SUNDAYS AT 9:00 AND 10:30 AM
ARBOR CHURCH
Ephesians is a drama portraying the cosmos-transforming acts of God in Christ.
– Tim Gombis, The Drama of Ephesians
Ryan opens our new message series in the book of Ephesians.
Before God tells us what to do, He tells us who we are.
This week in our series The Triumph of God, Ryan walks us through the long and breathless sentence of Ephesians 1:3-14, and what it has to say about the old stories of our lives … and the new ones spoken by God.
From the I see you! cried during a kid’s game of kick-the-can to the metaphorical lenses offered to us by Paul in Ephesians, Scott shares about how we can change not just our knowledge of God but our very perception.
You didn’t escape on your own — you were carried out. In Ephesians 2:1–10, we uncover the story of God’s rescue and what it means to stop performing and start living free.
For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.
– Ephesians 2
We’ve been rescued not just from sin but into a new reality. This week, Ryan teaches on the unity we’re called to in Christ.
This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access to God by way of Christ’s faithfulness. For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
– Ephesians 3
Even as we suffer, even as we wonder why, and even as we doubt there being any good left, we can trust God’s triumph in Christ.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
– Ephesians 3:17
In this message from Ephesians 3, we’re reminded that God’s presence isn’t reserved for a place, but for a people—and that we experience His fullness together.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
– Ephesians 4
How is a raven the church like a writing-desk model house? Ryan answers this unusual question in today’s message about Paul’s call to unity and the church’s role as a preview of the kingdom of God.
The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it would give grace to those who hear
– Ephesians 4
From Ephesians 4, Alison shares four ways in which our new self is the flip side of the old self: the thief becomes a giver, and the gossip a speaker of grace.
Be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
– Ephesians 5
This sounds great… but there is often a huge gap between the way we know we should be living and the life we actually live day to day. Why is it so hard to actually live this way?
In the penultimate message in our series on Ephesians, Ryan walks us through a difficult passage of Ephesians that has frequently been misinterpreted and misused. The passage speaks of the mutual submission that must exist between wives and husbands, but Paul isn’t just writing a marriage manual – he’s writing a manifesto for a new civilization.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand
– Ephesians 6
This week, we end our journey in Ephesians with the famous exhortation to put on the Armor of God, and to correctly identify with whom we struggle – because you can’t fight the real fight until you have named the real enemy.
