Living Water Community Church Living Water Community Church

We began our verse by verse study of Ephesians. We began by looking at how the church in Ephesus is addressed by the Lord in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. What we see in Revelation gives us a little window into the church in Ephesus. Honestly, the church in Ephesus sounds like a pretty solid church theologically. As a matter of fact based solely on how the church here is described most churches today would love to be described like they are. Yet the truly shocking thing about Ephesus is how in spite of their refuting of false teachers and their zeal for God’s word they are reprimanded for losing their first love. If this is the core problem in the church in Ephesus then we might have a really good clue about what God is doing through Paul here as he pens this letter to the Ephesian Christians and really all Christians throughout all time. This letter opens with a magnificent heart stirring exultation of God. If the church is struggling with a heart felt love for God then this is certainly a call to enflame the heart with passion for God. 

We worked through an overview of the book of Ephesians. We laid out the people and context of the area it was written to. We explored the ideas of the book in a broad overview. And we looked at the unique aspects of the letter. How Paul wrote in a general sense and this makes the letter very relevant for Christians of all times and ages. It was probably written this way with the idea it would be circulated among the churches. 

We are going to consider Mary and how her role as the one chosen to bear Jesus points us to His greatness. In the Biblical picture we are betrothed to Jesus. That means the commitment to marriage has been made and we are for all intents and purposes married but not yet united. This is part of the reason scripture speaks with anticipation of the great marriage supper of the Lamb. Jesus has committed Himself to His bride and has paid the price for her with His own shed blood. This is a serious commitment of God to His people. In addition this is why a relationship with God is a serious matter and not a light and casual thing. This is the type of relationship Mary had entered into with Joseph. Mary is not chosen because she was a remarkable person. Mary is a remarkable person because she is chosen. God made Mary to be the person He needed her to be. Mary was chosen because she was the right woman betrothed to the right man at the moment in time in which God planned to bring Jesus into the world. This is not to say Mary was not a God honoring woman. Her life and actions demonstrate a profound trust in God. But we must remember Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior just like you and I. 

In particular the highlighted person was Bathsheba. But in this instance she is not mentioned by name. She is referred to as the wife of Uriah. She is the mother of Solomon by David. What this does for us as readers is it highlights David as a sinful man. David is and was almost always thought of as the greatest king of Israel. As we looked at last time in Jeremiah 30 the people are prophesied to one day serve the Lord their God and David their king. This points out how highly the people thought of David. Because this verse is clearly the referencing the future king who is descended from David. What Matthew is doing is drawing our attention to the fact that while David was a great king he was also a sinner and could not be the greater and better king we all needed. That king is the one Matthew is writing about. The other thing we saw as we looked into the situation with David and Bathsheba is the prophecy Nathan made of how the child Bathsheba carried would die because of David’s sin. It is easy to read past that quickly but the truth of the matter is this child’s death was due to sin and one day David’s greater and better Son Jesus would have to die because of David’s sin and all of our sin. This child Matthew is writing about was born to die. Jesus came to take away the sin which separates us from God.

The story of Ruth continues to show the idea that the women talked about in this passage were pagans and mainly gentiles. Yet God chooses these women to be the women in the line of Christ. Ruth was a Moabite woman who ends up coming to Israel because she had married an Israelite man. Boaz shows favor to Ruth because of what he's heard Ruth has done for her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth proposes that Boaz should redeem the inheritance of Elimelech. Boaz figures this out and ends up being the redeemer of Ruth and takes Ruth as his wife. Ruth, a Moabite, is brought into Israel and made part of the line of Christ.

The story of Rahab continues to show the idea that the women talked about in this passage were mainly pagans and gentiles. Yet God chooses these women to be the women in the line of Christ. Which is particularly striking since Matthew was written to Jews. This is very important because grace to gentiles is poured forth in even the line of Christ. Rahab was a prostitute who probably also had a house for prostitution. Why did the spies go to Jericho? Because God had a Canaanite women in Jericho that He was going to save from the destruction that He was bringing upon Jericho. It's almost like Rahab was participating in the passover that the Israelites were just starting to share in, for the first time, in the promised land.