You can tell a lot about a person by their walk. Body language reveals characteristics of mindset, character, and confidence. That makes it a strong metaphor for the way we live our lives – careful to be aware of what our walk reflects about our hearts, minds, desires, pursuits, and relationships.

The glorious gospel and the central role of God’s people, the church, that is laid out in 1-3 is now fleshed out for us as we see how Jesus has built His Church. Specifically, we will see the unity and diversity of the Body of Christ, the call from God of what Christian leaders are actually supposed to do, and the way that every member of the body is part of the work of ministry.

In this chapter the Apostle Paul outlines the motivation and foundation for his ministry. He shows us that God’s new society, under King Jesus, has one core message that shapes it. This gospel reveals the mystery of God in Jesus Christ and extends to His people, the church. The chapter concludes with an ascendant prayer that outlines the aspirations of the Christian life for us.

Ephesians 2:1-10 applies the glorious gospel that is put on display through chapter 1 more directly to us. 2:11-22 then shows how the gospel of Jesus Christ shapes the new society of God’s Kingdom. The first half is the favorite of Christians who like to soak in the ascendant theology of the gospel, while the second half tends to be favored by Christians who prefer to focus on the outworking in our lives, particularly toward reconciliation. By walking through the whole chapter at once we will see that the two should not and must not be divided.

The letter opens with an explosion of worship to God our Father. We saw that through Jesus Christ we are brought together as One Family by the Holy Spirit. This week builds on the brilliant display of the gospel that precedes it by calling us to look to Jesus who is the One King over all things. In our current cultural climate, this is an essential concept for us to grasp. We will spend our time together exploring the foundation for Jesus' authority and kingship and the implications for those who are citizens of His Kingdom.

We kicked off our series with Ephesians 1:1-14. In the Greek text, verses 3-14 are one massive run-on sentence. Paul begins the letter with an explosion of praise to God. It is a theology-rich and glorious text that shows that in God’s new society, all who are in Christ are in One New Family.

Many of us are afraid to hope much for the coming year. 2016 was a hard year for several of us, but we still hope. We find ourselves in a similar position as one located in this text and see an event that has implications for all of our staring into the coming year. This text points clearly to Christ in his coming. Jesus’ coming changes everything, and who he is has a direct correlation to who we are. Who Christ is helps to shape how we see the New Year. Specifically, we see Christ in 4 ways, each one helping to shape us and our view of the coming days.

https://soundcloud.com/rhcdc/the-angels-song

Zechariah’s song bids us o allow God to deal with us in our silence and our wilderness, ultimately calling us to trust in his promises. We will look at the life of John the Baptist, and the Song of Zechariah and find that they are worn maps that help us navigate the relationship between our own doubt and the promises of God. They help us to live within the advent season, in anticipation of the return of Christ.

We were honored to have Pastor Elliot Grudem join us as we continued our series, Advent: Songs of the Coming Christ. Elliot is the founder and president of Leaders Collective and serves as the Lead Pastor for Leadership Development and Church Planting at Vintage Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. He preached out of Luke 1:46-55 on Mary's song of praise: The Magnificat.