Yesterday, was the first of our sermon series on St Pauls letter to the
Christians at Ephesus – a Roman town which is now in Turkey. This letter provides
important teaching for Christians as, in the words of the late Revd Dr John
Stott: “(Ephesians) sets forth God’s
eternal purpose to create, through Jesus Christ, a new society which stands out
in bright relief against the sombre background of the old world. For God’s new
society is characterised by life in place of death, by unity and reconciliation
in place of division and alienation, by the wholesome standards of
righteousness in place of the corruption of wickedness, by love and peace in
place of hatred and strife and by unremitting conflict with evil in place of a
flabby compromise with it.”
The first sermon in the series, entitled “Praise, Thanksgiving and
Prayer” was preached by one of our Lay Readers, Colin Chettle. Using a glass
for illustration, which we may describe as either “half full” or “half empty,”
he showed how with all the benefits that Christ gives us, we should be
considering how wonderfully full it is.
Other sermons in the series will be:
Sunday 26th January Made alive in Christ Ephesians 2
Sunday 2nd February
Paul’s Prayer Ephesians 3
Sunday 9th February
The Body of Christ Ephesians 4.1-16
Sunday 16th February
Instructions for Christian Living Ephesians 5
Sunday 23rd February
The Armour of God Ephesians 6
Do come and join us as we consider the challenges that there are for the new
Society, the Church, to be what it is meant to be.
