We’ll never be apostles in the same way Paul, John, Peter, Thomas, Matthew or James were. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not sent by God. God has sent us into our workplaces, families, churches, sports clubs and so on. We’re not just sent by God to be the best workers, parents, children, footballers, organists or whatever we are. We are sent as servants of the gospel just as Paul was.
Today when we’re approached about serving God, we’ve lots to consider. Do we have the time, are we the right person for the job (something Moses asked as we saw last week), can we commit to a project of this length? For sure we’ve much to consider when it comes to committing to new areas of service. However, if we learn anything from Mary it’s that sometimes God requires a willingness for us to accept that he will turn our lives upside down, and not just for a matter of years, but a lifetime.
This study tries to understand how we as a church are united in Christ and so should be working to overcome divisions, but also how this impacts our society. Christ’s unity shaping our thoughts and actions, destroying our prejudices and so making our world a better place for all.
Have we simply understood salvation as God rescuing us from sin? Certainly, this is salvation, but it’s only part of the story. God’s call is for us to turn to him, to receive from him, but it is also to serve him. We are saved to serve. Peter Enns, a commentator on the book of Exodus said that salvation and vocation are linked. We are saved to serve God.
If we want an honest, unbiased assessment of who we are, then God is the only one who can give us what we need. Which is why Psalm 139 ends with this request, ‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ (Psalm 139: 23-24)
As we come to Ephesians chapter 2, we’re asking God to give us an honest assessment of who we are. As we do it’s important to note the tense. Who we are, not who we once were! While Paul will point to our sinful past and how we were dead in our transgressions because of how we used to live. Again, past tense, were dead, used to live.
We started this series on the catechism by asking what our purpose in life is, it’s to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We have explored how we do this, through the word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments because within that word of God is everything we are to believe about God.
We’re ending this short series by asking what is God? Who is this being we are to glorify and enjoy, who is this being we are to believe in because of scripture? Question 4 in the catechism asks, ‘What is God?’ Ans. God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
It’s a difficult answer for us to understand. So many of these terms are abstract. They’re just words and words we don’t use very often at that. We struggle to know what they mean. For example, God is Spirit. What do we mean by that?
As we read through Ephesians 1:15-23 we find out not what our expectations of a Christian might be but what scripture teaches.
Scripture covers a lot of topics, marriage, poverty, religion, money and so the list goes on. Despite the range of issues scripture can be boiled down into two areas. The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. Scripture teaches us what we’re to believe and how we should respond, or how we should live because of what scripture tells us to believe.
Paul centres his argument that salvation is based entirely on what God has done and not on what we have done by highlighting the role each part of the trinity, God the Father; Son; Holy Spirit, plays in our salvation.
When we think of the word, ‘Word’, we tend to think about language, the written word or the spoken word. Words are how we communicate and express ourselves. Scripture uses ‘Word’ in a different way. The Word is a person. John’s gospel begins, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (John 1:1) The word is God, or at least the word is the second person of the trinity, the Son, the one we know as Jesus Christ. In the beginning was The Word, in the beginning was Jesus the Son of God who was with God, who was and is God.