Conclusion of Ephesians

Daniel L. Arter

The Letter to the Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Ephesians 6:21–24

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Announcements

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening’s message is the concluding message for the Letter to the Ephesians, which means the sermon itself is going to look just a little bit different compared to normal because the text itself is a little bit different and also because we want to conclude the book taking into account all of what it says by applying the whole book to our lives today. Being able to apply a whole book to our lives today isn’t always possible (cf. the book of Psalms, which doesn’t necessarily have one cohesive thought throughout all 150 chapters or even the Gospel according to John, which isn’t as didactic as a lot of Paul’s writings), but in the case of Ephesians it’s very possible to look at the overarching themes of the book and be able to apply them to ourselves faithfully and consistently. Because Ephesians is a letter that Paul intended to teach people through and because it is such a short book, it’s very easy for us to look at the overview of the book and learn the major ideas that Paul is trying to teach us.

Before we look at the overview of the whole book of Ephesians, we do have just a few verses left to cover and like how we would write a letter in our modern-day world, a lot of what Paul says in the last few verses would be considered customary closing remarks—in some sense, it would be like us closing off a familial letter with some final details and then saying something along the lines of “sincerely” or “yours truly.” Again, we’ll work through these closing remarks before stepping back and taking an overview over the whole book together to close off Ephesians. Read with me Ephesians 6:18-24.

Ephesians 6:18–24 ESV

18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

As we finish off Ephesians, we’re going to look at the remaining text in two parts, (1) Vs. 18-20, is a repeat from last week as we look at the Necessity of Prayer. And I’m intentionally repeating those three verses because they provide a connection to the previous verses and because they provide the first final greeting of the text; (2) Vs. 21-24, gives us just a few more details about Paul’s writing of Ephesians, the reason for him sending the person that he sent with the letter, and a benediction—I’ve titled this section “Final Greetings.” We’ll take the first part of the message to work through each verse and then before our application, we’ll take some time to do a recap of the entire book in a way that will help us gather together the main idea of Ephesians and we’ll close off the whole book with application.

Prayer for Illumination

The Necessity of Prayer (18-20)

Vs. 18, is actually part of a continuation of Paul’s exhortation to put on the whole armor of God. It’s actually a statement of his that they need to put on the whole armor of God in prayer, but like I said, it connects with some of the final statements that Paul makes in that he asks them to not just pray as they put on the armor of God, but to also pray for him. Vs. 18 says, “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” In this verse, Paul makes the statement that they are to prayer and he tells them to pray in a certain way:

They are to continuously pray—this isn’t the only time that Paul tells people that they are to pray continuously. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Jesus tells a parable concerning a persistent widow who bothered a judge until the judge relented to bring justice for her and he tells this parable in order to teach people to pray. Luke 18:1, “Now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged.”

Now you might think, “how exactly am I supposed to pray without ceasing? How do I continuously pray? It doesn’t seem practical. You may have the wrong idea of what prayer has to be. You might have the idea that prayer has to involve me on bended knee with my head bowed and my eyes closed

And that’s certainly one type of prayer that is legitimate, but if that’s how we’re to pray all the time, then you’re certainly right, it’s simply not practical to always pray without ceasing in that manner.

But the Bible never teaches us that all prayer needs to be while we’re on bended knee, with head bowed, and eyes closed and logically speaking, to believe that all prayer needs to be in that manner is impractical.

You might have the idea that all prayer needs to sound like the LORD’s Prayer, but consider with me what Jesus says prior to speaking the words of the LORD’s prayer. Matthew 6:9-13, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Read with me again, the first four words of Vs. 9, “Pray then like this.” The like tells us that this isn’t necessarily something that we have to say word-for-word, but rather the manner of prayer here, is something that we should emulate. If we read the LORD’s Prayer with that in mind:

It teaches us that we pray to the Father.

It teaches us that we should praise God and extol his character in our prayer.

It teaches us that we should be praying for God’s will to be done on earth

It teaches us that we should be praying for our daily sustenance and that we should be praying for forgiveness of our sins.

