(I would love to hear your thoughts regarding Ephesians and/or The Body of Christ)

I thought it might be helpful to briefly go over where we have been the last couple of weeks:
- At the start of October, we read about the fall of humanity in Gen. 3 and we were asked how our brokenness impacts life together.
- The following week we read Ex. 15-17. The Israelites were just led through the Red Sea out of Egypt and they were starting their journey of 40 years in the desert. We were asked how this experience would impact our reliance on God and on each other.
- Last week we read Matt. 12: 46-50, where Jesus was being called away by his mother and he responds with “Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” He redefines family. We were asked to think about our definition of family.
- All of these passages and the passage we will read today are about faith together, being church together, a family, not as individuals. As I read these passages, I was reminded of how hard this road is. We not only have to face our own brokenness, but each other’s brokenness. We will often find that we are wandering. But this is all the more reason He calls us to be family, to be the body of Christ.

We will be reading from Ephesians 1 today. I think it’s always important to have a little background about the book that we are reading in order to put it in the appropriate context.
- Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians while he was on house arrest.
- Intended to be circulated among the churches.
- Ephesus was one of the 5 major cities in the Roman Empire.
- It was the commercial, political, and religious center for all of Asia Minor.
- Was it all that different from Portland and the struggles we face here?
- Paul greets them as the faithful church, and later they are rebuked in Revelations for forgetting their first love.
- In chapter 1 Paul writes about God’s purpose for the church: to be unified under Christ. In the rest of the book he talks about how to do this.

Read passage: Ephesians 1

What stood out to me when I read this passage was “He chose us” & “He adopted us into His family”. These phrases have special meaning to me through my own personal story and I believe because of my experiences I’m able to understand this one small piece of God.

When I was 6 months old, my mom met a man that fell in love with us. He used to tell me that he fell in love with me before he fell in love with my mom. They were married when I was 2 years old. When I was 6 years old, he officially adopted me. He didn’t have to be my dad. He didn’t have to treat me like his daughter. He took so much pride in me and couldn’t get enough of how much we were alike. He beamed whenever someone assumed I was his biological daughter. I never once felt like I was anything other then his. His family became my family and his history was my history. I think our bond was so close, because I always knew that he had chosen me.

Just a few months ago I saw the adoption papers for the first time. I found them on accident. It felt a little weird seeing the proof of his choice, but really good at the same time… and then I saw the proof of not being chosen. My biological dad signed away his right to be my father. This stung a bit. Even though it was so long ago and circumstances are totally different, it still hurt. Not being chosen seems to be the more common story.

I didn’t deserve to be chosen by my dad. This may seem irrational, but sometimes my good fortune can make me angry. It makes me angry when I think of my niece. There were two men in her life who had the good fortune to choose her and neither of them did. That makes me angry, because I, of course, feel she does deserve it. The only thing that keeps me sane is my belief in a God who chose us, who loves us, who showers us with goodness, who takes great pleasure in us, who will be a far better father then my niece will ever know. He has adopted us into his family, the body of Christ.

The thing about this adoption is that we’re old enough to decide whether we want to be adopted, whether we want to be apart of his family. A family made up of broken people, wandering people, difficult to love people. Nowhere does God give us the illusion that being apart of this family will be easy. In fact, he tells us we have to give up everything, that we have to go all in. We have to choose. We make this choice everyday, when we’re faced with putting ourselves first or putting Christ first. When we make the choice to go all in, we affect the whole family. When we make the choice to put other things before Christ, we affect the whole family.

This is powerful to me, because I know who my family is. And it kills me to know that my actions or lack of action may hurt my family. You are my family. I don’t know if I can express that emphatically enough, how much I truly love you. You are as much family to me as my own personal family. You challenge me to grow in ways I never imagined. Experiencing yours joys and your pains is so rewarding to me. That’s what family means to me.

However, everyday, I have to choose to allow you to be my family. I have to choose to let you into my life and I have to choose to participate in meaningful ways in your life. This isn’t easy for me. It isn’t easy for me to need you, but I do. I screw up all the time. I say the wrong things or am too afraid to say the right thing. I don’t like being vulnerable. I don’t like feeling too busy for my family... Because this is what it’s about. It’s about committing all of ourselves to this thing called the body of Christ. It’s about going all in and totally committing ourselves. When we choose to be apart of God’s family, we are also choosing to commit to the whole body.

C-Group Questions
1. Read Ephesians 1 as a group... ponder together the things that resonated, surprised, or drew your attention in this passage...
2. What does being a part of the body of Christ mean to you?
3. If we are chosen to be apart of the body of Christ, how do we then choose to participate in that body?
Personal Participation Questions
1. Read all of Ephesians this week.
2. What will it take for us to behave like the body of Christ?

Benediction
Ephesians 3
14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.


O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I am thirsty to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory. I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God