Father in heaven, we rejoice and what you have given us this day.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the work that you have done and are
doing even now to illuminate the words that you carried Paul the
apostle along to write that we even this day might feed upon
them and having our lives transformed because of the good
news of the gospel proclaimed. We ask that you would remove
from us everything that would distract us so that we might
truly hear the word of God proclaimed and because of the
work of your Spirit might be transformed.
This we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.
I'm going to read verses 15 and 16 of Ephesians chapter 1.
If you're new with us and this is your first Sunday, welcome.
We're in a study of this small letter to the Church of Ephesus
written by the Apostle Paul. We are moving slowly through
this to understand more deeply what it is that the Lord has for
us because of our union with Him.
So I'm going to read 2 verses. These two verses follow this one
long sentence that Paul wrote, carried along by the Spirit,
that speaks of exquisite and exquisite detail of what it
means to belong to Jesus, to be one with Christ.
It speaks to the sovereign grace of God and calling the people to
himself before all creation. It's remarkable.
And now from that great statement, from that great
doctrine which leads to doxology, praise and worship,
Paul enters into a prayer for the people.
And this prayer is filled with many petitions.
But the petitions don't come until verse 17.
Instead, it begins with praise and Thanksgiving for two
specific things that Paul has heard about the people of
Ephesus. Listen now as I read from
Ephesians 115 and 16, for this reason, because I've heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the Saints,
I do not cease to give thanks for you.
Remembering you in my prayers. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Please be seated.
Most Sundays there are people who are visiting this church for
the very first time. Some of them are looking for a
new church home. Some of you started attending
this church on its very first Sunday of May of 1991.
We're coming up on our 35th anniversary and you've never
looked for another church. Some of you have come more
recently, some of you many, many years ago.
I'm often asked the question, particularly in the season
spring, from parents whose kids are about to go to college.
Do you know of a church in whatever particular city that
their child will be attending? A university, You know of a
church, And I often ask the question, what are you looking
for in a church? It's an interesting question.
Historically, according to the Belgic Confession Article 29,
there are three marks of a church.
We in the PCA embrace these three.
The three marks of a true church are faithful preaching of God's
Word, the proper administration of the sacraments.
The sacraments are baptism, which we witnessed this morning,
as well as the Lord's Supper. And the third one is the
exercise of church discipline. Most of the time when we speak
of looking for a church, we have a lot of other things in our
mind. A lot of times it's centred on
music and style of music. It might be the preaching and
the personality or the power or the reputation of the preacher.
It might be the size of the church.
Some like a large church, some like a small church, some don't
know. It might be the building itself.
It might be so many things. It might be the ministries.
They have a great youth ministry, a great college
ministry, a great young adults ministry, a great ministry to
seniors. They have a wonderful VBS.
It might be many, many, many things, but Paul gives us a gift
here in writing to this little church that he planted.
He has heard something about them, and what he has heard
about them gives us great understanding of what should
matter most. Now, the three marks of the
church are essential, but they're not the only things that
exist in a true church. Paul highlights 2 things here
that are most important to him. They're so important that
because he's heard that they exist in this church, he can't
stop thanking God for the reality.
What are they? It's very easy to see verse 15
for this reason, because I've heard number one of your faith
in the Lord Jesus and #2 your love for all the Saints.
If someone were to ask you later today or even this week, what is
PCPC like, how would you answer the question?
I'm often asked on an airplane what I do for a living.
And I know usually if I say I'm a pastor, there's going to be a
wall that goes up or an invitation to have a long
conversation that I might not really want to have.
So protecting myself for that situation from being a wall, I
usually say something different. It's not a lie.
I just know it's something they've probably never heard
before. And then we'll see how it goes
from there. What do you do for a living?
I look at them and I simply say I'm a shepherd.
I know, I know. But I am.
I am What? What do you mean?
I'm a shepherd. It's another name for a pastor.
Oh, you're a pastor? At that point, the awkwardness
is there. There's been some laughter.
So we begin to talk, inevitably. Tell me about your church.
What denomination are you in? How large is your church?
What style of music? All those things.
But what I want to say and what I want you to say is what I want
and long for and pray. And I think you do as well to be
true that like Paul, if it is true of us, that there's faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ and love towards all the Saints.