And it teaches us that we should be praying for endurance and strength as we struggle with temptation and sin.

But it doesn’t teach us that we need to pray this pray verbatim at all times.

So, how exactly do we pray continuously? Use the Lord’s Prayer as a model for your prayer

Realize that you’re speaking to God, praise the LORD, ask for his will to be done, pray for your needs, pray for forgiveness of your sins, pray for endurance and strength.

But don’t stop when you’re no longer on bended knees with head bowed and eyes closed. And don’t stop when your prayer continues beyond what the LORD’s Prayer says.

Continuously speak with the LORD as you go about your day, as you walk to work, as you cut your grass, as you spend time with your family—this is what it means to continuously pray.

You don’t always need to get on your knees with your head bowed and eyes closed (though there’s nothing wrong with that) and your prayers don’t always need to sound exactly like the LORD’s prayer (though there’s nothing wrong with that), however, you do need to continuously pray.

Paul says that they are to continuously pray and that they are to pray in the Spirit—This idea is repeated two other times in Scripture (1 Corinthians 14:15 and Jude 20 both speak of praying in the Spirit).

Consider with me the Greek word translated as “pray in” can have several different meanings. It can mean “by means of,” “with the help of,” “in the sphere of,” and “in connection to.”

And then consider with me Romans 8:26, which tells us, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

To pray in the Spirit means to pray in the power of the Spirit, to pray by being led by the Spirit, and to pray according to the Spirit’s will.

He tells them that they are to pray all sorts of prayer—in this passage, he specifically points out supplication, which is a prayer of request, but the Bible actually speaks of several different types of prayers throughout Scripture:

James 5 speaks of the prayer of faith, which includes the idea of true belief. We pray a prayer of faith when we come to believe in Jesus Christ.

There’s what’s called a prayer of agreement or what we sometimes call corporate prayer—the idea that all the believers are “joined together in prayer” or the idea in Acts 2:42 about the early church devoting themselves to prayer.

There’s several prayers of thanksgiving throughout Scripture. Like 1 Thessalonians says, “Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of Christ Jesus concerning you.” Prayers of thanksgiving are very similar to prayers of worship, which focuses more on who God is and his character.

There’s prayer of consecration, the setting ourselves apart to follow God’s will, we do something similar when we pray for someone during ordination.

Prayer of intercessions include anytime that we pray on behalf of anyone else—we pray for someone’s health or we pray that they might come to know Jesus Christ.

And occasionally, through the Psalms, we see what’s called an imprecatory prayer, which is a prayer to invoke God’s judgment on the wicked. Psalms like, Psalm 7, 55, 69 are all imprecatory prayers in which the psalmist prays for the LORD to judge the wicked.

Paul is telling the Ephesians to utilize all sorts of prayers as they pray continuously, which extends to us. If all of our prayers sound exactly the same, we have a problem.

If all of our prayers are us asking God for stuff, we have a problem

If all of our prayers only include us praying for other people and not for ourselves, we have a problem

If all of our prayers are prayers against other people, we have a problem

We should be praying a mixture of different types of prayers as part of our lives.

And Paul tells them that they are to pray for all the saints with perseverance.

And while he’s on the topic of prayer for all the saints, he tells them to pray also for him, Vs. 19-20, “That words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.”

As Paul transitions into speaking his final greetings, he connects his statement about prayer in a request for them to pray for him. But he’s not asking them to pray for just anything, he’s giving them a specific prayer. And it’s not exactly the type of prayer that we would expect.

Remember, that at this point in time as Paul writes this letter to the Ephesians, Paul is in prison. We know this from Acts 28, in which we find Paul being guarded by soldiers, but being permitted to have visitors. Philippians 4:22, tells us that Paul is with “those who belong to Caesar’s household.” Which support the view that Paul wrote the prison epistles from Rome.

Paul is in Rome in prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and yet, he doesn’t request for them to pray for his release. What does he ask them to pray for?

“That words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel . . . that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.”

Paul is in prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he requests prayer for boldness so that he can continue preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Paul is in prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he requests that they pray for him to speak the Words of God with boldness.

And he utilizes this one phrase, that he is “an ambassador in chains.”

The idea of an ambassador is that he is a representative or a promoter of person, place, or nation.

What is Paul an ambassador of? As a believer, he is an ambassador of God even though he is held captive in chains.

In other words, Paul is making the point that his responsibility to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ is of more importance than his present condition, in chains, in prison, under Roman control.

So, in Paul’s first personal statement, he asks them to pray for him so that he will continue to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then he finishes the last four verses of Ephesians with statements that are of a little more personal nature. Read with me Vs. 21-24.

Final Greetings (21-24)

Ephesians 6:21–24 ESV

21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

In the last four verses of the text, Paul writes some statements that are a little bit more personal in nature. Remember that Ephesians is a letter written to the church in Ephesus, which Paul helped to start. So it makes sense that even in a letter of this type, where Paul is writing doctrinal statements and giving them ways to apply that doctrine, that he would still take some amount of time to make personal statements as well.

He starts in Vs. 21-22, by explaining who the messenger of the letter is. “So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.”

We don’t really know much about Tychicus other than he was trusted by Paul and was often sent by Paul when Paul himself couldn’t go somewhere. His name is mentioned four times throughout the New Testament, with one of them being Ephesians 6:21 of course, but in each instance it isn’t much more than just Paul explaining who he’s going to send or who he had already sent and the purpose for Paul sending him.

In the case of Ephesians 6, Paul is sending Tychicus for three specific reasons.

First off, he’s sending Tychicus (and you might not have thought of this), but he’s sending Tychicus to deliver the letter, itself. This is during the Roman empire, which means that the USPS didn’t exist. He could have probably found someone that he could’ve paid to go to Ephesus with the letter, but because he wanted to update the church with his current condition, he chose to send someone who he considered beloved and faithful.

Secondly, he’s sending Tychicus for the purpose of letting them know how he along with those that he’s ministering with are doing while they’re ambassadors in chains in Rome.

And third, he’s sending Tychicus to Ephesus in order to encourage their hearts.

This teaches us several things about Paul himself that I think are worth us learning and applying to our own lives:

This tells us that Paul considered Tychicus trustworthy and by sending him as his messenger to the Ephesians, it tells us that Paul was more than willing to delegate his ministry to other trustworthy people. Sometimes, we get the false impression that Paul was like a lone ranger trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus by himself. In reality, Paul worked with a team of people, he just happened to be the primary leader amongst them.

Secondly, this teaches us that despite Paul’s current condition, being imprisoned, he still realizes that he is still an ambassador of Jesus Christ. That despite his current situation in life, his ultimate goal has not changed, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Third, this teaches us that even in his current situation in life, he’s still trying to minister to other people. He sends Tychicus to Ephesus in order to encourage their hearts. Even when faced with great tremendous difficulty, he is still trying to obey Jesus Christ.

Paul then concludes the whole book with essentially two benedictions. A benediction is a short blessing for a person or in this case a group of people. Sometimes churches will close their service with a benediction. Vs. 23 is the first benediction, “Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Vs. 24 is the second benediction, “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.”

Paul closes the book by first off mentioning peace, love, and faith from God and Jesus to the brothers. Again, this is like a benediction, so what Paul is essentially saying is that he wants the brothers to experience peace, love, and faith, which can only be experienced through God and through Jesus Christ.

Peace, love, and faith have their sources in God—in other words, God is whom we find peace, love, and faith.

Keeping in mind the reoccurring theme of church unity in Ephesians, it gives us insight in that these three core virtues ought to drive the church.

The church itself should be driven by peace, love, and faith. We know this because Paul has repeatedly spoken about peace, love, and faith throughout the letter.

Peace was a reoccurring theme in Ephesians 2:14-18; 4:3; and 6:15.

