Ephesians 1:1-2 • When the Job is Too Big

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Now, you may not be anticipating it, but you're about to be invited into a very special church meeting because this is now going to officially become a meeting of the presbytery of northern Illinois. Here's why.



 Paul Utenage has been here with his wife Brenda for most of a year now, but Paul, while serving in a position of administration in this church, is now going to be recognized as an executive pastor for administrative duties within our church body. He's been in that position in other churches, but not in this church. And so our presbytery, which is the collective of churches of this denomination in this region, formally commissions him to be a pastor in this church in that administrative role. There's no better book to think about what that might mean than the book of Ephesians, because in the book of Ephesians we are learning what the church is and what its ministry should be. Let me ask that you turn there to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1, as the Apostle Paul is going to remind us who he is and what God calls him and the church itself to be doing. Let me ask that you would stand to honor God's Word as I read to you Ephesians 1, verses 1 and 2.



 Here we read 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. Let's pray together.



 Father, what a privilege that we can address you as Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, the one you sent to make a way and to claim us as your own. May we, as we celebrate Paul Utenage becoming an administrative pastor in this church with executive responsibilities over all other staff, would you help us not only to challenge him but to be charged by your Word to do the work of the calling and ministry of Jesus Christ. May we under shepherds do his work in this place for the glory of the Savior and the grace of his ministry. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.



 We recently declassified an account now five decades old. Most of you have not heard it. Of the time when the United States B-52 bomber broke apart over North Carolina, dropping its payload of two 3.8-megaton hydrogen bombs. Each bomb with sufficient explosive power to be 250 times the explosive power of the bomb that landed on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Two of those dropped on North Carolina as the B-52 broke apart. One had a parachute deploy and it landed nose down in a field but standing straight up like the Washington Monument in the middle of North Carolina.



 But the other bomb was the problem because the parachute did not deploy.



 And somewhere in a marshy turf it descended below the earth and could not be identified. Lieutenant Jack Revelle was given a ten-man crew to find it. And for days they gingerly dug down into the swamp trying to find a bomb that would have changed the future of all of us. Finally, after a few days of gingerly digging around, one of the diggers came up to the lieutenant with good news.



 I found the safe arm switch.



 The bad news.



 The safety is off and it's in the armed position.



 When the lieutenant later wrote to his parents, he said he wrote down, "Dear Mom and Dad,"



 and then his hand was shaking so much he could not complete the rest of the letter.



 We get it. We understand the consequences. He wrote later, "You have to understand.



 If the bomb had gone off, we would have created the Bay of North Carolina.



 We would have changed forever the configuration of the East Coast and the radiation would have gone as far north as New York City and beyond. If the bomb had exploded, it could well have begun World War III.



 Our lives would be changed forever.



 If anything that you do has eternal consequences, you might say you deserve to tremble a little bit.



 And when we think of the responsibilities of ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul Utenage, every single one of us knows we cannot do our jobs if we don't tremble before the task. What we do, the impact of our words dispensed to God's people with His truth will have eternal consequences for them, for the church and those whose lives are being touched by those in this body of believers. We ought to tremble before the reality of the gospel that has been committed to our hands. In fact, we cannot do the job until we come to the profound conclusion that the job is too big for us and at the same moment say, "But it's not too big for God."



 We bow down before the realities of infinity and say, "God, I can't do this," and confess in the very same moment, "But you can."



 The willingness to confess both those things comes as we understand the power that is in the gospel itself. And that power is in evidence in the very first verse of this particular epistle, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus." We are so accustomed to the words that we do not perceive the power of what has just been said. Paul, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. This was the same Saul who had been commissioned by the Jewish leaders of his time to pursue, to persecute, to imprison, to kill followers of Jesus Christ. It was the same Paul who held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen as he was murdered for proclaiming this same Jesus Christ. And now this Paul, who was the persecutor, has become an apostle, a messenger appointed by that same Christ to help spread the message for those who he once sought to kill.



