Are we drunk and foolish?

Perhaps you are already answering the question in your mind..."Surely not Steve. Your asking us this question at 8:00 AM. It's not even "the third hour of the day" in Peter's words. Plus - we're Baptist; the strongest thing we drink is Chai Tea!"

But I am not speaking of drunkenness from wine or the foolishness from the immorality of the wicked world around us. I ask in the context of Ephesians - that great work that calls us to consider the New Covenant Temple, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we drunk with the wine of family and personal ambition and therefore become foolish architects/builders of the Temple that we are to be focused upon?

In our previous studies at Heritage, we have seen how the letter to the Ephesians is filled with construction language. Some of the language is clear in English translations, some is not. In Ephesians 5, we are faced with a question. Has the light of Christ shone upon us? If so, we must arise and if we are wise, we must redeem the time.

What is it to be "wise"? A builder/architect was demonstrated to be wise by the quality and durability of his work. An example of this is found in the parable of the two builders in Matthew 7:24-27. The builder of the strong, secure house was called "wise". The builder of the house destroyed by the rain and the floods was called "foolish".

So, are we wise?

• How are we doing at building up the New Covenant Temple, composed of both Jew and Gentiles (Ephesians 2.14-21)?
• How are we doing at understanding the glory and importance of the Church as this temple, which Paul prayed God would reveal that we see the magnificence of it in its splendor and glory (Ephesians 3.14-20)?
• How are we doing at utilizing our spiritual gifts that we were equipped with through the resurrection of Jesus so that we each hold one another together and support one another and grow together in the Corporate Temple (Ephesians 4.10-15)?

If we are wise builders, and not fools, then we will redeem the time. The prophets rebuked Israel for not being concerned with (re)building the Temple. Zechariah was one of these prophets. As he encouraged Israel to give effort to build the physical temple, his words were prophetic of the true Temple to come. In Zechariah 4:6 the word of the Lord says, "Not by strength, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the sovereign Lord".

In Ephesians 5, we are commanded to be "filled" with the Spirit. "Filled" is a construction term that is used to speak of the materials of a building being incorporated into one another during construction. As Zechariah promised, God is building his temple by his Spirit.

So, are we redeeming the time? If we do not do so, weeks will fly by, months will disappear, and the Temple will be left degrading instead of being built up.

Let me suggest a few practical things:

• Pray with the apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:18), that you and your family will understand the glory of the New Covenant Temple.
• Pray that the Spirit of God will use you in the "filling" of the Temple, so that you and your family will help the whole Body to grow in love, being integral "fittings" and "supporting ligaments" (Ephesians 5.18 and 4.16).
• Commit in every way possible to being involved with the meetings and studies in the church.
• Find ways to use Christian conduct and the gifts of the Lord Jesus to build one another in the the Body.
• Do not let other things take you away from this great work.

Let us be wise builders. May the Spirit provide this strength to us.

PTTS: Ephesians 2:1-3

Praying Through the Scriptures

Ephesians 2.1-3: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

My Savior and my God,
Thank you for rescuing your people from the death of sin. We have sinned greatly against you. We were bound to sin and controlled by it, but this was in accordance with our depraved will. We have loved the things of darkness, served the ruler of sin and lived to satisfy sinful lusts. We cared nothing for you or your ways of righteousness, rejecting the Lord of Lords in pride and hatred.

Let us be reminded of this again. For now we have been rescued from sin by the grace of Jesus and by his atoning work, but we never ought to forget the depth of our despair. Let us never look to others who have not be redeemed and think that they are different than we once were, and still would be if not for your sovereign grace. Prevent us from looking upon others as if we care not to see them saved!

May you send forth the Gospel in the power of the Spirit! It grieves us to see those whom we love still in the grips of sin. We long to see them rescued by the Gospel and ask now that you would extend your saving hand of mercy to them.

Teach us Father how to communicate the reality of sin and enmity to others who reject your Son. Help us to speak words of truth in a sober, but loving and graceful manner. As Paul now understood his sinfulness though he once considered himself righteous, let us show others that they are in great peril - they are children of Your wrath - and let us plead with them, in a manner that shows that You yourself were appealing to them through us to trust in the righteousness of Jesus.