Faith was a repeated theme in 1:15; 2:8-10; and 3:17

And love was repeatedly expressed in 1:4, 15; 4:15-16; 5:2.

All of which again, have their sources in God. We can only find peace, love, and faith in Jesus Christ.

The second benediction in Vs. 24, closes the whole book by saying “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.”

This actually serves almost like a bookend. At the beginning of the letter, how does Paul start? Ephesians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul finishes the book the same way that he started the book. By talking about peace, grace, love, and faith.

The words, “love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible” is the idea of our love for Jesus being pure—it cannot be corrupted, it cannot have wrong motives, it cannot be disloyal.

Paul’s final statement is that for those who love Jesus wholeheartedly, without corruption and without wrong motives, grace be to you.

Now before we jump into this evening’s application, because we’ve just finished a whole book, we need to spend some time discussing the book as a whole. We would miss the whole point if we spent three months working verse-by-verse and line-by-line through the text and never once looked at the overarching ideas presented through the text. In order to do that, let me give you a recap of the whole book chapter-by-chapter and then I’ll help you see what the train of thought through the book is so that we can apply both the text for today and the whole text to our hearts and lives.

Recap of Ephesians

Chapter 1 starts by introducing the concept of spiritual blessings that believers have been given in Jesus Christ. All who believe have been chosen to be holy and blameless before him. All who believe have been predestined for adoption. All who believe have been given an eternal inheritance through Jesus Christ; and all of these blessings have been given to us by grace and through faith. Paul writes that he has been praying for the Ephesians that they grow in their knowledge and wisdom of Jesus, that they understand their position in Christ, and that they realize that Jesus is the head of the universal church.

Chapter 2 continues by pointing out that prior to believing in Jesus Christ, the Ephesians were dead in their trespasses and sins. That they were just like all the unbelievers of the world, who followed the course of the world and ultimately followed Satan. But because of God’s grace and his mercy and his love, called us to himself and made us alive together in Christ. Because Jesus is the reason for our salvation, we are to be unified as a church. We spoke at length about the need of proper doctrine as a prerequisite of unity, but if the doctrine is correct, unity is to be expected. When the doctrine matches what Scripture says, we are to be unified in peace as fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Chapter 3 is the last chapter of Ephesians that’s focused primarily of doctrine. Paul starts of talking about the mystery of the Gospel in which the Gentiles and Jews are now made one as fellow heirs. That Paul was made a minister of this Gospel despite being unworthy of it. and he tells them that the church can have boldness in proclaiming this Gospel as well because we have boldness and access to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul then expresses that he’s praying for the Ephesians, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith and that they, being rooted and grounded in love, learn to comprehend the truth, for them to know the love of Christ, and for them to be filled with all the fullness of God.

And then he transitions in Chapter 4 to focus primarily on practical application of these truths. The practical application that he gives from chapter 3 all the way through to chapter 6 is this, that you “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Or in other words, for the case of the Ephesians, doctrine found in Chapters 1-3, should lead them to live in a worthy way, to bear with one another in love, and to seek unity in the bond of peace. The latter half of Chapter 4, then starts giving details into how believers are to walk in a worthy manner—starting with the simple truth that Christians should not act like unbelievers. “You must no longer walk as the [unbelievers] do, in the futility of their minds.” Christians should live in light of the fact that Jesus has enabled them to “put off [their] old self . . . and to put on the new self.”

Chapter 5 continues in this line of thinking by stating that believers are to “be imitators of God, as beloved children.” And Paul gives three ways that believers are supposed to imitate God—believers are to walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom, all of which reflect that close relationship that believers ought to have with God through Jesus Christ. He mentions again, the concept of unity in that there should be a submission towards one another out of reverence for Christ. And then through the beginning of Chapter 6, he helps the Ephesians see how this idea of submitting to one another works within our interpersonal relationships—husbands and wives, children and parents, bondservants and servants.

