Our text for this week is Ephesians 2:1-7:

We are now entering one of the greatest watershed periods in human history. Creation itself is charged with the electricity of these times and is beginning to groan and travail for what is about to come. Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive. The kingdom of God is coming.

This week we begin our study of one of the most concise chapters in the Scriptures for revealing the calling and purpose of the church, Ephesians 4.

There is a pattern in Paul’s letters that is also followed in this one. The first part is usually a reminder of many general principles of the faith. Then he boldly declares the main purpose for the letter concisely and powerfully. He then finishes with encouragement.

Ephesians 4 is one of the most bold and powerful of all of his messages to the churches. We will begin with looking at verses 1-3:

         This week, we will go a bit further in seeking to understand and keep our “first love” (see Revelation 2:4) of the Lord. This is so important that the Lord told the Ephesian church that if they did not recover and keep this, their candlestick would be removed—meaning they would no longer be His church. So, we should be sure to get this right before anything else. In II Corinthians 13:5, Paul exhorts believers to:    

          Last week we discussed how the church is still so far from what it is called to be, and yet this also gives us an ultimate opportunity—could we begin a momentum that would actually hasten the coming of the day of the Lord?

Tomorrow, The Passion will be released. This movie can change your life, and maybe even change the church. It has that kind of power. It can do this because it will help to restore the cross as the center of our lives—so central that we will begin to truly take the cross up daily and carry it with us in all we do.

          We are now into the time when the glory of the Lord is being revealed. Ultimate evil is being revealed as well. As I already mentioned, when we started to pray for the Spirit of Truth to reveal things going on in the U.S. Government that we needed to know, my biggest surprise was how so few Christians even cared about what was being brought to the light. However, I should not have been surprised or discouraged by it.

          One of the great weaknesses of modern Christianity has been our devotion to making converts rather than disciples. When people are made to believe that all they have to do for salvation is raise their hand while standing in the back of a room, with every eye closed and every head bowed so as not to embarrass those who might slip up their hand, these “converts” are made to think that to be a follower of Christ will require little from them. However, true faith will require everything, including our lives.

     The Book of Revelation is “the revelation of Jesus Christ,” and yet much of it is about the evil of men. The ultimate evil that is to be revealed in men is also a focus of this Book, which is the “antichrist,” or “man of sin” who is a personification of the sin of man. Even so, all of this is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the revelation of the depravity of man without Him and the victory that will ultimately be realized by Him.