And Lord, please continue to sanctify us by the power of the risen Lord Jesus. Deliver us from sins and trespasses and from the temptations of our lust, our greed, and our pride. We have no strength alone, but we trust in the power of the resurrection through our union with Christ through faith.

Cleanse us we pray,

Amen.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:20-23

Praying Through the Scriptures

Ephesians 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Our Great God,
Wake us from our slumber and remove from us the fascination with temporal and trivial things. There is immense power on display before us in Your strength. It has not only been displayed around us, but it has be accomplished for us. Cause us to rejoice in your power, to be in awe of your power.

As believers, Jesus has been raised as our Lord. Your power raised Him from the dead and now this power is active as He reigns over the Kingdom. His Kingdom is above every kingdom. His Name is exalted above every name! He - the Word of God - has not returned to You void, but He has accomplished what You have sent Him to do. He has redeemed us to be His inheritance.

Now, Father, grant to us power. Raise us up with Christ! Grant to us willing hearts. Grant to us wisdom, love, patience, perseverance. For we are the Church, and He is our Head. We are His Body, and He is crafting us perfectly - completely - according to Your will.

Oh Father, let us be faithful servants of the King. We long to see the Gospel proclaimed all around us. We long to see the world transformed by Christian love. We long to see righteousness and godliness abound.

Please send the power of Your Spirit to enable us fully and to compel us to only seek the Glory of Christ.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:15-19a

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:15-19a

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (NASB)

My loving and gracious God,

I have heard of wonderful things! I have seen it with my own eyes! You have blessed many whom I know and love with faith in the Gospel and granted us sincere and genuine Christian love for one another. Who am I, that I should be blessed with the fellowship of the Body of Christ? Thank you for your mercy, and for blessing me richly with this knowledge and this fellowship.

Help me, my God, to never cease from enjoying the faith and the love of my brethren. May I always praise You and thank You for this, and be faithful to pray for their strength. It is a joy and it is beautiful.

May you now give us each wisdom. We need this wisdom so that we may shine as lights in the darkness. We need wisdom so that we do not fall into the snares of sin. We need this wisdom so that we honor You, and bring glory to your Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Open our eyes, and let us realize that we have been called to the highest of callings! We have been called to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Nothing can compare to this. Nothing should take our affections away from this calling. We are to building up one another in the Body of Christ, which is the inheritance of Christ. As such, we ought to be the most diligent of stewards, protecting one another, sheltering one another, and encouraging one another to be faithful witnesses, holy and sanctified vessels. Your Church is a treasure, filled with riches beyond all of the gold in this world. Let us value it as You do.

Please grant us the surpassing greatness of this power! We need it. We cry out to You to grant it. And we trust that You will pour out this power and transform us.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:11-14

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:11-14

1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, may be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of his glory. (NET Bible)

I ask You, my God, to remove my pessimism and the things that have happened in my life that have made me cynical towards your possession, the Body of Christ. Let me not forget that the King of Kings has promised that the gates of Hades will not overtake the Church. It will remain strong and it will persevere until the end of all time. You have set Your sovereign affections upon it and eternally purposed it to be Your choice possession, to the praise of Your glory!

Thank you for allotting the corporate Body of believers as Your inheritance. It doesn’t even seem right in our feeble minds that You should be pleased to possess us! We seem so frail and depraved. By the Word we know that we were not chosen because of our wisdom, our fame, or our beauty. Yet You have sovereignly treasured us and You take pleasure in us. Help me to grasp that truth!

Selah.

With this truth upon my mind, let me then also treasure the Body of Christ. Let me do nothing to harm my brethren. Let me never promote divisiveness or slander, but let me seek to build up one another in the Body. Grant me a relentless love towards my brothers and sisters in Christ that is according to Your love.

Thank you for predestining this to occur. Thank you for letting nothing stand in the way of Your love toward each of us as the faithful ones in the Gospel. You indeed work all things according to the counsel of your will. Forgive the terrible inventions of man’s theology that asserts the opposite; namely that your will is worked by the counsel of all things. You are sovereign. Nothing happens apart from Your decree. Let our minds trust that, as Your Word tells us clearly in this passage.

