Ephesians: New Sermon Series

Why Ephesians?

Starting this Sunday, we'll spending the next several weeks in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. As with every sermon series, a good question is why -- why Ephesians?

It's a question worth answering with questions: Are you weary? Cheery? Tired? Refreshed? Ephesians is the sort of letter that hits us wherever we are and draws us further up and further into our identity and purpose in Jesus.

Ephesians is full dose of God's powerful love in letter form. It's potent enough to stir tired souls into a fresh experience of grace and drawing whole communities back into passionate, united gospel living.

Paul’s 6 chapter letter captures the revolutionary power of the gospel: through Christ, God in love has rescued a people, made us alive, and filled us with the Spirit to walk in not just in an improved way but a new way — the way of a new humanity, something that the world had never seen.

This new humanity, Paul says, is a diverse people—once enemies — that have now become “one new man” (2:15) and are now filled with the Spirit and sinners-turned-imitators of God (5:1). This is a community that is centered on the gospel, God’s love, and God’s plan.

Ephesians wakes us up from the slumber of church as usual to understand church as it actually is: a people made new in Jesus, a sign of the good news and the kingdom to come. What started in Ephesus is happening 2,000 years later in Memphis — Christ is making all things new, even us.