That's what I want to speak of before I talk about the city,
before I talk about the denomination, before I talk
about the size, before I talk about the missions, before I
talk about the complexities. As a shepherd, if I can say with
great conviction, I had the privilege of shepherding A flock
where there is faith and the Lord Jesus and there is love
towards all the Saints. Paul is about to reveal to this
people what it is he's petitioning them for.
We're going to get into that next week.
But before he petitions them, petitions the Lord, he says I
can't stop giving God thanks. My gratitude will not cease
because of two things, your faith in the Lord Jesus and your
love toward all the Saints. I want to get into those in just
a moment, but first I want to talk about prayer.
Paul was a man of prayer. You see it in everything he was
called to write. He was a man of prayer because
Christians are to be people of prayer.
Paul learned to pray. He followed the apostles who
learned to pray, and they learned to pray from Jesus both
on what he taught and what he modeled.
He would frequently withdraw to go be alone to pray to the
Father. Prayer is an important part of
the life of a believer. Paul modeled that.
Richard Phillips commenting on Ephesians.
This particular passage is this, the first of Paul's prayers
recorded in the book of Ephesus. He writes these words at the
opening of his chapter. Prayer is the loftiest and most
spiritual exercise of which we are capable as Christians.
Prayer is having an audience with God, worshipping Him,
directly asking of Him, and receiving spiritual blessings in
His presence because of our union with Him.
It is no surprise, therefore, that prayer is difficult, Ian
Hamilton says. For many modern churches, prayer
is seen as supplemental and not fundamental, peripheral and not
central to the church's life and mission.
Yes, we pray. We pray before meetings, we pray
after meetings. The prayer is essential for us.
It's foundational. It's not supplemental.
It's so important for the body of Christ to see how important
it was to those who are leading the church.
Ji Packer speaks of its difficulty.
The man who wrote Knowing God, an amazing book, a little over
50 years old now, wrote a book called Praying.
He co-authored it. The introduction.
They speak of Ji Packer this way.
With his endorsement, Ji Packer, as a Christian Pilgrim and
catechist theologian, sees himself to be very much a needy
junior in God's school of prayer.
What a humble statement. It's why so many men who've been
called to lead God's church when asked near the end of their
life, if you could do things over again, what would you do?
Inevitably, almost always, it seems to be.
I wish I would have studied the Word of God more, meditated more
upon that word, and prayed more fervently.
More time for those things. The enemy doesn't want us to be
a people of prayer. Paul's going to write in another
letter to the Church of Thessalonica, pray without
ceasing. He's modeling that right now.
What does it mean to pray without ceasing?
It doesn't mean you're on your knees and never get up.
It means that you're so in tune with your union with Christ and
so overwhelmed by His faithfulness to accomplish His
purposes, that when you hear of someone's faith in Christ and
when you witness the love that this the body has for one
another, you can't stop thinking about it.
And as you meditate upon that, what you can't stop thinking
about, you offer praise and Thanksgiving.
That's praying and Thanksgiving without ceasing.
When we turn to the Word of God and we see the prayers in
Scripture 1st, we see the importance of prayer.
Second, the prayers that are in Scripture can instruct us on how
to pray. If you're struggling to pray,
and we often do, just pray the prayers that are here.
What you hear Paul petitioning for next week is on a sermon.
Next week is Unbelievable follows in verse 17.
But they also help us evaluate our prayers.
Are we praying for the things that the apostles prayed for?
Are we praying for the things that Jesus himself prayed for?
Do I pray like that like I'm praying for this church?
How often have you said, I praise God that there are people
in this sanctuary who truly do have faith in the Lord Jesus?
I praise God that I see pockets in this church, sometimes large,
sometimes small, where brothers and sisters are loving one
another as Christ called us to love.
Yes, there's room for growth, but when you see any faith,
faith in a child, faith in parents bringing their children
for baptism, faith when someone tells her they've just come to
saving, faith, rejoice. Praise God where you're sitting
now. If you know the people in front
of you, have faith in the Lord Jesus, the people behind you,
beside you, praise God because in every case it's a miracle of
regeneration. It is a miracle of God causing
that which was dead, a heart for him to suddenly beat, to be
resurrected, to come alive. So if you have faith in the Lord
Jesus and you know other people who have faith in the Lord
Jesus, don't cease to give him praise and Thanksgiving.
This is what Paul, before he moved into one petition, tells
the people at the Church of Ephesus.