Thank you for the work of Your Spirit. It is His work that gives us assurance that we are the inheritance of God, for the Spirit has sealed us as the pledge that we will be redeemed forevermore. Teach us, as the Body of Christ, to treasure the riches of grace that we already possess, as we also long for the day that we are corporately redeemed as Your possession and we will spend eternity together praising Your mighty and holy name.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:7-10

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:7-10

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth."

Father, let me give praise to You for the work of Your Son, the Beloved.

My trespasses are numerous and severe against You. You would be just to condemn and punish me with the tortures of Hell. I cannot make any excuse for them. Your justice demands that these sins be punished.

By the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus has bore my sins through the riches of His grace. His blood was spilled to purchase the redemption of His people, the forgiveness of their sins. It not by the work of my hands that I claim such forgiveness, but simply by faith in His Gospel. Help me to cherish this fact…let me count this forgiveness as the greatest of all treasures.

Break my mind free from the bondage of looking at the temporal as if it is the eternal. Let me not treasure wealth or physical beauty. Do not let me find security in my bank account or my situations. Instead, let me see myself as rich, trusting Your Word and the promises it contains for those redeemed by the blood of Christ.

Help me to understand the depths of the grace lavished out upon the Church. Let me remember how the priests of the Old Covenant had to sacrifice blood again and again, yet it still could not atone for the sins of men. Let me remember the wrath of God that came to those who were not under the blood of the Passover. Let me appreciate my salvation, and the salvation that you have bestowed upon those believers whom I love in my family and in my church.

I give thanks to You for making known to me the mystery of Your will. I now understand that it is Your pleasure that all glory belongs to Jesus Christ. He is the purpose of all of history. He is the focus of all of the Scriptures. Whether on earth or in the heavens, it is His name that should be magnified and praised. As Your Word clearly states, Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, and the glory of God is summed up in His person. May my thoughts and my words convey that wisdom.

Please restore the central focus of the glory of Christ to the churches to which we belong. Let our worship clearly center upon Jesus Christ instead of focusing on our worldly needs. Let our evangelism stress His righteousness instead of cheap grace. Let our Christian families and fellowship find satisfaction in discussing the majesty of our Savior instead of amusement and the tedious aspects of this world.

PTTS: Ephesians 1:3-6

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:3-6

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved."

May all praise be to You, the great and mighty God, who alone has the power to bless His children. Sin and the forces of darkness may offer temporal things that seem to benefit me, but they are illusions; they are designed to distract me from the hope of glory to come and also to make me dissatisfied with the provision of Your perfect gifts. Grant that I may seek pleasure in You alone.

Selah.

What splendor!!! Through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have been blessed with every blessing. May that thought sink into my heart…'every' spiritual blessing! There is no good gift that I lack. Indeed, should I be discontent, should I think that God has forsaken me in any way, then I sin against His goodness and the promise of His Word.

Father, let me be a testimony to those around me of this great truth. Let my actions show that I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Let me not complain of my lot in life. Let me not show forth greed and lust for things that are contrary to the holiness of the Law of Christ. Forgive me for sinning in this manner and for giving the world another reason to think that the Christian faith is just another mere religious institution. Let me be convinced that nothing good will ever come from sin and that the perfect supply of blessing for every need in my life has been supplied by my Lord Jesus Christ.

Should I ever wonder how I am blessed in so great a measure, use Your Word to convince me. Let me know that as a believer in Christ, I have been chosen by You before the foundations of the world. As such, my assurance is secure. There is nothing I can fail to do to lose your love, for You have not chosen to bless me so richly based upon my own actions, but by Your sovereign grace. It is through this grace that I stand before you holy and blameless, for I have been united with Christ, the Holy One.

Let me know that I have been adopted as a son by You through the kindness of the will of Jesus Christ. Therefore, even with the Apostle Paul, I cry out with praise to You for Your glorious grace to me. Loose my tongue that I may sing and speak of Your glories. Glory to God for the every blessing bestowed upon all believers in the Gospel freely through the Beloved, Jesus our Lord!
Amen.

