call to worship: ephesians 2

WebCall to Worship: Ephesians 2: 11-22 We gather together in the name of Jesus Christ members of Gods family, and brothers and sisters to one another. (based on Ephesians 2: 11-22) Merciful God, we celebrate the way that you chose to bring unity and peace to peoplethrough the gift of your Son, our Lord, Such is the truth, if indeed we have learnt the Christ as God teaches Him. They might otherwise think themselves more or less superior. And what had God done now? Then suppose someone came with the news that the door was still open and a welcome was waiting at home. An outstanding illustration of spiritual death is found in the parable of the prodigal son: And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son." No, it will go on, to your utter ruin. "Sow an act and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.". There the individual blessing of the soul has the first place. What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! (i) It is life lived in the way this present age lives it. That awareness of God, that communion with God, or that fellowship and oneness that God intended that man should have with God. In 1871 one of these prohibiting tablets was actually discovered, and the inscription on it reads: "Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. And what is the manifestation of love? The re:Worship survey on pandemic worship practices has been completed. But it gave to the Jews the unique consciousness of being the people of God. He gave Himself as the beginning; and He presents it to Himself as the end. Oh! To the Gentile history was a progress to nowhere; to the Jew history was a march to God. Righteousness supposes a claim in the first place, however met; even though it may be God's righteousness, still it is God acting in consistency with Himself and His own claims. Someone may even make it almost to the pier, a hundred feet off of the pier and gulp, gulp, gulp, you know.Now, you have all come short, no one made it. What is the effect of this life upon us? That is the way we are to God. In the prophets this too remains always the standard, until God exert His power in another way, when He shall be no longer spoken of as Jehovah that brought them out of the land of Egypt, but out of the north country into their land, where He shall settle them for ever. There never can be spiritual understanding, unless souls let in this after all plain principle, that the suited good depends on the relationship in which we are placed, whether to God, or to any other. Hence the apostle Paul, in what is by no means the simplest utterance he has given, writes in few words. Good works can never earn salvation; but there is something radically wrong if salvation does not produce good works. It comes to us with pain; it gives us many surprises; and it suggests a large number of questions. This is where we should be, where we may be if we are quickened by the divine life. It is a present thing in every sense, though, of course, needed for heaven and eternity. And ah! He prayed that they might know what is the hope of their calling. Thus far the apostle has described the misery of a natural state in Ephesians 2:1-3, which we shall find him pursuing again in some following ones. We have not earned salvation nor could we have earned it. Worship the Lord with gladness. height; and to know the love of Christ." Perhaps you can scarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate the idea to yourselves. There is no place good enough for Christ the Son but heaven. So Paul says to the Gentiles: "You are no longer among God's people on sufferance. And you hath he quickened - The words hath he quickened, or made to live, are supplied, but not improperly, by our translators. We speak of Enoch walking with God, and we look at the holiness of his life; but did anybody ever think of the majesty of his life? You know what that means? It was as though a tarnishing breath had swept over the reminiscent mirror of his mind and left a little film behind it, so that no past thing he wished to see therein was reflected with quite the same pristine clearness. It needs a Milton to conceive of the walk of God; but he that hath the divine life walks with God; and sometimes he seems to step from Alp to Alp, from sea and ocean, accomplishing what, unaided, he would never even attempt. And His Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit that I am His child, and because of His Spirit bearing witness with my spirit I cry Abba, I cry Father. I have heard that they have never had a headache in the last hundred years, and no rheumatic pains, nor have they been troubled with the gout, The reason is that they are cut in marble, and they are dead; but a living man feels the fog and the winds; he knows whether it is an east wind or a west wind that is blowing. (a) God is perfection; and, therefore, only perfection is good enough for him. We must have faith. 13). Hence, to make the mystery to be the church is a very serious moral as well as doctrinal mistake. The things that Paul has to say about you, so that they tried to sort of cushion the whole blow by giving you a peak ahead at what he is going to say about you. It is not merely that he accepts names given him by God, but God delights in putting him in this place of lordship, and to a certain extent also of fellowship lordship to that which is below him, and fellowship as regarded his wife. You see, after the total indulgence of the lust of his flesh, not withholding anything from himself, he came to the conclusion life is empty and frustrating; there is nothing worthwhile under the sun. He wanted to be like the Most High God ( Isaiah 14:14 ). Conversation, we are talking with each other. Thanks to those of you who took time to answer questions and offer comments about how your congregation navigated worship during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, life is a strange thing; and if you have the life of God in your soul, you will undergo many changes, and not always be what you want to be. 11. WebPaul writes to the Ephesians that "in the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedienc One of my son's housemates -- Ephesians 2:1-10 -- Fourth Sunday in Lent - B -- 2003 One of my son's housemates at college is an artist. (LogOut/ Besides, take "the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Here are some indexes that might be helpful. The King James Version has it that they were without Christ. Accordingly, in Ephesians 2:1-22, the apostle pursues this train, and shows that it is not another exertion of power, but a part of the very same work of God which raised up Jesus from the dead. We may put this very simply; it is through Jesus that we are at home with God. Let us take a crude and imperfect analogy. God was talking about spiritual death. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, God loved us even when we were dead in sins. You will never discover it all. And you think that I would think of every dirty, miserable task around the house and send him to do them? It is a priceless boon to have the right to go to some lovely and wise and saintly person at any time; to have the right to break in upon him, to take our troubles, our problems, our loneliness, our sorrow to him. This is an of the former statements, that is, an exposition accompanied by an illustration. ~ written by Thom Shuman (2009), and posted on. ", Cicero could write much later: "As the Greeks say, all men are divided into two classes--Greeks and barbarians." If there be a divine life to which you are a stranger, how long will you be a stranger to it? If you're interested in reading the results, visit here: https://pandemicworshipsurvey.blogspot.com/. In the admirable wisdom and grace of God it is the direct setting aside of that which is found in all earthly systems, where the individual is merely a portion of a vast body which arrogates to itself the highest claims. He is a man that is far gone. And the reason is simple; so inadequate is the creature, so untrustworthy is the first Adam, that one might well be certain the true meaning of the Bible was lost to him who judged otherwise. And in the morning if it is wet and the ground is dry, then I will know that it is you." X, p. 638. Paul goes on to say that we are recreated by God for good works. And as there is one Lord, so "one faith." And it is just a joy and a pleasant delight, to gather with God's people and to just experience God's love and the love within the family of God. What he desires, we desire. There might be many advantages about that kind of discourse. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. At the final judgment, those who "practice lawlessness" will hear the Lord say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matthew 7:21-23 NASB). (Ephesians 5:19). You might as well just, you know, get into a fuzz of drugs or into the folly of liquor, because there is no sense in trying to be sober. I pray you that are instructed, and have become fathers, never laugh at babes in grace, if they ask you the most absurd questions. Hence he says, "that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ," referring to himself and any other saints who had been chosen from the people of the Jews. Sin is the death of the soul. You cannot pray a single prayer aright without Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He made us at the first; he has new-made us. That is because this is far more a lyric of the love of God than a careful theological exposition. Their very wife, when they go into the house, rushes upstairs to be out of the way. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your justice like the great deep. But I confine myself now to the relationship of the Son to the Father from everlasting. Some who are strong swimmers may swim for a mile or two before they go under. Each circle hitherto was getting larger and larger. "The air is the house of the disembodied spirits." We had no sense with which to comprehend spiritual things. And so these gifts are given, as it is said, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man., unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.". "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," and, unless we are made alive unto him, he cannot be our God either here or hereafter. The next day they came back to see that the grave was all right and to their astonishment could not find it. You know I would. We need, but we have, the Holy Spirit who is surely all-sufficient, if looked to. If He is showing needy souls how they may be forgiven of God, He displays it in a thousand forms; if the need of righteousness, He repeats it over and over again. Now do you agree with that or not? L: The brightness of the Star leads us! But Jesus calls all sorts of people together. Timeweb - , , . To have consciousness is a great mercy, even if it be only painful consciousness, and if every movement of life within seems to harrow up your soul. Thus ought instructed saints to deal with those who have been newly quickened. Such an one is the harlot, from whom one's head is turned in the very street. 