Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The transcription is about the city of Ephesus and its significance in biblical history. It mentions how Ephesus was once the capital of Asia Minor and is still located on the Turkish coast. The transcription also discusses the Apostle John's time on the Isle of Patmos and his eventual release, allowing him to travel to Ephesus. It describes the city's beauty, its art, and the temple of Artemis (or Diana), which was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Overall, the transcription provides historical context and background information about Ephesus. good morning if you have your copy of the scripture I would like you to turn to the first chapter of the book of Ephesians and we're going to read two verses today and next week brother Jimmy will pick it up in verse 3 because my assignment today is verse 1 and 2 and he said maybe maybe you can get through with those two and so we shall see if I can no actually my responsibility today is to introduce you all to the church in Ephesus to the Ephesian church which was by the way at one time the capital of Asia Minor and if you know anything about modern-day geography today that's Turkey in fact Turkey has taken over all of Asia Minor and they have established themselves up at Istanbul or up at what used to be Constantinople and the capital of Turkey now is up north from there so in Turkey is what used to be old Asia Minor so the church and Ephesus and the city of the Ephesians of the city of Ephesus is still on the Turkish coast it's still on the Asia Minor coast about 17 miles from the island of Patmos and it's a very interesting study about John on the Isle of Patmos who at the time he was there put there by Domitian who was the Caesar back in 95 John was about 89 years of age when Domitian put him on the Isle of Patmos for the express purpose of killing him Domitian didn't want to he did not want to murder him because he knew if he murdered him then that would just advance the gospel of Christ so he thought well the old dude is 89 years of age and I'll put him out here busting rock because that's what the Isle of Patmos was the Isle of Patmos was a penal colony of the Roman Empire where they sent their worst prisoners to do one thing to crack rock in order that they might put the pieces of rock on ships and send them around the Roman world to build roads and so they were building roads from all the rocks hello all the rocks that they were making cracking on the Isle of Patmos and other places so he thought well if I put him out there in the hot Sun cracking rocks 12 hours a day that'll kill him because he's 89 years of age to which Domitian did not know that John was going to outlive him and Domitian who put him out there in the year 95 AD 95 died in AD 97 and when Domitian died in AD 97 he was replaced by another Caesar by the name of Nerva and Nerva then released all of the religious and and what he called serious prisoners of the Roman Empire from their penal colonies so Nerva was the one who gave a release to John and John then was able to travel by boat the 17 miles from Patmos to Ephesus in fact when he wrote the book of Revelation many many Bible scholars think that when he got to chapter 21 when he said and I saw a new heaven and a new earth coming down from God out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband and there was no more sea and many biblical scholars said that every day when he went back to his cave on the Isle of Patmos he could look west and he could see the Asia Minor shore he could see the city of Kedah she which is on the coast and just up 14 miles from the city of Kedah she is the city of Ephesus and he could actually look on a clear day and see the coastline of Asia Minor and look up into the hills and he could see the city where he was the pastor of the church in Ephesus and so many people many scholars think that when he was writing the book of Revelation in that 21st chapter you know C was in the first century and centuries prior to mass transit C was the great separator C separated all of us from everything and unless you had a really good boat it didn't matter where you were you really couldn't go very far until you got to some water and you either had to have a boat or you had to be a really great swimmer and so the C is what separated us so anytime you see the word C it simply means separation and so John said and I saw a new heaven new earth coming down and there was no more separation so in heaven there will be no more separation we will all be there together forever and ever and John said there's no more C so John on the Isle of Pappas saw his place where he was a pastor and he was looking across the sea and he was looking at his church up in the hills in Asia Minor alright this is an interesting city in fact it dates all the way back probably to BC 1200 so when you go back to BC 1200 you've got to remember you're going back beyond David and you're going back beyond Solomon and you're going back beyond the conquest of Canaan when you go to 1200 BC because David was in was in was in 10 and the conquest of Canaan was in 8 and then came up 12 so this city was nearly as old as all that was happening in the in the Crescent land