Dear BPCWAians, We have come to the end of our Sunday pulpit preaching on the Epistle to the Ephesians. Perhaps we may revisit it again one day, but it is important that we do not leave this epistle without a clear picture of it. If you were asked to summarize the theme of the epistle and its overview, what would you say? How do the individual topics covered by the Apostle Paul come together to meet an overall purpose? Like visiting a beautiful forest, we can get lost in the individual beauties of the trees but miss the overall beauty of the whole forest.

Over all theme.This epistle is often known to be about the Church, which is the body of Christ (1:23). Its contents are built around the pre-eminent and central theme of the revelation of the mystery of the Church, which is the Body of Christ(3:1-13, 5:32).

God’s divine blue print of the Church.Begins from eternity with election and salvation (1:3-23), making Christ the head of the Church (1:22-  23), reconciling all the elect through the covenant of grace into the household of God (2:1-19). God is the Architect that builds this spiritual building with Christ as the chief cornerstone (2:20), and both Jews and Gentiles are the building materials forming the “holy temple in the Lord” for God’s habitation (2:21-22). Do you realise what this means? You and I are elected, saved, and are meant to form His Church! This was the design before time began!

Purpose of the Church. God reveals “the mystery, which from the beginning of the world” (3:9) “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:” (3:10-11). Now you know the intended purpose of the Church which God intended before the beginning of the world – to make known God to man! This is what it means to glorify God – that man may truly know who He is, “unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” The world comes to know the glory of God through His glory in the church. BPCWA, as a local church, serves to fulfil this purpose which our Head ordained for His Universal Church! We must see the relevance of the local church in fulfilling God’s purposes to glorify Himself to all man. The church is not to be a place of entertainment, to please man, or be a social club to cater to man’s social needs. How this should stir us to value, treasure, and fulfil God’s purpose set before the foundation of the world. This also explains why Satan will constantly seek to disrupt the churches and destroy local churches by all means if he can. Israel, the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) failed to glorify God by pointing men to God. Now that we have studied this Epistle in detail and having understood our purpose, BPCWA must not fail.

Purpose of the contents of this epistle. (1) Purpose of election and salvation(Chapters1,2,and3).God elected and saved us into His church. Believers who are “fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (2:21), and are “builded together for an inhabitation of God” (2:22). It is clear that God elected and saved His people to form His household as a covenantal people (2:12, 19). What then is the purpose of the individual’s election and salvation? The answer is repeatedly stated – to the praise of God’s glory (1:6, 12, 14)! Now you understand why the chief end of man is to glorify God. The church is made up of believers. If the chief end of the church is to glorify God, then God’s aim for the elect who make up the church must be to glorify Him! Are we able to fulfil this glorious purpose? The answer is yes, because we can be “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (3:16), and God is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (3:20). What a great privilege and promise to us. What love to us. May we “be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (3:18-19) and love our Saviour by fulfilling our purpose till we die. Tying it back to the theme of the epistle, we must know then that our salvation is not merely for our individual good, but that each of us may, having been saved, be part of His church (chapter 2) to be a holy people for Christ our Lord. This must be your focus in this life in the local church after salvation. The local church can only be holy if those who make up the church are holy. The point is – your life affects the church.

God willing, next week we will continue to see the theme of the church in the purpose of gifts, the purpose of living a holy life and having a godly family. May this understanding transform our view our purpose in BPCWA.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor