Ephesians, Chapter 1-2
Pastor Marc Wragg
Introduction to Ephesians: Part 1
March 3, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Many today believe the Church is obsolete. Still others attack Paul's authorship of Ephesians despite clear evidence to the contrary. It's true that much of the Church today is weak and ineffectual, chasing after worldly influence and trusting in worldly strength. But in Ephesians, not only do we find Paul's authorship affirmed, we also find that the vitality of the Church flows from its Head. Methods and movements don't make us relevant; life and spiritual power will be evidenced as the majesty of the Gospel is put on display in the life of the Church.
Introduction to Ephesians: Part 2
March 10, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Paul had been a devoted pharisee, convinced he was serving God by persecuting the Church. Yet in a single moment Christ pulled back the veil and revealed that his service had not been to God, but Satan. We all come to Christ steeped in sin and warped by error, our dirty hands filled with futile works. Even so, Christ has borne our penalty and freed us from our enslavement to sin, and empowered us to pursue holy lives through faith in Him. This lavish grace cannot help but change our understanding of God, and ultimately lead us to humbly bow in worship.
Worship Through Praise: Praise the Father, Part 1
March 17, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
In the Church, we get a glimpse of eternity. It demonstrates Christ's rule, openly displays His glory, and reveals the mysteries of God. The many references to the Church in the book of Ephesians might tempt us to dwell on what great things we can do for God, yet Paul directs us to what great things God has done for us! He has chosen us, predestined us, adopted us, redeemed us, and revealed the mystery of His Gospel to us. Reflecting on the grandness of God's work is where real and healthy worship begins. God graciously blesses us with the might and power of His deeds. How else can we respond but to offer up to Him the simple praises of our lips?
Worship Through Praise: Praise the Father, Part 2
March 24, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
The aim of Bible study is to simply believe and obey so we can properly worship God, not to find support for our theological agendas. So it ought be as we consider the biblical doctrine of election. This truth is a cause for joy, not dissension! God's sovereign and saving love reveals not only His great power, but also His tender mercies. It utterly removes the efforts of man so that we may more fully praise the perfections of a God who rescues and transforms. Whatever your theology may be, lay down your agendas when you pick up His Word. Only through humble submission to His truth can we praise Him as we should.
Worship Through Praise: Praise the Father, Part 3
March 31, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Jesus Christ knew all that He would have to endure to secure our salvation because He was there when the plan was formed. Before the foundation of the world Christ offered Himself up, which allowed the Father to freely pour out His love on those whom He chose for eternal life. How should we respond to God's choosing? By praising and glorifying this great God who rescues hardened and helpless rebels and transforms them into the image of His Son. We will all one day appear before God. Will you be found in your sins, or in Christ? Trust in Jesus Christ now, and submit yourself fully to God's purpose for your redemption, that you be holy and blameless before Him.
Worship through Praise: Praise the Father, Part 4
April 7, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Christians are redeemed, chosen, sons, servants, slaves, friends, citizens, and saints. In verse 5 of our text, we see two more terms that describe our relationship to God. He has "predestined us to adoption". Because of His love, the Father has placed us into the glorious position of beloved sons, making us joint heirs with Christ and participants in the Divine nature. He accomplished this by giving us a new nature that loves Him and desires to please Him, and now the cry of our hearts is "Abba! Father!" Man's will is free to do as it is inclined, and only by a sovereign act of God are we inclined to hate our sin and love the Lord.
Worship through Praise: Praise the Father, Part 5
April 14, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
God saves sinners. He saves sinners who are broken over their sin and humbled by their helplessness to overcome it, and who see the wisdom of God in the foolishness of the Gospel. He saves by a sovereign act of His Divine will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, because of His great love for Christ. The Gospel must be preached in its fullness, because this is the message we must preach if sinners are to be transformed into worshippers. God is the One who chooses and saves, but He won't reject you because you weren't chosen. He will reject you because you refused to turn from your sin. Sinner, will you confess and repent?
