Pondering with Purpose Podcast

The following is an adapted version of my teaching at Patmos Reality Discipleship July 2026 through the letter to the Ephesians. IntroductionAs we look at this section of Ephesians, it is helpful again to have the whole picture in mind. This overview post of Ephesians by the Bible Project puts each part in perspective. The whole first half of Ephesians is about the Gospel story. The second half is about our story. We are in this last section now.In the last teaching through Ephesians, I mentioned how equipment really matters. What you wear, what you choose to put on really matters. If you are going to work at a construction site, you would wear something very different than if you were to be working as a lawyer, right?If the construction workers shows up on the job in this suit, it would not go well. If the lawyer showed up in the courtroom in work boots and coveralls, that would not go well either. What we wear matters. And some people take a lot of time in the morning or at night to think about what they’re wearing. Who we are and what we think we’re doing is going to affect what we wear. It often reveals, what we think of ourselves.This section is about things that Paul tells us to wear, not necessarily physically or literally wear them, but like he’s been talking about this analogy of putting on and putting off. To wear it so that it becomes true of us, so that it’s in and through us. So as we’re reading this passenge of scripture, looking at “The Reality of our Preparations”, I want you to think about it through these four things: truth and righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation and Word.Go ahead and take a moment to read Ephesians 6:14-17.The Reality of our PreparationWe just saw in the previous section that we have a real enemy, and this is a real battle. God has won the battle, and he’s given us His weapons to fight with. We don’t fight alone, though, we fight together. You know, you’re really in battle, when you are driven to prayer to seek the Lord in these things. The context of our warfare for Paul, as we’ve just talked about in chapter 4 and in chapter 5, is very ordinary life. Paul envisions that there’s warfare happening in the family. The way that you raise your kids, the way you respond to your parents, the way that you treat your spouse, the way that you interact at work, those are places where warfare is happening. He talked about how fathers can make their children angry, and if someone’s angry, that can let the devil and that can let the enemy in. So he’s talking about this warfare as very ordinary life. It happens in household, work, etc.“This battle isn’t fought by swinging swords—it’s fought through humility and submission, through truth and love, through faith and endurance. That’s how we resist.”That is the way that we stand and withstand. And in this battle, “We’re not putting on new strategies—we’re putting on the character of Christ.”One point that I thought was really interesting as I was preparing for this teaching is that it’s very easy to read about the armor of God and think about me individually. I put on a helmet, I put on this stuff, and think this is a set of instructions to individual believers, but that is not the way the text reads. Rather, the command to take up the armor of God is an invitation to the whole community. We are meant to do this together. It’s a communal practice, because like we said, every time the word “you” is used in Ephesians, it’s plural. So we could read Paul as saying, “You guys do this together. You guys all put this on. Let this be true of all of you together.” This section is not primarily about what I do by myself, but what we do together.According to the New Testament the Church is one body. So we need to have armor on as a body. Jesus has created one unified humanity, where we come together with Jesus as our head, and we become one humanity. We’re one body, so we need to have armor on as a body, because we are engaged in a battle to the death of this group that Paul calls the supernatural forces.Reality of Truth & Righteousness v. 14Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,In verse 14 Paul begins listing out each part of the armor of God. He starts by saying, “girding your loins with truth”. That’s when you put on a belt. The phrase “girding your loins” was to tuck in your robe, to gather it up and put it in your belt. In the Roman army, the belt held together the entire uniform, the entirety of it all. And Jesus consistently called the devil a liar. That was one of his favorite things to call him. He said that he’s a liar and he’s been a liar from the beginning. And so half-truths have been one of the devil’s primary strategies since the beginning. Think bac to the garden with Eve? When the serpent wanted to tempt Eve, he didn’t say a full lie. He asked her a question, and he said a partial truth. Did God really say, “If you touch the fruit, you will die?” God had not said that. God had said, “If you eat of it, you will die.” So the snake twisted a little bit, and he presented a half-truth. And he got her to doubt. He used lies and manipulation to do that. The enemy’s main weapon is lies, and he will pick lies that are as close to the truth as possible. Why? A lie that’s obviously a lie, is not going to go anywhere. No one is going to believe an obvious lie. But maybe if I tell someone who already feels like they’re kind of a short person, “Oh, you are tiny”. They might say, “Oh, I think I am tiny. I’m really insecure about that”.The closer to the truth, the more powerful the lie is. So it makes sense that the first piece of equipment given is a belt of truth. Think about Jesus and his temptation, when the enemy tempted him in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, it was partial truths. It was, “If you throw yourself down, God will catch you”. Yes, that was technically a true statement in Scripture, but it wasn’t an invitation to put God to the test. It wasn’t a promise to be flaunted over God. He used things that were kind of true, but out of context and not fully true. And Jesus would always go, “Here’s the full truth there. I know the truth”. So this is the belt, the belt that holds everything together, the truth of God keeps everything else together in our lives. The belt keeps your pants on. It holds things in place, and so truth is what keeps us, secure so that things don’t start falling apart. If we know the truth, then things are in order and we have clarity. We know the truth. But if things are unclear and it’s very hazy and smoky and we don’t know what’s true, then things start to fall apart. You don’t know where you’re supposed to be, or what you’re supposed to be doing, or who you even are, if you don’t know the truth.After introducing this belt of truth, then he talks about the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate is an element of armor in the Roman military, which is Paul’s context. A lot of this imagery, he’s taken what God said about His armor, that we looked at it in Isaiah, and Paul has thought about it through his immediate context. He’s in a Roman jail cell, he gets to see Roman guards all the time, and the armor that they’re wearing, and he’s thought about this stuff and how these truths about Jesus can be visually explained. So he talked about this breastplate. The breastplate guarded everything. Roman armor went from shoulders to mid-waist, covering all the vital organs, including your heart. It was very important. You get stabbed in the stomach and you’re done. As a remon legionnaire, you don’t have three lives, like in a video game. So the idea is to be protected. There’s a passage in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of its spring the issues of life”. The breastplate protected the heart, and Proverbs says that the heart is really important to protect because it’s where everything comes out of. Your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions. It’s part of the core of who you are, everything that you decide to do, your affections.Righteousness language is actually rare in Ephesians. In the other two uses, it is used to describe living righteously, meaning to live with integrity and rightness. We have to stop allowing our feelings to determine the things we do. Our feelings can control us and we cannot afford to let that happen. If our feelings dictate how we go about our day then we are in for a roller coaster..Righteousness in the New Testament is not just justification but it is also activity.Biblically, There is no such thing as human righteousness. Scripture says, “There is no one good not even one”. So what kind of righteousness are we supposed to wear and have? There are two kinds that theologians talk about. First is imputed righteousness which is what Jesus did applied to us. Second is imparted righteousness, which is what Jesus is doing in and through us. These are incredibly important truths.As I thought about a way of illustrating this, I was reminded of a job that I find very fascinating.There is a whole job around recognizing counterfeit money. People train to recognize fake money. And for a long time I have found it very interesting that they say that the best way to train for this to be able to recognize is not what you would think. It is not by studying all of the fakes out there and knowing what they look like. The best way to prepare is by looking at, studying, and knowing the real deal. What does the real money look like? You are better able to recognize an imposter if you know the real deal first.This is true for us as Christians too. We are better able to recognize lies when we know the truthWe can recognize lies about God like, “God is a harsh God. God just wants you to mess up already”.We can recognize lies about ourselves like, “You are not good enough. You are not worthy. No one loves you.”We can recognize lies about our calling, “Maybe you shouldn’t be here. Maybe you didn’t hear God right.”The best way to recognize those lies is by knowing the truth. We need to both knowing the truth and remember it. Humans are very forgetful. We need ways of remembering the truth. We need to renew our minds in truth daily. But we should also have ways of remembering, whether that is journaling, writing out our prayers, having memory tokens or stones, or pictures that help us look back and remember these things.We have to know the truth. The truth can sometimes be difficult to face. It can sometimes feel intimidating but God is a God of truth (Isaiah 65:16) and His word is truth (John 17:17). We need to be in God’s word.As we lift our eyes from ourselves to Jesus, we see that Jesus called himself the truth (John 14:6) and that he was called the righteous (1 John 2:1, 1 Peter 3:18 )Once again, we are putting this on from Jesus. We are taking on his attributes and characteristics through imitation and being with him. We see it in him, and then we take it on ourselves.Reality of Gospel Peace v. 15and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;Paul says to shod your feet. He calls us to go preach the gospel of peace because the gospel brings peace. The gospel brings peace between us and God, between us and other kinds of people. We are putting on the shoes of this peace that God has brought to us and between different people. Paul literally had to put on shoes to go to places to do this very thing.This imagery is heavily rooted in Isaiah 52:7 which says,How beautiful upon the mountainsAre the feet of him who brings good news,Who proclaims peace,Who brings glad tidings of good things,Who proclaims salvation,Who says to Zion,“Your God reigns!”It is important to clarify that we do not go out and fight the devil by looking for him under every rock. Instead we fight by declaring the news. As we do, we have to know that what we are declaring is worth dying for. In the Roman military these shoes would be kind of like cleats. They would have little spikes in the bottom to help them stand their ground.It makes me think of an American football player with cleats on, prepared and ready to hold the defensive line. He is prepared to withstand the way Paul talks about in this chapter. The gospel grounds you so that you will not move. It is your foundation that holds you.Which begs the question, do you know the gospel story? Not just a simple version that we tell kids but the version that Jesus, Paul, and the apostles are talking about. If you are looking for a summary it is the whole first three chapters of Ephesians.The gospel exalts Jesus. Most simply the gospel flows from creation, to the Fall, to Redemption, and New Creation. Jesus is the new human. He is the one who defeated death, evil, and sin, which means we can stand firm in that reality, ready for whatever comes our way.Reality of Faith v. 16above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.Paul has already told us some really important things. like the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel, the breastplate of righteousness. This one, he sets above them all as he says, “above all, taking the shield of faith”. He tells us why, because it “with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts”. So there is a very specific emphasis and purpose attached to this idea. It makes sense as its role was very important in the Roman army. The Roman shield was often dipped in water to help it extinguish literal flaming darts from the enemy. Some armies would have arrows with some cloth at the front, dipped in oil and then lit on fire. Then they would fire those on their enemy. So a Roman shield would often be dipped in water so that when those hit, they would get put out.What would happen with these shields is that one group would hold shields in front of them, as they advanced. They would advance in a very large group, and the first group interlocking their shields in front. The next group would bring their shields up and over, and lock them in, and they called this formation, “the turtle”. It was this protective shield all around them and everyone locked their shields in place, and they held their shields. What’s interesting is that it required a lot of closeness. The shields weren’t super big, but when you put enough of them together, they covered them. It required closeness between people as they depended upon each other. And Paul uses that imagery about this shield of faith.At this point it might be helpful to talk about what faith is. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he’s a reward of those who diligently seek”. Faith is necessary to draw near to God. Faith is a requirement to draw near to God. You have to believe that he exists and he will reward those who call on him. This word, “faith”, in the Bible it means “confidence”. It can be translated as loyalty, allegiance, and trust. One of my favorite ways to translate it is “trust”. I think that removes some of the ambiguous religious connotations and helps us get at what it is trying to say. We trust in things to hold us up. We trust in a chair to keep us off the ground and in a similar way we are supposed to trust in God. Hebrews 11:1 describes what faith is a couple of verses earlier saying, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. That’s what faith is. So we think about this analogy of the Roman shield, and we think about a lot of the New Testament. Faith, for most of u,s is an individual thing. ”I have faith in God. I have a relationship with God.” But again, Ephesians is very communal. It’s talking about a group of people. Paul is addressing all of “you” together.Faith in scripture is often a group thing. We do this together. We actually need corporate faith, because sometimes I need your faith, and sometimes you need mine.Tim Keller, one of my favorite pastors, he used to say this, “It is not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that actually saves you. [It’s not how strong your faith is, but what your faith is in that saves you] Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch”. If I have a really strong faith that this little twig is gonna hold me up, it’s not. But if I have just enough strength to barely hold on to a really strong bench, that branch is going to hold me up. The strength of faith is not as important as the object of our faith. The object of our faith is meant to be Jesus. Jesus is the strong one. We don’t need to have the strongest faith.In fact, sometimes we don’t have to have much faith at all. Mark 2, is a really important story, that I think about a lot. Mark chapter 2:1-5 tells the story of the paralytic.And again, he entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house. Immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive him, not even near the door. And he preached the words to them, then they came to him, bringing a paralytic, who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was, so when they had broken through the down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith…Notice, it is not the man’s faith, he saw his friend’s faith, that his man, his paralytics to friends, had brought him to Jesus. Their faith had literally carried him to Jesus. This man had just been laying still, and he his friends had said, “We believe, we trust that Jesus is able to save you. We’re going to act on that. We’re going to take you to him”. And Jesus saw their faith in action, and he healed this man. Their faith affected this man, their friend. And I think about that a lot, because our faith and our confidence can carry someone else, maybe literally, but more often metaphorically. It can help them extinguish the doubts. If someone comes to me with doubts, asking, “Does God really care?”, my faith in him and my experience of who he is as I share it, can encourage and comfort and strengthen them. Faith is what allows us to look into the future and know what is coming. We say, I don’t know everything that’s going to happen, but I do know that Jesus is in charge of all of it and that he has got me safe and secure. So our faith can help each other. Sometimes we can see doubts as a really bad thing. Sometimes when someone says, “I have doubts” or “I have questions” people feel intimidated and they do not have an answer so they end up making the person feel like it is wrong to have questions and that they should have it all figured out by now. I find that incredibly unfortunate. I think by in large that is less true today, but I still know people who think this way. Some people say that doubt is the opposite of faith. Maybe you have heard that or thought it. I absolutely disagree with that. I do not think that faith can exist without doubt. The opposite of faith is actually unbelief. Doubt is really important for faith, because faith says, “I don’t understand everything, so I’m going to have doubts. But what I do understand is that I can trust you. What I do understand is that I think you’re faithful enough to overcome my doubts”.So what do we do with doubts? When others have doubts, when we have doubts, Jude 1:22, says, “And have mercy on those who doubt;” People with doubts often have real questions. So our posture towards them should not be, “Don’t have questions, you need to have faith. Where’s your faith?” And in so doing condemn them, to say that they need to have faith. Instead we are to have mercy on them and say, “I understand those doubts. Yes, those are real” and at the same time “What do you know? What do you understand about God that you can trust Him even in this?” In the gospel, we see people come to Jesus with small faith and with big doubts. In Mark 9:23-25, which is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible it says this, And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” In other words, “Lord, I have faith help my lack of faith. I do believe in you.” That faith can be the small, mustard-sized faith that Jesus talks about. There are going to be doubts and uncertainties in our faith. The goal is not to have a perfect faith, to have a faith that never wavers or doubts, but with those doubts to come to Jesus saying, “Lord, I believe in you. Would you help me with my unbelief? I can’t help myself with my unbelief. No one else can help me with this. They can understand me, they can have compassion on me, but I need you to take my little faith and let it be enough”.When people came to Jesus is with these doubts, he did not condemn them or tell them their faith was not enough, he received their faith being, himself, the proper object of their faith. He modeled a life of faith with others. He came to meet us where we were to meet us in our little faith. When the disciples freak out on him in the boat two different times, he does say, “Oh, you of little faith”. The more I have studied those scenes and thought about them I have concluded that is much more gentle than harsh. Jesus is bringing their attention to it but not in a harsh rebuke but in a gentle question. The really cool thing about the disciple is that after Jesus died and rose again, and he sent the Holy Spirit, their faith went through the roof. Their faith grew. Those of little faith were recognized as having great faith because the Holy Spirit grew it in them and made them bold.Reality of Salvation & the Spirit’s Word v. 17And take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul says, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. Here, in Ephesians, he just calls it the helmet of Salvation, but there he calls it the helmet of the hope of Salvation. I think that’s really clarifying for what he means here in Ephesians.We are saved in hope of ultimate salvation. We don’t worry about the battle that we find ourselves in, about the power of the devil, or about the power of the enemy. We know that we have been saved and that we will be saved. The helmet in the Roman army protected the head and the brain inside that head. If I don’t have a brain, I’m not thinking and I’m not moving and I’m not fighting. I have read that, ‘Every battle is one or lost in the mind”. What you believe affects how you go about the battle. I’ve heard theologians say that the most important thing about you is what comes to mind when you think about God. Our mind is very important, and battles are won and lost in the mind. You could have the better army, but if you don’t think you can win, if you don’t have strategy to win, you won’t win. The battle is lost or won in the mind. And the devil loves to mess with our mind. He loves to play on our fears, to tell us lies, to play even on our confidence. He is a deceiver, and he will come from any direction that he can.So Paul says, to guard our minds with a helmet of the hope of salvation. He wants us to know securely what Jesus has done and that that would protect our mind that whatever doubts, whatever things he says. He wants us to know that our mind is protected by secure hope. He has in mind a hope that is secure. That we would know the story and know what Jesus is coming to do.Then he talks about the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. The Spirit is not the sword. Growing up, this was always one of the more confusing ones. “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”. The sword is the Word of God which is the message of God’s victory in Jesus. The phrase, “Word of God” has come often to be associated just with the Bible, We’ve come to think of that as just the Bible, and that is a good impulse. That is right, but I think it’s sometimes helpful to take a step back because we want to know what Paul’s point was in talking about the word of God. When Paul wrote this, the Bible wasn’t even finished. The word of God is God’s communication to us, and especially the message of God’s victory in Jesus.That’s the same word he uses in Ephesians 5:26 to talk about the announcement of the gospel; “The kingdom of God is at hand”. It’s a declaration of the victory in Jesus. The message of Jesus and his kingship is where our victory comes from. That’s where our hope is and our security. Even though Paul here describs the sword of the spirit as the Word of God, Paul never tells us to use it to attack. The main point throughout this passage is “standing firm”, not going out into battles. The battle is going to come to you, and you need to stand firm. This is a portrayal of a worldview where there are real spiritual powers that have it out for us and want to take us down, and we have to take it very seriously. They want to do us harm, and the way we resist them is by putting on the armor of God.And so as we think about all the things that we’ve talked about so far, we want to think about the qualities more than the pieces themselves. Our focus should not be on the belt, the helmet, the shield, but rather on the truth, on the righteousness, on the hope of salvation. Those are the focus. The point is not to physically dress up in armor but we do want to be armed with these qualities. We want to have the reality of the things that Paul was talking about in this analogy. We stand firm against the forces of evil by truth, righteous living, the gospel that brings peace, faith in God, and his promises, the hope of salvation, and the message of Jesus’ victory.This is Paul’s great rallying cry. He’s written a long letter. This here is chapter 6. What he is saying is that this is our new authority. Jesus himself used the word, the word of God, to fight the enemy. He quoted God’s word when he is tempted in the wilderness, because God’s word is the power. It’s the word that transforms us. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. God’s Word has power to transform you. It is the truth that can transform your mind and imagination. What both the sword and the helmet have in common is that they are both about what God has accomplished. God has already done the salvation and his word is the announcement of that message. We don’t have to wonder if we’re saved and we don’t have to worry about messing up or falling out of grace. We are secured in him. And we don’t have to wonder if God’s Word will work. Isaiah 55:11 says this about God’s word, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. God’s word will accomplish what he sets out for to do. God’s word does not fail. We simply get to participate in what God’s word is accomplishing. When something’s finished that necessarily means that it is done. You don’t keep working on it. I was thinking about a puzzle. When you finish a puzzle, you do not keep looking for pieces or try to keep putting it together. Once it’s done, it’s done. It’s finished. Some people have this problem where they can’t let a thing be. They can’t let something be finished. I recognize in myself this impulse where it’s not good enough that it’s finished, that what Jesus has done is good enough, and I feel like I need to add to it. I need to add more to what he did. Sometimes this happens in silly examples. I have heard of handy people who fix things and maybe the the car is perfectly working, and they need to open up the hood and mess with stuff, and they end up breaking it because they’re not just satisfied with the working car. When you have a working car, you don’t mess with the engine; you drive it. You are supposed to let the thing that’s good and finished work.I think that that is our invitation with the Word of God and with salvation to let them be. They are finished. They are good, and we just let them do their thing, like driving the car. We are not supposed to be uninvolved but we should recognize that they’re both very effectively going to do what they’re going to do, and we just get to participate.Jesus has accomplished it. He has accomplished salvation, and he has spoken his Word. He did what we could not do. We aren’t capable of fixing these things. We’re not capable of accomplishing what God’s word needs to do, and we’re not capable of saving ourselves. He saw that we were dead and he rescued us. He has seated us with him, and our job is not to climb or try to get higher, but to rest in that reality, to do battle from the position that he’s already put us in. He’s brought us to the highest peak. So why would we keep trying to climb higher?If you’re the top of a mountain, you don’t keep going higher because there’s nowhere to go. You would look really silly if kept trying to higher because you’re already in the top. That’s what happens in salvation. God has brought us to the top. He seated us with Christ above everything. And so there’s not much more for us to do. He’s given us his very own Words of life. Why would we not eat them up like the source of life that they are? These are our weapons. We looked at these weapons. This is what Christ has given to his body, as a whole, for the very real battle we face. He did not give us strategies. Paul, in this section, could have said, “OK, you have a very real enemy, you’re fighting against the devil and his minions. Make sure that every morning you do this, and make sure you say this, and make sure you talk about that” He could have given us plans and step-by-step instructions and conferences and incantations, all these different things. That’s not what he gives us. What he gives us is Jesus. Jesus’ own truth, Jesus’ own righteousness, Jesus’ peace, Jesus’ faithfulness, his salvation, and his word. That’s our armor. That’s what we wear. We don’t wear it alone; we wear it together as a body. What he’s given us are his own attributes, his own armor, for his people, his unified body to take and receive and live into. ReflectionAnd so I want to end with a couple of questions for a reflection.* As we think about the belt, what are the lies that you’ve believed recently? If the belt is the belt of truth, what lies have you believed? * As we think about the breastplate, where is God calling you to live with more integrity?* As we think about the shoes, who is God calling you to share peace with?* As we think about the shield, where do you need to borrow someone else’s faith right now? Where’s your faith weak?* As we think about the helmet, where have you forgotten your identity and a future in Christ?* As you think about the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, what gospel truth do you need to speak out loud this week? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is an adapted version of a presentation I gave in class on April 13, 2026 Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.I want you to imagine yourself in a world, a Roman world run by the forum bells, your day, your time, highly structured and organized. The bells signal the time for work to start. The bells signal the time for lunch. The bells signal the return to work at the end of the day loud and clear and these secular and ordinary rhythms come to serve as sacred markers. It’s at these times that you choose to pray. Regardless of where you are, you engage in a regular fixed practice of prayer. For the first few centuries of Christianity, this concept was not a thought experiment but reality.See, the practice of fixed-hour prayer actually originates all the way back in early Judaism with the recitation of the Shema every morning and evening according to Deuteronomy 6:4-7.The Psalmist even says that he prayed seven times a day (Psalm 119:164), and this practice was inherited and adopted by early Christians. In Acts, Peter and James heal a man on their way to the temple for fixed hour prayer (Acts 3:1). Peter is on the rooftop for fixed hour prayer when he sees the vision of the sheet (Acts 10:9).This practice of fixed-hour prayer was seen by the early church fathers as a way to obey Paul’s command to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).Over the centuries, it has been known by many names. “Praying the hours”, “the daily office”, “the divine office”, “the divine hours” etc That language of “office” comes from Benedict, who described prayer as the “opus dei” which is translated “divine office” in the old English sense of “work”. Prayer is the work of God. For the sake of this project and presentation, I have used the term “fixed-hour” prayer as a way of catching all of these. But all of these names get back to one core idea, which is, that this is a practice of fixed-hour prayer throughout the day, which is structured around recurring times of worship, Scripture, and “psalmody”. It is a way of ordering our lives in such a way that we have regular interruptions that draw attention back to the reality that is the triune God and integrate that awareness into our life experience.What I hope to show you is that Fixed-hour prayer is a historically continuous yet consistently adaptable Christian tradition that works to theologically structure time, transform attention through repeated liturgy, and aid spiritual directors and directees by externalizing prayer beyond subjective experience.Bells Sound*Oh, wait, there’s the bells. I guess before I tell you anymore about it, we’ll have to stop what we’re in the middle of and practice this because that’s how this works. When the bell sounds or the time comes, we pause whatever we’re doing and praySo we’re gonna use a modern adaptation of fixed-hour prayer from Phyllis Tickle. This is actually how I was initially exposed to fixed-hour prayer, as my retreat partner incorporated this into my retreat and I have been using it ever since. Before each retreat, I will pull up the book for that season and find the morning, midday and evening prayers for the days of my retreat load in those days into my plan. We are going to pray together the morning prayer for the Monday closest to April 13th, which is to be prayed on the hour or half hour between 6-9am.So let’s walk through this together. We are going to read each part together out loud. This is the specific prayer for the morning, but each of these aspects or titles is present for the midday and evening hours with different psalms. This practice was generally something that was done verbally, whether corporately or alone. Current research, like that published in the journal Psychological Science, says, “A growing body of research has revealed that labeling an emotion, or putting one’s feelings into words, can help to downregulate that affect”, and that is exactly what fixed-hour prayer and the reading of the Psalms can do for its participants. As we read this out loud, we have the opportunity to be helped as our emotions might be named for us as we verbalize it together. In practice, you would definitely slow this way down and leave room for silence, reflection, and meditation, but we’re mostly going to move through it for the sake of time. But let’s breathe for a second and enter a posture of prayer….How was that for you? Any reflections?Now that we have experienced it together, let me keep telling you about this sweet practice.As the practice of fixed-hour prayer developed in early Christianity, it took on diverse forms. After the legalization of Christianity under Constantine, this practice exploded into the public arena with great diversity and with little conformity to standardization in terms of the content and format of the prayers themselves.Then, with the rise of monasticism, this practice became a little more standardized (and by a little, I mean a little). Even with the significant role of St. Benedict and his rule upon western monasticism, there remained a great diversity and adaptability of this practice. There was diversity in which hours were practiced, what elements were incorporated, and so on.This diversity remained a consistent aspect in my study of fixed-hour prayer. There was chapter after chapter laying out which elements were in each preserved version we have from every church father. And there were whole chapters dedicated to describing the differences between Eastern and Western fixed-hour prayer and between monastic and cathedral, which is to say for the lay person. In the monastery, the hours were independent of time and were intended to cultivate uninterrupted prayer, whereas the cathedral hours were developed in direct connection with the rising of the sun and the lighting of the evening lamps.Our contemporary experience of fixed-hour prayer has been revitalized largely due to the Breviary of the Roman church in 1971 and through the Book of Common Prayer, which reformed fixed-hour prayer in the sixteenth century.The two most ancient hours of prayer are the morning and evening prayers, whose origin, as has already been noted, can be traced back to the reciting of the Shema. The morning hour, which we just experienced together, is oriented around praise and the consecration of the day. Ours had a call to prayer, a request for presence, and of course the refrain, etc., oriented around those themes. The evening hour sees the close of the day through a lens of thanksgiving and repentance and accordingly thanks God for the day’s graces, asks for forgiveness for failures, and protection for the night and instead of a reading, Tickle and others will include a hymn. So even though it is very diverse in whatever form you encounter it the point is that it is highly structured, scripted, and repetitive.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.In addition to these two, there rose up at most six more hours of prayer which resulted in eight total times of prayer in Benedict’s time. There were seven during the day in accordance with Psalm 119:164 and one more at night according to Psalm 116:62. These daytime prayers were interruptions in the workday to pray through your work.There are a few underlying assumptions or foundational concepts that are helpful to name in understanding this practice.Time as a theological categoryFixed-hour prayer in whatever form it is practiced, imposes meaning onto time. What this practice does is to provide us with a sort of “Sanctification of time” or “liturgy of time.”Taft describes it this way, “In the liturgical mystery, time becomes transformed into an event, an epiphany of the kingdom of God.” Ultimately, fixed-hour prayer transforms time from a neutral medium into a theological reality. As Reed and Osmer described it this week this helps to foster the conviction that God is present in all of life (p. 18).Scripture-centered prayerPost-reformation, there is a general aversion to pre-written prayers and a tendency to more spontaneous prayer. There is an admirable impulse there to have every word be meant but as Guiver points out, “It does, however, have its own pitfalls (excess individualism, piousness and dependence on feelings, leading, in their absence, to their fabrication) and [so it] needs the strong counterweight of formal, onward-moving liturgy…” This is what we see in the praying of the Shema, the praying of the Psalms by the New Testament believers, and even by Jesus throughout the gospels. The Psalms have always been the prayer book of God’s people and the Psalms have been and continue to be the “living core of the daily offices”. In fixed-hour prayer, the individual does not generate the content of prayer but instead submits to the scriptural framework which shapes their language and their perception of time.Liturgy and RitualFixed-hour prayer operates within the logic of liturgy in which repeated ritual actions make theological realities both present and formative. Taft says, “Liturgy is not just our response; it is also the eternally repeated call. It is both God’s unending saving activity and our prayerful response to it in faith and commitment throughout the ages.” (Taft, 341). Liturgy is a joining of our work and God’s work. We respond to His call and engage in remembrance that shapes our experience of the present.So maybe you are thinking this sounds great but why should I think about this for directeees:Fixed-hour prayer stabilizes our perception of our relationship with God and mitigates our fluctuating experience. Guiver says, “Daily disciplines of prayer, and especially the daily office, are important for us - contact is made with God and is seen to be made. They are ways of marking, incarnating, what can feel to be an elusive relationship with God.” (Guiver, 27). So for a directee who is struggling with their prayer life and connecting with God, this practice is a regular touch point. Not only that but a unique benefit of fixed-hour prayer is its repetitive nature, day after day, praying these different aspects over and over again. According to a 2025 peer-reviewed study, “repeated prayer triggers the dopaminergic reward system, potentially motivating individuals to continue this practice” (Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2025).As I mentioned earlier, the verbalizing of emotions that the Psalms and fixed-hour prayer provide for us creates the possibility for powerful affect regulation. This is what Reed and Osmer mentioned when they said, “Naming and describing our experiences can enhance our interactions with God and others, and enrich our understanding of God’s work in the soul”. Not only that but a number of authors note how fixed-hour prayer has a way of cutting through the games we play in any communication and especially prayer, where we don’t say what we mean or we unconsciously try to manipulate or communicate in all of the nonverbal ways that we do.On the other hand, the risk as with any spiritual practice is that it could become rote and empty the way Malachi 1 talks about the worship of Israel and how it would be better if they shut the doors of the temple. But I believe this concern should not keep any Christian from engaging regular spiritual rhythms but should instead serve as a warning to remain intentional. Another risk would be in applying this rigidly which goes against the very adaptable and diverse nature of this practice. Lastly, there is a risk that we would be content with merely repeating the words there rather than using them as a way of exploring our own complex experience as a launching pad.As you think about what kind of directee this would be helpful with you might consider if they have a tendency to rigidity or legalism. On the other hand if you have a directee who is struggling to connect their secular work to their sacred calling, is drawn to liturgy, or needs help in expressing oneself in prayer, fixed-hour prayer would be a great aid in their spiritual development. One of the greatest implications of fixed-hour prayer is that it externalizes prayer so that rather than relying on the directee’s internal state, emotional readiness, or perceived ability to pray, there is a structure to open to God. Fixed-hour also relieves anxiety around “praying correctly”.So in practice, the application of this is incredibly flexible and diverse. Outside of the direction room this could look like encouraging a directee to start their day with a psalm, a midday Lord’s Prayer, and ending the day with the prayer of examen. In the direction room, a director might begin a session by reading a Psalm, inviting a directee to pray a Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, or the prayer of the Church together. In whatever case, the goal is that through this practice the directee might allow prayer to saturate their day, consecrating ordinary moments, and beginning to let their time, affect, and attention be transformed through the externalization of their prayers.My hope is that I have shown how: Fixed-hour prayer is a historically continuous yet consistently adaptable Christian tradition that works to theologically structure time, transform attention through repeated liturgy, and aids spiritual directors and directees by externalizing prayer beyond subjective experience.As part of this research project, I wrote a 15-page research paper, which I will eventually share and attach below.Works Cited:The Book of Common Prayer. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://www.bookofcommonprayer.netBenedict of Nursia. The Rule of St. Benedict. Edited by Timothy Fry. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1982.Bradshaw, Paul F. Daily Prayer in the Early Church: A Study of the Origin and Early Development of the Divine Office. London: SPCK, 1981.Carvour, H. M., A. K. Radke, and N. S. French. “A Review of the Neuroscience of Religion: An Overview of the Field, Its Limitations, and Future Interventions.” Frontiers in Neuroscience 19 (2025): 1587794. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1587794.Guiver, George. Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and the People of God. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 1988.Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, Edward Yarnold, and Paul Bradshaw, eds. The Study of Liturgy. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Kircanski, Katharina, Matthew D. Lieberman, and Michelle G. Craske. “Feelings into Words: Contributions of Language to Exposure Therapy.” Psychological Science 23, no. 10 (2012): 1086–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443830.Stewart, Columba. Prayer and Community: The Benedictine Tradition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.Taft, Robert F. The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West: The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1986.Tickle, Phyllis. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime. New York: Doubleday, 2000.Tickle, Phyllis. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime. New York: Doubleday, 2001.White, James F. Introduction to Christian Worship. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.Introduction:My dad has some friends that he likes to go on trips with. They will go to a cabin or go camping and they have a lot of fun. He often comes back from those trips and tells me what they did.He came back from a trip recently and he was telling me all that he did and he said, “We raked, we chopped down firewood, we cleaned this, we did that”. And so I asked him if they did anything fun. And he responded back, “We cleaned the grill…”.And I looked at him confused and asked, “So this was a work trip?” And he was confused. And I said, “It sounds like it was a work trip.” And he hadn’t even realized that he had actually been on a work trip. He thought he had been on vacation.And this silly example reminded me of different commitments we get into whether it be college, a discipleship program, a volunteer opportunity, etc. Sometimes we think we are signing up for a vacation and really we are signing up to work. . It is really important that we know what we are doing and who we are. If we do not know what we are doing, we will not prepare and we will not act rightly.As you read this passage of Scripture, I want you to think about this section and what it reveals about the “Reality of the Battle” around these four points: His strength, our standing, our enemies, his armor.Go ahead and take a moment to read Ephesians 6:10-6:13.Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.The Reality of the BattleThis whole section is the grand finale of the letter. It is this rousing call to arms. This is the culmination of everything Paul has been saying in Ephesians, which means, we need to consider these things in light of the rest of this letter. We shoul not pick out Ephesians 6:10-24 as an isolated treatment of “Spiritual Warfare”. This is not an independent section. Throughout this last chapter there is repetition of a lot of the language from previous sections such as “power”, “powers”, etc.The Reality of His Strength (v. 10)Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.Verse 10 functions as a header for the whole section. Paul says, “Finally”. He is wrapping up the whole letter.“Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might”. This is the power language from previously in the letter. Paul is explaining how we are strong in the Lord. This is the main point of the armor of God in this section. Paul is making clear that Jesus has defeated the powers. We are just supposed to not lose ground. Here in this context, we are supposed to stand strong in the “power” that Paul wanted us to understand earlier in the letter.It is interesting to note that Paul does not start by focusing on the fight or the enemy. We have a tendency to get caught up in “the fight”. When we do that, our focus is on the enemy but Paul wants our focus to remain on the Lord. If you focus on the enemy, you’ve already lost. We want to focus on the victor, Jesus. All of the rest is peripheral.He has spent this whole letter focusing our eyes on the victory of Christ and he does not want us to take them off of him now. Jesus is the strong one. Jesus is the victorious one. We don’t do this on our own, in our own strength now, but in His.Practically, you don’t go into a fight without training. And when you think about warfare, you usually want a good position in order to be successful. Obi Wan famously went for the high ground. You need preparation to stand firm and part of this preparation is receiving the strength from the Lord, to be made strong. That’s the language here.Ephesians 6:10 says, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”SitBut Paul has not started this letter with this instruction to stand. In terms of spacial imagery used for the believer it starts Ephesians 1:20b-21 where Paul describes what God has done in Christ saying, “when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.So Jesus seated above all power and principality and according to Ephesians 2:6, we are seated with Christ. Jesus the one who is seated over all power and principalities. As a king in a battle, you sit down when it’s over, when you’ve won, and there is a chance to rest. This means that your position is of rest with Christ.WalkBut Paul has not only described our seated nature with Christ. In Ephesians 4:1, he has called his readers to “Walk worthy of the calling”. Yes, positionally, we are seated with Christ but practically we are called to walk that out. We live a certain way that reflects our sure and settled identity with Christ. Which leads us to Ephesians 5 where Paul says to “walk in love” (5:2), to “walk as children of light” (5:8), and to “Walk circumspectly” (5:15). The way we go about our life, the way we walk from place to place, through our life, from our work to our school, with our family, it’s supposed to be worthy. W already sitting positionally. That is done. We are seated with Christ and now in the present, we want to walk worthyly. So we go from sitting to walking.StandAll of that before we are ever called to stand. We are told of where we sit, and we are called to walk, before as Paul ends he tells us that our role is stand. But how we walk will determine how well we can stand. Chapter 5 was all about getting the garbage out of our lives (5:3-7). Darkness invites the enemy. This is all relevant because, you don’t have the power within yourself to fight that battle.As an illustration, Have you ever helped your dad with a task? Or used a very powerful piece of machinery? When you work with your dad and your “helping” him lift something it would be silly and untrue to say you did the lifting. You were there and participating but he did all the heavy lifting. Or in the case of the machinery you didn’t lift all the dirt, the digger did. You just pulled some levers. That is the dynamic going on here. We have access to his strength. He wants us to participate but we are not expected to do any heavy lifting. It’s his strength. Not ours.So the call here is to “Be strong in the Lord”. Be this way because you already are this way. Just don’t step out of this. Don’t step out and try to do it in your own strength. Why would you go and lift without your dad? Why would you try to move the dirt without the machine? Let him be strong.If we think about Paul’s understanding of true strength, we can turn to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where he recounts his back and forth with the Lord, saying, “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”Jesus is the strong one. He is the perfect example of strength. He knew we were weak and incapable on our own so He came. He came to identify with us and give us his strength.Then he died, rose again, and ascended, sending us His Spirit to give us strength. It his Spirit who empowers us for the task of joining him.The Reality in which We Stand (v. 11)“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”Here in Ephesians, we use the armor of God to hold our ground. The messiah has already won the victory. We just need to hold our ground. Verse 13 is really clear that we are not taking ground. We are just maintaining ground. In Paul’s mind, spiritual warfare is not an event; it is a lifestyle. If this is a lifestyle then it needs to be sustainable and that’s why it is so important that this passage remains grounded in the context of the whole letter. First, we sit. We are securely at rest in Christ. Second, we walk. We follow Jesus in a manner of holiness. And lastly, we stand.This is so that we are able to stand against the enemy.So what does this look like? There are some really practical and important things.Jude 9:1 says, “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”This is the archangel of God and when faced with a conflict with the enemy, he did not attack the enemy, he did not try and come up with things to say, or to intimidate him. Instead he looked to the Lord, in the power of his strength and said, “The Lord rebuke you”. When we face the enemy, when we feel the lies of the enemy come, temptation, discouragement, we are tempted to fight back and step up in our wisdom, but the example here is to rest in the authority that we have in Jesus to send the dark spiritual forces back to the one who defeated them.We are not going on the offensive. In verses 10 and 13 Paul uses the words “stand” and “withstand”. We are just protecting what has alread been won. James 4:7 will say that we should, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Resistance is not the same as fighting. The implication is that the ground has already been won. When we think of spiritual warfare as offensive we step into dangerous waters. That seeks to advance, the other seeks to protect what’s already been won.Colossians 2:15 describes Jesus as “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” Jesus triumphed. He came and went to war and won the battle which means our fight is not for victory; it is from victory. We already know the score. When the enemy wants to pick a fight, look at the score board. Don’t let the enemy trick you into a battle you haven’t already won. Jesus has won. So war against the enemy from victory.Stand and WatchAnd remember that the battle is not yours but God’s. In Judges 7 with the story of Gideon, God commands Gideon and his army to “Stand and watch”. He says, “I will win this war for you”Position Yourself StrategicallyEphesians 6:11 says we are standing against the “wiles” of the enemy. He has carefully designed strategies to deceive.Ephesians 1:3 told us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. But one of the enemy’s primary strategies is to convince we do not have enough. He comes at us with the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. There are the enemy’s tactics but Paul has reminded us that everything you need is in Jesus.Colossians 2:15 says that the enemy has been disarmed. Essentially, the enemy is shooting blanks. He has no authority over you. Jesus has disarmed the enemy. There is no authority in an empty gun but the enemy will trick you into giving up the victory you already have. The enemy will not trick you into standing, he will trick you into moving. Standing is a position of defense.If you think about it, if our instruction is to stand then it would be a trick of the enemy to advance and actually it would be trick of the enemy to get us to retreat. Why? Because all of the armor is all on the front of the body. Retreating leaves us exposed.There is something very difficult about standing still. As people we crave activity. We want to do something to go somewhere we don’t want to stay.Thinking about staying put make me think of my dog. Unfortunately, she is not well trained. Her name is Lily and she is not good at staying put. If you tell her to stay she does not not do it. I have tried being firm and being gentle but she just won’t stay. We are told that our role in this battle is to stand. It might seem like a lame job and not very exciting. But “standing” and”standing against” is a very important job. We stand and we welcome people in to join the family. We stand and we serve as a deterrent against those who might come for the wrong reasons.This means we do not give up and lay down. We do not run forward into trouble. We stand wherever God has called us to be. Wherever we find ourselves, we stand there and you do it well. Whatever spiritual battle you find yourself in you don’t roll over and give in and you don’t try to move forward. You stand.There is a really interesting thing in Scripture that happens after Jesus is resurrected and then ascended. Throughout the rest of the New Testament when Jesus’ location is described he is always described one way. “Sitting at the right hand of the Father.” If you want to know what He is doing in Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews and other letters, they say He is sitting at the right hand of the father. This is true every single time; every single time that is, except one. One time He is not sitting. Do you know where?In Acts 7:54-60 we get the story of the stoning of Stephen. This is the only place Jesus is not described as sitting but instead Stephen says that he see Him standing at the right hand of God. Different theologians offer different explanations as to why He is standing this time. Maybe He is standing to honor him, or standing as a good host to welcome him, or standing in attention to advocate for him, or standing as judge to declare this act against Jesus as unjust. Regardless, Jesus is here standing at the first martyrdom of the saints. So when we stand we are imitating Christ.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.The Reality of Our Enemies (v. 12)For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.We have a real enemy! Paul says we are not fighting against flesh and blood - meaning, not mere humans. He is not saying evil does not take flesh and blood forms. He is saying we do not only wrestle against flesh and blood. There is something behind what we face that is more than flesh and blood. Other people are never the real enemy. They might be complicit with the enemy but they are not the real enemy.Most cultures throughout most of human history have had some view of spiritual reality. There is an obvious complexity to our problems. And as you think about spiritual evil, we are pretty weak and vulnerable compared to these enemies we have.Scripture calls them a few different things whether spiritual forces or beings of wickedness. Paul has been talking about them throughout this letter. Ephesians 1:20-21 has already said that Jesus is exalted over these powers. As scary as they seem, Jesus is above them. In Ephesians 3:10, he says that wisdom of God has been made known through the church “to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”. Ephesians 2:2 has called this enemy the “prince of the power of the air”. Paul has already been talking about these enemies and he has made clear that the church is God’s display of victory over them.Verse 6 and elsewhere has said that they act in “heavenly places”. We saw this phrase in Ephesians 1. The heavenly places is the unseen part of reality that is just as real even though we cannot see it. Paul wants his communities to know that their real enemy is never another human but the larger social, economic, political, and religious forces that govern and shape human existence. Paul, along with all Jews shaped by the Biblical traditions, viewed these forces as manifestations of spiritual rulers, authorities, etc., who are opposed to the cosmic reign of the Messiah.I have often heard that the enemy’s best strategy is to make us believe he does not exist. If you do not think you have an enemy then you will not expect a fight but scripture tells a different story1 Peter 5:8 tells us that there is a real spiritual enemy and that we need to be forewarned.If you take this idea into the world of sports, in almost any sport that I can think of there is an opponent. You play against an opponent or an opposing team. How you play the game is shaped by your opponent. Your strategy is shaped by that opponent. Can you imagine how differently a soccer game would be played without an opponent? Now imagine you play like there is no opponent but there actually is one.We have to know there is an opponent. If we think there is not, it will completely change how we live.Our world in general says that everything has a purely natural origin. We look to the natural sciences and to psychology and that is meant to explain everything. But that is a lie and it is a lie that we cannot believe.Jesus was very clear about this enemy. He encountered him multiple times. In Matthew 4 Jesus was tested in the wilderness by the enemy. In Matthew 6:13, He taught us to pray against that enemy and in Colossians 2:15 He defeated him.The Reality of His Armor (v. 13)Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.You cannot fight a spiritual war with carnal methods. If our enemy is not flesh and blood then our weapons cannot be flesh and blood.Ultimately we are responsible to prepared to stand and that involves taking up the “whole armor”; not just part of it. If you do not take up the whole armor, you leave an opening for the enemy. This armor is called, the armor of God which means, uou don’t get to make your own armor.Ephesians is actually not the first time that the Bible talks about the armor of God. Isaiah 59:17 says, “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,And a helmet of salvation on His head;He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,And was clad with zeal as a cloak.”Does that sound familiar? Paul is not inventing this imagery. He is drawing it from his scriptures. And the incredible implication here is that this is not just God’s armor in that He is the source of the armor but it is His armor in that he has worn and used it. It is battle tested. God has given us His armor which means we get to wear the armor of the King. In Isaiah, God is the one wearing the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and is the one to bring justice and peace to the world.In Isaiah 11:5 it says, “Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.” This is a description of the messiah wearing the armor that Paul says is now ours in Him.In Isaiah, the armor is used offensively. God uses this armor offensively to attack, to deliver justice and vengeance. But as we put on the armor ourselves it is explicitly to help us to stand firm. Paul is very clear that the armor for us is not to go out and do vengeance. He will actually say elsewhere “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord” but that we are to stand with that armor. We are stand in the armor God has used and that He has now given to us to stand firm. Putting on the armor helps us to stand firm against the schemes and strategies of the enemy.Equipment really matters. If you are playing soccer you are going to want to wear cleats. If you are playing American football, you are going to want to wear pads and a helmet. It would really suck to show up thinking you were showing up for a golf game and you actually show up for a football game. That would not go well and you would get really hurt.The command in this verse is to “Put on” the armor of God. There is a responsibility to put on. Paul has been using this language of putting off and putting on throughout Ephesians. He has talked about taking on characteristics and attributes, ways of thinking, ways of being that we take on. We do not make the armor. Nor do we have to find it. It has been given to us; we only have to put it on.As I think about this language of “putting on”, I think of another passage in Romans 13:14 where he says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Here, instead of armor, he talks about putting on Jesus and to put on who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, his identity, his character, upon ourselves. And he does something similar in Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”The idea is that we are living in our new identity (Gal 3:27), rejecting old ways and desires (Rom 13:14, Eph 4:22), clothing ourselves with His character (Col 3:12), and walking in Spirit-empowered obedience (Eph 6:11).Jesus is the model. He is our ultimate example and He is the mediator. He is the one who opens this possibility for us by joining himself to our humanity so that our humanity can be joined to His divinity.Conclusion:As we think about this battle, this very real battle. In this section, there are four really important things as we think about spiritual warfare. 