Traveling in a New World: Letter to the Ephesians

1. Traveling in a New World: Letter to the Ephesians

2. Ephesians 1.1-2Doug Brownsermon audio, pdf & power point found @ kavenvineyard.org

4. Adjusting to a New World

5. The church at Ephesus • Paul’s first visit was brief, but he left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus where they met Apollos whom they discipled.(Acts 18:19-26). • Paul came back to Ephesus his first converts were twelve followers of John the Baptist, who, like Apollos, knew only the preparation that John had given (Acts 19:1-7). • Paul spoke in the synagogue for three months and then in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for 2 years (Acts 19:8-10)

6. The church at Ephesus • The spread of the Gospel created the disturbance regarding idols and the fertility goddess Artemis (Acts 19:23) • Paul, on his way to Jerusalem, met with the Ephesian elders at Miletus (See: Acts 20:17-38). • Paul left Timothy in Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). • The church in Ephesus is one of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and sadly, is described as having “forsaken your first love”. (Revelation 2.4)

7. Ephesians deals with - change and choice power and identity formerly-now contrasts

8. Identity formation who we are how we came to be as we are what we shall be what we must now do in light of that destiny

9. Ephesians divided into 2 sections The first 3 chapters concentrate on the believer (and the church) being God's workmanship. The last 3 chapters concentrate on the response of the believers to God's plan of salvation as the recipients of his grace.

11. 3 Definitions of believers verse 1 • Believers are saints • Believers are faithful • Believers are in Christ

12. “No one is a believer who is not holy and no one is holy who is not a believer” William Temple

13. There is a crack in everyone. That’s how the light gets in.

14. God writes straight with crooked lines. Portuguese proverb

15. Faith has 3 elements intellectual – has content, must be proclaimed and understood emotional – not just understood, but it warms the heart volitional – making a choice and commitment to Christ. James Montgomery Boice

16. Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. --Helen Keller

17. “The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not of our nature. Our affinities and personal temperament are not considered. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.” Oswald Chambers

20. "It seems we work very hard to insulate ourselves from the very world Jesus says we should be focused on. It seems we have created, without malicious design, a Christian bubble—where Christians live surrounded only by other Christians, and as a result, there are few among the lost whom we get to know intimately. Christian experts tell us how to raise our kids, how to handle our finances, what music to buy, what movies to see, and which books to read. The bubble is complete. But God is on a mission outside the bubble." Ed Stetzer & Philip Nation, Compelled by Love

22. “being sent”