Dock
Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 11 October 2026
Summary
This week Michael talked from Ephesians 1, launching a seven-week series that reads Paul's letter through the lens of “grace and peace.” “Grace” is the gospel in one word, and “peace” is the fruit of the gospel in one word. He showed that grace is found “in Christ”, in union with him, and that it is adoption into God's family, with a new name, a new position and a Spirit-sealed inheritance. Peace (shalom) is wholeness and reconciliation rather than merely the absence of conflict. He then turned to Paul's prayer (in verses 15–23) that believers who already have every spiritual blessing would reach out and take it by knowing the certain hope to which they are called, that they are God's own glorious inheritance, and that God's incomparably great power is at work for them.
Key Points & Takeways
Grace and peace is the lens for the whole letter — Paul's opening greeting works like a newspaper headline: chapters 1–3 unpack God's grace, and chapters 4–6 unpack what peace looks like lived out.
Grace is the gospel in one word; peace is the fruit of the gospel in one word — Grace is the saving action of God to redeem and restore creation, and peace is the effect of that grace, the attainment of harmony and wholeness. The two are intrinsically linked, because peace is the result of grace.
Grace is in Christ, and ‘in Christ’ is a place, not just an action — Christ is the place where believers reside and the source of every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:4–7). Grace is therefore not a wrapped gift we take and unwrap, but God giving us himself — a hand extended in relationship.
Grace is adoption into God's family — In Paul's Roman world a father held unilateral authority over his household, and adoption was almost always of an adult male heir, who lost his old name and identity and gained full legal standing in the new family. In the same way, we are adopted with no claim or right, far above our station, with a new name, a new family and an inheritance sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:5, 13–14).
Peace is “shalom;” wholeness, not merely the absence of conflict — Peace in Scripture always points to something better in the place of conflict: stones with no cracks in the temple, Job's flocks with nothing missing, David asking whether all is well with his brothers. Ephesians 1:10 promises this peace as God brings unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Paul responds to the gospel with prayer, not a to-do list — After a 202-word Greek sentence of worship, Paul prays (Ephesians 1:15–23) that people who have every spiritual benefit at their fingertips would reach out and take it.
Paul prays we would know a certain hope, not a vague one — The Greco-Roman world hoped vaguely and subjectively, like Romans burying four people alive in the marketplace in a bid to sway a war, or Michael's own hope for dry weather as a youth pastor in Scotland. The Hebrew hope is objective, rooted in covenant promise (Exodus 19:5–6), and Christians are welcomed into that certain hope in Christ.
Paul prays we would know that we are God's glorious inheritance — God views you as His own riche inheritance, how differently might we live our lives if we truly took hold of the truth of this promise?
Paul prays we would know God's incomparably great power — God is able, with power to save us, bring us into peace, deepen our grasp of grace and peace, and change us forever (Ephesians 1:19–20). That power is the same strength that raised Christ from the dead, so great that nothing on earth compares.
Dock Discussion Questions
When you hear the words ‘grace’ and ‘peace’ at church, what do they mean to you, and do they ever slide into ‘Christianese’ for you?
Michael said ‘grace is the gospel in one word, and peace is the fruit of the gospel in one word.’ Where do you most feel the absence of peace right now, and how might grace speak into that place?
Grace was described as ‘not a gift from God but God giving us himself,’ and as adoption; a new name, a new family and a sealed inheritance (Ephesians 1:4–7, 13–14). Which part of that picture do you find easiest to believe about yourself, and which is hardest?
Michael contrasted a vague, subjective hope (such as hoping for good weather) with the certain hope to which God has called us. Where in your life are you holding a vague hope that God invites you to turn into a certain one?
Paul prays that we would know we are God's glorious inheritance and that his power is incomparably great (Ephesians 1:18–19). If you really believed God views you as riches, what is one specific thing you would do differently this week, and how can your Dock pray for you in it?