1. We do so in his strength, not our own. 2. We do so by standing, not by advancing or taking new ground. 3. We know that we have very real enemies which means we are not deluded into believing we lack an opponent.4. We do all of this in his armor. We get to put on who He is and it becomes true of us.We stand because Jesus is already seated above the powers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Mirroring this RealityThink back to the game you would play growing up where you would mirror what someone else was doing. They would raise their right hand and you would raise your left. They would wink and you would wink. Do you remember?So my point is that when I ask someone to mirror me, to imitate me, you can do a pretty good job. And in our lives, we actually do this a lot with people that we love. We imitate our really good friends. Maybe we make the same jokes they do. Maybe we talk like they do. Our families, or if we’re in a relationship, you start talking like them. We do this with the people that we love.And our whole section right now in Ephesians is all about imitating God. Not because God walks up to us and says, “Copy me,” right, like it’s some silly exercise. No. Because we love Him, and He’s our Father. And so we want to be like Him. Because we see that the things about Him that are good and beautiful, and we want to do those things too.So this whole section is about mirroring this reality.Just to remind us where we are in the book of Ephesians: we finished all of the first half o the book - those first three chapters - and then we started looking at the implications. We did chapter four, and now we’re in this section here, chapter 5 through the end of Ephesians 6:9.As your Ephesians 5:3-6:9, I want you to think about this idea of “mirroring this reality” around these four points:* Walking in Light* Walking in Wisdom* Imitating Christ* Submitting to the LordWe’ve sat with three chapters of this beautiful reality of who God is, Father, Son, and Spirit, what the gospel is, and what God has done in and for us. And now, as we continue looking at the implications of this reality (this reality that is actually real, that is the truest thing in the universe) we’re asking: What does that mean for me? What does that mean for you? What does that mean for today, and tomorrow? Why does it actually matter?And one of the implications of this reality is that we begin to mirror it. If we see it to be true, and we see it to be good, then we start taking it on as well. We begin to imitate like a child. We watch, and then we do.This reality is the truest thing in the universe, and so it begins to reshape our minds and our imaginations. We look out at the world and we say, “Oh, they’re doing it that way but I know a different way.” And that is because I belong to a different family. I’m under a different King. I believe in a different reality. Not everything they say is true. And so as we move forward, what we’re going to see is what it looks like when this reality actually starts shaping the way we live.Walking In the Reality of Light v. 3-14V. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of lightSo Paul starts here by basically saying: you are light in the Lord, so live like it. If you are light, then live like light.There are some more things in this section that need to be laid aside because they are not in keeping with God’s new family and the culture of that family. It’s kind of like when you start hanging out with a new group of people and you realize that some of your previous habits and behaviors are out place, “Oh we don’t do that here. We don’t do that here.” That’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying, “We don’t do that here”.V. 3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;So in verse 3 he starts another list. He says fornication, “porneia” in Greek, which is a word that applies to any inappropriate sexual activity. Then he says “uncleanness”, which is just dirtiness, anything that feels morally dirty. Then “covetousness”, which is greed and desiring more and more.And he says these things should not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. Saints: meaning God’s people who are holy people set apart to God. These things are so not part of who we are that why would we even talk about them? Why would we even give them mental space?V. 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.Then he goes on in verse 4 and keeps the list going: neither “filthiness”, which is obscenities, shameful talking, having a dirty mind and dirty talk nor “foolish talking”, which is silly, meaningless talk, nor coarse jesting, jokes that are rude or harsh or dirty.And then he gives a contrast. Instead of all these things practice thanksgiving. Rather, giving of thanks.Our minds should be filled with things that are beautiful, right, and good, and thanksgiving to God for them. That’s the contrast. Not this, not this, not this but instead, thanksgiving. And if we’re focused on who God is and what He has done, it should naturally bring about thanksgiving. Like Paul in some of his prayers, you can tell he just starts thinking about God and then he can’t stop himself from thanking Him.V. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and GodThen in verse 5 he says, “For this you know,” that no fornicator, unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. These people have a different culture. They do not fit in with what God is doing and what God has begun to do and will continue to do.V. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.In verse 6 he says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” Anyone who says otherwise, who says, “Oh no, no, it’s fine, you can keep doing that, it’s all good”, they are deceiving you. They might be deceived themselves, but they are telling you a lie. These things are not part of the kingdom of God. These things draw the wrath of God.And the wrath of God is something that some Christians are really scared of, because we know what human wrath looks like. Maybe we’ve had a wrathful parent, or someone who explodes in anger. That is not what Scripture means by the wrath of God.The wrath of God is this handing over - the releasing of someone to the results of their own actions. We see this really clearly in Romans 1:18–27. Paul says that as people continue to push against God, God says, “Okay. If that’s what you want, I’m going to release you to that.” And it’s not going to be good for you. But God is gracious. He’s not forcing Himself on anyone.So when Paul talks about the wrath of God here, he’s talking about the effects of those actions without God holding them back - without God protecting us from chaos and darkness and evil. God saying, “If you want to keep walking this direction and rejecting me over and over again, I release you.”V. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.Then in verse 7 he says, “Therefore, do not be partakers with them.” We’ve moved into a new culture. We used to live that way, but no longer. It wouldn’t make sense to keep living that way now that we belong to something new.V. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of lightVerse 8 gives this stark contrast: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” You didn’t used to be in darkness, rather you were darkness. You weren’t just surrounded by darkness; you were a source of it. And now you are light”.Not just in the light but the light has so transformed you that you actually are light. We are light people, and so we should live as light people.There was a recent movie that came out called Elemental. It’s about different elements that are people: fire people, water people, wind people. And the movie shows how you cannot live as a different element than you are. A fire person cannot live in a water pool. It puts them out.That’s what Paul is saying. You are light. It does not work for you to live as darkness anymore. You are light whether you believe it or not in Christ, and so you bring that light wherever you go.Paul isn’t making this up either. Jesus calls His followers the light of the world in the Sermon on the Mount. But Jesus also says that He is the light of the world. So there’s this idea that we are light only insofar as we reflect His light.Jesus is the sun, and we are the moon. We really are light but not independent of our light source.V. 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),Then in verse 9 Paul explains what this light looks like, what it entails. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.Goodness is benevolence—being kindhearted, helpful, doing good deeds. Righteousness is right-relatedness—doing what is right based on the relationship you’re in. And truth is being a truthful, honest kind of person—with yourself and with others.V. 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.In verse 10 he says, “finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” In Greek this is the idea of testing and approving what is pleasing to God. It’s discernment. We don’t always have a clear statement for every situation, so we test and approve by bringing our plans to the Lord and seeing where there is peace, where there is clarity, where Scripture and wise counsel line up.V. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.Verse 11 says to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. We don’t participate anymore. And by living as people of light, we shine light into the world, and that exposes darkness.This doesn’t mean that every time someone does something wrong, we walk up to them and tell them they’re wrong. Paul didn’t do that. Jesus didn’t do that. Rather, when we live lives full of goodness, righteousness, and truth, it creates a contrast. People notice. Sometimes it even makes them uncomfortable.V. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.Verse 12 says it’s shameful even to speak of those things. These are not things we revel in or dwell on. We’re supposed to be so filled with light that we don’t want to think about them.V. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.Verse 13 says that light stuff is seen stuff. We don’t retreat into a private spirituality. We live publicly as light in a dark world. And as we see in Jesus’ life, the darkness doesn’t like that—but that’s part of it.V. 14 Therefore He says:“Awake, you who sleep,Arise from the dead,And Christ will give you light.”Then Paul ends in verse 14 with a quote which is maybe an early Christian saying or song: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” It’s addressed to the unbeliever who receives the light of Christ in their life.I think this whole section invites self-examination. We don’t want to be defensive when we read these things. We want to approach them honestly, with a soft heart. If some of these habits have carried over into our lives, it’s okay to admit that. We’re already in the family.As we think about discernment, Paul and the apostles did not cover everything we will encounter. What we have to do is saturate our minds in scripture that we can with the Spirit discern what God would please God in this situation.Jesus was the light, he lived as light, his lightness exposed darkness. We don’t invent the light. We don’t figure out what is good or true or beautiful on our own. We look at Jesus. We sit with Him. And as we sit with Him, we become like Him, so that we might do what He did.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.Walking in the Reality of Wisdom v. 15-21This section is a continuation of what we’ve just been talking about. Paul is still working with this idea of taking off one way of living and putting on a new way of living. This paragraph both concludes the previous section and launches us into what comes next.The main point here is this: act wisely by being controlled by the Spirit.V. 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,So verse 15 says, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” Walking is just going about your life. And most literally, this could be translated, “Pay attention to how you walk.” Watch how you live. Don’t be thoughtless. As you go about your life, think about why you’re doing what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.You arrange your life so that you can live in wisdom.V. 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.Then verse 16 talks about redeeming the time. Literally, buying the time back. The idea is that time has been co-opted by evil, which is to say by the powers, by the spiritual forces Paul has been talking about, and wisdom is buying it back for God’s purposes. Being mindful of your time and how you use it.V. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.Verse 17 says, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” This is about insight. We want to understand God’s purposes in the world. And throughout Ephesians we’ve seen that God’s will is to bless, to partner with humanity, and to make one unified family under Christ.V. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,Then verse 18 feels a little random at first: “Do not be drunk with wine.” But drunkenness leads to dissipation which is a wild, unruly, thoughtless approach to life. Bad decisions. Poor life choices. Instead, Paul says, be filled with the Spirit.To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by Him and led in His ways. Christian living is life in the Spirit. We want the Spirit to so fill us that He controls us. In the same way that someone who drinks too much wine starts making decisions they wouldn’t normally make, we want to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that we find ourselves doing things we wouldn’t normally do, which is being kinder, forgiving more freely, and realizing, “I don’t even know where that came from.”Then Paul shows us what being filled with the Spirit looks like in everyday life.V. 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,Verse 19 says it shows up in speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. When we gather, one of the ways the Spirit communicates is through speaking - specifically through encouraging one another, reminding one another of what is true.It also shows up in singing; singing to God, making melody in your heart to the Lord. Whether we’re singing together or singing privately, we’re declaring truth to one another and to God.V. 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,And it shows up in giving thanks. When the Spirit is at work in us, it results in thanksgiving - thanking God for what He has done, for His blessings, for His work. Always giving thanks for all things.V. 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.Then verse 21 says, “Submitting to one another in the fear of God.” To submit means to arrange ourselves under. We’re not self-asserting. We’re yielding. We’re listening. We’re letting others speak first. We’re willing to come under someone else and say, “Maybe you have something to say right now.”What’s interesting is that being filled with the Spirit here is very down to earth. It’s not this flashy, super-spiritual thing where smoke is coming out of your eyes or you’re having wild visions. For Paul, being filled with the Spirit looks ordinary. It looks like how you talk to people. It looks like how you sing. It looks like how you make daily decisions.The Spirit wants to help us with everyday life.God wants us to grow into wisdom so that we begin to know what God would want us to do in a situation, even when there isn’t a verse that directly addresses it. Because we’ve been soaked in Scripture and shaped by community, we start to say, “Okay, I know God cares about image bearers, so I should treat this person with dignity,” or “I know God values patience, so maybe I shouldn’t rush this.”Jesus is the perfect example of this. Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in wisdom while He was on earth. He was given the Spirit of wisdom. And John calls Jesus the Word, logos. which can also mean wisdom. Jesus is the wisdom of God.So as we look at Jesus, at how He lived and how He taught, we learn what wisdom looks like. And that’s how we learn to live wisely too.Imitating the Reality of Christ v. 22-33This is a really well-known passage, because it’s one of the clearest passages in Scripture about marriage - what marriage is and what it’s meant to be. And Paul is getting very specific here. He’s spent a lot of time talking about big, lofty, heavenly ideas: God the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the gospel, where we are seated with Christ. And now he zooms way in and talks about marriage which is an everyday relationship.What Paul is showing is that all of those big theological realities actually have implications for something as ordinary and daily as marriage.As I was studying this section, one thing that kept coming up is that people often get uncomfortable here, because we start talking about submission, and later about children and slaves. But what’s interesting is that the husbands actually get the bulk of the instruction. They get hit the hardest in this section. The husband is addressed as husband, as father, and later as master. The weight of responsibility is heavy.And this text is actually very countercultural for its time. In the ancient world, wives, children, and slaves were hardly ever addressed directly. Here, they are dignified. They are treated as moral agents who have a choice to make. They are not just commanded through someone else.This whole section flows directly out of verse 21: submitting to one another in the fear of God. That disposition still applies as Paul now gets specific about relationships within the household.V. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.In verse 22 Paul says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” What’s important here is that Paul doesn’t introduce a new verb. It’s the same verb from verse 21. The wife is dignified to do this of her own accord. She is not being forced by her husband or by anyone else.And it says, “as to the Lord”, not as if her husband were the Lord, but as part of her commitment to the Lord. Her submission is ultimately an act of faithfulness to God.V. 23-24 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.Verses 23 and 24 give the reason for this. Paul says “for” (because) the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And whatever that authority looks like, it must be the same kind of authority that Jesus modeled: sacrificial, life-laying-down authority.Authority here is acting to bless, not acting to boss. The bar for the husband is whether or not he is imitating Jesus. That’s the standard.V. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,Then in verse 25 Paul turns fully to the husbands: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” This is sacrificial, steadfast, committed love. It is love that lays down its life.V. 26-27 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.Verses 26 and 27 tell us the goal of Christ’s self-giving love: it was for her benefit—to sanctify her, to set her apart for God and His purposes. This cleansing and setting apart is so that the church can be presented beautiful before Christ, her groom.Then Paul says that husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. This includes physical nourishment and emotional care. This is God’s original design for marriage, and that’s why Paul quotes Genesis. The two become one flesh in this mysterious way.And Paul acknowledges that this is a great mystery. The oneness between husband and wife, and the oneness between Christ and the church - both are pointing to something deeper.Then in verse 33 Paul gives a summary sentence: “Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”As I was thinking about this section, I thought about a picture of my family. I have a picture of my family: me, my dad, my mom, and my brother. Is that my family? Yes and no. It represents them. It’s a faithful picture. But it’s flat. I can’t talk to them. I can’t touch them. You don’t get to hear their voices.The picture points to something greater.That’s what Paul is saying about marriage. Marriage points to something greater. Marriage is a picture of what Jesus has done and is doing with the church. It’s not perfect. It’s broken. But it still points to that greater reality.And these values discussed here are things that we are all called to do in our relationships. Love and mutual submission both as an end in and of itself and also as ways of preparing for this possibility of marriage if that would be what God has for us. These general virtues have more specific applications in marriage but they are things that should be generally true of the believer.So marriage carries weight. Healthy marriages point to the faithfulness of Christ. Broken marriages point to brokenness in that picture. Jesus is all over this passage: as the one who modeled love, and as the one who showed us what submission looks like.Christ loves His people. And Christ also submitted to His Father. We see that all throughout the Gospels: “I’m doing what the Father sent me to do.” Jesus is the model for both the husband and the wife - showing us what love looks like, what submission looks like, what good authority looks like, and what submitting to good authority looks like.Submitting into the Reality of the Lord v. 6:1-9This section is a continuation of the discussion of the Christian household from the previous sections, and it is still rooted in verse 21 and this idea of mutual submission.What’s important to notice here is that these sections give children and slaves real autonomy and responsibility. They are treated as people who can make decisions. They have a choice. They are not simply acted upon.V. 1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”Verse 1 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” In this culture, obedience was the social norm. Children obeyed their parents. If a child did not obey their parents, the parents could bring the child into the center of the town and say, “My child is disobedient,” and the community could stone the child. That’s how intense this was.So Paul is clarifying something here. Children are not just supposed to obey because of cultural expectations. They are called to obey because this is how God designed the universe to work. This is living along the grain of reality. Generally speaking, life goes better when children obey their parents. There are exceptions, but this is the norm, and this has been true throughout time and history.V. 4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.Then in verse 4 Paul turns to fathers, who are the same people addressed as husbands in the previous section. He says, “Do not provoke your children to wrath.” This is about not parenting in a way that creates smoldering resentment and anger which is giving the devil a foothold.Instead, fathers are called to bring their children up. That means teaching and training them. Even correction has a teaching and training goal. Instruction includes admonition which is warning children to avoid certain paths. This is very much like the Proverbs image of a father warning his son. And all of this is to be done in the way of the Lord and like Jesus.Then Paul turns to slaves. Roughly half of the population in this culture were slaves. So if that is the norm, what does it mean for a church living in this culture?Paul gives a Jesus-centered view that is countercultural. A lot of people want to know why Paul didn’t just call for the immediate end of all slavery. There are many reasons, but one pattern we see throughout Scripture is that God accommodates human brokenness and slowly reshapes hearts. Paul also addresses this issue in Colossians and in Philemon.V. 5-8 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.In verse 5, Paul reminds slaves that their earthly master is not their real or final master—only their master according to the flesh. And he instructs them to be good slaves, serving with fear and trembling. This is not fear of punishment, but a posture of reverence toward God.V. 9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.Then in verse 9 Paul turns to masters and says, “You do the same.” And he tells them to give up threatening. Threats of violence were the primary means of slave control in the ancient world. Paul tells them to give that up, because God is both of their masters. There is no partiality with Him.There is a surprising mutuality here.For us today, this has application beyond slavery. It applies to employee–employer relationships, to bosses, to authority structures we find ourselves in, including even contexts like Patmos. This is the spirit and posture with which we are meant to navigate these kinds of relationships.Jesus models both ends of this relationship. Isaiah calls Him the suffering servant—one who submitted fully to the Father. And Jesus also models what it looks like to be a master who invites people into friendship and family.He rescues us from the masters of sin and death in order to restore us to the only Master who is worthy of our service. And He gives us His Spirit, so that we might submit and surrender to the Spirit’s leading in our lives. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This post is adapted from my teaching at Patmos Reality Discipleship on Ephesians 4:1-5:2, Summer 2025.Introduction: Before reading, take a minute to watch this helpful treatment of the literary structure of Ephesians by the Bible ProjectSo we are moving into the second half of the letter of Ephesians. Paul has spent the first three chapters laying a foundation. He has been asking and answering the question: What is reality? What is the true story of the world? What is actually going on in the universe? How do we make sense of our lives?The second half of the letter becomes very practical. Paul turns and says, “Okay, if this is what is real, then here is how life should look.” These things matter because reality matters.A helpful way to think about it is this: the first three chapters are like being taught about gravity. You learn that gravity exists. You learn that what goes up must come down. You learn that if you drop something, it will fall. You learn a fundamental rule of the universe.Then the second half of the letter is like saying, “Okay, now that you know gravity exists, don’t walk off cliffs. Don’t jump out of planes without a parachute.” It is extremely practical, but not because someone is making rules up. It is practical because there is a fundamental belief about how reality actually works.Paul is not just giving moral advice. He is saying, “Because this is the way the world is, this is how you live wisely within it.”As we read this passage of Scripture, pay attention to what it reveals about living into what Paul has been describing, especially as it relates to four things: unity, diverse maturity, putting off and putting on, and spiritual reality.Reading of Scripture: Ephesians 4:1–5:2Living into this RealityWe have reached a major transition point in the letter.Paul has laid out a grand vision of reality in the first three chapters. He has grounded everything in the reality of the triune God. He has grounded it in the reality of who we once were and who we now are in Christ. He has grounded it in the reality of the mystery of God’s inclusion of all people into the new humanity He is creating.With all of that said, Paul now transitions to talk about what this means on a daily basis. He begins to address the implications. If this is the true story of the world, then how do we actually live within it?Maintaining the Reality of Unity v. 1–6God’s one new humanity is really diverse.I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,Verse 1 begins with “therefore.” Based on everything Paul has said in this letter so far and based on all that Christ has done and what He has made available, this is how believers are called to live.Paul identifies himself at this transition point as a prisoner. We are fairly confident this was written from prison, but he does not say he is a prisoner of Rome or a prisoner of the emperor. He says he is a prisoner of Christ. The only reason he is where he is, is because of his captive heart to King Jesus.Every “you” in this section is plural. This is not addressed to individuals in isolation. This is a communal invitation.The church is not an option for the Christian. You will not fully know Jesus without living fully for one another. There are aspects of Jesus’ character, heart, patience, and wisdom that cannot be experienced apart from life together with others.And this is not something believers initiate. It is something that began in God and is responded to. Paul says to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called. The calling already happened. God initiated it. The response is simply to answer it. That calling includes all the status Paul explained in the previous three chapters.with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,Verse 2 explains how this life together is lived: with character traits that reflect Jesus and are born in believers through His Spirit.Lowly: having a humble posture.Gentle: relating to others with softness rather than harshness.Long-suffering: patience that lasts.Bearing with one another: realistically putting up with each other.Paul is not naive. He knows that people living together in the family of God will annoy each other, frustrate each other, and misunderstand each other. Bearing with one another means choosing to carry those irritations rather than cutting off relationship. It means saying, “You are worth this inconvenience.”endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.Verse 3 says to make every effort to maintain unity. Paul does not say to create unity. Unity is already Christ’s work. The call is to preserve what He has done.Notice that Paul does not give a structure or a system. He gives virtues. The unity does not come from technique but from Christlike character.There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.Verses 4–6 list seven “ones.” Seven is the biblical number of completion. That is a lot of things to have in common and they are arguably the most important things to have in common.One body.One Spirit.One hope.One Lord.One faith.One baptism.One God and Father of all.These are the baseline realities God’s people share.This is the first call to action in the second half of the book.Preserve unity.Living worthy of the calling means working hard to maintain unity. This does not happen accidentally. The church, historically and presently, could do a lot better at this.There are denominations, church splits, divisions within churches, and relational fractures everywhere. Unity requires forgiveness, grace, and humility. That is why it is often avoided or ignored.But this is how believers live in light of reality.When believers do not live this way, they communicate to the world and to the spiritual powers that they do not live according to a different story.Paul has just spent three chapters explaining reality. Ignoring unity is like sitting through three chapters on gravity and then walking out of a third-story window. It makes no sense.Believers do not live according to the same story as the world. To the outside world, the church should look like it lives in a fairy-tale world because it lives under a different King.When the world looks at the church, it should see Jesus.Not a fractured Jesus, but one unified Jesus.Jesus came for all people to make them one in Him, to be their head. He is sufficient for that task. His Spirit is powerful enough to enable this kind of life together if believers will open themselves to what He has already done and what He is continuing to do.Grow Into the Reality of Diverse Maturity v. 7–16After talking about unity, Paul now turns to diversity.Verses 7–10 show that Christ and His victory are the source of our roles, our work, and our responsibilities as Christians.Verse 7 says,But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.Our unity is the foundation from which diversity emerges. In the Greek, the idea of “one” continues the same unity Paul has just been describing. This is not a new topic disconnected from unity, it is the next movement within it.Diversity does not come before unity. Diversity is discovered through unity. When people actually come together and live together, they begin to realize that they are different. These differences are not discovered in isolation.Unity is not uniformity. Uniformity would mean everyone looking the same, acting the same, thinking the same. That is not what Paul is describing. Unity is served by diversity. Unity is not absorption into an indistinct oneness but the formation of a diverse family.Therefore He says:“When He ascended on high,He led captivity captive,And gave gifts to men.”9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also [d]first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)Verses 8–10 quote Psalm 68, a psalm about God’s great victory, and apply it to Jesus. Through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has won the victory. As a direct result of that victory, He has given gifts to His people by filling all things with Himself through His Spirit.The imagery is that of plunder. In victory, the spoils of war are shared. Jesus has conquered and now distributes the results of that victory to His people. Each person has a role to play in this reality.And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;Verses 11–13 explain how these roles function.Paul lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but a starting point.Apostles can refer broadly to messengers, more narrowly to the twelve, or to those commissioned by the church. In this context, it most naturally refers to the twelve plus Paul, who are those uniquely commissioned and entrusted with foundational witness.Prophets are spokespersons for God. They speak inspired words and bring God’s perspective on reality, often calling attention to injustice or calling people back to faithfulness.Evangelists proclaim the good news of Jesus, often in traveling or itinerant roles.Pastors and teachers refer to overseers and elders leaders within the church who shepherd and instruct.The surprising part is not the list itself, but the purpose of these roles.These leaders are given for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. In Paul’s vision, the everyday followers of Jesus are the ones doing the actual work of ministry and service. Leaders are not meant to do everything. They are meant to prepare, train, and mobilize others.Verse 13 describes the goal: attaining unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. This is not just intellectual knowledge, but deep, relational knowing. The result is a mature humanity.Verses 14–16 describe what this maturity looks like.that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,One of the first results is stability. Believers are no longer tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine. There are false teachings and deceitful influences in the world, and maturity means being strong enough to recognize and resist them.This does not mean becoming cynical or closed off, but it does mean not being naive.15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—Verse 15 says that believers must live together as God’s new creation, speaking or more literally, “truthing” in love. Truth is not merely something that is spoken. It is something that is known, loved, and lived.As Josh White put it: “To know a truth, to love a truth, and to live a truth are the same thing. Truth is a person not just a set of ideals”Elsewhere, Scripture calls believers to childlikeness. This passage warns against childishness. Wonder and innocence are maintained, but immaturity is left behind. Growth means becoming more and more like Jesus.As each member of the body does its part, the body grows into one mature body.16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.Each person gets to contribute to Jesus’ kingdom and victory. Rather than looking at others and wishing for their role, attention is turned toward Jesus and the specific calling He has given.Leaders and trusted people in the community help name and affirm those giftings. Preparation and faithfulness follow.Jesus has worked the victory, but He invites His people into it.Believers are invited to join the winning side after the decisive turn of the battle has already happened. The outcome has been declared, but participation continues.The battle has been won, even though skirmishes still exist.Christ has won, and He continues to win in and through His people.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.The Reality of Putting off & Putting On v. 17–24Since believers are the new humanity, and since they are called to work together to attain the stature of Christ, there are real lifestyle implications that follow.Verses 17–24 focus on putting on the new humanity.This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,Verse 17 begins with another “therefore.” Paul testifies in the Lord that believers should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Walking is a metaphor for how life is lived. This is about a whole way of life, not just isolated behaviors.This is something Paul and the Lord agree on together. It is not merely Paul’s opinion.Much of Paul’s audience was Gentile. They were not originally the people of God, and they had lived according to the fallen, pagan world. Paul gives a list of descriptors for this way of life.He begins with the futility of their minds. This is a way of thinking that is fruitless, good for nothing, a dead-end road.18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;In verse 18, Paul describes their understanding as darkened. They cannot see. They are living in the dark, like someone wandering around a dark room.They are excluded from the life of God. They do not know what God is up to, and that is the main thing human beings were created for which is to know God and participate in what He is doing.There is ignorance in them. They do not know what life is really about.There is a hardness of heart. Toward people. Toward truth.19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.Verse 19 uses the image of callousness. Calloused skin is insensitive. This describes being insensitive to God and to truth, with a moral compass that is no longer responsive.They are given over to sensuality as they feed the five senses. If it looks good, feels good, tastes good, then it is pursued.This leads to the practice of every kind of impurity. Dirtiness that never satisfies and always wants more.20 But you have not so learned Christ,Verse 20 marks the sharp contrast: “You did not learn Christ this way.” A completely different kind of learning has taken place.21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:Verse 21 emphasizes that discipleship includes teaching and learning. It is not only about feelings or actions. There is truth to be learned, understood, and received.Verses 22–24 describe both a decisive act and an ongoing process.22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,Verse 22 says to put off the old self. This is a one-time, completed action. It is something that was set aside when coming to Christ. That old way of life is being corrupted and is driven by deceitful desires that promise satisfaction but lead to exhaustion and decay.23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,Verse 23 shifts tense. Believers are to be renewed in the way their minds operate. This is present and ongoing. It happens daily. The mind needs continual renewal.24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.Verse 24 calls believers to put on the new self. To wear it. To adopt the way of Jesus as a way of life. To value what He values and live accordingly.This new self is patterned after the image of God as revealed in Jesus.Righteousness describes right-relatedness.Holiness describes the lived-out distinctness of God’s character in human life.The world has a vision of reality that is antithetical to the biblical worldview.It is as if the world is wearing distorted glasses. Reality is seen incorrectly. This was true of believers as well, before Christ.Now there is a need to learn to see rightly and truly.This requires learning to think about things according to the truth that Jesus embodied and taught.Distorted lenses prevent accurate vision. Coming to see reality clearly requires those lenses to be removed and replaced.This way of life is modeled after Jesus Himself.Not an abstract idea of truth, but the embodied and grounded reality of Messiah Jesus.This life is mediated through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and it is enabled through His Spirit at work within believers.Interact Knowing the Spiritual Reality v. 4:25–5:2Explanation (Local, Regional, Global):Verses 25 through 5:2 give very specific examples of how the new humanity is meant to live, now that the larger reality has been established.Because believers are one body, this way of life requires learning how to love and forgive one another.25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.Verse 25 begins with “therefore.” Because of everything that has been said, falsehood is to be laid aside. Lying belongs to the old humanity. In its place, truth is taken on.The reason given is relational: because believers are members of one another. Lying alienates. Truth makes shared life possible. Truthing helps people actually belong together.26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,Verse 26 quotes Psalm 4: “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.”Anger is addressed carefully and seriously here.“Be angry” is a present passive imperative. It is a command, but not a command to become angry. It is a command to allow something to happen. This is similar to “be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18.The passive voice means allowing oneself to experience anger when it is present. When there is anger inside whether from real or perceived injustice or evil. It must be felt. Anger is too powerful to ignore or suppress.The command is not to manage anger, evaluate anger, or shut it down, but to experience it without sinning.Anger is not sin in and of itself. It functions like warning lights on the dashboard of the soul, signaling that something feels wrong. It reveals something that needs attention.Psalm 4 originally speaks of trembling, whether in fear or anger, and bringing that emotion before God, even on one’s bed, until silence is reached. Paul translates this idea as anger and applies it here.Anger must be experienced with God. It is not meant to be held onto. It is transitional. If it remains, it corrodes. It must be metabolized or broken down into something that can move toward love.At the end of Ephesians 4, this same anger is to be put away. Anger is real and meaningful, but it cannot stay. If it stays, it damages human relationships.27 nor give place to the devil.Verse 27 names the spiritual reality beneath this emotional experience. Lingering anger gives the devil a foothold. There is more happening here than just internal emotion.28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.Verse 28 addresses stealing. Any form of stealing must be set aside. But Paul does not stop there. Instead of merely not stealing, believers are called to work, to be constructive, and to give. Life shifts from taking to contributing.29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.Verse 29 shifts to speech. Corrupt words, language that decays and rots, are to be replaced with words that build up, words appropriate to the situation, words that impart grace.30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.Verse 30 warns that this relational context is where the Holy Spirit can be grieved. Tearing down others who are indwelt by the Spirit grieves the Spirit Himself.31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.Verse 31 lists general vices that damage community and grieve the Spirit: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking, sourness, wishing harm, shouting matches, and reputation-destroying speech.32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.Verse 32 gives the alternative. Instead, believers are to be kind, Christlike in posture, wanting good for one another, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave them.Chapter 5 begins by reminding believers that identity precedes behavior.Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.“Therefore” again points back to what has already been established. Believers are called to imitate God by walking in love.This love is deep attachment both to God and to God’s people and it mirrors the sacrificial love of Christ, who gave Himself as an offering and sacrifice.Believers are not the active agents of spiritual transformation.They are commanded to let the Spirit work. They are commanded to be open. They are commanded to allow something to happen to them.Spiritual formation is participatory, not self-generated.Actions are not merely physical. They have spiritual impact and are shaped by spiritual realities by the work of the Holy Spirit and the opposition of the enemy.In a lake, what happens on the surface ripples outward and downward.When a rock is thrown or a boat moves through the water, the disturbance does not stay in one place. It spreads with influence.This is how the physical and spiritual realms relate. What happens in one affects the other.Jesus operated fully in both planes of existence.He addressed physical realities like healing, food, embodied needs, and spiritual realities like sin, forgiveness, lust, greed.These are not separate worlds. They are two sides of the same reality.Ephesians calls believers to live with this integrated vision, recognizing that everyday actions participate in something much larger than what is immediately visible.Conclusion:Living into this reality means recognizing that unity, diverse maturity, putting off and putting on, and spiritual reality are not separate ideas. They are all part of the same world Paul has been describing.This is what it looks like to live in light of what is actually true.Reality is shaped by the triune God.Reality is shaped by the gospel story.Reality is shaped by who Jesus is and what He has done.And because that is true, the way life is lived matters.Unity matters because Jesus has made one new humanity.Growth matters because maturity is the goal.Putting off and putting on matters because the old way of life does not fit the new reality.And spiritual reality matters because what happens in everyday life is never only physical.Believers live on both planes at the same time.Jesus lived that way.He addressed physical needs: food, healing, rest.He addressed spiritual realities: sin, forgiveness, desire, allegiance.These are not competing worlds. They are two sides of the same reality.This letter calls believers to see the world clearly, to live wisely within it, and to walk in a way that fits the reality God has revealed.That is what it means to live into this reality. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This post is adapted from my teaching at Patmos Reality Discipleship on Ephesians 3:1–21, Summer 2025.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Introduction:I love a good mystery.Whether it’s a detective novel or a film like Interstellar, there’s something compelling about a story where something hidden slowly comes into view. You start with questions. You sense that something bigger is going on. And then, piece by piece, the mystery is comprehended, revealed, realized until finally, the outcome becomes clear.That’s exactly how Paul is thinking in Ephesians 3.This chapter is about a mystery which is not something that remains unknowable, but something that was once hidden and has now been revealed. As we read this passage, four movements help us track Paul’s thinking:Comprehending, Revealing, Realizing, and Outcome.Reading of Scripture: Ephesians 3:1–21Paul’s desire in Ephesians 3 is simple but profound:that the church would truly know the love of God.Not just know facts about God, but know Him personally, experientially, deeply. Paul wants the people of God to grasp this love so fully that they are filled with all the fullness of God, growing into spiritual maturity and completeness.And Paul knows something important:it’s not enough to just talk about this reality.So in this chapter, Paul does two things:* He explains the mystery.* Then he falls to his knees and prays toward that end.Perspective is easy to lose. Mission is easy to forget. Paul wants the church to comprehend, realize, and pray into the mystery that has now been revealed:God’s eternal purpose is to unite all people in Christ and fill them with His fullness.This is no longer a secret.The puzzle box has been turned over.The picture is clear.The Reality of the Mystery Revealed (vv. 1–7)Paul opens chapter 3 with a familiar phrase:“For this reason…” (v. 1)This phrase gathers up everything Paul has already said in chapters 1 and 2.The work of the Triune God.From death to life.From separation to unity.All of it is for this reason.Paul begins as if he’s about to pray but then he interrupts himself.“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles…”And then he stops.The prayer doesn’t come until verse 14.Instead, Paul launches into a long aside, explaining his role in this mystery and how it has been revealed.A Prisoner of Christ (v. 1)Paul does not describe himself as a prisoner of Rome or the emperor though he is literally sitting in a Roman prison.He calls himself:“a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”Rome may think it holds him, but Paul knows who truly governs his life.He surrendered himself to Christ on the road to Damascus, and everything since including this imprisonment flows from that surrender.And this imprisonment has a specific reason:“for you Gentiles.”Paul is in chains because he refused to limit the gospel to one ethnic group.He crossed boundaries that made people uncomfortable.He proclaimed Jesus to everyone.A Steward of Grace (vv. 2–3)Paul describes his ministry as a stewardship:“the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you.”A steward manages something that doesn’t belong to him.Paul didn’t create the gospel.He doesn’t own grace.He’s been entrusted with it.And that trust was not earned.God revealed this mystery to Paul by grace; making clear that He intended to welcome all people, including Gentiles, fully into His family.What the Mystery Is (vv. 5–6)Paul clarifies:“The mystery… has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.”And what is the mystery?“That the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”This is the key:God always intended to bless the nations.What wasn’t clear until now was the extent of that blessing.Not observers.Not outsiders.Not second-class citizens.Equals.Paul stacks the language to make the point unmistakable:* fellow heirs* same body* fellow partakersOne new humanity.Shared life.Shared inheritance.A Mystery Revealed, Not Invented (v. 7)When Paul talks about “mystery,” he does not mean something that remains unknowable.He means something that was once hidden and is now clear.Like starting a week without knowing what it will hold the challenges, the schedule, the growth and then looking back and realizing what it was all about.That’s what Paul is saying has happened in Christ.The mystery has come into focus.And it is good news:God desires a multiethnic, multicultural, blood-bought people for Himself.This was not obvious before.Now it is unmistakable.The Mystery Is ClearThis reality has been revealed.God wants one people: diverse, different, unified in Christ.To ignore that clarity is to ignore the very purpose for which Christ came.Jesus Makes It PossibleJesus modeled reconciliation across boundaries.He died to destroy dividing walls.And He gives one Spirit, not different Spirits for different cultures, but the same Spirit to all believers.This is not unclear.It has been revealed.And at this point, Paul can’t help himself he moves from explanation toward awe.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.Realizing the Purpose of the Mystery (vv. 8–13)Paul now turns from what the mystery is to why it exists.He begins with a striking self-description:“To me, though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given…” (v. 8)Paul actually invents a word here. He takes the superlative “least” and intensifies it.It’s as if he’s saying, “If you line everyone up from most qualified to least qualified, go to the bottom, then take one more step down. That’s where you’ll find me.”This isn’t false humility.It’s memory.Paul remembers who he was: a blasphemer, a persecutor, violent toward the church.“Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent… the grace of our Lord overflowed for me.” (1 Tim. 1:12–14)And now this same Paul has been entrusted with something staggering:“…to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”Unsearchable Riches (v. 8)The riches of Christ are unfathomable and untrackable.So deep and so wide that no one ever reaches the end of them.You never “figure out” Jesus.You never exhaust Him.You never arrive at the bottom.Paul’s calling is to announce this inexhaustible wealth to people who were once told they didn’t belong.Bringing the Mystery to Light (v. 9)Paul continues:“…to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God…”God always knew what He was doing even when humanity didn’t.This one-family-in-the-Messiah plan was never an afterthought.It was hidden in plain sight, waiting for the right moment to be revealed.The Church as God’s Display (v. 10)Here is the heart of Paul’s point:“…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”The church is not a social club.Not a religious add-on.Not a backup plan.It is the display case of God’s wisdom.The word “manifold” means multi-faceted, like light refracting through a prism.Different cultures, backgrounds, stories, and gifts coming together into one body.And Paul says this display isn’t just for the world.It is a declaration to the hostile spiritual powers.Every time the people of God gather in unity, they proclaim something to the unseen realm:God is wise enough to bring enemies together.God is powerful enough to form one family.God’s Eternal Purpose (v. 11)Paul grounds this again in eternity:“This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Even though it feels new, this has always been the plan.A New Status: Boldness and Access (v. 12)Because of this mystery revealed, Paul says:“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.”Access that was once restricted is now wide open.No ritual barriers.No ethnic boundaries.No hierarchy of closeness.Believers are welcomed directly into the presence of the Father.Why Paul Says All This (v. 13)Paul closes this section with clarity:“So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”The entire digression exists for this reason.It would be easy to see Paul in prison and assume the mission had failed.Paul insists the opposite.This suffering is not a setback.It is part of God’s wise, eternal plan.Unity Displays God’s WisdomWhen the church lives in unity, it tells the truth about God.When it fractures, bickers, and divides, it lies.“The church is not a museum for saints; it is a hospital for sinners” (Augustine).And when broken people learn to live together in Christ, God’s wisdom is put on display.Seeing What Paul SeesPaul isn’t inventing this vision.He is adopting Jesus’ perspective on reality.And he invites the church to do the same: to see unity not as optional, but as essential to the gospel itself.Appreciating the Reality of the Mystery (vv. 14–19)After explaining the mystery and its purpose, Paul finally returns to what he started back in verse 1.“For this reason…” (v. 14)Now the prayer comes.Paul says:“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…”This posture matters.In Jewish prayer, standing was common. Kneeling signaled urgency, reverence, and deep dependence.Paul is not offering a casual prayer.He is overwhelmed by what he has just described.The Father from Whom Every Family Is Named (v. 15)Paul prays:“…from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”The God who formed families, nations, and peoples now draws them together into one family.Identity flows from God, not culture, heritage, or background.Our truest name comes from Him.Paul’s Requests (vv. 16–19)Paul doesn’t pray for comfort.He doesn’t pray for safety.He prays for inner transformation.Strength in the Inner Being (v. 16)“…that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being…”The strength Paul prays for is not external success, but internal resilience.This strength comes:* from the riches of God’s glory,* through the Spirit,* in the inner person.Christ at Home in Your Hearts (v. 17)“…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”The word dwell implies settling in, being at home.Paul is not asking that Christ would merely visit, but that He would fully occupy every room of the heart.Rooted and Grounded in Love (v. 17)Paul mixes metaphors:* Rooted: agricultural imagery* Grounded: architectural imageryLife and stability both come from the same source: love.Without love, growth collapses and structures crumble.Comprehending the Dimensions of Love (v. 18)Paul prays:“…that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth…”Paul doesn’t specify the object immediately.The dimensions hang in the air.Then he reveals it:“…and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…”This is not an invitation to intellectual mastery.It’s an invitation to relational immersion.Love that exceeds comprehension.Knowledge that comes through experience.Filled with All the Fullness of God (v. 19)Paul ends the prayer with a staggering request:“…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”Not partially filled.Not minimally equipped.Filled.This is the climax of Paul’s vision, that the people of God would live saturated in divine love and presence.Knowing Versus ExperiencingYou can know facts about a place without ever going there.You can read reviews, study maps, memorize details.But being there is different.Paul isn’t praying that believers would know about God’s love.He’s praying that they would experience it, deeply and personally.Pray Bigger PrayersPaul’s prayer reshapes our imagination.We often pray small, safe prayers.Paul prays expansive, transformative ones.Strength.Depth.Love.Fullness.God invites His people to ask boldly.The Love That Holds Everything TogetherThe love Paul prays for is not sentimental.It is covenantal, costly, cruciform.The same love that held Jesus on the cross now holds the church together.The Outcome of this Mysterious Reality (vv. 20–21)Paul ends this chapter not with more explanation, but with worship.After unfolding the mystery, revealing its purpose, and praying for the church to experience the love of Christ, Paul bursts into a doxology (a declaration of praise).“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think…” (v. 20)Paul stretches language to its limits.He piles phrase upon phrase to say what can’t really be said.God does not merely meet expectations.He exceeds them, far more abundantly than we could ask or imagine.And this power is not distant:“…according to the power at work within us.”The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in the lives of ordinary believers.This is not theoretical.It is present.Active.Alive.Where God’s Glory Is Displayed (v. 21)Paul finishes:“To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”God’s glory is revealed in two inseparable places:* In Christ Jesus: the perfect revelation of God’s character* In the Church: the imperfect people through whom God chooses to workThe church, with all its flaws and tensions, is still God’s chosen instrument for displaying His wisdom and grace to the world.From generation to generation, the same story continues.Conclusion:Ephesians 3 invites us to do more than understand theology.It calls us to enter the mystery.This mystery is no longer hidden:* God is forming one people in Christ* God is displaying His wisdom through the church* God is inviting His people to experience His love deeply* God is filling His people with His own fullnessAnd Paul’s prayer becomes an invitation for us as well.To ask boldly.To love deeply.To live unified.To trust that God is doing far more than we can see.The mystery has been revealed.The invitation is open.And the outcome is clear:Glory to God in the church and in Christ Jesus, forever. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This post is adapted from my teaching at Patmos on Ephesians 2:1–22.IntroductionClarity often comes through contrast.A light bulb shines brighter in a dark room.Food tastes better when you’re truly hungry.Rest feels deeper when you’re exhausted.Ephesians 2 works the same way. Paul shows the brightness of God’s grace by placing it against the dark backdrop of our former condition. As we read this passage, four movements rise to the surface:The Problem, the Solution, the Status, and the Resolution.Reading of Scripture: Ephesians 2:1–22In chapter 1, Paul unveiled the work of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit creating a whole new reality.Now, in chapter 2, Paul tells the story of how we actually enter that reality: through radical contrast and stunning grace.This entire chapter centers on one of Ephesians’ key themes: unity; both unity with God and unity with one another.Paul highlights:* the problem of separation from God that left humanity spiritually dead,* the solution of God’s intervening grace,* the contrast of statuses between groups,* and the resolution God accomplishes to bring Jews and Gentiles, and all people, together under Christ.For Paul, multiethnic unity wasn’t a side note; it was central to the gospel. He even confronted Peter publicly when he acted out of step with this truth:“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned… their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.” (Gal. 2:11–14)Paul didn’t call their behavior unfortunate or unkind. He called it a gospel issue. Because the unification of people is tied directly to the unification of humanity to God in Christ.Understanding that demands contrast.The darker the dark, the brighter the light.Tim Keller captured this contrast beautifully:“We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”This is the heartbeat of Ephesians 2.The Reality of the Problem (vv. 1–3)Paul begins with unfiltered honesty. He writes:“And you were dead in trespasses and sins…” (v. 1)“You” refers to Gentiles and in verse 3, Paul includes himself and the Jewish people:“we too.” Both groups shared the same condition.Paul isn’t saying we were struggling or limping along spiritually but dead.Externally alive, internally hollow.Walking in trespasses and sins means that the entire pattern of life was shaped by rebellion and separation from God.Paul explains what this former way of life looked like:* “according to the course of this world”* “according to the prince of the power of the air”* “according to the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience”The “prince of the power of the air” is a unique phrase, almost certainly referring to Satan.In Ephesus, many believed the spiritual realm existed in the very air around them — unseen but real.Paul affirms that reality but reframes it:these dark powers are real, but they no longer rule those who are in Christ.C. S. Lewis famously warned of two opposite errors:“One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them… they hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”Paul steers us clear of both mistakes. The powers of darkness exist but they do not have authority over those united to Jesus.Paul continues:“We all once lived in the passions of our flesh… and were by nature children of wrath.”Jew and Gentile alike, the whole world, lived according to disordered desires, indulgence of every appetite, and self-defined morality.We didn’t drift slightly off course; we were entirely cut off from life.Some kinds of death are obvious.Others look deceptively alive.A tall, sturdy-looking tree can stand for years with its leaves full and its trunk strong while inside it is hollowing out from rot.When it finally falls, everyone realizes the truth:it was dead long before it hit the ground.Paul says spiritual death works the same way.People can look vibrant, productive, impressive and yet be completely severed from the life of God.If you don’t realize you’re dead, you won’t reach for life.Without Jesus, we are dead.Any assessment softer than that fails to diagnose reality.And if the diagnosis is wrong, the cure will never be sought.Jesus is shockingly honest about the human condition.“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Luke 5:31–32)And again:“What comes out of a person is what defiles him… all these evil things come from within.” (Mark 7:20–23)Jesus names the problem and then becomes the cure.He gives not halfway life, but the Spirit of life, the same Spirit who hovered over the waters in Genesis 1.From death → to life.The Reality of the Solution (vv. 4–10)After describing the depth of our spiritual death, Paul introduces two of the most hope-filled words in all of Scripture:“But God…” (v. 4)Everything turns here.Not because humanity suddenly improved, but because God intervened.God is not stingy with mercy. He is rich in it; overflowing and abundant.And His love is not small or distant. It is great, expansive, relentless.When we were dead. Not when we were improving, not when we were aware, not when we were seeking Him: He loved us.Paul reduces the human story to two categories:* Those who are dead, and* Those who have been made alive with Christ.There is no third option.Even when we were dead, God “made us alive together with Christ.”Paul quickly clarifies:“By grace you have been saved.”This salvation is not earned, not deserved, not generated from within.It is a gift.Paul continues:“He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”Again, the language of union: What is true of Christ becomes true of you.If Christ is alive → you are alive.If Christ is righteous → you are counted righteous.If Christ is seated in the heavenly realms → you share His status, His security, His future.This is not “someday” language.This is now.Believers have new life now, purpose now, calling now.Paul reveals the purpose behind all of this:“…that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”God intends His people to be the showcase of His kindness.Humanity was dead and God brings life where there was none.He points to us as Exhibit A of His grace.Paul presses the point:“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”Salvation is:* accomplished by grace,* received through faith,* and entirely a gift.Nothing about salvation originates from human effort.And nothing about it gives room for pride.Paul closes this section with a stunning identity statement:“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”The word “workmanship” can be translated as poem. In other words: a creative masterpiece, a work of art.We are not the product of our own labor;we are the product of His.Salvation is not by our works but it results in our works.Good works become a response as the natural overflow of being made alive.The good news only becomes good when the bad news is taken seriously.A life preserver is meaningless to someone who refuses to believe they are drowning.But once the reality of the danger sets in, the rescue becomes breathtakingly beautiful.Understanding the depths of sin makes the gift of life shine.Hebrews 1:1–3 reminds us:“In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son… the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.”Whatever distortions we’ve believed about God whether harsh, distant, or angry, Jesus corrects.He reveals a God who loves enough to intervene, rescue, and restore.A God who brings life where there was death.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.The Reality of Contrasting Status (vv. 11–12, 19–22)Paul begins this section with a “therefore,” which signals a logical connection to everything he just said:Because God has made you alive, something has fundamentally changed about who you are.He wants believers to remember both their old status and their new status so they can see the contrast clearly.Paul writes:“Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… were at that time without Christ.”The separation between Jews and Gentiles was massive and painfully visible.Circumcision served as a clear, embodied boundary marker.It was the physical sign that separated those inside the covenant from those outside it.But this physical distinction only mattered because of a spiritual distinction:Israel was the one people group following the true God while everyone else remained outside God’s covenant promises.Paul describes the Gentile past in stark terms:“Separate from Christ… alienated from the commonwealth of Israel… strangers to the covenants of promise… having no hope and without God in the world.”Physically outside, spiritually cut off, alienated, and hopeless.In the Jerusalem temple, a real stone wall blocked Gentiles from entering further.Archaeologists have found inscriptions reading:“Any foreigner who goes beyond this point will be responsible for his own death.”Paul says: In Jesus, that wall is rubble.When you were dead (v. 1), you were also separate (v. 12).The physical distinctions mirrored a deeper spiritual reality:life and death, near and far, belonging and alienation.Then Paul gives the stunning contrast:“So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners…”God doesn’t merely forgive; He reassigns identity.You now belong to the kingdom of God.You are no longer visitors or outsiders but full citizens with rights, belonging, and purpose.Not just citizens but family.You share the same Father, the same home, the same inheritance.Paul continues:“Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”The apostles (the Twelve) and the prophets (likely NT prophets who were the Spirit-inspired spokesmen of the early church) form the foundation of this spiritual house.Christ Himself is the cornerstone the one who sets the angle, establishes the shape, and supports the weight.Then Paul makes an extraordinary claim:“In Him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”The place where God dwells is no longer a physical building. It is God’s people.Paul emphasizes this personally:“In Him you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”Not just “the church in general.”Not just “Christians out there.”You.You are part of this temple.You are being joined, shaped, fitted, and formed into God’s home.God’s dwelling is with His people.When making a cake, ingredients like flour, eggs, sugar, and butter are mixed together.Once combined, they are united in a new way.And once united, you can’t separate them back out.No one can extract “just the eggs” after the mixing.Something completely new has formed.In Christ, this is what God has done with Jew and Gentile and with all peoples.The unity is real, irreversible, Spirit-formed, and rooted in the work of Jesus.Paul wants this contrast to be unmistakable:* once dead → now alive* once excluded → now included* once strangers → now family* once divided → now oneThere should be a real contrast in our lives and we should be eager to recognize it in others.This new thing God is doing becomes clearer when seen against the old way of things.Jesus embodied the contrast Himself:* He brought life to the dead,* healing to the sick,* obedience where we were disobedient,* faithfulness where we were faithless.His faithfulness is applied to us, and His Spirit enables us to live in unity as one family.The Reality of the Resolution (vv. 13–18)After laying out the problem, the solution, and the contrasting statuses, Paul now shows what God did to resolve the separation, both vertically (with God) and horizontally (between people).He writes:“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (v. 13)Everything changes “in Christ Jesus.”Those who were far are brought near not by effort, not by ritual, not by moral performance, but by His blood.Paul continues:“For He Himself is our peace…”Jesus doesn’t merely bring peace.He is peace.He becomes the living, embodied reconciliation.Paul says:“…who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility…”This echoes a real architectural symbol of the temple barrier that kept Gentiles from drawing near.And beyond that literal wall, there was the wall of the Law which was the boundary markers that distinguished Israel:* dietary laws* purity guidelines* sacrifices* circumcision* festivalsThese laws weren’t bad; they were given for a purpose:to preserve Israel’s distinctiveness in the world.But when Jesus came, He brought these laws to their fulfillment.He didn’t abolish the Law. He completed it.By doing so, the dividing wall was torn down.Paul writes:“…that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.”Not Gentiles becoming Jews,not Jews becoming Gentiles,but something new,a new humanity formed in Christ.This unity isn’t uniformity.It honors distinction while forming a single family under one Lord.Paul goes further:“…and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”The cross is the instrument God uses to:* remove hostility between God and people,* remove hostility between people and people.The same blood that cleanses individuals also tears down barriers.In Christ, hostility dies.Paul draws from Isaiah to show that Jesus fulfills the promise of peace:“He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”The far ones (Gentiles) and the near ones (Jews) both receive the same invitation.Then Paul delivers a fully Trinitarian summary:“For through Him [the Son] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (v. 18)Through Christ → in the Spirit → to the Father.One salvation.One access.One family.Paul has taken his readers from staring at their own dead corpses (vv. 1–3)to realizing they are now the dwelling place of the Spirit of life (vv. 19–22).This journey is meant to stay vivid.It may feel raw to remember where God brought you from.It may feel vulnerable to acknowledge old patterns, wounds, or failures.But God is not hiding the process — He is displaying His restoring power.Bryan Chapell captures the heart of it:“Unity does not come from ignoring our differences but from remembering our shared need and shared Savior.”God receives glory when His work of transformation is seen clearly, contrast and all.Jesus is the foundation of this entire movement of grace.He initiates it.He sustains it.He completes it.We are not the starting point. We are incorporated into His work.The privilege is to participate in what He is building.The unity, the nearness, the life, the peace —all flow from Christ.ConclusionPaul sums up the entire chapter with a sweeping movement of contrast made possible by grace:You were dead but now you are alive.You were far but now you are near.You were excluded but now you are home.You were strangers but now you are family.You were divided but now you are one.This is the story of Ephesians 2:The Problem, the Solution, the Status, and the Resolution.God’s grace doesn’t just change your future. IIt changes your present.It redefines your identity.It creates a new humanity.And it forms a new temple where God dwells, in His people, by His Spirit, through His Son.Amen.Recommended Resource: In preparing this series, I found Bridgetown’s teaching series to be incredibly helpful. Their sermons are always theologically deep, culturally and historically rich, and revelant. You can listen here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Image by Zack Gross (2023)Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This post is adapted from my teaching at Patmos on Ephesians 1:1–23.Whenever I introduce a new book to my students at church, I love starting with a visual. So before diving into Ephesians, watch the BibleProject overview video. As it plays,notice the major themes of the letter: What is Paul trying to show us? Why does this letter matter?The BibleProject makes it clear: Ephesians is about the spiritual realm, the unity of the Church, and the lordship of Christ.Those three emphases saturate this entire letter.And as we read our passage, Ephesians 1:1–23, pay attention to what it reveals about the gospel around four anchor points: Father, Son, Spirit, and prayer.There’s also a refrain that occurs three times in this passage:“to the praise of His glorious grace.”In the live teaching, every time we hit that line, we read it aloud together.As you read it you might read that part out loud too.Reading of Scripture: Ephesians 1:1–23Introduction (vv. 1–2)Paul opens this letter in a very intentional way. He could have begun with any number of greetings or personal notes, but instead he starts like this:“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God… to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.”Paul identifies himself first: an apostle: literally, a sent one, an ambassador, an official representative of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.Right from the start Paul frames reality through the activity of the Triune God. His identity and calling are rooted in what God has done, not what he has chosen.And that’s not just true for Paul…“My hope is that each of you could say something similar: Zach, called to Patmos by the will of God… Justin, called to this job or that by the will of God.”Where you are is not random.Your life is shaped by God’s initiative.Then Paul identifies his audience:“The saints in Ephesus, faithful in Christ Jesus.”He could’ve described them in a dozen ways whether economically, culturally, morally but he chooses this: holy ones.Set-apart people.Despite their struggles, failures, background, and environment, Paul declares their truest identity: holy people, faithful in Christ.It’s both a proclamation and a gentle challenge:“You are this; so live like this.”Knowing the story of the Ephesian church in Acts 19, it’s no surprise Paul begins with identity. He reminds them who they already are:a people set apart for God’s redemptive purposes in the world, in a particular place, at a particular time.Just like them, you are a people in a place, set apart for God’s purposes.That’s the foundation.After this opening, Paul launches into one of the most remarkable sentences in Scripture.In Greek, verses 3–14 are one single, rolling, cascading sentence as if Paul cannot contain the overflow of praise in his heart.Before he even gets to his usual thanksgiving and prayer, he erupts with worship.Why?Because when Paul considers what God has done—Father, Son, and Spirit moving with unified purpose toward salvation—he sees the entire universe folding into this reality.This is ground zero for understanding everything else.This entire opening is structured with a repeated refrain:“to the praise of His glorious grace.”A refrain signaling transitions from the Father’s work, to the Son’s, to the Spirit’s, and ultimately into Paul’s prayer.Let’s walk through each movement.The Reality of the Purposes of the Father (vv. 3–6)Paul begins:“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”In Scripture, blessing always begins with God.He is the source of life, goodness, and abundance.When God blesses someone, whether Adam and Eve, Abraham, David, His words accomplish what they declare.When humans bless God, we’re simply acknowledging who He already is.And Paul does something remarkable here.He doesn’t say, “Blessed be the God of Abraham” or “the God of Moses,” the traditional Jewish formulas.Instead he blesses “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”Paul, steeped his whole life in a Jewish worldview, has had his imagination so reshaped by Jesus that he cannot speak of God without speaking of Him as the Father of Jesus.Why this blessing?Paul continues:“…who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”Again, God is always the initiator.As 1 John says,“We love because He first loved us.”Likewise, Paul blesses because God first blessed.Here’s where many of us stumble:When Western Christians hear “in the heavenly places,” we picture clouds, harps, and a distant future location.But Paul isn’t talking about some far-off realm.In Ephesians, the heavenly places is the unseen spiritual dimension that overlaps our physical reality, God’s space is present and active right now.This isn’t “future pie in the sky.”It’s the truest layer of reality.Paul then goes all the way back to the origin of this blessing:“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world… in love He predestined us for adoption…”This isn’t cold calculation.It flows from “the good pleasure of His will.”From love.From grace.This is the master plan plotted out, rehearsed, perfectly executed. Better than any heist or movie ever.” The Father’s plan is first, ultimate, and overflowing with delight.And Paul responds with the only fitting refrain:“…to the praise of His glorious grace.”This leads naturally to how Jesus Himself lived.Jesus said:“I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me… I always do what pleases Him.” (John 8:28–29)Jesus lived entirely from the Father’s purposes.And by His Spirit, He gives us the means to do the same.The Reality of Being in the Son (vv. 7–12)Paul shifts seamlessly from the Father’s eternal purposes to the Son’s redemptive work. He writes:“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…”Notice the phrase “in Him.”Not because of Him.Not as a result of something He once did.But in Him.Paul is talking about locationm, spiritual reality, and identity.We think we’re “in El Salvador,” or “in this classroom,” or “in our hometown.” And those things are true.But even more true, at the deepest level of reality, we are in Christ.There is a dimension of our existence that is unseen but more real than what we touch and feel.Paul keeps lifting the veil so we can see it.Redemption (v. 7)In Scripture, redemption always involves two things:* A price being paid* A person being set freeIn Jesus, both are accomplished. His blood was the price. Our liberation is the result.Redemption isn’t abstract. It’s bodily, costly, historical. Jesus’ physical life laid down on a cross.Ryken puts it this way (paraphrased):In the Exodus, salvation was from Egypt into the promised land.In Christ, salvation is from sin into glory.It’s always a two-step movement:Out of bondage and into fullness.God never simply rescues from.He always rescues into.This theme frames all of Scripture and Paul sees that movement unfolding in the Ephesians’ own story.Forgiveness (v. 7)Forgiveness means release, letting go, cancellation of debt.No longer do we carry the weight of our offenses.No longer do our trespasses define us.Why?Because of the “riches of His grace.”Grace that overflows, abounds, pours out like a river that cannot be turned off.Revealed Mystery (vv. 8–10)Paul says God has:“made known to us the mystery of His will.”God wants us on the inside. He wants His people to understand the story they are living in.In Christ, the divine plan, once hidden, is now revealed:“…the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.”All of history, all of creation, all spiritual powers, all human destiny —Everything is headed toward unity in Christ.Inheritance (vv. 11–12)Paul writes:“In Him we have obtained an inheritance…”But the language is intentionally ambiguous.Are we receiving the inheritance?Or are we God’s inheritance?The answer seems to be:Yes.We get God.And in His love, He desires us.Then Paul adds:“He works all things according to the counsel of His will.”Not that God causes all things, but He controls the outcome of all things.Christ fills the Church, and the Church is filled with Christ.I put it this way in the teaching:“When you’re in the house, you can’t also be outside the house. When you’re in Christ, you are in Christ. You can’t simultaneously be outside of Him.”This leads to one of my favorite quotes from Klyne Snodgrass:“People sin because they forget God.How strange that we forget the very place we live.”We live in Christ; in the life of the Trinity.From that place, we learn how to live for Him.Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.The Reality of Being Sealed by the Spirit (vv. 13–14)Paul brings the movement full-circle:“In Him you also, after hearing the word of truth… having believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”The order matters:* You heard.* You believed.* You were sealed.The image Paul uses is that of a royal seal a governor pressing his signet ring into wax to mark ownership.God marks His people.He declares, “This one belongs to Me.”The Spirit of Promise (v. 13)This isn’t a new idea.The Spirit was promised long before Jesus:Ezekiel 36:26–27“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you… I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees…”Ezekiel 37:14“I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…”Isaiah 32:15“…till the Spirit is poured on us from on high…”This was always part of the plan when from eternity, the Father purposed to give His people His very own Spirit.Down Payment (v. 14)Paul describes the Spirit as:“…the guarantee of our inheritance…”In modern language:The non-refundable deposit.The first installment.Proof that God is not backing out.God has invested Himself in His people.And what is Paul’s response?Praise.Deep, theological, meaningful praise.The more he understands the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit — the more he worships.Jesus Himself said:“It is for your good that I go away… if I go, I will send the Helper to you.” (John 16:7)Jesus lived a Spirit-empowered life.Then He shed His blood so we could be sealed with that same Spirit, knowing God, hope, and power.And that leads Paul straight into prayer.Prayer for the Revealing of Reality (vv. 15–23)Paul begins:“For this reason…”For what reason?Everything he just said.The Father’s purposes.The Son’s redemption.The Spirit’s seal.This entire Trinity-shaped reality.Paul can’t move on without praying that the Ephesians would actually experience the truth of what God has done.Paul opens his prayer with gratitude:“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”This is Paul’s pattern.Before he asks for anything, he thanks God for what He has already done.Then he prays from a deeply Trinitarian perspective:“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him…”Paul isn’t praying for new information.He’s praying for revelation, apokalypsis, which is a pulling back of the curtain so they can see what is already true.He wants them to know God more deeply, personally, experientially.1. Know Your True Hope (v. 18)Paul prays:“…that you may know what is the hope of His calling…”As one commentator put it, “What you hope for is what you live for.”Christian hope is not merely about “going to heaven when we die.”It is far bigger: A renewed creation, a renewed humanity, a renewed world under the reign of Christ. This is the future God is pulling us toward.2. Know His Inheritance (v. 18)Paul continues:“…what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints…”Not our inheritance. His.God counts His people as His treasure.His “riches.”His delight.It is staggering to Paul, and he wants the Ephesians to feel that weight.3. Know the Power Available to You (vv. 19–20)Then Paul prays that they would understand:“…the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe…”He stacks up four different Greek words for power: power, working, strength, might all to make one point clear:This power is not something you can earn, grow, or develop.It is a gift of the Spirit.And what is the measure of this power?“…the same power He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead…”Resurrection power.Enthroning power.Cosmic, universe-reshaping power.And Paul says this power is toward us. It is available, present, active.Christ Above All (vv. 20–23)God raised Jesus:“…and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…”In the Ephesian worldview, “rule,” “authority,” “power,” and “dominion” referred to spiritual beings, cosmic forces, cultural powers or everything that influenced the unseen realm.Paul says Christ is above all of them.And then:“He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church…”Which is His body.His fullness.The community He fills with His presence.It’s like having the keys to the car but not realizing it. So you’re not driving it. The power is in the garage, available to you.Paul wants believers to know what they already have.Paul’s final movement pushes us toward response:* Be holy. Live set-apart lives because God has already set you apart.* Hope, riches, and power which are the very things the world chases are already yours in Christ.* Does your life reflect the power of Christ?* Does your weakness become a place where His strength shows?For Paul, power is perfected in weakness.Patmos is a powerful example of this. A place where your weakness is unavoidable and Christ’s strength becomes unmistakable.This entire chapter is good news:* The Father purposed and planned our redemption before the foundation of the world.* The Son accomplished it in His blood and draws us into union with Himself.* The Spirit seals, indwells, guarantees, empowers, and reveals.When Paul considers all this, he erupts in praise and prayer.A worldview shaped by the character and activity of the Triune God overwhelms him with joy, gratitude, and worship.ConclusionEphesians 1:1–23 reveals the gospel through four lenses:1. The purposes of the Father2. The reality of being in the Son3. The certainty of being sealed by the Spirit4. The prayer that we would see and live into this realityThis is the story truer than any other story in the world.And Paul’s longing, and mine, is that you would not only know this story,but actually experience it:* to know the hope of His calling* to know the riches of His inheritance* to know the immeasurable power available to you* to live in the fullness of what the Triune God has doneMay this reality shape how you see yourself, your world, and your God.Amen.Recommended Resource: BibleProject has free seminary level classes and they did one through the letter to the Ephesians that I have thoroughly benefited from which you can check out here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