Worship through Praise: Praise the Son, Part 1
April 21, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Each one of us has sinned against God by violating His commands, and God has said that every soul that sins must die. Under the crushing weight of this truth, knowing that we are both guilty and without excuse, the Person and Work of Jesus Christ becomes the only source of relief and joy. He died to redeem us and restore us back to God, to set us free from sin's penalty and purify us so that we would no longer live as slaves to sin's power. All this He did because of the riches of His grace. Do you see the depth of your need and the vastness of His mercies? Sinner, will you repent?
Worship through Praise: Praise the Son, Part 2
April 28, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Are you a Christian? Many who identify with Christ confess that their hope includes their own efforts to please God. If this is you, then you have not understood salvation at all. The Gospel demands that you recognize your utter inability to save yourself, and that you lay hold of Christ by faith alone. God's favor is graciously given to those who have no hope in themselves, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and whose sole confidence is in the crucified and resurrected Son of God.
Worship through Praise: Praise the Son, Part 3
May 5, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Sadly, our gospel often stops at the truth that Christ died to redeem us. If we're to press on to maturity, its important to know why He suffered these things. When Adam sinned and Creation fell, sin began to distort, disorder, and destroy from that day to this. God's plan of redemption not only restores the sinner, it will also bring everything in the heavens and the earth into subjection to Jesus Christ, who will then turn and put all things back under subjection to the Father. Redemption isn't about our significance, it is about the significance and glory of God. Do you want to show God's glory to a watching world? Then fully yield your heart and your ways to Him!
Worship through Praise: Praise the Son, Part 4
May 11, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
When salvation is about us and our desires, Christ and His gospel are diminished. But when salvation is about God's glory, we are humbled and awed by the grandeur of His plan to bring all things back under His wise and righteous rule. Such a gospel requires our humiliation, and therefore we come to Him confessing both our guilt and our helplessness. In Christ, God graciously forgives us, redeems us, and adopts as into His family. Now as beloved sons, we exult not merely in the great riches we possess, but in who's possession we have now become!
Worship through Praise: Praise the Son, Part 5
May 18, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
One day, two books will be opened in heaven. The first records in detail every sin you have ever committed in thought, word, or deed. The second is called the Lamb's Book of Life, and recorded in this book from the foundation of the world is the name of every human being who has been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. It was God in His sovereign power who elected us to salvation, and then in time drew us and redeemed us. But God holds all men responsible to hear and believe the truth. You are not saved by a spiritual spouse, church attendance, or an intention to make your life better through religion. You are saved when you hear and believe the facts of the gospel, when you embrace it as truth, and when you bend your will to submit to that truth. Do you believe?
Worship through Praise: Praise the Holy Ghost, Part 1
May 25, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
In looking at salvation thus far, we've seen the work of God the Father in eternity past electing us for salvation, and the work of the Son in the historical past to do the work of our redemption. We've even seen the work of God in the future, summing up all things in Christ. But there is also a present work of God in which we participate. We hear the gospel and believe, embrace the truth, submit to Christ, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance, confirming that we belong to God and that He will return and take us to Himself.
Worship through Praise: Praise the Holy Ghost, Part 2
June 2, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
There's been much confusion in the Church about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures say that He seals us, fills us, and baptizes us, but what does this mean? Is this a work which every believer somehow experiences upon salvation, or does it come later? If we are sealed with the Spirit the moment we express faith, then why didn't Christ's disciples receive the Spirit until Pentecost, and why didn't John the Baptist's disciples receive the Spirit until Paul laid hands on them? We'll better understand the work of the Holy Spirit when we answer this final question: When Jesus began His earthly ministry, was He ministering under the Old Covenant or the New?
Worship through Praise: Praise the Holy Ghost, Part 3
June 15, 2013 • Pastor Marc Wragg
Some say that the doctrine of election is heresy because if only God knows who is chosen, then no one can be assured of their salvation. Yet God does choose, and you can know for certain that you are His. Assurance does not come from performing great signs or doing great things, but by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are sealed by the Spirit at conversion, and His work is evidenced in our spiritual progression as conviction of sin and desire for holiness increases, and as we yield to His control and manifest His fruit. Do you want to know if you've been sealed? Ask yourself who is ruling in your heart. Is it the Spirit of God, or you?