where solid where Saul and David and Israel was beginning to be a kingdom David was in in in a thousand Saul was at about 900 David and David was in a thousand Solomon picked up somewhere around the latter part of 900 and then we began moving toward one where the kingdom of Israel began to become a nation a great a great nation under Solomon and those are the periods of time but Ephesus was an old city it was an old city that had a lot of beauty in it Ephesus was a beautiful city of art in fact these people most of them are artisans they did all kinds of beautiful art in fact one of the problems in the book of Ephesus is going to be that very fact there was a man in the city of Ephesus whose name was Demetrius and Demetrius was a silversmith and he was a great artisan fashioning beautiful figurines of the goddess Artemis and the goddess Artemis was the goddess of Ephesus now the goddess Artemis basically was a goddess of hunting and if you go back in history and you look at some of the pictures of Artemis you will always see her with a bow and arrow she's always hunting and always around her will be all kinds of animals that can be hunted with a bow and so basically when you see her and you see what she's doing you understand that she was the goddess of hunting now the area around where Ephesus is located is between two hills and right down through the middle of the hills runs a river and the river is the river Kayster C-A-Y-S-T-E-R the river Kayster that comes down from the northern part of Asia Minor runs down by the city of Ephesus doesn't go through the city of Ephesus but by the city of Ephesus on either side of these two hills and the city of Ephesus this beautiful city was built in the middle of these two hills just the other side of the Kayster River now to show you how wonderfully capable these people were of doing all kinds of things between Ephesus and the Aegean Sea is 14 miles of solid rock in fact as you come up from Kshatosi where you come into port going to the city of Ephesus when you visit there from there it's all mountainous all the way up about eight to twelve hundred feet going up to the city of Ephesus and it's all rock it's all mountain in fact a lot of people are not aware of the fact that there are more mountains in Turkey than there are in Switzerland and there are more mountain peaks in Turkey than there are and there are more peaks in Greece than there are in Switzerland so there are a lot of mountains other places in Switzerland some may not be as all but there are more now there just have to be a lot of mountains up there and what these people did without any kind of mechanism they dug a deep water river they took the Kayster River going down to the Aegean Sea and they digged a deep water river so that every ship of the Roman Empire or of any Empire during the beginning of the city could make its way all the way from the coast up the river to a big turn basin right at the base of the mountains there at the city of Ephesus and that big turn basin was where the ships would come they would unload they would turn go back down the Kayster and back down into the Aegean Sea now you think about that you think about building a channel upwards to nearly 14 miles through solid rock with no dynamite no mechanism just shovels and picks and axes and cracking stone and sledgehammers and they built that particular passage and when the Apostle Paul was there preaching in the city of Ephesus they said that the largest Roman galleon could come up from the Aegean Sea all the way to the city of Ephesus make a great turn in the basin unload all of its good whether it be military or whether it be domestic they had all kinds of storage areas there by the turn basin and they could turn the ship around in that turn basin set it down the Kayster River and back down to the Aegean Sea they were magnificent people they were not only artists and silversmiths Demetrius would make all kinds of figurines they did all kinds of regular art beautiful paintings not only that they built a temple there and the temple was called in the Greek tongue the temple of Artemis A-R-T-I-M-I-A-R-T-E-M-I-S Artemis but when the Romans took over as they did everywhere they changed the name from Greek to Italian or to Roman to Roman words and they changed it to the temple of Diana so you all probably know that temple better by Diana than you do by Artemis because Artemis went away in about the 300 BC when the Romans took over and if they changed it from the temple of Artemis to the temple of Diana still the same temple still the same goddess just a different name and they called her the they called her the temple of Diana that temple was so beautiful it was so gorgeous that it was named as one of the seven wonders of the world during the period of time when we had the seven wonders of the world and I'm not going to give you a test today I'm not going to ask you if you can name the seven wonders of the world if you can then you know that the lighthouse in Alexander is one of them you also know that the temple of Diana is one of them you also know that the hanging gardens of Babylon is one of them you also know that the Egyptian pyramids is one of them I'm not going to tell you the rest of them but they were