Long-form, edited transcript
Ephesians: Grace and Peace to You
Ephesians 1
Introduction and Background
I'm really excited to get into God's word with you. As Phil spoke about recently, we're looking to grow in depth and impact and number. We were praying together as a teaching team about what we might look at for the next seven weeks before Advent, and we're going to have an opportunity to go deeper into God's word by looking at the letter to the Ephesians. We're really excited to look through it with you all over these next seven weeks.
A very brief background. Ephesians was written by Paul the Apostle, probably around 60 AD, while he was under arrest in Rome. He was arrested in Jerusalem because he was accused of bringing a Gentile into the temple — hold on to that reason, because it will become relevant to the narrative of the book. Ephesus was one of the greatest cities in the Roman Empire, in modern-day Turkey. Has anyone ever been? I went in 2013, and I strongly recommend it. It was a busy port town, famous for its temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and Paul had lived and taught there for about three years. But he isn't there now; he's in prison in Rome when he writes this letter.
The church was a real mix of Jews and Gentiles from very different backgrounds, all learning to be one family together. The letter was probably a circular letter passed around the different churches in the area. And this is one of the reasons we're looking at it together: unlike some of Paul's letters, it doesn't address one singular problem the church is facing, whether false teaching or wanting to abide by the law. It's more an open treatise on the theology of who Jesus is, and how that changes our lives.
We're covering a fair amount of Scripture this morning — all of chapter 1 — but not in one giant block. We'll do it in two. The first is Ephesians 1:1–14.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.
This is one of the richest and deepest pieces of Pauline writing. As you'll have noticed, it's the kind of passage where you want to stop every second word and say, ‘Wait, whoa, slow down.’ We could spend a year on this section of Scripture. But this morning we're going to look at it through a specific lens. The letter of Ephesians could be read through many lenses, but the one we'll use over this whole teaching series is grace and peace.
Awkward Greetings
I need to give you a brain break, because that was a big bit of Scripture. And I'm going to confess something that will shock you: I'm not very cool. There are some very cool people in this church, and I think people are getting cooler all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've gone in for a handshake that was meant to be a fist bump and tried to shake someone's fist. I hate that. Or worse — do you know what a dap is? Its when you clasp hands and it makes a clapping sound, have you seen people do that? After the clap, I never know what comes next, because sometimes it's just the dap, sometimes and arm around the person, sometime some kind of finger click. I can't tell you the number of times I've done the wrong thing and gone in for the hug when it wasn't meant to be the hug. It looks like I'm trying to kiss somebody. It's a disaster.
Have you ever had an awkward greeting? What's your most awkward one? Is it burned into your psyche? I've got too many to have just one. When I was growing up in rural Scotland, the go-to greeting was a very, very slight head nod. So you can imagine I'm not well equipped for all these elaborate cool greetings.
Grace and Peace: The Headline of the Letter
Greetings have meaning, sometimes more than others. Look again at Paul's greeting in verse 2: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” It's a profound greeting. When we read Paul's letters we're tempted to think, ‘Greeting, greeting, greeting — let's get into the good stuff.’ But this is the lens. These two words act like the headline of a newspaper, telling you what's coming. Grace and peace is what happens in this first chapter: the first half is grace and peace, and the second half is a prayer that God's people would know that grace and peace. It also happens through the whole book. The first three chapters unpack God's grace, and chapters 4, 5 and 6 unpack what peace looks like lived out. So grace and peace is the lens for this whole series.
Grace and peace are words we use a lot in church, but not so much outside of it. You've heard the term ‘Christianese’? These can be slightly Christianese words. So I thought it would be fun to give you a quick Christianese quiz. Speak to the person next to you and see if you can decipher these terms. These ones are silly, though some are real. Have you ever heard of ‘St Mattress’? It's when you accidentally sleep in and miss church: ‘I didn't see you on Sunday.’ ‘Oh, I was visiting St Mattress.’ If you're not Anglican, you can say ‘bedside Baptist.’ What about the ‘tooth angel’? Yes, like the tooth fairy. There's nothing more agonising as a Christian parent than deciding exactly which lies to tell your children. Do you tell them about Santa Claus? Some parents lean into the tooth angel, and I don't know why I don't. And finally, ‘bragimony…’ …it's when your testimony ends up being much more about yourself than about Jesus. Please don't stand up in church and give your “bragimony”.
