We turn now for our text this morning, Ephesians chapter one. We're gonna read just the first two verses. Ephesians chapter one, verses one and two. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. Dear God, open our eyes and our ears to the important truths contained in these few verses. Help us, Lord, to realize that your word is packed so tightly sometimes it's almost hard to get it open. But give us minds and hearts to receive your word. Give me clarity of thought in Jesus' name. Last week, we had the Lord's Supper, and I felt it was important that we stay with that calendar, and I'm glad we did. But I knew that sooner or later, and preferably sooner, I would preach a sermon, greetings to the saints. Wherever we have been called to serve for any length of time, I've preached this sermon. It doesn't always come out exactly the same. The sermon I'm gonna present this morning is different than any I've delivered before. And I'm gonna confine myself to just these two opening verses. I hope the next few weeks, next three weeks probably, that I will preach from the next sentence in Paul's letter. Because if you start at verse three and you go all the way through verse 13, that is one sentence in the original. And there's so much in there. I could probably preach 10 sermons just on that one verse. But Paul has a way of writing that way, where he just packs things on and on and on. If you read through my writings, I tend to deal with short, choppy little sentences, easier to read. Paul sometimes is a little difficult. And Peter said, Paul sometimes is pretty hard to understand. The Lord willing, next week we'll tackle the beginning of that next sentence. Today I just want to look at those three elements in verses one and two. The author, the audience, and the message. Simple outline. Notice the way Paul starts this letter. He calls himself Paul. Is that strange? Yes, it is. Because you go back in the book of Acts, and the whole story is all about Saul. Saul of Tarsus, who was there at the stoning of Stephen, and he's the one who authorized it and cheered. Saul of Tarsus is the one who hates Jesus Christ with a passion. Jesus Christ is a fraud. And anybody who follows him is guilty of breaking Mosaic law. And we Pharisees have to stop that. So he goes and gets permission from the authorities to go around and capture, imprison anybody who's following the way. Joe mentioned that Wednesday night in the Bible study. This is a characteristic of Saul. He was constantly trying to harass and persecute the church and drive it out of existence. And if you read through Acts 12 and 13, you're gonna find there that Luke, the author of Acts, calls him Saul. until he gets into chapter 13, and all of a sudden, Luke changes and now calls him Paul. If you go back to Acts chapter nine, you will find there that Jesus Christ, calling from heaven, says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus Christ calls him Saul. That's his name. That's the name by which he was born and raised. And yet, when Paul addresses his letters, he said, call me Paul. Over a process of time, and from that radical conversion on the Damascus Road to the time where he goes out and becomes a major missionary, During that time, there are a number of years where he is off in seclusion, studying and coming to understand the word of God so that he can go away from that horrible Jewish tradition under the Pharisees that he had been schooled in. He can reject that and realize that Jesus Christ is the true one. Jesus Christ is the one to be worshipped. And when you read through the book of Ephesians, just count and notice how many times he talks about Jesus Christ in the most glowing terms. From a hater of Jesus Christ to one who just worships and idolizes and loves Jesus Christ, there's a tremendous transformation. Part of that transformation is changing his name. From now on, Saul becomes Paul. He says, Paul, an apostle, excuse me, wait a minute. The Corinthians picked up on this right away. He cannot call himself an apostle. That is wrong, and he has to be confronted. If you read through the first couple chapters of 1 Corinthians, you're gonna find there there's a big debate going on in the church at Corinth about this very matter. How many apostles were there? How many of you would say that there are Standard, there were 12, right? Judas was taken out, he killed himself. So that means 11. What did the church do? When you read through Acts chapter one and two, they said, wait a minute, we have to replace him. And they chose, no they didn't choose, God chose by lot, Matthias. So Matthias now takes Judas' place and now once again you have 12 apostles. Paul comes along and says, I'm an apostle? No you aren't, you can't be. An apostle has to be one who is clearly commissioned by Jesus Christ himself to become his special ambassador. Jesus Christ chose those 12 and then by lot he replaced Matthias. Saul, Paul, whatever you want, you are not an apostle. And Paul says, yes I am. I was commissioned directly by Jesus Christ himself on the road to Damascus. He knocked me down. He made me blind. And he says, I have work for you to do. You are my special ambassador. You are an apostle. And Paul, you have every right to call yourself an apostle. So if you want to do the math, you could say, well, there were 12 men who legitimately could be called apostles of Jesus Christ. in the meeting where they chose Matthias, where they had this option, there were probably 150 people there. Weren't they