Paul's Greeting to the Ephesians - Paul's Greeting to Us

Well, let's take our Bible. Let's turn back to the book of Ephesians. I think I said earlier that I will read a verse or two from chapter three, chapter five. It'll be easy for you to follow me there. But we're going to spend most of our time in chapter one, verses one, two, two. So just have your Bible turned there. We'll get there here in a few minutes. Now this morning, we are finally starting our verse by verse study through the book of Ephesians. I have said several times, we're trying to get there. We've had a few delays, I know that, but we are finally here. Now, if you pay attention to the book of Ephesians, it is just six chapters.

Ephesians is rather short when you compare it to some of the other books of the Bible, especially some of these New Testament books that are extremely popular. But don't let the size of the book or the length of the book fool you. One of the writers that I studied this past week or so said that pound for pound, the book of Ephesians may be the most influential of all of the New Testament scriptures. I would say that besides Romans, Ephesians is the most influential book written by the apostle Paul.

In the introduction of his book, his commentary on this book, the Bible commentator William Barclay says that Ephesians has been called the queen of the Epistles. Now, I don't know where he got that, I kind of look to see. But that has resonated with me. I've thought about that really all week. The queen of the Epistles, the queen of the Epistles. If it is true that Ephesians is the queen of the Epistles, Paul's Epistles, well, that would make Romans the king of Paul's Epistles. If that is the case, then Galatians must be the joker of Paul's Epistles because Paul was mad at those jokers there in the Galatian church. Because why?

They were easily bewitched and led astray. And if you know much about the book of Galatians, you'll understand that stale flat joke of mine. But jokes and comparisons aside, jokes and comparisons aside, Ephesians is one of the most influential books of the Bible containing some of the richest of Paul's very important theology. Really just to boil it on down to this, this is a must. The book of Ephesians is a must. Now there are many things that make this book a great book and a must for Christians and for churches of all of the ages. There are many things.

Now there are two things that just come to my mind that show us the great need for this book. This is just a sneak peek, okay? This is just a sneak peek. This is supposed to wet our appetites. Within the book of Ephesians, Paul gives us two of the greatest mysteries revealed in the New Testament. Two mysteries that the Old Testament saints long to see and long to understand. Now we learned what a New Testament mystery is last Wednesday night as we started off our study in the parables of Jesus.

New Testament mysteries are spiritual truths, spiritual realities that were hidden during Old Testament times, but they were revealed in the New Testament and in New Testament times. We learned Wednesday night that Matthew chapter 13, those parables there, those are all mysteries that are about the kingdom, mysteries about the church and the church age. Well here in Ephesians, Paul gives us two of the greatest New Testament mysteries revealed in the New Testament. First, the mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel.

Here's where I want us to look over into chapter three. You'll see this just in one verse, verse six. Notice what Paul says. This mystery, you know what that mystery is, was hidden from the Old Testament saints revealed in the New Testament. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through his gospel, through his gospel. And this is spiritual truth. This was hidden all throughout the ages to those Old Testament saints. And if we look at chapter three, verses one to five and verses seven to nine, you'll see that Paul explains that, that this was hidden.

This was hidden to those Old Testament saints. And the wonders of this mystery, this is great. All believers in Jesus are equal before God as his children. They are equal citizens of God's eternal kingdom. And this is a wonderful truth that is only revealed in the New Testament to the New Testament saints to understand. Now, why does this great mystery, why should this resonate with us? We are Gentiles folks. We are Gentiles. This is us. This applies to us. This mystery, we as Gentiles, we are fellow heirs. We are a part of this body. We are partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel.

But then the second mystery, this second mystery is that the church is the bride of Christ. God explains this great truth when he explains his plan for human marriage and he uses marriage to illustrate the unique relationship between Christ and his bride, that is the church. We see that if we look over into chapter five. I wanna read just one verse there. We're gonna see this word mystery again. Chapter five, verse 32. Paul says, this mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Now we know what's been happening right here in these verses, 'cause we spent some time studying these verses.