I'm being a little bit silly, but it's important to spend time unpacking what these words mean, because there are so many words we use specifically in a church context. That's okay — these words carry special meaning as we try to communicate the truths of who God is — but it's good to unpack them.
So: grace is the saving action of God to redeem and restore creation. And peace is the effect of that grace; the attainment of harmony and wholeness. Or, to make it quicker: grace is the gospel in one word, and peace is the fruit of the gospel in one word. We'll unpack grace, then peace, and then the prayer Paul prays. There are two points on grace this morning, and grace is something we'll keep unpacking over the coming weeks. First, grace is “in Christ”. And second, grace is adoption.
Grace is “in Christ”
Let's look again at verses 4 to 7, which really lay grace out for us.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
Notice the repetition: “in him”, “through Jesus Christ”, “in the One he loves”. “In him,” “we are chosen to be holy and blameless". “We are predestined for adoption.” ‘We are redeemed through his blood. Our sins are forgiven.’ ‘In Christ’ recurs throughout Paul's writings and all over Ephesians, and it is one of the most important points Paul wants to get across.
‘In Christ’ has several meanings, and we could unpack them all. It's one way Paul summarises what Christ has achieved on the cross — I am saved in the action of Christ. But much more importantly, ‘in Christ’ is a positional word. We are in union with Christ. If you're taking notes, write this down: Christ is the place where believers reside. Klyne Snodgrass, who has an absolutely fantastic name, is a biblical scholar, and he says that Christ is the source of all spiritual blessings, and because believers reside in him, they can enjoy those blessings.
Understanding that grace is in Christ, and that being “in Christ” is union with Christ, is absolutely vital for our walk with God. Grace is not a gift from God; grace is God giving us himself. It's not a beautifully wrapped gift that God offers and you take for yourself and unwrap. It is free, but it’s more than just a gift, it's a hand extended out in relationship. That's what's most important about being “in Christ”: an extended hand offering a relationship with a God who created us and loves us.
Grace is Adoption
Grace is also adoption. Verses 4 to 6 again: God chose us in him before the creation of the world, and in love predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. At the time Paul was writing, adoption had a very different meaning from what it does for us today. In Roman families there wasn't really a sense of adopting children — adopting children came about later, in the early church, which is really exciting. In Paul's day the father, the head of the Roman household, held unilateral authority for as long as he lived over the entire house: every child, every servant, every slave, no matter how old they got. I'm in my forties and my dad is still alive, thank you, Lord — but as head of the household he would still have total authority over me, even to decide to kill me if I brought shame on the family. That didn't happen all the time, but it did happen sometimes, and it wouldn't have been seen as murder, because he had total authority.
Adopting children was very, very rare. What tended to happen instead is that a patriarch without an heir would adopt an adult man so that his family line and property would continue through the generations. There would be a symbolic selling of your own son three times to give up your authority over him so that he could be adopted into another family. The adopted son — it was only ever adult men — would completely disassociate from his old family, losing his identity, his name, his social position, everything. He would receive a new name, a new family, and 100% legal authority in that family as though he had always been born into it. A completely changed identity. In a very stratified society like the Roman Republic, it was one of the only ways to rise up through the ranks.
That was a lot of information said quickly, so think for a moment about the parallels with being adopted into God's family through Christ Jesus. We're adopted even though we have no claim or right. We have not and could not earn the right to be adopted by God. We're adopted by someone who has the power to give us life. We're adopted far above our station. We've been brought into full adoption in God's family, with a full and completely changed identity, a continuation of God's family line, identified in every way with him and no longer in any way identified with our old family in sin and death.