the seven beautiful they will call the seven wonders of the world and the temple of Diana was a seven wonder of the world it burned just before Alexander the Great began to conquer the world in fact Alexander was conquering part of the world when the temple of Artemis burned and Alexander enjoyed art so very much that he offered and there are documents in history that show where he offered the people in Ephesus all the money they needed to rebuild the temple just as it was and they refused they refused the money and they said to Alexander the Great the Macedonian they said we will build the temple for our goddess in our time and they rebuild the temple just as it was and it was a magnificent temple wish I could say it was a wonderful temple it was not just like every other temple of idolatry the temple was very licentious very vulgar and the worship there ladies and gentlemen was horrible and so it was one of those idolatrous temples now the city of Ephesus had magnificent buildings there were many many temples in fact there was a temple just about to every Caesar who had been on the floor up to that point there was a temple to Domitian there was a temple to Augustine there was there were temples everybody in in Ephesus and it was a beautiful beautiful city and when the Romans took it over they made it even more beautiful because they put all of their Romanism into it they started building gymnasiums they started building workout areas they had a hippodrome here that would at one time have the Olympic Games there from Greece they had a temple they had a theater there that would seat a hundred and twenty five thousand people on the hillside and as you came up into the turnbase and coming up the case the river the first thing that you saw when you came up to the turnbasing was this huge huge beautiful theater it was for the arts they did drama and comedy they had all kinds of musical situations there anytime there was a big program that happened in Ephesus and they had them on regular occasions throughout the known world this theater would have over a hundred twenty five thousand people there that would come to the show it was a beautiful beautiful place the whole city was beautiful they built the second largest library in the world and the library was just across from the theater and the library was a three-story building that went almost five football fields back with two basements and the library had all the wonderful documents of the entire ancient world in it and one other that was up the road in Asia Minor which was the largest library in the world and so there were beautiful things in Ephesus it was a gorgeous city even when the Apostle Paul was there it was a gorgeous city and so what happened was Ephesus became the place where the gospel appeared all of a sudden in fact as you we look into the study of the book of Ephesians we almost come to the place where we say the same thing about the city of Ephesus that we say about the city of Rome and the church in Ephesus and the church in Rome now to be sure the Apostle Paul did personally with his group of pastors and leaders they did plant a number of churches they planted the church at Philippi you remember when he was put in prison in Philippi and he and Silas were singing at midnight and God opened the prison and let him out and you remember that the first woman convert of Europe was saved in the city of Philippi and you remember she was a seller of purple and her name was Lydia and Lydia was the first convert on the European continent now Philippi is in Europe it's in Greece and what happened was Paul and Silas and Timothy and Dr. Luke had come over from Asia Minor across a little bay and made their way to the northern edge of Europe which would be the northern edge of Macedonia of Greece Philippi the Philippian Plains and there in the city of Philippi Paul was preaching and they went down to the riverbed on the Sabbath day because they knew that if there were any Jews in Philippi on the Sabbath day they would be at the river because they had every Jew had to have running water to worship and they could not worship without running water either had to carry it to them or they had to have it there and they went down to the riverbed looking for Jews because the city of Philippi was a Roman city in fact we are told that the city of Philippi was a microcosm of the macrocosm of Rome and sometime when we have time I'll tell you why there was a great battle up there and most of the people who lived in the city of Philippi were generals and colonels and majors and commanders of the Roman Empire who had retired after the Battle of the Plains of Philippi and it was a big big Roman colony there was no synagogue there the closest synagogue was down at Thessalonica around the corner from Philippi and so Paul had no synagogue in which to preach so he knew if there are any Jews in the city on the Sabbath day guess where they're going to be they're going to be down by the riverside oh y'all know a song about that what you gonna lay down by the riverside your burden gonna lay down my burden down by the that's what Lydia did folks Lydia laid down her burden down by the riverside she got saved down by the riverside she was a Jewish Gentile she