It's not just here, by the way, though I believe this was a
circular letter that would be sent around.
Listen to how he speaks of the same two things in his letter to
the Church of Colossians, Colossians 1, three and four.
Listen to this. We always thank God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for
all the Saints in Philemon verses four and five.
I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers
because I hear of your love and of your faith that you have
toward the Lord Jesus and for all the Saints.
In Second Thessalonians chapter one, verse 3, Paul writes, we
ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers, as is
right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love
of everyone of you for one another is increasing.
So this wasn't a one off for Paul.
When Paul asked about the Church of Ephesus when news was brought
to him from someone else and the news was the people there have
faith in the Lord Jesus and the people there who have faith in
the Lord Jesus, they are loving one another.
All the Saints. Paul praises God without
ceasing. Let's take these two phrases for
a moment. Faith in the Lord Jesus.
Why would Paul give praise to God and thank God without
ceasing? Every word that Paul writes,
he's carried along by the Spirit to write.
And so when the Holy Spirit, God himself designed the prayers of
these Saints to be recorded, this is really important for us.
Paul prays for this reason, for all that I've said in this
wonderful doctrine, this beautiful doxology, because I've
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.
Every one of those words matter. Faith in the Lord Jesus, the
Lord Jesus, our union with him mentioned up to 15 times already
in the book of Ephesians. Paul is saying, I can't stop
giving thanks because that faith which you have is a gift that He
has given you, written before all creation.
There was a moment in time when the Holy Spirit ordained that
you would come to saving faith. And now that faith has been
realized and people are professing faith in the Lord
Jesus, this is important. They're not expressing faith in
a religion. They're not expressing faith in
an idea. They're not expressing faith in
moral teaching. They are expressing their faith,
which is me, which means they have rested and received Jesus
alone for their salvation. He's the only one who could save
them. And So what Paul is saying is,
just like I was saved on the road to Damascus, these Saints
have had their eyes opened, their ears open, their mind
open, their heart has begun to beat for Christ.
When he speaks of faith in the Lord Jesus, it is not
supplemental. It is not a condiment to be
sprinkled on life. What he's saying is when we have
our faith in the Lord Jesus, it means Jesus dominates every part
of our life, Not just his ideas, but him himself, his teaching,
his prayers, his life, and us. It dominates what we think about
our future. It dominates how we think about
our past. It dominates how we think about
the resources he's given us. It dominates how we think about
school, how we think about work, how we think about hobbies, how
we think about our neighbor, how we think about one another.
It's not just moral teaching and it's not just an idea.
It's faith in the Lord Jesus. And I know this congregation is
made-up of many who have that true faith because of its size
and because of where we live, it's possible that people can
think they have that faith but truly do not yet.
And you might be here today exploring.
And I'm so glad that the Lord has you here.
We want to help you. Paul is celebrating.
He's giving God praise and Thanksgiving because he sees and
hears the people of Ephesus have faith in the Lord Jesus.
But that's not all. What follows is what should
follow, that whenever a person has true faith in the Lord
Jesus, not in their own works, not in their own morality, not
in their own giftedness, but in the Lord Jesus alone, when that
grace overwhelms them and they say I trust you, I want you to
dominate my life, I want you truly to be who you are in my
life, the Lord. Then what follows is life in
Christ lived out, which expresses itself fundamentally
and primarily through love, love for others.
And what Paul calls attention to here specifically is love for
all the Saints, all the Saints. That little word all is really
informative. What Paul doesn't say is this.
I thank God without ceasing because of your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ and that you love some of the Saints.
He doesn't say you can love the ones who are most like you, who
agree with you, who live in the same zip code as you, who look
like you, who root for the same same teams as you or vote the
way you vote. He doesn't.
He says there's love toward all the Saints.
The reason Paul celebrates is because both faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and love towards all the Saints requires God's
sovereign grace. You can't have faith without the
sovereign grace of God, and you cannot love the way Christ is
calling us to love without his grace.
Loving people is not easy. And the kind of love that Paul's
talking about is important here. It's agape.
And what that means is it's not primarily the the sentimental,
emotional feelings or passion oriented love.
There's words for those things because those things matter too.
But the word Paul uses here is the word agape.
And the word agape means a decision to love, a choice to
love. It's a love that is not going to
be conquered by the other person's unwillingness to show
love back, even if they're in Christ.