Not only that, but we have an inheritance. In verse 13 we're marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. New family, new name, new relationships, new position under a new authority, sealed and secured with a new inheritance. Incredible truths in this letter. As I said, we'll continue to unpack grace in the weeks to come.
Peace: The Fruit of the Gospel
Grace is the gospel in one word; peace is the fruit of the gospel in one word. So let's quickly touch on peace. Look at verse 10, where we see the promise of peace as the outworking of the gospel: “to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” That is peace: bringing unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
We pray all the time for peace, which is a very good thing, and we need to keep doing it. We long for peace in our world. But there is also a much deeper understanding of peace in Scripture that is maybe lost on us. Peace is used in the Bible to talk about an absence of conflict or war, but at the same time it always refers to something better in its place. It's not just the absence of conflict; it's a turning back to good things. The Hebrew word is shalom, and the Greek is eirene — again, just to give you a taste of the depth here.
Without going on too long, we see shalom used in really interesting ways. In Joshua, it's used of the building of a temple with stones that are shalom — whole and complete, with no cracks. In Job, Eliphaz says that all will be well, that Job's tents are well, that they've counted his sheep and nothing is missing — everything is shalom. When David visits his brothers on the battlefield, he asks if all is shalom with them: is all well with them? It's a complex, beautiful word that speaks of completeness, of a complex system working in harmony. This is the peace that comes from the grace of God: a peace of reconciliation, of bringing things back together in ways that work powerfully.
The point about adoption could actually have sat here too, because adoption — the bringing into completeness, the bringing into right relationship — is also peace. Grace and peace are intrinsically linked, because peace is the result of grace. It's one of the reasons Paul's letter to the Ephesians is so powerful: it addresses the way the gospel changes our lives, our relationships, and the way we see ourselves. It examines and explores peace as we partner with God and become agents of peace in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Paul's Prayer: Ephesians 1:15–23
This is profoundly beautiful and theological — at least I find it so — but we also want to bless you with something practical. And the very next thing Paul does is a beautiful reminder of how to respond practically to living in gospel truth. I should say that this whole section is actually one giant sentence of 202 words in Greek, with no punctuation. Praise the Lord you're not a biblical scholar and translator, because this stuff is hard — or maybe you want to be; speak to me after class. The point is that Paul is so excited and infused and worshipping with everything he's got, writing out these truths about God, and then the very next thing he does is pray. He doesn't write a to-do list: ‘Okay, that's grace and peace, now sort it out, here's what to do.’ He goes to the Lord in prayer. Verses 15 to 23:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Again, an incredible prayer we could spend many weeks unpacking. I want to draw out three quick points, but first, to give you a sense of what this prayer is — go away and read it afterwards, because it's dense. Harold Hoehner, who wrote what is probably the most awesome exegetical commentary on Ephesians — if you only buy one, buy that one — says that the believers have every spiritual benefit for their spiritual welfare, including election, predestination, adoption, grace, redemption, forgiveness, insight, understanding, knowledge of the mystery of his will, and sealing with the Holy Spirit. Paul's desire and the purpose of this prayer is for the Ephesian believers to deepen their relationship with the God who has enriched them with every spiritual benefit, and to experience those benefits in a deeper way.
Put another way: Paul's prayer is that people — and that's us too — who have everything at their fingertips would reach out and take it. And to reach out and take it, Paul prays that we would know three things. It's easy to miss; it's in verses 18 and 19. He prays that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened so that we may know: one, the hope to which he has called us; two, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people; and three, his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Know the Hope to Which He Has Called You
We use ‘hope’ a lot in our day-to-day world, don't we? In ancient Greek society, on which much of Roman culture in Paul's day was built, the word hope had a very similar feel to the way our secular society uses it. I was reading the Greek historian Plutarch, who wrote about ancient Rome, and without going into too much brutal detail, he describes a moment in the Roman Republic around 225 BC when they were fighting a war against the Gauls, very close to their own borders. They were really frightened; they'd just come out of the Punic wars, so things were tough for Rome. Plutarch writes that usually the religion of the people was mild and reverent, not too intense. But they were so worried about the outcome of this war that they went back to some old writings and did what they said: they buried alive four people in their marketplace — two Gauls and two Greeks. They had a hope that things would go well, but it was a very vague hope. Maybe if we do this, this will happen; maybe if we do that, that will happen. It's brutal, isn't it? But it's very similar to our modern-day hope.