410). Our standing is quite another matter, which itself could not avail here. Thus, first blessed, strengthened, and enjoying the grace and truth of God in Christ, we can then go out with the sword of the Spirit to deal with what is contrary to His nature, which Satan would use to obstruct our realization of our heavenly privileges. There is neos ( G3501) which is new simply in point of time; a thing which is neos ( G3501) has come into existence recently, but there may well have been thousands of the same thing in existence before. The new-born child of God is just like the new-born child of man in some things; and after a time that child begins to walk. Those in Christ are legally dead to sin, in the sense of being free of the penalty of it, through the death of Christ. dear friends, I cannot take you to see Lazarus in his grave. All the good works in the world cannot put us right with God; but there is something radically wrong with the Christianity which does not issue in good works. This is a picture from the Temple. [3] Alfred Barry, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), Vol. Now you become sentient to his frown, his smile, his threat, or his promise. The second was the case of the widow's son , who was on his bier, about to be carried to his tomb; and Jesus raised him up to life by saying, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." Web2 as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (E) 3All of us also lived among them at one time,(F) gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a](G) and following its desires and thoughts. It will be observed that the desire is not merely that they might be enlightened as to the special glory of their standing, but that their hearts might be filled with the love of Christ, and this too as a present thing filling them to overflowing, though surely not to cease in the ages to come. This; not only that we hear of the one body, and that saints compose this body, but that a new man is seen. You are a living man. It is a time of asking, a time of enquiring. . "Trespasses" literally means to "fall beside," and "sins" literally means "a failing to hit the mark" (Thayer 485, 30). Let this then rest in His hands. Scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders. DEATH is often used by all writers, and in all nations, to express a state of extreme misery. When Peter realized who Jesus was, his first reaction was: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" ( Luke 5:8). ], "Having described our spiritual possessions in Christ, Paul turns to a complementary truth: our spiritual position in Christ. Our world belongs to him! It is expressly not against any powers that were living and acting in the world. Even though we may be trying our best to hit the mark, we've come short of the glory of God. It is not again a simple question of a new nature, but of a new man: the first Adam, with all remedial or corrective dealings in him disappear, and one new man comes before our view. But just as before, in the walk which shuts out hatred, and anger, and so on, we were warned against grieving the Spirit of God; so the power of the Holy Ghost asserts itself here. What does that mean? The Christian message had rekindled the ideal. It is the failure in any sphere of life to be what we ought to be and could be. The moment the apostle comes to inward relationship, he leaves the universality of phrase and speaks only of the saints of God "in you all." ~ survey response But Biblical Christianity probes the patient to the quick. Forgive the poverty of our accomplishing. Here God from Himself and for Himself is acting according to the riches of His own grace. Submissions: I am so grateful to those of you who send me your own material to post! That is not worship which consists in doing as Hodge did, when he said, "I like Sunday, for then I can go to church, and put my legs up, and think of nothing at all." No one is precisely the same after he has sinned. They are not Christians. Submissions: I am so grateful to those of you who send me your own material to post! P: Gods light has come to us! There is his habit of swearing; how often will an oath come into his mouth, and he will have as hard work as he can to thrust it down again! (ii) Sin kills ideals. Greece was made up of famous cities--Athens, Thebes, Corinth and the rest and it very nearly encountered disaster because the cities refused to cooperate to meet the common threat. the One whose love is the bedrock of our lives. When all things that are shall be like old ocean's foam, which dissolves into the wave that bears it, and is gone for ever; we shall live, and we shall live in Christ, and with Christ, glorified for ever. Are we as good workmen as we could be? And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins. The miserable condition of the Ephesians by nature is here in part described. When we get "together with Christ", then are we made alive, then are we saved. P: I will fasten the belt of truth about my waist. The consequence is that we find the Spirit of God, now sent down from heaven, not only putting the saints into relationship with the Father, but, besides, dwelling in them and making them God's habitation through the Spirit. May God save you now, ere you shall come to that consummation for which hell so sighs, and which heaven can alone avert. To those who want to reject Christ, the message is true; there is no escape. The statement of the father reflects the spiritual impasse of the father/son relationship while the son is in sin. Sin kills the will; the thing so grips a man that he cannot break free. Reconciliation with God involves and necessitates reconciliation with man. Call to Worship (Psalm 107, Ephesians 2, John 3) God loves us with a steadfast love. Paul cannot do without Christ, you see. I dare not come downstairs without speaking to him. Those things result in death! Have I any such here? Such is the character of our blessing, and such its seat. We were living. But Christ broke down the walls between us. In all these he feels no more concern, and sees no more beauty, than a dead man does in the world around him. the spring in your step to go where youre sent. Even the faith, Do you remember when the Midianites had covered the land like grasshoppers? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The Jews, or those who had been under Jewish teaching, had been for a while in an infantine state, or an Old Testament condition; but the Gentiles by faith passed simply and directly into the full Christian blessing. ver 3, 11-13; Ro 11:30; 1Co 6:11; 5:8; Col 3:7; Tit 3:3; 1Pe 4:3, NIV, Beautiful Word Bible Journal, Revelation, Paperback, Comfort Print, NIV, Biblical Theology Study Bible, Comfort Print: Follow Gods Redemptive Plan as It Unfolds throughout Scripture, NIV, Beautiful Word Bible Journal, Galatians, Paperback, Comfort Print, NIV, The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People, NIV, The Story, Hardcover, Comfort Print: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People, NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Red Letter Edition: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:21-23 NIV). Another of Paul's blessed "nows." Oh, the many dead prayers that are heard at the bedside; so many good words rushed through at a canter! We hear the great message of Jesus reconciling people to you, O God, and to one another, and yet we still hesitate to reach out to people when they are different in some way from us. (119) Classical writers employ the same metaphor, to denote not spiritual death, with which they were unacquainted, but the absence of moral principle, or utter ignorance of right and wrong. My life was ruled and dominated by the lust of my flesh and by the lust of my mind. But suppose that someone whom both of these conflicting parties love comes and talks to them, there is every chance that peace will be made. The father in this parable represents God and shows our Fathers continuing love for his children who have forsaken the right way. They only have the "one hope of their calling." He does so by conscience, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking within us; he does so by giving to men the wisdom and the commandments of his book; he does so through the advice of good and godly men. New to this blog? Love it is which, as it were, puts all in movement that belongs to God. The old clothes were comfy and familiar. There are some personages in St. Paul's Cathedral; I have not seen them lately, but I have seen them. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." "You" refers to Gentiles (2:11). That is, we can't earn it. What was to be done? It literally means a miss. (E) 3All of us also lived among them at one time,(F) gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a](G) and following its desires and thoughts. But at this point, Paul is just saying, and you. Does he try to make life easier for his wife? And you -- God is referring to the non-Jews reading the letter. I don't think that that would be challenged much anymore. I do not know how it is that the young man never was loosed. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 463, 476, 461. Does it not seem a strange thing, that you, who have walked to this place this morning, shall be carried to your graves; that the eyes with which you now behold me shall soon be glazed in everlasting darkness; that the tongues, which just now moved in song, shall soon be silent lumps of clay; and that your strong and stalwart frame, now standing to this place, will be unable to move a muscle, and become a loathsome thing, the brother of the worm and the sister of corruption? Rather is the very gospel to the sinner free and full, that, having the certainty of the divine fulness of our blessing, our hearts may be now open to enjoy Christ, and be occupied with His love. Utter strangers to the covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Are in italics. However this be, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works," a peculiar kind of good works, suited to the relationship in which we stand. Il expose et esclarcit ce quil avoit dit ci-dessus. There are vast plans and projects, and the world is intensely active. There was a lot of things I didn't want to do. The most vital form of Greek religion was the Mystery Religions, and from many of them the barbarian was excluded. young man, I weep, I weep over thee; thou art not yet so far gone, that they have rolled the stone against thee; thou art not yet become obnoxious; thou art not yet the staggering drunkard, nor yet the blasphemous infidel; thou hast much that is ill about thee, but thou hast not gone all the lengths yet. Ye were formerly lost; but now God, by his grace, has rescued you from destruction. And here we must observe, that, in laboring to give an impressive view of both of these parts, the apostle makes a break in the style by () a transposition. ye young men who come up to the house of God, and who are outwardly so good; alas! If the latter enquired how God had interfered most conspicuously for them, no doubt they were reminded of the power that brought them out of the land of Egypt. Why was it not so with the young man? One of the tragedies of the nineteenth century was the career of Oscar Wilde. To forgive another's wrongs is not