"Multifaceted" Wisdom

Several weeks ago, there was quite a stir over Barack Obama and the church to which he belongs. Typically, I avoid involvement in politics and talk radio, and this would have not been an exception, except one thing stood out to me. Obama stated that Sunday is the most segregated day of the week in America. His point brings up a stark reality that there is in many cases a strong separation between churches of different racial backgrounds.

There was much reaction to this statement. I heard many discussions around me in person, on the radio, and elsewhere. And as I listened to the responses, my heart sank. I have harbored a very passionate reaction to this, but I have held it back to let the emotion pass and hopefully allow the very critical issues to be considered.

First of all, let me state that I am glad that the issue was brought up and I hope that it brings about something good, especially in the Body of Christ. But I do want to point out one exception to Obama's statement. I do not believe "segregated" is the right word. Instead, I believe that the word "separated" would be very appropriate. To me, "segregation" implies a purposeful and proactive attempt to keep one people group from being integrated with the other. I do not know of a single church or a single pastor that has ever purposefully and proactively sought to keep people away from their church on the basis of race.

However, I do think that it is an appropriate point of discussion to consider the "separation" of racial groups in churches today. I do not want to begin a discussion of why this separation exists, though it may be a useful exercise and good for harmony in the Body of Christ. But I just wanted to share a passage of Scripture that I think should come to our minds in light of this issue.

In Ephesians, Paul discusses the greatness of the Body of Christ. As we went through Ephesians as a church, we were all changed. The Word of God powerfully worked upon our hearts and by the Spirit we were challenged to a new understanding of the importance of the Body of Christ. We saw the need to love, to forgive, and to be involved in one another's lives. Throughout the epistle, we are reminded over and over that the Body of Christ - the living Temple - is great and glorious.

In the second chapter, Paul speaks of the wonderful work of Christ in making one Body, out of two groups: the Jews and the Gentiles. If ever there were groups that were racially divided and segregated, these two groups would have been the clearest example. In Ephesian 2:14-22 we see Paul state that the blood of Christ has abolished the dividing wall (the Old Covenant Law) established peace between the two groups. They have been brought into one household, the household of God (His dwelling place).

The language of Ephesians is filled with construction (specifically Temple) imagery. The Body of Christ is shown to be the Temple of the living God. Each member (whether Jew or Gentile) is a part of that structure, and each is instrumental for the good of the others. In chapter 3, Paul speaks further of integration of the Gentiles with the Jews and he makes this statement:

3:10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms.


There is a construction term in this verse that we need to grasp. The word "multifaceted" is the word to describe the beautiful, multicolored decorations of the temples in the first-century world. (Temples were not a drab gray as we see in their ruins today...they were splendid in color.) In other words, the Body of Christ is composed of all sorts of races. They are all united together. This is the wisdom of God to bring reconciliation in the Body, and just as the temples were colored with beautiful and vibrant decorations and gems, so the Body of Christ is beautiful in the multicolored peoples (races) that compose it.

Let us in the Body of Christ be burdened that racial division still occurs. Let us seek to remove any racism within. Let us see that hatred towards others based upon their race is unloving and sinful. And let us repent when we find it in ourselves.

Now let me add one more thing. There will never be the glorious racial integration spoken of in the Scriptures when we leave the pure Scriptural purposes of the church and seek culture-centered needs instead of biblical truth.

For instance, consider preaching in the modern church. Exposition of the Scriptures in preaching will unite us under the banner of our Lord. It does not matter what our racial background is or our social status is when the Word is proclaimed. Being black, white, rich, poor does not affect our ability to seek the Kingdom of God through the Word. But, if the preachers in our churches abandon the Word, we quickly see the results of separation. The seeker-sensitive suburban churches that teach about the felt needs of 20-30 year old white Americans will not be attractive for those who are outside the demographic. The churches that preach sermons dominated by themes of social injustice and of frustration for specific groups without regards for others also increase the separation.

Let us return to the Word! Let us seek the glory of our Lord! And let us love one another and value one another, regardless of race or social status. May God grant us this power which will work within us far more abundantly beyond all that we think or ask, and to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus!