Ephesians 1, verses 1 and 2, these are God's words. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word, you get the theme of the book of Ephesians just from the greeting in verses one and two that It is in Christ that God has given all that he is for all that we need him to be. You have this trifecta of Jesus Christ being the one who sent Paul, that God's will was to give his word and his ministry, his gospel by his son. So his son is the sender of the apostle Paul. Jesus is the prophet capital P now and the gospel announces to us a holiness and faith Or a holiness through faith in Christ Jesus in the second place and then the third place that this union with Christ that that we have and this holiness that we have through union with him is sustained by the Lord Jesus Christ, that in order for us to respond well to the gospel, to continue in faith and increase in faith, we do so by God's grace and peace. which comes to us in fatherly love in his Son. So grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and indeed the whole letter. is going to be on this wonderful theme. In chapter one, all about the unfolding of God's eternally loving and powerful plan, His eternal plan to save His elect unto His glory in Christ. And then in the first half of chapter two, justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The second half of chapter two, how believers are reconciled, not only to God, but to one another again in Christ. Chapter three, how God gathers the reconciled into one church, so gathers them to himself, reconciling those who have been reconciled to himself are gathered into one church, and they're being reconciled to one another, means that they are gathered together in one church in Christ Jesus and accomplished by Christ Jesus. And then chapter four, that it is Jesus who is the one who ascended on high and gave gifts among men for the giving of his word, for the equipping of the saints, for their work of ministry to one another. And then the end of chapter four into the beginning of chapter five, that this work that Jesus does by his word transforms the character of believers, transforms what we are like. And in the end of chapter four, beginning of chapter five, it describes this transformation as our being conformed to Christ or being made like him, made like he is, like unto him. And then from the, just after the beginning of chapter five to the end of the letter, about how. being made God's children in Christ, like his only beloved Son, who has shown what the character of God is like and is loving us and forgiving us and dying for us, that brings us into God's side and his Christ's side of this great war between darkness and light. a war that takes place, especially in our marriages and our parenting, our relationships between parents and children, and how we do our work, and for which we need to be armed with God's own armor in Christ. And so the whole letter is all about how God gives all that he is in Christ for all that we need him to be in Christ. I hope that helps us see that. The greeting is not merely a formality at the beginning of the letter, but is preparing us to see the theology of the whole letter. That Paul's apostleship is by the will of God and therefore our salvation and his apostolic ministry to us and The existence of the book of Ephesians and God's using it to help you learn and grow. This is what God has willed, that our being set apart in the church as saints and growing in godliness to the saints who are in Ephesus is especially in Christ Jesus. Faithfulness is in Christ Jesus and faith is in Christ Jesus. and that both the grace by which we wage holy war in our lives, grace to you, and the peace that we have, which encourages us and affirms that we are on the right side of the war, that we are allies of God, now rather than his enemies, is grace to you and peace. that comes from God the Father especially, comes from him in and through his son, so it's from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, verse two says. So the heart of the letter, the heart of the Christian life, the heart of God's plan for glorifying himself as the savior of sinners, is his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for reconciling us to you in Christ. We pray that we may conduct ourselves as those who belong to you and also love and be at peace with and reconcile to one another since you have brought us both near through him And we pray that you would fulfill your work in the church, gathering in all of your saints, and that you would bless especially the ministry of the word in your churches and in our congregation. as that which Christ has produced so that we might all minister by his grace and grow up into him who is the head. Make us to be kind and tender-hearted and loving, walking in love like Christ who offered himself up to you as a sweet aroma, that we might do the same. grant that we would perceive that darkness hates the light and that the nation's rage and kings and peoples do plot in vain against you and your Christ, but make us to rejoice to be his, to be light in the world, to be his subjects who have kissed the sun and who trust in him, and make us to arm ourselves for all of the practical parts of life by the means of your grace to arm ourselves with Christ himself. So glorify your son, our Lord Jesus, in the world, in your church especially. And even more particularly, we ask in this family's life and in each of our own hearts and lives individually. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.