It is a love that endures. It's a love that enables you to
be wounded by another who is in Christ, and by God's grace and
for His glory still choose to love that person, even if they
don't reciprocate that love. It is a remarkable love, and
it's the primary word that God uses to speak of His love for
us. While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. God demonstrated His own love
for us in this, His own love for us in this.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This love is not a sentimental love, nor is it a superficial
love. Paul didn't say I thank God
without ceasing because you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you are the friendliest church or you're the most polite
church. You can be polite and you can be
friendly and we should be, but you can be those things and
still not love. Agape love is not sentimental,
It's not superficial, it is sacrificial.
It is the body of Christ. Anybody who's in the first
category of I have faith in the Lord Jesus, that is, it is their
new hearts instinct, because of who they are in Christ, to
sacrifice for the good of a brother and sister, to give of
themselves, to not think of themselves more highly than they
should, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility to consider others better than
yourself. It is a body of Christians that
Paul would celebrate without seizing to give thanks, who
would hear of a need and say I am his brother, I am her
brother, I am her sister, she is my sister.
What God do you want me to do to show your love towards them?
It's not a list that we make and say, I've been a Christian this
long, I've checked these boxes. I don't have to do that anymore.
It's an unending love. It's a love that you continue to
give until you are taken home to heaven and love then perfectly.
It's not sentimental primarily. It's not superficial for sure.
It's sacrificial always. And when it's present, we all
know it and so does the world. Jesus said just before he died.
A new commandment I give you love to his disciples.
A new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved
you. All men will know you are my
disciples if you love one another.
But how sad it is for the watching world sometimes to see
some of the most gruesome fights and arguments and hatred between
Christians. You can't control what the other
person does. You actually can't control
yourself either. But you and I can abide in Jesus
who does give us everything we need, everything we need to
respond and love to whoever he's put before us.
What I would really love to see in my life, in my family's life,
and in the life of this church already exist in certain places.
But when we who all professed faith in the Lord Jesus, realize
that the flow of that reality is to love all the Saints, then it
really does begin to transform the culture.
It's that because I've been dominated by the Lord Jesus, I'm
going to love the way He loved. And His love is the only one
that can dominate you to love people who are not loving you
back, not loving you in return. Loving others is hard.
I am hard to love. And the people who are easiest
for me to love would be the ones to say, yes, that's true, honey.
And yes, that's true Dad. But by his grace, when he
reveals that in me, because he gave me faith in himself and
there's faith in the Lord Jesus, I want to love.
Well, there may be people in your mind even now that you know
are hard for you to love. There's probably reasons why do
not hear this message and think I immediately need to rely upon
my own strength and power and go love better.
You don't have enough power. Sinclair Ferguson writing about
First Corinthians 13, that definition of love in an Advent
devotional. It's beautiful.
He said, baby, the best thing you can do is take the word
love. In first Corinthians 13, love is
patient, love is kind. Love does not envy.
It does not boast. Love keeps no records of wrongs.
And he said, what you might do is put your name there so it
would sound like this. Mark is patient.
Mark is kind. Mark does not envy.
Mark does not keep records of wrongs.
And it doesn't take long before you realize I don't have it.
And that's the point. And now put the name Jesus
there. Jesus is patient and Jesus is
kind and go down the list. And all those things, if you
have faith in Christ, are true because of his pursuit of you,
His love of you. And if he has loved you that way
and you've had faith in the Lord Jesus who loved you that way,
ask him to give you the power to live the way He's called you to
live. And we can.
How do I know? Because when Paul heard about
the Saints in Ephesus's faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward
all the Saints, he couldn't stop praising God because it happened
and it does happen. Jesus, thank you for this word.
Thank you for your love for us above all things.
Thank you for the grace of opening our eyes and giving us
faith. Thank you for the moment we
rested and received you for salvation.
And maybe that will be for some. Even this day.
We praise you for that. We praise you for the faith in
the Lord Jesus that we see in other people, and we praise you
for the love that we have toward all the Saints.
And we trust you that where that is absent in our own lives, that
by your power and your presence you can correct.
And then the radiance and the fragrance of you Christ Jesus
and us will move into this really Dark World.
And there that command that you gave will bear its fruit.
All men will know you are my disciples.
If you love one another, we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Please stand.