Chapter 6, which we just finished teaches the Ephesians to be prepared for spiritual warfare by putting on the whole armor of God. Putting on the armor of God includes, putting on truth, living righteously, rooting yourself in the Gospel, finding refuge in God through your faith, reminding yourself of your salvation and your future hope in Jesus Christ, and by investing your time in reading, studying, learning, and growing from the Word of God, and praying persistently.

The train of thought through the whole text is actually quite simple to discern based on the way that Paul works through all of the doctrine and the application, in fact, we could (based on this book) make the argument that doctrine compels action—that what you believe should cause you to live a certain way. That what you believe motivates the way that you live. Keeping that in mind, here’s what Paul is doing throughout the book of Ephesians:

In Chapters 1-3, Paul is essentially telling the Ephesians what to believe.

If you are a Christian, God has blessed you with spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ—that you have been chosen from before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless, to be his children.

That as his children, you have been unified into the universal church of Jesus Christ—you are now part of his body with Jesus as the head of the body.

That you didn’t deserve this and you didn’t earn this, in fact, prior to your salvation, you were a son of disobedience, you lived according to the passions of your flesh, that you were a child of wrath just like the rest of mankind. Prior to your salvation, you served Satan, but because of God’s mercy, because of God’s love, you have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now that you’re part of this universal church of Jesus Christ, you are now a fellow citizen with the saints and members of the household of God, which was built on the foundation of the Scriptures with Jesus being the cornerstone.

And as you continue to grow in your faith as children of God through the sanctifying work of Jesus Christ, you are to be strengthened with power through the Spirit. You are to be rooted and grounded in love, you are to know the love of Christ, and be filled with all the fullness of God.

These doctrinal beliefs, should fundamentally change how you act, how you talk, and really how you live your life, which is seen in Chapters 4-6.

Because you believe these things about God, about Jesus Christ, you are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” You are to be unified with like-minded believers and you are to utilize the spiritual gifts, which the Holy Spirit gave you in order to help build up the body of Christ.

That might mean that you teach, that might mean that you preach, or it might mean that you serve in the background, you might be working in mercy ministry, you might be doing something completely different than the person next to you—but you need to be utilizing the spiritual gifts that you’ve been given to help the church grow and build itself up in love.

Because you believe these things about God and about Jesus Christ, you are to stop living like an unbelievers, in sensuality and impurity, but you are to put off the old and put on the new through the renewing of your minds.

You are to be imitators of God by walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom.

And your belief in Jesus Christ ought to change every single relationship that you have.

But don’t expect it to be easy, Satan and his demons will attack anyone who tries to live in a way consistent with the teachings of Scripture—so be prepared. Put on truth, live righteously, be rooted in the Gospel, lean into your faith, remind yourself of your salvation and your hope, engulf yourself in the Word of God and pray.

Essentially, what Paul has been writing through the book of Ephesians is this:

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been blessed with spiritual blessings that influence what you believe about Jesus, about God, and really about yourself and the church.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of the universal church but you’re also part of a local body of Jesus Christ and in those local bodies of Jesus Christ, you are to seek unity when the doctrine is correct, you are to serve by utilizing your spiritual gifts, and you are to worship Jesus together.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you are to live in a way that is worthy of your calling, you are to put off sin and you are to live like a believer ought to live.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus, your belief in Jesus should change every aspect of your life.

Now, let’s look at some specific application, starting with Ephesians 6:18-24, which was the text that we finished with and then by looking at the book as a whole.

Application

The Necessity of Prayer (18-20)—the first section of the passage is what connected Paul’s statement concerning putting on the armor of God with his final greetings. In these three verses, he exhorts them to pray all the time, with all sorts of different prayers, but especially with supplication for the saints and for himself. I have one application that these verses really emphasize:

As a believer, you need to be praying. It is no coincidence that Paul speaks of the necessity of prayer so frequently in Romans, in Ephesians, in Colossians, in Thessalonians, etc. He speaks of prayer quite frequently so let’s take a moment for us to reflect on our prayer lives.

First off, how frequently are you praying?

Are you only praying when we pray at church? Do you only pray before a meal? Maybe on a long car ride?