In verse 32, Paul is referencing the mystery of the church as the bride of Christ that he had explained in the previous verses starting in verse 22. Within those verses, there is great practical teaching on marriage, that's what we spent our time on for several weeks. But that teaching illustrates this wonderful reality that the church is the bride of Christ. That applies to us as well. Now those are just two wonderful things that are taught in this little short book. And that's just a sneak peek. I just tried to pop the hood and let you look under the hood a little. I wanted to crack the door.

There's a whole lot more that we're gonna get into. Now at this time, I wanna give you a little bit of background information about the book. Really, this is before we get into the message, what I might would call the body of the message. This is a little explanation, a little background, a little context. This might help you. This is very practical. Note that verses, or excuse me, note that chapters one to three are theological. You can just split the book right down the middle. Chapters one to three are theological. It deals with what we believe. But chapters four to six, it's practical. It deals with behavior.

See, Paul deals with our belief, and then he gets into how we should behave. See, our behavior should always be dictated by our belief. Now this book is known as a prison epistle. Paul wrote this letter from prison. He was in Rome, in prison, and that is recorded in Acts chapter 28, starting in verse 16. Now some of you know this. He also wrote some other epistles. They're known as the prison epistles, the book of Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Now Paul founded, or co-founded, this church on his third missionary journey.

He stopped there briefly at the end of his second missionary journey, and there were some who inquired of Paul to stay, but he had to move, he had to go on, and he left Priscilla and Aquila behind there to kind of begin the work. Now the city of Ephesus was best known, or is best known for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. That would be the temple of Artemis or Diana. That was a horrible, horrible worship of a pagan deity. And then Ephesus, the city, was a very important city for many reasons, and a lot of it had to do with trade and trade routes.

A lot of it had to do with political reasons and economic reasons, things like this. Now what I'm saying is this, Ephesus was not a backwater city by no means. Now this infantile church that started, really started with Priscilla and Aquila, was really more firmly established with Paul. He stayed there when he returned for some three years. And you can read of Paul's time there at Ephesus from the time when he visited, and then when he came back there at the beginning of his third missionary journey, and then when he ultimately leaves, you can study that in Acts chapter 18, chapter 19, and chapter 20.

Now Paul had a great ministry there in Ephesus. Through Paul and others like Priscilla and Aquila, we can't give Paul all of the credit by no means. God built a great church in one of the most important cities of the region. Now through this work, the entire region was impacted with the gospel. Scholars tell us that there were several of the surrounding churches. They had to have come from the influence of the Ephesian church. The economy of the city was even impacted by the gospel. There in Ephesus, I'm gonna give you a little assignment, go read those passages in Acts and you'll see what that looked like.

Now ultimately, the Ephesian church became the flagship church of the region. They could boast of having pastors like Paul, pastors like Timothy. So this was a very important church and a very important city. And this letter was written to these individuals. Now with that behind us, I kind of popped the hood. I wanted us to get a feel of the queen of Paul's epistles. And I wanted us to get that background information. That helps us maybe more than you know. I wanna get started in Paul's greeting in verses one to two. And I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message.

I'm calling this Paul's greeting to the Ephesians, but really Paul's greeting to us. Paul's greeting to us. Now the way we're gonna approach these verses is by asking three questions. I want us to look at three questions. Who wrote this letter? Who received this letter? And what is this greeting? I've already said verses one and two are a greeting, especially verse two. These are very important questions and I think this will help us more than you know. Who wrote the letter? Who received the letter? What is this greeting all about? This will be easy for you to follow. And like always, I do encourage you to take notes.

Now if you're the kind that need to pay attention with all your heart, mind and energy, you can just put the notes to the side. I can help you. I'll be glad to give you my notes if you can understand them. Sometimes they're hard to understand. So let's start off. Number one, the first question, who wrote this letter? Now you might not realize it, but we need to take note of who wrote the letter. Whether you know it or not, we do this all the time in our lives. We get mail and when we get mail, we look to see who it is from. You know, if it's junk mail, we throw it away. If it's a bill, we throw that away.

Well, I hope you don't throw your bills away. We just put them off to the side and pay them when we're supposed to. But I don't know if you do, but we get personal letters at times. Maybe we get notes at times. Maybe you are so far into technology that you don't even get mail anymore. I still get mail. Maybe that shows you that I'm a little antiquated. But think about it. When we check our mail, we see who the letter is from and who it is from, it really matters. If we know the person who sends us a card or a note or a letter, well, it means something.

And if there is something meaningful in that note, if there's something meaningful in that letter, it really means something. As a matter of fact, I've got some notes and cards that I've gotten in the mail through the years and they're tucked away in my office. Now, right away, this letter says that it was from Paul and apostle. You see that right there at the beginning. So I want us to see what this meant for the ones who are receiving this letter. And I want us to see what this should mean to us. First, first his name, Paul, his name represented his conversion. His name represented his conversion. Most of us know Paul's story.

Before Paul was known as Paul, his name was Saul. And Saul, he violently rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah. Saul was the great persecutor of the church until he met Christ there on the road to Damascus. As he was traveling to put more Christians to death, Jesus graciously revealed himself to Saul. And Jesus called Saul to himself and Saul believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah. You can see all that in Acts chapter eight and chapter nine. But after Acts chapter 13, Saul was always known as Paul unless it was referring to his previous life. Now scholars speculate why the name changed. But that really doesn't matter.

It really doesn't matter the reason. This does point to the fact that Saul, the great persecutor of the church, the killer of Christians, he became Paul, the great servant of Christ and the father of the Gentile church. So his name represented his conversion to Christ. But second, his title represented his calling. What does it say? Paul an apostle. Most of us know Paul's calling. Paul did not appoint himself as an apostle. God the father appointed Paul as an apostle through Christ Jesus. Jesus speaks of this calling to Ananias in Acts chapter nine. Jesus called Paul his chosen instrument to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

Of course, this is speaking of his calling to the office of an apostle, specifically the apostle to the Gentiles. But what was an apostle? We need to ask that question. What was an apostle? See the apostles were the men that God chose in the New Testament who were uniquely chosen of God to be those who would lay the foundation for the church. They were those chosen men who received and taught and gave the final revelation of God in the New Testament. Now you have the original 12. Of course, Judas disqualified himself. That's a light way of saying it. And you have the original 12 along with Matthias who replaced Judas.

We see that in Acts 1.26. And then you had Paul. It's kind of funny how Paul speaks of himself as a called apostle. He calls himself one who was untimely born. You can see that in 1 Corinthians 15.8. This speaks to how he was added as an apostle later than the others. But Paul met all of the requirements set forth for the apostles. And he was recognized as an apostle by all of the other apostles, all throughout the New Testament and all throughout church history. He was an apostle, specifically the apostle appointed to go to the Gentiles. But then third, his title represented his authority. His title represented his authority.

As an apostle and stating his position as an apostle right here, Paul was alluding to many things. He was speaking about his evangelistic church planning work as an apostle, a work that they had experienced. They were a fruit of that work. He was speaking of his appointment to a special office and a special work of God. He was speaking to the authority which was given to him by God as a chosen apostle. This was a God given authority for God. This was a God given authority of God to speak for God and to work for God. So his title represented authority. God gave him authority over the church.

And if you know your history here, you know that the false teachers and false apostles were always challenging what? Paul's authority. Now those are the specifics, but what else would these Ephesians have seen in Paul? Take a step back from the verses and think about this with me. These Christians in Ephesus heard this first line and they knew who was writing to them. They knew this man. Paul had spent three years there and he was there for a long time doing a great work among those people. God did great things through Paul in the city and in these people and they knew Paul personally. So who wrote this letter meant something to these people.

Personally, Paul had impacted their lives with the gospel. How many of them could raise their hand and say, I know Paul, he led me to Christ. I mean, the personal contact there, we cannot imagine, but yet corporately, God through Paul and others built a great church there and they were all a part of this work. So when they heard this name, they thought of who Paul was. He was a man converted to Christ. He was Saul, but now he's Paul. They thought of his great calling and his position as an apostle. And they thought of his God given authority over them and the church.

He was the beloved Paul, their Paul, the Paul they knew, the Paul they lived with. He was an apostle. Really, he was their apostle. Now we need to see this greeting as meaning for us in our day. When we read this greeting, yes, we may see Paul's conversion. Yes, we may see Paul's calling as an apostle, but do we see his authority and do we embrace his authority over us? See how it gets personal? Do we see his authority and do we embrace his authority over us?

More specifically, and in the future, when we are going verse by verse, sometimes phrase by phrase, word by word, listen, will we see all that we discover within the book as having authority over us? Will we see this book in all that it contains as God speaking through Paul to us and ultimately having authority over us? This might take a little time, but we need to see what this authority thing can lead to. You know, we don't like that word. We've got to embrace it. We need to see what this authority thing can lead to. Some of you know your church history, your Bible history. You know that the Ephesian church did languish and struggle.

And if you go a little bit on down the road of time, you'll know that the Lord wrote another letter to the Ephesian church, Revelation chapter two. I wanna take the time to read this because I want you to see something here. Revelation two starting in verse one, to the angel, the messenger, the pastor of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands. This is Jesus talking to this church.

I know your works, your toil and your patience, your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and who are not and you found them to be false. Let me stop there. The Lord is saying this, you are hardworking, you test false teachers, you test false teaching, you're hardworking and you don't put up with that. Verse three, I know you are enduring patiently and you are bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. What is he saying? Oh, through trial and persecution, you don't give up, you press on, you press on.

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works that you did at first. And if not, I will come to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. What is Jesus saying here? If you do not obey, I will remove my presence. You will become a non-church. You'll have a building and a steeple and you'll congregate and you'll do all this stuff that I've commended you for. But he says, if you don't repent, if you don't submit to my authority, I'll leave you. See, this authority thing is real and it is extremely important.

And listen folks, Paul was an apostle by the will of God. He was given God's authority by the will of God and it is the will of God that we submit to all the things that we would come in contact with throughout this book, any book of the Bible. And if this church ignored or even disobeyed what Paul said to them, what were their consequences? Jesus said, I'll remove my presence, I'll leave you. And the same applies to us today. And I wonder how many churches, non-churches meet as if they're a church and Jesus isn't even there today. So let's move on. Number two, our second question, who received this letter?

I want us to ask who received this letter. Now you might not know it, but there is a small debate among scholars about who this letter was actually written to. Now I don't wanna bore you with all of this. I wanna give you a really quick summary of the debate. Now I do these things because I want you to be equipped. You can be studying on your own and you can be reading and you could come across this type of thing and it can alarm you or scare you. Sometimes you might not know how to handle it. So I wanna equip you here. This will be rather short. Now there are three opinions about who this letter was written to.

Some say this was more of a circular letter. In other words, it was meant for all of the churches in the region. We do know that letters were circulated among churches and the churches in the region, they were all linked. We know that, they were very, very close. The reason some take this position is the fact that in this letter, the Ephesian letter, Paul does not mention people. He does not mention problems. And he does not mention details that he would have known about the Ephesian church. Remember he spent three years there. This book compared to others that Paul wrote can be very impersonal.

Go back and think about some of the other books. They're very personal, but this one is not. Now also there are some old manuscripts that do not have this letter addressed to the Ephesians. So some of these things can make some feel like this was a circular letter. Now they're not attacking the integrity of the letter or the content of the letter just who it was addressed to. Now another position is that this letter was actually written to the church at Laodicea, which was in the region. Now this position was popularized by a early church heretic. And he was clearly denounced as a heretic.

And he was denounced as a heretic for altering this letter in other reasons. I mentioned that because some of you could see that. But the historic position, the most popular position has been that this letter was written to the Ephesian church. This was the position of the early church. This is the position of solid scholars throughout the ages. And this is a position that I would take. Now I do not have a problem believing that this was written to the Ephesian church first. And then it was circulated throughout all of the churches in the region. Think about it. It's been circulating all throughout the generations.

It's circulated all the way down to us. And I'm very thankful. But I do believe this letter was written to this particular church. Now why Paul was more impersonal, I don't know. We just don't know those things. And I do believe that it was circulated. Now besides the fact that they were Ephesians, we're getting back to who received the letter. Besides the fact that they were Ephesians, we need to see what Paul says about these people. This will help us see who they were. And this will help us see who we should be today. First, I want you to see that they were saints. I want you to see that they were saints. Look back at the verse.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. We've covered that to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now Paul is not speaking about some religious icon here when he uses the word saints. He's not speaking about someone being sainted by a man or by a church or by a religious organization. This reminded me of submission's work that I did years ago when I was a student minister. Jared was a part of that ministry years ago. Years ago, I was involved in some ministry in the city of New Orleans and we used to go to a particular homeless shelter.

We did some very interesting work there and it was called the New Orleans Mission. Well right across the street from the New Orleans Mission was a church. And it was St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. That really doesn't go together for various reasons. But on the front of the church, they had this stone statue of John the Baptist in a loin cloth with the staff with his hand cupped over his mouth. I guess he was the voice crying out into the wilderness. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. But that's not what we're talking about here. So this is not a cultural sainthood. See, we need to see that.

We need to divorce ourself from that view. This is a biblical sainthood. Now biblically, this means to be set apart. I'll give you an example, a good example. The Jews, they worship there at the temple in Jerusalem. Of course the temple was destroyed along with Jerusalem in 70 AD. But their temple was set apart. That meant it was holy. Where these believers here at Ephesus, they were set apart as belonging to God. They had been converted to Christ. They had come either out of Judaism or paganism. And now they belong to Christ. And so they were set apart because they were consecrated unto God and for God.

So from God's perspective, they were set apart and they were seen as saints. But second, they were seen as faithful. Isn't that what the verse says? To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now this faithfulness speaks of two things that are in the saints. First trust and second devotion. They had exercised faith and trust in Christ. So they were devoted to Christ. They were faithful. And this was made possible only by one thing, the fact that they were in Christ. Now this phrase in Christ or in him is one that Paul uses a lot. Isn't that what we see here?

To the saints who were in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. One scholar pointed out that Paul used this phrase in him or something like that some 200 times in his letters. Now what's the point here? These Ephesian Christians were faithfully devoted to Christ because they were in Christ and Christ was in them. They had trusted Christ and Christ was in them. So they were devoted to him. So from man's perspective, they were seen as faithful in Christ. And then third, they were seen as the church. They were seen as the church. Now for me, this is the next logical step. Might not be logical to you, but it is for me.

Now this word church is not here in the verse. I know that, but let me show you what I mean. They were seen by God and Paul as saints. They were set apart by God and for God, which was an inward holiness and sanctification and an outward holiness and sanctification. They were faithfully devoted to Christ because they were in Christ, converted to Christ and Christ was in them. So collectively, all of this pertains to what? A church, a local church, a group of people. So in summary, this has been a lot I know. These were Ephesians, but a whole lot more. They were saints of God, holy and set apart.

They were consecrated unto God, both internally and externally. They were faithful. They had trusted in Christ and they were devoted to Christ all because they were in Christ and Christ was in them. And God through Christ had done what? Made them a church. Well, this helps us see who we should be in our day. What a question. If Paul were to write a letter to us, if Paul were to write a letter to us today, could he call us saints in Brookhaven who were faithful in Christ Jesus? Could he? If Paul were to append a letter to us today, could he call us the saints in Brookhaven who were faithful in Christ Jesus?

I know this is negative, but it's true. There are lots of people in Brookhaven that call themselves a church, but are they saints and are they faithful? Are they faithful saints in Christ? You see, the only true way we can call ourselves a church is if we are saints of God who are faithful. You hear that folks? The only, the one and only true way where we can actually biblically call ourselves a church is if we are saints of God, we are consecrated in Christ, set apart, trusting in Christ, set apart saints.

And if we are faithful, we've trusted in Christ and therefore we are devoted to Christ, we are devoted to his word, devoted to his work and everything about Christ, that is the only way we are a church. And look, we're either one, a building with saints that are gathered together, the church, or just a building with people. And if it's the latter, you might as well be a civic club or the Moose Lodge. And listen folks, these Ephesians were saints, not perfect. If you know your history about the Ephesian church, you know they were not perfect, but they were set apart in Christ.