apostles too? And didn't they actually come under? They're disciples. And there's a big, big difference between an apostle and a disciple. How many apostles are there in this room? How many disciples are there in this room? Come on. I hope you all are. A disciple is a student of the gospel. The word disciple comes from a Latin word meaning student or learner. To discipline, which is another variation of that, is simply to teach. You were called to discipline your children because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ and a disciple of his word. That doesn't mean that you have to punish them. You may eventually get there if they don't respond to your teaching. But as a disciple, you have to discipline your children. You have to teach them the truth, the right way to live, what to believe. So Paul says, Yes, I'm a disciple, but that's not my calling card. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. The one that I was persecuting is now my master, my Lord. But then notice what he says, by the will of God. I guarantee you, Paul never sang that song, I have decided to follow Jesus. Paul couldn't and wouldn't, and I refuse to sing it because I can't accept that. Paul was chosen by the will of God. See, Paul, like every one of us, was by nature a sinner. He was imperfect, impure, he was guilty, he was so many things wrong. And yet God, who is righteous and holy, who cannot tolerate sin, says, I need you. I need you to work for me. So study real hard, then maybe you'll get there. Be a real good boy. and maybe you pretty soon will get there too. At least you'll get into heaven if you're real good. Sorry, that's not what the gospel teaches. The only way that you and I can be transformed, the only way that we can be made over so that we become acceptable to God is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Go with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel is a fascinating book full of wonderful, sometimes mysterious theology. Parts of Ezekiel I can't understand. But if you read Ezekiel 36, starting at verse 22, let me give you the background before we read that. Ezekiel is living in a concentration camp, or whatever you want to call it, in the Babylonian Empire. And a lot of people are responding to Cyrus's call to go back to Jerusalem. And a number of people are saying, yes, we want to go. And Ezekiel is saying, wait a minute now. In order for you to go back there and to really be worshiping God as you ought to, because you've not done it before, you've messed it up in so many ways, something has to happen to you. And you can't perform it yourself. Listen to Ezekiel 36 starting at verse 22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations in which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart. and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Amazing. God, the Holy Spirit, lives in you and me. New Age theologians take that and mess it up so bad. They say, oh, God lives in us, therefore I'm partially divine, I'm God. No, no, no, no. God, the Holy Spirit, lives in me. I don't know how to comprehend that, but I believe it. And the Holy Spirit takes and transforms the things I hear, the stuff I read, and makes it acceptable to me instead of rejecting it. The Holy Spirit puts a new heart in us and says, believe the gospel, believe my word because it's true. The Holy Spirit does that. Paul knows that so clearly. Paul expresses that in other places. But he says here, I am an apostle by the will of God. God, the Holy Spirit, worked in my heart to bring about this tremendous radical conversion. The second point, the audience. to the saints who are in Ephesus. Have any of you ever been to Ephesus? Well, we were there some years ago. It's on the coast of, the west coast of Turkey, what we call Turkey now. Ephesus was, at one time, a pretty large city. We spent about a good half a day there, very memorable. There's a huge amphitheater where Paul preached different times, where Timothy preached, later on where John, the apostle who wrote Revelation, also preached. All of them were pastors there in that church in Ephesus. It's a big, vast city, big main street with pillars all up and down. How many people lived in Ephesus? Maybe a couple hundred thousand. Not at Little Burg, good-sized city. How many saints are there in Ephesus? Paul doesn't give us a number, but he's writing to the saints who are in Ephesus. How many saints are there this morning? One, two, three, come on folks. What is a saint? A saint, well, it's more than just a believer. You know, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church has messed this up so bad. They never read the Bible because the Bible is full of saints. You read through the book of Psalms and the number of times there are saints there, it's amazing. You read through all of Paul's letters and each time he is addressing the saints who are in Corinth, that church that was so messed up and had so many problems. The only one that's an exception is Galatians. And he says, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? You got messed up. But all the other ones are to the saints. A saint is simply somebody who has recognized that he or she is a sinner and has gone to God in humble prayer and said, God, please forgive my sins. Forgive all the things I've done wrong. What does God promise in return? There's no condemnation. You're forgiven. Jesus Christ paid the price of your sins on the cross. You are considered in my sight righteous and holy. You are