Man’s greatest need is not happiness but righteousness, and this is something provided in God’s armor – something we have to put on!
The Breastplate of Righteousness
Reply
Category Archives: Ephesians
God Raised You From the Dead
Dr. John Piper: You came into this world dead. Not sort of “hard of hearing” towards the gospel, not simply crippled in good works, not struggling to keep your head above the waters of sin. You were dead: spiritually lifeless and unmoving. Everything that a dead corpse can contribute to becoming alive, you could do, spiritually, to believe in Christ. Nothing. Dead means dead (Ephesians 2:1–3).
But God, because of the wealth of mercy in his being, loving dead corpses such as we are, said to us, “Live.” And as surely as the voice of God raised the Son of God from the tomb outside Jerusalem, he raised us up from death, and set us about the works of Christ, by the same power that breathed in our souls from the beginning of our first cries of faith (Ephesians 2:4–7).
This is the good news of Jesus. No boasting, no claim of contribution to our own resurrection — we boast, but say nothing but “useless” of ourselves. Our boasting is in the Lord who raises the dead, for his glory (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1–10
LAB_PDX_10 from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Now, through the Church
Providence or Pity Party?
Reading Ephesians
Division Demolished!
Text: Ephesians 2:11-22
The Jewish/Gentile division is unlike any other, and what is more, God planned for it as He made a distinction between Israel and every other nation on earth, making them His own special people. Yet in Christ, the erected barriers are not merely discouraged but utterly destroyed. In Christ’s cross all racial and social divisions are obliterated forever!
Jesus Above All!
Text: Ephesians 1:18-23
Christianity is everything or it is nothing. There is nothing in between. Jesus Christ is, right now, the Lord and King of this Universe, head over all things to the Church. The reality of this is something Paul wishes us to know, for the ramifications of this truth are extreme and far reaching.
Did You Catch That?
Predestined to Adoption
Ephesians 1:1-14: Paul’s opening words to the Ephesians, while controversial in our time, were truths he wanted the entire Church (children, teens, adults and seniors) to know, and beyond his wishes, there is God, who desires for us to know these things also. This sermon covers the biblical doctrines of election, predestination and adoption.