was Jewish but she was Gentile so are purple marvelous businesswoman expensively wealthy businesswoman one of Paul's greatest contributors later on and so that was Philippi and so these cities were well known during this particular time and although Paul planted churches like in Philippi and in Colossae and in Corinth he did not plant the church in Rome from our study of the book of Romans who planted the church in Rome it's not a person it's a group of people the converts from the day of Pentecost the Roman converts who were in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and they were saved and if you go back and look at the first and second chapter of the book of Acts and you see the names of the people who were saved it says there were Parthians and there were this and that and there were Romans a lot of Romans were there and they were saved on the day of Pentecost and these Romans went back to Rome and they planted a church and Paul was the recipient of a marvelous church that had been planted by other people although he planted a lot of churches he didn't plant Rome he did not plant Ephesus either Paul did not put the church in Ephesus when Paul came to Ephesus there was already a church there and they think it too was a church formed from people who were in the city of Jerusalem from the area which we know as Asia minor having come down to the Fertile Crescent and in the city now you remember many many of these people were Jewish converts many of them were God-fearers you remember Cornelius the Roman centurion who was a God-fearer he wanted to be a Jew he wanted God and the only way he knew he could get God was to become a Jew and the only thing he knew what would happen to him if he became a Jew was he had to give up his Roman centurionism and he didn't want to do either the other but he still wanted to be a Christian and so Cornelius wanting to be a God-fearer wanting to have eternal God as his God kept asking God how can I get you without getting them namely the Jews and all of a sudden one day on his house Peter knocked said hey Cornelius God sent me up here to talk with you and he sent me up here because he showed me a great big sheet and in that big sheet there were all kinds of animals including animals that I don't eat and God told me to get up and kill some of those animals that I don't eat and eat them and I said to God God I'm not going to kill those that go back and read the story in the book of Acts and Peter said I'm not going to eat that stuff it's not clean remember and God said Peter if I call something clean who are you to call it unclean get up Peter kill and eat not that time somebody came and said brother Peter there's a man up here whose name is Cornelius he's a Roman centurion he's a God-fearer he wants to talk to you he's not clean he's a Gentile but he wants to talk to you and Peter was all ready to go see Cornelius in God good doesn't God work things out well so many many people think that there was a thriving church here in the city of Ephesus when Paul got here he came from Corinth you know he spent about 18 to 18 20 months in Corinth and after he left Corinth he came over to Ephesus and Ephesus was the church after Corinth now I want to take your mind for just a little bitty stroll because I want you to understand something Paul and Silas first Paul and Barnabas and and and young John Mark and then Paul and Silas and Timothy and dr. Luke these were the first missionaries that that form missionary endeavors and during Paul's life during his ministry Paul led for missionary adventures the first missionary trip left from Antioch and went up to Galatia and that was the first missionary it went to Iconium Lystra and Derby three cities in a Galatia which by the way was the little nation just north of Asia Minor in fact if you go up through Lebanon you have to cross through a mountain range that is called a mountain range of Asia Minor and you go straight on up and you get into the little nation of Galatia and the major cities were Iconium Lystra Lystra Derby Lystra Derby was like Minneapolis St. Paul Dallas Fort Worth it was a twin city and they were listed together Iconium Lystra Derby Lystra Derby always came together Iconium Lystra Derby Timothy was from Lystra Timothy was a big kid when Paul and Barnabas and John Mark went to Galatia and they met him while they were on the first missionary journey and the first missionary journey was there and that was in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts if you want to read about the first missionary chapter about first missionary journey went to Galatia then they came back and they came to Jerusalem for a big council meeting called the council meeting in Jerusalem with James the Lord's half-brother who was pastor of the church in Jerusalem and you remember they had a big council meeting of all of the Apostles and Paul and Barnabas and John Mark and they all met and Paul was trying to convince them that the gospel was now going to the Gentiles and that he had become the Apostle to the Gentiles whereas Peter identified him as himself as the Apostle to the Jews Paul's now identified and in that council meeting the council agreed that the people who were being saved would be identified as