We are all familiar with before and after stories. Programmes like Garden Rescue and Ground Force tell their own stories of transformations. But the greatest ever story of transformation is found in the gospel, and re-told here by Paul in Ephesians. Pastor Steve Reilly reminds us again of the wonder of our salvation - a wonder that’s the heart of our worship and changes for ever how we see ourselves and the world we live in.

Pastor Steve reminds us that salvation is more than about what happens to us after we die - salvation transforms our lives now. Ephesians 2:1-10 spells this out through a series of contrasts. We were dead in transgressions and sins, and now are alive in Christ. We lived in disobedience, and now we live to do good works. We once followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Now we are in Christ and seated with Him in heavenly realms.

Pastor Steve summaries the story of our salvation in three headings.

We have the problem that sin separates us from God and from His life. Sin is a barrier we can neither cross nor overcome. Pastor Steve unpacks what it means for us to be objects of God’s “wrath.” As Paul says in Romans, God’s wrath is against wickedness - a righteous anger which seeks the reformation of people rather than their destruction. Sin creates consequences - it’s like a moral law of cause and effect - as Paul says in Romans 1:24, 1:26, and 1:28. Because God is holy, He cannot tolerate sin, or allow it to corrupt the redeemed world that He will establish when Jesus’s rule is complete. There is a future dimension to God’s wrath, through which we can exclude ourselves forever from His loving presence.

But God, in His love, desires everyone to come to know Him. For this He has made provision through love, mercy and grace, which we can experience through repentance.

This leads us into God’s purpose - that from the new life we live by the grace of God we are enabled to do the good works which He has prepared for us. As Pastor Steve puts it “We are saved to grow in the character of Christ’s likeness.” The person you are becoming, is as important as what you do.

Pastor Steve highlights two practical ways in which we can work this out - engaging with the mission of God and living a life of worship. Through living out a life impacted by grace we make a difference in our world, and as we let the deep truths of what we have been saved from - and saved for - to take a hold of us, we live a life of gratitude for His gracious provision.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our seven week series on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Pastor Steve Rilley begins by reminding us that Ephesians is unlike many of Paul's other letters which were written to address specific challenges and issues. Ephesians is a letter for every church - a letter for us. Chapters 1-3 focus on who were are in Christ and on all He has done for us, interspersed with prayer and praise. Chapters 4-6 focus on how we should live out of who we are. Commentator Warren Wiersbe puts it like this - we are to walk (Chs 4-6) out of our wealth (Chs 1-3).

In the original Greek of today's passage - Chapter 1:3-14 - we see a single unpunctuated sentence, a breathless outpouring of praise, adoration and wonder. Look out for the Paul using the words chosen, adoption, forgiven, blessed, lavished, redemption and guaranteed inheritance. A key idea - repeated 11 times - is Paul talking about us being "in Christ" or "in Him." Jesus is the focus and source of all these blessings and of our new life and we are called to walk in a way that brings glory to His name.

Pastor Steve picks out a number of "reasons to be thankful" - truths that define our identity. Before God even began His work of creation we were chosen in order to be holy and blameless. God, in His foreknowledge saw where we would be born, where we would live and what we would do. Pastor Steve invites us to marvel that the God who foresaw all our sin and rebellion still chose to pursue us so that we could be adopted as His children. All this is done in love the motivation for all He does towards us.

Paul goes on to say we are redeemed and forgiven as Jesus has paid the price of our freedom. And we are sealed by the Holy Spirit the guarantee of our inheritance. By the same power of the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead - to ascend above every name, power and dominion in creation - we too are given complete assurance that the grave is not the end of our story. As Pastor Steve reminds us "God's guarantee is as certain as His word is true."

As we will go on to see next week, Paul moves from praise to prayer, praying that these truths will really get hold of us and that, through His wisdom and revelation, we will come to know Him more and more, confident that our future (our inheritance) will far surpass any and all of our present circumstances.

Pastor Steve asks us to reflect on what we are drawn to in the passage and for which great truths are we most thankful.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.