 Now I know many of you know that account, and we recognize, isn't it wonderful, that the Lord could change Paul so far back then.



 The message doesn't have its impact until we recognize that same gospel, that same word, that same ministry is present now that transforms lives for eternity. It's not just ancient history. I think of the example of Abby Johnson, who if you've not heard about, you will be hearing more about in coming months. As a movie about her life goes across this nation. Abby Johnson, the youngest ever director of a Planned Parenthood clinic, in 2008, the employee of the year for the nation of Planned Parenthood, who participated willingly in the abortions of unborn children until she saw one who was aborted struggle for life



 and could do it no more.



 And by God's grace, not only came to understand the forgiveness that she could have, but what God was calling her to say and do with a whole different course of life.



 She is not the only one. Some of you will know the story of Bernard Nathanson, the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights League, who after years of advocating for unborn children being taken from the womb became one of the greatest advocates ever of the national right to life movement. Turned around. How did that happen? Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of the Roe versus Wade Supreme Court decision, who not only wanted to abort a child, but for years pursued a lesbian lifestyle until the Lord used a little girl to change her heart. And not only did she repent of her participation in a court case that led to the taking of the life of millions of unborn, but turned to Jesus Christ herself and repented of her past and received His grace of pardon and forgiveness.



 Blessings! And it's not just that we go to the annals of the past, but we even recognize the power of the present.



 Just a couple of weeks ago on Sanctity of Life Sunday, I spoke to you about the preciousness of every child of God at every stage of development according to the Scriptures.



 Some of you know that in that very same week, the New York State Legislature passed a bill that virtually offers zero protection for unborn children up to the very moment of birth.



 And when that bill was passed, the New York State Senate erupted in cheers and applause.



 Trilia Newbell is the director of community outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who once served in the New York State Assembly.



 After the great cheers went up, she wrote this in a tweet, the modern way.



 "Many moons ago, before the Lord captured my heart by His grace, I interned at the New York State Assembly and I imagined that I would have been among those cheering the new abortion bill. But God changed my heart, transformed my life, gave me love for the unborn. It took God to do that."



 And when you read these opening words of the epistle, you recognize these are not ancient thoughts. This is so present. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.



 God did this. This is not somebody's reason. This is not somebody's eloquence. This is not the resolve of a human heart. This is God by His grace reaching down with the truth of His word and the power of His grace to transform people, to take that which was hell-bent, to take that which was only darkness and not only bring it to life, but to steer through a life of joy to heaven itself.



 It's transformation, it's power beyond our means, but well within God's hand. When Paul says, "By the will of God," he understood what he was talking about. Do you not recognize this same Paul when he was called Saul, the golden boy of the Jews who was sent to persecute these new followers of Jesus, was given troops that he could go with. The towns into which he would ride would have the gates open and the crowds parked so that Paul, this anointed golden boy with all his troops who would be pursuing any challenge to the Jewish establishment, could pass through.



 And now he lives as a pauper arguing for his acceptance. And when he himself is attacked for being an apostle of Jesus Christ, the same cities which once opened their gates to him now so seek his life that he has to be let down at night over the walls of the city in a basket in order to save his life. Why would he do that?



 Because of the will of God.



 Because God had done something beyond human power. His name itself says that he was once called Saul, named after Israel's first king who was chosen by the people for his stature and his attractiveness and his arrogance.



 He was Big Saul.



 And now that same Saul the apostle is named Paul. You know what Paul means?



 Small.



 He goes from being Big Saul to small Paul.



 And he says that he was the will of God to change his heart and to turn himself around forever. It's not ancient news. It's what we sing when we rejoice singing "Amazing Grace That Saved a Wretch Like Me." We can look back and say, "Isn't it great that John Newton, the slave trader, ultimately became one who would follow Christ, who would repent of his past, that he used humans as chattel and would ultimately confess his sin to God and know the great grace of God over his heart and life?"



