WHAT IS THE REAL CHURCH?

A good place to go for further study following Acts 2 and the birth of The Church aka The Body of Christ is the Letter to the Ephesians

Ephesians is an excellent outline of the church and who we are "in Christ." Do NOT hurry through chapter one and read each verse slowly, listening to every word. It is divided with chapters 1-3 describing the invisible church (ALL Believers filled with The Holy Spirit) and chapters 4-6 describing the visible church (the place where Believers gather).

Each chapter gives a different description of the church, if you will look closely.

It contains two marvelous prayers in chapter 1 and 3.

Introduction to EPHESIANS

Ephesians was written by Paul to a congregation established on one of Paul's later missionary journeys (Acts 19).  It was written from Rome, probably in A.D. 62 or 63.  

The theme of Ephesians is the church as a living organism, the actual body of the living Christ.  It is a key book for understanding our personal relationship with Jesus, and how to live with our fellow Christians in a nurturing, ministering relationship.

Ephesus was "the" religious center of the province of Asia.  The great temple of Artemis there drew tourists and worshipers, and served as a giant bank from which cities and nations as well as individuals applied for loans.  This highly successful institutionalized religion is the backdrop against which Paul gives us a vision of the church of Jesus Christ.  This church is no institution:  it is a body, a family, a holy but living temple, a new person, a bride and a mystery.  It reveals a glory in the living personalities of its members which far outshines the glory of the stone temple of Ephesus, even though that temple was four times the size of the Parthenon of Athens.

This book is an important one for Christians to study today.  It helps us not to think of our own churches in institutional terms - as building and programs and activities alone.  It helps us to see ourselves, and one another, as living expressions of a Christ who still expresses His glory in human lives.

My prayer for you as we begin this study is Paul's prayer to the Ephesians in 1:17-23..."I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you..."

I want to encourage you to tell someone every day what you've learned about who you are in Christ.

Blessings...in Christ Jesus

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory,

may give to you a spirit of wisdom

and of revelation

in the knowledge of Him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart

may be enlightened,

so that you may know

what is the hope of His calling,

what are the riches of the glory

of His inheritance in the saints,

and what is the surpassing greatness

of His power toward us who believe.

 “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…”

Ephesians 1:17-20  (Prayer of Revelation)  

The Church is a Body

Chapter 1 of Ephesians strongly reveals that The Father planned The Church and choose us before Creation; and that before Creation, The Father planned for The Son to redeem us by paying the price for the Church, His Bride; and that before Creation, The Father planned for His Holy Spirit to protect The Church by sealing us with His Presence!

I have given you some great pages to help with studying Ephesians. I think this is one of the most valuable words from The Lord about who we are "in Him" through His Spirit.

My Sunday School class spent 2 months slowly digesting chapter one because it has volumes of information about how blessed we are in Christ. Did you catch how much "in Him" we are?  

*We actually sit in the Heavenlies with Him!

*The Holy Spirit lives in us which makes us in Him, so there is no separation!  We need to grasp the Reality of it and believe with demonstration, just like the early church.

God does not live in us as a possession, He is in us for Power to tell the world that they are Redeemed!

Next post:  Diagram of The Church in Ephesians