Image by Zack Gross (2025)Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.INTRO:I want to talk about an experience that I am sure everyone can relate to. It is a particularly prevalent experience in high school, but not limited to that timeframe. It is the experience of someone telling us something, parents, teachers, pastors, grandparents, etc, and hearing that thing, maybe even believing that thing, and then having a life experience that calls it into question. Some examples that came to mind: don’t swim within 20 minutes of eating, going to sleep with wet hair will cause a cold,In this post, I want to talk about that experience of disorientation that happens when what we experience can’t fit into our grid of understanding anymore - in other words, we are talking about doubt.When I was given some options of things to write about, I jumped at this one because this is something that is near and dear to my heart. I have had and continue to have profound experiences of real doubt about several things that I have genuinely questioned and continue to do so. I am not satisfied with easy answers, and I am unwilling to believe something just because I was raised to or my church teaches it. I want to know what Scripture actually teaches, what Jesus and the apostles meant, and how the earliest followers of Jesus understood them. That has led me to question things like the duration of hell, the timeframe of creation, end times prophecy, the historical accuracy of the Bible, how Christians should relate to violence, etc.And as I have navigated these questions, I have been so very grateful to different guides and anchors. Most prominent among them would be the late Tim Keller. I am so indebted to him for helping to conclude that my faith is reasonable. It is not based on blind belief. Ultimately, I’ve concluded, as he puts it, “Faith is not opposed to reason because faith is not holding onto something despite the evidence but despite the appearance”. I want to have a reasonable faith, and that is not without doubts. So, as we think about this idea of Christianity and doubt, there are so many places we could go in Scripture to look at doubts and doubters, but we are going to use Psalm 73 as a launch pad for this idea.As you read, I want you to think about this passage around these three points: What Doubt Is and Is Not, The Causes of Doubt, and The Response to Doubt.Go ahead and read: Psalm 73Asaph shows us in this Psalm that doubt is not the end of faith but part of the journey.WHAT DOUBT IS & IS NOT (v. 1-5)The superscription above this Psalm tells us that this is a Psalm of Asaph. These superscriptions are not part of the inspired scripture, but we have every indication that they are authentic. This Asaph guy is a Levite worship leader. So he is part of the priestly family. I find that really comforting that this doubt thing can and does happen to everyone, to a priest like this guy or to the disciples after spending 3 years in the 24/7 presence of God become human. If they doubt, then it seems safe to say that everyone will.So Asaph begins with this truth claim in verse 1:Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.In the context of this Psalm, it becomes more clear that he is saying this less for others and more to himself. Either maybe sarcastically, certainly without conviction, maybe to try and convince himself. This truth about God that He was familiar with is not real to his heart. We begin to see why in verse 2:But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slippedHe is describing his journey of faith like climbing a steep mountain. That’s when you need footholds and when stumbling is a risk. With this metaphor, he is saying he nearly lost his faith. He nearly gave it all up. Why? Something broke. He had an experience that called into question what he believed. He began experiencing doubt.He knows about God’s goodness, but his experience is not aligning with that. This experience, which he does not give exact specifics of, but of disorientation and slipping in his faith, would not be a problem if he did not believe in a God who is good to Israel and to those who seek Him. That is the heart of doubt: faith and confusion coexisting. So let’s clarify for a second what doubt is and is not.I would say there are two competing ideas of what doubt is: in religious circles, doubt is often viewed as dangerous and as something to be avoided. “Just believe,” on the other hand, deconstruction and wallowing in doubts is in vogue - it is popular. Scripture and specifically the Psalms offer a more balanced and nuanced approach that is neither. Our doubts are not to be avoided, but neither are they ultimate. There is positive energy in doubt, but there is also a lot of sin in doubt.Doubt is not the opposite of Faith:There is a prevailing sentiment that doubt is the opposite of faith. But the problem with that is that the doubts are almost arising from the foundation of faith. Doubt is the tension between what we believe and what we experience. So it cannot be the opposite of faith because it is that very faith being worked out: This was the experience of Job and his friends. They believed in something called “Retribution Theology” that God always rewards the righteous and always punishes the wicked. So, for them, they concluded Job must have sinned, but poor Job knew he had not, and yet his experience disoriented him. He was not disbelieving in God; it was his very belief in God that was driving his questions and his doubt.Doubt is not the Opposite of Faith; Doubt is the Working Out of Faith:You don’t grow without doubts. Nearly every doubt has a genuine objection that, once worked through, will help you understand Christianity better. Job and his friends’ understanding of God and the way the world works was too small. It needed to grow.There is something developmentally necessary about doubt that plays out in all of our lives. When we all began learning math, grammar, and maybe a foreign language, we began by learning the rules. We learn the fundamentals. And in all of these experiences, we get to this point where we start to see things that don’t fit the pattern or rules, and we are introduced to exceptions. “I before E except after C or when sounding in Ay as in neighbor and weigh”. You know what’s “weird” about that… exceptions to the rule. In the moment you encounter the word “weird,” you realize that the rule was not large enough and robust enough to contain your experience and the reality you are living in. It requires growth and expansion. Not to rigidly repeat the rule and close your eyes. To let the doubt and questions grow your vision of reality.Doubt is not a Sin to Hide:When doubt is seen as a shameful thing, then of course we would hide it. But the problem with that that Elyse Fitzpatrick points out is that, “As long as we keep doubt secret, it has more power in our lives than it needs to”. Secret habits and addictions are really dangerous, and the same is true of secret and hidden doubts.There are two really meaningful times when people brought their doubts to Jesus in the gospels:The first is the father of a demonized child in Mark 9, who had gone to the disciples and they had been unable to help him, and he comes to Jesus and Jesus presses him and he cries out in beautiful, honest confession, “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!”Jesus did not shame or condemn him; he took his honest confession, and he healed his son. I think often Jesus can be misunderstood in the gospels as condemning small faith: “Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Instead of seeing it as an invitation to honesty and realization. “Oh, wait, my faith is small. I was doubting there. I needed to realize that and name that and bring it into the light in order to share this struggle, and that’s what doubt is.Doubt is not a Sin to Hide; Doubt is a Struggle to Bring into the Light:Elyse Fitzpatrick emphatically says, “You can have faith in your heart and doubts in your mind at the same time.”One of the disciples is famously called a doubter; his name is Thomas. I think he gets a really bad rap.According to John 20:24-29, He missed the time Jesus popped in to show everyone he was alive, and he missed it. So he says he won’t believe, and then Jesus shows up and doesn’t shame him, doesn’t rebuke him; he shows up for Thomas and meets his request. He gives him evidence to believe. He lets him touch and see. And the result was what scholars agree is the most clear and decisive articulation of faith in the gospels. “My Lord and my God”.Thomas was not rebuked. Jesus met him in his doubts (John 20:24-29). So that’s what doubt is and is not. But what causes doubt?Thanks for reading Pondering with Purpose! This post is public so feel free to share it.THE CAUSES OF DOUBT (v. 3-15)Back to Psalm 73, if you look at verses 3-16, what do you see are the reasons for his doubt? It is actually really relatable; he sees the wicked prospering while the faithful suffer. Again, doubt often comes when what we see doesn’t look like what we believe.Now, the thing about doubt is that it is often framed as a strictly intellectual thing. You just need an answer and a verse, and you can get over your doubts. But the problem with that is that it doesn’t take into account a full enough view of what it is to be human. We are not brains on a stick. We are embodied mind, body, spirit, and so our doubts cannot be neatly parsed out. If we look at Asaph’s doubts, I think we see all of these, but nonetheless, with that qualification, I still think these categories are somewhat helpful:Intellectual: Questions about science, the Bible, morality, or evil. This is often framed as “I can’t believe this because X,”. Which is something you probably hear often, but the problem is that it is presented as faith vs fact. “I can’t believe there is only one true religion.” Implicit under that doubt or objection is not fact but rather a belief. They believe that if there is a God that God would not be so narrow. Which is their prerogative, but let’s call it what it is - not faith vs. reason but faith vs faith. Two competing beliefs.Emotional: Disappointment, suffering, unanswered prayer. Asaph says, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean”. Sometimes pain talks louder than our theology.Morality: Fitzpatrick says, “Sometimes our doubts come because we want to be God. We want to call the shots”. Man, isn’t that the truth? We doubt God when his truth confronts our desires.Social: hypocrisy, decision, cultural pressure. Sometimes we confuse disillusionment with people with disbelief in God.Any combination or fusion of these things can contribute to that disorientation or spiritual vertigo, as Tim Keller describes it. These things loom large and eclipse our certainty.This was Peter’s experience walking on the Water (Matthew 14). He had faith. He believed that it was Jesus walking towards him. He believed that he could walk to him. You cannot tell me he didn’t have faith. And yet in the moment when he started slipping, the storm looked bigger than Jesus. The waves were more real to him than Jesus was. Not if he had been rational and reasonable, but in the moment in his experience and appearance of things.Tim Keller updates this example from C.S. Lewis and tells this story of a woman who meets a guy and is excited to go on a date with him. All three of her closest female friends, who don’t know each other independently, come to her to tell her that she shouldn’t get attached to this guy. He has a bad track record. He will date her until she gets attached, and then he will break up with her. But she goes on a few dates with him, and she begins to doubt what her friends are saying. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her friends, but he seems so nice, and maybe she’ll be different than all the rest. The problem at that moment is that her friends are on audio, and this guy is on video. He is more real to her than what she knows from her friends, and that is the experience of doubt, whatever its origin might be.Doubt is the tension between what we believe and what we experience.THE RESPONSE TO DOUBT (16-28)You will notice I did not title this section “the answer to doubt” or “the solution to doubt”. Doubt is not this simple formula to solve and answer. Like I said before, we are complex creatures with brains, feelings, and experiences.Keller points out: “You won’t get into your doubts only by thinking, and you won’t get out of them only by thinking.”But we do have hope and wisdom from this Psalm and the Saints. NamelyDoubt Your Doubts: Back in verse 3, Asaph was honest about his doubts. He realized that his doubt had come from envy. They have what I want. That ability to discern where the doubt is coming from is so important.You have to distill and deconstruct your doubt to find the dishonesty.Enter the Sanctuary: Down in verse 17, he has described how hopeless he was,Until I went into the sanctuary of God.So often, doubts come from embodied experiences in a classroom with a hostile teacher, the death of a loved one, etc. These are not just mental things but experiences, and so you need to answer those with the experiences of the community of faith: worship, prayer, biblical teaching, reading of scripture, community, and embodied practices of faith.Jude 1:22 says, “And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. That faith community needs to be a place that can hold people who are doubting. We need to be a place where people can sit with doubt and ask honest questions and not be shunned, embarrassed, or condemned.Compare Footholds: Verse 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.You never have to choose between belief and unbelief. You always believe in something. For Asaph and for us, he realized that even if your faith might feel shaky, their faith is impossible.Sheldon Vanauken in his book, A Severe Mercy:“When it came to believing in Christ, there was a gap between what was possible and what could be proved. It was possible that Jesus is God; it was possible that this is all true. But can it be proved? No. So there was this gap — and I asked, ‘How am I supposed to cross it?’If I’m going to stake my whole life on the risen Christ, I wanted certainty. I wanted letters of fire across the sky. But I got none of these.Then came my second breakthrough: The position was not, as I had been thinking, that there was only a gap before me. My God, there was a gap behind me now, too! There might not be certainty that Christ was God, and so that would require a leap — but I had no certainty anymore that He was not God. To go back now would require its own leap of faith. Once I saw that, I flung myself across the gap toward Jesus.”Feel for His Hand: In verse 23 forward, as Asaph ends this Psalm, it is suddenly overflowing with relational language as if somehow this experience of doubt has actually brought him closer to God. We look for God’s presence in His absence.This is where we will end: I want us to turn our eyes to Jesus, our teacher, our older brother who has gone before us in the Garden of Gethsemane. Tim Mackie puts it this way:“He is on his knees in agony. He quotes a number of Psalms, he says, I’m so grieved I could die right now. He says twice, Father, I don’t want to do this. He’s experiencing a deep absence of God’s presence, and human evil is about to rain in on him and crush him physically, literally. But it’s precisely right in that moment where Jesus experiences God’s forsakenness, that is the moment where God is meeting all of us in our moment of need. It’s in the hours that followed that Jesus’s experience of God’s forsakenness - became God becoming God forsaken with us in order to redeem and to conquer our God-forsakenness by his Love. And so for me, the Garden of Gethsemane has become this place where I have to go and kneel beside Jesus when I have crises of doubt and recognize…I was not here first. Jesus was kneeling here before me. And then all of a sudden you realize Jesus is right there holding your hand, kneeling alongside you, grieving over the state of the world with you.”This is what we do with our doubts, as they come, and come they will, may we encounter Jesus.Recommended Resources: Podcasts:205. The Mess of Doubt (w/ Elyse Fitzpatrick)Questioning Christianity with Tim Keller - YouTubeBooks:Tim Keller – The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of SkepticismC.S. Lewis – Mere ChristianitySheldon Vanauken – A Severe MercyJohn Mark Comer – Live No Lies This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Haggai & Zechariah for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO:* Remodel a house, renovate vs remodel      SPOKE: (BibleProject)* What are some dominant themes in Zechariah? * Watch: Book of Zechariah Summary: A Complete Animated OverviewHUB: Renovate or Remodel * Haggai and Zechariah are both the writings and stories of prophets who at the same time were calling Israel to reform. They called the people to rebuild the temple and rebuild their lives around Yahweh.* They were both successful to a point but they both pointed forward to the need for a remodel. Renovating the existing situation was not good enough. Something new was needed.   SPOKE: Renovated Place Needing a Remodel Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Haggai 1:1-11 Imperfect Renovation* Haggai opens with the prophet coming with a word from Yahweh. He comes to the people and confronts them for rebuilding their own houses and neglecting the house of God. * You have to keep in mind that for this people the only way to interact with God was through the temple. It was their point of reference to God. So without a temple they had no way of connecting with their God.  * Haggai calls them to put first things first. And they listen but the temple renovation sucks. Anyone who saw the first one thinks it’s lame  * Who grew up building legos?  I loveddddd legos.* I mostly bought the sets and played with them but sometimes sets fall apart, get broken, etc. and I have seen people later on want to rebuild the set and they kinda piece it together kind of like this: * When it is meant to look like this:* It was an attempt to renovate and the people did respond but it was just disappointing. The Glory didn’t return and there’s just this sense of longing for Messiah. For the Messianic kingdom to come and for the promises of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David to be fulfilled.    * Do you have a place where you encounter God? Do prioritize setting aside time, and a physical space for that? Morning evening etc? SPOKE: Renovated People Needing RemodelExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Zechariah 1:1-6 Imperfect Return* Zechariah is around at the same time as Haggai and he also instructs the people to rebuild but he has a different priority. Haggai is handling the temple and he sees the need for the the people to rebuild their lives around Yahweh. They have gone off and the exile has not yet taught them to return. And they respond to a point. But it is just on the surface. * They change their behavior for a time but their hearts are unchanged. * Christianity is not about behavior modification. It is about inward heart transformation. - Joseph Prince* I couldn’t help thinking of the movie trope where someone remakes themself. They have entered a new setting and now they are becoming a “new person”. * Mean Girls.* The problem is that this is just a surface level change. It is not a heart level change.  * They repent and yet there is this longing for a new heart like Jeremiah said.  * Do we just modify our behavior? When we go to church or with certain people do we just modify? Have we experienced real heart change? * QUESTIONS?Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus* Gospel of Grace* The Gospel is that * Jared Wilson: Only the gospel goes deep enough to effect real hard change. Everything else is just behavior modification * Our Savior* Haggai 2:1-9 A Re(New)ed Place * Zech 12:10-13:1 A Re(New)ed People* QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions:What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)How much of a priority for you is it to encounter God? Weekly? Daily? How? Has your heart really changed because of following Jesus or has your behavior just changed from being around church? What shows us the gospel of grace in Haggai/Zechariah?What points to Jesus in Haggai/Zechariah? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Habakkuk & Malachi for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO:* Who has ever struggled with doubt? * Personal doubts      SPOKE: (BibleProject)* What are some dominant themes in Habakkuk? * Watch: Book of Habakkuk Summary: A Complete Animated OverviewHUB: Responding to Doubt * Everyone at one time and most many times struggles with doubts. Doubts about the future. Doubts about relationships. Doubts about being loved. Doubts about faith. Doubts about anything * Fitzpatrick: We think that admitting that we doubt means that we don't have faith. I think you can doubt and have faith at the same time. * Two ways to respond to doubtSPOKE: Questions about Care Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Habakkuk 1:1-4, God Responds 1:12-2:1 How Long O YAHWEH* Habakkuk is asking honest questions. * He is telling God how he really feels. He is experiencing doubts* But he is not stuffing them, or denying them he is going to God with them* And his doubts are at the same time based on the character of God. he knows God and his doubts are arising from who God is and how what is happening doesn’t make sense. * Staton: Prayer itself makes us anxious because it uncovers fears. We can’t ignore as long as we don’t engage deeply thoughtfully vulnerably with God.   * Little kids that always ask why why * Confident their parent knows the answer * Trusts them even when they don’t understand and have doubts.   * DO we go to God with questions and doubts.* Do we think he can handle it? * Do we trust him? Do we care enough to go to him with questions?SPOKE: Conclusions about CarelessnessExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Malachi 1 What a Weariness* The people have wrongly interpreted God’s discipline as apathy or abandonment* And in response they have stopped caring. They think God’s not watching so why bother.* They come with the assumption that God doesn’t care and see everything through that lens. * Has anyone seen the new Apple TV movie Family Plan? * Poster * The daughter goes through that phase of rebellion where she gives up her passion for writing cause she’s convinced it doesn’t matter. And there is this scene that made me think of this passage. * “I’m serious that piece you wrote about pervasive corruption in the Board of Education…my gosh, I got chills..* You actually read that?? * Of course I did  Come on. I’m your biggest fan. Always have been always will be. * Tim Keller: Two things can happen when you suffer. One is you think, I'm being punished." But the cross says, no, Jesus took your punishment.... The second question comes: Well, maybe God doesn't care…. * Have you found yourself deciding things for God. Deciding like Israel or Job’s friends how God works. Deciding you don’t care anymore* Dropping a habit or relationship or anything else cause you’re done?* QUESTIONS?Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus* Gospel of Grace* Finish the quote* Tim Keller: …But the cross says God does care, he lost a child out of his love for you.* The Gospel from Genesis is that God cares so much that he promised hope in Genesis 3: WHAT? * Cares enough to redeem from Exodus. * Send prophets to tell them etc. * Our Savior* Jesus Ask Questions * If it is possible let it pass * Jesus Answers the Question* He is the answer. Every promise is yes and amen* Jesus Encounters Those Who No Longer Care * Pharisees, saduccees, etc * Jesus Corrects Wrong Conclusions* They have been asking if God cares. * He claps back that he obviously cares. Have you not read your Bible. * Then Jesus shows the full expression of how much he cares. * No other religion claims God came to us. * Bruce Shelley: Christianity is the only major religion to have at its central event the humiliation of its God... * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What is a time you have had doubts about something big faith, future, family etc? Have you ever found yourself not caring anymore about something you used to care about? What shows us the gospel of grace in Habakkuk/Malachi?What points to Jesus in Habakkuk/Malachi? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Obadiah & Nahum for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO:* Who likes a story of kings and queens? * We like royalty and it is this cool other thing because we don’t have kings and queens anymore. But I want you to imagine that we did have a king and his castle was in westlake. And we went there for a visit. * Would anyone in this room think of sitting on his throne in front of him and his royal guard? Or walking and insulting him and saying that he is a bad king or not your king? * That would be ridiculous wouldn’t it?       SPOKE: (BibleProject)* What are some dominant themes in Obadiah? * Watch: Book of Obadiah Summary: A Complete Animated OverviewHUB: Pride’s Lie * The problem with pride is that no one is the greatest person in the room or the universe. * No one person is greater than another and no one is greater than the God of the universe. In fact we’re all pretty small compared to him. * Obadiah 1:21 Yahweh is the King* So proud people are spitting in the face of the king of the universe. They are not recognizing that he is king.  SPOKE: Pride Says: I don’t need GodExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Nahum 1:1-11 Making God your Enemy* The first problem with pride is saying that you don’t need God. Exalting yourself against him.* Nineveh had done that. They had rejected God and his reign and rule. They had pretended he didn’t exist but the problem is that he does. So to say you don’t know God is to fly in the face of reality. It’s to deny the truth. Ultimately it is to be utterly foolish* “Wise people are always humble, because arrogance flies in the face of everything we know about how the world works and how people are”.  * Famous movie scene where they anger this super powerful person. * “You’re gonna regret the day you made me your enemy”* That’s what Assyria did with God.   * And the truth is that is what every one of us does with God. We reject him. We try to do life without him. Secular Philosophers think they can find the meaning of life without God. Secular scientists think they can understand the universe without God. Secular rulers think they can rule without God and bring peace or change. * But we are all helpless before him. * We’re like a little kid that is trying to lift a bookcase and the parents are offering help and we say no thanks. * It doesn’t stop there.  SPOKE: Pride Says: Your loss is my gainExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Obadiah 1 Mistreating Subjects of the King.* The second problem with pride is that it not only encourages people to reject God but it encourages them to mistreat his subjects.* Proud people think they don’t need to have grace or mercy on anyone else. * Everyone else is a threat. * You know the paranoid royalty type? * The queen of hearts “off with his head”* There is no grace or mercy only my needs over yours and if you get in my way you’re dead * Chad Moore: Grace flows through the channel of humility. * People who recognize the world doesn’t revolve around them and recognize their need are also able to recognize that although other people are not perfect no one is and that’s ok    * QUESTIONS?* Humility Says:Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus* Gospel of Grace* As much as people might say they don’t need God the truth is that they do.* History shows that people are broken, sinful, and hateful and not getting any better on their own. We need God to intervene* Pride says I don’t need God and other people’s loss is my gain but the truth is we all need God and we’re all lost. * And the good news is that God knows that and he cares. * 2,000 years ago the God of the universe didn’t sit up in pride and gloat at our failure or tell us to figure it out ourself. * He was the only one with the real right to demand we pay for our crimes. But he didn’t.* The God of the universe humbled himself. Took on the form of a servant and being found in human form. He humbled himself in obedience to die on a cross. * He showed us what humility looks like. And the truth is humility is not thinking less of yourself: “I’m worthless. I’m a nobody”. That’s not what humility is. That’s false humility and actually still pride. * True humility is thinking of yourself less because you are busy thinking of others and ultimately of God more. The reason Jesus could be humble is because he knew the Father and how great he is. And he loved humanity enough to value their needs over his own.  * The only reason there is hope in Obadiah* Nahum 1:15 Beautiful Feet* Our Savior* The restoration that the end of Obadiah and Nehemiah point to has begun in Jesus. * He has opened the invitation to everyone no matter who they are to come to him. He has begun the long and slow process where God’s kingdom is coming and he will excercise his rule and justice over every evil and prideful person, ruler and nation. * He’s gonna take care of the world’s bully problem once and for all. * He will bring justice on the proud who have rejected him and mistreated others and exalt the humble who have recognized their need for him and the need to extend grace to others.. * LAST BUT NOT LEAST: * It is the character of God that we take comfort in. The truth is that God has always been slow to anger and great in power. * If he were a king like the queen of hearts no one could stand before him.* But he is a God who is good. He won’t let evil and pride have the last word. He will make things right in our world. He’s not giving up on earth and zapping us out of here. He is making a new heavens and new earth. Where might doesn’t make right but humility and love are the greatest value. * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: Lesson Discussion: 15 minsWhat stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Is there a proud person in your life that mistreats you or rejects God? What is a way that you have shown your own pride to live without God or be the most important person? What shows us the gospel of grace in Obadiah/Nahum?What points to Jesus in Obadiah/Nahum?Prayer Requests: 5 mins High and Low into free talks: 10 mins This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Amos & Micah for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO:* Has anyone here ever thought about running a marathon? You guys know that Josh Antioho did an Ironman. It was super enlightening for me to watch him train, prepare and complete that ironman. It made me realize how interrelated everything is.* If Josh told his friends he was preparing for an ironman but he was gonna keep eating junk food, donuts, dessert, no salad but do some physical training and mostly focus on strategy of the course and technique for the swim and bike would you guys guess he is going to do very well?