 It's not just ancient stories. It's not just things that we don't have to claim anymore. Look what's happening in our day and age when a comrade, Doich, the commandant of the largest death camp of the Comeruge in Cambodia, who killed and tortured tens of thousands, would come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, would repent of his sins and profoundly believe that his sins were as far away from his as the East is from the West.



 What happens when life transformation comes to a Rosaria Butterfield who is at a major intellectual university in the United States leading gender studies, pursuing a lesbian lifestyle, laughing at Christianity?



 When the gospel penetrates her heart and God convinces her that life and lifestyle is not honored him, so she gives herself anew to Jesus Christ changing commitment and putting herself under abuse and ridicule from the very colleagues who once championed her. Why?



 Because it was the will of God to claim her heart, to turn her around, to change eternity.



 And that reality is not just something we should recognize in others, but every single person here who names the name of Jesus, you say, "I was going that direction and God turned me that direction."



 And this was not just something of human effort, will, and reason. Look at my own life. I look at being a child of homes where parents in such tension with each other, all of my growing up, I recognize where I would be without the grace of God. I have a brother who's been incarcerated for years. I have siblings whose marriages are in such pain.



 I have siblings who have addictive illnesses. I know without the grace of God what path I would be on. And I praise God that he turned me around and I do not say, "Look at what I did." I say, "Look at what God did. This is the grace and the glory of God by the will of God." Saul became Paul and God claimed you, not just for a moment, but forever. And when you believe that, not just for yourself, it starts having a radiating power. You see Paul, he says here, not only is he an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, he's writing to the saints who are in Ephesus. And we just read it and go right past it. And do not recognize the shock of the words. The saints in Ephesus, the fifth largest city of the ancient world, a world where people were pursuing either commerce or pagan religion or immorality or all of it. And in that place of overwhelming sin and darkness and hopelessness, the apostle Paul says those are now places occupied by saints in Christ Jesus. I mean, how could there possibly be saints in Ephesus, people whose lives have been turned around?



 It's like us saying, you know, this is a letter to all the Cardinal fans in Chicago.



 This is a...be quiet, Bill.



 This is a letter to all the Rams fans in New Orleans.



 No, the New Orleans Saints are not real happy with the Rams at this point, right? They're not being very saintly at all.



 We recognize that if there is going to be a sainting of people in Ephesus, God must be at work.



 And when I believe that, I believe that God can turn around my high school friends and my work colleagues and my family members who are estranged and my husband who won't come with me to church anymore and my wife who hates me to talk about Jesus, I believe still



 that there is a power beyond the human. And that is the power of the gospel that is committed to the men who would lead the church of Jesus Christ in faithfulness. And faithfulness is in fact possible. Paul writes to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. It's the reminder that this power of transformation is in faith in another.



 Faithful in Christ Jesus. Not faithful in me, not my work, not my performance, not my accomplishment, not my administration, not my history, not my expertise.



 Faithful in Christ Jesus. I'm full of faith in Christ Jesus that Jesus is the Savior and He is the Savior by being the Christ, the anointed one of God sent to pay the penalty for my sin and your sin. And my faith is in His work and my behalf. And that faith and what Christ has done actually makes me faithful in Christ Jesus.



 I've been in this church long enough, many of you, to recognize that that "in Christ Jesus" phrase is the apostles most favorite way of summarizing the totality of the gospel. That we are in Christ as though the Russian nesting dolls that you take one doll and put it inside another and another and another. And we are in Christ hidden in His righteousness. I put my faith in Him and because His shed blood on the cross covers all of my sin, His righteousness now covers me. My sin was put on Him, Pastor Kerry prayed it. And what happened? Not only was my sin put on Him, His righteousness became mine. I am in Christ Jesus.



 But the great wonder of the gospel is this, not only am I in Christ Jesus so that my sin, my shame, my hurt is covered. At the very same moment I'm connected to Him. I'm in Christ. I'm united to Him so that the Apostle Paul, the same one can say, "I'm crucified with Christ. I'm stronger." But Christ lives where?