Paul says to pray at all times, which in my life is convicting, because I know that I don’t pray as frequently as I ought to. Do you pray as frequently as you ought to?

Let me give you some practical ways that you can increase your times of prayer—(1) set aside certain times of the day when you do pray. Maybe it’s as soon as you wake up—go into a private area and pray. Maybe it’s right before you go to bed—go into a private place and pray. (2) Pray before meals and pray before you drive, (3) Pray with your significant other, pray with your children, don’t wait for a reason to pray, pray consistently with them. (4) Don’t feel that you necessarily need to get on your knees, bow down, and close your eyes. Pray when you’re standing, pray while you’re driving, pray as you walk to walk.

Keep consistently and continually praying to the LORD.

Secondly, are you praying in the Spirit? Are you praying in his his power, according to his will or are you allowing your own desires to get in the way of your prayers? In addition to this, are you praying with all sorts of prayers? Or are your prayers simply a list of requests?

Often when we pray, our prayers are simply a list of requests and there’s a place for that, the Bible says that we are to make supplications or requests

However, if your prayers are only ever requests, you’re missing out in your prayer life. You shouldn’t just be making requests, you should also be praising Jesus, you should be praying prayers of belief, and prayers of consecration. You should be praying all the types of prayers, not just prayers of requests.

If all you ever do is ask God for stuff, you’re missing out on several aspects of prayer and your spiritual life is hindered by that.

Learn to pray different types of prayer and if you need help with that, I have some resources that might help—pick up a copy of the book Valley of Vision, it’s a collection of Puritan prayers and start praying through them—I actually do this almost every single day. Learn to pray through the Psalms in the Bible. Take a look at the different prayers recorded in Scripture.

And as you do this, your prayers will grow.

Third, are you praying for others? Paul tells them to pray for all the saints and to pray for him.

Are you regularly praying for those around you? Are you praying for your children to grow up in the LORD? Are you praying for those in our church to continue to grow spiritually? Are you praying for those in sin to be convicted of their sins and repent? Are you praying for those who are utilizing their spiritual gifts? That they have boldness to proclaim the Gospel as they use their spiritual gifts?

Or are you more focused on yourself? Are you only ever praying for your wants and desires?

As a believer, you need to be praying. It is a necessity in your spiritual life.

Final Greetings (21-24)—From the final section, we see Paul wrap up the book by writing about him sending Tychicus to them to update them, but also to encourage them. We also see Paul write two benedictions concerning peace, love, and grace. I have two applications for this:

Remember that Paul was in prison when he wrote this, which many of us would consider a terrible place to be, and yet, he was still seeking ways to minister to those around him.

Most everyone listening to this sermon has never experienced prison, but I know that you’ve had great difficulties in your life because we’ve all had great difficulties in life.

However, when you were going through these difficulties in life, how did you respond? Did you respond seeking to minister to others or did you respond by sulking and wallowing in despair?

Even at a low point in Paul’s life, he was still able and willing to minister the Gospel to those around him.

Despite whatever season of life that you’re in right now, you ought to be ready and willing to minister the Gospel to all.

Despite the hardships that you might be facing right now, be prepared to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, peace, love, faith, and grace are all attributes of God that we only experience through him. Seek them from him, and learn to minister peace, love, faith, and grace to those around you.

Proclaim the gospel and live in a way that ministers peace, love, faith, and grace.

Recap of Ephesians—I’m not going to recap the whole book again, but I will remind you of the main point.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been blessed with spiritual blessings that influence what you believe about Jesus, about God, and really about yourself and the church.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you are to live in a way that is worthy of your calling, you are to put off sin and you are to live like a believer ought to live.

If you are truly a believer in Jesus, your belief in Jesus should change every aspect of your life.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ—live like it.

Put simply, Ephesians 6:18-24 and the book as a whole teaches us to: (1) continuously pray in the Spirit all sorts of prayers, (2) be prepared to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ in a way that ministers peace, love, faith, and grace, and (3) live like a believer ought to live.