Christian brothers and sisters although they were Gentile and although James was Jewish and although the whole council was Apostle Jews they all agreed that everybody being saved by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith through the blood plus nothing were also going to be identified as Christian brothers and they identified them and the council of Jerusalem sent Paul and Barnabas again on a second missionary journey and the second missionary journey was the first fight in the church between Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Barnabas split company because of John Mark you remember on the first missionary journey John Mark kicked out on the island and came back home he left the missionary party and Paul told Barnabas I'm not taking that kid with me again and Barnabas said he's my nephew and if you don't take him I'm not going and Paul said good then you're not going either and Paul met another wonderful Christian man by the name of Sylvanius whom we later called Silas and Paul and Silas made the second missionary journey and Barnabas and John Mark made another missionary team and now in the midst of a split we had a growth isn't it wonderful how when Baptists get mad at each other and have a split they grow it's okay if God builds another church and grows another church praise God amen the split was good no it's not ever good but it did work out in fact I think the scripture says something about all things work together for good I don't think it says some things work together for good do you I think it says all things so all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and even though you may not like it most of the time when something happens in the church that there's an uproar and a church splits or something goes awry all of a sudden two magnificent congregations arise that's why we have many many churches around and that's why all of us can find a church that we think we like now the only problem with that is the first time you become a member of that church you have just adulterated that church I mean you brought yourself into it and so we're going to work we'll work with all of our hickeys and all of our warts and we'll just have to work together so there was a church here now it was a church that attached itself to the Apostle Paul later on would be infused by his ministry for three years in the city of Ephesus and will be later on infused by the ministry of a great evangelist by the name of Apollos who came to Ephesus and were there with Priscilla and Aquila for a while and later on by a young man whose name was Timothy that Paul said to stay at the church Paul tells Timothy in the second book of Timothy if you read the second book of Timothy he says Timothy I want you to stay in the city of Ephesus until I tell you to leave and when I tell you to leave and I want you to come to Rome and I want you to bring my books I want you to bring my scrolls go read the second book of Timothy and then also there was another great preacher who actually Paul and he became the two greatest preachers in the city of Ephesus and his name was the Apostle John and so those are your pastors Paul became pastor of a church that was there already organized now he infused the gospel later on these other preachers came by later on in the 95s the Apostle John was the pastor at the city of Ephesus and he was the pastor of the church in Ephesus now there's something interesting about what John did now Paul did all kinds of things and I'll get back to Paul in just a moment because I come out of this with him when John was there he brought with him a beautiful beautiful woman no it wasn't his wife it was his adopted mother do you remember the book of John at the cross when Jesus was dying and he looked down and he saw John and his mother Mary do you remember what he said to John said John Mary behold your son and then he said to John John behold your mother and from that day on the scripture says John took Mary into his house as his very own adopted mother and we know from history that Mary lived with John in the city of Ephesus and that after his imprisonment on the Isle of Patmos in 97 when he was released and was sent back to the city of Ephesus Mary was there with him in fact ladies and gentlemen there are two ruins of beautiful cathedrals in the city of Ephesus one of the cathedrals is to Mary the mother of Christ and the other cathedral is to St. Peter and so there is a I mean to St. John St. John's Basilica and the Cathedral of St. Mary and so in the city you have a cathedral that identifies the fact that both of these people were in the city of Ephesus for a while so John brought Mary his adopted mother with him to the city of Ephesus where she died where John eventually died sometime around a hundred now kind of interesting Nerva in 97 was the one who released John and we hear and we have known that John died about a hundred so after John's release from Patmos in 97 it's apparent that he lived about three maybe four years more before he died we know that he died in a hundred and so John evidently died as far as we know and we don't know all things John was the only of the apostles who did not die a a serious ugly death however there are some documents that say he was crucified but we don't have that kind of information so we can't say he did where we just come to the fact that he probably died a natural death so John was very prominent in the city of Ephesus Paul was very prominent now when Paul was there kind of interesting they had a symbol and it was a symbol of a fish look like a fish and all over the city of Ephesus these things were being seen drawn in the concrete are drawn into a wall the symbol of the fish now in Greek the name for fish is Ikthus I-K-T-H-U-S it became the symbol of the Christian faith watch Jesus Christus Sabatoth Weos Savion Ikthus I-K-T-H-U-S Ikthus Weos Son Sabatoth Savior Lord Jesus Christ the Lord the fish became the symbol of the Christian faith however in the city of Ephesus it also became a death symbol for the Christian faith many people congregating around one of these symbols would be arrested by some of the Ephesian rulers and they would be killed because of their faith and so they had to leave the picture of the fish all of a sudden a pentagram appeared a big circle with a star in it and that pentagram started appearing on the walls and on the concrete I have put water on many pieces of concrete and watch that pentagram come up out of the concrete those pentagrams were everywhere and because it happened to have been a symbol of evil very few people paid any attention to it but what they didn't understand was it was a new symbol of the fish in a different form Ikthus right down the middle of the pentagram was the I. Ik, K on the side of the pentagram coming this way was the I and the K. Theos the circle with the middle in it so now you have one down a K here a circle and a middle through the and a line through the middle for Theos which means God now beginning on this side and going like this through the middle and coming to this side and coming around here through the middle you get an S. Jesus, Christus, Theos, Sabathoth and finally the last one on the Ikthus you get the final S of the Ikthus. So in the circle were all of the parts of the fish and they started using the circle as a gathering point no longer using the picture of the fish but now using what looked to be a very evil wicked symbol as a symbol of gathering the Christians in Ephesus together for the name of Christ. I wish I had a board I could show you a picture of the Ikthus and all of it fits into the pentagram and they're all over the city of Ephesus. Okay finally we come to the writing of the epistle. When did Paul write this epistle and where was he? Okay the first missionary journey he was in Europe. The first missionary journey he was in Galatia. The second missionary journey he was in Europe. In Europe he was in Greece and he was in Ephesus, I mean he was in Corinth, he was in Athens and he was in Ephesus. The third missionary journey was a journey to Rome and the third missionary journey to Rome was the prison journey and Paul was sent to Rome on a prison galleon and the third missionary journey, no I'm sorry, third missionary journey came out of Ephesus and came back to Jerusalem where Paul brought the offering to the poor saints in the church in Jerusalem and he gave it to them and he was arrested 18 months on the coast in the palace of Herod down on the coast at Varantima, at the big city where Herod had built his palaces at the city of Varantima, the seaside city and then he was sent to Rome on the fourth missionary journey. He went to Rome and the fourth missionary journey became his prison journey. Now not the dungeon, this time Paul was in house arrest in the city of Rome and he was put in house arrest and every day 24-7 he had a Roman soldier shackled to his head and these Roman soldiers were there for three different periods of the day and guess what happened? All of them were getting saved and all of them were getting brought into the faith and many of them became ministers of the gospel to such an extent that later on during the fourth missionary journey when Paul was a prisoner in Rome in house arrest the scripture writes in the book of Rome and the gospel has come into the household of Caesar. How did it get into the household of Caesar? Well all of these Roman soldiers were billeted, they were Caesar's Antonio soldiers so they were part of Caesar's household and the gospel was coming into the household of Caesar in the city of Rome. The four people needed to hear from Paul. He had established the church at Ephesus, he'd been there three years and he needed to write to them. Now let me share something with you that's kind of interesting about the book of Ephesus. In the book of Romans Paul says howdy to a whole chapter of people. You remember the last message Brother Jimmy led us in studying where Paul was saying hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, okay. If you go and look at the book of Corinth, Corinthians, Paul says howdy, howdy in the book of Corinthians to all those people. If you go and look at the book of Galatians toward the end Paul says howdy, howdy to all those people. You go to the book of Ephesians there is no howdy, howdy. In the book of Ephesians Paul doesn't say hello to anybody. What he does is probably the most unusually beautiful putting together a scriptural text of the