 In me.



 And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. He gave Himself. He died.



 But He lives in me.



 The same resurrection power that brought Christ from the dead exists in me. Not only am I in Christ covered by His righteousness, He is in me empowering me for life with Him. Satan does not want you to believe that. Satan does not want you to believe that greater is He that's in you than He that is in the world. Because what that would mean is if you actually believe that victory over your struggles, your sin, your shame were possible, then Satan has no more leverage in your life. Satan comes and sits on the shoulder of every one of us and says this, "You can't change.



 You can't be fixed. There's no hope for you. You are a victim of your biology or your blunders or your background. Your past determines your future." And we say, "That is a lie. Greater is He that's in me than He that's in the world. I have been transformed by believing in Jesus Christ, but now that same Christ indwells me." And that means there's hope for me and change that is really possible. Our struggles, our shame, our sins, our addictions do not define us.



 I am in Christ Jesus.



 You are in Christ Jesus. By faith we trust that Christ paid for our sin. By faith we believe that the penalty was fully paid and that He rose from the dead and by His Holy Spirit now indwells us to give us the victories that we need. When I truly believe that, it changes my perceptions of the world that I am in. The Apostle Paul does it. He says to those who are faithful in Christ Jesus, full faith in what Christ has done and what He's still doing in us. He says to them, "Grace to you," verse 2, "and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ." I love the phrase. It's not very theological. It's almost as though the Apostle Paul is casting a mantle over those at Ephesus. He's just kind of saying, "Grace to you," as though he's covering them with the reality of if your sin is really put on Christ and Christ is really in you. So there's hope there.



 That's not something you've done, but it's God's goodness to you. And we're just to let it settle over us and do its work. I don't like the cold that we've had this last week, but one of the things I appreciate about it is it preserves the snow.



 And it preserves the snow. I think of it being that mantle over our lawns and fields covering the mulch that doesn't cover all the dirt, covering the leaves that we haven't got around to raking yet, covering all our dirt and fallenness and the ditches and the darkness with the white blanket of snow.



 It's like grace.



 As though God is saying by his Apostle, "Here's grace to you."



 When your kids are watching the snowflakes fall in coming weeks, why don't you say to them, "Hey, that's God saying grace to you. He's covering the ground, covering the earth, covering the faults, all with his grace and showing you what it means." And when you really perceive that, that this is God's grace toward you, not by your deserving, not by your accomplishing, but by His great mercy, then something else happens, grace to you and peace.



 Because of the extreme cold, a lot of you will know this building was closed a couple of days this week, and I thought, "Oh, great, I'll get to sleep in."



 Those of you of my age, you know what happened, right?



 Your body still wakes up.



 So I'm awake, turn on the radio, and I listen to the announcer say, "If you'll look out your window right now, at the crescent moon, you will see Jupiter in Venus in a rare conjunction." And I got up and I looked and I saw the beauty of the moon and the planets over a silvery blanket of snow. And as I recognized the hand that was controlling the planets was the same hand that had put the snow over my backyard. There was the sense of the God of such great power is so intimate in His care.



 And dare I say it to you, I just kind of went, "I felt the peace."



 And the worries of the moment and the family and the church settled by saying, "My God of grace is the God who wishes my peace, not just for now, but forever."



 Paul, we have a job to do.



 It is to say to God's people, "Here is the grace of God, whether it is by love or correction



 or administration or plan or decision or great mercy, what will most show the grace of God?"



 Because when we say, "Here's grace to you," the peace of God that changes everything comes upon us. It's a great calling, not what we can do, but He can.



 Praise God for the gospel He gives us to share with God's people. Father, work Your word into our hearts, we pray, that the gospel becomes not just words,



 but faithfully lived truths in our lives, that we who are being transformed forever



 have lives that radiate the goodness of our Savior.



 And as we sense Him and others sense Him in us, the work of Christ powerfully moves forward in this place. So use us by making us faithful to You, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.