Ephesians: His Glorious Grace

We intend to do something a little different in the morning services over the next few months.

Those who attend Firwood Church will know that we usually preach topically in the mornings and work our way through books of the Bible in the evenings. This plan will temporarily change as we begin a new series this Sunday morning (12 July 2009) working through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

The reason for this modification of ‘the plan’ is that the original topical series planned over the coming months depended so heavily on Ephesians that it made sense (and felt more faithful) to preach through the letter in its entirety.

There are a number of benefits to preaching through books of the Bible in this way,

1. It is easy to follow and anticipate the flow of the series… Chapter 2 will typically follow Chapter 1… this means that we can easily read, study and pray through the book together as a church;

2. It forces us to be disciplined in confronting and wrestling with unfamiliar, difficult and challenging texts;

3. It encourages us to read and think about the text in its context.

I am really excited about this series. Ephesians is widely considered, along with Romans, to be the greatest letter in the New Testament. Certainly, I know of no greater explanation of salvation and the extent of God’s glorious grace in rescuing radically depraved sinners.

The theme of this series is, then, ‘His Glorious Grace’. Chapters 1 to 3 will set out God’s great rescue mission in Christ Jesus and Chapters 4 to 6 will unpack the implications for this with regards to holy living.

I hope you can make it to the morning services and I hope you read, study and meditate through this book with us as we seek to see him more clearly, know him more deeply and serve him faithfully.