Dan Wuthrich
Passage: Ephesians 3:17b-19 This morning, we will wrap up our study into the form and content of Paul’s second prayer recorded in his letter to the church at Ephesus. So far, we have introduced this prayer by looking at Paul’s reason, attitude, direction, and sanction for praying this way for the Ephesians. Last week, we […]
Passage: Ephesians 3:16b-17a The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that prayer “is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of ours sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.” Ultimately, we pray because we are needy and dependent upon God. Yet all too […]
Passage: Ephesians 3:14-16a I doubt that any Christian would ever argue that prayer is unimportant, but I also doubt that any Christian is perfectly happy with their prayer life. Why is that? Could it be that we tend to give prayer far more lip service than practice? Could it be that we were never really […]
Passage: Ephesians 3:7-13 We (rightly) tend to hold Paul in the highest regard, but he had no delusions about his own weaknesses or his sinful past. Paul’s humility led to amazement that God would choose to use him to bring the hope of Christ to the Gentile world. He realized that he was a recipient […]
Passage: Ephesians 3:1-6 Most everyone loves a good mystery. There is something about the well-told “whodunit” that appeals to us all. In today’s passage, Paul begins to write at length about a mystery, but it is not a Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie type mystery. Rather, it is God’s plan for his people and his kingdom that […]
Passage: Ephesians 2:19-22 This morning’s message is the third covering 2:11-22 where Paul describes the unity believers now have with one another as a result of Christ’s redeeming work. In today’s text, he uses three metaphors to describe the significance of the church, this new people of God made up of Jews and Gentiles who […]
Passage: Ephesians 2:14-18 Everyone knows what it means to feel alienation, perhaps from a once close friend or even from a family member. Alienation is descriptive of the human condition since the fall, between races, ethnic groups, economic classes, and the like. But the greatest alienation we have suffered is from God, as the fellowship […]
Passage: Ephesians 2:11-13 After a break for Advent, we return to our sermon series in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. This morning, we will take the first look at one of the most compelling passages on what the church should look like in all the New Testament. Paul takes a similar approach to that […]
Passage: Ephesians 2:10 Paul has spent a great deal of time speaking negatively of the role of works in our salvation. Now, in verse 10, we have a major shift. Works are now mentioned positively, as the very reason God saved us. To paraphrase Paul, we were not saved by works but we were saved […]
Passage: Ephesians 2:4-7 Having set forth the bad news of humanity’s condition without Christ, Paul now begins to rise in praise as he proclaims the good news of what God has done to save us in and through Christ. These are possibly the two best words in all of scripture: But God! Our hopeless condition […]