omniscience and the majesty of eternal God and our relationship to him. Now folks you are getting ready to study a little book of six chapters that has the most beautiful omniscience pictures of you and me and eternal God. Hang on it's coming. Paul didn't say howdy to anybody he said here's what you need to know and what he wrote them was pure doctrine. You're going to enjoy chapter 1, 2, 3 because in chapter 1, 2, 3 the Apostle Paul says what my good friend Watchamnee has written in this little commentary and in chapter 1, 2, and 3 which Brother Jimmy will begin next Sunday the Apostle Paul starts talking about we who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ saved by his eternal grace made a partaker of faith by him joint heirs with Jesus Christ our blessed Lord we are going to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus and the first three chapters are going to tell us how we are going to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Have you noticed in the book of Revelation that every time you see the saints identified they're all sitting down? Have you ever noticed they're not standing? Oh yeah there's a time when 144,000 stood out in front of him they were not the saints they were not the redeemed of the rapture they were not us they were saved during the tribulation they did wear white robes that were dipped in blood but they were not raptured they were not raptured saints they were not brought up from the rapturism of all who were kept in perfect peace as the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews says under the throne of God were the saints of God who came up and you will find out that Jesus our beloved brother and God our eternal sovereign wants us to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ so therefore you and I are going to sit only royalty sits you got it that's what the first three chapters talks about you and I in the first three chapters are going to find out how really royal I mean you are going to come off the top of your head you haven't read the book of Ephesians oh you've read it but you haven't read you haven't read the book of Ephesians with the heart to see what God has in store for them who love him you just don't know what's here little bitty book like this when you sit down in heavenly places with Christ Jesus oh and you don't have to die to do it may I share a phenomenon with you where you sit today you are sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus right here you do it every day you don't have to wait to die if God dwells in you through the power of his spirit if the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you by the preciousness of his grace if the Holy Spirit has infilled you aren't you sitting in heavenly places right now come on understand you're sitting there now he's going to tell you what it's going to be like when we get to heaven chapters 1 2 & 3 talk about sit chapter 4 talks about 4 & 5 talks about walk see 1 2 & 3 is theological 4 5 & 6 are practical if he's going to tell you how to sit in heavenly places that he also has to tell you how to walk in this world he's going to give you four walks I beseech you brother that you walk worthy of your calling he's not talking to a person here he's talking to a church he's not talking to Timothy he's not talking to John Mark he's not talking to Peter he's talking to a church and he's saying in verse 4 chapter 1 you walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called and if you haven't been called you are lost as a goose I'm sorry but you have been called into Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit amen therefore he starts off by saying practically walk worthy of your calling number two he says walk in love learn how to walk in love and then he says walk in light wherever you go be sure there is no darkness there be sure the light of God is all around you walking walk a car walk in love walking and then finally he says and walk circumspectly walk very very carefully I heard a pastor in in Boston who said when he was growing up he lived in a roll house in Chicago and he said at the back of the roll house were little yards that we had that we had a little bit of green space but we had a big fence and he said we had an old tomcat that every night just as dark that tomcat would start walking across the top of that fence coming all the way down across the back of those roll houses and he just sang to the top of his voice he said my daddy threw everything in the world at that camp said he threw rocks he threw bottles he threw cans he threw he even raked him off one night with a rake he tried to hit him off with a baseball bat he could not stop that cat so I came home he said one day from school and daddy was in the backyard with a concrete mixer and he said he was putting a layer of concrete on top of our part of the fence and he said into that layer of concrete he put broken bottles and jagged cans and all kinds of nails he put every kind of obstruction that you can think of on the top of that fence and he said Johnny I'm gonna sit here tonight watch that cat he said sure enough when the Sun went down here came the cat and said he walked to the fence just singing to the top of his voice said he never