I grew up in rural Scotland, and I was a youth pastor for eight years. Every summer I would arrange a week of fantastic events — water fights, beach trips, barbecues, all kinds of things — all weather dependent, because it was the summer. Do you know how many years we managed to do all the events in Scotland in the summer? Exactly none. Every year something got cancelled. Compared to here, you get a beautiful week of weather, 25 degrees the week before everything, and then the week of the event, absolutely torrential rain. I would hope for good weather — a vague hope, a hope I had no control over.
The Greco-Roman hope, and our modern hope, is a subjective hope: a hope for the moment we're currently facing. But the Old Testament, the Hebrew understanding of Israel's hope, is far different. It's an objective hope, based in certainty — the certainty of a people chosen by God, knowing that God will protect and deliver them, if not from the trouble they're immediately facing then in the days to come. A hope based on a past guarantee, a covenant promise:
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Exodus 19:5–6, NIV
A certain hope, very different from our modern-day hope — and it is the hope we are welcomed into as God's children through Christ Jesus. Whilst we face subjective troubles in our day-to-day life, Paul prays that we would know the hope that is certain in Christ Jesus. You sitting here today don't have to have a vague, subjective hope in God the Father. It's a certain hope: certainty in where you are going, certainty in what God has called you for, certainty in his love for you, certainty in the way he brings you into relationship with him.
Know the Riches of His Glorious Inheritance
The second thing Paul prays we would know is the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. I'd love to spend longer on this, but take this one away. What is God's inheritance? In verse 14 we talked about our inheritance, sealed by the Holy Spirit. So this can't be our inheritance — it's God's inheritance. The believers are God's inheritance. Those who are in Christ are God's inheritance. That's you and me. We are God's inheritance.
That makes sense, because when we're in Christ we're brought into a restored relationship, a union with God. He chose us, redeemed us, adopted us, and sealed us with his Spirit. But don't stop there — follow the implications. You are God's inheritance, and you are God's riches. God views you as riches. Imagine how you might live your life tomorrow — imagine how I might live mine — if I genuinely took the time to take in that promise: that God views me as riches, and looks forward to the day he will behold me face to face and inherit what his Son has purchased by his blood.
Know His Incomparably Great Power
Finally, and this one's short: verse 19 says Paul prays the Ephesians would know his incomparably great power for us who believe. God is able, and Paul wants us to know that he is able. He has power to save us, to bring us into peace, to deepen our understanding of grace and peace, but most of all to change us forever. And that power is incomparably great — so great that no power on earth can be compared to it.
As I start to wrap up: Paul wants you to know that God is able. He wants you to know a hope that is based in objective truth, that God has chosen you. Paul prays that we may start to know our worth in God's eyes, that we are God's glorious inheritance. And Paul prays that we may know God's power that is available to us, which can bring all things together into completion, into wholeness, in Christ.
Closing Prayer
Lord, we thank you for your word. It is an embarrassment of riches.
Father, send your Spirit. Minister to us, so that we don’t simply walk away thinking, “that was interesting,” and forget it all. Minister to our hearts. Reveal to us, in the deep places we keep hidden from everyone except you, the truths we have heard today, and challenge us to take hold of them. Help is to know the certain hope we have in you, that we are chosen by you, that we are alive in Christ. He holds out his hand to us and invites us into relationship with him. This is a hope that does not disappoint: hope for today and strength for tomorrow.
Father, give us the courage to see ourselves as your riches, your inheritance. You gave yourself for us, and we thank you.
In Jesus’s name,
Amen.