God saw them as saints, he saw them as faithful, trusting in Christ and devoted to Christ. And if this church here is not comprised of saints who are faithful to Christ because they are in Christ and Christ is in them, if that's not what we are, well, we're not a church. We can have preaching, you can have good preaching. You can have programming, good programming. You can have correct theology and doctrine. The Ephesian church had that, that's why I read you that letter. You can even adhere to the two ordinances, the supper and baptism. But listen, if you're not saints, if you're not faithful, then we are not a church.

Now let's look at our third question. Number three, what is this greeting? Now I know verse one is part of the greeting, but I'm really focusing in on verse two, this really second part of the greeting. What is this greeting? Well, here in verse two, we really have the standard greeting of the day, grace to you and peace from God our fathers in Christ Jesus. Now I know we are a lot different today. We do not greet people that way today. I thought about it. If we are greeting people today, we're from Mississippi, we're gonna throw y'all in there somewhere, isn't that right?

And then not only that, we're gonna have some slang in there and we're gonna slur our speech a little. You know, if everybody just talked like us, it'd be a lot better, wouldn't it? I'll give you a little funny here. You know that in our network, there's a pastor that pastors in Canada, Blake Kenam. I've never been to Canada. That's north of the Mason Dixon line. That's pretty far north, but he's from Mississippi. And the first time I called him to talk to him, the first thing he said was this, boy, it sure is good to talk to somebody who talks like me. We don't greet people this way.

But if we look at the way Paul normally writes a greeting, we see Paul uses these words all the time, grace and peace, grace and peace, grace and peace. Now he might include other people in the greeting. And this is much different from us, but we need to see what is actually in the greeting. And we're gonna see that this applies to us today. First, this word grace. Now most of us could give what I would call a textbook, solid definition of grace, but we would miss a lot of what Paul is saying here. Yes, Paul is talking about God's grace gift given to us in his son. Simply our salvation in Christ is by grace through faith.

We know that, I've taught you that thoroughly here. But there's another layer here. In the original language, the word that Paul uses for grace is closely connected to the word for joy. And the idea is that when someone experiences God's grace and salvation, that is what brings them joy. When someone is converted to Christ by God's grace, that is what produces true joy within them. So when Paul greets them in the grace of God, he is calling their attention to that which they all share. That is God's grace gift of salvation and that one thing that brought them true joy, great joy, that ultimate joy. But then second, the word peace.

Whereas most of us could get the textbook definition of grace, I think most all of us would miss the meaning of the word peace here. See, our definition of peace is probably the absence of conflict or war. We hear phrases like this, peace in the Middle East. You know, we have this awful situation in Afghanistan. We could go a lot there, but what are we talking about? War and peace and things like that. Wasn't that long ago, people in our country were protesting the Vietnam War. They wanted peace. But that is not what Paul is talking about here, the absence of conflict.

He was not talking about a peace that was the absence of conflict within someone or with others. The meaning of this peace is not the absence of something, but the presence of something. This peace is referring to the presence and the possession of the blessings of God within a person's life. This peace is the possession and presence of the Holy Spirit of God working in a person. So when Paul greets them in the peace of God, he is reminding them of the wonderful blessings of the presence of God in their life. But then third, the source of this grace and peace. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I know I've alluded to this, but this needs to be seen. This is worth repeating. We see that in the verse. John MacArthur calls this the dual source of blessing, the dual source of blessing. He goes on to say that these are not separate and distinct sources, but two manifestations of the same source. Now I don't wanna make these two separate blessings, but I like to see this great blessing in two ways. Follow me here. First from God the Father, second from God the Son. You see, it was God the Father who sent his one and only son to die from man.

And it was the one and only son Jesus who died that wonderful substitutionary death on the cross for man. Yet all of this came from where? Came from God. God's grace gift is the gift of salvation in a man. God's grace gift of salvation brings joy to a man and God's peace is what comes from God to man as a result of this work. So notice folks, this grace, this peace, this joy, this presence of God, it is all by God, from God, and ultimately for God in our lives. So I know this is a lot too, but in summary, notice what we see here. This greeting is nothing like we see today. This had substance folks, this had meaning.

This greeting had spiritual substance and meaning. He is greeting these faithful saints that he knew, that he loved, that they knew him and they loved him. He's greeting them in the grace of God. He's bringing up the joy of their common salvation and the wonderful peace and blessings of God that they all enjoyed. And this was a common thing. They all shared it, they knew it. It was a part of their lives. And we need to see that this greeting should have meaning for us today. You see folks, we either possess this grace, which brings joy. We either possess this peace, which is the presence of God working in our lives, or we're out.

We either got it or we don't. To use a little incorrect English, we either got it or we ain't. You know, this is sometimes difficult to articulate. I'll give you an example here. Years ago, I had a friend, some of you know him. He's since passed. His name was Johnny. Johnny came to faith in Christ as an adult. Johnny had a hard life, drugs and alcohol and all that comes with all of that. But Johnny came to faith in Christ. God saved Johnny. I had the privilege of baptizing Johnny. To be honest with you, I had forgotten. Johnny reminded me.

But after a period of time, Johnny felt led of God to go on the mission field and ultimately he ended up in China. Now he's since passed, he had cancer. But I'll never forget one time Johnny was home and Johnny was at a church and Johnny was given his testimony. Now he was talking about his missions work in China, but mostly he was talking about this, the grace of God, the joy of Christ, the peace of God, God working in his life and he is articulating how God is working in him and through him, yes even on the mission field. And it was glorious.

And all of us who have the same thing, the grace and the joy and the peace and the blessing of God working, I mean we're just right there having a grace and peace party. But there was a guy sitting right there. He couldn't get in on it. And later on he went to Brother Keith and he looked at him quietly, humbly. He said, man I don't have that. I don't have it. See you can't fake it. You can't fake joy. You can't fake this peace. You can't fake this grace. You can't manufacture it. Now you can fake it for a little while, but it won't last.

But then when you come in contact with someone who really has it, oh it just reveals you for who you really are. And we need to be honest here folks. Some may have their name on the church roll. Some may embrace doctrine and teaching in theology. Some may perform all sorts of religious deeds. Some may even be very, very religious and oh be even very respected. But the question is this, have you experienced the saving grace of God whereby you've received this heavenly joy, a joy that can only come from God? And do you possess this peace of God, a blessing from the work and the presence and the leading of God in your life? You don't have that.

You don't have this grace and peace. And listen folks, I'm going back to the Ephesians. These were not a perfect people. This was not a perfect church. This church had problems. And there were even false converts there. There were even false leaders that Paul said were gonna rise up as wolves among the sheep. But there were those there who were genuine believers. They possessed this joy from heaven. They were experiencing the grace of God and the peace of God and God working in their life. And this church here should be comprised of a church role and pews full of Christians who were just like this. And oh, when trials come, they have joy.

They have grace, they have joy. It comes from God. And through the years they have the blessings of the presence of God and the peace of God all throughout their life. Now, a question as we begin to move towards the conclusion. What do we have here in these two verses? To be honest with you, there's more than you thought. And if your Bible is like mine right above verse one, it says greeting, greeting. But this is not just a greeting folks. This is not just an introduction. This is not just Paul addressing the Ephesian church. This isn't just the common greeting of the day. This is so much more. Now I go back to the title of the message.

Paul's greeting to the Ephesians. Oh, this was a lot. And Paul's greeting to us. And I think some of you would see and say that this is a lot. This is much more than a greeting folks. This is a challenge. This is a challenge. This is a challenge to us. And here's the challenge. Will we be found as the faithful saints of God submissive to what God would say through this apostle in this great letter? We must, we must, if we are able to mine the riches that are contained in this book, the queen of the epistles. So church is up to us. We have to roll up our sleeves. We have to get on our work boots.

We have to devote our time and our effort and our energy to these chapters and these verses and these messages. Oh, you gotta be here. You gotta be faithful. Why? Because we have to mine the riches of this great book, the queen of the epistles. So let us be found as the faithful saints of God submissive to what God would say through his apostle, through this letter to the Ephesians. Let's pray. And let's commit this to the Lord. We're gonna sing, we're gonna worship, and then we're going to dismiss and have a wonderful time of food and fellowship together. Let's pray.