stopped singing he just looked and he saw that can and he put his front paw right down in the middle of that can and he brought his back paw right down in the middle of a bottle then he put his other paw between three nails and a spike then he put his other paw inside of her jagged can and he said we watched that cat walk across that fence circumspectly that ladies and gentlemen is walking circumspectly and Paul says in chapter four and five walk according to your call walk in love walk in light walk circumspectly then in chapter six he says stand stand therefore having your loins turned about with truth taking on the breastplate of righteousness taking the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God the helmet of salvation the breastplate of righteousness stand the wiles of the devil so stand that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil sit walk stand that ladies and gentlemen is the marvelous book of Ephesians watchman me was a Chinese author evangelist pastor he was killed by the Communist Party he was martyred but before he was martyred he preached the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ to the people of China and history the church history tells us that watch him me was probably responsible for more converts on the China continent than any other preacher who ever preached including Lottie Moon and that's saying something folks and so here we have sit walk stand that's where Brother Jimmy will start next week helping us come to understand that we sit right now and in the future in heavenly places with Christ Jesus have you ever thought and I close that where you sit your mind because of its wonderful involvement with the preciousness of the Holy Spirit of God can take you immediately into the presence of the Holy of Holies of God in the heavenly you don't have to wait you're already there wake up you're already sitting in heavenly places your mind can you imagine when we get to heaven with all of the wonder of the universe that in just we can be anywhere in the universe anywhere with God see any part of it see the black hole see the pink hole see the yellow hole if there's one out there just and just like our translation there your activity there will be the same you want to see the other side of the universe you there you want to see God you're there you want to talk to the Lord Jesus Christ you're there you want to see how the filling of the Holy Spirit working you there you don't have to wait what I'm trying to tell you folks there is no way that's what's so interesting and prayer does not have to be eternal to be immortal some people think they can pray because I can pray the thing down hey prayer can be thank God I appreciate it he said I love that better that day you did the other day that war me out the prayer does not have to be eternal to be immortal prayer can be this thank you Lord he got it he heard it he appreciated he loves you he wants you to be happy he wants you to have eternal life he wants you to be here today just like you be there have you ever really listen to the Lord's prayer I mean have you ever really listen to what our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done that's not future that's present in other words God wants his will to be being done in us on earth as it is being done in his kingdom I cannot I cannot express to you more than it's there you and I are one breath from there you do understand that do you not we're there sweet sweet little earnest day I was talking to Sheila and Sheila said brother guys a hospice lady called us and said I think you better come I don't think my was gonna be here long and she said we walked into the room and Ernestine looked up at us she was gone just look up eyes closed there to be absent from the body is there do you see what we're trying to say and that's what this little book the book of Ephesians and that's why Paul didn't waste his time saying howdy he wanted us to understand we sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus we walk in the spirit of love and we stand in the might of eternal God heaven forbid walk stand how better can it get and then father God we just try to put so much stuff on it the Lord we try to make it so difficult as brother Jimmy says so often any rocket science father we understand that we're with you every moment of every day that you're here you're in our presence you're walking up down these aisles you're hearing what we think you're knowing what we say you're loving us you're telling us how much you love us you're here in our presence we're in your presence we are walking together today in heavenly places in Christ Jesus with you thank you Lord for being here thank you for being with us everywhere you're omniscient you're omnipresent you're all powerful you're all loving you are all help us God to get get a hold of it get it and when we get it let us simply say thank you Lord Jesus for redemption thank you God the Father for life eternal thank you Holy Spirit for being infused with the power and the love of Jesus Christ is our prayer in the name of him who said come unto me and I will show you great and mighty things but you don't even understand Jesus Christ the Lord amen have a great week see you next Sunday