saints. Wait a minute. What about our kids? How do we address them? Say, you little sinners. Or do you say, you need to repent. Or do you say, by the grace of God, you're saints. Now I've been privileged to teach in Christian schools and in public schools, and in Christian schools I can often say, after some introduction, to all of you saints who are in the fifth grade or eighth grade or senior high, whatever, all of you saints start acting like it. Because if you're a saint, if your sins are gone, you can't keep practicing them. You have to stop doing those things, and you have to start living like saints. We don't know how many there were in Ephesus, but Paul says there are saints. Now, if you know a little bit more about Ephesus than about the church, and you say, wait a minute, there's something here. Go back with me to Acts chapter 20 for a minute. Acts chapter 20. Paul is on one of his journeys, he's heading back to Jerusalem and he stops there along the coast of Asia Minor and we'll start reading at verse 17. Acts 20 starting at verse 17 now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him and when they came to him he said to them You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house. And then jump ahead to verse 28. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he ordained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears." Paul is talking to the elders and he's saying, you are saints, but sometimes you gave me a tremendous headache. We didn't always make life easy. And if you jump ahead to Timothy, who is also a pastor there in Ephesus, Paul says to Timothy, you know what? A lot of your congregation has itching ears. They don't want to hear the word of truth. They're gonna want to hear all kinds of fables. Watch out, be on guard. Don't let them get that way. And if you read through Revelation chapter two, there's a letter there to the church at Ephesus. And the criticism is, you've lost your first love. You need to repent. You need to come back to the gospel that you heard. So to be a saint doesn't mean that you're perfect, that you have white robes and white angels, or wings, and that you suddenly never make a mistake. No. Saints are on the road to sanctification. And in this life, none of us will ever achieve perfection. None of us would ever get to the point where the Catholic Church says, ah, we've just found another saint. We found two ascribed miracles to them, and there's a perfect life. They are now elevated to, no, no, no. It's not what the word teaches. The third point, the message. What is God saying through Paul to the church here in Ephesus? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what grace is? Something you don't deserve. It's unmerited favor. None of us deserves grace. None of us can go to God in prayer, no matter how humble, no matter how sincere, and say, God, you owe me something. I've been a good boy this week. I've been a good girl. Give me grace. No. Grace is something that you get, but you don't deserve. None of us deserves grace. None of us deserves to be taken out of our sinful lives, our sinful patterns, and transformed so that we become obedient ambassadors for Jesus Christ. That's a transformation that Paul experienced. Beginning on that road to Damascus, Jesus Christ stopped him dead in his tracks and said, Saul, I'm gonna reconstruct you. I'm gonna make you over and you are going to become one of the greatest missionaries the world has ever seen. I'm going to give you grace because I choose to. You're my son or you're my daughter. I chose you from before the creation of the world to be that. I don't want you living in rebellion. I don't want you living a sinful life. I want you to live for me. And I want you to do what the first question, Shorter Catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The second thing that God through Paul says grace and peace. Peace follows war. Sometimes it's a long time coming. I was a typical teenager. I thought I knew better than my father. My father was Not very good. He'd not even go into high school. He was too strict. He was too stubborn. So I got into quite a few arguments with him. And finally he said, all right, Norm, go off to college. You earned $50 working for the neighbors. You can take that $50 and go. Go to Calvin College and do what you want to do. Goodbye. The morning after graduation, I was in the car and gone. By the end of that summer, God had worked repentance in my heart. And I said, I have to go back home and tell Dad a few things. Came back at the end of August and say, Dad, could we talk? I want to apologize. for all of my stubborn behavior, for all my know-it-all attitudes, I'm sorry. From that day on, we had peace, a loving relationship with a very good father. That's what God does to us. He works in our hearts and minds and he gives us peace so that we stop fighting against him. so that we truly learn to enjoy him. We love to sing about Jesus Christ, our Savior, because he's our Lord. Let's pray. Dear God and Father, we thank you for this brief introduction to the epistle, to the Ephesians. We thank you for all the marvelous truths contained in this little book. And we ask, O Lord, as we go our ways, that we will ponder the fact that we are called to be saints. You have declared that when we repent. Help us now to live that way, so that as we interact with neighbors, with friends, with employers, with students, whatever, that people can see that we have been changed. by Jesus Christ. In his name. Amen.