saved us with what we are now that we are saved.

First Paul speaks to our old condition: “dead in trespasses and sins” (2:1-3)…

MIND OF CHRIST PART 6
WILDERNESS ENCOUNTER

In this our sixth lesson we continue seeking to know the mind of Christ. As God’s dear children, we want to learn how to deal with all of life’s trials and temptations.

And the best way is to learn from the master’s mind, the mind of Christ

Paul wrote, “we have the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16)
Powerfully, that eliminates “divisions”
Allowing us to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1Cor. 1:10)
“with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27)
The clear result is that we with, “one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:6)
So, as we live and breathe, before God Our Father, let’s, “gird up the loins of our mind, be sober, and rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1Pet. 1:13)

We receive the mind of Christ by seeing, through the word of God, how Jesus, and His apostles dealt with, error, difficult people, and life situations and the devil himself. You may have guessed from our scripture reading that today we want to learn from Jesus how he dealt with temptation and then apply the same principals to our lives. We will not be led up into the wilderness by the devil as was our Lord, but we all must face temptations in our lifetime. We all must make decisions, and live with the outcomes of those choices, whether good, or bad.

So, let’s learn from the master’s “Wilderness Encounter”…

IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH
THAT YOU MAY KNOW

In the previous 5 lessons from Paul’s letter to the saints at Ephesus Paul is telling them, and us, who we are in Christ. Describing the many spiritual blessings that are found in Christ Paul says we are the saints, chosen, predestined, adopted, redeemed, and sealed. Let me describe two ways we can practice our faith.

Vertical Christianity: Godly Love – Service, Sacrifice, and Obedience. Faithfulness – To God’s Word till Death. Horizontal Christianity: Genine Fellowship within the Family of God that extends love toward all the saints.
Genuine Love for the Lost that Develops a need for sharing the good news. Vertical Christianity practicing the faith once delivered in hope of the return of Jesus, by pressing “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14), by serving the Lord and Master Jesus. While Horizontal Christianity is reaching out to others, being, …rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for ourselves a good foundation for the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:18-19). Truth is, we cannot be faithful and love the things of this world (1 John 2:15). We cannot be faithful and not practice love toward our brothers and sisters (1 Pet. 2:17), nor can we be faithful and not desire to help seek and save lost souls as our Lord did for us (Luke 19:10).
Our Christianity hangs on these two principles from Jesus: “37…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-39).

Truth demands that we live beyond ourselves. As God’s children, we cannot live for self, we must live for Jesus.
We are called to live according to will of God (Matt. 7:21) thus we live to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28), we live to “serve one another” (Gal. 5:13), and we “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8) exposing the works of darkness (Eph. 5:11).

In our lesson we will learn from Paul two things: What God Wants You To Have (1:15-17) and What God Wants You To Know (1:18-23)…

IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH – PART 5 YOU ARE HEIRS

You are Heirs

Because we have been redeemed by the applied blood of Christ, our sin debt has been paid, and being restored we are now heirs – God’s inheritance. At verse 11 we read…

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,” (Eph. 1:11)

The first point that needs to be explored is this.

We must not make the mistake of connecting “obtaining an inheritance” to the promise of a home in heaven Jesus made us (John 14:1-3, 6).
The “inheritance” means you are now one of the people of God, God’s child, not the home in heaven, but that God is now your Father, and you are His precious child.

Consider the promises of God to His chosen people Israel…

THE MIND OF CHRIST – CONNECT THE DOTS

We are continuing our evening series on the mind of Christ

Our goal is to know more about Jesus
To learn from His thoughts to try as best we can to make them our thoughts
To see how Jesus handles day to day dealings with people who both love Him and even those who hated Him

Today, turn with me to the book of John, and chapter John 6:59-69…

IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH – YOU ARE REDEEMED PART 4

In this our 4th lesson we’ll learn part of what all this means as we study what it means to be redeemed. We begin at verse 7 of chapter one which reads:

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”  (Ephesians 11:7)

Our redemption was made possible only because of God’s great love. Redemption defined: (ἀπολυτρόω signifying a. to redeem one by paying the price). The Oxford Dictionary has, “the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. God’s plans for the redemption of his world”.

Only through Christ do we have redemption.

As Paul said, redeemed through His blood

 John wrote of Jesus saying, “…You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9)

We have been made free, the debt we could not pay for our sin was paid for by Jesus’ own blood…