* They are inseparable. If you don’t eat well, sleep well, train well, etc you will not compete well. The one is connected to the other.* Amos and Micah are about two things that are inseparable. The people of israel had tried to separate them but God says they are two sides of the same coin. Let’s watch the Bible Project and see what I mean.SPOKE: (BibleProject)* What are some dominant themes in Amos?* Watch: Book of Amos Summary: A Complete Animated OverviewHUB: God & Neighbor* In Amos and Micah we get one of the clearest explanations of the rebellious wrongs of Israel. In Jonah and Hosea we focused on the idea that people run from good things to bad things and that God lovingly pursues them.* In Joel and Zephaniah last week, we saw that the result of this running is the Day of the Lord. There have been days since Genesis and there will be days and one final day when God intervenes and sets things right again.* Tonight we are going to look at what the nature of this rebellion was. What were the people doing that was so wrong? There are a lot of things. What Amos and Micah focus on is how they were separating how they treat people from how they treat God. How we treat the one is connected to how we treat the other.* People in America and in our lifetime like to separate social life from spiritual life as if we have two different lives. The interesting thing is that in Hebrew, the language the bible was written in, there is no word for spiritual life because it’s all connected. You can’t have a good spiritual life without a good social, personal, work/school life.SPOKE: Right Social Life (Relationship with People)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:* First we’ll look at the accusations for their unjust relationships.* Amos 5:7-17 Injustice in Relationship* They are perverting justice. So they are not taking care of the poor and vulnerable but they are taking advantage of them instead. They hate truth. Trample on the poor. Take bribes. Stop calling evil things good. Stop calling good things evil.* They look at lying, stealing, bribery, and exploitation and say “gooodddd”* And they look at honesty, generosity, integrity, and humanitarian aid and say “baddddd”. How messed up!* Micah 6:9-15 Judgment on the Wicked* So here is what God says to that, because you have had false weights which they used to make poor people pay more for a decent meal or to live in a decent place. And because you are violent and lying. God says I am going to judge you and bring upon you the things that you did to them. The ways that you didn’t give the homeless a home, you’ll be homeless. The way you didn’t give food to the hungry, you will be hungry.* John Sailhamer: God’s people mistakenly presumed that as long as they kept up their external forms of worship, the Lord would not let them perish.* How we treat people really matters. Judaism then and Christianity now, have never been private faiths. We cannot just pray and worship God and neglect our neighbor. The two go hand in hand. How we treat our neighbor shows how we really see God.* If you guys had a friend. You were close. They came over to your house and kicked your dog, broke things in your room, disrespected your parents, made a messs all over the bathroom etc. would you say they really love and care for you?* VIDEO* NO because how they treat your things and the people you love shows if they really love you right? That is what is happening in these books. How God’s followers treat people that God made and loves shows if they really love God.* For us: the way we treat people matters. People in this youthgroup. If you guys are gossiping, name calling, talking over the people in your small group or anyone else in the youth group. That shows that you don’t love them and it shows a disconnect in your love for God who loves them and wants you treat them the way you want to be treated. And how we treat people outside of the church, person at school who is different or ignored, your old lady neighbor, kid on your team who isn’t any good and gets made fun of. Do they matter to you like they matter to God?* If they do it will affect our spiritual life.SPOKE: Right Spiritual Life (Relationship with God)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:* Amos 5:18-27 Hypocrisy in Worship.* Day of the Lord. Despises their feasts (religious feasts like passover or purim) HOLIDAYS. He does not delight in their worship services YOUTHGROUP SUNDAY. Their sacrifices mean nothing to him TITHE & WORSHIP SONGS. Why? because they don’t practice justice or righteousness. So what does true worship look like??* Micah 6:6-8 True Worship.* What does God want. What is true worship to God? Justice! Kindness! Humility!* That’s not your regular goat sacrifice. It’s actually a lot harder.* John Sailhamer: Such statements should not be understood as a mere indictment (accusation) of Israel’s worship. They are rather a call for justice along with worship and true morality.* God is calling us to show or love for him in loving our neighbors (our neighbor as Jesus defined it as anyone even our enemy.* How do you guys show your parents love? Chores, cards, hugs, etc. it’s as if God says that his version of those things is loving people. That’s how we show we love him. That’s how we train for the ironman. We can’t separate the one from the other.* QUESTIONS?Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus* Gospel of Grace* What is the good news except that God loved us so much that he treated us better than we deserve. That Jesus as God and man, perfectly loved his neighbor and God, giving his life for us. He saw people as being infinitely worth of dignity and God being worthy of ultimate allegiance* Micah ends with a reference to the Abramaic covenant. The basis of hope is not in what undeserving Israel can do but in the gracious promises of God. The same God that picked an old pagan to be the means of his blessing. Is the same God that will be faithful to his people even when they abandon him.* This should give us hope that God’s mercy in Jesus is not based on who we are or what we do but in his gracious and merciful promises. Even if we sin and rebel he will not abandon us. How has he done this? In Jesus.* Our Savior* Amos 9:11-15 The Davidic Messiah* Talks about the descendant of David - who we know is Jesus - who would restore the nation of Israel and bring the nations in. we see that began with the apostles and pentecost and continues to us.* Micah 5:2 Bethlehem & From of Old (eternal and born)* Jesus birth place. Both eternal God and human born* Micah 5:4-5 Glorious Ministry & Peace* Jesus as the good shepherd will shepherd his people and bring peace. What was he called in the new testament? The prince of peace.* LAST BUT NOT LEAST:* Combining social life and spiritual life was not unique to Amos and Micah. Can you think of something Jesus said that was similar?* Someone asked Jesus what the greatest commandment? And he said* Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Torah and the Prophets.* The torah was the first five books we studied! And the prophets is everything we have studied since then! Jesus just summarized the last 5 months of our series. God and neighbor.* QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions:High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Have you experienced God’s love in such a way that makes you love him?How do you think the people who know you well would rate your love for neighbor (scale of 1-10)? How would they rate your love for God (1-10)?Allowing space for reflection: what is one way this week/month you could love God and neighbor more?What shows the gospel of grace in Amos/Micah?What points to Jesus in Amos/Micah?Prayer Requests? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Joel & Zephaniah for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO: * Limbo activity. The bar doesn’t get any higher. You either submit to the bar by bending or you get hit and forced down. * You have a choice: how you experience the bar. One is positive and one negative but the bar is the same bar in both situations.    SPOKE: (BibleProject)* What is the central focus of Zephaniah? * Watch: Book of Zephaniah Summary: A Complete Animated OverviewHUB: The Day* The Day of the LORD is a past, present, and future reality. There have been days of the Lord, there are days of the Lord, and there will be one final and ultimate day of the LORD. * It’s two sides of the coin. Deliverance & Justice or mercy & judgment. * The Day of the Lord can be dreadful and terrifying if you are in wrong standing with God. Or it can be hopeful and wonderful if you are in right standing with God. * The problem is: 1st: Do you even know which camp you are in? Before 2nd: You decide if you are content in the camp you are in. * The people of Israel knew a lot about this day but unfortunately they thought about it like Jonah from last week. They wanted ONLY judgment on their enemies and ONLY mercy for themselves. They looked forward to being delivered from their enemies but what they didn’t stop to realize is that they had made themselves God’s enemies too and there would be justice for the ways they had wronged, exploited, and mistreated God & neighbor. So when the day of the Lord came in Jonah, he was disappointed that it looked like mercy on them instead of justice because they were humble and repentant before it was too late.  SPOKE: Day of DeliveranceExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * First this day of deliverance that they had hoped for. * Joel 3:1-3 Deliverance for Israel* God promises through Joel that he will deliver his people. There is a day when wrongs will be righted. When he is going to restore justice. He is going to enforce the rules.* He says he is gonna sit down and judge those who have wronged Israel. * Israel would sit there seeing God acknowledge the ways they have been mistreated and feel rescued. * Makes me think of a quote from the Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, he says: Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.* When the the Lion Aslan, the king comes, he is gonna restore order and make the bad guys pay and the good guys celebrate. * Zephaniah 3:9-13 Purification of the Nations* The surprising development in the prophets was that the judgment was not just on the nations and the deliverance was not just for Israel. Here we see the nations being purified, restored, and delivered too! * There is going to be this reverse Babel. Where the people were dispersed in Genesis they will be gathered together. They are going to follow Yahweh. This would have been shocking for Zephaniah’s listener’s. The nations?? And the thing is that is us! Almost all of us are gentiles more on that at the end.* The limbo bar is gonna come through and level the nations. Those who are proud will experience the pain of the bar. Those who submit humbly will be blessed when it passes. * Lion King: When Mufasa dies and Simba is gone, Scar gets to do what he wants, mistreat, exploit, etc. he thinks he is in the right. When Simba comes back there is judgment and deliverance. Judgment on? Deliverance for? Do you see how they are tied up together there?  * We all know there is evil and wrong in our world. Things are not the way they should be. And I think it is the natural cry of the heart to look for God to come and make things right. To deliver us. To rescue the oppressed, broken, and hurting.  * SPOKE: Day of JusticeExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * So it’s a day of deliverance but it’s also a day of justice.   * Joel 3:19-21 Justice on the Nations.* Joel promises that God is going to come and judge the nations. The people who have done violence, shed blood, and sinned against God. They will be held accountable. Those who have wronged Yahweh and his people will be judged. The limbo bar is going to pass through and correct them. * But it doesn’t stop there. It makes me think of a trial scene. Like lets say one of the big bad guys was on trial Hitler or Stalin. And they get condemned by the courts and then the judge and one more thing, YOU are under arrest for leaking information to them and being a spy. That’s what Zephaniah does to Israel here: * Zephaniah 3:1-5 Justice on Israel.* Can you picture them as they realize they are in trouble. Oh God noticed that too. They had been pointing fingers at those who had wronged them not realizing that other people have been pointing back at them and telling God how israel had wronged and oppressed them. The poor, vulnerable, and weak. * Cho: We do justice because we believe our God is just. We don’t worship justice. * After we think about the things that are wrong that we want God to rescue us from, we must in turn think about what ways we deserve justice. How have we put ourselves against God and our neighbor. How have we been the oppressor. How have we played the spy.   * QUESTIONS?Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus* The reality is that we are all in need of deliverance, but we all deserve judgment. We have all wronged God and neighbor. Which is why we need the gospel. * The Exodus was a day of the Lord where egypt was judged and israel was delivered, Judges the people of israel were delivered through a judge from oppressors, Exile the people were judged for those they had oppressed.* The good news is God has and will continue to intervene in history to make things right * Gospel of Grace* God sets his love on his people, they rebel, God disciplines, extends his mercy. * Joel 2:28-32 Spirit Poured Out. * Gentile inclusion * Keller: Justice is the sign that you have been justified by faith. It’s not the basis, you aren’t justified because you’re helping the poor, but a heart poured out in deeds of mercy and justice for the poor is a sign that you have been saved by grace. * Zephaniah 3:15 The LORD has removed judgment (Mercy)* How has he done this? In Jesus. * Our Savior* Jesus talks about the Day of the LORD a good amount. Jesus and the Apostles understood that the crucifixion of Jesus was a Day of the Lord. That he took the judgment that we deserved and gave us the deliverance he deserved. Boom * The return of Jesus will be the final and ultimate day of the LORD. * LAST BUT NOT LEAST: * 1 Cor 1:8 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ  * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What is something in your life specifically that is wrong and needs God’s deliverance/restoration?What is something in your life specifically where you are in the wrong and deserve justice? What shows the gospel of grace in Joel/Zephaniah?What points to Jesus in Joel/Zephaniah?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Samuel for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO: * Who is the greatest leader you guys can think of? Fictional or real.* How would you describe them? Confident, sure, competent? * Those are the things that human’s look for in a leader but in the Scroll of Samuel we see a different test set forth  * 1 Samuel 16:6-7 * This is a famous story that I am sure you have heard but it is all the more striking when seen in the context of the book as a whole.  We see confidence and think it is the mark of a good leader but God sees a heart exalted against him, and we see meekness and think it is the mark of a follower but God sees a heart willing to follow him and lead others in doing the same. SPOKE: Proud and Humble (BibleProject)* What is the central focus of Samuel? * Watch: Book of 2 Samuel Summary: A Complete Animated Overview* 1 Samuel 2:1-10 Hannah’s Song* Hannah is this sweet humble woman, who is childless. And as sad as that is even today for parents and especially a woman it was even more so then. A wife’s identity was so connected to being a mother. But she offers this prayer that is from her reflection on the Torah and she has seen a pattern of God bringing down the proud - babylon, Jacob, egypt, Balak. And raising up the humble - Abraham, Israel, Moses, etc.  And so she prays this and it sets up the whole scroll.HUB: * The proud will be opposed/brought low and the humble will be given grace/raised. And Samuel is going to specifically look at this as it relates to leaders but the reality is everyone is a leader. * When I think about this little kid trying to climb some rock or obstacle and they try and try and keep slipping and sliding and their dad offers to help and they say no I got this. But their little sibling comes along and asks the dad for help and he picks up the other kid and carries them over the obstacle.  That is the picture: the proud think they can do it and they will fall the humble recognize their limitations and can be raised up. * That is absolutely the reality from Scripture from Adam and Eve onward people have been proud thinking they could do it without God and it has not gone well but those who have humbled themselves like Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, have been raised up by God. SPOKE: Proud → OpposedExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * So first let’s look at king Saul. Saul is the first king. We’ve been expecting a king since the end of Genesis when we were told about the Scepter in Judah. So we get one. Could this be the guy that will crush the serpent? Let’s read and find out. * 1 Samuel 15:1-21 Saul’s Failure & Response (Page Number: * Does this remind you guys of anything? It reminds me of Moses and of Achan. Very clear instructions and clear disobedience.  * God says go bring my justice on all the people and animals. And Saul spares the king, and the animals that looked good to him! * Have you guys ever been following really frustratingly slow step by step instructions. Ikea furniture, legos, or something and you think yeah no I can do that quicker, better, simpler. I don’t know what they were thinking.  I think I’ve done this once when something called for nails and I thought no screws will work better and I did it and ruined the whole thing.* That’s what Saul does here. Yeah good idea God but like this is perfectly good burger meat, I’m gonna keep it. And that is prideful rebellion against God and as the leader of God’s people and this is not his first mistake it’s actually his third rebellion in 3 chapters. * And all without any repentance. He has the audacity to see samuel and say “I have performed the commandment of the Lord” * I know better than God. And that leads to him being rejected and then eventually downfall and death.* When we position ourselves against the all wise, all good God, it might look succesfulf or a minute but it will never end well.*  QUESTIONS?* Let’s look at a different approach. SPOKE: Humble → GraceExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * See when I was growing up I felt like I was shown Saul is the bad guy and David is the good guy. Maybe that was the kids version * But the reality is that the scripture paints a much more nuanced picture of its heroes and villains for that matter. *  2 Samuel 12:7-15 David’s Failure & Response* So David repeats the errors of those before him, he sees and takes! Genesis 3!!! * He exalts his needs and places himself in the palace of God as he takes a wife, defines good and evil, and takes life all of which are roles for God alone. * So the humble David from the beginning of the book takes a back seat to this new prideful david. But what I want us to see is the difference between his response and Saul’s response.  Saul was corrected and doubled down. David is corrected and Immediately shows his humility. He owns up to it and repents. His heart is soft and he sees the truth that he had momentarily forgotten. * Repentance requires humility. * This repentance leads to David finishing his time and blessing. He is restored by his humble repentance instead of being abandoned.  * A perfect example of this is just last week I was driving to a hike and I was trying to navigate there on my own.  I got most of the way there and then I realized I was not where I was supposed to be.  When that happened I had two options. I could keep trying myself and act confident and say no I’ll get there.  Thankfully I did not do this and instead I pulled out google maps and humbled myself, turned around which is exactly what repentance literally means and then I got where I was going. * The scripture does not say Saul bad David good. It shows messy flawed humans following and failing to follow a perfect God everytime they make themselves their own god. Now the way David handles his failure with repentance and remorse is a further testament to his humility. David fails well. He puts himself back in submission but clearly David isn’t the promised serpent killer either. * You guys are gonna have the chance to follow a lot of people in your life and you will have the chance to lead a lot of people. And my hope and prayer is that even when everyone else is following the tall, charismatic, confident Saul’s you will follow and be the humble, repentant, honest David’s in the world. * We are all going to make mistakes. We can either harden our heart or humble ourselves and repent. * The only way humility comes is not from thinking of ourselves less or saying be more humble be more humble but from looking at something greater. By really seeing how great God is and how much greater than us he is, we see reality for what it is and humbles us. * I don’t know if any of you here tonight or in the last few weeks talking about the things humans have done have felt convicted or realized you were doing something in your own eyes but if you have would talk to a leader about that repent and confess?  Conclusion/Exaltation:* Gospel of Grace* Saul and David are both imperfect, they both fail, but how do they respond? For Saul God is an afterthought. For David, God is central and when he messes up, he repents.* Hate to break to it to you guys but we are just as broken as Saul and David the only question is, how will we respond - pride or humility??* Deliverer of Gen 3:15 - a king could be that deliverer* We’re gonna need a better king. A king that does not fail like all of us.* Human effort cannot save us, no human can ever rid us of sin, only God can do that. * The power of repentance the only way for those things to be taken away is to repent. * Good works do not save us, but willingness to repentance. * But more importantly it points us to our savior.* David and goliath: One champion set forward for each group. If one champion win’s that champion’s victory is gifted to the people and if they lose the champion’s death is shared. * In the same way the whole Israelite army received David’s victory without doing a thing. * That’s what the gospel says as well.  We get Christ’s victory without any effort ourselves. * Jesus is the true king * And like David he suffers in the wilderness for the sins of others.* LAST BUT NOT LEAST: 2 Samuel 7:12-17* This eternal son of David. The perfect ruler. The delivering king is Jesus. Jesus is the one. * That is how Samuel points us to Jesus. * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!* Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)When you messed up recently, did you respond like Saul or David? Specific example (Leaders going first might help). What points to Jesus in Samuel?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Joshua for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO: * Who here has ever ridden the train? It’s fun, its novel.  Fun fact - I had a dream that we did a JH trip on a train 2 weeks ago. * Are trains easily or quickly stopped? No  * That’s why railroad crossings are so dangerous. If you wanted to get on a moving train, would you try to swing on like a cool cowboy or would you try to stand on the tracks and push against the train for it to stop. * The thing about the train is you can get either get on or get out of the way and the train will keep doing it’s thing either way.HUB: * Joshua (like all of scripture) points to Yahweh as the center of history and see everyone else like shakespeare said “as merely players”. * God is the train in this analogy. He’s doing what he’s doing and Israel and now us - can participate or get out of the way the easy or the hard way. * Joshua 5:13-15* What Yahweh is doing. Work with him or against him. SPOKE: For Yahweh (BibleProject)* What is the central focus of Joshua? * Watch: Book of Joshua Summary: A Complete Animated Overview* I see in Joshua, an invitation to participate.  It is an invitation to play on the winning team or fight against YAHWEH. * In the words of Drake, Joshua is all about “God’s Plan” not joshua or anyone else.  SPOKE: For YahwehExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Joshua 24:14-15* Joshua has been faithful to Yahweh through the whole book of Joshua. Yes, he makes some mistakes but the book repeats “and Joshua did as Yahweh said”.* And here, Joshua is calling the people to choose. Are you gonna be for or against Yahweh? * He wants to give you rest in the promised land. Will you receive it with obedience?* The second example of someone who was for Yahweh is surprisingly a non-Israelite.* Joshua takes over as the New Moses - he calls the people to the law, he sends spies, he leads them through waters on dry ground. And the spies come across this woman named Rahab.   * Joshua 2:8-14 * Has anyone ever sat and watched the waves at the beach for a while? I spent a few hours alone with God at the beach last week and just watched the waves for some of that time. Waves are crazy. They just keep waving even when no one waves back… but seriously they are just a constant force. And I think surfing is so cool cause you’re looking at the waves and just harnessing that momentum,  you don’t choose where the waves go. You just ride em. * Same thing here in Joshua. God has been working since the fall to restore a place for his people to be with him and no matter who opposed him he’ll just keep working and people can work with him or against him.  And Joshua says I’m gonna work with God. Rahab says I don’t want to be hit by this tsunami, I’m gonna work with God. But some people will fight against the waves*  QUESTIONS?* The ability of the Lord to save the “outsider” (Rahab), and the danger of the “insider” falling away (Achan; see chs. 2 and 7).SPOKE: Against Yahweh Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Obviously all of the the kings and nations that opposed Yahweh and served idols, and sacrificed their kids and fought Israel were against Yahweh.* But that is more obvious.  What about Israelites? * Joshua 6:15-18, 7:1 * Achan* Despite clear instructions on how to follow Yahweh and the clear promise of blessing from Yahweh - not like he was holding out all of the good stuff. * And these things in Jericho were supposed to be destroyed not in the sense of thrown away so you can't use them anymore because they're needless. No, they were supposed to be destroyed in the sense of utterly completely destroyed because they were dangerous. God wanted his people to be free from being influenced by the corrupt, debauched practices of the people who lived in the land. - Dever* But instead of trusting Yahweh he saw what was good and what he wanted and he took it.  * Who does that remind us of? * Achan could have snowboarded down the nice gentle slope of God’s will towards possessing land and home in the promised land and abundance.  But it’s like he saw sign that said short cut and despite the warnings above it that said “dangerous cliff” he took the shortcut and that was the end of Achan. * Just to be real with you guys for a second this is very real stuff.  I have seen people that seemed so far from God and didn’t look like a “good christian person” come to faith in Jesus and be used by him. And I have seen people whose parents parents were Christians who slowly drifted away cause of their choices and that’s really sad.Conclusion/Exaltation:* Gospel of Grace* Joshua is all about God’s rest for the people. Resting them in the promised land.* Joshua points us to a day when Jesus promises a new heavens and a new earth. It points us to that future day.* So as God gave Israel in Joshua 24:13, he says, he gives Israel land on which you did* not toil cities, you did not build and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olives* groves that you did not plant. Right. So Jesus, he too, has gone ahead of us. He is preparing that place for us even now, a place that we have not build, gardens that we have not tended. * 9:14 the elders make a peace treaty with Gibeonites without consulting God. they make a decision based on their own wisdom.  Jesus on the other hand never made a decision without being in line with God’s wisdom. He prays in the garden “not my will but yours be done”.* We are called to pray and do that same thing in the Lord’s prayer. No choice is so simple or clear as to not require prayer!* But more importantly it points us to our savior.* Jesus will obey, where Israel here is already failing. When tempted by sin, Jesus doesn't make peace with it. Even though the israelites made peace with sinful nations.  * You know, that paradise that we lost, that Israel lost, Jesus would win back by His* own sinless life.* He is that better Caleb who would not just serve God wholeheartedly, but would serve Him perfectly.* He is the great high priest of the safe house from Joshua 20, right? That great high priest who has shed his own blood life for life so that we who are guilty might be freed.* He alone has lived heaven on earth for us. He alone has paved the way.* LAST BUT NOT LEAST: * Joshua 23:12-13 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.* You realize that those whips on the back, the thorns on the brow, that's the curse that Jesus bore. That's the curse He bore for all of those who would turn from their sin, who would trust in Him.* That is how Joshua points us to Jesus. * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Do you think it is harder for you to believe that an outsider can be invited in or that an insider can drift from God?  Does your life look more like Rahab or Achan?What points to Jesus in Joshua?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Deuteronomy for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group. Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along. INTRO: * Think back to when you were a little kid. * The first time you were crossing the street with your parents * They held your hand and taught you to “look both ways before you cross the street” * As a little kid did you listen to them? Did you obey them? Why? Love * When you love someone you will listen and respond to them and when you listen and respond you show them you love them. This is true of any relationship but especially between parents and kids and husbands and wives. * As a kid assuming you listened and loved your parents did that decision protect your life or endanger your life? HUB: * Listen & Love = Life  * Listening and responding to the loving words of someone you love will lead to life.  * Ignoring or hearing and not responding will lead to death* This is true for us and it was true in Deuteronomy SPOKE: Listen & Love The Lord Alone (BibleProject)* Watch for what they say is at the core of the Deuteronomy Scroll? * Watch: Book of Deuteronomy Summary: A Complete Animated Overview*  A call to covenant faithfulness * What does that look like? Listening to and loving the Lord leading to lifeSPOKE: Listen & LoveExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Deut 4:1-8* Deuteronomy 6:4-5 * Shema* The Shema - were gonna focus on that for a week in our reading. * But our love for God and his laws are to be contagious and infectious; infectious to all of who we are. We don’t just love God with our heart and shut off our mind. We love God with our emotions: who we are deep down, and our strength or our effort. (Jesus later adds our intellect or mind)* Good analogy is talking about music artists: * Who is your favorite music artist? How can you prove that they are your favorite? You listen to them? Why do you listen to them? Cause you love them? Most likely not just privately in head phones but in the car, with your friends, etc * Parents pass that on to their kids and share their favorite artists* Stella Six Flags​​ Taylor Swift - not just passive listening but responsive listening, singing along, memorizing the lyrics it happens naturally with things you love.* God wants his words to be our favorite music to our ears. That’s why the Psalms say “how I love your law”* Someone that loves God should love to read the scriptures. They should find life, joy, and beauty in them even if it is hard to read and understand. And Joshua gives us a good example of that next week.  *  QUESTIONS?* God doesn’t just say listening and loving will just be good because he says so. He actually says it will make their life better. Living by His wisdom will raise the bar on morality, justice, and life.SPOKE: Life or Death Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Deuteronomy 28:64-66* Deuteronomy 30:15-20* The Choice * And then repeats those same formulas of cursing for disobedience* If you disobey you shall die? What does that sound like? The Garden!* This section reminds me of the rules to a game. * In basketball, can you pick up the ball and carry it? I mean yeah you can. You’ll just get the ball turned over everytime. They won’t physically stop you from doing that, you can do what you want or you can obey the rules and your life will be easier and things will work out better. Does not guarantee you win. And that’s not what God is saying, he isn’t saying your life will be perfect if you follow him. But he is saying it will be richer, fuller, and more whole. * Moses is putting the options on the tableConclusion:* Gospel of Grace* The choice is before them. And the choice is before us. See the fun thing about Deuteronomy is that Moses throughout the book, blurs who he is talking to. Between the people that died in the wilderness, their kids, or people in the future. And because of that we can see ourselves in Deuteronomy. We have the same choice. And we have the invitation to read the laws and find the wisdom of God in it. * Deuteronomy 5:17 repeats the 10 Commandments (Words) from exodus and says “You shall not murder”. Jesus grew up memorizing, meditating, listening to and loving God’s law. And this is what he said after 30 years of that* Matthew 5:21-22* Jesus read don’t murder and saw underneath that the deeper intent and wisdom of God. * So we have the invitation to read the law and meditate on it and say wait guys, does this law upon meditation mean this? * Deuteronomy therefore has wisdom and truth to speak to our lives. * But more importantly it points us to our savior.* When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he points us to the Shema (found in deuteronomy) and loving neighbor as the most important law. He looked back to Deuteronomy* Jesus through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension gives us a new heart that Deuteronomy said we needed and his return will enable us to live with those new hearts.* Moses wrote the law on stone, Jesus writes it on our hearts. Through the Spirit we are told he will remind us of the new covenant. * And Jesus is the greater prophet than Moses that the end of the book says we need.* Moses rebelled and did not enter the promised land. Moses mediated God’s words imperfectly.* Jesus was faithful in all things and he promises to lead us to the promised land and he perfectly mediated God’s words to us (we have it written it in the gospel) and he gives us his very own spirit so that we can hear directly from God himself. * LAST BUT NOT LEAST: In the blessings and curses that Moses lays out at the end of Deuteronomy, he says, “if you do not listen and love this will happen”: death, exile, isolation. And as we look forward to Jesus we see one who although He did listen and love his whole life takes the curses on himself. He dies, he is exiled outside of the city, and he is alone. Why? So anyone who puts their trust in him and follows him can experience the blessings he earned. We can have life eternal that begins now, he we have the hope of the promised land, and we have fellowship with God now! (Gal 3)* That is how Deuteronomy points us to Jesus. * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Do people that are listening know what you love (restaurants, music, guys/girls)? Do those people know you love Jesus? What is an example from your life recently that shows the choice between listening to God or listening to yourself?What points to Jesus in Deuteronomy?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Numbers for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group. Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along. INTRO: * What comes to your mind when you hear the word Rebellion? * I think of Star Wars. Anyone else? The Empire and the Rebels. * What do we know?SPOKE: Rebellion/Faithfulness Numbers (BibleProject)* Watch for what they say is at the core of the Numbers scroll (“In the Wilderness”)? * Watch: Book of Numbers Summary: A Complete Animated Overview* Rebellion in the wilderness and God brings Judgment but shows mercy  HUB: * Rebellion & Faithfulness * What causes a rebellion? * What is the response to a rebellion. * We are going to see in Numbers an abnormal rebellion - first the people are rebelling for no good reason and second despite every good reason God is going to stay faithful to them instead of destroying or abandoning them.SPOKE: Rebellion & ConsequenceExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Numbers 13:1:1-3, 25-33, 14:1-3, 20-24 * Rebellion of spies & consequence* What just happened? Did they not see God defeat Pharoah with 10 plagues and split the freaking sea? Why would they rebel??* I think a helpful analogy as we read these stories of rebellion is one most of us can relate to. * Has anyone ever been helping their parents in the kitchen and they are cooking stuff on the stove and they warn you - don’t touch that it’s…hot.  And either out of carelessness or maybe even out of spite as a little kid… we touch it.  It burns. Who’s fault is that? Ours. we were warned and now we experience the natural consequence of our decision.  My mom LOVED natural consequences. If I do something I shouldn’t and get hurt she was so good at helping me realize that.  * Numbers 16:1-5, 25-35* Rebellion of korah & consequence* This is one we can all relate to. Why are they getting special treatment? Why not me? * But God had every right to choose specific group. And as we talked about in Genesis God didn’t choose Abraham to the exclusion of the rest but for the benefit of the world* Numbers 20:2-13* Rebellion of Moses* Moses the man who had spent unparalleled time with God. God clear instructions from God. Take the staff, gather the people, speak to the rock. Moses takes the staff, gathers the people…. And then yells at the people and hits the rock! * Come on Moses. * God absolutely operates under the Uncle Ben philosophy.  With great power comes great responsibility.  * These rebellions mirror the ordering of the camp from the tribes, to the Levites, to the High Priest and Moses. *  QUESTIONS?SPOKE: Faithfulness & MercyExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Numbers 1:44-46, 52-53* One year after the exodus. They have increased by 3,000 people.  The Censi of Numbers are intended to reflect the blessing of Eden - be fruitful and multiply, and the blessing of Abraham descendents like the stars of the sky. They are numbered and ordered and ready to enter the promised land. And despite all of their rebellion and sinfulness God is still dwelling in their midst. The priests, atonement, sacrifices, the scroll of Leviticus is doing its job  * What helps me make sense of this section is the story of Nemo.  Have you seen it? * Nemo’s dad’s name is “Marlin” marlin told his son to never leave the reef. Why? Did Marlin want to deprive his son? No * Nemo swims out of the reef and touches the boat and gets captured. Did Marlin warn nemo about this? * Did marlin have every right to say “Oh well” I told you so? Yes.  Is that what he did? No. he went after him, rescued him, took care of him. And the book of numbers is this cycle on repeat, rebellion, consequence, faithfulness, mercy. * Numbers 21:4-9 * Serpent* The very thing they thought brought death now brings life.  Moses overcomes the serpent. He is riffing off what was promised in Genesis 3. You remember? Defeating the serpent. * Numbers 23:7-10* Balam * Balam has been hired to curse israel. Israel is down their rebelling and grumbling against their God.  It would make total sense if they got cursed and wiped out and that was it. * But because God is faithful and merciful he is even now protecting and watching over his covenant people. Fulfilling his promise to Abraham in Genesis that “I will bless those who bless you, and him dishonors you i will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” You see how its all connected? Conclusion:* Numbers is full of confusing stories, confusing laws, and confusing lists.  But as the people journey through the wilderness we are invited to put ourselves in the story. * Think about it this way. The people have been rescued already, have been given instructions on being new humans and have God’s presence, but they have not yet arrived in the promised land. * Who does that remind you of? US* We have been rescued by Jesus from Sin and Death. We live in his new life with the presence of God in us through His Spirit. But we have not yet arrived in the new heavens and earth where our promised land is.  We live in the Wilderness which is Number’s true name. * In fact the author of hebrews says: * Hebrews 3:16-4:2* But these pages don’t just offer us a reflection of where we are but on our savior who is bringing us through - Jesus is our perfect intercessor who stands before the Father when we fail like the Israelites and says “Father, I already paid for that one, paid that one too”, Paul says is the rock in the wilderness that Moses struck to as the source of living water, Jesus himself compares himself to the serpent in the wilderness that is lifted up and offers salvation and he is the one promised in the Oracle of Balam who would rule with justice.* That is how Numbers points us to Jesus. * QUESTIONS?* Let’s pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What stuck out to you from the video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What is a way that you have rebelled and received consequence and/or mercy?What does it look like to live like we are in the wilderness waiting for our eternal home?What points to Jesus in Numbers?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Leviticus for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.INTRO: * If I gave you the opportunity, who here would want to go to space? * How about the Sun? What a cool opportunity!* Holiness of the Sun - BP video conceptSPOKE: Holiness: Leviticus (BibleProject)* Pay attention to the problem and the solution! * Watch: Book of Leviticus Summary: A Complete Animated Overview* What was the Problem? What was the Solution? HUB: * Holiness* God is Holy and We are not * God is totally set apart and other. He is perfect and righteous and good. * And we have seen in Genesis and Exodus that people are not.  People are broken and twisted in how they treat each other and how they relate to God.* Think Abraham, Pharaoh, Moses, the Israelites. * Golden calf on the day of their relationship vows.SPOKE: Holiness: A Good ProblemExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Exodus 40:34-35* Exodus 40. High point. After all of the formalities of the covenant at sinai and even after the big blow up of the golden calf, God’s presence comes down on the tent. * YAY! God can dwell with his people again. We’ve been waiting for this since Genesis 3! * But there is a problem - moses cannot go in? Why? * There is a holiness problem. What does holy mean? Most basically it means “set apart/other”- the sun is completely other - there is nothing like it in our solar system* Is Yahweh Holy? Are the people of Israel? Yes and no. Yahweh has called them to be separate from the nations but they act alot like egyptians still* Is Yahweh’s holiness bad? Not it is a good thing! But it is a problem for the broken and flawed israelites  * Leviticus 19:1-8, vv18* God’s Holiness - the sun * Israel is unholy.  Austronauts without any solar protection. God wants to change that. So he gives them instruction on how to be people who can host the power and glory of Yahweh - like the sun x1000 - in their midst.  These are instruction on how to become new kinds of people, holy people. * Do humans on their own know how to live and emulate God’s holiness? * But what Yahweh does is not sit up in the sky and mock those who try and know they will never make it  * Instead he comes down to a people he chose out of sheer grace and gives them clear and loving instructions on how they can rightly relate to him * The Laws in Leviticus were not only God’s Instruction/Wisdom but they were his grace for those people to have a way of rightly relating to a holy God. * And the structure of the book of Leviticus shows us these wisdom categories. * Do you remember them from the video? * Sacrifices/Feasts - daily, weekly, monthly rhythms of giving and receiving from God to recognize their need for the holy one and their unholiness. * Priests - people set apart from the nation to live “holy lives” and mediate God’s presence* Purity - the habits, diets, and moral actions they were to uphold in order to host Yahweh* More on that in the reading plan this week.* QUESTIONS?SPOKE: Atonement: A Necessary SolutionExplanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Leviticus 1:1-2* So Yahweh calls to Moses from the tent. Mo is outside and he says - hey we gotta fix this problem. Here is the way. Sacrifice and Atonement. (BP vid this week) the short version is sacrifice - Atonement - cover over someone’s debt,* Chase and I go to dinner act it out - cover you*  and sacrifice washes away the vandalizing effects of that wrong.   We see this most clearly in that thing that the video said is the center of the whole book! Which is? Day of atonement.* What holiday was on Monday? Yom Kippur? Day of Atonement * Leviticus 16:15-16, vv20-22* The first goat - atones - covers over the debt.  His death covers.  The second goat takes the vandalism of wrongdoing and symbolically takes it into the wilderness. * You might think - this is really cruel and barbaric. I thought God described his character as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.  This sounds like an angry God who kills goats.  * But this is an act of mercy and grace.  What has been the major plotline of the Hebrew Scriptures so far? * God wants to dwell with, partner with, and bless humans. * Humans keep abandoning, wronging, and causing damage to God’s good world.* Atonement and Sacrifice is the way that God is forming and shaping the people into the kind of people that can partner with and host his presence even despite their sin. * We see God’s attitude here in this verse.* Leviticus 17:11 * Does that verse say that Israel is giving God the blood and goats? No. what does it say? * God is giving them the blood and goats to make atonement. It is a gift and provision.  It’s like God has given the method for making a sun-proof space suit and said ok you gotta use part of your car and part of your phone - BUT - the result will be you can come be with me, we can coexist together even though I am holy and you are not. Conclusion:* And this leads us nicely into where I want to end tonight. * Here in Leviticus, it says God is giving the provision to atone for sin. This point forward to someone greater.* Isaiah would call him the suffering servant, John the Baptizer would call him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.* Jesus was the ultimate day of atonement. Jesus said he was the ultimate sacrifice, the great high priest, and he brought purity * God didn’t wait for us to do enough to get to him. We could never do that. He came to us as the sacrificial lamb and God himself gave us the way to be able to have relationship with him again. * When we couldn’t go into the tabernacle to meet God, in Jesus, John says he came and “tabernacled” among us* We have the same problem as the Israelites but we have the best solution. What are we gonna do with that?* QUESTIONS?* Lets pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What stuck out to you from the video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What is holiness and atonement?What does it look like to live a set apart life? (Sermon on the mount)What points to Jesus in Leviticus?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Exodus for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group. Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along. INTRO: * Toy story* Woody escapes first * Then goes back and  rescues Buzz* It’s this elaborate plan but Buzz doesn’t come.* So Woody goes back and takes down Pharoah - I mean sid. * But then once they have escaped they have a mission* They have to get to the moving truck* First rescue then missionHUB: * RESCUE / COMMISSION* Rescue comes first and then law. Not vice versa. * Review: Last week we began this survey of the Hebrew scriptures.  We started in the book of Beginnings: Genesis.* Creation: We encountered a good and powerful God who created all of the universe and humanity to partner with him in continuing to create and rule. * Corruption: But the humans rejected the offer and failed to partner with him.  * Redemption: But God didn’t give up so he focused on one family and he’s gonna let his blessing explode out from them.  And at the end of Genesis that family has come down to Egypt during a famine. * Tonight we continue the story in the book of? Exodus. SPOKE: Rescue / Commission Moses (Exo 1-4)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Exodus 1:1-14* Verse 7 - fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, filled.  What do these words remind you of? Echoing what? Genesis 1:28* Come let us - echoes the tower of babel.* Shrewdly - echoes snake * Exodus 1:22-2:10* Can you think of another baby boy born where the king wants to kill the baby boys??* Who’s gonna rescue this baby boy? God does.  Clearly these women have a key role but God is orchestrating and giving favor behind the scenes. We often think God only works in obvious miraculous ways. And man he does in exodus but an implication of his partnership with humanity is when we see something and say “God why don’t you do something” he is saying back, “I am doing something, I put you here. What are you gonna do about it?”  * God rescues Moses.  He does it again in the following verses because Moses goes and pisses off pharoah.  And now with this rescued man what is God gonna do. * Exodus 2:23-3:10* Moses’s identity.* In God identifying himself, he identifies Moses * Illustration: This makes me think of the moment in star wars when Luke says to Darthvader - you killed my father. Luke thinks he is an orphan. But vader responds * He rescued him first and then he is going to send him to Pharoah * God always rescues first and then commissions.* He did not come to moses as a kid or as an adult when he was running from Pharoah and say “if you do this” then i will rescue you.  He rescues out of pure grace and then partners with a mission. And the mission isn’t this terrible thing it is still for their good.  * So God rescues Moses from Pharoah through the waters of reeds, with Miriam taking her stand and then brings him to a mountain where he appears to him personally in a flame and smoke and commissions him with 10 speeches (plagues).  * And what happens next is so cool and totally classic for how the biblical authors write and develop a theme for us to notice.  They are gonna replay and mirror all of those moments with the whole people of Israel now. * Let’s see what happens next. * QUESTIONS?SPOKE: Rescue / Commission Israel (Exo 5-40)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Exodus 5:1-2* In escalating plagues Pharoah’s harden’s heart 5 times and then God accelerates the process * Passover * Exodus 12:12-13 - Jesus * So after the 10th plague Pharaoh finally let’s them go.  They plunder the Egyptians* They leave in the night, get to the Reed Sea (not Red), flame of fire/pillar of cloud * 14-15 They are led through the sea - remember who else was saved by God through the water from Pharoah??* Miriam takes her stand again this time to sing a song* 16-19 Then they are led to Mt Sinai where they meet God who descends on the mountain in fire and smoke * Then there is another 10 verbal decrees (we call theme 10 commandments but they are never called that in scripture - the 10 words)* But again notice where these 10 words show up. It is not back in egypt to the enslaved Israelites that God appears and says “here are my rules, obey them for a set amount of time and then I will set you free.  He rescues first and then gives clarity on what relationship looks like for their good.* My mom rescued me from drowning when I was a kid. And sometime after that i started getting chores at home.  It would have been ridiculous for me to say “mom you just saved me to do chores”. Rather chores are just my participation in our families functioning. * Exodus 18:10-11* Mose’s father in law Jethro confirms this structure of the book * Exodus 19:4-6* Just like when God identified himself to Moses and in doing so identified Moses* Here God is identifying himself and in relation the Israelites * It is at this point in the book of exodus that many people tune out* They think the exciting stuff is over and the laws are boring  * But the apostle peter disagrees * 1 Peter 2:9-10 someone read it for us? * Peter quotes these exact phrases about the church? That’s us.* He’s cluing us in that these chapters are for us to. They are wisdom for us* QUESTIONS?SPOKE: Covenant Commission (BibleProject)* Ok so now that we have overveiwed the whole thing we are gonna watch the video to wrap things up.  They are gonna propose a different breakdown of the outline so pay attention to what it emphasizes. * Watch: Book of Exodus Summary: A Complete Animated Overview (Part 2)Conclusion:* First God rescues moses and then he commissions him and shows him what’s wrong and invites him to participate in making it right  * Then with this new partner, he goes and rescues all of israel and shows them what’s wrong with their hearts and relationship to him and invites them into a new way of living. * Rescue and commission  * That’s God’s gameplan and guess what Jesus does this with us* He came and died, rose and ascended to save us and then commissions his followers to go and bring the kingdom for the good of the world.  * We will get more into that when we get to the new testament but talk about that in small groups  * Lets pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What stuck out to you from the video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Based on our overview of Genesis last week & convo in 1 John sunday what are the things we need rescue from?What is the mission Jesus calls his followers to? (Matt 28, Acts 2:42, John 15)What do you think points to Jesus in Exodus?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my message on Genesis for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group. Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along. INTRO: * Beauty and importance of partnership * Pairs figure skating* So cool when they are in sync and they lift each other in the air but if they get out of sync things can go south fast* Imagine if this dude let go of herHUB: * Divine / Human Partnership* God created humans to share his divine life and authority with them. God is the God of grace and communion and he wants to share with humans. Genesis sets us up to see the conflict of the entire Bible: God wants to partner with humans but humans keep breaking relationship with him. SPOKE: Survey (BibleProject)* Watch: Book of Genesis Summary: A Complete Animated Overview (Part 2)SPOKE: God Partners with Humanity (Genesis 1-11)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation: * Read: Genesis 1:1-5, 26-31* God creates the whole world. Earth, Sky, Sea etc.  * He creates it full of life and potential and then sets up Adam & Eve as his deputies, like a representative. * God makes them in his image - what does an image do? It represents something else? * Photo of your dog is not your dog. But it represents and reflects your dog.* That is what humans were made to do. Represent God  * Who here has played team sports? I’ve been watching this show… Ted Lasso. * It’s about a british soccer team.  And the way it works is there is an owner of the team who owns the team and hires the coaches to coach the team. The owner does not do the coaching. Completely trusts the coaches. * Genesis 2:15-17 - God lays out the rules of the games. He is the owner and he says eat enjoy thrive just dont eat this one tree.* And this would be like if the manager tells the coach who has never coached soccer before - you can use any part of your body to get the ball into the goal just not your hands. * I mean that sounds pretty good to me.  You have a lot to work with you can use your feet, thighs, chest, head, shoulder etc  * Genesis 3:1-7 - Humans break the partnership! 3 pages in and its over * Back to our analogy imagine if the coach came in and said guys we’ve realized that the owner is holding us back. You know how you thought you couldn’t use your hands? Well it’s not true. You can use your hands in soccer so I want you all to practice and we will be able to win more games? (that’s partially true the goalie can but the coach is misunderstanding or misrepresenting the truth)*  What would happen? * Representatives have a lot of power. They can represent well or poorly. Anyone who has taken a bad selfie knows that.  * God wants and requires representatives that accurately portray him.  * Genesis 1-11 shows us that humans are really bad representatives of God as they portray with hatred, muder, and oppression the God of love, life and beauty. * Cain and Abel - murder* Noah and the flood* Babel - God scatters * But Genesis 3 points us forward to someone who represent God well: Gen 3:15. * It’s pretty cryptic but it is hopeful that someone will partner with God to defeat evil. * We keep hoping with each generation * QUESTIONS?SPOKE: God Partners with Abraham (Genesis 12-50)Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:  * Read: Gen 12:1-9* After humans keep failing to represent God well for 11 chapters and many generations, God singles out one family to focus his efforts on.  * God chooses to bind himself to one family and he makes the same partnership he made with all of humanity in Eden before they broke it. He uses the language of the whole earth being blessed - which echos the filling of the earth to adam and eve. And it is by his great name - which echos the subduing command to adam and eve. * God’s choice to focus on one family is for the sake of spreading it to the whole world. * It’s supposed to be an explosion of God’s blessing much like an atom bomb explodes from pressure being placed on one single atom. * For some reason the sports analogies were coming to mind this week. * On a sports team there are a lot of players and they are at different levels and need to work on different things. So if someone has the money and time they will pursue - personalized training.  The idea is not that the trainee becomes a one man team. The idea is that the trainee goes off and trains to be a better teammate and bring the whole team up with them.  And that’s what God is doing with Abraham.* Abe - you and me are gonna have some one on one lessons. And then God continues this pattern to Abe’s descendants. * And Abraham gets a lot of things right but he is just as broken and hopeless as the people in 1-11. He doesn’t trust God, he lies and gives away his wife and more. * God passes on the blessing to his son Isaac - who is just as broken and plays favorites with his kids  * God passes on the blessing to Jacob - who devices his brother and his blind old father and his uncle   * And so Genesis ends. We haven’t seen this serpent crusher  * Nobody is fit to partner with God everyone is broken. What are we gonna do? * Is this guy gonna come?* Genesis 49 the second to last chapter we get a clue that God has not forgotten * 49:10 - there will be a future eternal ruler from the line of Judah who will bring tribute and obedience and who is that and when is he coming?  You gotta keep reading to find out  * QUESTIONS?Conclusion:* So Genesis takes us from the beginning - an uncreated world and a good eternal God * And he creates the universe * And humans * And blesses them and partners with them * But they do not trust God and they break the partnership * They go their own way and the world spirals into darkness and chaos * And then God picks out one guy and partners with him * But he is screwed up and each generation God renews the partnership * And in the end we are waiting for a serpent crushing king to come and partner with God and bring God’s goodness even as God continues to bring his goodness and turn evil into good  * That’s Genesis * Lets pray!Small group Questions: High and Low of the Week?What stuck out from the message? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)What stuck out to you from the video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)Have you ever been in a partnership? Was it a positive or negative experience? How would you rate yourself as a representative of a perfect and holy God?What do you think points to Jesus in Genesis?Prayer Requests?  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com

This is a recording of my intro message to our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group. Originallly recorded August 31, 2023. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zackgross.substack.com