enough for a Christian. The young man has not yet drained the intoxicating cup, although he has had some whisperings of the sweetness of it; he has not yet run into the ways of wickedness, though he has had temptations thrust upon him; as yet he has kept his sin in his chamber, and most of it has been unseen. Your self-made man usually worships his creator very earnestly; and your self-saved man glorifies him that saved him. This is not a question therefore of the place or standing of the Christian, but rather of his condition or state, which the Spirit would have in unison with the love of Him who alone made either possible. Christ did not do the same thing with the young man that he did with the daughter of Jairus. Of course, this does not mean that they were in all respects dead. Does she really take an interest in her husband's work and try to understand his problems and his worries? 20, Ephesians, p. 61. He broke down longstanding walls of prejudice and hostility between Jew and Gentile,male and female, slave and free. Sort of concluding, you might as well bomb out and stay drunk, there is nothing else, too much pain to try to face reality.Sort of the philosophy that a lot of people have taken today. But it is not merely a thing imparted. The Revised Common Lectionary reads through Ephesians in Year B, Pentecost season. That is what love can do. 12. If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew was carried out. ", In the Homeric Hymns the assembly of Olympus is charmed by the Muses who sing "of the deathless gifts of the gods and the sorrows of men, even all that they endure by the will of the immortals, living heedless and helpless, nor can they find a cure for death, nor a defence against old age.". You are looking : call to worship ephesians 2. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Would to God that thou couldst say, "And he hath quickened me, for with all my loveliness, and all my excellence, I was by nature dead in trespasses and sins." Do you not hear the noise of the infernal bellows when "the children of disobedience: swear, and use unclean language? The internal state is the great point here. We were living in the sphere of rebellion against God (cf. In the sense that their only king was God. It will be as much as he can do to pull off his grave-clothes, to get rid of his old habits; perhaps to his death he will have to be rending off bit after bit of the cerements in which he has been wrapped. Numbers are of small account here. Pythagoras said: "The whole air is full of Spirits." Angels, for instance, are there; but they have no such relationship. we are reluctant to speak the truth to each other for fear of offending. But for this the most careful provision is laid on us. But Christ at the right hand of God gives gifts unto men; and, as it is said here, "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" bringing in both the highest gifts and also those ordinarily requisite for the good of the saints. 12. In this epistle we have the unfolding of the grace of God in all its fulness, not merely the application of His righteousness to man's need on His part, but God from out of Himself, and for Himself, as the adequate motive and object before Him, even His own glory. Such rebels do not deserve Gods love, but God loves them nevertheless. They were chosen in time. The experience of sin had left a kind of tarnishing film on his mind and things could never be quite the same again. You can't be meaning me." The Jews believed that only by keeping the Jewish law was a man good and able to attain to the friendship and fellowship of God. It is a revelation of God that comes in at the time when the Jews have, at least temporarily, lost their place altogether. These demons were not all bad, but many were, out to propagate evil, to frustrate the purposes of God and to ruin the souls of men. I must draw near to him in prayer.". Living things change. So he came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and peace to them who were near, because, through him, we both have the right of entry into the presence of the Father, for we come in the one Spirit. "Because I live, ye shall live also." This is true of Jews and Gentiles alike. And God is going to lay some heavy, heavy trip on us just because we submitted ourselves to His will. Hence the expression does not go beyond the riches of God's grace. The Jews who believe are taken out of their former place, as much as the Gentiles, who had no place. There is bondage. He was privileged to do all as unto Christ; as the master again must remember that he had his own Master in heaven. Sometimes through an uncurtained window he would see a family sitting round the table or the fire in happy fellowship; then the curtain would be drawn and he would feel shut out, and lonely in the dark. (iii) It is a life characterized by disobedience. As the good Spirit works that which is good in obedient souls, so this evil spirit works that which is evil in wicked men; and he now works, not only heretofore, but even since the world has been blessed with the light of the glorious gospel. But in Ephesians God cannot but have us imitate His own ways as they have shone in Christ. How dies the wise man as a fool, this too is empty, it doesn't satisfy. 21. 41. WebCall to Worship Psalm 104:1-2 Bless the LORD, O my soul! For we were by nature, that is, we were doing what comes naturally to the fallen man. I would not think of closing my eyes in sleep unless I had some sense of his love shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost.

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