Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 1-2 CEV, Ch. 3 NKJV

Podcast Introduction

It’s Epistles Sunday, and we’ll begin the book of Ephesians with chapters 1-3. I’m calling this episode “Come One, Come All.”

Comments on Ephesians 1-3

I don’t know about your upbringing, how your parents and extended family and others around you treated you, but I’ve been around long enough to know that when a child is taught from his earliest years that he is really something special, that child begins to believe that he really is above everyone else. He believes that he is better, that he is entitled. Over the years I have met and gotten to know a few people who were famous, who had adoring fans all around the world. Some of these people began to believe that they were as special as their fans thought they were. (By the way, for those of you who have listened to my podcasts for years, don’t even try to guess who I might be talking about. The artists that I’ve had on my shows are dear friends of mine and each of them are wonderful human beings.)

You have probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him-or-herself than they should. 

In chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul was talking to Gentiles, non Jews. Remember, Paul was raised as a Jew. It was common then for Jews to believe that they were better than non Jews because they were God’s chosen people. It’s easy to imagine how that might cause one to think pretty highly of one’s self, right? God gave us the promise! God speaks to our prophets! Etc, etc, etc. 

But Paul explained in verses 11-22 that anyone who believes in Jesus can be reconciled to God and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This idea was a hard pill for some of the Jews to accept, and it was a glorious revelation for many Gentiles, of which I am one.

There is no longer Jew and Gentile. No longer the privileged and outcast. No longer black and white. In Christ, we are all one.

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Transcript

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Steve Webb 0:00
That child begins to believe that he really is above everybody else.

Steve Webb 0:11
This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG Godcaster. Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. How are ya? It’s a pistol Sunday, and we’ll begin the book of Ephesians. With chapters one through three. I’m calling the episode. Come one, come on. Let’s get started with a prayer. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You for Your Word. And for this time together as we gather to read, I pray that You would bless this time and open our hearts and our minds. I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Okay, let’s get started.

Steve Webb 0:53
Ephesians chapter one, from Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus, to God’s people who live in Ephesus and our faithful followers of Christ Jesus. I pray that God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven. before the world was created. God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children. God treated us with undeserved grace because of the Son he dearly loves. And so we should praise God, Christ sacrificed his life’s blood to set us free, which means our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because of God’s gift of undeserved grace to us. God has great wisdom and understanding and by what Christ has done, God has shown us his own mysterious ways. Then when the time is right, God will do all he has planned. And Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth. God always does what he plans and this is why he appointed Christ to choose us. He did this. So we Jews would bring honor to him and be the first ones to have hope because of Him. Christ also brought to you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ, and were given the promised Holy Spirit, to show you belong to God. The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God has stored up for his people, then we will be set free, and God will be honored and praised. I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. So I never stopped being grateful for you. As I mentioned you in my prayers, I asked the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you His Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise and let you understand what it means to know God. My prayer is that light will flood your hearts, and you will understand the hope given to you when God chose you, then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all God’s people. I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for his followers. It is the same wonderful power he used when he raised Christ from death, and let him sit at his right hand in heaven. Their Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world, and will rule in the future world as well. God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church, he has made him the head of everything. The Church is the Body of Christ, and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything.

Steve Webb 3:42
Ephesians chapter two. In the past, you were dead, because you sinned and fought against God. You follow the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God. Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds, we made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else. But God was merciful. We were dead because of our sins. But God loved us so much. He made us alive with Christ. And God’s gift of undeserved grace is what saves you. God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. God did this. So in the future world, he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done. You were saved by faith and God who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you and not anything you have done on your own. It isn’t something you have earned. So there’s nothing you can brag about. God planned for us to do good things and to live as He has always wanted us to live. This is why He sent Christ to make us what we are. Don’t forget that you were Gentiles. In fact, you used to be called uncircumcised by those who take pride in being circumcised. At that time you did not know about Christ. You were foreigners to the people of Israel, and you had no part in the promises God had made to them. You were living in this world without hope and without God, and you are far from God, but Christ offered his life’s blood is the sacrifice and brought you near God. Christ has made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and he has united us by breaking down the wall of hatred that separated us. Christ gave His own body to destroy the Law of Moses with all its rules and commands. He even brought Jews and Gentiles together as though we were only one person when he united us in peace. On the cross, Christ did away with our hatred for each other. He also made peace between us and God by uniting Jews and Gentiles in one body, Christ came and preached peace to you Gentiles, who are far from God, and peace to us Jews who were near God. And because of Christ, all of us can come to the Father by the same spirit. You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners, you are citizens with everyone else who belongs to the family of God. You are like a building with the apostles and prophets as the foundation, and with Christ as the most important stone. Christ is the one who holds the building together, and makes it grow into a holy temple for the Lord. And you are a part of that building Christ is built as a place for God’s own Spirit to live

Steve Webb 6:32
Ephesians chapter three. For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all these saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages, has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Well, I don’t know how you were brought up, how your parents and extended family and others around you treated you but I’ve been around long enough to know that when a child is taught from his earliest years, that he’s really something special. Well, that child begins to believe that he really is above everybody else. He believes that he is better that he’s entitled. You know, over the years, I’ve met and gotten to know a few people who were famous who had adoring fans all around the world. And some of these people began to believe that they were as special as their fans thought they were. And by the way, for those of you that have listened to my podcasts for many years, don’t even try to guess who I might be talking about. The artists I’ve had on my shows are friends of mine, and each one of them are wonderful human beings. You probably met or known someone who thought much higher of him or herself as they should.

Steve Webb 9:42
Well in chapter two of Ephesians. Today, Paul was talking to the Gentiles. Now Paul himself was raised as a Jew. And it was common then for Jews to believe that they were better than non Jews because they were God’s chosen people. And it’s easy to imagine how that might cause one tooth. make pretty highly of oneself. Right? That our attitude is God gave us the promise, God speaks to our prophets and on and on. But Paul explained in verses 11 through 22 of chapter two that anyone who believes in Jesus can be reconciled to God, and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This idea was a hard pill for some of the Jews to accept. And it was a glorious revelation for many Gentiles, of which I’m one, there is no longer Jew and Gentile, no longer the privileged and outcast, no longer black and white. In Christ, we are all one. And in this day of such great division, isn’t that a good thing to know? Well, beloved, what do you think? You have a comment or a question? Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1951732 at 511. You can also send your comment or question or thoughts via boostagram or go to comment.lifespringmedia.com. So many choices. Tomorrow will be the law Monday and we’ll begin the Book of Leviticus with chapters one through three.

Steve Webb 11:20
If you went to yesterday’s show notes page to see the picture of little Howie and me and were unable to find it, that’s because I forgot to include it. When I created that page, I chalk it up to an old man’s forgetfulness. Thanks to Lester Graber for reminding me it’s there now at Lifespringmedia.com/s13e161. And by the way, there’s another reason for getting one of those new modern podcast apps I’ve been telling you about because I did remember to put the picture in the chapters which most legacy apps won’t show you to try one of those out, go to new podcast apps.com. In addition to chapters, you’ll be able to see the episode transcriptions too Not to mention, you know those boosts and boostagram You’ll be able to do that too.

Steve Webb 12:09
Praises and prayer requests. praise the Lord snow removal finally cleared the roads up in the local mountains. So Kathi was finally able to get her cancer meds this past Friday afternoon, but possibly because of the lapse in time from running out of the meds and getting this new supply the tumors on her head, which were gone have now begun to return. It could also be because they were unable to get to her cancer treatment at the City of Hope. So that’s our prayer request for the day. Let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, you are the alpha in the Omega, there is none like you, we worship you and we praise You. And we’re so very thankful that we are yours. Thank you, Lord for the fact that Kathy was able to receive her medications and we asked you to heal the problems that have happened because of the delayed treatment. Touch her I pray in Jesus name. And I thank you so much, Lord, for the Lifespring family. Bless them, hold them, keep them, protect them. Help us Lord to walk closely with you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Our next time of prayer here on the show will be Wednesday. If there’s a praise we should know about or if there’s something you’d like us to pray for you about. Tell me about it on the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511 Or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com.

Steve Webb 13:43
This is a bit of a short show today because as I record this on Saturday afternoon, I have a surprise 70th birthday party to go to for my lifelong friend Mark. I can’t be late for that. Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner Scott Snider, who did today’s show art. Thank you, Scott, and Jason Paschall and SR Brittaney The team until tomorrow. Thanks for inviting me to be a part of your day. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai